My Survey of Vegetarian Khao Soi in Chiang Mai

I am someone who’s always loved Thai food, and I can’t even count the number of Thai restaurants I’ve been to in the US. As much as I’ve loved the food in Thailand, strangely, it’s often not necessarily better than what I’ve had at home–that’s not an insult to local Thai cuisine, but rather, a compliment to the Thai cuisine in the US. Thai restaurants I’ve been to in the US always have an assortment of soups, noodle dishes, curries, stir fries, salads, etc., but the one thing I don’t ever remember seeing is khao soi. After being in Chiang Mai for quite some time and getting to try a variety of options, this dish has become one of my absolute favorites.

Khao soi is a Northern specialty soup that consists of a yellow coconut curry broth, flat egg noodles and a variety of garnishes (any mix of fried noodles, shallots, cilantro, green onion, lime, fresh chili and pickled vegetables). The meat version is usually served with meatballs, and the vegetarian versions can have anything from meat substitutes to tofu and all sorts of vegetables.

For some quick further background, Chiang Mai is a vegetarian’s paradise. To give you an idea, I’m pretty sure I could eat at a different dedicated vegetarian restaurant for every meal for weeks and still not try them all. That’s why I’m not doing a survey of vegetarian restaurants in general; it’s just far too overwhelming. So instead, I decided to try as many different vegetarian versions of khao soi as I could during our time there. Some I tried after deciding to write this blog post, and some I tried before that, so I didn’t get photos or detailed information about all of them. Anyway, here goes!

These are listed in no particular order, and prices are approximate because I didn’t always remember to write them down. (30 baht = $1)

Morning Glory

34 Prapokklao Rd. (Near Chiang Mai Gate)

The first thing I noticed about this dish was that it seemed somewhat small, and there was very little broth. The broth itself was pretty spicy but not super flavorful otherwise. The crispy noodles on top were quite good, obviously house-made. Not my favorite but still good. (60 baht)

Bamboo Bee

177 Ratchaphakhinai Rd. (North side of the Old City)

This one was piled high with fresh-looking garnishes (cilantro, green onion and fried shallots), so I knew I was going to like it. It had a generous amount of broth which wasn’t spicy but was very flavorful. The broth was actually almost over seasoned, as if they’d used a bit too much curry paste, but was still very delicious. This one included some fake meat and broth but no vegetables. One of my favorites. (90 baht)

Bird’s Nest Cafe

Sinharat Lane Soi 3 (near northwest corner of the Old City)

Luckily, I actually ordered this one by accident the first time because it’s not listed as khao soi on the menu. This was probably one of the largest portions I sampled and also one of the creamiest. It had a light, delicious flavor and some vegetables. Garnishes were shallot, cilantro and lime. Another favorite. This one was also particularly special because it was shared with several friends, a great accompaniment for tying on friendship bracelets! (85 baht)

Free Bird Cafe

116 Maneenoparat Rd. (just outside the Old City, to the northeast)

This one definitely took the cake for the greatest quantity of garnishes, which included red pepper, pickled vegetables, purple onion, cilantro, lime, cilantro and house fried noodles. I would actually venture to say that this was more a bowl of garnishes with a few noodles, broth, potatoes and carrots at the bottom. It was actually almost hard to eat because of all the garnishes. The thin creamy broth had a kick and was very flavorful. (90 baht)

Free Bird Cafe supports Thai Freedom House, a non-government, not-for-profit, language and arts community learning center in Northern Thailand dedicated to assisting families and individuals who are refugees from Burma and members of minority groups of Thailand.

Aum

319 Moon Mueang Rd. (near Tha Phae Gate)

Aum’s khao soi has been voted the best in Chiang Mai. Frank said it was his favorite, and I liked it a lot as well. The broth was very flavorful and slightly sweet with medium creaminess. It included baked tofu, potatoes and mushrooms. The top was garnished with green onion and coconut cream. Garnishes served on the side were lime, shallot and pickled vegetables. (70 baht)

Angel’s Secrets

27 5, Moon Muang Rd. Soi 9 (east side of the Old City)

I tasted this one before I started the research for this blog post, so I don’t have any detailed information about it. It included vegetables in addition to the typical ingredients, and it was delicious.

Blue Diamond

35/1 Moon Muang Road, Soi 9 (northeast corner of the Old City)

Many people rave about Blue Diamond’s vegan baked goods and nice patio atmosphere, but most say that the food is just ok. I would mostly agree with that. The khao soi was decent but not super memorable, but it did include lots of vegetables and tofu. The broth was somewhat thin but had a decent flavor, especially after I asked for a lime wedge.

K’s Kitchen

3/1 Ratchaphuek (across from Kad Suan Kaew Mall)

I’m grateful that a friend recommended this place because it’s quite hidden and I never would have found it otherwise. Their vegetarian version of khao soi is the pumpkin khao soi. It had a relatively thin broth which was somehow also nicely creamy. It has a complex, slightly spicy, slightly sweet flavor. Vegetables included were carrots, green beans and pumpkin. Red chili, green onion and cilantro garnished the top, and served on the side were pickled vegetables, shallot and lime. My only complaint was that it was a slightly small portion, but I guess at that price, you can order 2! Another favorite. (55 baht)

Kanlaya

27/2 Mun Mueang Road, Soi 9 (northeast corner of the Old City)

I tried this one all the way back in August and almost forgot to include it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything specific about it, but I remember enjoying it. I’m pretty sure it was the first one I ever had, so it must’ve been good for me to want to try so many!

Maya Food Court, Vegetarian Food Stand

Thanon Charoen Mueang (northwest corner of Huay Kaew and Nimmanhaemin Roads)

B1 level of Maya Mall, near the glass elevator

This one was probably the most authentic, which meant that it was less creamy than others but also more savory and spicy. It was a large portion that included mushrooms, several kinds of fake meat and was garnished with celery leaves. (40 baht)

I decided to include this one last, not because it was necessarily my favorite (it was very tasty though), but because of the relationship I had with the cook, Mile (pronounced more like Mai). Frank and I visited this vegetarian stand at the Maya food court almost daily for lunch for quite a while, and we developed a relationship with the family who runs it. The mother, son and daughter who run the place are always cheerful with genuine smiles on their faces. Mile always called me “Bonnieeee!” and she called Frank “Bonnie husband.” Seriously, we loved them. After the brother’s wedding one weekend, they gave us a special cake they’d saved for us from the wedding. It’s supposed to bring good luck to couples who eat it together.

Anyway, if you go to Chiang Mai and you’re a vegetarian (or you like vegetarian food), you have to visit them; they’re very popular. They have probably 20 delicious dishes available every day, all vegan, and you can add a fried egg on top if you want. These include vegetarian versions of many northern Thai specialties, such as lemongrass-y sausage and a chili tomato dish that’s just delicious. Everything tastes fresh, and if it’s not hot enough for your taste, they’ll pop it in the microwave for you. Rice and one item costs 30 baht, and each additional item costs 10 baht more. And just remember, 30 baht equals $1–it’s really impressive.

Cooking where no one cooks – Part 2

In part 1, I talked about why everyone in Chiang Mai should cook, even though eating out may be cheap, convenient and delicious.

Now let’s get down to the practical stuff.

This post is specifically directed toward people living in Chiang Mai, but many of these tips may be useful for others.

 

You can make a kitchen anywhere

I worked for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, in Tucson, for several years, two of which involved regular cooking demonstrations. My job often required basically carting around an entire kitchen. This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds. I had a variety of supplies available to me, but most of the time, my mobile kitchen consisted of an electric frying pan (with extension cord) and a large plastic tub filled with various other kitchen essentials (knife, cutting board, spatula, large spoon, bowls, etc.). And depending on what I was making, I sometimes had a wheeled cooler as well. I became adept at setting this up quickly just about anywhere, including on a folding table at a farmers’ market. And if I didn’t have electricity available, a propane camping stove worked great outdoors.

What I’m trying to say is that if your place doesn’t have a kitchen, it’s very easy and pretty inexpensive to set one up. Hopefully your apartment has at least a kitchen sink, small counter space, and a refrigerator. If not, I know this can all be done on a table. (If you don’t believe me, see the previous paragraph.) And if you don’t have a refrigerator, stock up on the things that don’t require refrigeration, and then just buy what you need for the day.

 

Our setup

Here is what we started out with when we moved into our apartment:

 

• small countertop
• kitchen sink
• decent sized refrigerator
• electric kettle
• 2 glasses
• 1 spoon
• 1 cabinet above the sink/counter

 

 

 

 

We immediately bought:

• electric wok (came with a lid)
• rice cooker (cheapest, smallest one we could find–only has an on/off switch–we can make about 4 servings of rice at a time)
• surge protector/extension cord (our kitchen area has no convenient plugs)
• 1 small sharp knife
• 1 wooden spoontula (thanks, Brian, for the name)
• 1 small cutting board
• 2 glass bowls (deep and large enough to double as plates)
• 1 spoon (because we already had 1)
• 2 forks
• 3-pack storage containers (which can also double as bowls for cold food and for serving fruit)
• 1 sponge
• 1 small bottle of dish soap

All of this came out to about 1500 baht (about $45 USD). We bought all of this at Central Department Store inside Central Kad Suan Kaew Mall. If you shop around, I’m sure it’s possible to find these things for less at local markets or smaller stores, but we were on foot that day and enjoyed the convenience of this option. Ours are also pretty decent quality and have held up well so far over a month of continuous use.

 

We later bought:

• 2 mugs (for hot beverages for ladling soup)
• 1 larger knife (not completely necessary but nice for mincing garlic, cutting carrots, etc.)

We purchased these items for approximately 100 baht total at Tops.

 

Food

Kitchen staples:

• brown rice
• dry noodles
• lentils
• textured vegetable protein
• dried mushrooms
• quick cooking oats
• muesli
• onions
• garlic
• spices (coriander, cumin, black pepper, salt)
• soy sauce
• cooking oil (we use soybean)
• sesame oil
• mushroom sauce

(if you’re not a vegetarian, fish sauce and oyster sauce are often used locally instead of soy sauce and mushroom sauce)

 

Other foods we like to keep around:

• all sorts of fruits, whatever looks good and is a good price
• variety of vegetables for cooking and for salads (again whatever looks good and is a good price)
• bird’s eye chilies (if you like spicy food)
• limes
• green onions (aka: scallions or spring onions)
• cilantro (or other herbs that look good)
• yogurt
• eggs
• bread
• peanut butter (no oil added)
• jam (only fruit, sugar, and pectin if possible)

To give you an idea, we spend about 500 baht ($15 USD) every 2-3 days and get about 6 meals (between the 2 of us) and several snacks from that. Those trips are mostly for fruits and vegetables and sometimes the occasional staple that ran out. We’ve made a huge effort not to let anything spoil, so we buy only what we think we can use within a couple of days, and it’s really paid off. We find throwing food away quite painful, especially since it’s not really practical for us to compost at the moment. There are some chickens nearby that we’ve considered throwing scraps to, but we’re not sure how their owners would feel about it.

In the next post, I’ll give you some more practical tips for cooking with electric appliances, as well as some of my go to recipes.

Cooking where no one cooks – Part 1

Where are we now?

We’ve now been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for just over a month this time around. It’s a haven for digital nomad expats–apparently, there are 40,000 expats living in Chiang Mai, and walking around town, I believe it. Living expenses are very low, internet is fast and widely available, and there’s lots of fun stuff going on all the time.

Yes, we cook

For those who may be unfamiliar, food in Thailand (especially street food) is cheap, convenient and delicious. So understandably, people we talk to are constantly amazed that we actually cook here (though, admittedly, most of the people we talk to are expats). They’re even more amazed that we cook daily, usually at least 2 meals every day. When you talk to expats who live here about getting a place with a kitchen, most will say “don’t bother.” But I say otherwise. If you’re planning to stay for any length of time, get a kitchen–even a little counter space and a sink is sufficient, as you really don’t need more than that, and electric appliances are very affordable. (More detail on that in the next post)

Here are my reasons.

1.  It’s also inexpensive to buy and cook food at home

Even the Western-style grocery stores by us (Rimping and Tops) are cheap if you’re careful about what you buy. Interestingly, both Tops and Rimping are inside shopping malls, one very modern, and the other…well, let’s just say its heyday has passed. You can find basically any food item you could want from the Western world, but much of that category tends to be pretty expensive, so we’ve tried to stick mostly to what the locals might buy there.

But even better–there are tons of local markets all around. These markets can either be pop-up style like farmers’ markets back home, or they can be more established in an open-air, warehouse sort of building. The latter type might require a bit more courage, and ideally, an orientation from a local. You can find everything from a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, to recently butchered meats, freshly made curry paste, coconut milk squeezed while you wait, flowers and candles for visiting temples, and much more. They’re great places to find just about anything you’d want, inexpensively.

Admittedly, we haven’t taken advantage of local markets as much as we’d like to, but we’re going to start. This morning we tried one that’s more of the farmers’ market kind, at Baan Kang Wat, and maybe it’s just getting started, but it was rather small. We did find some delicious jam and a woman who sells hummus, but sadly she ran out by the time we got there. Frank did get a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, and we shared some nice local kombucha. But just remember, don’t shake your kombucha. I turned it upside down a couple times just to try to mix it and managed to explode it somewhat. Oh well!

 

2.  You can control what goes into it

Since it seems like all the other expats eat out for every meal, I’ve heard complaints that restaurants use MSG, too much oil, and often that vegan/vegetarian food is not actually vegan/vegetarian. The reason for that last complaint is one that I’ve personally experienced. Many Thai cooks don’t realize that fish sauce and oyster sauce aren’t vegetarian by many people’s standards. They just think of the meat itself and not the sauces. Interestingly, though, sometimes if you order your meal vegetarian, they do often ask if you want egg. Coming from the US as a vegetarian, it’s interesting that here they would be more careful about eggs than about fish sauce or oyster sauce.

3.  You’re probably tired of eating out for every meal

As much as we love restaurants, after 4 months of travel through Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, eating almost every single meal out, we were really getting tired of it. We absolutely love waking up, making some oatmeal, cutting up a bunch of fruit, making some tea, and relaxedly eating at home. This takes us maybe 5 minutes even when we’re not rushing. In the past, breakfast involved getting up and dressed, going out and often having to settle for something we didn’t actually want. If we were lucky we could find some kind of yogurt/fruit/muesli bowl, but that wasn’t always an option. Traditional Asian breakfasts are rarely vegetarian, and the “Western” alternative was often expensive and included some kind of unknown sausage, oily eggs and a couple pieces of white toast.

4.  It’s fun to use ingredients that you don’t have at home

Bird’s eye chilies, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, kaffir lime leaves, Thai ginseng, passion fruit, star fruit, soursop, dragonfruit, many varieties of bananas, longan, rambutan, mangosteen, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. You may be lucky enough to have an Asian market at home, but odds are, these ingredients will never be as fresh or as cheap as they are here. And do we really want to support the importing of foods from all the way across the globe? So use them now while they’re local.

5.  You can practice new skills

How many of us have a souvenir cookbook from a cooking class that’s just been sitting on a shelf? Use it! Another side benefit is that getting used to cooking in a tiny space will make anything back home seem luxurious.

In part 2, we’ll get down to the practical stuff.

 

Some more photos from Baan Kang Wat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from a market we visited in Bangkok in June

Chiang Mai Highlights: Round 2!

Let’s see, what else have we done so far in Chiang Mai…

Muay Thai fights!

We went with a couple people from Lantern House Backpackers, along with discounted tickets; thus, we learned a great deal about teaching English in South Korea from a pleasant Canadian fellow while watching people beat each other up!

Who, you might ask, were beating each other up on a raised platform amidst multiple cheap bars and cheap tables with cheap seats? Well, there were several rounds of slight and yet very hard hitting teenagers, for one. Now we can conclusively say we’ve seen one teenager knock another one out cold. There were also the more main-event, more professional seeming older fighters, of course, which were interesting, but not as interesting as the two female fights. One was between two Thai women, and was one of the more technically impressive fights Frank had seen in a while (at least since seeing Ronda Rousey do her thing only days before, anyway). The other was between a Thai woman and an American woman, and it was a complete throw-down. Muay Thai fighters aren’t exactly known for bobbing and weaving, either, and these women lived up to that reputation and took it on the chin in a battle of attrition that went the distance.

There were a couple unexpected things, also: one was a strange little interlude wherein a group of teenage fighters (and one very obese teen) tied on blindfolds, and then play-fought while completely blind. Or maybe actually fought, in moments? It was both comical and wince-inducing to see them stumbling around. Or another way to look at it:

As amusing as that was, however, the real highlight was an a choreographed exhibition of krabi krabong, the traditional Thai weapons-based martial art. Thus: two guys acting out a pretty solid-fight scene with two swords each, including moments both comic and skillful.

Yoga and Meditation Retreats!

Which were actually quite a contrast from each other. Both were affordable, one remarkably so, and the other especially so because we caught an early-bird price at the beginning of the month we were here, but other than that, they were almost on either end of a spectrum.

The first was a Buddhist meditation retreat through Wat Suan Dok, a large and beautiful temple on the west side of the old city. They have a “monk chat” program that encourages people to come and, as the name suggests, chat with the monks to learn about their lifestyle and for the monks to practice English. Tangenting from this is the meditation retreat we attended, which is a silent couple of days at the International Meditation Center a good bit outside of Chiang Mai. We learned – and practiced for pretty solid amounts of time – concentration, walking, and Vipassana meditations. We also learned a great deal about the life of Buddhist monks in Thailand during a question and answer session towards the end of the retreat. Unfortunately, some rather strident people took it upon themselves to use that time to challenge the monk’s beliefs about diet and women, which he handled well enough that it wasn’t nearly as awkward as it could have been. Luckily, Bonnie came to his rescue and stood up for him, to the audible agreement of several other people in the crowd.

At that retreat we also got to practice some qi gong, a Chinese exercise similar in some ways to kung fu, thanks to Dr. Anchalee Gibbins. Bonnie and I even made a special trip later on to see her perform tai chi for the queen’s birthday!

The second retreat was through Tantra Yoga Chiang Mai. It was at a similar meditation center, though this one was an ashram built to more Hindu specifications, and was beautiful in its symbolic architecture. Here we learned about several topics over five days, including tantric philosophy, lucid dreaming, and tantric meditation. Incidentally, contrary to pop culture (and to our simultaneous appreciation and disappointment), “tantric” doesn’t necessarily mean “sex.” We were happily occupied with what there was, in any case, even with waking up at 4am for meditation and yoga to enhance our chances of lucid dreaming. It also helped that there was delicious and creative vegetarian food for every meal!

Also, some movies.

They’re cheap, come with assigned seats, and are a perfect break when we’re tired of walking in the heat. And so, we saw:

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – BOMP. BOMP. BOMP BOMP BOMP. BOMP. BOMP BOMP BOMP.

Inside Out – Based in part on the work of one of our idols, Dr. Paul Ekman, this movie is like a really engaging, narrative manual of emotions and psychology. Which makes it sound a little dry (it’s not), and is actually one of our favorite movies now.

Fantastic Four – Fantastic Four….is not so much one of our favorite movies now. From the director of Chronicle, which was great, there’s a similar moody, dark-science, pensive atmosphere to this one, which really fits the material. But, yeah, like everyone and their mother has said, with anything more than a surface inspection, it’s really just not good.

Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation – No, we didn’t see it twice, it’s just the theme song is really catchy. And it’s basically another Mission Impossible movie, and hence, a little formulaic, but you know what you’re getting into – and, it has a strong, eminently capable female character for once. Winning!

We also learned stuff.

Frank took an art class at NoiNa Art Studio, specifically, drawing with pencil – it was an almost silent experience, but filled with learning and a great time perhaps because of that.

Bonnie spent the day at Thai Farm Cooking School. The school picked up Bonnie and the other 9 students in the morning, and the first stop was at a beautiful local market where she learned about the various ingredients. They then drove to the farm and took a short tour of the various plants. Apparently, they grow all of their own herbs (cilantro, green onion, lemongrass, etc.), galangal, kaffir lime, etc. organically. The setup was such that each student had his own preparation and cooking space, one thing that we haven’t had in our cooking classes up until now. So it was great to actually do all of the cooking independently after the demonstration from the wonderful teacher, Garnet. Step by step, she learned to make curry paste from scratch, soups, curries, stir-fries, spring rolls and desserts and then received a beautiful, full-color recipe book at the end. Bonnie had read in another blog that it was actually a good idea to take a class in which they also make meat (of course with vegetarian options)–that way it’s easy to know which items usually include fish sauce, oyster sauce, etc. This class was great in this way because the vegetarian alternatives were automatically given for every dish.

And another temple

This one was the famous Wat Phra That Doi Suthep (usually known as Wat Doi Suthep, but that’s just the name of the mountain). Unfortunately, it was a bit more of a tourist trap than we’d expected, considering that’s about 30 minutes up a steep windy road, but we still enjoyed it. The views were certainly spectacular. Bonnie noted that you can’t actually see your surroundings while you’re in the temple itself, only while you’re in the outer courtyards. Frank suggested that maybe it’s on purpose, and they wouldn’t want worshipers to be distracted by the views. Walking the many steps leading up to the temple compound is apparently supposed to be meditative–and maybe it is to some extent–but the bottom of the steps is covered with vendors selling everything from fruit to clothing and other souvenirs.

And another museum

We visited the Art in Paradise illusion art museum. We weren’t quite sure what it was, as guidebooks don’t really give you a very good idea, but all the reviews on Trip Advisor were great. The walls are covered with paintings that made to look like they’re popping out from the wall. Some pieces work better than others, but overall it’s a fun experience. Oftentimes there was a sticker on the floor telling the photographer where to stand for an optimal photo, so that was helpful. We did think that the 300 Baht ticket price was a bit steep though.

Chiang Mai Highlights (So Far)

Ahhh, Chiang Mai, Thailand’s northern gem, aka one of our favorite places to have visited so far. Barring, you know, something exploding or the city flooding or the Burmese repeating one of their historical invasions of the region.

Speaking of history – see what I did there? – Chiang Mai was founded all the way back in 1296 as the capital of the Lanna Kingdom, which was an influential Buddhist kingdom in SE Asia for several centuries. Eventually it was subsumed into successive Thai kingdoms, but there are still markers of that ancient past visible even just walking around.

For one, the center of Chiang Mai is a pretty obvious big square ringed by a moat. This is the original city boundary (and the first actual moat I’ve ever seen – I very much get how daunting that would be to a medieval military, now), though modern Chiang Mai spreads a good way beyond it. There are only a few fragments of the city wall and gates left, but even in their crumbling state, there’s enough to help imagine the city as it might once have been.

Nowadays, Chiang Mai’s old city is full to the brim of vegetarian restaurants, guesthouses, cafes, shops and more temples than you can shake a stick at – seriously, it makes it sometimes pretty confusing to get directions: “No, you have to go to the next temple over.”

East side of the square: stick to that side.

It’s been the best side of the square we’ve seen so far. We stayed in a great little hotel, for example, Lantern House, that was right around the corner from a tiny restaurant, Hideout, where we had some mindblowing food. Followed by a house-made fudge brownie drizzled with orange-cardamom syrup, but seriously the sandwiches were delicious, too.

We went out with some folks from Lantern House (the usual international mix – this time it was English, American, German, and Canadian) to a cabaret show, which had some pretty great acts, including spot-on renditions of Rihanna and Tina Turner. As to the transgender/ladyboy/cross-dressing aspect, a few people from our group seemed extremely uncomfortable, which startled us – upon reflection, although we were impressed by this show, we realized our main reaction was to feel homesick for the burlesque and LGBT stuff we enjoy at home.

In any case, we ended the night at a nice little courtyard that had a different bar for every genre of music that one might dance to; our group picked Roots Rock Reggae and their killer live band. Man, reggae is just the best for a bar.

Center of the square: museums and temples.

Lots of temples. Lots and lots of them. All over the place. Yep. I’d love to wax on about how beautiful they are, and it’s nice to see such a concentration of quiet spirituality, but aside from one silver-plated building we saw south of the city, there isn’t a lot of variety in Buddhist temple design. They’re nice, though.

The museums we’ve checked out have been of varying quality. On the lower end of the scale is the Chiang Mai Historical Centre; it was a bit like a rundown, lackadaisical, smaller version of the amazing Museum of Siam in Bangkok. Bonnie’s favorite was the Lanna Folklife Museum – she thought it had a really nice variety of artifacts and great explanations of everything from the shape of traditional Lanna water-serving jugs to temple architecture to medieval mural painting techniques, traditional textile weaving, embroidery, and wood carving. My favorite by a nose was the Chiang Mai Arts and Cultural Center, purely on one count: it had miniatures to display the different ways people have lived in the region in centuries past. I love miniatures so hard.

South of the square: well, we did it again.

That is, we accidentally ended up staying in the middle of a Thai neighborhood where no one spoke any English, and it was prohibitively far from where we actually wanted to hang out. The Airbnb ad and reviews said it was a 10 minute walk to the old city, but it was more like at least 20, and that’s just to the edge of the old city–probably another 20 minutes to where you want to be. It did lead to the usual learning about local living just by observing as we walked around, though, and some funny experiences.

For example, I got a haircut for a little over a dollar, and it came with free mini-bananas, and about as much joking as we could all create with nominal language overlap. Also, we had more fun times with the pan-Asian cultural practice of the locals never saying “No” – ie, cab drivers saying they knew exactly where we were going. And then going the opposite direction. Then going the opposite direction again while spinning around a tourist map and looking perplexedly at our phone map. They may or may not have known how to read a map. It led to some pretty funny discussion between us about asking them next time to take us to “Funky Town” or “Paradise City” and see if they claim to know where those places are.

Anyway, while exploring the south side of the city, we did manage to have some interesting food. Namely, there was one vegetarian buffet – a very local sort of place. It took some doing to figure out how to get our food and where to wash our own dishes – that was simply one of the worst meals I’ve ever attempted to have. Seriously, I felt physical distress while trying to eat it – each new thing I sampled was almost painfully worse than the last; I think I know what it would feel like to be poisoned, now. Even the different drinks we got were so inexplicably smoky in flavor that we couldn’t take more than a couple sips.

On the other hand, Khun Churn, while a little out of the way, was one of the best buffets we’ve been to – it is all you can eat fresh vegetarian food with a beautiful salad bar, fresh fruit and coffee, and both cold and warm varieties of delicious breakfast and lunch options spread over two floors. Moreover, they had plenty of drinks that actually tasted good, like roselle, bael, and lemongrass. One of the very kind servers used “I’m sorry” when he probably meant “excuse me,” so we kept thinking we were doing something wrong each time he stopped by our table to see if we needed anything, which was often. According to the American ex-pat who gave us a little orientation when we first arrived, we just needed to remember that’s it’s all you can eat but only for 3 hours. He said he’d petitioned for them to extend it to 4 hours and to hang some hammocks outside so people could take a nap in the middle and then start again. Although his tone was extremely dry, we’re pretty sure he was joking…nice idea though!

One afternoon, as we started our trek back to our apartment, we decided to get takeout for dinner and luckily stumbled upon some delicious Indian food, Taj Mahal. While we waited for our food, we had a nice conversation with a British guy here on holiday and a very opinionated older ex-pat. When Bonnie asked where he was from, he said something like “I lived in Hawaii once.” She decided not to press further. We wonder if some of the older ex-pats are here trying to forget their past lives or something. Ooo! Maybe he used to be a gangster.

Also south of the square but this time very south of the square, we found a nice clinic that caters to English speakers. Although we had some confusion finding it initially (mostly because the name is so generic and Google was confused), we received great service. This was the second of our 3 rabies vaccination shots, which each cost about $25. In the US, we figured out that it would have cost over $800 for each of us, so we’d decided against it. We’re starting to think we should have gotten all of our vaccinations here in Thailand. Apparently, India still has quite a problem with rabies, so we decided to go ahead with the pre-exposure vaccination before going.

West side of the square: is…fine, I guess? The good stuff is far away?

Well, wait, let’s see. There’s Mixology, which was recommended to us by Jody – thanks Jody! – which had a unique burger with sticky rice instead of buns and a spicy ground pork patty, and a colorful tower of grilled veggies with pesto marinade for Bonnie. Then there were some lackluster attempts at breakfast and some interesting Chinese style buns…but then we tried Amrita Garden, a tiny restaurant run by an adorable Japanese family, which had tasty vegan food. But then we were really hungry again inside of half an hour.

There was also our favorite temple so far, Wat Suan Dok – it’s big and beautiful and has pristine white secondary mini-temple sort of things and a meditation retreat that we signed up for (the main reason we decided to stay in this part of the city). And, we ran into a sweet Spanish girl that we’d originally met in central Vietnam – small world! Sadly, she doesn’t use Facebook–maybe we’ll meet again someday anyway!

The trick with that temple is that it’s well outside of the old city square – and so is Ninah…Ninnyhamin…Nannahymar….that other neighborhood that’s west of the old city, that has a lot of expats and university students and feels like California. Nimmanhamein. We’re going to go back tomorrow, but let’s see, today we had:

• Loose leaf vanilla rooibos tea, a dark chocolate passion fruit shake, house-cured duck prosciutto crostini, and a huge open-face roasted pear, mushroom, and garlic-creamy spread sandwich at Rustic and Blue–delicious!
• A haircut for Bonnie; there are a lot of salons in that area. It turned out well enough, especially considering the lack of English. A picture of Anne Hathaway on the phone was helpful.
• An utterly gorgeous glass of butterfly pea tea, traditional Thai flower tea, spicy tofu and mushrooms, and a richly creamy Massaman curry at Anchan

Oh, also, the weather is pretty fantastic.

It’s much cooler up in the mountains than in the rest of Thailand’s tropical savannah, and so while we’ve been doing a ton of walking, it really hasn’t been as onerous as in other places. That said, it does rain a lot – almost every day – but rarely more than a light misting, and so it’s an easy fix to pause for a coffee and wait it out, or just toss a rain jacket in a backpack.

Travel Research: Northern Thailand

So, when I looked up “states of Thailand” like how I looked up “states of India” to start researching that country, I learned that Thailand has 76 provinces, which is…daunting. So instead, I’ll go by some commonly accepted regions of the nation – phew, glad to simplify things a little!

Onward!

Northern Thailand borders Myanmar and Laos, and is perhaps best known as the mountainous part of Thailand. Of course, along with those prominences come their yin, river valleys and relatively colder weather. That said, Northern Thailand is still tropical savannah, like the rest of the country, so the weather is probably more of a variation than a stark difference.

Tropical savannah has a nice ring to it.

Agreed. Interestingly, some areas of Northern Thailand’s highlands are sparsely inhabited, and while much of it might have once been some pretty dense, mountainous forest, logging has reduced and altered much of that older growth.

There’s also the “northern haze,” a result of forest fires that have been set intentionally, both for practical, to clear land for farming, and for more malicious reasons, like by developers trying to “degrade” land and make it easier to buy.

Sounds like some possibly interesting politics going on!

A good portion of the population here actually consists of hill tribes that immigrated there from neighboring regions for various reasons (including persecution), so integrating them into Thai culture is certainly a current issue. One of the more well-known groups, visually if not by name, is the Kayans from Burma (aka Long-neck Karens).

On a completely different side of things, up until the 1990s, some major opium production (and requisite drug trade) took place in the higher elevations. With the advent of better roads and anti-drug political programs, though, that’s very much dropped off.

The environment has also been directly affected by a certain aspect of politics, namely, that of providing for people. As such, for example, when demand exceeded the capacity of the local farming techniques, large sections of land came to be dominated by Imperata cylindrica grass, a grass which, at the least, has both a cool name and is useful as a roofing material, which is better than being kind of invasive and useless. Actually wait…well, this kind of evens out again: you have another cool name for it on one hand, “Japanese bloodgrass,” but on the other hand, it’s apparently very flammable, even when green. Yikes.

 

 Chiang Mai Province

Chiang Mai has something of a storied past, as a capital of an ancient kingdom and as the center for Buddhism in Northern Thailand. The provincial flower is the lovely “flame of the forest,” which is interestingly used in making coloring for the Hindu holiday Holi. We can get there from Bangkok by bus or train, and it even looks like it has a nice train station, being the end of the northern line.

It also sounds like there are some delicious pork products and plenty of opportunities to learn everything from cooking to fighting – some of my favorite things, all around!

Lamphun Province

We might want to try kaeng khae, a dish that uses leaves from a variant of the betel plant, flowers, and a smorgasbord of ingredients.

Lampang Province

Lampang is chiefly known for its ceramics production and sounds a bit more industrial than the other provinces.

Uttaradit Province

This province was the site of an ancient battle which sounds pretty badass – there’s a story about the local lord breaking his sword in fierce melee combat to drive back Burmese invaders. There’s also a unique festival re-enacting the funeral of the Buddha in this region.

Phrae Province

Phrae is more about textile production than the other provinces, and I noted a cave that sounds like it has a poignant-sounding story and related lady-shaped rock formation.

Nan Province

Huh, I guess I never really thought about it, but these regions had as much ancient kingdom fighting as Europe or India…or I guess, anywhere, really. In the case of this particular region, it was against the Vietnamese.

Phayao Province

This province had me at “lychee beauty pageant.” That could mean so many things, and I don’t care which. Also! Waterfalls and festivals abound.

Chiang Rai Province

Plantations! Namely: pineapple, coffee, coconut, and banana. Formerly: opium all around. I had no idea Thailand made so much coffee, though! Also, sticky rice is big here.

Mae Hong Son Province

Mae Hong Son apparently means “the city of the three mists.” This relatively high elevation province is, thusly, well known for its omnipresent mists. And: the training of elephants.