Chiang Mai is a perfectly nice place and we enjoyed our time there. But cities aren't our favorite, and being catered to a level inside our comfort zone isn't our idea of 'experiencing local culture'. Menus written in English and shabby chic, whitewashed pallet decor is cute and everything, but I flew halfway around the world to see Thailand, give me bamboo and banana leaves and coconut shells.
After leaving our extremely luxurious digs in San Sai, just northeast of Chiang Mai city, we realized just how extremely luxurious we had it. We stayed at the Wangburapa Grand hotel, right on the mote road by Therapae Gate. A short walk takes you around the southeast quadrant of the city and all manner of restaurants, shops, walking streets and markets.
Wending our way through the little alleys inside the city, Mr. Go found a meticulous barber (we would later realize meticulous is part of the Thai way) and I found a storage-unit seamstress to make me a dress. (More on that later.)
We quickly came to realize that the shops selling elephant pants and brightly patterned dresses in one-size-fits-all style were all carrying the exact same things, imported from China for the European tourists who thought that was what an experience in Thailand meant: coming home with beaded bracelets and balloon pants. You know who I didn't see wearing elephant pants? Thai people.
I don't mean to run down on tourists, because I know that, while we strive to be respectful and blend in, we are also tourists. But as we made our way to some of the temples, we ran across Canadian tourists who, despite having been in Thailand for two weeks, were just learning how to say hello and thank you in Thai. We certainly didn't study Thai as much as we should have, or nearly as much as we practiced Spanish before our Spain adventure, but polite greetings were the first thing we learned, within our first two days in the country. The simple courtesy of saying arroy mak (very delicious) to our chefs has earned us respect (and one time, a plate of jackfruit, my new favorite food).
Anyway, in Chiang Mai, there are temples every 200 meters, all beautifully gilded in gold and carved with curving serpents. (And crawling with tourists.) Being properly dressed for Thai culture, but especially for visiting temples, means ladies cover their knees and shoulders, meaning I was sweltering uncomfortably for many days. But it's a small price to pay and as I mentioned, we do our best to blend in. We spotted tourists wearing shorts so short their butts were hanging out the bottom, not even trying.
We found the Buak Hard park on the southwest corner of the city, and an even quieter park just on the other side of the mote from it, and let Babs play there for a while before wandering around.
Trying to find restaurants on Google Maps only ended in frustration most of the time. Places that have a presence on Google often cater to Westerners, and reviews can be deceiving. Westerners are the ones who tend to write reviews, and "no English speaking staff" is often a reason to knock off stars for them, while for us it would be an indication of authenticity.
The big, once a week walking streets proved far too crowded for our tastes. (Walking Streets are essentially closed-off streets with pop-up vendor stalls selling food, clothes and other random souvenirs.) The Wua Lai Walking street was impossible to navigate. Being herded like cattle through stalls is not conducive to stopping to peruse the odd table here and there with unique wares worth perusing. Same for the Tha Pae walking street, though the earlier you go the better it is (though some stalls may not yet be open). It gets more crowded later on.
Chiang Mai seems to be a backpacker's party town. The Chiang Mai Night Bazaar area hosted mostly seedy-looking bars. We didn't spend much time there. In general, anything right on the mote road seems to be more expensive and more apt to cater to Westerners.
One of the most fun dinners we had was after we bailed on the walking street and wandered around to find dinner. It was going to rain, so when we saw a hunchbacked old lady whipping things around in a wok with three tables set up behind her, we ducked in. No English on the menu. Perfect.
We pointed at some pictures on the wall and the lady's husband got us some beers (Singha, the best Thai beer). He apologized for the slowness of the service, but we were like that's cool, don't rush the lady, she's old. Babs ordered herself a gai pad thai (rice noodles with chicken, egg and bean sprouts), while I had pad see-ew (fat rice noodles with veggies) and Mr. Go ordered the old standard pad gaprao (basil and pork with a side of rice).
The rain came down in buckets and the "restaurant" such as it was filled up to standing room only, with people hanging out waiting for the old lady to box up their takeaway. A sliding glass door partitioned the eating area from the living area of their home. The food was amazing and cost us a whole 1.50 USD per dish.
On every Chiang Mai block is an office with signs advertising elephant experiences, which cost upwards of 1,000THB/person. After our discussion with our pet-sit people, we opted to wait on the elephant experience for a different area.
New Year's in Chiang Mai, we stayed out until midnight. Front-desk staff said the 'fireworks' would start at 7pm. We were confused, but when we started seeing specks of orange light floating up into the sky, we realized 'fireworks' meant Chinese lanterns. People bought them and set them off, but companies were also setting them off, so a steady stream of lights bobbed against the stars all evening.
We wandered down into a Thai NYE festival, with the obligatory food stalls, but also a stage where young girls performed traditional Thai dance, a Thai band sang traditional songs, then a jazz band performed some covers of Strumbellas and The Beatles before going into original material. We sat and enjoyed for a while, then wandered through the market back to the mote, where at midnight, some small fireworks were lit off from several places.
January 1, 2020, we would take a bus south to Lampang, begin escaping the tourists for more rural areas and some of our best adventures to date.
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