Leaving Chiang Mai

After the cooking class, Allison rested, mom took a walk around the area to the local wat, and I blogged. We met up with Rick and Kannika at 7pm for dinner. Kannika had a surprise for us! The previous night, Rick told us all about New Years in Chiang Mai; the food, the parade, the family friendly party in the streets, and the paper lanterns that everyone was setting off into the night sky. We were all obsessed with the idea, so Kannika we shopping prior to meeting up with us and purchased two 4-foot tall lanterns for us to light and send off over Chaing Mai. It was amazing. It took three people for the big ones, two to hold the lantern up and one to light the wax soaked wick underneath. Within 5 minutes the lantern had filled with enough hot air to float on its own. They glowed wonderfully and drifted off into the universe. Rick said out of the thousands lit on New Years, there was only one fire caused by a rogue lantern.

For dinner we walked to the local night market and ate at the food court. Allison, mom and I were pretty full from eating all day, and Allison was tiring of local food and was craving a quesadilla. We split an order of fried rice, 2 BBQ pork sticks, and a few shakes. Kannika then brought back our favorite dessert, banana and chocolate roti. We spend a long time trying to figure out how to go about making them at home to share with everyone. No solution as of yet.

We took a long walk through the night market. Once we determined it was a bit touristy for us, Rick departed and Kannika took the three girls through the dark alleys of Chaing Mai and emerged in a 24 hour exclusively Thai shopping oasis. There were quite a few stalls closed, but we ended up at the market area. I learned more about some exotic fruit, and Kannika bought me a kilo of Mangosteens. By 11 we were tired and decided we would return tomorrow for another round of shopping.

Back at the hotel, I daringly broke into the first mangosteen. It had the texture of a ripe pear but with a citrus and sweet peachy flavor. There were six white juicy segments, and one containing a large inedible seed. We finish off the whole kilo before climbing into bed.

 

We slept in on Saturday, and treated ourselves to Rick’s favorite breakfast place in town. It was great!! The owner was American and had a large assortment of breakfast options, and REAL bacon and REAL butter. Mom had a breakfast bowl with spinach, onions, cheese with a side of sort of whole wheat toast and a few cups of REAL brewed coffee. Allison had the French toast made with a baguette, bacon and two eggs. I ordered an omelet with tomatoes, bacon, mushrooms, and cheese. It was a nice taste of home.

After breakfast we went into all the store between the restaurant and the hotel. We got some really cool Chiang Mai inspired patterns. We also stumbled into a rarities shop that had opium pipes and scales. The lady demonstrated how to use the scale, which packed flat into a wood case the looking shockingly similar to a wooden kitchen spoon. We left with some bronze bells and left the paraphernalia behind.

By noon Rick and Kannika were up and ready for a full day of shopping, well Kannika was ready Rick was a little less than thrilled to be shopping with his 20 something nieces, but it didn’t deter him from spending time with us. We headed back to the magical Thai market with a pit stop for lunch and REAL Thai iced teas. This guy gave me his recipe: good strong black tea and carnation sweetened condensed milk, combine well and serve over ice. No extra sweetener needed. His English was not great, but he was excited to practice with me. We found all over Thailand that any who spoke a bit of English tried and encourage our conversing with them. Kannika said if you can speak English well enough, you could get a job in tourism where there is a more money. However, English schools were very expensive. Most of the Thai’s we met we just as helpful with our Thai. Anytime we greeted a Thai with a traditional wai  (a slight bow with hands held in the prayer position finger tips by your nose and the salutation sawadee ka) we received a knowing smile. The first few times it wasn’t quite right, but they repeated it slowly to us so we could learn.

Back to shopping. We did a lot. But the best find of the day was down an alley even Kannika had not ventured to yet. It was hot, and on a dirt trail but we came across a woman who was stithing the traditional Hmong patterns into handbags, and she had a GOOD price. Anywhere near Bangkok they were at least 1000 baht which we once got down to 500, but here she was selling the large totes for 250 baht!! We pooled all of our money and bought quite a few. I have no idea how to tell anyone how to find that alley again, but it exists and she is making them right there!

Low on baht and thirsty for a cool drink we headed back to the hotel for the last round of drinks before our departure from Chiang Mai. We chatted away with Rick about his old catering business and some good celebrity stories, his Steven Spielberg, our Ron Howard milking a cow in Connecticut. Then Rick told us more about his and Kannika’s plans for the future, which ultimately are to find a cool house on an undeveloped beach and enjoy the local scene. Sounds good to me!

Uncle Rick arguing with Siri. It was quite entertaining. 

Our taxi arrived and off to the Chiang Mai train station we went. This time we knew how it worked, so we packed all of our dirty clothes into a spare soft sided duffle so our bags would be thin enough to fit under the seats. After an hour on the train, it slowed to a stop and then began travelling back to Chiang Mai. No one could tell us why or where we were going to stop or when we would arrive at our destination. All we thought was well that’s the Thai way. Mom felt particularly smart for making come back to Bangkok a day before our flight so there was NO chance of us missing a connection if our travel plans went awry.

Allison was not feeling well, so she had her bed made early and watched a few episodes of ‘The Mentalist’ we downloaded on the ipad. Mom and I went off to the party car, also known at the restaurant car. It was even busier that our previous experience and we were directed to share a table with two young Thai’s. We weren’t sure if they were brother and sister or boyfriend and girlfriend. Their English was limited but they sure knew all the words to the American songs being played. Everyone laughed at or sang along with me, and it was a great time.

Rather than order the dinner set, Mom and I decided to just get one entrée and two orders of rice. We decided on the lab, the chopped pork with onion, cilantro, and a lemon juice sauce that Kannika introduced us to. The Thai’s at our table could not believe it! They kept asking us we if really liked it, was it too spicy, were we sure? The guy was so surprised and impressed he asked if he could take a picture of me eating to show his friends “the farang who eats real Thai food”. Somewhere on the internet there is a picture of me on a disco train eating real, spicy lab. When our beer and wine cooler were done, mom and I danced back to our bunks and snuggled in for a long ride back to Bangkok.