Around The World 2011 Day 15: Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, Thailand

I am confused.  We had worse than dial-up internet speed for several days, split up by two days with decent internet speed, which means that I must now recall Day 15 as if it had just happened.  No easy task when you are seeing a jillion things per day and five days have passed.  Let us try, together, to re-live that day so long ago known as July 13.

Waking up to a rainy day in Thailand is completely different from a rainy day in California.  Why?  Because Thailand stays very, very warm even in the rain

Omelets need no explanation.  Nor does bacon.

Today we leave the Golden Triangle / Chiang Rai area and head to Chiang Mai.  DO I have to nag you about how to pronounce that?  Shee-ahng Mai.

I am embarrassed, because it took me an extra week to learn that Chiang is Thai for city.  Even worse, as soon as I learn that the city Chiang Mai that we are headed towards means New City, I learn that I cannot find any source to tell me the translation for Rai.  I can only hope that someday, someone will read this and let me know.

We boarded the bus and headed for Chiang Mai,  and I thought you should see a picture of our bus driver.  For days he has carted us around with a smile.

The Thais make do in the rain.  Technically, the above shot is a candid, so...

 

Chiang Rai in the Rain, Motorbike Candid  July 2011.

Thai advertising still fascinates me.  I think that blue pig is a piggy bank.

If you are like me, when you think fast internet you think of pretty girls and fat boys.  Well done, Thai advertising agency.

The road to Chiang Mai is ahead of us.  It should be around a four hour drive.  Less than L.A. to S.F.

Do you know how hard it is to get a picture like this from a bus on the highway?  Hard!

Time for our first stop.

Cabbages and Condoms.  A restaurant and resort and charity, devoted to teaching people who live in rural areas about birth control.

A sense of humor is key if you want to get people to open up to new ideas.  (Guest Photographer: Matthew Tan.)

After this stop, I offered my front row seat to Michael (of the supreme lens).  It did not seem right to hog it, even though I could.  This placed me at the back of the bus with Barbie.  The backs of those heads, from left to right, are Kelli, Cynthia, Noy, Michael, Tom, Driver, Esther, and Greta.  Barbie, Matthew and Nicole did not fit in the picture.

We also stopped at this geyser.  Smelled like rotten eggs, of course.

There sits a temple's stupa on a hill.  Would you not take its picture?

I never got a great we are in Chiang Mai shot.   This is the street before we turned to enter our hotel.  Where I did not get a shot of the hotel sign.  Slacking!

We got off the bus and were immediately greeted by Mandarin Oriental people who ushered us into lunch immediately.

It was a set menu, and they gave us a copy.  You foodies get those detailed descriptions that you love so much.

Charcoal grilled chicken satay with peanut sauce and cucumber relish; deep-fried prawn rolls with plum sauce.

The Thee Stages of Thai Iced Tea.

Stage One: Ingredients.  In the USA, it come mixed.  Here you get to mix to your taste.

Stage Two:  Mixing.  This almost looked magical in person.

Stage Three: Drinking.  (Guest photographer Barbara Howard.)

Sitting to my left, Kelli ordered the coconut milk and it came in a coconut.  Was I not going to take a picture?

The following picture was shown to me during lunch.  I had not seen this sign.  As you might have guessed, more rural areas like outside Chiang Rai tend to be less sophisticated.  And less sophisticated rural areas sometimes have bathrooms which amount to little more than a hole in the ground over which you squat.  You and I do not realize it, but for a person who has always squatted, it is natural to maintain your custom even when faced with a modern toilet.

This sign specifically warns women to not stand on the toiled seat and squat above it.  This means that, clearly, there was a problem with women doing this.  Which is, in a word, beautiful.

For the record, Dori took the picture and I took a picture of it on her camera, making her a guest photographer.

Coconut milk soup with chicken and straw mushrooms.  (Boy are they treating us like tourists.  This is Tom Ka Gai, but they refuse to use the Thai name.)

Green curry beef with eggplants and basil.

Wok fried chayote with mushroom sauce.

Stir-fired shrimps with cashew nuts and spring onions.

This curry is not on the menu!  It was most delicious.  Almost a peanut curry, but hard to define flavors.  I think there was pork in it.  At this point I just remember loving it.

While I am taking pictures of the food inside, these two were taking pictures of food outside.  Not irony, coincidence.

I forced the issue and demanded a group photo again.  I have been far too often of taking pictures of places, things and food and not people.  See, even I can learn.  Left to right: Thai Hotel Person, Tom, Cynthia, Greta, Matthew, Barbie, Thai Waitress, My Empty Chair, Kelli, Michael, Dori.  I am aghast that Nicole had run to the ladies room.  In Thailand people used to perform said activity in the wild, and women would say, "I am going to pick flowers," while men would say, "I am going to hunt rabbits."  There.  Now you have an infinitely classier way to say, "I gotta go to the toilet."

Selection of seasonal tropical fruits.

Chilled water chestnut rubies in sweet coconut milk.  (That is a scoop of crushed ice, not ice cream or sherbet.)

We have all heard, There is no such thing as a free lunch.  In this case, the hotel treated us to lunch and the price was another site inspection.  This property is simply amazing.  The Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi is a 60-are resort.  It was built to resemble a royal palace, and it absolutely does.  And the parts that do not make you feel like you are in a Thai Royal Palace, or Lanna Royal Palace as this area was the Lanna Kingdom before being dominated by the Burmese and then joining the Kingdom of Siam when freed from the Burmese by General Taksin, the first King of Siam after the fall of Ayutthaya.

I do not know why, but I feel like you all have probably learned enough Thai history reading the Waste that this all makes sense.

On a side note, there is a restaurant in Sherman Oaks, California called Lannathai.  I had to come halfway across the world to learn that means Northern Thailand, where the Lanna kingdom was absorbed into greater Thailand.

Barbie and Michael walking the rather pedestrian hallways of the Dhara Dhevi.  Seriously, how French Colonial is that hallway?  We might as well be sitting back, sipping iced tea and watching servants work the rice fields.

I refuse to bore with you picture after picture of hotel room, but this pool is Waste worthy for certain.

There were many sculptures in yoga poses around the pool, but this one simply had to be shared.  I have no doubt that being able to maintain this pose is both challenging and rewarding.

I do not even know what this building is for, but the vines hanging from the trees were spectacular.  (I have since been told by Barbie that this is the children's center, as in the kids play here while the parents lay by the pool.  Genius!)

The vines, as the iPhone caught them.

The vines as I saw them, retouched by yours truly.

And with that, the site inspection is wrapped up.  Now... our room.

Did I say room?  That is the wrong word.  We have Villa 19.

How about a video tour of Villa 19?

Do not hate.  Appreciate.

What do you do when you are hot and sweaty and it is hot and humid?  You hop into the slightly cool plunge pool.

This felt good.

The first shot I got of the lobby of the Dhara Dhevi.  Does that look like a hotel lobby to you?

I cannot tell you how desperately I wanted to stay in this resort and relax and, yes, enjoy the fast internet.  Alas, we have a site inspection to do followed by dinner, and before and after said activities we are being taken to shopping excursions.

When you see a cute Asian character who is saying Shoot you shoot him.

When you walk into the store and see a four foot tall phallus next to a sign that says no photography, you assume the sign is a suggestion at most and you shoot it.

Barbie bought a very cool top here, and the shopgirls were cute and nice.  A shopgirl ran out after her to give her a free scarf with her purchase.  I joked that this was Barbie's reward for not haggling.

Chiang Mai is like those supercool Medieval cities of Europe, surrounded by a city wall and canal.  In 1296 King Mengrai established this city and moved the capita of Lanna from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai, dubbing it New City.

The Chedi Hotel, Chiang Mai, Thailand.  A chedi is a Stupa,  or solid pagoda.  All buddhist temples in Thailand have a stupa/chedi, which are thought to house relics.  Sometimes the relics are thought to be the ashes of the Buddha.

The Chedi Hotel is modern and appealing, and right in the center of town.

No boring hotel room photos, but look at that door.  Any door with an off center turning point is aces in my book.

From the back of The Chedi runs the Ping River.

Another set meal, another menu for me to re-type.  The things I do for YOU.

A bread basket.  In Northern Thailand.

The first course.  Wagyu carpaccio - wild mushroom gratin, parmesan milk shake; Yum hua plee gai - banana blossom salad, chicken, chili paste, lime, coriander; Seekh kebab - spiced minced lamb, tandoor overn cooked, mint salad, tomato chutney.

The Main Course.  Lamb chop tandoor - lamb cutlets, tandoor spices, garlic paste, ginger, yoghurt; SNow fish - whipped white seafood soup, roasted shallots, coloured dots; Gai yang - char grilled spring chicken, garlic-lemongrass, green mango salad, sticky rice.

All three main courses on my plate, with rice.

Dessert course.  Chocolate x 3 - hot, cold, fluid; Banana tarte tatin - roasted banana gelato.

More dessert.  Kao niew mamoang - fresh mango, balck sticky rice, coconut iced cream.

There.  That was a meal, my friends.

This piece was on the wall of the gift shop.  I asked not the price.

After dinner, it was time for the Night Market.  This is, basically, our worst nightmare.  I hate shopping and Barbie hates crowds.  The Chiang Mai Night Market is booth after booth along the main street of pretty cheap, pretty lousy goods being hawked by eager sellers.  Not our scene.

We ducked into Starbucks and waited an hour for the bus to return us to the hotel.

Every McDonald's in Thailand has a culturally sensitive Ronald in front.  We had wanted this shot for two weeks.

The dreaded Night Market.  If you like buying junky junk while on vacation, this is your heaven.  We have friends who live to buy junk while on vacation.  I get the desire, but I cannot join in.

Nightmaaaaaaaaaaaare.

Chiang Mai has become such an international tourist destination that they have a German Hofbräuhaus that is also Y Casa Antonio.  That covers a lot of ground.

Returning home to the Dhara Dhevi, I almost get a good picture of the hotel's sign.

The Dhara Dhevi looking like a Thai palace at night.  If only that damn bus was not there, this shot would be the awesome.

Could there be a more inviting bed to find when you get home?  I was certain this was going to be the last shot of the day.  Until...

I went to hunt some rabbits and saw this painting above the commode.  Clearly inspired by Picasso, the artist likely did not know that he was painting her eyes to look directly at my manhood.  But she is.  She is looking directly at it as I hunt rabbits.  I almost feel violated.  Almost.

Until tomorrow.