It took almost 11 hours for a 1 1/2-hour plane ride, but we’re here!
I called ahead to the EXO office in Thailand to let them know what time we expected to arrive, and they came through for us. Oui (his nickname, saying that his actual name would be too hard for us to pronounce, and that this should be pronounced ‘Oo-ee’, like ‘Oo-ee Baby, Oo-ee’) met us with his driver at about 9:45pm, and took us straight to the hotel Rachamankha. The hotel’s kitchen was closed, so Oui told us how to get to the Sunday Street Closing, to get some food.
Every Sunday this street (don’t ask me the name) is closed off to vehicles, and is filled with vendors, like a weekly street fair. And it is just a couple of blocks from the hotel. We tried some street meat and an ear of corn, and found some really good Pad Thai.
Around the corner from the food vendors the street was filled with people selling just what you’d expect at a street fair. The biggest difference was that their wares were set out in the middle of the street on blankets, not on tables underneath tents, like in the US. Same stuff: tube socks, trinkets, hokey prints. The teeshirts were mostly local, though Bob Marley was well represented.
When we got there, at 10:00pm, things were starting to wind down. Not being in the market for another Bob Marley teeshirt, we headed for bed.
Monday, December 5
After relaxing a bit in the morning, which I used to update this blog with my Burma posts, we took a walk toward the river. I can’t tell you much about Chiang Mai, as we have been put up in the tourist district. I can tell you that it is huge and bustling, much different from the sleepy little town Mary visited years ago. This area is full of hotels and hostels, and a lot of Westerners on the street. Unlike the serious young people we saw in Kathmandu, here they are lithe and tanned and relaxed looking. Perhaps this is a stopover for them from Pukhet or some other beach town.
After lunch, and another taste of the local Pad Thai for me, we headed off with Oui to tour the town. He was hellbent on dragging us to every temple in town, but I insisted on seeing just two: the ruins of the recently discovered Wiang Kum Kam, and Doi Suthep. He desperately wanted to show us the king’s temple, but we had already visited that in the morning ourselves.
Wiang Kum Kam used to be on the outskirts of ancient Chiang Mai, but was buried by the river. All that we saw on our visit was a couple of foundations and a glass case with some potsherds. The best stuff was in its archeology museum, which was closed for renovation. Oh, well.
Doi Suthep is a temple complex, like a mini-Shwegadon set on the side of the steep hill overlooking Chiang Mai. My photos can’t compete with the ones on Google, so I’ll let you browse there. Can I recommend a visit? It’s a long drive up a winding road, then a cable car ride up (304 steps? After Tiger’s Nest, I don’t think so.) and back. It’s crowded, and after Shwegadon and the other temples we saw . . . I like the Thai roofs, the way they overlap and so on, and the statues of Mom (OK, I’ll include a photo of that), but not really.
That evening we were supposed to get a tour of the street scene and street food. That fell through, so Oui took us to the South Gate for a street meal. It was good: lots of variety, and decent food.
Next: In a little while we’ll be picked up for a visit to a Thai family, so talk to you soon.