Three Months in Chiang Mai: Finally Feels like Home

Three Months in Chiang Mai. 92 days of calling Thailand home, and finally believing it. I don’t really know how I settled, just that it happened seamlessly (like I hoped it would!) I woke up one day, looked around at my life, and felt really grateful and happy. I stopped looking for reasons to feel stressed about living in Thailand, and I embraced my daily life. I rented a motorbike by the month, and it was the best decision ever. I have full autonomy of myself, and can go anywhere I want independently. Driving up here in the mountains is liberating, peaceful, and so so joyful. I successfully built a life for myself in Chiang Mai, and I am very proud of myself for how far I’ve come in three months.

Through talking with my foreign friends and teaching in a Thai school, I’ve learned some wacky, interesting cultural tidbits this month that I’d like to share to my fellow Americans. South Africans call traffic lights ‘robots.’ British people call lumberjacks ‘tree surgeons.’ Yellow is the color that symbolizes royalty in Thailand. The King and Queen’s birthdays are national holidays in Thailand (they take their monarchy very seriously).

Another aspect of my life that has helped me settle is (slowly) learning Thai. I learned all the numbers and many common phrases, and there is something so special about speaking to a person in their language and having them understand you! I was in the elevator with a mom and her adorable baby, so I pointed to the baby, smiled, and said swy (suay) mak (maak) which means ‘very beautiful.’ She looked surprised and giggled, then bowed and said Khxbkhun (cap-koon-ka) which means ‘thank you.’ It was a really nice interaction. Thai is an extremely difficult language to learn, and I’m trying to slowly learn bit by bit. I won’t be able to read or write in the characters, but hopefully my speaking will be proficient by the end of the year.

July was a month filled with midterms and holidays (thanks to both the King and Queen’s birthdays falling in this month). Midterms are taken very seriously at my school, and I had to create 1 Supplemental Exam and 1 Core Exam for my students from previously learned material. It was a bit of a headache but we got through it! On the flip side, we had LOTS of time off of school in July, so I went on two trips. Again, one to the south, and one to the north.

For the first trip, I spent five days in the remote, beautiful Railay Island near Krabi in the south of Thailand with many other teacher friends. It took 2 planes, a bus, and ferry just to get there from Chiang Mai! But WOW were the views stunning at Railay. We snorkeled, we swam in the crystal clear waters, we drank and ate and stuffed our gullets by the mouthful. I met lots of other teachers who live in different parts of Thailand (mostly everyone was from the UK surprisingly). I did stay in the crappiest ‘hotel’ if you can even call it that. It was $8/night and invested with bugs with a shared bathroom also invested with bugs. I barely slept a wink and was ready to go home by the end of it. Eh, you give and take in these situations, don’t you? Lol. My bug bites will fade, but the memories of the stunning scenery will last with me forever!

The second trip came when we had a four day weekend the last week of July. My best friend here (Robin from South Africa) and I jetted off on our motorbikes to a town called Chiang Dao ~1 hour north of Chiang Mai. The mountain views in this town were INSANE. You all know I’m a mountain-girl, and I was in heaven with the scenery at Chiang Dao. I couldn’t tear my eyes off of them (expect when I had to while driving lol). We had an extremely chill weekend which was just how both of us wanted it. We cafe-hopped, visited a famous cave, rode around on our motorbikes, and relaxed in natural hot springs. Funny story about our Airbnb. It was in the middle of NOWHERE in the rice fields off dirt paths, and Robin and I motorbiked home in the pitch black darkness one night after dinner and were actually freaking out. It was quite hilarious, we were even brainstorming the name of the documentary that would play after we were murdered in the middle of Thailand. Buttt everything turned out okay and we can now laugh about it. I’m so grateful to have a friend like Robin in Chiang Mai — she is truly incredible!! One night in Chiang Dao we talked in a hammock for over 3 hours about our dreams, futures, what we want out of life, etc. It was inspiring and affirming. It’s beautiful how we come from such different parts of the world but can still connect so easily.

July was another crazy month full of travels. I love getting to explore Thailand. It is such a diverse, beautiful country, and I feel like I now have a good understanding of its geography, people, and layout. That is the beauty of living abroad – you are so much more knowledgeable about the rest of the world! Visiting somewhere in person gives you those skills, and living somewhere gives you those skills x 100! That is why I’m such a huge advocate for traveling and living abroad. You learn so much, not just about yourself, but about the world around you.

I feel like I’m spinning ’round and ’round, but I think August will be a month where I finally stand still. Until next time. Thank you for supporting and loving me, everyone. It means so much to me to read your kind comments and emails. I love you all!!

xx Gracie

If you enjoyed reading this post, check out my others.

One Month in Chiang Mai: Adjusting to Life in a New Continent

Two Months in Chiang Mai: The Highs were High, the Lows were Low

Gracie’s Guide to a Long Weekend in Phuket, Thailand