Saturday morning was beautiful, still a little overcast but cooler than most mornings in Khrungthep and a bit less humid, too. 

Breakfast was included in our room rate, so we walked over to the restaurant.

Left: Me outside the main lobby building.

As I mentioned in Part 1, Chiang Mai was pretty deserted as this is the off season.  The population at the resort was similarly sparse. 

The restaurant staff did a really good job of maintaining a wide selection of items in the buffet without putting a large amount of food out.  For example, instead of a basket full of muffins, there was a banana-leaf tray with six of them.  They were neatly arranged, had a flower as decoration, etc. but you could tell they didn’t want to waste food.

The restaurant is open-air and has an adjacent patio (right) where you can dine under the branches of a huge tree. 

The tree, with its many vines, roots, and Northern Thai-style lanterns (the white ones, below) hanging from its branches, was the focal point of the resort.  The owner wrote in his welcome letter that he selected the site of the resort specifically because of the tree.

After breakfast we looked around the resort.  We learned that the annual staff party would be held that evening, so the restaurant would close at eight.  This was fine as we had other plans in mind for dinner.  We also noticed (“we”, “we”, “we”… as if Tawn doesn’t have his own blog – maybe if I stop writing “we”, he’ll update his blog), that the staff was conducting a ceremony at the base of the large tree.  It seems that they were replacing the spirit house with a new one.

I’ve spoken about spirit houses before, but a brief explanation for those who are unfamiliar: While Thais are mostly a Buddhist nation, many animist, Brahmanist, and Hindu beliefs form a sort of quasi-religious subtext.  One of the more common of these is the belief that the land, trees, mountains, etc. have spirits living on or in them.

When the land is developed to build a house, shop, or other building, you are obligated to erect a house – a “spirit house” – in which the displaced spirits can live.  This is placed in an auspicious spot, is appropriately sized (huge ones outside malls, smaller ones outside residential houses), and the residents and tenants regularly pay respect to the spirits by offering incense, candles, drinks and food. 

In the entry located here, you can see me making an offering to our condo’s spirit house on the day we moved in.  Also, the most famous spirit house in Thailand is the Erawan Shrine.  Read more about it here.

The peacock motif appears throughout the resort, often on the ridges and corners of buildings where more commonly a naga tail might be placed. 

A little online research didn’t yield many satisfactory answers as to why the peacock motif is so prevalent in Chiang Mai, although I did learn that in both Hindu and Buddhist mythology, the peacock is symbolic of the worldly realms of appearance whereas the swan is the symbol of the higher realms. 

Also, in Buddhism the peacock’s tail is associated with the Wheel of Dharma.

How’s that for a whole lot of additional trivia that you probably didn’t ever expect to learn? 

Below, Tawn takes a picture of a beautiful three-dimensional mural of a peacock in the outdoor dining area.

We started the day with a massage, which is always a fine way to start.  Afterwards we wandered over to Tha Phae Road, on the north side of the Night Market, looking for a tea house that Khun Ken had recommended.  Along the way we found some interesting shops, including the Sun Gallery, pictured below.

The downstairs area had a wide variety of objects and paintings for sale, but the owner, Khun Veeraphat, opened the upstairs area for us.  It was this beautiful space, one side of which can actually be used by painters to create their works and the other side of which displays more paintings.  The light and volume of the space were really nice as there were balconies at the end of the rooms providing natural lighting.

Just down the street we found the Siam Celadon Tea House, housed in a two-story teak building of neocolonial design that dates to 1915.  Khun Nit Wangwiwat, owner of the Raming Tea Company, bought the house in 1986 and it was eventually renovated for use as a shop and restaurant. 

The highlight of the building is its central atrium, which floods the space with diffused light.  No air conditioning is used and the design, which includes high ceilings, lots of open grilles at the top of walls, and good window placement, allows for visitors to comfortably enjoy their tea with a nice breeze.

It is a pleasant space with a lovely garden in the back and we enjoyed a light bite to eat and some tea.  The shop is located next to a small khlong or canal and every so often the hint of an unpleasant smell wafts over on the breeze.  That was the one downside. 

We headed back to the resort mid-afternoon and I was able to get a swim in at the pool until I was interrupted by the rain. 

That evening we enjoyed an Indian meal at the Whole Earth restaurant, located adjacent to the resort.  I’ve eaten there before and they used to have a branch in Khrungthep that has regrettably closed.

Located in a beautiful Thai-style building pictured to the left, the food is well-prepared with an extensive vegetarian menu and other meat selections.  We had a fish tikka and a curried okra dish that were amazing.  The service is attentive, too.

Pretty tired from all our walking around – how is it that holidays are so exhausting? – we stopped by the front desk of the hotel and borrowed the Michelle Pfeiffer film, I Could Never Be Your Woman.  Even thought they had several dozen films, they were all things we had either seen before or had no interest in seeing, so we settled for this 2007 comedy.  It was okay, but I’m glad I didn’t pay 100 baht for it in the cinema.

Sunday morning was sunny, with blue skies finally breaking through the clouds.  Our flight was just after noon so we didn’t have a lot of time. 

The one last thing on my list was breakfast at Bake & Bite Bakery.  A Chiang Mai fixture with three locations, this is a straight-up American style breakfast place with an emphasis on homemade breads, bagels, muffins and cinnamon rolls.

When Ken and I were up in Chiang Mai a year ago, we enjoyed nice breakfasts here a couple of times.  Since then, I’ve concluded my quest for an American style breakfast place in Khrungthep with Little Home on Thong Lor, about which I have yet to write.

Left, full-on American breakfast with homemade sausage patties.  My sourdough biscuits are much better, though.

For some reason, I ended up fully satisfied with my breakfast while Tawn was not satisfied with his at all.  I think some of it was that Tawn’s stomach wasn’t feeling terribly well.  But part of it had to do with the chef’s inability to hard boil an egg.  Tawn ordered two hard boiled eggs and the first ones that came out were really soft and spilled all over the place upon cracking the shells.

He pointed this out to the waitress who apologized and brought out two more eggs a few minutes later.  Same problem.  Needless to say, Tawn now doesn’t understand why I like the restaurant.

After breakfast, we packed our bags and said goodbye to the friendly staff of the Yaang Come Village, who all lined up and wai’d us as we left. 

Our short flight home was on THAI Airways, a different airline from our flight up because Tawn was originally going to be up in Chiang Mai on business and I booked the same, slightly more expensive flight back as he had. 

Even though the flight is only an hour from takeoff to touchdown, they serve a snack service that, while not gourmet, certainly puts to shame the “hospitality” offered by any US-based airline.

Below left: Tawn special ordered a fish meal, which ended up being cold fish sticks with tartar sauce.  Below right: I ate the standard meal that was being passed out, a pork laab patty (kind of like chicken salad but with pork and Thai spices – it is normally served as a salad and not formed into patties) served with fresh veggies.  As with many of our meals this weekend, mine proved to be the better choice.

And thus ended our weekend in Chiang Mai.  We’ll have to travel somewhere again soon as there is so much to explore here in Thailand.

One thing I’ve discovered the past few days is that if I stay away from my computer (or at least non-work related things on my computer) I get so much more done.  It just can really suck you in.  Gosh, what a discovery!

Our trip up to Chiang Mai was nice.  It is low season here in Thailand and things were deserted up north.  One evening we went to the famed Night Market and it was so empty, I had wondered whether there were any other tourists in town!

Chiang Mai is a popular city, and I enjoy many of the things it has to offer.  But part of me hasn’t ever really liked it, ever since my first visit in 2000.  The core of the city – the Old City – looks and feels a lot like Khao San Road, the backpacker paradise in Khrungthep.  As Tawn points out, that’s a lot better than Pattaya, the whole of which feels like Patpong, the sex bar district in Khrungthep.

We arrived mid-afternoon on Friday and within minutes of stepping out of the airport terminal the afternoon thunderstorm, an event to be repeated daily throughout the weekend, had started its downpour.  The staff of the resort, Yaang Come Village, used a large umbrella – the sort you see in the middle of your outdoor dining table – to ferry us from the taxi to the front steps and then from the lobby after check-in to our room.

The resort is gorgeous just as in the pictures I posted in the previous entry.  It isn’t very large so the staff quickly gets to know you and your preferences.  They are friendly to a degree that is just hard to describe and well-trained.  I’d recommend it for anyone visiting Chiang Mai who wants to stay in a resort.

I will add that I’m not sure I’m really the resort type of person, as I rarely spend a lot of time sitting around the pool or strolling in the gardens.  But this was a beautiful resort.

Friday afternoon after the rains, we headed to Nimmanahaeminda Road Soi 1, an artsy district near Chiang Mai University.  Tawn had read about this soi in Elle Thailand and it seems like an up-and-coming corner of the city.  Apparently, many artists and designers from Khrungthep have relocated to Chiang Mai.

Many of the old houses have been converted into shops.  Some are boutiques and others are galleries and all of them are very cute.  Here are some pictures:

Above: A cute hair salon.  Below: The front car park and entry way of a shop.

Above: The extravagant entry to Suriyan Chandra, one of several combination art-furniture-music “lifestyle” stores.  There is a new store called Avatar by the same owner, located a few blocks away.  Avatar is in the midst of a six-month “pre-opening” even though it looked fully open.  Eventually, he’ll have a cafe there, too.  Sadly, it was too dark by the time we arrived so I didn’t get good pictures.  Below: Tawn inside the Suriyan Chandra garden on the other side of the wall above.

We walked through this neighborhood, a series of small sois that have a number of interesting shops.  Along the way I encountered this tree, below.  Any guesses as to what it is?

If you guessed “papaya”, you’d be correct.  For all my time in Thailand, I hadn’t seen a papaya tree.  Maybe I can get one for the balcony!

In the late afternoon the last of the stormy skies had cleared and even Doi Suthep (Suthep Mountain) which stands sentry over the city’s northwest, was unshrouded as the clouds dissipated after the storms.

For dinner, Tawn suggested another Elle recommendation.  The House is a self-styled “restaurant & wine and tapas bar” with a little Thai cafe on the side.  It resides in a renovated colonial home, is very cute, and has attentive if somewhat unpolished service.

It is an attractive place, one of many European restaurants in a city that caters to a large population of expat retirees.  It is my observation that Chiang Mai probably has a better quality of European restaurants than Khrungthep.  What I’ve tried so far has been pretty good.

The food was generally nice but the preparation lacked nuance.  One item in particular, a crab bisque, was a disaster.  When it was served to Tawn, the wide bowl had a brown broth strewn with small bits of crab meat.  There was no cream in sight, which by the very definition of the name is required in order to make the soup a bisque. 

Tawn tried the broth.  Very bland, as if water had been used to make it instead of stock.

A minute or two later, the waiter arrived with a small bowl of a thick cream and a spoon.  He explained that this was a “do it yourself” bisque where you added the cream.

That was a terrible idea.  The soup was not piping hot and when Tawn added the cream, it curdled, forming small, unappetizing lumps in the broth.  We each tried a spoonful and agreed that the bisque was now even more of a mess than it had been before.

Tawn called the waiter over and explained that its was not edible and ordered something else for an appetizer.  The waiter seemed a little befuddled as to what to say, but eventually did admit to us – rather candidly! – that several other people had said the same thing about the bisque.

The remainder of the meal was better.  I had a beef carpaccio that was pretty tasty.  Our main courses, a pan-seared sea bass fillet on white bean puree with fresh veggies for me (below) and potato croquettes with avocado salsa and vegetables for Tawn (above), were enjoyable although I definitely wound up with the better selection of food.

We did enjoy a really good wine find: a 2004 Madfish Cabernet Sauvignon Rose from Western Australia.  It was very fruity but also very dry and crisp.  I’ll be poking around the wine shops here in Khrungthep to see if I can find a half-case.

Finally, for dessert we shared a stalk – that’s it, just one stalk – of rhubarb poached in grenadine syrup, served with raspberry whipped cream and a scoop of rum raisin ice cream.  It was an interesting concept but the syrup was simply so sweet that it overwhelmed the natural tartness of the rhubarb.  Still, it was a light end to the dinner.

From there we headed to the night market and walked around for a little while.  As I mentioned earlier, the place was deserted.  After an hour we decided to return to the hotel, exhausted from our first afternoon in town.

I’ll leave you with a short video clip shot in the back of a Tuk Tuk as meter taxis are rare in Chiang Mai.

More soon…

Tawn and I are getting away today to Chiang Mai, Thailand’s “Second City” and the largest city in the northern, mountainous part of the Kingdom.

We’re staying at the Yaang Come Village, a resort that is one of the highest-rated on Trip Advisor.  Hopefully, all those people are right.  Here are some pictures:

Looks nice, eh?  Well, the biggest “escape” in this whole trip is that I’m leaving my laptop behind.  I spend way too much time staring at the screen both for work (really!) as well as blogging.  That’s it, a weekend of resting my eyes.

Talk to you Monday!