Day 4 - Chiang Mai

Merry Christmas (and happy birthday, Jessica)!  We spent Christmas day exploring more of Chaing Mai and enjoying our last full day in the city.  After breakfast at the hotel we grabbed a red taxi to Wat Umong, which is a very old temple in the jungle.  The stairs up to Wat Umong were guarded by these dragons (nagas):

And here is the actual temple:

Also on the grounds of the temple were a series of tunnels dating back to the 16th century.  We made our way through the maze, snapping photos:

Two bats above one of the small outcrops

These colorful strips of cloth were hanging all over the building around the temple

 After Wat Umong, we headed to the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium.  The zoo was fine, nothing much to write home about except both a cute baby elephant and baby giraffe.  The aquarium, however, was really cool.  There were great freshwater exhibits with enormous arapimha (absolutely wrong spelling) and catfish.  In the saltwater tank they had leopard sharks, black tip reef sharks and huge trevale (again, I can't spell the names of fish).  We didn't take many photos except for the small bridge from the zoo to the aquarium site where we saw this strange sight:

Those are small children inside huge floating hamster balls on a large pond.  Apparently this is a fun past time at the Chiang Mai Zoo.

 Starving, we grabbed a red taxi to a place Andrew had been talking about for the last two days - SP Chicken.  Unfortunately, as soon as we arrived, we realized it was only open for dinner, starting at 6 p.m.  Instead, we grabbed a table at a small Northern Thai restaurant on the street that was written up in our guide book.

Yay, everyone is happy to sit down and eat

Woohoo!

This woman mixed up a few of our dishes in this large bowl that seemed to be a type of mortar and pestle

Mmm, yummy Northern Thai food

This is just a cool photo of a truck bed full of jackfruit I took while we were walking around the city after lunch

 We got back to the hotel around 4 and rested a bit before dinner.  Of course, we couldn't miss SP chicken, so we set out on a mission, determined not to miss it a second time:

Success!

These chickens were on spinning spits cooking quickly next to the hot charcol

Four hot sauces, four beer glasses, four sets of silverware and a plate of cucumbers.  What more could you ask for before a meal?

A different view of the spinning chickens

The chickens were being basted with this sauce.  No idea what it was.

Finished chicken on the plate :)  I would have taken more photos of the meal, but we started scarfing things down before I could get a hold of my camera.

 In search of an after-dinner drink, we walked to the riverside and down a few blocks to a sleek, modern hotel called The Chedi.  We had a coupe drinks and called it a night.  Tomorrow we're off to Luang Prabang in the afternoon.  Sad to see Chiang Mai go, but excited for what Laos has to offer.

Art shot at The Chedi of my gin and tonic (with cucumber)

Day 3 - Chiang Mai

Before our trip, we read several places that Chiang Mai would be a much cooler climate than Bangkok and that even sweaters were advised for the evening and early morning.  It turns out Chiang Mai is only cooler when compared with the oppressive heat of Bangkok.  It's warm here, just a completely lovely climate and we have been fine in tank tops and shorts the whole time.  The Thais, however, find it quite cool and we regularly see them in jackets and pants, even in the middle of the day.  It must be nice to think the low 70s is cold.

This morning we grabbed a quick bite at the hotel buffet (it wasn't as nice as the ones we've had the past couple of days, but it'll do) and waited for a cab to Doi Suthep in front of the hotel.  Sylvie and I were up to shenanigans while the guys waited inside:

Aruntara's Christmas tree

Andrew and Henry being old men

Onto Doi Suthep!  Doi Suthep is an enormous monument in the mountains about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai proper.  Upon arrival we were greeted by large, chaotic crowds and street vendors selling everything from jade trinkets to mystery meat (in tube form, for you Bourdain fans) to t-shirts.  Then we found the stairs:

It was a long way up

We saw these amazing dragons everywhere

This dog was sure he was guarding something

Ornate roof of a smaller temple on the grounds of Doi Suthep

On the cab ride home from the monument, we stopped at a red light and I spotted this old man reading a newspaper:

The cab dropped us off near Nimman Street for some fun shopping, but we ate lunch first at Hong Teuw (sp?).  We had lots of yummy dishes including this amazing tom yum soup:

Nimman Street shopping was a maze of small alleys with surprise shops around every corner.  And around this corner was Godzilla!:

I heart Godzilla cafe/seating area/restaurant/amusement park (?)

Sylvie and I were shopped-out after an hour or so and Andrew and Henry were tired of feigning interest, so we headed back to the hotel and found a cute Christmas Eve present in our room:

Small candies from the hotel

We were all looking forward to dipping our feet in the (very chilly) pool so we relaxed and had a fruit drink and lazed away the afternoon (photographer's break ;)).

Around 6 p.m. we headed to a small night market full of vendors selling textiles, food, sculptures, lights and small keepsakes.

Entrance to the small night market

A couple getting their feet cleaned by tiny fish!

This is exactly what it looks like - suckling pig, on a stick, covered in a plastic bag.  Totally normal...

Wall o' crab

We decided upon Moh-o-Chon (sp?) seafood restaurant for our Christmas Eve dinner.  We ordered giant prawns and tiger prawns and Andrew and Henry made the selections with our server:

Weighing the shrimp.  Check out the plate on the bottom right - that's just two giant prawns!  We ordered a kilo of both giant and king prawns.  Mmmmm.

Giant prawns in black pepper sauce

King prawns cooked on the charcoal grill.  No picture will ever do these justice.  They were monstrous!

Four king prawns took up an entire plate

Henry shuffling through his ludicrous neck wallet.  This is his anti-pick pocket technique, which also happens to look ridiculous.  We all try to keep a distance when he pulls it out.

 On the tuk tuk ride home, we had to split up into two groups and Sylvie and I had the same idea at the same time:

Sylvie and Henry in the tuk tuk ahead of us

 Back at the hotel, we visited the bar before retiring for the evening.  Last night I ordered a gin and tonic and was convinced I really only got a tonic (no gin).  I thought I was sly tonight ordering a "double" gin and tonic.  Right.  This is what I got:

In the background you'll also see what the hotel considers a "martini."  Strangely enough, it tasted quite a bit like a margarita ;)

A shot of the bridge a bit down the river from our hotel

 Off to bed.  Merry Christmas Eve everyone!

Day 2 - Bangkok & Chiang Mai

Hi everyone!  Today we left Bangkok (after a healthy hotel buffet breakfast, of course) and landed in Chiang Mai.  This is a very cool city; not as metropolitan as Bangkok, but with the same underlying feeling that they're onto a much bigger and better food scene than the US.

We landed in Chiang Mai about 11:15 a.m. and were greeted by a friendly hotel staff member, who escorted us to the car for the ride to the hotel.  He asked if we wanted to stop at 7-11 for anything (apparently 7-11s are HUGE here) and we said no, but secretly wondered if there was a reason he was asking...  About 5 minutes later we pulled into a 7-11.  The driver got out and we thought maybe he was stopping for something personal, but he rounded the front of the van and opened our door to let us out.  Hmm.  We told him we didn't need to stop and he seemed a little confused, but closed the door and jumped back in the driver's seat.  Again we wondered if we had made a mistake not stopping for sundries.

Upon arrival at our hotel, Aruntara, we were greeted by friendly staff and a lovely red welcome drink (none of us could pin point the taste).  We were escorted to one of our rooms (the other was still being made up) and decided to head to old town for lunch.  Andrew found a place with yummy grilled whole chickens with rave reviews, so off we headed, via red taxi, to old town Chiang Mai.  I still have no idea what the restaurant was called, but here are some photos:

Street sign for the restaurant

Yummy grilled whole chicken

Menu

Chicken.  With cilantro this time.

These are the tuk tuks we've been catching rides from.  They're small but surprisingly powerful

We stopped at a cool temple with a small market on the side.  The vendors had these beautiful red umbrellas displayed.

After lunch and a nice walk we went back to the hotel and checked into the second (our) room:

This is the lobby of Aruntara.  They celebrate Christmas here - complete with Christmas music 24 hours a day.  My favorite.

Before heading out for dinner, we grabbed a drink at the hotel's bar

On Sundays in Chiang Mai, there is an amazing walking street market, which we decided to visit before dinner.  The crowds were insane:

And the stalls were even crazier!:

Black...um...jelly?  Anyone?

Fruit stand!

Sylvie grabbed a cute eyeglasses case, but other than that, the walking street market was just a bit too crowded to elbow through.  We felt like salmon; no matter what side of the street you were on, you were swimming upstream.

We all built up quite a hunger at the market, so headed to dinner at Huen Phem, a little place known for - what else? - chicken!:

This is a pork and vegetable appetizer.  Yummy!

Crispy fried pork ribs

Last, but not least, I couldn't help but take an art shot of the beer :)

That was it for the night.  We grabbed tuk tuks back to the hotel and were completely wiped.  We plan to sleep in tomorrow morning and do some shopping.  Cheers!