That's where we're going now.
I just hope the weather helps.
That mountain is called Doi Suthep.
Doi in Northern Thai means mountain.
And up there, there's a beautiful temple
called Wat Phra That Doi Suthep.
But getting up there can be a little challenging.
[music]
Filmed before the pandemic
Khob khun ka [thank you in Thai]. -Okay, have a nice day.
-I think it's about ฿50 each.
-Okay, khob khun ka. [thank you in Thai]
-฿80 for that
-For the two?
-฿80... -฿80 for the two?
-฿80 for one.
-For one? -Yeah.
-No, it's supposed to be ฿40.
-Gordon: Isn't it ฿40?
-It's ฿40, right?
Woman: It's ฿40 for up, ฿40 for down.
-Ah, ฿80 for a round trip. -Yeah.
-Going to Doi Suthep can be an adventure.
We got a Grab car until near the Chiang Mai University.
From here, we're gonna get one of these mini buses,
and you got to wait until they have enough people to go up,
otherwise they don't go.
When you're in the old town or downtown,
you're going to see several of these saying
that they take you to Doi Suthep.
Yes, they do, but they're not going to do that for ฿30, ฿40, or ฿80,
just for you and someone else.
They're gonna wait until they have eight to ten people
to make the ride worth it for them.
The problem with that is that it may take you a lot of time.
So, instead, the best thing to do is to come here
to the Chiang Mai University area
or the zoo area,
because here there's already a concentration of these cars,
exactly waiting to go up,
and a lot of people come here for that purpose.
So, it's going to be much faster to fill in.
You're not going to wait so much time.
-Ladies first.
-No, go ahead. -No, no.
-Khob khun ka. [thank you in Thai]
[music]
-How long? -One hour.
-One hour? -We just wanted to come up.
We're going to be longer than an hour.
-It's ฿80. -Yeah.
-One hour.
-Khob khun ka. [thank you in Thai]
25 minutes coming up here, it's a very curvy road.
Are you dizzy? -Yeah, a little.
[laughs]
-A little but, yeah. -I need a moment here to get
my fresh air. -Yeah.
When you get up here, the driver will try to charge you ฿80
for the ticket, that includes the return ticket.
But, seriously, what are the chances of you
getting the same driver on the way back?
He'll try to schedule some time with you,
but why limit yourself?
There are plenty of drivers here.
And it's also ฿40 to go down, so it makes no sense.
Up here, there are all these stalls,
and they're all this here for the way back.
[music]
We have two options to go upstairs.
You can walk up the stairs
or there's also an elevator, or funicular over there.
It's ฿20 more.
฿30 is the cost of the entrance,
and then ฿20 for the elevator.
We're going for the adventure by stairs,
and I heard the view is beautiful.
[music]
How could one think of skipping the stairs?
Look at how beautiful!
[music]
Tickets for foreigners?
฿30.
Sawasdee ka. [hello in Thai]
-How many? -Two.
-Khob khun ka. -Khob khun ka.
Such a gorgeous viewpoint here.
It's a little hazy.
You cannot see the city very clearly,
even on a sunny day, clear day like today.
We were told we are lucky because we are here
when the air quality is good.
I don't know if it's natural or if it's pollution
because actually this is one of the criticisms about Chiang Mai.
The farmers burn the land to prepare for new crops,
and air quality gets really bad.
Did you identify anything? -One thing.
Do you see the little triangle there on the left?
Do you see the green lane? -Yeah.
-Right to the left there's a little triangle. -Yeah, uh-huh.
-That's the only thing I could pick out that was temple-like
-Okay.
At least we can clearly see the airport.
It is so interesting to see the planes when you're higher than them.
It is so interesting how you feel the difference in weather.
Up here, there's a breeze...
It feels amazing.
[music]
Already making use of them, huh?
-Yeah, yeah, yeah.
-And you really like blue shirts.
-Blue on blue -Everything matches.
People are seeing you wearing these blue shirts every day.
How many of these you have? Tell them that it's not the same.
-It is. [laughs]
-No. -It's very stinky.
[music]
It's believed that this temple here was built to hold a piece of bone
from the Buddha's shoulder.
And this piece is right there inside the main chedi.
[music]
This piece of bone was mounted on a sacred white elephant,
and you know how important elephants are in Thailand, right?
So, he went uphill here in Doi Suthep.
When he arrived in this location,
he stopped, trumpeted three times,
and passed away.
And here's the temple now.
[Prayers in Thai]
The kids are here for a ceremony today.
It is so beautiful to see.
How lucky!
[music]
Do you see? How beautiful the day was,
and now it's raining and getting cold.
Do you see the bumps?
[Prayers in Thai]
Happy, happy, happy,
happy, lucky, long life.
[Prayers in Thai]
I was just blessed by the monk here.
And he even knows some words in Portuguese.
He invited us to go in and sit down.
[music]
I never expected to feel cold in Thailand.
But here, it is cold now with the rain and the wind.
[music]
Coming up here, we saw a lot of people in scooters, motorcycles.
But let me tell you something, too.
There was a police checkpoint on the way here,
and they were stopping every single one.
So, if you're gonna rent one, make sure you wear a helmet,
and you have an international driver's license.
[music]
-Thank you.
It's so cool how they have these stalls, right?
A really nice stalls in the middle
without being stores, right? -Yeah.
On the way back, we stopped at Nimman.
It's a really nice modern area here.
They have this amazing mall called Maya.
And it sounded like a pretty good idea to have some lunch
in the air-conditioning. [laughs]
Chicken with cashew nuts for ฿50.
Are you getting Panang curry? -Uh-hmm.
-So good! It smells good!
Khob khun ka. [thank you in Thai]
So, here is my dish, chicken with cashew nuts for ฿50.
And Gordon went to the Panang curry for ฿40.
-A buck. -Yeah.
So, so, so good.
It's like homemade food. It's really good.
-Mmm, mmm, it's good.
Mine is really good. I love it.
This is so good that I could have this every day.
I'm serious.
Khob khun ka. -Khob khun ka.
This ice cream just looks so good.
The ice cream is basically the same cost of the food, ฿45.
Nimman is a new and modern area here in Chiang Mai.
A lot of these places didn't even exist 5 or 10 years ago.
It's very impressive.
No wonder this is one of the favorite areas for expats to live.
Chiang Mai is listed in various rankings like really at the top
where expats and digital nomads choose to live.
There are lots of bloggers here, lots of bloggers and vloggers.
I saw some numbers online that about 20,000 expats live here,
and they come here because it is cheap,
and you have a good quality of life.
This area is totally different from the old town.
Here it looks like you're in any modern city.
When you walk along the main road here,
there are so many nice bars and restaurants.
It's a great place to come at night
Continue here, and you arrive at the airport.
It's a short road actually.
In 2 kilometers you're at the airport.
Also, that's where we'll be very shortly.
You know that the airport is right there at the end of this street, right?
-Yeah. -We'll be there soon.
[laughs]
[music]
Ready for another market?
-No. -No. [laughs]
[music]
This is the digital nomad area, baby.
Do you feel like you can live here?
I could actually, it's really nice.
-Can we take an elephant home? -No, we can't.
Oh, it's cute.
This is the end of our trip.
Not only to Chiang Mai, not only to Thailand,
but to the entire Southeast Asia.
Time really, really flew by.
We had amazing experiences visiting so many nice, beautiful cities,
experiencing delicious food
and enjoying a lot, the beautiful culture here in Thailand
and in Southeast Asia in general.
So, now I invite you to come with me to the next adventure.
Subscribe to the channel, activate the notifications to find out.
Keep traveling with me.
Thank you so much for watching, and I see you in the next video.
Mom? [laughs]
Are you that scary?
The opening ceremony of the road coming up here to Doi Suthep
was on my birthday, April 30,
1935 or 2478 B.E.
It's that year here in the Thai calendar.
A commercial that you're doing? Or YouTube?
-No. -No?
[laughs]
-You never know.
Look at you... looking like a Thai.
Looking good!
Show me, show me.
Ah. [laughs]