A trip to Chiang Mai

I made a trip to Chiang Mai to have cool nights to sleep well, after a summer with some scorcher days here. I also wanted to see if I could get an old smartphone repaired, try out a dental clinic for a filling, do some shopping, eat some food not readily available here, and buy some stuff in Singapore on the way back.

Instead of being a day-by-day account of my trip, I'm presenting vignettes of various aspects of Chiang Mai and Singapore. So there may be some practical tips for travellers in this blog.

Singapore food

I had a stopover in Singapore in each direction and took advantage to eat some Singaporean/Malaysian food as well.

I had a breakfast of Cantonese lo mein in the Changi airport transit lounge. About half the price what it would cost at home. Ny only quibble is that it was wetter than what I like.

On the way home I had a 9 hour layover so I went through immigration and headed to Little India where I shopped for jeans, sneakers and socks at the Mustafa Centre.

Following that I headed to the Komala Vilas restaurant where I had this southern Indian feast of a marsala dosai and a couple of vadais, washed down with a lassi. Most Indian cuisine in Australia is northern so this was a treat. I liked the vadai in Ananda Bhavan that I patronised on my last visit better though, those had more flavour.

I got back to the airport with time to spare and used my SGD20 Changi transit voucher for a couple of hours in the Ambassador Lounge. Food and drink were on offer, but I was stuffed so only had some soft drink. I did get a shower and that was refreshing, ahead of an 8 hour flight.

Some Chiang Mai scenes

A few things I saw too haphazard to warrant individual posts.

At the Thapae gate there is a large banner asking tourists (particular Chinese, evidenced by the characters) not to feed pigeons as they have become pests. But some people contravene to get pictures of pigeons perching on hands pecking food.

The moat near Thapae gate, between the inner and outer ring roads. The outer ring traffic circulates clockwise, while inner ring traffic circulates anti. At intervals there are crossings between the two. Sometimes to get from one quadrant to another, it is necessary to cross to the other ring road to avoid going almost all the way around.

Just a short walk up the inner road is a small produce market and few eateries. I had my first lunch here of rice with fried morning glory, followed by a cold fresh coconut. The metal spoon provided means they know you will want to scoop out the flesh to eat. It's a waste if you don't.

A durian vendor in a night market. Many Chinese have taken to durians, although it's still an acquired taste. This has driven the prices higher, unfortunate for long time durian lovers. The food tour guide mentioned a specimen that sold for 30,000B (about US$1000). Like fine wine I guess.

A starfruit (Carambola) I bought in a supermarket, much cheaper than here.

Water lilies in the moat.

Decorations which were part of an upcoming flower festival.

So I was told.

On Sunday evenings, Ratchadamnoen, the east-west road leading to Thapae gate is closed to vehicles and becomes a night market.

Don't come here if you hate crowds. At times it seemed like visitors outnumbered the locals.

This cat was relaxing in a basket outside a cosmetics shop. The shop owner or assistant asked us to guess his age. A couple of (German?) tourists ventured with 3 years. I thought he was middle aged so guessed 7. I was only 8 months below the correct age. I thought his flattened ears might indicate a breed like Scottish Fold but I think it was just specific to him.

Shopping Malls

At some point you may need stuff that isn't stocked in even the largest convenience store within the old city. This is when you need to turn to a shopping plaza. Here they are from the oldest to the newest.

Central Kad Suan Kaew

This is just outside the northwest corner of the old city and can be reached on foot, but you will have find convenient crossings for the moat and the busy inner and outer ring roads, never easy.

This shopping centre is a bit long in the tooth and has empty shop spaces, but it does have a good supermarket and decent food court. This is where I ate the pastries mentioned in another post.

Central Airport Plaza

This is newer than Kad Suan Kaew. It has nothing to do with the airport except that it is in the vicinity. Some shoppers make this the last stop before leaving on a flight and indeed the free shuttle goes that way returning from the plaza. The bus drop off and pickup is accessed via the Northern Village section which has handicraft stalls and is above a food court. Shuttle pickup is from several hotels around Chiang Mai, but you will have to sit in a songthaew for up to an hour while the shuttle does the round. So you may prefer to catch a taxi or Grabcar there and take the shuttle back. It's easy to find the schedule and pickup points online.

Central Festival Plaza

This one is on the outskirts of town and is newer again. You can reach it by shuttle van though the route is even longer. Another drawback is that they don't run all that often. I took a Grabcar there for just under 100B.

It has many well-known anchor tenants as you can see.

Decor is modern.

For some reason Japanese restaurants dominate the eateries. Perhaps it reflects the expatriate population or the tourists. I daresay there will be more Chinese restaurants in future.

More of that curvy architecture.

Schedules are hard to discover on the Internet. I did find one recent post with pictures of the schedules which turned out to be up to date. As a public service, I have scanned the paper version I picked up (Feb 2019) and post them here. Click on the images for the full size versions.

The departure point is a short walk from the doors with the schedules. Although the schedule says for hotel guests only, nobody is going to bar you from boarding or disembarking even if you are not. I took the shuttle back to Hotel M.

There is another shopping mall to the north-west, further out of the old city, near the highways, called Maya Lifestyle Centre. I didn't visit this. Reports say that it's full of upmarket boutique shops, but does have a good supermarket.

Shopping centre food

Other good places to get casual Thai food are the food courts in shopping centres. These have attractive aspects: you are in a cool environment, especially during the day, the hygiene is better, and the crowds less imposing.

Central Airport Plaza has two food courts, one on the top level, where you buy credit to be put on a stored value card and hand it to the stall to deduct. On leaving you can cash out the remainder. The one in the basement which was patronised more by the Thais had more local dishes and slightly cheaper prices.

I started off with green papaya salad with blue crab. Even though I allowed one chilli pepper, it still had a bite, though bearable. Those tiny chillies are fiery.

Next I had some Thai pork balls with dipping sauce.

And I finished off with a dessert of sweet beans and jellies in iced coconut milk.

On a subsequent visit I tried the basement food court and ordered a plate of oyster (actually mussel) omelette.

I had bought a couple of durian seeds from a fruit market and ate them in the food court, since I could not take them into the hotel. Very tasty and I was fortunate to have picked seeds that had small cores. The plastic cutlery was mine, I usually carry a pair on trips.

This isn't a food court dessert but Korean injeolmi (인절미) bingsu (ice dessert) from a Korean dessert shop in the old city. The orange stuff is bean powder sprinkled on small rice cake cubes. I was just curious about this flavour, which I had not heard of before.

At the foodcourt of Central Festival Plaza, using stored value cards also, and operated by the same group as the Airport Plaza, I had this bowl of fish balls with rice noodles.

This was followed by pork satay. Quite close to what is served in Malaysia, even down to the onions, only rice cake is missing.

That's the good thing about small portions, you can sample more dishes.

Later that afternoon I had upmarket ice cream in a Swensen's, a chain with many SE Asian parlours. This cost about half what it would at home.

You can also get pastries for dessert from supermarkets in shopping centre. This is a sweet puff with one ginko nut inside. I tried to discern the taste but it was too subtle. I may need to try some ginko nut snacks in Japan.

This one was called a toddy pie. Presumably the sweet jelly was made from the toddy palm.

Food tour

I signed up for a foodie tour to get an introduction to local dishes. The last time I did a day cooking course but that was general Thai dishes. The guide picked me up from the hotel and then we went to the outskirts to pick up the other 3 people, all USAns. One was an intern from MN working a sort of exchange stint with a Thai hospital. The other two were a couple from OR escaping the winter. The guide gave each of us a printed guide to Thai dishes encountered in this part of the country.

One of the first things we tried, basil with chicken. I love Thai holy basil. Watch out for the chilli though.

Green papaya salad, another well-known Thai dish.

Stewed pig trotters with rice. The Chinese characters indicate much Chinese tourism. The lady in the picture is the stall owner.

And here she is with her signature wide brim hat.

The dish.

Notice the basket with small cloves of garlic. Thais pick them up one at at time and chew with food. It's not very pungent, just the right flavour.

Each of us got one serve.

The guide gave us a taste of durian. The USAns tasted a bit of it but didn't go for seconds. I had to finish the rest. Tough job, but someone has to do it.

My hotel room had a card saying that bringing in durians would incur a fine of 2000B. At the entrance of a posh hotel I saw another sign with a heavier fine of 6000B. It also forbade mangosteen. I wondered why as mangosteen has no pungent smell. Then I recalled that the rind has a purple sap that can stain fabric. Durian and mangosteens are commonly eaten together, the acidity of the mangosteen is believed to counter the sweetness of the durian.

Finally the dish of Northern Thailand, khao soi. I've had it on a previous trip. Basically it's egg noodles in curry sauce. I'm not crazy about its taste, I prefer laksa.

Warorot market

Warorot is a well-known Chiang Mai market which is outside the old city walls near a bank of the Ping river. Locals shop here. I wanted to get one or two leather goods and some food of nostalgia.

This is one aisle selling dry foods.

A view from the stairs. Chinese New Year had recently passed.

Another view.

Found the vendor making kuih kapit, also called love letters in English. It seems they may be related to Dutch egg roll wafers. Back in Malaysia these were usually Chinese New Year treats given as presents. They were light and crunchy.

I also came away with a stick of durian cake, durian that had been boiled to the consistency of a chewy paste with sugar.

The road between the market and the river is lined with flower stalls.