NEW YEARS!!!!!

Asia » Thailand » North-West Thailand » Chiang Mai
December 29th 2012

Published: February 23rd 2013

After debating with myself and all my village friend as to whether or not I was going to be in the village for New Years, at the last possible minute I decided I wasn’t. It was a hard decision mostly because although Sports Day last year wasn’t that fun this year there was a soccer game! And although I love love love soccer I also love love love my friends and after nearly two years still hadn’t made my way to Chaing Mai and if I didn’t go now I may never go.My mind was made up, I had to say good luck to my friends and head North.

Bright and early I hoped on a song taew out of the village, hoping I made the right choice. I made it to the bus station around 10, bought my ticket and realized I had 8 hours to kill before my bus would be taking off. Not wanting to spend any money while I was in Roi-et, I walked over to the park, picked a shady spot and started reading. Reading and exercising and eating were the three things I did all day, although I would have preferred more reading. Reading was constantly interrupted by everyone who wanted to talk to the only farang in the park.

Eventually the time came and I hopped on my bus for the thirteen hour voyage that would lead me to the promise land of Chaing Mai. And lead it did. From the bus station I hopped on a song taew to city center (which cost 20 baht no matter what they tell you IT COST 20 BAHT) and over to Starbucks to meet my friends. After a much needed coffee and a riveting game of scrabble we headed out for food.

We settled upon Arts Café which provided me with not only a delicious omelet BUT a delicious omelet with an avocado. Throw an avocado on/in/around anything and I am instantly the happiest girl out there. Chilling in the café we caught up, telling stories about site or recent travels and discussing what we should do. I was the only newbie to Chaing Mai and the others were insisting I should go out and do stuff other than shop, but really when it comes down to it doing something cultural by myself or hanging out with friends and shopping I’m going to pick the friends every time, I don’t even like shopping.

So shop we did with the specific intentions of hitting up a tailor for one of the girls. Fearing that I wouldn’t get a ticket out of town on time I decided to head back to the bus station with another friend to confirm our journey home. Unlike everyone else who would be leaving on the 1^st it became apparent that I was staying another day, maybe I’d do something cultural then?

Dom and I headed back were we meandered around the shops that were setting up and grabbed ourselves a delicious fruit shake for just 30 baht, got to love these stands. Eventually, after quite some time the group was back together at our hotel V.I.P. Guesthouse. Four of us were in the family room and you would think that we were crammed in there but there was an absurd amount of space. We were in our own little section of the hotel, in fact a separate building all together and although we had to share the bathroom the 340 baht a room a night we were spending made it perfect (a single would later cost me just 180 baht, so cheap it was fabulous!)

Although it was a bit early we headed out to Diablos for some Mexican food. I had been to the Diablos in Bangkok and I can’t say that I was super impressed with it but one could hope that this one was better. You do get free chips and salsa when entering which is always nice and the nachos I ordered were pretty tasty but what really makes it worth going here, perhaps the only thing worth going here for is the margaritas. They boast the strongest margaritas in Chaing Mai and they aren’t joking. We ordered a pitcher and after our two drinks we were all feeling very good.

With our bellies full we headed out to the Night Market. We tried to get there early before the crowds, but there were already quite a few people walking up and down the street. Despite being disgustingly stuffed the sign for Ancient Ice Cream was the first thing that caught my eye, I’d be back for you.

We proceeded on looking at all the little crafts and bags, jewelry and make up and every type of knick knack you could possibly want. Score of the day was a beautiful scarf I got for just 120 baht! This was followed up by some herbal medicine that I am hoping will work on my sore muscles after a round of Insanity or for my headaches when they chose the worse time to come. We’ll see if that was a good purchase or not.

After a good chunk of time was spent going up and back we nearly reached the end when Dom and I spotted our Ancient Ice Cream again. Now I am not sure what makes it ancient, but the coffee ice cream shaped in a square (perhaps that is the ancient part?) was awesome! It was a strange combo of icey and ice cream but it was tasty and that is all that matters. No wait the fact that it was only 10 baht, that is really all that matters!

It had been a long day after a long bus ride so after the market we called it a night and retired to our family room.

The following morning didn’t happen as early as I would like. My attempt to get up early to exercise was futile and instead we woke up late and headed out for food. Originally we checked the place across the street, but they hadn’t been to the market yet (by 10am!) so we hopped next door but the menu was unappealing to me and Connie. Luckily Bobby swooped in to save the day stating that he knew a place with cheap food.

Off to Mike’s Hotdog we went. Yes, a hotdog place. I wasn’t exactly sure how this place would serve me for breakfast but it turns out just fine. Cheese omelet with toast cost me just 55 baht. I either had a 70 baht avocado yesterday or this place is cheap and I do love cheap! Not only is it cheap but its tasty too. They loaded it with cheese as it oozed out of my egg to my happiness.

When breakfast was over we had a parting of ways. Half of us were off to the supermarket to pick up the much needed alcohol for tonight’s celebration and the other half of us were going to meander around until we all met up. So as the other half went about their duties, myself, Dom, Connie and Jeanine shopped, more, this time for silver. We hopped between two silver shops that stood side by side and picked out what we wanted. Four little jade elephant pendants for 100 baht, yes please!

And naturally we worked up a mild appetite so we popped on over to Phommon Café we’re we ordered ourselves some shakes. I grabbed an absolutely refreshing apple and carrot shake that I enjoyed as we waited for the rest of our gang to meet up with us.

From there, when I group was once more reunited, we headed back to the shop from yesterday were we chilled for quite some time and then moved on to the market where we purchased hand made products such as pocket books and wallets and the sort.

After dropping way to much baht we headed back for our afternoon nap that would provide us with the energy to last the night. Only I needed to get my run on seeing that it was Monday. As it turns out it is hard to run when there are so many people on the streets and markets trying to set up and even harder when you aren’t feeling that great. Seeing that I had the shakes I returned to the place across the street of VIP Guesthouse that hadn’t been to the market this morning to get some museli and yogurt. Well first they didn’t have any yogurt, so the lady ran out to purchase some which is quite nice. It would have been nice if she had gotten some museli while she was at it because I wasn’t fooled by the cornflakes that were thrown on my yogurt with its 3 raisins, but hey what can you really do?

When our nap/run time came to a clos we got ourselves all glammed out and headed out to a fancy Italian place for our New Years Eve dinner. It was nice to have everyone together looking nice and spiffy as we pushed our way through the crowds to de Stephano. The menu of pastas and pizzas and soups and salads made me want everything, what I settled on was Spinach Soup and Margarita Pizza. It is true that this may sound a bit boring but at a place as authentic as de Stephano I thought I might finally come across some great pizza in Thailand and as it turns out I did. First I had some great soup which I devoured and then the pizza was placed in front of me which I then devoured with equal pleasure. I just kept stuffing it in my face even though I was terribly full, it was just so good! I thought I was going to be dropping an arm and leg for tonight’s meal, but instead it was just 210 baht for the whole thing!

 After stuffing our face with Italian food and debating on continuing to do it with 90 baht tiramisu we instead decided that 10 baht Ancient Ice Cream would do us just fine. I was quivering with excitement for my coffee ice cream but when I got there he was already sold out of it so I settled for black bean. Yeah I know it sounds weird, but try it and then tell me its not delicious because it is and comes close to the joy coffee brought me.

New Years Eve was really getting started now that we had eaten our fill. With a concoction brewed up by the only fellow who chose to join us in Chaing Mai, we spent several hours bonding, joking and telling stories about the last two years here in the Peace Corps. Not that this could ever get boring, but we decided perhaps we should join the party outside as we rang in the new year.

Chaing Mai has this really beautiful ceremony. I don’t know if it happens elsewhere, but I do know it happens here. We bout three lanterns, where are quite larger so as to fit all your hopes and dreams for the coming year. Yeah I know it sounds corny but really it is lovely. I wish I could describe it better, but you hold onto this lantern as it fills of smoke from the candle lit. When it has filled you release it into the sky, and with everyone doing this at once hundreds of candles spotted the dark sky making for a beautiful scene. It wasn’t all beautiful, one of ours nearly got stuck in a tree but luckily decided against it and managed to keep on going. The two larger ones with our dreams written on them went off without a hitch, hope that is a good sign.

When New Years sounded we all hugged and kissed and then it was time to dance. We headed out to a club called Yellow and danced in the New Year.

After getting in at the ripe hour of 6am, it was a mad dash when we awoke a few hours later and had to move rooms. I was staying one more evening, so everyone was going to be moving their stuff into my room, only I didn’t even have a room yet! Luckily there was room for me so in my tiny little room for one we shoved all 7 of our stuff into it.

After exerting such energy it was time to eat something so we headed back to Arts Café where I ordered up the museli and yogurt I wanted from the day before. I was luckily I got my dish and ate it too, the other table however waited and waited and waited and it never came, that is until we started wlaking out the door and by then it was too late.

Instead we headed off to the much talked about Love at First Bite. Connie had been talking about this place from day one and we were finally making our way there. Having been one of two people to have eaten I wasn’t all that hungry but that wasn’t going to stop me from trying one of their many delicious looking cakes. I ordered myself up a coffee mocha cake which to be honest was lacking a bit, but the Key Lime Pie was quite tasty and the green tea cheesecake was alright. If the dessert wasn’t enough, I tried pulled pork, something I may not try again, chicken pot pie which according to everyone else was bland but since I had nothing to compare it to tasted fine to me and mac and cheese which was really tasty!

Still exhausted from New Years we headed back to my room where we relaxed until it was once more time to eat again. If you haven’t noticed, we eat a lot. Although I would have loved to try a new place we headed back to Mike’s Hotdog where I ordered me up a Vegetable Burger. After my misstep with Ethos I was a bit worried but the black bean (I think) burger was really quite tasty and I threw some of the sweet relish onto it making it even better. I think my vegetable burger was definitely a thumbs up, but what really takes the prize here is the Chili which is delicious and has a serious kick to it.

It was time to say goodbye to everyone as they headed home and I stuck around for one more day.

My last day in Chaing Mai and I really did consider going out to one of the many wats, but with limited time I feared that I wouldn’t get back in time. At least that is what I told myself, but really I think I just wanted to chill and eat and do my thing. I started my day off right with a run around town, and at 6:30am there was no competition for the side walk.

After a quick shower I headed to Angel’s Secret which is down one of the back roads I ran on otherwise I wouldn’t have found it. I ordered up an banana, raison, honey and cinnamon oatmeal and it really did rock my world! I sat and ate my oatmeal while I read my book and just had a lovely morning still refreshed from my run.

I packed up and got ready to check out, not after another work out of course, and then headed out onto the town. I picked up a watermelon shake and ventured down the street towards tee Insect and Natural __________ I had seen the other day during the market. I was excited to go to this place thinking it would be very much like Insectropolis back in Jersey (one of my favorite places EVER). Unfortunately there were no live insects, everything was mounted up on the walls and although I got to see some very beautiful butterflies and crazy beetles and such what I really wanted was live bugs. I did learn a bit about mosquitoes and the different butterflies in the area, so it wasn’t to unproductive it just wasn’t exactly what I wanted.

Disappointment built up an appetite so I headed to Aum Restaurant that specialized in Thai food vegetarian style. I was all prepared to order the fried pumpkin, mushroom and tofu dish that had caught my eye the day before, but with the menu before me once more the lure of the cashew dish that I love so much won me over. It is essentially pumpkin, mushroom and tofu with cashews for an extra 20 baht but really how can one pass up on cashews???? They can’t that is the answer, so for 80 baht I indulged on those cashews and enjoyed every last one of them to its fullest. While there I overheard one of the patrons talking about the restaurant and as it turns out it was formerly owned by a fellow farang and his Thai wife, but when they retired one of the waitress bought it and is keeping its good reputation going.

It was nearly time to head out from there so I got myself set, ordered up some dinner for the evening (a tuna sandwich that cost just 65 baht and was delicious but unfortunately I don’t remember the name of the place) and headed to the bus station. I hopped on board and so ended my trip to Chaing Mai.

As I sit here telling my Thai friends what I did really all I can say is that we ate and shopped, but you know what despite having skipping out on a few wats and missing the chase to go rafting (we tried strangely enough they don’t do tours on New Years Eve) I would rather spent that time with friends that do it by myself. Plus during the market I did hit up the Black Wat for the bathroom so at least I knocked of one famous wat.

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