On my life list I had a bunch of goals related to my first trip to Southeast Asia. They were just ideas and I let the trip happen as it may.
As it so happens it went like this…..
Tips and Highlights From a Few Days in Bangkok
This is one humid, exhaust-filled city. Much to see but be prepared for the weather if you’re not from a humid, exhaust-filled place.
Highlights of my stay were…
- The Majestic Suites hotel, in the Sukhumvit area, just steps away from the Nana BTS (skytrain) station. The rooms are about 1400 Baht which came out to about $42 today. My room on the 8th floor was of granite and wood theme, with HBO, a safe, and a/c. All new. What more could I want?Note that the Sukhimvit area is not charming or particularly interesting but is a good location for quick access to the sky train. So if your time is limited it’s a fairly efficient location.
- The big Saturday market is great but if you’re going to Chiang Mai, with its multiple markets, you might not mind holding off on your shopping sprees till CM.
- If you go to Wat Pho plan for a stop at the massage school for a very cheap, intense clothing-on massage, whether of your feet or body. It’s not luxurious but will feel similar to a good chiropractic workout.
- Get a BTS Day Pass - It’s 120 Baht (about $3 now) so just add up how many stops you may be making in a day and you’ll probably find it’s worth the price and convenience.
- Take the airport shuttle if it passes near your hotel. It’s about $5, a good deal.
- A multi-course dinner cruise on the Chao Phraya River run by Manohra Cruises is a delicious pleasant indulgence. I say indulgence as it came to about $70 when sources had said it would be $25. The old barge which passes lit up temples at night while you eat 8 or so courses is quite a pleasant experience. It departs from the Marriott - near which I had a great Jurlique foot massage at the MyOzone spa, in the Royal Garden Plaza strip mall behind the Marriott for $15 (phone: 0-2468-5599).
- You may not associate coffee with Thailand the way you know Thai Ice Tea, but it is grown here and everpresent. The chain Black Canyon Coffee has a full menu as an excellent alternative to other coffee chains you might be familiar with. Any coffee stand where you see a grinder probably has great coffee although when given the choice opt for one with a “professional” espresso machine if getting espresso.
You can take hotel ferries from the Sathorn BTS stop or get the express boat up to see the various Wats. You’ll read that morning is better when it’s cooler. At this time of year especially - heed that warning. If you’re not used to extreme heat and humidity you will be hurting. On the bright side you won’t want to eat so it’s a chance to lose weight.
Tips for Chiang Mai
Getting there: I flew to Chiang Mai on Nok Air, which cost about the same as a first class train ticket. If you have time to train overnight I hear it’s fun, safe, and has beautiful scenery. Tip: Nok Air has a “plus” ticket that just costs a few dollars more that is like business class. You get extra luggage weight and the flexibility to change your dates without a fee. I bought a Plus ticket for the return trip knowing I’d have shopped copiously.
(I’d looked into Air Asia but they have serious luggage weight restrictions and other policies that made their airline seem risky, on a tight schedule. Read the fine print.)
Eating: The best Pad Thai I’ve ever had, and I’ve had a lot, came from a tiny organic cafe called Coffee Bug in Chiang Mai. (Chareonprathet Rd. Near Pornping Hotel.) An exciting pad thai experience was the omlettes you can buy on the street at the Sunday market as well as the Saturday Wulai Road market where the pad thai is enclosed burrito style in a thin layer of wok-cooked egg.
But for genuine, healthy, delicious Thai food on a budget all my votes go to Kanjana, which a local had tipped me about. It’s an open air very plain restaurant conveniently off the main road near the Tha Pae gate. Pumpkin curry, spinach tofu stirfry, and brown rice - under $2. I wish I had taken cooking lessons there! (It’s a very simple home style outdoor place.)
Where to stay: My advice for lodging in Chiang Mai is if you’re tempted to stay somewhere resortlike or idyllic, particularly if you’ve come from a stay in Bangkok - do it. To get away from the sounds and smells of the city is beautiful. I chose Baan Orapin which is close to the Night Market area (shopper speaking here) yet feels far away, with an ancient teak main house and lovely new cottages painted white with gauze draping the canopied bed. A new pool has just been built, surrounded with tropical trees. A full breakfast and wonderful english speaking staff make this a very comfortable transition into Chiang Mai.
To get into the middle of the action, I moved to Lanna House where I spent a number of days. This is a brand new hotel steps away from the Tha Pae gate, near popular restaurants. The rooms have a/c, a couple of movie channels, and are comfortable but pretty no frills. (My only complaint was polycotton sheets but hey I can live with that.)
Cooking Schools
Taking cooking lessons in Thailand was a major goal of mine, so I signed up with two different schools. They were both great, and we prepared several dishes which we consumed throughout the day. Now I feel totally confident grabbing the cookbooks included with the class and making Thai food at home. (Pad siew with the wide flat rice noodles is my favorite and sooo easy to make.)
Both schools have several different menus they teach so you can take a full course of classes to learn a variety of dishes - or just pick the day with the dishes that appeal to you most.
- The Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School is old, famous, and pretty professionally run. The two teaches alternated with the various courses. I chose one in which we made panang curry paste from scratch which was amazing and pretty easy. One teacher taught “entertainment style” ala Yan Can Cook or, insert your favorite celebrity chef’s name here.
- A Lot of Thai is literally more “down home.” Yui teaches the classes at her house, and the atmosphere is very casual and personal. In addition to discussing food and taking a trip to the market to learn about produce, we learned a lot about Thailand too.
Both schools are outdoors, although Thai Cookery has an indoor room where demonstrations are done for most dishes.
Tale: A Tourist Gets Trapped
As the afternoon heat wore on, a small highlight was as I wandered down an alley to find lunch (which turned out to be the best pad siew - drunken noodles - I’ve had). I passed the umpteenth massage place and glanced in. The masseuse lay on her mat immobile from the heat. We smiled at each other which I read as “Please don’t come in I can’t move.” and my smile being “There’s no way I’m going into your unheated place to have friction on my sweltering body.” So I kept walking.
Despite a strong recommendation to stick to shopping in the Night Market rather than venture out to Samkampeng Road which is billed as having craft and silver factories, I took the plunge and hired a car to take me on a shopping spree. As someone who only boards a tourist bus as a last resort, I was largely disappointed by the brief overviews of the crafts followed by the extensive hard sells in the factory shops.
In recent years the dollar’s exchange rate has been horrible worldwide. In several cases in Thailand I’ve founded prices to be higher than what I’ve found in the US, with silver for example. (On the contrary Bali has great silver deals, especially if you’re buying several pieces at the “business” price in Celuk where it’s made.)
Maybe I’ve just gone to the wrong places or they expect tourists not to know. On the other hand, food, clothing, some lodging, and other activities have been the expected bargains.
Elephant Nature Park - one of the most memorable experiences of my life.
Elephant Nature Park seemed expensive at first, at 2500 baht (about $80), but a day packed with information about elephants, the opportunity to hand watermelons and banana bunches into their mouths, and then go into the river to give the elephants a scrub down is something I never dreamed of.
These elephants are rescued from situations of injury or abuse so the dollars go to a good cause, as they frolic around. It’s like a zoo where you get to participate. We learned about their social behaviors, histories, and all kinds of fun anecdotes. I highly recommend doing this if you’re going to Chiang Mai!
Three Blind Guitarists (and a Maraca Player) at the Saturday Night Market
Though small, I had a magical evening at the Wualai Saturday night market which runs down a road that houses many silver makers. It was after a long rain so the little lights glistened off the still wet street as food vendors cooked fresh delicacies ranging from steamed buns to curries and waffles.
The stores all stay open and various vendors line this curved street. Three young guys played classical guitar, singing out in beautiful voices, with a fourth playing maracas. They were all blind and while I am not sure if they go to the same school for the blind where you can get massages, I assume so. They sat indian style in a row in the middle of the street, which made quite a statement. If you’re here on a Saturday I highly recommend walking over to Wualai street in addition to whatever other markets you may visit.
Trip to Hilltribe Villages Near the Myanmar (Burma) Border
A one day drive with several other tourists for about $30 with Journey Tours was a fast way to visit several local sights: caves, the Karen refugee camp with the “long neck” women as well as a Hmong village, an orchid farm as well as several other stops. It was nice to have time to speak with the women who weave shawls and make other crafts during the day. Perhaps because of all the tourists several of them spoke very impressive English.
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Travel Tips from my Thailand Trip
(now that’s alliteration!)
- Learn about tour providers and their practices - When you go to villages or activities such as Elephant Nature Park, look into their track record and make sure they have friendly and sustainable practices. The Lonely Planet guide has a lot of good tips about this.
- Before using an internet cafe, check the security software. One I went to had the firewall turned off and at least a dozen viruses. If possible bring your own laptop and use wireless. If not possible, try to entrust any secure things you may need to do like banking or paying bills to someone at home. I’m not just paranoid, I’m too aware!
- Cashews - Do you love cashews? Look for them at the open markets in Thailand. Good price, huge and deliciously fresh.
- Mosquitos hate lemongrass. repellant so either get spray that has lemongrass in it or maybe even just try putting lemongrass oil on yourself. You’ll smell great! In Thailand they make great bug zappers in the form of plastic racquets with a rechargeable battery. They are very eco and admittedly fun to use. (You can get these bug zappers in the US too.) I had brought deet mosquito repellant. However my 25% deet just doesn’t seem to be doing the trick. (Interestingly when I stopped using it, I didn’t get more bites!!??)
Aha - I had a theory that my copious cashew consumption might be warding off the evil insects, based on learning Amazon Indians throw cashews into rivers as a repellant. And now I’ve read that “some Australian frogs create their own insect repellent, resembling rotten meat, roasted cashew nuts, or thyme leaves.” No I have no idea if this source is accurate.
- Spicy? Know what you’re saying when you tell a restaurant you like your food spicy. Saying “spicy” in the US vs. in the country where spiciness is king are two verrry different things.
- The “walk” light doesn’t mean cars stop. It means yield if you see a pedestrian then keep going if you don’t see anyone. That means you need to watch out even while your light is green in the crosswalk!
- Wash your hands after touching mango skins! See my cautionary tale above.
My Laos tales and tips | Basking in Bali
A Few Thailand Chiang Mai Anecdotes
The Joy of Travel Randomness
As I left my room at Baan Orapin I noticed one of the fruits on the ground I’d been wondering about - mango? papaya? I grabbed one and tried to dig into the skin. Finally I got through and indeed it was a mango. I couldn’t resist tearing into it and ended up happy and sticky. This time I decided to go right upon leaving, instead of left, into no man’s territory.
It turned out a gallery with a beautiful collection of paintings, ceramics and furniture from Asia was just two doors down. I escaped from the downpour by jumping in and touring the La Luna gallery. (Even if you aren’t staying on this side of the river it’s worth a trip, just a quick walk over the footbridge.)
By the time I left the streets had flooded yet I managed to leap over to a restaurant where I ordered green papaya salad and Northern Style chicken and herb stirfry.
This is where the real adventure began. I requested the papaya salad spicy. My mouth seared as I tried to cool it with soda water. Have you ever had pop rocks? Well imagine your mouth burning then eating pop rocks. I tried not to let my eyes water, as I wondered what I was supposed to do with the basket of raw string beans, leaves, and chunk of lettuce. Later I learned the leaves were morning glories. Still I need to find out in my cooking class exactly how to eat those with the salad.
A couple singing karaoke along with guitar added mood as the rain deluged, a waiter swept streams nearby to avoid flooding, the wind blew over me, and my mosquito bites itched. All in all it was a great sensory experience highlighted with an adorably sweet staff who I think we partly amused by me and partly wanted to make sure I had a great time. The rain quickly stopped and I leaped over large pools of water to make it back happy with an adventurous night a mere 50 meters from my lodging.
Everything Isn’t Always Peaches and Cream (or Sticky Rice with Mango)
Perhaps it was that magical night when I picked the mango up off the ground, hungrily peeling it and shoving it up to my face to eat the flesh, but I’ve spent the last few days disfigured with blistering sores, itchy and awful. (Did you know that mangoes have the same type of oil as poison oak and ivy in their skins? Well I did yet I went ahead and had “unsafe mango” anyway - and am paying the price!) Of course it could be something else but I would rather like to think I know the cause.
The locals try to help when they are not averting their gaze; one medicinal herb vendor tried to tell me to rub turmeric on my sores on my face. The vision of bright yellow lumps on my face, not to mention the uncertainty of what would happen, caused me to respond that I’d have to check with the pharmacist to see what she thought about that.
I’ve been very pleased with the pharmacist I found who seems to be very knowledgeable. It’s a local dispensary right near the Black Canyon Coffee, by the Tha Pae gate.
Travel Insurance: I’d gotten insurance through InsureMyTrip and chose Seven Corners as the provider. They were very responsive on the phone and sent clear information about what to do in case of a problem. So far so good!
Eat Pray Love
(And then when I forgot the other book I had in my room I made one goal: To always double check a room before I leave it. I’ve gotten into a cavalier habit of not doing that.)
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