Just another week in Chiangmai

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Tuesday again, and today I’ll have been here for a week. I reminded myself that my aim for this year’s winter break is to do as little as possible. Friend Carol had given me a book called’ Nelly Dean’ by Alison Case. It’s based on the character of the housekeeper in Wuthering Heights, and the untold stories in Emily Bronte’s book. It’s a long time since I read the original so I downloaded it onto my Kindle and set myself to reading it again before I attempted Nelly Dean. Well that kept me occupied for the day , other than a wander around Wararot Market across on the opposite bank of the river. In the evening I went to Woo cafe and had the most enormous and delicious Kaew Soi, a Northern dish of noodles and curry with crispy noodles on the top.
On Wednesday morning Penn took Michel and Marie-Noelle to the airport as they’re off to Cambodia for a week, and when he came back I got a comfortable ride to the acupuncture clinic along with Nui. Chiangmai old city is surrounded by the remains of the old city walls and their gates, and it’s a square. There’s also a moat around the outside of the walls. In some places the brickwork in the walls undulates like layers of rock strata. It makes for quite a complicated road system and one way streets, so combined with the morning traffic , the car journey to the clinic was complicated and very confusing. When Penn deposited us at the clinic , I knew what part of the old city we were in. The clinic is attached to the government hospital, and anyway, I trust Nui’s judgement-and what’s good enough for her is good enough for me!
The clinic felt very calm and peaceful. A gentle softly spoken woman took my details and I waited to see the acupuncturist. A charming and softly spoken young man too-he looked very much like one of my old students ( Toto) who also originally came from Chiangmai and I was tempted to ask if they were related. But I didn’t. Luckily I’d had two acupuncture sessions with Richard Agnew in Cradley before I came away, so I understood a bit of what to expect. The assistant showed me into the treatment room, and into one of the heavily curtained cubicles. Thick linen-look curtains which gave a comforting sense of privacy. And a very high ‘bed’ with a set of steps to mount up to it. I had requested treatment to help get rid of my long-standing cough and to restore my energy levels and sense of well-being and to counteract the side effects of all the antibiotics I’ve had in the last two months. I’m generally squeamish about needles, so I kept my eyes shut, but only felt a slight prickle as the needles went into the crown of my head, arms, hands, shins and feet. They told me to rest for 30 minutes and left me in a softly lit space with gentle Chinese music playing . Well, now I wonder ....... was there really music or was it in my head! At the end of the minutes the assistant came to swiftly remove the needles and I was free to go.
I walked around the side soi, or alleyways of the Old City then spied an enticing looking restaurant with wooden shutters on the first floor of a building overlooking the street. A great place to enjoy a bowl of vege noodle soup and to read Wuthering Heights when not distracted by the other customers and the goings-on in the street .
I came back to Baansong Jum and joined Nui for a cup of her home made chai tea in the little garden that Howard is helping her to create behind the house ( Howard was a landscape gardener in his previous life, in Australia) He’s a long-stay guest and thinking of staying permanently in Chiangmai on a retirement visa.
That evening Nui, Kung , Howard and I went out for dinner together, leaving Penn in charge of Baansong Jum. We went down to the river by means of a dark little alleyway I hadn’t noticed before, and ended up at the same little street river-side restaurant that Meeting Room Joe had directed me to a few nights earlier. But it was so much nicer being able to share several dishes among the four of us. We had Tom yum kung , crispy vegetables, spicy pork and a large fish.
When we walked back to Baansong Jum, there was the moon -blood red and huge through the trees above my room. Apparently it would be at it’s best at 11 pm ( according to the nice Chinese lady in the next room) , but I was off to bed and had the best night’s sleep so far. The acupuncture?
At breakfast the next day I chatted to Nana ( the young Indonesian teacher) and Nui about the annual Chiangmai Flower Festival which will lay the Old City to hostage next weekend. I always seem to be in Chiangmai when it’s on. My breakfast at the moment is fresh papaya and banana with some muesli and yoghurt..... and a generous squeeze of lime juice.
I had a very friendly e mail from Dizzy, who is one of Dorothy’s friends, offering to meet me at a craft shop near the red Chinese Gate at Worarot just across the river. She’d then make sure I got to Dorothy’s house for ‘Craft ‘ afternoon today. I found the shop ...... just crammed with yarns, silks,needles, zips and materials . You could hardly move in there. Aha, I thought..... I have no idea who this lady is, and she has no idea of how I look either. And with a name like Sue Lim in Thailand she’s probably looking around for a Chinese woman. Anyway-Dizzy guessed from my searching gaze that I must be Sue, and she approached me. She turned out to be a very smart Chinese woman with short cropped hair. She’d also arranged to meet another woman, Katie there and to help her purchase the materials she needed for some little embroidered brooches. Katie was a very tall English woman with Japanese type manga tattoos on her shins and calves. We walked to Valerie’s apartment and I was delighted to find that Katie had parked her car there and was going to drive us to Dorothy’s. Valerie is Canadian and spends the winter months in Chiangmai with her husband every year.
I was delighted because Dorothy lives on the outskirts of town, and I didn’t think I would recognise where to go. Katie apologised for the state of her car and said that she’d just recently taken all her local temple dogs to the vet’s in it and paid for their inoculations and medical check up. The car was fine.
I’ve been to Dorothy’s Craft afternoons before, and only two or three people turn up with some sewing etc, it’s mostly lots of interesting chat and lots of interesting eating. All the ladies had brought a contribution to the meal. All I’d brought was some tonic water for the gin.
Dorothy is awaiting the summons from her son to come to Japan when the first grandchild arrives at the end of the month. Her daughter Rachel has suggested that they handmake a mobile for the new baby, but has left Dorothy to complete it, and Dorothy admits that she’s lacking in inspiration and the felting skills necessary to produce it. ( and so difficult when you are surrounded by all the handmade crafts in Northern Thailand) Jo and Dizzy gave her some practical advice and I think they now have the mobile project under control.
Dorothy’s apartment is really lovely. It’s on the first floor, so at tree branch height, and she has a balcony which stretches the full width, shaded by the leafy trees giving total privacy and with a lake beyond. You can’t hear any traffic noise, but Dorothy says you can hear the early morning arrival of the new flights from Quatar airlines and she’s a bit annoyed about that.
Dizzy called us an Uber car and Valerie and I shared it with her as far as the old city walls. She knows some short cuts through dark streets that I might have been hesitant to use if I’d been on my own. What an interesting and eclectic group of women, all of different ages and with interesting stories of how they’d ended up in Chiangmai.
Friday was another acupuncture day. I have my breakfast and walk to the clinic. It takes about 40 minutes and I’d probably be faster if it weren’t for the pesky tourists wandering along in untidy groups and slowing my progress! Today I didn’t need any pre-chat with the acupuncturist, just my blood pressure taken and straight into the treatment room. Just down at the end of the street from the clinic they were setting up in readiness for tomorrow’s Flower Festival. In the area near the park it’s a bit like the RHS Spring show at Malvern. The best of the best in the Chiangmai horticultural world are being judged against each other.
I had a lovely time checking out the orchids, cacti and bonsai and the sidled into ‘The Blind Cafe’ which is attached to the college of masseuse for the blind. Why they should need a separate college, I don’t know. The coffee and cake was good though.
I slipped into the beautiful Tamarind Village Hotel to see their exhibition of temple murals. Many of the images were actually from Chiangmai temples, but it’s good to read more about their age and the story depicted. Some of the heaven and hell images reminded me of the exhibition that Tamsin is getting together for our blue-ginger reopening. It’s work inspired by ‘The Garden of Earthly Desires’
( Hieronymus Bosch) I decided that I must go back and rest and have another look at the exhibition another day. Dinner at ‘home ‘with the two sisters.
Saturday came -the day of the big parade through town and around the most to the park.It must have been the third or fourth time I’ve been here for the parade, so I didn’t feel that I needed to stay for the whole show. The fire breather terrified me as he danced along, barefoot on the hot tarmac, fire brands in one hand and sloshing a bottle of flammable liquid in the other. Every now and again he would stop, put the bottle to his lips and knock it back. A bit more dancing around and then he’d ignite it in a long breath shooting out from his mouth.
I hurried on ahead, unable to stand the tension any longer. When I got as far as Thapae Gate I was hugged by a diminutive Chinese lady in a pink flowery hat. I couldn’t think who she was at first, but then realised it was my neighbour from Baansong Jum. Her daughter ( who speaks English) soon joined us, and we watched the parade together for a while. The school children are so professional in their American style marching bands, and it’s quite a way for them all to walk and dance their way along in the hot sun. I got ahead of them and had a look a the Park , with flower beds crammed with a dazzling array of perfect blooms. The flower show had been judged and the most favoured plants spotted their tags of honour.
Enough. Made my way back, with a stop for mango and sticky rice. Can’t believe it’s the first one I’ve had since I’ve been in Thailand this year.
Near Worarot market I met up with Su and her mum ( my Chinese neighbours at Baansong Jum) and we crossed the river together and went home. Under the old house we had afternoon tea and chatted ( poor Su having to do a lot of translating as my Mandarin consists of hello, how are you and numbers one to ten) They live in a city quite close to Macau and Su’s Mum is a University teacher while Su is in first Year at university studying languages. Her Mum made her translate 5 thousand years of Chinese history in potted nuggets of information.
On Sunday morning I bade farewell to Su and her mum as, dressed for the cold weather at home, they waited for a taxi to arrived to take them to the airport. Acupuncture certainly gets me out of bed and out on the streets earlier. And as the Flower Festival was over and it was Sunday, the streets were fairly quiet. The acupuncturist is having a week’s holiday and I have been advised by Nui and Howard the the woman is not so good at inserting the needles, so I delay my last treatment until his return to work. Afterwards I went to the park for a final look at the festival flowers ( it’s very near the clinic) The narrow side streets (soi) in the old city are narrow with quiet residential bungalows and little houses, many have walls onto the soi, but there’s a riot of trees and bushes bursting over the tops of the walls. I found an art gallery in someone’s house, an old car embedded into the wall outside with verdant plants bursting out of its open windows. However many temples you come across-there’s always something to draw you in, and the smaller temples on the side streets are usually quiet havens, hidden from most tourists. I came across a great cafe, in a leafy garden surrounded by red terracotta brick walls, with terracotta sculptures stacked against the walls everywhere. It had the feel of a deserted Cambodian temple........ but very natural and not at all Disney. I could retreat here for a coffee and a quiet place to read. So I did. Oh, and the tiramisu cake was a bit delicious too!
I made my way back down to the river and crossed at the Iron Bridge, which brought me close to Rimping Supermarket. Bought some yogurt, and stopped at the interesting Shambhala Foundation restaurant. Everything is vegan and organic and mainly tofu based. So I had a very healthy lunch of kumbucha ( a great drink made from fermented tea and very good for the gut) and a homemade tofu salad with the most delicious miso and sesame dressing. I feel I’ve had an almost spiritual Sunday lunch! I loved the simple scrubbed-out feel to the building too.
I walked back along the riverbank to Baansong Jum, stopping to pick out seven of Luka’s scrap metal wacky music boxes to take back to Blue-ginger.
Nui had asked me if I would be prepared to change rooms to one on the other side of the house as she has two ( turned out to be three) Belgian girls arriving and my room at present has twin beds. I’m happy to make the move as now I’ve got a double bed and I think it’s lighter on this side of the house.
Penn is suffering from earache and has just come back from the doctor’s, feeling very sorry for himself, and Australian resident Howard has eaten something bad and is incapacitated in his room. Anyway, I’m invited to join the two sisters, Nui and Penn, for some tasty savoury rice porridge, and as it’s boiling hot there’s a chance to have a chat with Stevie, my son who lives in Tokyo. So what a healthy eating day today! Phew-thank goodness I had the tiramisu cake and the coffee!
Monday was the day to pay my dues, so I nipped over the river and to the bank to withdraw some cash to pay for my rent, and then went to the Meeting Room to pay Joe for Luka’s boxes.
I realised I’d lost an e mail from Dorothy inviting me out to dinner that evening when I got the follow-up message suggesting a meeting time. So I took a slow walk, late afternoon via the moat road, to Nimmenhaeman........ a trendy part of town. In fact since I was here with Eunice last year they’ve built a piazza and a shopping centre in the Italian style. I found my way along to soi 5 and the Indian restaurant Accha where I was to meet Dorothy and her American fried Jennifer. They recently traveled to India together with some other friends and I was eager to hear about their trip. The food was great and the conversation entertaining , as it slid between their impressions of India and grandchildren. Dorothy is awaiting the call to jump on a plane to Tokyo for the arrival of her first grandchild, and Jennifer flies regularly to China every few months to spend time with her son, his wife and her grandson. I felt a bit tired and achy, with the irritating cough returning as I joined in the conversation so was very grateful when Dorothy offered me a lift home, even though she lives on the other side of the city. Actually I realised that it’s not very healthy to walk along the moat road when everyone is heading home at the end of the day and the song taews are belching out exhaust fumes.
Tomorrow will be the end of my second week in Chiangmai. I can’t believe it’s slipping through my fingers! And thank you to friend Carol who gave me Nelly Dean by Alison Case. An unputdownable novel based on Wuthering Heights. It won’t be coming home with me as I’ll pass it on to Dorothy....... and then no doubt it will travel around Thailand for a while....... and where will it go next?

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Comments

[Eunice]

Memories
Glad you're enjoying all the lovely food and finding new cafes. It's good you are having time to relax and hope the acupuncture helps. Have made a note of the book. Withering Heights was a favorite. ( Predictive text insists it should be withering!!) x