CM is a city about the same size as our hometown of Austin, Texas. It has a rich history that you can read about on Wikipedia at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai. Jack and I have been having a great time here. There’s lots to do without being overwhelmed and nice enough to be able to just wander around and explore on our own. Here’s some of what we’ve been up to.
We booked a guest house over the internet for two nights. It was a cute place, but way too small for us and our stuff. We did some research while we in Kho Lanta and had a list of places to check out, so the first day we went looking for somewhere else to stay. First, we found a really nice hotel for a really good price. But when we checked it out on the map, we decided it was too far away from the markets and other things that we wanted to do. Next, we came to a place called Mini-Cost Guest House. We looked the place over and really, really liked it. The rooms were big, had enough storage space to unpack all of stuff, and the owners lived on site and took really good care of it. So, we booked for about two and half weeks for a really good price!
We found a church to attend, the Chiang Mai Community Church, an interdenominational protestant church that has a service in English at 4:30 on Sundays. It was very well attended, and I got to sing some too, which I really miss a lot. The service lasted about two hours, from the singing before the service started to the end of the sermon.
After church on Sunday evening, we rode a tuk-tuk back to our neighborhood and found the Sunday Night Market. It was great! The streets were closed to vehicles, and colorful vendor tents were setup all along the sidewalks. It looked like a carnival! Everyone in the city who wasn’t selling something were in the streets deciding what to buy. I bought a beautiful pashmina and Jack bought a new belt.
We have a couple of favorite restaurants in our neighborhood, too. We go to one for breakfast run by Australians that serves a variety of Thai and Western food. They have a good breakfast for a reasonable price. We like to go to the Thai places to eat, too. There are dozens of them in our neighborhood, some of them have only one or two tables, and cook to order when you go in. They are usually very good. We were kind of uncertain the first time we went to one because we didn’t want to get sick, but so far, so good. One of our favorite things to do is get street food. We go to a market not far from here and get fresh fruit, grilled or fried chicken, hard cooked eggs, etc., and take it back to our room to eat. We’re sensible about what we get, and usually see them cooking it while we’re in the area. The fried chicken is my favorite here as well as back home. No wonder my waist-line is not shrinking any!
Vegtable stand at the market
Jack with a smoothie and other goodies at the market
Baskets of Rice for sale
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