After going out until 4am last night we decided to sleep in. Well everyone else decided to sleep in, but I always wake up early, so I just laid low and researched fun things to do in Thailand. I’m honestly not sure how everyone kept sleeping, It was so hot in our room. That’s not the hostels fault though, it was also incredibly hot outside the room too.
After our slow start to the day we rolled over to Coconut Shell for some of the best Thai food we had during our entire trip. I still dream about Coconut Shell to this day. Their sign reads “Best Thai Food and Fruit Shakes in Chiang Mai” and I couldn’t agree more. The food was so good that we went back to Coconut Shell multiple times during our stay and my only regret is that I didn’t try everything on the menu while I had the chance.
cherish your favorite spots and try it all while your can
Travel Tip #21
start the day off strong with a spicy sit down meal
Travel Tip #22
After our feast at lunch we took a taxi 30 minutes outside of the city to Thailand’s Grand Canyon. The ‘Grand Canyon’ is a giant rock quarry that was turned into a lake and the expansive waterpark floating on top is exactly what we needed to beat the heat.
Safety first
Travel Tip #23
The waterpark was better than I had anticipated. It was huge and somehow completely empty on a perfectly hot day. The waterpark staff makes you wear a life jacket for safety concerns, but that’s basically the only rule. In addition to jumping and racing around the rafts, we also went cliff jumping off the canyon edge. The cliff was a lot higher above the water than I expected high and walking to the edge was terrifying. All of the guys jumped into the water first and said it didn’t hurt, but they were lying. It definitely hurt, but it was a cool free fall and worth the slight sting. Turns out my answer to the question “if your friends jumped off a cliff would you jump off too…?” is yes, but I’ll be the last one to jump.
After playing at the Grand Canyon all day we took a taxi back to the hostel and got there just in time to catch the sunset. After playing in the water all day and escaping the vicious heat, watching the sunset view from our balcony was the perfect cherry on the cake.
catch the sunrise or sunset
Travel Tip #24
After watching the sunset and getting cleaned up at the hostel we headed to a nearby street fair and shopping market. The mall was a maze of small shops and at the back there was a giant food court. The food court was the perfect option for our dinner because we wanted to try as much as possible and stuff our faces after swimming all day.
The shopping mall also had Red Garra pedicures, which has been on my bucket list since I saw it in a movie when I was little. The guys kept looking around and shopping while I propped my feet up and got to experience fish eating the dead skin off my feet. I would describe the overall experience as weird, tickly and a little awkward. Nevertheless, I did it!
Nobody wanted our perfect summer day to end, so we kept the party going with bar hopping from Zoe’s to Spicy’s and back again all night.
