A Weekend in Chiang Mai

We just spent a long weekend in Thailand’s “Rose of the North” Chiang Mai. It is Thailand’s second largest city about 720km north of Bangkok. Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains and there are many opportunities for hiking, biking, rafting, etc. However, we’ve had quite a few experiences hiking and visiting local villages so we spent our time relaxing, shopping and cooking. In our defense it was also raining most of the weekend. Here are a few highlights (and I think this time I will actually just stick to highlights and not describe every moment!):

• So we jumped into a taxi on the way to the airport – ha, ha just kidding – highlights only!
• Margaret had told me about a burger place called Mike’s, as she had been to Chiang Mai before. I think this was the thing I was most excited about. We got there late Friday night and it was pouring rain. But we braved the rain and made it to Mike’s – and I am so glad we did. I had the burger, fries and Singha combo meal. And it was the best burger I have had since I have been out here. I realize that isn’t much competition – but it was damn good. And the employees were talkative and funny as hell. They even got their groove on while cooking. We went back late night the next night as well.
• Chiang Mai, being surrounded by mountains, is quite beautiful. The old city is surrounded by a moat, which is kind of cool if you like moats and gates to the city and stuff like that (I do). Anyway – here are some scenes from Chiang Mai.
• Of course there are a lot of temples. And I guess Malaysians aren’t the only ones with the love of Donald Duck.
• Chiang Mai is a shopper’s paradise. There is a famous night bazaar, much like the one in Bangkok. Time for an aside: for those of you who have been to Suan Lum Night Bazaar in Bangkok, it is being closed! Honestly. And you probably don’t have to guess what is being built there – another Central Mall – ugh. There was an interesting article in the paper about how Bangkok has to be careful about losing all its unique things, like the night market. It pointed out how at mall you mostly see Thais and at the night markets you see mostly farang. So if Bangkok wants to continue to be a tourist destination it needs to stay unique. Anyway – Suan Lum was supposed to already be gone, but the shopkeepers refused to leave. Rumor has it that the Thai authorities won’t kick the shopkeepers out, but are going to put police at the entrances and not let people in. So far it hasn’t happened. We are trying to cover the whole night market in a few trips before it is closed for good. Back to Chiang Mai markets – there is also a Sunday market that rocks!
• Two food items: we frequented this great breakfast place – it was so good. The made their own yogurt – unreal. There is also an absolutely wonderful vegetarian place, AUM Restaurant – if you are there you must go – things like veggie spring rolls with carrot dipping sauce!
• I know that I shouldn’t admit this. But cats rock!
• Oh yeah, one more food item – the main thing we did in Chiang Mai was take a day long cooking class at the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School. There were about 16 of us for the day, which began at a local produce market. We were split up into small groups and our instructors explained the different items we would be using. Then it was off to the school, where we had classroom time where the instructors demonstrated how to cook certain dishes.Then we gave it our best shot! We even got instruction from the owner, Sompon Nabnian, Thailand’s “International TV Chef.” So if you come visit us in Toronto we can make you any of the following: chicken in coconut milk soup, red curry with fish, fried mixed veggies with baby corn, fried big noodles with thick sauce and pork (what a name!), papaya salad (although we aren’t nearly as good as the papaya salad vendor on our Soi) and steamed banana cake. We also got a cookbook with a bunch more recipes so we might experiment on you.

So as promised, short and sweet. As our days are numbered in Bangkok (we leave the end of June) there probably won’t be very many more blog entries, so enjoy each and every last morsel!