Trip to Chiang Mai – Final Part

Posted on 16 January 2010 by christao408

The final full day in Chiang Mai we drove up to Doi Suthep, a mountain that is immediately to the west of Chiang Mai and offers, on a clear day, a nice view of the greater Chiang Mai area. On the top of the mountain is a temple which ostensibly dates back to the late 14th century and is one of the most significant sites for Thais to visit. It is also a very beautiful temple so is well worth the trip up the winding 13 km road from the city.

Stephanie and I picked up my friend Kari, who recently moved back to Thailand from Kenya with her husband Ron. They are both missionaries whom Tawn and I first met when I was attending Union Language School after first moving here four years ago.

The day was drizzly but as we drove up the mountain, the drizzle subsided replaced by a thick fog. On the way up we had to stop and help a family whose pickup truck had slipped into a small ditch at the side of the road. Thankfully, only one tire was in the ditch and with the help of another driver, we were able to jimmy it free.

The base area of the temple has lots of tourist shops, stalls, stands and vendors. It is a bit of a circus. Thankfully there were not too many people there thanks to both the inclement weather as well as the depressed tourism situation in Thailand. There are two ways to reach the temple: you can either take a short cable car ride or you can walk the 300 steps (decorated with beautiful nagas, or multi-headed serpents). Here’s a photo of Stephanie posing before we began our ascent.

One of the vendor’s dogs sitting on the wall, imitating the nagas in the previous photo!

The temple is perched right on top of the mountain and is surrounded by lush tropical forest. The fog was very thick and advanced quickly, swallowing up the mountainside. This picture reminded me of something from the movie “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon”.

Looking down to the area where the monks’ quarters are located. Visibility was down to about 30 meters. Note the lanterns. These are a very typical Lanna / Northern Thai style lantern. Beautiful, no?

While taking pictures the fog started to turn into a mist and, eventually, drizzle. Thankfully we had our umbrellas with us.

The main chedi, or stupa, is covered in gold with four gold umbrellas standing on the corners. On a sunny day it is beautiful and makes a striking contrast with the blue skies. See this photo as an example. Today, however, we just had to appreciate it at a different level. In fact, the fog/mist/drizzle lent an interesting serenity to the place.

Rare to get a shot here with no visitors in it!

I like the drops of water on the statues. After about an hour poking around we decided the dampness was getting to us and descended to the parking lot area.

From the main entrance we looked back up towards the temple and the summit, which was now entirely shrouded in the clouds.

Here’s a video of the few days up there:

While in Chiang Mai we had the opportunity to eat quite a bit of Northern Thai food, which offers some of the best dishes in all of Thailand. Here is a spread we had one night. In the upper left is a variety of vegetables and a Northern style sausage called sai oua. It is served with a green chili dipping sauce (available in varying degrees of spiciness) called nam prik ong. In the center is a red pork and chili dipping sauce called nam prik num. It is more savory than spicy. You eat it with the fried pork rinds in the upper right. That’s right, Thais love cracklins! The bamboo container in the lower left features khao niaw or sticky rice. In the center is a plate of raw veggies and herbs served on ice, which are eaten to cool the spiciness. Finally, the dish in the lower right is a salad made of sun dried pork, shallots, peanuts, cilantro and chilies.

Here’s another view of the sai oua and nap prik ong and khao niaw. I bought some at the Chiang Mai Airport at a vendor who has been around for years and carried it onto the plane. That’s right – you can bring super-spicy green chili sauce onto the plane here as a carry on. Bottled water through security? No. But nam prik ong? Absolutely fine. Everyone knows that isn’t dangerous.

Trip to Chiang Mai Part 2

Posted on 15 January 2010 by christao408

The highlight of our trip to Chiang Mai was a drive two hours south to Doi Inthanon National Park. One of the largest parks in the Kingdom, this is the home to the “rooftop of Thailand”, Doi Inthanon peak. Many people who visit Thailand stay in typically touristy areas, particularly the biggest cities and the beach towns. As lovely as these are, they miss out on the spectacular natural beauty to be found in this country.

This park features several beautiful waterfalls including the impressive Vachiratharn Falls. These falls are all located just short walks away from parking areas making them accessible to almost everyone. Even several months after rainy season, these falls are going strong!

There are also hiking trails if you want to get more of a workout. On our way to the top of the falls, which turned out to be less interesting than viewing them from down below, we found this interesting stand of dead bamboo. There were also several disused picnic tables on the way up, all in areas that didn’t seem conducive to a pleasant picnic.

Near the summit of Doi Inthanon are a pair of chedis built by the Royal Thai Air Force to commemorate the fifth cycle (i.e. 60th) birthdays of their majesties the King and Queen of Thailand in 1987 and 1992, respectively. These are beautiful chedis, both done in modern style. They are very distinct with the King’s chedi having very dark stone and the Queen’s being built in with a violet hue. Since my last visit in 2006 they have installed enclosed escalators to make the climb to the top easier for the thousands of elderly Thais who come here to pay their respects.

The hazy, cloudy view from the top of Doi Inthanon looking southwest towards Burma.

At the top of the peak (2,565 meters / 8,416 feet as marked by the small round metal plaque on the concrete pedestal in the foreground of the picture) is a small shrine to the memory of the Phra Chao Inthawichayanon, one of the last kings of Chiang Mai until his death in 1897. During his 27-year reign, King Inthawichayanon was very concerned about the preservation of the forests and mountains in what was still an independent tributary Lanna kingdom. Following his wishes, the king’s remains were interred at this spot on the top of what was then called Doi Luang. The mountain was subsequently renamed Doi Inthanon.

It was also during his reign that the remnants of the Lanna kingdom were finally annexed into greater Siam. One could argue that the political friction in modern-day Thailand (which has a very distinct north versus central split) has its roots in these ancient annexations.

Part way down the mountain is the Royal Agricultural Station, a large garden area that has acres of greenhouses where different types of plants are grown. The purpose of the project is to identify different species from around the country and also cultivate other species that may be well-suited to Thailand’s different climates. As an example of some of the work done by various royal-sponsored agricultural foundations, opium production in Thailand (which once used to be the world’s top producer) has almost entirely vanished, being replaced by cash crops such as coffee and macadamia nuts.

Tiptoe through the tulips…

Reflection in the pond. The sun kept trying to break through but it rarely lasted.

My personal favorites, the fuchsias. The climate up here on the mountain is very similar to that of my childhood home in the San Francisco Bay Area. We had fuchsias in our backyard that my father tended to with great care. Seeing these in the greenhouse brought back many memories. I used to snap open the flowers, enjoying the “pop!” sound they made.

Mae Ya Falls, Doi Inthanon National Park – Chiang Mai Province. Our friend Kari is standing in the distance taking pictures.

Chris hoping that there isn’t a sudden flash flood!

I’ll continue tomorrow with the second road trip in Chiang Mai, up to Doi Suthep, along with some video.

No Hong Kong for Christmas

Posted on 22 December 2009 by christao408

The big plans for Christmas this year were a long weekend in Hong Kong, since Christmas falls on a Friday and Gary, W and Eric were going to be there from LA. To top it off, Aaron was going to be there, too, and Angel as well. What a perfect time to meet up with everyone. Sadly, it won’t be happening.

Tawn’s managing director decided that no more unpaid leave would be approved for the rest of the year. It seems that twelve paid vacation days a year aren’t enough for Tawn, considering that we burned through those in the first six months of the calendar. So we had to squash plans for our Hong Kong trip, postponing it until April.

The upside is that our friend and former roommate Stephanie is in town from Melbourne and had we gone to Hong Kong, we would have had to leave her to her own devices for a long weekend. Now we’ll be able to enjoy spending time with her through her entire holiday here in the Land of Smiles.

Rather oddly, the maintenance people here at the condo erected two Christmas trees on either side of the swimming pool, extension cords for the lights taped down along the terra cotta tiles. It is very pretty just after sunset when the lights are on.

We’ve set up our own Christmas tree, too, something we do some years and not others. It is an artificial tree, of course, and one that I think looks particularly artificial. In fact, there is a point where the whole thing becomes a bit of a caricature of the holiday tradition since neither Tawn nor I really celebrate Christmas. I think we put the tree up some years more as a decorative item than anything else.

The plan is to call the nieces on Christmas Eve their time and report that, since Thailand is some 13 hours ahead of Kansas City, Santa has already arrived here and has said that he is heading their way. Let’s keep that childhood innocence alive as long as possible.

The Global Soul

Posted on 16 December 2009 by christao408

Travel, especially travel by air, is in my blood. My father worked more than thirty years for an airline as did his brother. After high school I worked for a while for an airline. Tawn worked for a few years for an airline. My first flight was when I was a month old and I haven’t stopped since.

You may be aware of the new George Clooney film, “Up in the Air” about a man who is addicted to the frequent flyer lifestyle. I can relate. For many years before I moved to Thailand, I was one of those “100k” flyers, booking more than 100,000 miles a year.

While it was very wearing, I have to say I still enjoyed it. The sense of escape, of adventure, of moving, of going somewhere new and different.

Recently a friend posted the following short film, a twenty-minute bit called “Frequent Flyer” that interviews some of the seriously obsessed frequent flyers. These are the people who aren’t flying a lot for business necessarily, but are flying a lot in order to fly a lot and in order to achieve “status” with a frequent flyer program and the perks that go with it.

Frequent Flyer from Gabriel Leigh on Vimeo.

While I’d like to say that they are crazy, I recall a few times that I would go out of my way to earn miles in order to meet a status deadline. When you have to fly so much for work, you don’t want to miss out on the benefits that come from having an elite tier of status – upgrades, lounge invitations, priority standby for flights, etc.

There was one time when, shortly before moving to Thailand, I realized I was going to be a few thousand miles short of the 100,000 mile threshold. At that time, shortly after jetBlue had entered the transcontinental market flying SF and LA to NY, United and American (the dominant carriers on the route) offered ridiculously low fares to get people to fly them.

A single roundtrip from SF to NY would get me across the finish line in terms of miles, so I paid about $200 for a Saturday afternoon flight, spent the night at an airport hotel near JFK, then flew back on the first flight Sunday morning. I earned about 5,000 base miles plus an equal number of bonus miles, about half the miles needed for a free domestic ticket. If you want to read the full story, it is here.

Author Pico Iyer wrote about the concept of being a global soul: someone born in one place, raised in another and living in still another place. At some level I relate to that concept. Maybe not quite as global as some people but still having the experience of living and working in countries and cultures besides the one I was raised in. It makes for many disconnects and strange senses of belonging and yet not belonging.

One of the frequent flyers being interviewed in the short film above said, upon arriving in Japan, “This is one of my favorite parts, fresh off of a transpacific flight, a bit bleary-eyed, and somehow it is more fun knowing I’ll be leaving in a matter of days.”

There are times when I feel exactly like that.

To close, let me share with you some photos of a proposed expanded international terminal at Los Angeles Airport. I like the bridge connecting the terminals, under which airplanes can taxi.

Kiki’s Dinner Service

Posted on 27 November 2009 by christao408

Funny how two and a half days in a city can take a week two blog about. We’re nearing the end, though. More telling, perhaps, is that Andy is just catching up to the first day of our trip. Of course he has many more pictures than I do plus had been in Taipei for a week before we arrived.

The final day in Taipei followed the bleak and misty pattern that had been the tone of the weekend. We took the subway to the north end of town, out past the suburbs, really, to the Tamsui Fisherman’s Wharf and the nearby market area. From the terminal station of the subway (Danshui) we strolled along several streets that had many of the same foods and items for sale that we had seen at the night market.

The mist was just enough to get you wet if you weren’t using an umbrella but not enough to keep us from enjoying browsing the shops. We had just eaten bao at Din Tai Fung so there wasn’t a lot of room left for snacking. That didn’t keep me from looking at all the interesting things to eat.

Two types of noodles! And the vendor’s arm as she stirs them.

Stuffed tofu skins. Not sure what it is stuffed with but I’m sure someone will tell me in the comments. Pretty sure that isn’t mozzarella cheese on top, though.

I did buy some grilled mochi (pounded rice). The proprietor’s daughter was running the stand and took my order, grilled the mochi, figured out which bottle had the sauce I ordered (she sniffed them), took my money and made change. Very cute.

We then got on a ferry to the Fisherman’s Wharf. Looking at the map, we probably could have taken a bus or walked there just as easily. The Fisherman’s Wharf is “D” on the map and the shopping street is “A”. As the boat approached the mouth of the river and made the turn around the breakwater to the entrance to the wharf, we were rocked with some pretty strong waves. Strong enough to crash across the bow and onto the lower windows, which is where we were sitting.

The big attraction at the wharf is Lovers Bridge, shown in both the above pictures. By this point the wind was really blowing and the mist was growing heavier. As Sugi and I posed for a picture, her umbrella was caught by the wind and snapped like a twig. I’m sure Andy will have a picture of that for you soon.

Tawn smartly stayed in a coffee shop, taking a nap, while the rest of us wandered about, sacrificing umbrellas to the winds.

That evening, after some gift shopping (pineapple cake!) at Sogo, we met Andy’s parents for dinner at Kiki Restaurant, a Szuchuan restaurant that’s been around for nearly twenty years. If you ask me, Szuchuan may be the tastiest of all the Chinese cuisines.

Tawn, Andy, Andy’s parents, Sugi and me in front of the restaurant. I think Andy has his mom’s nose and eyes and his father’s forehead and chin. Let’s discuss…

The restaurant had wonderful lighting for taking pictures. If you are designing a restaurant, please spare a thought to food bloggers and install halogen lamps over the tables.

Braised tofu. Had my mother made tofu this way when I was growing up, I would have learned to love it much earlier.

An elaborate version of drunken chicken.

Bitter melon with salted duck egg.

Morning glory stir fried with garlic and fermented tofu.

Boiled pork with thick, sweet soy sauce.

Dan dan noodles – served with ground pork and bok choy.

Tripe and duck’s blood stew in a spicy chili sauce. We got into a discussion of what tripe is. I had always thought it was intestine but, as I’ve since learned thanks to Wikipedia, it is stomach. There you go.

So called “water wok” beef – a stew with bean sprouts and bamboo shoots. The type of chili in here isn’t spicy so much as it numbs the tongue for several minutes. Seriously, the front half of my tongue was numb after two servings.

Last but not least, yes we did try stinky tofu. Here it is fried up in a dish with dried chilies and spring onions. Actually, pretty tasty.

The meal was excellent and a bit thank you to Andy’s father for treating us. It was an excellent end to the trip as we headed to the airport shortly thereafter. But not before some dessert!

Stopping at a local dessert chain we encountered some Engrish. “Garss jelly” and “Retrospective tea” were two of my favorites. It would seem that “old-fashioned” might be a better translation. Note that in addition to English we have Japanese. Ah-ha! More proof that there are lots of Japanese tourists here.

Last but not least, here’s a photo Andy took while I was filming my tasting of salted plum stuffed cherry tomatoes dipped in candy coating at the night market. Superb shot.

Shilin Night Market – Taipei

Posted on 25 November 2009 by christao408

The food adventures continued on Saturday night when, after a day wandering around the malls adjacent to Taipei 101, we rode the subway to the north end of Taipei to visit the Shilin Night Market. This is the largest night market in Taipei.

Foods we enjoyed at the official food section of the market (as opposed to the endless rows of street vendors scattered throughout the rest of the market) included these dishes:

What did we eat? I’m afraid I didn’t take careful notes, especially while we were inside the food portion of the market. But from the upper left, clockwise, we have fried noodles with a ground pork mixture, a fried “pancake” that seems to be mostly made from corn starch with pickled cucumbers on top, an omelet with shrimp and greens with a thick sweet sauce, and steamed rice with another ground pork mixture.

The food in the indoor portion of the market was, honestly, a bit bland and a lot oily. Corn starch and oil were two of the main ingredients. The food was certainly interesting but the blandness, combined with the overwhelming smell of stinky tofu (a fermented tofu the smell of which some compare to death boiled over) from adjacent stalls, drove us back outside where we continued our hunt for food from the street vendors. Full story in the video.

Focusing my energies on video, I ended up not shooting pictures of the wide variety of interesting food available at the food court in Taipei 101’s shopping mall. See Andy’s entry to enjoy those pictures.

Taipei 101

Posted on 23 November 2009 by christao408

I’m a little slow getting these entries about Taipei posted as I have a lot of video and was hoping to do some editing for each entry. That, however, isn’t going to happen.

Tawn all wrapped up and ready to take on the cool weather in Taipei.

Saturday morning after breakfast we took a taxi to Taipei 101, previously the tallest building in the world and still the tallest in East Asia. Taipei as a whole is pretty flat and spread out so there are few buildings – and none immediately nearby – that challenge Taipei 101 in any serious way.

The morning, as you can see, was still misty with a light drizzle falling nonstop. In fact, the top of the tower was shrouded in passing clouds from time to time, promising a less than unlimited view. After debating whether it would be better to wait and hope for clearer weather, we finally decided to go ahead and ascend to the observation deck on the 89th floor as many tour groups were arriving.

The design of Taipei 101 incorporates many elements of feng shui, the system of aesthetics that balances astronomy and geography to receive the results of positive qi, or energy. For example, the structure is built to resemble bamboo, a supple and quick-growing grass. There are lucky coins placed on the four sides of the building and the edges are adorned with metal embellishments that look like stylized clouds. It is actually a very graceful building.

The elevators to the observation deck are supposedly the fastest in the world, reaching 1,010 meters/minute on the upwards journey and 600 meters/minute on descent. The ride from the 5th floor ticket queue to the 89th floor observation deck takes 37 seconds and, surprisingly, your ears don’t pop too badly thanks to a system of pumps that move air into and out of the passenger cab.

The view from the deck was limited, although it was interesting to watch clouds blowing past the building below you. Also, there was one side of the building (the downwind side) where the clouds were stacking up behind the building. I did shoot some video, but nothing to share with you yet.

Photo courtesy of Andy

Tawn and I with a mural of Taipei 101 and downtown Taipei on a sunnier (and more cartoonish) day. Below, Tawn and Sugi pose in the gift shop with a “damper baby”, the mascot of Taipei 101 whose image is based on the 660-ton pendulum mass damper that sways to offset building movement caused by earthquakes or strong gusts of wind. Notice that the eyes and mouth of the damper baby spell out “101”.

We spent most of the day in the malls surrounding Taipei 101, shopping and eating as there wasn’t a whole lot else to do on such a dreary day. That was fun enough, though, as it is about the company more than anything else.

Photo courtesy of Andy

Tawn poses in front of the Louis Vuitton store’s Christmas display.

Before heading out to the night market for dinner, I managed to get this decent shot of Taipei 101 at night, taken in front of Eslite Bookstore’s flagship location.

More about the night market (which was drier) tomorrow.

First Day in Taipei

Posted on 20 November 2009 by christao408

We arrived Friday morning about 11:00 at Taipei’s International Airport after a smooth, three-hour flight from Bangkok. Andy was kind enough to arrange for a car to pick us up and we were in the city before twelve-fifteen. Amazing considering the distance from the airport to the city.

After a bit of freshening up, we met Andy and his girlfriend Sugi in the lobby of the Park Taipei Hotel, off to our first stop, the Chiang Kai-Shek Memorial Hall, below.

This impressive memorial to the first president of Taiwan is part of a larger grounds that include the National Theatre and the National Concert hall, two traditionally designed buildings.

Inside the memorial hall we witnessed the impressive changing of the guard ceremony at the top of the hour. There is some video footage I will edit of this. Worth watching because – horrors! – one of the guards dropped his gun during the intricate maneuvers.

The military guards have to stand still for an entire hour. Unable to move, they have to rely upon a civilian guard to come over, straighten their uniform and mop their brow.

In the museum below the memorial hall was an exhibit of more contemporary Chinese scrolls including this cute one of an old couple perusing a photo album.

Tawn posed near one of the large doors leading into the museum level of the memorial hall.

In the evening we went to Ximending, the shopping district on the west side of town that is the home of hip and trendy youth culture. Similar to Shibuya in Tokyo, it is bright lights and tons of shops catering to an endless stream of people, mostly younger.

There’s shopping for everyone. Sugi found a beautiful leather bracelet that she really liked so a few minutes later, Andy was shelling out some New Taiwan Dollars.

There are some really nice graffiti in one section of Ximending.

Lots of street vendors serving foods of every kind. Taipei is known for its good eats and tomorrow evening we will be dining at the night market. Stay tuned for that entry. Here was a fresh fruit vendor who was being shooed away by the police for being in a no-vendor area.

One thing I found a vendor selling that really surprised me: corn dogs!

Singapore Border Run

Posted on 15 November 2009 by christao408

It is easy to get caught up in everything else that is going on in life and to start spending less time at the computer. However, I’ve pulled myself back and have something to share with you. Last Friday I had to do a border run, fulfilling a requirement of Thai visas that I exit the country every ninety days. Normally, my travel schedule is such that I don’t have to leave the country just for the purpose of leaving the country.

Deciding to have some fun with it, I made it my project to tell the story of my trip through a short video. This forced me to pay attention to everything I was doing and think about how to most effectively convey the experience. After editing and viewing it, I must say that I’m pretty proud of it. My best video to date! I hope you enjoy it.

Video – Inside Zakiah’s Kitchen

Posted on 5 September 2009 by christao408

Matt wrote once that he likes weekend blog entries so he has something to read, so I saved this for Sunday morning my time / Saturday evening in North America.

In late July I made an overnight trip to Quincy, Illinois to visit fellow Xangan Zakiah and her husband Mohamed. It was a wonderful trip and is fully recounted in this entry here. In the entry I promised video, of which I shot quite a bit. Delivering on that promise, here is an exclusive peek inside Dr. Zakiah’s kitchen!

Thanks again to Zakiah and Mohamed for their gracious hospitality and friendship.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

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