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Published: March 14th 2011
HE SAID... We arrived at
Chiang Mai at 11am and headed straight for the hotel in a
songthaew (small pickup truck/ute with seats in the tray). We re-packed and then headed straight for Wat Chedi Luang. We sat at the Monk Chat Program area until a young monk (Ton Udom) arrived around 12.30pm. The three of us chatted for about an hour about Buddhism, Thai life, monk life and religion in general. Ton promised to email me a few PDF files about Buddhism (which he did the very next day). We jumped into a tuk tuk at 12.30pm and headed back to a local restaurant near the hotel where we shared a
pad thai goong sod (rice noodles stir fried with prawns, dried shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts) and a
khao rad phad kra praw gai (minced chicken in chilli, paprika and holy basil). We cooled off with iced teas and coffees, and Ren ordered
khao niao mamuang(mango with sweetened coconut sticky rice) for desert. We then headed back to our shared rooms at the hotel to shower and organise our packs for the overnight train.
As we waited in the foyer, we sat mesmerised
by television reports of the devastating earthquake in Japan and resulting tsunami. Initial reports indicated that southern Thailand may be impacted (which we were travelling to). We left the hotel at 4.45pm, jumped into a
songthaew and headed to the train station. After settling into our carriage, we walked over the road to order take away dinner. I had a stuffed Thai omelette and Ren had an omelette with chicken. We stocked up on drinks at the local 7-11 and then headed back to the train to settle into our relaxing 13 hour train trip to Bangkok. I just love train travel. We sat and talked until a steward arrived at 9pm to make up our beds.
SHE SAID... The bus ride back to
Chiang Mai (about two hours) was as scenic as it was scary. The bus driver was clearly in a rush and didn’t think twice about overtaking on corners or tailgating cars until they moved out of his way! We arrived at Chiang Mai and checked into gender segregated day rooms at
People Place Hotel where we had left our big packs all those days ago. After rearranging our big packs and returning our trekking packs,
Andrew and I had a whole day to hang out in Chiang Mai while waiting to catch the overnight train to Bangkok.
Being back at Chiang Mai was lovely. We really wanted to take part in the Monk Chat program at Wat Chedi Luang that we had missed out on last time. We caught a taxi there and were lucky to have a young monk called Ton Udom come and sit with us to chat about anything we wanted to talk about. I think he was as interested in us as we were in him. We chatted for an hour about Thailand, Buddhism, his life and ours. Andrew had been trying hard to find an introductory text on Buddhism and Ton kindly offered to email him a PDF file of some work that he thought may be of interest. It was a very interesting and enlightening experience, especially as the opportunity to talk to a monk so openly is not an experience that comes our way very often. 😊
As you may have guessed by now, Andrew and I travel to eat! And we were in the ‘food bowl’ of Thailand with masses and masses of fresh produce
everywhere. I’ve had more than my fair share of just-off-the tree tropical fruit. I cannot get enough of the mangoes and pineapples that are in season at the moment, and Andrew has a new found love of jack fruit. Can it get any better?? Oh yes, Thai iced coffee and
cha yen (Thai iced tea) are also very delicious!
We have been trying to master the Thai language through food, and so far we haven’t got very far. We still resort to pointing at the menu or pictures on the wall. I love all the ‘stereotypical’ Thai food -
tom yum kung (spicy shrimp soup with lemongrass and lime),
som tum (Thai spicy green papaya salad),
larb gai (spicy minced chicken salad with mint and lime juice),
pad thai (rice noodles stir fried with shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce, peanuts and fresh lime),
gaeng keaw wan (green curry) and
gaeng phed (spicy red curry). I have tried and loved other Thai dishes too, but I keep coming back to these old favourites time and time again. My only very very small food related complaint is that they eat sticky/ glutinous rice here instead of the fluffy
steamed rice eaten in other parts of Thailand. It takes some getting used to. I love it as a dessert, but not as an accompaniment to a curry.
My favourite Thai snack food has been sliced sour green mango served with a sugar, salt and chilli dipping sauce - it brought back childhood memories from Sri Lanka. However the memories were also accompanied with my mum's voice saying - it will give you a tummy ache! And it did. I also highly favour all the Thai sweet snacks, but I'm trying to go easy on them as they nearly always contain condensed milk and coconut cream. On a healthier note, we tend not to have dessert here after a meal, so it gives me permission to have a sugar laden snack every now and again. 😊
We are also absolutely in love with Thai fruit shakes. We have them as breakfast, or to rehydrate during the day, or as a dessert. I can almost feel the moment my sugar levels start to drop and then get pepped up again with another fruit shake. So far my favourites have been banana, mango, watermelon and guava; and Andrew usually has
the lemon or lime fruit shake. I haven’t been game enough to try the durian one yet, as durian smells like something biological in its latter stages of decomposition. However apparently once you get past the smell, the taste is amazing and addictive. I cannot see us getting past the smell anytime soon.
Anyway, back to our day. We had a leisurely lunch at
UAN Restaurant on Sri Donchai Road near our hotel - a brilliant
pad thai goong sod (rice noodles stir fried with prawns, dried shrimp, egg, bean sprouts, tofu, chillies, fish sauce and peanuts) for Andrew, and
khao rad phad kra praw gai (minced chicken in chilli, paprika and holy basil) for me. This place is known for its desserts, so I also had a serving of
khao niao mamuang (mango with sweetened coconut sticky rice). The sweet sticky rice was covered in coconut cream and sprinkled with crispy fried soy beans, and the mango was the sweetest and most flavoursome mango I had ever had - it was phenomenal! We retired to our hotel to gather our bags and meet the group. While waiting in the foyer we realised that an earthquake in Japan was
causing Tsunami alerts around South East Asia and we had been totally unaware of the whole thing.
We caught a
songthaew to the train station, we dropped our big bags in our carriage and went to scout for dinner options. We bought take away dinner from the vendors across from the station - Andrew had the stuffed Thai omelette and I had an omelette with chicken. After buying drinks from 7-11 we walked back to the train and settled in for our 13 hour overnight train south to Bangkok. This overnight train was as clean and comfortable as the first one we had caught from Ayuthaya to Chiang Mai last week. We chatted with the group, ate dinner and chatted some more before our seats were converted into our beds for the night. I got the top bunk again - yey!
See you back in Bangkok! 😊
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News And Time Zones
Hello! How does this thing do time? I got this today (14/3, 1041 AEST). The tsunami happened Friday afternoon, 11/3. The news from Japan isn't getting any better, but what can you do? Sorry to be depressing, but I remember being away all those years ago and not knowing for months: - where the Soviet space junk crashed down (WA) - who was winning the Iraq-Iran War ('nobody' rings a bell) - who killed JR (not that I cared, but it was the biggest story at the time) (and I still can't remember who it was) Your stories have been wonderful as always. Enjoy your beach holiday. Japan is being taken care of as well as it can be at the moment.