This weekend Tawn and I flew to Chiang Rai, in the far north of Thailand, to attend Pune and Detlev’s wedding.  Pune is Tam’s sister and Detlev is Markus’ cousin, and they were introduced a year and a half ago at a small dinner at Tam and Markus’ apartment at which Tawn and I were present, when Detlev came to Thailand on holiday.

This was the first of three “weddings” that will occur, the other two being a civil service and then a Lutheran religious service in Germany.  Pune and Tam’s mother still lives in their hometown of Phan (an aspirated “p” sound, not an “f” at the beginning), a district in the south of Chiang Rai province.  As their mother’s health has not been so good, the decision was made to hold the Buddhist and Thai wedding in Phan rather than try to bring her down to Khrungthep.

The first entry in this series will be about our trip up to Chiang Rai.  The second will be about the wedding day itself.  The third will be about the trip home.

A little about Chiang Rai.  Located 700 km (435 miles) north of Khrungthep, Chiang Rai is the 12th largest and 13th most inhabited of Thailand’s 76 provinces.  The main town of Chiang Rai has about 65,000 inhabitants, with about 225,000 in the surrounding area.  This compares with about 7-8 million people in Khrungthep and about 700,000 in the greater Chiang Mai area.

We chose to fly to the north as we would otherwise have to take a very long bus ride or a combination train (to Chiang Mai) then bus ride, also quite long.  The flight is just over an hour and while not nearly as well-served as Chiang Mai, there are almost a dozen daily flights from which to choose.

Above: Our taxi driver’s tricked-out taxi with covers for the gear shift, parking brake, turn indicator, and windshield wiper stalk, all knit from optic yellow yarn.  Along the way we stopped at Ble’s to drop off some color samples and arrived at the old Don Meuang Airport – now used exclusively for domestic flights – about ninety minutes before departure time.

Kobfa joined us for the trip, coordinating his travel plans to match with ours, and we conveniently arrived at the airport at the same time.  Below: Tawn and Kobfa waiting in the bag security screening line.

Before departure we had enough time to eat lunch, which featured the soggiest pad thai noodles I’ve ever seen and a waitress who seemed completely unable to comprehend my Thai.  If translated, it would have sounded like this:

Chris: “I’ll have a lime soda, please.”

Waitress: “A spaghetti?”

Chris: “No, a lime soda, please.”

Waitress: “Plain water?”

Chris: “No, soda.  Lime.  Lime Soda, please.”

Tawn confirmed afterwards that it wasn’t my pronunciation. Kobfa thought that the waitress just wasn’t expecting me to order in Thai, but it continued when I ordered my food as well.

Our flight up to Chiang Rai was smooth.  We took Nok Air, a budget airline that is partially owned by THAI Airways.  Like most budget carriers here, there isn’t a lot of service.  The flight was on time, the crew was friendly, no outside food and drink was allowed but they were happy to sell you snacks and beverages.  One thing good about Nok is that they allow you to make seat assignments online at no added cost.  A full trip report will be ready soon for posting on Airliners.net.

We arrived at Chiang Rai to find it unchanged from our last visit in September 2000.  There is one runway, no taxiways, and a small four-gate terminal, two of which have jetways.  We disembarked through airstairs, allowing plenty of photo taking opportunities as we made our way to the terminal, right.

Our Hertz car rental representative was waiting for us outside the baggage claim and took us to a nearby resort hotel where they base their operations.  We rented a Honda Jazz, a car that I’ve considered as a candidate for when we replace our current car in the next few years.  Based on our rental, I don’t think I would buy it.  While it performs well and gets good mileage, the layout of the driver area is not so good, with a center console that rubs against your leg.

Bill and Ken were already in Chiang Rai, completing the final few days of a ten-day holiday to the north of the country.  Bill and his friend Kom had headed up to the Burmese border but Ken was free, so we picked him up at his hotel and had coffee with him then explored the town.  Below: Tawn, Chris, Kobfa and Ken at a bakery/coffee shop in downtown Chiang Rai.

Nearing sunset we stopped by a hilltop temple in the northwest corner of town.  I think that Tawn and I visited this temple last time we were here but after a while it is difficult to distinguish them.  As we arrived the monks were completing circumambulations of the chedi – walking around the gold-painted pagoda as they chanted, below right.  The chedis usually contain relics, either of the Buddha, royalty, or some prominent person like a monk.

We paid our respects to the Buddha images while a big black labrador rested on the mat, above left.

Afterwards, we went back to Ken’s hotel, Laluna Resort, where we met up with Bill and Kom, who had returned from their run to the border’s edge.  Below, Tawn horses around (“turtles around”?) by the side of the hotel’s pool.

Wanting to try some of the Northern Thai culinary specialties for dinner, Tawn had asked the people working the Hertz counter for recommendations.  The recommendation was Salungkam, a famous restaurant that once we arrived, we realized we had eaten at years ago.

Salungkham is in all the guide books and does a good trade in tour bus business.  Don’t let this turn you off, though, as it is worth of its reputation.

The food was so good that we actually returned on Sunday before our flight for seconds.  I’ll combine the pictures from both meals so you can see the tasty things we enjoyed!

Left: One of the North’s most famous foods is Sai Oua, a pork sausage that is heavily flavored with local herbs.  It is served grilled with a spicy red chili and garlic sauce.  Salungkam has its grill set up right at the front of the restaurant, your assurance that the sausage, pork belly, and spare ribs on the menu are as fresh as can be!

The restaurant has both an indoor seating area as well as a beautiful garden which, with the slightly cooler evenings there, make for a pleasant place to eat your evening meal.

From top left across: The grill is loaded with tasty meats which come out as this mixed grill platter of sai oua (herbed sausage) and spare ribs; pla chon na tod – fried catfish that is caught from rice paddies; nam prik ong – a sauce made from fire-roasted green chilies served with dipping vegetables and fried pork skins and a side dish of fried snow peas and shitake mushrooms; gang mapraw on gai baan – a mild Northern style soup that is not as spicy as it looks, made with young coconut palm shoots and homegrown chicken; fruit platter featuring young pineapples, which is also a northern specialty.

We ate our fill but saved room for a trip to the night market for dessert!  The night market in Chiang Rai is much smaller than the well-known one in Chiang Mai.  Nonetheless, it features the same trinkets, which seem to be imported from some central “night market trinket factory”, probably located in China.

There were two notable desserts, though: roti – a Muslim delicacy that is akin to a crepe.  Normally served with an egg, this vendor was aiming for the dessert crowd by offering many sweet toppings.  We went for roti drizzled with chocolate sauce and a little sweetened condensed milk.

Tawn also found a bua loy vendor, below.  This dish, which is akin to small gnocchi served warm in sweetened coconut milk, was done differently here, served cool with two scoops of coconut ice cream, shavings of fresh young coconut, and toasted sesame seeds.

At this point, we were completely stuffed.  Not knowing exactly how long it would take us to drive to Phan, we piled everyone back into the car (there were six of us in what is decidedly a four-seater!) and drove Ken, Bill and Kom back to their hotel.  From there, Tawn, Kobfa and I headed down the smoothly paved, wide Highway One on what turned out to be an easy thirty-minute drive down to Phan.

I’ll pick up this entry tomorrow and tell you more about Phan and Pune and Detlev’s wedding.