A Place to Call Home.

Written by Bessie about Thailand. Feelin' excited
Bessie_excited
It's the awaited: "What are you guys doing in Thailand?!" post.

Well, we've been dreaming of a place like this for a while. Some place we'd choose to live for a bit after backpacking for a year and working a year from a country we didn't love. A smaller city, probably with mountains. Filled with delicious food, interesting culture, yoga studios and a decent enough internet connection to work 9-5.

So where are we hanging out, after visiting a few dozen countries? For now, none other than Thailand. We spent April here, and knew when we left we wanted to come back and really dive in a bit more. People are too kind and the food too delicious to not come back and experience more.

And now we're back! And our home for a few months is Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.

We talk about it like some real estate aficionados after hearding about it for so long from other travelers.
"It's surrounded by mountains!" "You can pet tigers and ride elephants!"  "The food there is soooo good, and there's the best shopping in the night markets!"

Sweet! Let's go!

Our New Digs
So sight unseen, we relocated to Chiang Mai, searching for a cozy, budget place with 4 walls and good internet. We hunted around, scoping out as many apartments as we could handle in one day. We searched high and low, near the mountains but in the city, and we knew it when we saw it, bright and airy with new paint and nice tile work.

our Chiang Mai apartment, Thailand
walking in, on the right are the bathroom, then bed
our Chiang Mai apartment, Thailand
fridge, ac, and work space
our Chiang Mai apartment, Thailand
more storage than we need, tv w/ cable. Funny that the main English channels we get are Fox news & Korea's Arirang.
our Chiang Mai apartment, Thailandour Chiang Mai apartment, Thailand
a bathroom that isn't solid white!
our Chiang Mai apartment, Thailand
our nice electric water hearter

It's not far from the heart of things and close to where trendy Thais like to hang out. We're in a large building owned by a Thai woman with some helpful Burmese staff that can configure advanced internet specifications on Macs. Uh, super helpful. Our little efficiancy is pretty basic, but it does the trick with a refrigerator, ac, tv, and DSL. All that for US$200/ month, and it has a view over the mountains.
mountain view from our apartment

Good Things Come to Those Who Wait
Each facet of life just keeps coming together here for us. And we've made some great friends already: a few fellow travel bloggers with a sense of adventure, and as big of appetites for yummy street food as we've got. Daniel is a photographer based in Chiang Mai for a few months, and the GotPassport family of Jack, Aye, and Emma recently moved to Chiang Mai from the US and are setting up their home here. We call ourselves 'Team Chiang Mai'.

Saturday night market, Chiang Mai, Thailand
yumm yumm street food in Chiang Mai with friends

scooter fun in Chiang Mai!
cruising the city on our scooter [photo from GotPassport]

We're excited. Really excited. We've been here a week, and on top of a place to stay and a work routine, we have a scooter rented, we're attending a yoga studio with a jungle feel, I have a weekly volunteer gig, and Kyle's just paid for 6 weeks of for daily Thai classes. We also keep meeting up with travelers passing through, including Chris from the Art of Non-Conformity.

We're stoked to have a place to call our own for a few months; the words "house keys" keep rolling gently off the tongue.

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