Laurie's World

A Saturday would not be complete with a trip to The Saturday market, but I shouldn’t get ahead of myself! The day began once again with a trip to the Baan Bakery (somewhat earlier this time so as to make sure we got something tasty) and got some laundry done! It’s so cheap and fast, easy to keep up on! I thought I was buying pastries for two days, but as it turns out, it was enough for one day. 🤣🤣

Troy suggested we walk to Wat Suan Dok. A temple west of the old city. It is very hot today 103 degrees, but this goes not hinder us as we also want to stop and try a Texas BBQ place that Troy has read about that is over in that area. It is close to Chiangmai University and a big hospital. We have wandered around here before but not to this specific temple. Yes it was very hot, but a beautiful walk along the moat regardless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The bbq place looked iffy from the outside but they sported a legit looking smoker out front and air conditioned seating inside, so we took the plunge. The place had 6 tables tops! I had a pulled pork sandwich and troy had brisket sandwich. We had potato salad and then apple pie for dessert! Absolutely delicious. And a taste of home for sure! We chatted with Sweeney, the owner and a Texas native, for a bit and I can assure you this place is one our list of places we will go back to. He is moving in three weeks to a new location over by the Thapae Gate. So we will see him there then…he told us about a place that serves great western food and owned by a Canadian that we should try tomorrow. Feast Society. It’s a very odd name. But duly noted Sweeney!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

After the feast, we were glad to note coming out around 5:15, that the temp had dropped a few degrees. The walk over to the Lost Bookstore where we had promised Landon we would go to look for some books was much more tolerable than earlier in the day. We actually found two of the books on Landon’s list (hallelujah!). He will be very excited when he sees these! Then we felt compelled to stop for another fruit shake (because to be honest we were not too happy with the shakes we got when we first set off for the day). I had banana/pineapple which is my new goto flavour. Then Troy and I parted ways as I was intent on heading to the Saturday Night Market.

 

 

I had corn waffle on the brain. And ultimately ended up getting a foot massage too 😉.

 

 

 

It was 150 baht for a hour. And the ladies seemed to really need customers 🤷🏻‍♀️What was I to do ?? I sort of completely forgot that I had been walking around town  for 6 hours when I sat down, so I felt a tiny bit bad about my dirty feet after she kept showing me the cotton balls after she cleaned my feet. Oops!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

On our walk today I saw this ‘art’ or scarecrow or I’m not sure what?? Thing make completely out of recycled fans! Quite clever indeed. And sort of creepy looking 🤣🤣

When the day begins with a walk to the Silver Temple at noon (or perhaps even 1 PM 😉) and involves a Thai iced coffee from my favourite thai iced coffee lady, I guess that’s how I know I’m on vacation!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can never quite get over that this drink is 20 baht (65 cents). It is scrumptious! After finishing the coffee and  stopping at Baan bakery, (we were out of luck because by 1:40 all the good stuff was gone!) I decided to go on a walk that may or may not involve a full blown walk around the moat. Along the way I did see some beautiful flowers along the route. They have beautiful canna lilies here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have to be honest I got as far as the fried chicken lady  that sets up just past Thapae gate.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is 35 baht for a 1/4 chicken. Yes, that’s barely over $1. I love this chicken from this particular elderly lady. She is maybe 4’ tall. She stands on a riser on her motorbike cart behind the chicken table. Every year I’m amazed she is still here. I bought 4 with the full intention this would be supper! There is a market right by the chicken lady where I got pomelo and this cute sac. I don’t need a new sac, but it’s bananas, So how could I not 🤔🤪!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sometimes i see spelling or grammar mistakes on signage or on menus here or also word plays/knockoff slogans for major chains and I have often reflected on why they do this? I saw this today and thought KFG -really??? Is that a typo for KFC 0r are they trying to be cute? Or just not pay for the right to use ‘KFC’! But then I realized that Gai is their word for chicken. So maybe this is supposed to be Kentucky Fried Gai, KFG! 🤣🤣🤣

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I conducted an experiment today! How frozen would a fruit shake be if I bought it at Chiangmai Gate (the closest fruit shake stand) and didn’t drink it until I got back to the Baan Ratchiangsaen?? Results are in! Still perfectly perfect! Good to know and Troy was happy when I showed up with a lemon shake for him 😉. After getting back to the room, we feasted on that chicken and then watched a beautiful sunset on another perfect day in paradise!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Very quiet day today! Slept until 9am. That’s really unheard of for me! I must be on vacation 🤣🤣. That and last night was quite a late night. I think it was midnight before I turned off the lights. (Also unheard of for me).

I was able to catch the kids before they caught a red truck to the Arcade bus Station where they were going to catch a bus to Sokathai. THEIR next destination.

It was very hot today! It Peaked at 101 degrees!! So to be honest, I didn’t get much past the pool before 5pm. But a pool day every so often is not a terrible thing. I had FoxNews on for a few minutes too. But we just can’t take too much of that garbage before we have to turn it off. Sometimes I just want to catch up on news from home, maybe hear some native English speakers?? But that’s a tough station to have on for any length of time. CNN is a bit better, and more to our leanings….

The evening plan was simple, massage then supper! We decided to try a new massage place for a footie and while mine was ok, poor Troy got the dreaded ladyboy again 😞. And she had long nails that she dug into his ankle repeatedly with. So now he has  a big gash in his ankle that is going to take a few days to heal! We were going to go for Italian, but decided a shorter commute was in order given the foot injury. So we went for Indian food at a place Troy heard was good! It was good! Butter chicken, chicken tikka Masada, rice, 2 orders of Nan, and water all for 420 baht. $14 USD. Incredible! And we are stuffed! We did stop on way there and pick up mango/lemon shakes from chiangmai gate food area!

Great day! We will see what tomorrow brings ❤️  Maybe walk the moat 🤔

The plan today was to head to MaeRim to see Ian and Tee. We have never taken the yellow truck before, so thought this would work work for us. Nick had appointment at 11:30am for a tattoo so Rachael came with us and we headed to the meeting spot for yellow trucks just north of the old city around 10:20am. It took us about 35 minutes to walk there including a stop in a motorcycle shop to Buy a motorcycle net that Landon asked us to look for! Mission accomplished! The yellow truck costs 20 baht per rider so a pretty good deal considering it will take us all the way to maeRim plaza. Then we plan to walk to Pansawan (Tee and Ian’s). The yellow truck ride was about 40 minutes and then the final walk was about 35-40 minutes. It was very very hot but we managed. Knowing relaxation, food, drink and best of all, awesome company was waiting for us!

Ian has a rescue bird (with a cute Thai name I don’t remember) now and it took quite a liking to us. I almost thought a bird might be a fun little pet until I realized it poops every 32 seconds……that is not an exaggeration either!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We basically ate all afternoon! Food has this magical way of falling out of the sky when we are with Tee ❤❤  Rachael spent some time in the kitchen brushing up on her Thai cooking skills! They made red curry and som tham (papaya salad), Tee already had Hang Lay made (that takes a couple days!). Plus plates of mango and pineapple just kept appearing! I ate most of that! Nothing quite like perfectly ripe mango….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

When Nick arrived, they went to harvest more mangoes (he’s really tall 🤣🤣) and then they all did some MORE cooking. Khao soi gai and Panang!

We went for a walk around 5pm once the sun dropped a little in the sky and it was maybe only 95 degrees. But it was nice to walk through the village, see her temple and meet Tee’s family and friends.

By 9:00pm we figured we should head back into the city. Ian offered to drive us after we attempted to get a ‘Grab’ (thai version of Uber)   Pansawan is kind of in the boonies, on an unnamed street even, and we weren’t sure if a driver would pick it up. Oddly enough it did say it was picked up and that a driver would come in 7 minutes. But no one ever came, so Ian said he would run us in.

About 2/3 of the way in, the car died! So that was unexpected. We attempted some low level interventions (adding water to radiator) but the end result was us calling Grab again and Tee and Ian calling family to come get them. Car left…..tbd what happens there next.

The good news is that we were now on the highway to town, so Grab was quick and cheap and we were back in our hotel by 11ish. Beautiful Long Hot day with an unfortunate ending but overall so glad we saw our friends.

The day starts off slowwwwww! And that is saying a lot of I think it’s slow, because 99% of the days start “slow” for me here 🤣🤣

Coffee on the balcony, I dropped off laundry and stopped at the Baan Bakery for pastries. Picked UP the laundry….that was about it until 1pm ish when we got off our butts and went for a walk. We walked south today, which we typically do not do as it is away from the old city. But we meandered through some interesting areas which is always nice. Looped around and found ourselves in the night market area (which coincidentally has a burger king). Nothing like that 12 baht soft serve cone on a hot day! It used to be a 10 baht cone, so there’s been some inflation over the last 10 years we’ve been coming here. But 12 baht is 40 cents. So it makes a cost effective treat!

Once the Kids returned from their day of rock climbing, we went to Chiangmai gate and got street food. Khao soi gai, green curry, fruit shakes, chicken and rice. All soooooo good! With a cornet and a magnum from the 7-11 for dessert! Great day 🎉

As much as I am really liking ChiangRai and feel like I could stay here indefinitely, I am really REALLY looking forward to Chiangmai! It’s like going home for us. We have 10 days booked at our favourite boutique hotel, the Baan Ratchiangsaen, I’ve secured our favourite room for the whole time and I am really looking forward to seeing our friends.

We are set to check out at noon and a taxi is coming for us at that time! I’m highly focused on making sure I get my ‘points’ for this stay assigned correctly bcz I am looking forward to the next time I can use points to stay here again! We went down for the buffet breakfast and it was not a disappointment that’s for sure. Who can’t get fully behind fresh mango and sticky rice for breakfast??!!

The taxi was right on time, early in fact, and we said our goodbyes, hopped in and were on our way! Word was there would be a lot of construction between Chiangrai and Chiangmai and there certainly was! We were told it round be between 3.5 and 5 hours drive. They are clearly somewhere in the process of twinning this highway the whole way as once the construction started it went on all way to Chiangmai. It was a lot like driving on the transCanada in the summer except no campers! The road was pretty windy in some places but a lot less ‘mountain edge driving’ than I expected, so all in all a pretty sane transition. That being said, troy knows me well and I would have hated this on a bus, so good call on the taxi!

We rolled in to Chiangmai right at the 3.5 hour mark! So dare I say ‘kudos’ to our driver for meeting the lower end of the time target!? 🤔🤔

Rachael and Nick are here already, they got to CM last Friday. So after a visit to Purple Haze and Et for a pedi for me and foot massage for troy, we meet up with the kids and head to Arnos for a burger! Rachael has been having tummy troubles and a head ache for a few days, so we encouraged her to go see a pharmacist (which she did and she has some antibiotics and paracetamol now). But nothing helps a girl from Alberta feel better than beef! So burger time it is! Really delicious and worth every dime! Where else do you get THIS for $12??

Walked around old city for a bit after supper, troy and the kids went to WatChediLuang and I perused a night Market that popped up right in front of the Wat! The evening would not be complete without some mango sticky rice and banana pancake from our favourite people!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Looking forward to our time here….

I do love a leisurely morning! The coffee I enjoy on the balcony here is quite perfect. The view is exceptional, the seating is really comfortable, the temperature is spot on. I could sit here forever, but alas, I feel compelled to rise and do something at least semi productive. So today that means going on a walk. Despite the assurances of Thor at the concierge desk 😉, that the walk to the blue temple is “not safe” for me, we’ve determined that we are not the typical ‘Meridien’ customers and we are more than capable of this trek. Sure enough it’s about a 15 minute walk. And totally worth it. They just never cease to amaze me with the opulence of their temples here. This is a relatively new temple as  construction started in 2005 and was completed in 2013.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I also think i found new teacher chair for my classroom!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We wanted to try our hand at walking to town also so continued on a route that had us crossing the Kok river by a high bridge.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It ended up being a bit sunnier than I was planning when we set out, I may have gotten extra sun on my shoulders and neck, but this didn’t stop me from continuing my “grand clock tower tour of 2019”. Not really a thing but since I’ve been to two places now with clock towers, I thought I could make it something 🤣🤣 you decide which one is the ‘new’ clock tower and which is the ‘old’ clock tower!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tomorrow, we will be heading by taxi to My beloved Chiangmai. There are two options for getting there. A bus ticket for 268 Baht each, or a taxi for 2,500 baht. 🤔🤔 to be honest given the price delta, I’m tempted to take the bus, BUT, that road is a windy mess through the mountains, so bus doesn’t seem like much fun and besides where else could you get a taxi to drive you 4 + hour drive through the mountains for $85?? Wish me luck 😘

i love ChiangRai, I love Le Meridien! I could get used to this life 🤣🤣🤣

I spent the entire morning on the balcony drinking coffee. And I’m not going to apologize for that folks! I had the best night’s sleep. That bed……I want to take it with me!! If it weren’t for a small handful of things back home worth returning for, I’d just stay here in fact! Then…. the lounger on the balcony is also extremely comfortable. Plus the temperature was perfect (started at 82, rise to 89 by noon). It’s private and shady with a stunning view. Why would I leave you ask?!?!

By noon, I was ready to head out, so we set out for a walk to explore the neighborhood. The plan being to return by 3pm for high tea. We are in an area that equates to the suburbs back home. So there are homes and the occasional hotel, restaurants and other services like laundry and massage, but we are not in the town perSe. So it’s a little quieter than the hubbub of chiangrai. I like it. It’s clean and safe and quiet.

High tea at 3pm was lovely. Absolutely lovely. For a couple reasons, first, it was high tea ❤, secondly we met some new people! Diana and Eugen. He’s German and is a pilot for Korean air. And she’s 1/2 Danish and 1/2 Indian, speaks danish and French (grew up in Paris as mom is diplomat). They have the cutest 22 month old twins ❤❤. Anyway, they live in Chiangmai and are just up here doing a visa run. Spent the whole hour chatting and ended up exchanging info so we can stay in touch. Now who doesn’t need more friends all over the world?? Especially ones who can help me understand how to transition a life to Chiangmai.

We moved to the pool after they left and enjoyed a happy hour cocktail and watched the sun go down before we moved to the dining room and pigged out on the Indian Buffet! Lord I’ve never eaten so much delicious food!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TTFN

I set my alarm just in case I am not awake by 7:00am. Even though I know I’ll wake up by 6:15am just like I do every day. We need to be packed up and ready to go at the front desk by 8:30am! Seems doable, even for people on vacation. We had arranged with the nice lady at the front desk to get us a taxi to airport. She said it would be 700 baht 😳😳. Seems high but then she tells us it is 45 minute drive. WHAT? We didn’t know that, but apparently the airport is 45 minutes north back towards BangSaphon!! Hmmm should have planned that better. Anyway it is what it is and the options are relatively limited so we agree to the fare. Then she takes us over and I think we get into her car and she personally is going to drive us 🤔. 🤣🤣ok. I guess I don’t care who drives us…..

When we check in at NokAir counter, I notice offhand as he is tossing our bag onto the conveyer belt that the airport code on the tag is for Don Muang (not ChiangRai).  As often happens, things here are not what they seem. After digging into this and possibly squabbling with the guy for a while, it seems that Even though I booked one flight from Chumphon to ChiangRai with a layover in Don Muang (Bangkok), they claim it went through their system and is booked as two separate flights, so we have to pick up our bags in Don Muang and re check in, go through  security etc in Bangkok.  The guy’s English is limited, so he calls over a guy with better English (and maybe some authority) to “explain” to is that they can’t do anything about this situation. I insist he print our boarding passes for the second flight and they agree to put priority tags on our bag so it gets pulled from plane and we can get it right from plane before it goes into luggage system in Bangkok. The last thing we need is to miss this flight or not get our bags in time. There are very limited flights to ChiangRai and I am NOT missing one minute of my time at the really nice hotel I’ve booked up there! Le Meridien

The airport is very small. Like there are only two airlines that use it and one gate. They make us wait until 20 minutes before boarding time to even open the security area. Then we get let through to the one gate and we wait. The plane shows up (it’s the only one) and they unload it, presumably clean it, load us and the luggage and we are off all within 20 minutes. Pretty impressive and best part. ON TIME! Super shall propeller plane  seats are 2 and 2 across the aisle but I guess it’s to be expected!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

off to our next adventure!

Smooth sailing from here on out for the day! Landed in Bangkok transferred planes, landed in ChiangRai, caught 200 baht taxi to hotel (exactly what hotel told me it would be). Arrived in PARADISE! Oh my gosh, we stay in nice places, always clean and comfortable with good services! But I’m now officially spoiled. I booked three nights in ChiangRai at Le Meridien with points from my credit card. They have a whole new level of service here. Last year in HoChiMin city I used way more points to stay at a hotel that was nice, sure, but NOTHING like this. It’s over the top! And I love it ❤❤ They have high tea from 3-4 with complimentary food and tea, everyone knows our name, the beds are like clouds (seriously more comfortable than my bed at home), it’s huge, pool and view of the river are exceptional. Once the sun goes down, they light hundreds of tea lights everywhere. It’s beautiful….

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is going to be an awesome three nights here 🎉

There is a free shuttle to various places in town including the night bazaar, so we took it tonight and while in Troy’s mind a market is a market, he humored me and came along. It is much more manageable size and chaos level vs the markets in Chiang Mai. There was a stage with local entertainment, and it was peaceful to sit and watch under the beautiful moon.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

TTFN

 

 

 

 

not much to report for today. Leisurely morning, breakfast was good. They actually have fresh coffee made here from an espresso machine. You can certainly have instant as it’s available, but nice to have the option for fresh ground coffee too 🤣🤣

We went for a walk to try to find something cool in this town. It’s quite unremarkable as far as I can tell. (Thank goodness for the pool). We did end up back at the mall for Dairy Queen blizzard but took a stroll that had us crossing the river and going past a clock tower 🤔 and something else in an open air park.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We went back to the Farang Bar to eat as I remembered they had a menu item that said KFC chicken. It even referenced being “better than the Colonel’s chicken”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was good but no KFC. Chicken super tender and coating crispy but no salt or spices/flavour in coating. 170 baht well spent overall.

Feeling like we’ve explored all that Chumphon has to offer, we are very ready to move on tomorrow to ChiangRai and Le Meridien! One last experience that we have promised ourselves is the two hour massage. We went over to the massage place we’ve had good massage at for the last two nights and had ourselves a very relaxing 2 hours. Now I’m wondering if I am spoiled and will never think a one hour massage is adequate 😜😜