There is one thing we have noticed the more we travel, we love making new friends.  We lived in North Carolina for 12 years and had a handful of people who weren’t just the work or neighbor friends, but good long-lasting friends.  In some cases it took many years to slowly cultivate those friendships.  Then we moved to Spain and in no time we made those same deep friendships.  In some cases we felt even deeper connections with the friends we made in the 2 years we were there.  What we didn’t know was that we could make even more friends in just a few months in Chiang Mai.

After just 3 1/2 months in Chiang Mai, we fell in love with the city as well as many other people.  With each goodbye, our hearts ache a little more.  We seem to be making friends faster and connecting deeply before it is time for us to say “see you later”.  The difference is with many of these friends, they too travel and know that the “see you later” can be a reality.  It is tough, but there is hope your paths will cross again.  But when we make those connections with the locals, the good byes can be a bit tearful.

We wanted to say thank you for so many people being part of our life and friends in Chiang Mai.  A little piece of each of you stays with us, as we will miss you.  You have all made our experience and little snippet of life there more memorable, enjoyable and remarkable.  I am pretty sure we fell in love with the city because you were all there as part of the city.

 Friends In Chiang Mai

• Randy and Lori from Freetirement.  They are an awesome and inspiring American couple, who lived in Japan for 16 years as teachers.  They started their early retirement in Chiang Mai, just after we arrived and we hit it off immediately.  Check out their blog to learn more.  Thanks for the many meals out, pool time, meditation buddies, meet up in Pai, and our just hanging out friends.
  
  
• Sabrina from Just One Way Ticket, GK, Jeremy from Reisewerk, Anja from Ania de Alimania, Mike from Travel Teach Learn and Grow, Iben, Til, Peter, April, Kim and Joy and more! You were all wonderful and we loved sharing the Yi Peng Lantern Festival, the cat cafe, birthdays, making pop corn, dinners, roasting peanuts, and so much more with you!
  (Representing – Germany, Switzerland, Turkey, USA, Denmark, Philippines & more)
  

  The Ultimate Selfie! Happy Bday GK

• Carolann and Macrae from One Modern Couple
  A great couple from Canada on an open-ended adventure of a lifetime.  We were able to meet up with them a few times during their time in Chiang Mai and it was like instant family.  We loved our day out on the Scorpion Tailed River Cruise with them.
  

• Marcel and Reni of Swiss Nomads are super sweet.  They are an adventurous couple that bumped into us on the internet and they happened to be in Chiang Mai too, so a quick lunch out was all we needed to know we adored them.
  
• Diana from D Travels ’round – We enjoyed her company on our memorable and magical day at Elephant Nature Park.  She is a great person to have met and we wished we could have met up with her more often.
• The Lang Family – We were able to meet up with them as they passed through Chiang Mai.  They are on a Round the World Trip and met us at the Cat Cafe to play.
  
• Martin, Jennie, Elliot from All 7 in 7
  A family of three from the US, exploring all seven continents in 7 months.  We enjoyed a great afternoon with them and are so inspired by their story.
  
• Staff at Hill Side 3 Condo Chiang Mai (Suki and more)
  We spent our time living in this condo and really made friends with all of the staff.  They are wonderful people, which appear to work all of the time.  Everyone was so kind and helpful and we are really going to miss having them in our daily life.  Thank you all for touching our hearts!
  
• Staff at Swiss-Lanna Lodge
  While this was just a brief visit on our “staycation” in Chiang Mai, we just loved the staff here.  Ms. Toto and the gang were so welcoming and caring.  We felt loved and pampered.
  
• We did meet a few other travelers and families coming through town and enjoyed them all.

We so thoroughly enjoyed Chiang Mai, that it will always be one of our favorite cities in which we have lived.  Safe travels, and happiness to everyone!