So excited to get to Chiang Mai and see Morgans - Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai, Thailand
Where I stayed
Chez Morgan
Sun 29 Jan
A great scrambled egg & toast breakfast with divine coffee at the GH - asked the owner if we could order sandwiches to take with us for the bus trip to Chiang Mai. Very obliging lady - organised it all (saw daughter having to run out on scooter to grab ham or some ingredient for the sandwiches!). She organised a tuk tuk to pick up us and take us back to the bus station for the 1010 departure to Chiang Mai. Lovely spacious aircon bus - double decker one that you sit on the top level and luggage is below. 195 BHT each and due to take 5 1/2 hours. Lovely drive - many many paddy fields and vegetation getting thicker - travelled through a small mountain pass to get to the bowl that Chiang Mai sits in. The bus made 2 stops - one quick pee stop on starting block loos - with no latching door! Second stop was a 20 min lunch stop at a cafe. We had already eaten our very tasty fresh sammies so had an ice-cream before heading off again. Slow traffic moving into CM s ended up being about 6 1/2 hours! At last arrived into Chiang Mai Arcade Bus Terminal – which is a large one! Sarah had texted to say they were there but took us about 5 mins to find them and finally spotted Glyn! 2 terminals there so a little confusing! How wonderful it was to see there smiling faces and at last make it to their home town of the past 14 years! Drove through the very busy streets – chaotic traffic, cars and scooters everywhere and headed to their northern community of Maejo. They live in a walled community in the Land & House Park so we weaved through the streets until came to the beautiful house they have rented for all these years! Their lot is actually 8 standard lots all put together and so have lots of garden space and privacy as well as being at the end so border on paddy fields! Gorgeous high ceilings and lots of outdoor living and a pool area. They have some lovely Malaysian/Indonesian big furniture so all looks divine! The 2 dogs and cats greeted us at the gate and made us feel quite at home! So lovely to chill on the patio and Glyn made us a delish Braai – how good it was to have boerewors (home made by G), chicken and pork – enough food for an army! Great to catch up over a few bottles of wine and put the feet up!Mon 30 JanWoke up in time to hear Sarah heading out the door for her morning walk with Tembo. Glyn headed off to work and we had a fab day – washing every piece of clothing as had been doing our washing in the sink with bar of sunlight soap up till now! Sarah took us to her local grocery store with all imported goods and stocked up on herbal teas and bit and bobs that we have run out of. We then headed into the area of Mae Rim and had lunch in a gorgeous little out of the way restaurant called the “Sala Cafe” – such a gorgeous serene spot with multiple seating areas dotted around the garden, flowers and art work abound! Sarah educated us on some Thai dishes and we had a very tasty lunch. She drove us back via the 4 Seasons Resort so we could poke our noses in and see! Beautiful! She plays tennis at their Courts on a weekly basis with a group of friends. Every road seems to have trendy little coffee shops or signs pointing out small places in the roads around Mae Rim. Got back and put our feet up enjoying the company of such an old friend of mine! Glyn bought out his BBQ Wok and made a delicious black pepper prawn and squid dish. Saw the night out with much lovely wine & laughs!Tue 31 JanToday was our day to explore Chiang Mai so Sarah dropped us off, after waiting in long traffic line-ups due to rebuilding a major section of highway! We decided that we would do the Lonely Planet Old City Temple Tour to orientate ourselves with the city. Parts of CM appear to be very trendy with mod stores and shops mixed in with the old. A lot of tourists around as a very popular destination. We started at Wat Pra Singh which houses the city’s most revered Buddha image. A beautiful temple with mosaic inlaid sanctuary and the Pra Singh actually sits in a small temple at the back of the grounds. The chedi is painted in a very bright gold and was very dazzling in the bright sunlight – almost impossible to look at as hurt the eyes! We walked onto the gorgeous old teak sanctuary of Wat Phan Teo with its ornate and detailed entrance gateway.We wandered around the grounds at the back and marveled at the teak leaf clad roof on the pagodas by the waterway. The teak leaves are massive and amazing that they use them as a roofing material! We meandered through the streets and found the Wat Inthakhin Saduemuang which was centred in the middle of the road! This dates back to medieval times and enshrined the city pillar! We passed by the 3 Kings Monument which honours the 3 Lanna Kings who founded Chiang Mai. We seemed to head through backpacker land as many guesthouses and hostels abound…found a lunch café right next to the Ex-Prisoners Massage Parlour – (Sarah tells me this is one of the best places to go as the prisoners have been retrained under excellent tutelage! Hope none with violent crimes!). Decided to do one more Wat and then call it a day – The Wat Chiang Man which is the oldest Wat in Chiang Mai with 2 Wihahn’s. Each Wat being very different from the last and has something special to offer. We finished the day’s excursion at the North Eastern side of the old city wall which is basically in ruins around the Mae Ping Khlong. Very pretty around the khlong but very busy with traffic – a good time to try and find a sorng-taa-ou (truck with canopy on back and 2 bench seats facing each other) and head back to Maejo to Sarah’s. Not sure the driver was going the right way (according to google maps) so a few messages to Sarah – still couldn’t locate on ma – eventually got there with a few knocks on the window and reversing down the road to get the right Moobaan (Sp ?) (Gated community)…BHT500 as quite a way from town. Lovely to see Sarah’s smiling face again! A few sundowner’s on the patio before we headed to their local lovely Italian restaurant run by an Italian man who does all the cooking and his Thai wife and daughter wait on the few tables. Very tasty meal and took our own wine (Sarah says they do that a lot) – sadly they ran out of Tiramisu just before Alan and I decided to indulge! Another wonderful day with friends.Wed 1st Feb (already)Sarah & I were up early as today was our cooking school day! We headed back into CM but found the cooking school guy was running a little late due to traffic. We were to meet him in town and go to the market where he points out all the ingredients we would be using and explaining what the different herbs, spices and veggies are! He was picking up the other farangs who would be joining our class. We circled the block to find a parking and I noticed a guy who looked very like Matt’s flat mate, Arsh – amazing coincidence! Did another drive around the block and decided to get a Starbucks while we waited so I ran and loo and behold the Arsh-look-a-like was infront of me…well after we stared at each other in shock we clicked and it was really the real McCoy, Arsh! I had no idea he was in Thailand for 3 weeks but he had told Matt that it would be funny if we did bump into each other! Arsh took a selfie of us as proof of meeting and sent to Matt after I left! What a small world! Sarah & I finally met up with the cooking school group and went to the market. I spotted a little old man on his wooden box and table fixing watches so asked if he could repair mine whilst in the market (second hand had fallen off!) Sure for 20 BHT! Left him the watch!!! Very interesting tour of the market being educated in everything Thai and then had 10 mins to spare before heading off to the cooking school which is near Sarah! In those 10 mins managed to buy some Thai fat pants (capris) at Sarah’s persuasion and get some nuts for bus trip onto Chiang Dao! Reclaimed my working watch – impressive service! The cooking school was the “Very Best Thai Cooking School” and they had the most beautiful location next to the paddy fields in a purpose built facility under large roofs but open sided. Two areas were set up for instruction with about 10 gas rings, chopping tables and equipment for each position. The whole thing was very professionally done with Ricky demonstrating and then us returning to our “stations” and cooking dishes ourselves. We had the choice of 3 dishes in 4 different categories and were given bowls with all ingredients we would need and after cooking, our dirty woks and pans were whisked away and then the new ingredients brought out…very slick operation and what a wonderful way to cook! I made Tom Kha Gai (chicken in coconut milk soup), kai phad med ma-muang (chicken with cashew nights), Massaman Kai (massaman curry with chicken) and lastly Phad Thai (stir fried noodles)and excuse me for saying but they were darn tasty! Ritchie showed us how to make Mango with sticky rice and a papaya salad, as well as how to make the curry paste from scratch. I just loved the class and learnt a lot, we were each given a recipe book with all the dishes he had covered. I will certainly treasure that and cant wait to cook them at home! Because Sarah has sent many customers their way they gave us a special rate of BHT800 each. We finished at about 1230 and so Sarah kindly took me to her lovely hairdresser to fix the grey roots appearing thick and fast! Lovely gay guy with his team of 2 others that did all the work – fixed the colour, got the most amazing head massage for at least 15 mins at the wash station and then the team set about dryer my hair! I could do with all these teams at home, boy the Thais know how to pamper! A cool 2000Bht and we’re good to go till I get home! Sarah did some groceries and hung around for me and then we headed back to Chez Morgan where we found Alan lounging by the pool. He had had a totally veg day – riding the bike around the Moobaan, taking Tambo for a walk around the pond, uploading his photos and reading by the pool (as well as scrubbing our Keens..such a sweetie!). The rest of the afternoon was pretty low key, just chatting and then once Glyn was home Sarah made a lovely Pork Hanglay (curry) for dinner (only to find Glyn had the same dish for lunch at work!)…just chilled on the patio, consuming endless glasses of wine!Thur 2 FebGlyn took the day off work today and Sarah took off for tennis with her group at the 4 Seasons. We met up with her for coffee at the Wawee Coffee Shop and Tita Gallery – lovely place with gorgeous shop selling silk scarves and beautiful artwork, all catering to the Chinese clients staying at the 4 Seasons. We then drove out to the Queen Sirikit Botanical Garden in Mae Rim. Opened in 1992 and with a newly erected skywalk taking you through the jungle canopy. An interesting array of flora and trees. Many greenhouses showing local plants and beautiful flowers, including a stunning orchid greenhouse. Nobody too keen to walk around the garden and down the hill walk so we headed out to find the Sukantara Cascade Resort Hotel to have lunch by the waterfall. Again don’t think big American Resort! This was bamboo villas in a pretty jungle and garden, set on a lovely cascading waterfall. The restaurant overlooked this and was a lovely serene spot to have lunch and watch the ducks and birds, including white and coloured peacocks. Back to Chez Morgan, doing last minute laundry and stuff and then headed into Chiang Mai centre to a beautiful dinner spot on the Ping river. We took Sarah & Glyn out to thank them for being the perfect hosts and it was in a gorgeous location with lights on the riverbank, the Riverside Bar & Restaurant. Delicious meal and a wonderful way to wind up a great visit with 2 great old friends!