Impressions of Chiang Mai: Shopaholics and Nightlife

Wake up at 6.30 (only shortly past midnight in Switzerland), make myself a cup of coffee and sit outside on terrace. Watch the day slowly ununcurling, the sun rising over the river, birds, a lonely gardener collecting the fallen leaves, highly enjoyable, meditative, the noise level slowly starting to rise.

Sunrise on Ping River

Sifting through pictures and writing my diary, collecting my thoughts.

Lovely breakfast: freshly pressed tangerine juice, more coffee, fruit, glass noodle salad, capsicum salad, fried egg, toast and cheese!

We rent a sprinter for the day and set out at 10 am. We go shopping, i.e. we accompany Kittipon on his shopping trip to Ban Tawai outside Chiang Mai. It’s the woodcarvers hometurf but you find anything there: paintings (the main reason we came for as Kittipon wants to decorate the new house).

Anything goes!

It is a pleasure to see Thailand through his eyes.

Shadows

Notice in the car

We laugh a lot, Walti is an unbelievable source of never ending jokes, some quite below the belt, on the other hand he is the first to admonish us in advance. Best bonmot on the way: Being thirsty is worse than being homesick.

sweet sweet sweet

A spirit house, I will forego buying one this time!

Irresistible!

We spent quite some time browsing through the stalls (it is like Kensington Market in the 70ies, only much warmer). We buy fans for 25 Baht each, and I fall in love with this wonderful bowl of mango tree wood which Kittipon buys for me.

My beautiful bowl

We have cold drinks at this makeshift bar which we name „The Drivein“ as there are Thai men on motor cycles who will not get off their bikes to order something, motor running, it is very funny. Sweet lady of the drivein, she takes very good care of us: fetching an ashtray, installing an electrical fan for us, all the time watching us closely and laughing with us.

We then continue to the impressive Airport Plaza, specially with the hundreds of food stalls in the basement. We have some delicious vegetarian dish for 25 Baht each.

Foodstalls in the Airport Plaza

We find everything we want, MAC makeup for Rebecca, shoes for all of us: although Rebecca needs another pair she can use every day, she was smitten with some Barbie pumps, very nice but highly inefficient!

We return to the hotel and rest some.

Dinner with Kittipon, Walti, Marianne, Silvia and Deng at the Good View Restaurant, a rather lively outdoor restaurant on the river with live music. Kittipon orders for us, for starters we have an assortment of Northern Thai delicacies, sausages and pickles amongst them. Interesting it reminds me of Pejing, the further you go in these countries the more pork, sausages, cabbage and pickles are served. In my eyes Chiang Mai has become more „global“ in the last twelve years: there is seafood to be had in all restaurants and food stalls.

A platter of fresh fruit and parsley for dessert!

Lovely scenery, sometimes there is an advantage to smoking, you get to see more of your immediate surroundings, get closer to strange people. Rebecca takes pictures of the river shore, the bridge, it looks similar to the Rhine and Johanitterbrücke.

Nightly impression

Did I mention that it is forbidden to carry arms inside?

Nightcap at the Riverside, a lovely place next door. We enjoy the live music of a very dedicated band with a woman lead singer. We meet our new friend, Emmy from Australia. The world would be a better place if we were to shake hands (or more) with everybody.

Walk back at 1 am over the bridge, turn to the right, pass Kittipon’s hairdresser and Rasta Café.

Rasta? Rasta!