Something for everyone in Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai. just 16 cheery hours by train from Bangkok. Well worth the time coming here though, since this place has just about everything other than a beach to keep us entertained.

For a start there are hundreds of enormous buddhist temples scattered all over the city, all tended to by monks who are happy to let anyone wander around and marvel at some of the oldest buddhist temples in Thailand. One particular temple we went to, Doi Suthep, is situated halfway up a mountain northeast of the city, and gives you a pretty damn fine view of everything going on down below, not to mention being a rather beautiful temple in it's own right.

Apart from the temples on show, there are more markets here than you can point a chilli, lemongras and pork sausage-on-a-stick at. There are morning markets, more for fresh produce and spices, night markets mainly consisting of trinkets, art, strange new foods and buskers, and also daytime markets, which usually comprise of a mixture of all the stuff from morning and night markets combined. no matter which way you walk, at any time of day or night, you will always bump into a buzzing market full of stuff worth looking at and often worth eating...

Which REMINDS me - i think Chiang Mai may just be where taste was invented. The rest of this planet just seems like soggy cornflakes compared to the saliva-inducing circus that this city represents to me. Yeah, ive heard it before, and i KNOW i do rabbit on a little about food (mmmm... rabbit) but seriously, there are so many cultural influences and combinations of those influences (only wankers use the word 'fusion') that Kate and I have well and truly had our taste buds put through their paces. The simple noodle soups are fresh, clean and aromatic. The sweets range from simple rice and coconut slices up to crazy thick black jelly served with ice and brown sugar. Also, this place has taught me that sausages aint sausages. There are thin, red chinese pork ones; big, fat ones filled with rice, vermicelli and pork fat; and wierd, turd shaped ones filled with fresh kaffir lime, chilli and some sort of animal. amazing. thats just some of the stuff that was different and impressive. But now ill stop making myself hungry and talk about something else.

Lets see, what else have we done here in culture-rich Chiang Mai? Oh thats right! we left town for a day to spend a whole day on a local farm learning how to cook traditional Thai dishes! We ground to paste our own curry paste, stirred our own stir-fry, rolled our own spring rolls and created an assortment of other delightful dishes. The farm we were on was where most of the ingredients were grown, and the people running the place were lovely. Kate and I were in a group of about 10 other tourists doing the 1 day course, and it was really nice to spend a day surrounded by people who are all as interested by the local cuisine as we are.

As far as what's next goes, in the short term we are planning to head up into the mountains north of here and see what we can find. we heard from other travelers that there are some nice villages about 40km away. Weather permitting, the plan is to hire a bike tomorrow and blast up there to see what it's all like for a few days. The other big plan for the future is.. we have tickets to see Green Day in Bangkok in January! They are performing in the middle of town just one day before our visa is up, and how often do you get to see one of your favourite bands while on holiday? we cannot wait for that one. hopefully we can take some (non-flash) photos to post up here. stay tuned for that.

Till then, we are off to the night market!

//Brendan