Life at the Night Markets

It is 4 weeks today since I arrived in Chiang Mai and I am enjoying it more each day.
It is so very easy to live here, the people are friendly, the temples are beautiful, the taxis are a mere 40p wherever you want to go, there are hundreds of places to eat good healthy food and it's really laid back despite being a big city.
So far I have spent £400, that includes all food, drink, trips and a double room with wifi, tv and fridge.
It has an old town that is surrounded by a mile square moat, so very easy to read a map and to navigate your way around. Even if you get lost, as long as you haven't crossed the moat you know you are not too lost really.

The Tefl course started on Monday, for reasons best  known to myself (after speaking to lots of people who have completed the course),  I decided a couple of weeks ago that I wasn't going to do it this month but instead go and do some volunteer work, and possibly defer the course to a later date.
I have found a great place in the east of Thailand to do some volunteering, teaching kiddies basic English between 4-7pm  and have been accepted to start around Dec 20th.
I spoke to the director at the Tefl and he was very understanding and suggested that I go along for the first couple of days to see if it is what I want to do.
And so, for the past 2 and a half days I joined the new group and sat in on the class, I will decide in the next month or so if it's what I want.

One of the best things to do here is enjoy the outdoor life, especially the evening markets.
There is a night bazaar every night but the best two by far are the Saturday and Sunday ones.
They are in 2 different locations and take up the length of a road (no traffic allowed) and lots of side streets too.
Almost all the things for sale have been hand made and its all lovely to look at.

It goes without saying that dotted along the way are the mobile eating stalls. Even though I see it every night, it still amazes me how they can create such lovely food from something so basic, here is Pad Thai.
There are so many things to buy and all the stalls are set out so beautifully.

Joss sticks       

Bags purses and key rings

Every where you go you can have a massage and this includes on the side of the street at the market. These people are having a foot maggase for 150 Baht (about £3)    Look at how disinterested the masseurs are, and the lady in pink texting, so funny to see and yet so ordinary here.

Shoes

Time for a food shot...This is the sausage stall, he make some of them onto balls and you can buy strings of them, very easy for walking around with as he divideds them for you and pops them into a plastic tray with some chilli sauce, should you want it 

This lady is always so elegant, she and the rest of the band play lovely music, it is so nice to have this sort of thing included while strolling around the market stalls, and all on the side of the road.

      The Temple makes a wondeful setting for some of the stalls

 

A monk looks for bargains, a man sleeps while his ducks cool, a lady prepares food and this smiley lady shows off her freshly squeezed bottled juice.

This little girl was dessed up and had been sitting on the stool, she was happy to pose for photos, I am not sure why she dressed like this

 Tasty cakes and not so tasty bugs, whatever you want (or don't want to eat), you can find it here

Amazing paintings by a local Thai girl

Fab kebab!

This is Fatima, the girl I met from Morrocco                                                                                          







This about sums up Thailand!

You can enjoy some of the food in one of the Temple grounds, on Sunday I sat here with a girl from Morocco whom I had met during the day, we spent all the evening at the market walking, talking and taking photos.

The area is lit by lanterns, most of the people are local.

Don't laugh, tomorrow I am going to the Doi Suthep Temple, which is high on a hill.

My intention is to stay there and be taught to meditate by monks.

I have signed up for 4 days, it involves getting up at 5am, Breakfast at 7am, last meal of the day is lunch at 11am(yep, that's right, no food after noon although liquid is allowed, sadly not of the alcoholic kind) and sitting or walking around slowly not being allowed to speak.

You can only wear white clothes, of which  I picked up cheaply from the market as I will leave them there afterwards.

Oh, almost forgot, the bed and pillow is purposely hard as one of the rules are 'abstain from comfortable places for sitting or sleeping and over indulging in sleep'

Why would I deny myself the things I like most i.e sleep talking and food ?

To be honest I am not really sure. A little bit crazy I must be.

It has been suggested many times during my life that I should meditate and as this is a Buddhist country with temples and monks all over the place I decided now might be the time.

So, the next blog will be of the experience, watch this space.......

A day in the country side

There are so many trips to do from Chiang Mai, and I did some of them when I was here last year.
There are a lot of visits to Elephant camps, cooking classes and river boat trips each of which I did last time.
There are many involving trekking, white water rafting and floating down rivers on a bamboo raft, most of them include 1 or 2 over night stays in a tent or 'homestay' with a local family, all the promotional photos show people in their teens and twenties, and to be honest I think I would have preferred to have done it 20 years ago!
A lot of the tours go where many other tourists go which can be annoying, and so I was pleased to be able to join a new tour that went off the beaten track and indeed the 3 of us (myself and 2 German men in their late 50's) were the only westerners we saw all day.
We were met by our guide at 8am, a 26 yr old that we called Mr P as his name was far too long to remember.
Our transport was a covered truck with two padded benches down each side, they are what are used as every day taxis and can hold 10 people,  probably more like 8 westerners as we are that much bigger. The back is open so you can see where you have been and it makes for a nice breeze.
First stop was to watch wonderfully talented carpenters, spending their days sculpting mainly Elephants and a few Buddhas from different woods. They were also commissioned by Hotels to make huge life size ones and these were made from concrete.

There were literally hundreds of carefully carved Elephants most of which were in a couple of rooms that very few people ever got to see.
It is a talent that not many would have and these men had been working there all their lives in pretty rough conditions as the pictures show.

 This was being carved by the boss and had taken some 6 months, it was beautiful, another completed one was in one of the rooms.

They are 3D effect and so intricate, an amazing talent to have.

This was where some of the workers lived, simple but beautiful against the lush green

And so, on with the day, next stop were some caves. What the tour description didn't say was that there were many many steps to climb to get to the entrance and many many going down to descend into the caves, and it goes without saying, they had to be negotiated in reverse when coming back out of the cave...Not my favourite part of the day.

And now, onto lunch which we were to be cooking ourselves.

This  was fun and began with a trip to a local market to buy the ingredients.

It was really interesting looking around and seeing what the locals eat, some of the more extreme items being frogs, some were sold alive (to prove their freshness) they would later be barbecued, and critters that looked like cockroaches but I was assured they weren't.

Fascinating to see and they were just as fascinated by us as they don't usually see any foreigners.

This lady was selling what we know as a 'bouquet garni' fresh herbs to add to a chicken stew, the shear size of it was amazing and far outshone anything we can buy in Tesco!

Ingredients purchased and a mile up the road to our  guides home that was still in  the process of being built for him by his Father.

He told us it is in preparation for his wife and children, however a wife has yet to be found, he says they don't want him because he is too skinny-bless!

Here, on the floor of Mr P's home, are the 2 German men, although very pleasant didn't share my humour especially when I laughed at them when they dutifully donned their aprons!

Here they are shredding mango that will go into the spicy salad to accompany the chicken curry and rice and Pad Thai that we would also make.

Mr P who describes himself as a happee hippee

Cooking in the open kitchen, with a lovely view through to his garden comprising banana and papaya trees and many different herbs that we gathered to add to the pot.

After a tasty lunch Mr P surprised us by picking up his guitar and singing some tunes. He used to be in a group an had a great voice.

Our view from this room was of the open fields and mountains

 Its' time to harvest the rice, and on our drive there were many people in the fields gathering it into piles to dry out and then extract the rice.

A man trying to impersonate a scarecrow  poses with 2 bales of rice, it's hard work and Hot!

We went to a place where several ladies were making fabric on old looms from of cotton and silk, after that we went to a huge lake where we were promised it would be tranquil with the odd person fishing.

Instead, there were about 7 rowdy men getting p****d on Thai whisky celebrating I don't know what and having a fun time. We were a source of amusement to them, there are not many foreigners in this part of town. They did invite us to join them for a drink but Mr P declined for us ( I would have said yes!)

Our last stop was to climb another load of bloody steps to the top of a temple where the view was stunning, you could see for miles, hard to capture its beauty on a photo.

Back down the steps and a 45 minute drive back to town.

The day was fun and reminded me how much I love the rural areas and people of this beautiful country.

Fabulous Food!

I have been feeling rubbish the past few days with a cold, and trying to keep cool in this heat is no fun.
It's all very well having a fan but when all it does is circulate warm air, there seems little point having it whirring round all day.
The worst is now over and so I will be busying myself again soon.
Meanwhile, some fab food pics...

The colourful market, love the aubergines!

I had this plate of 9 fresh fruits for breakfast, it cost less than £1.30 and was scrummy!

Or cheaper still, buy freshly prepared fruit to take away from the market stall. Each pack 20p

These colourful 'spring rolls' are not fried,  served with a sesamee vinegarette dipping sauce less than £1.

With eating out being so cheap, it's a wonder all this fresh food ever gets sold

For those of you who know me well, you will know that this is my perfect lunch, and for under £1!

It was so good I had another portion...

These are omelettes cooked and served in a banana leaf after being grilled over charcoal, cost 20p

Choice of shrimp, mushroom or sausage filling.

Hot hot hot!

Skewered and Barbequed, I wasn't brave enough to try them

This lady and daughter were cooking quails eggs, it's quite popular here

They don't really fall into the fab food catagory, but there is something appealing about them as they are so dinky, and that they are served in a dish made from banana leaf is cute -                  I really need to get a life!!

posted  20 11 2011 - a lucky date...

Temples, Travellers tales and a cat!

Some days go by where I don't meet any one new. I walk around the area where I stay that has become familiar and smile and greet the few that I know by name and have a chat.

There is the Thai girl who runs an Internet cafe with her Greek husband and their beautiful 3yr old son, sadly the husband is fed up with her and has decided she is worthless and thick, she shed some tears and I provided a shoulder.

Then there is the lovely larger than average Thai girl who provides massage, she too has man problems in the fact that she can't find a decent one (join the club love)

She has tried dating sites for larger women  and reckoned she received loads of responses... all wanting just one thing!

Yesterday however, I met and spoke with 6 new people, two ladies in their 60's from Holland, a couple also their 60's from Bristol, a girl in her early 30's from London and a guy about 24 from Germany.

One of the Dutch ladies had lived in Thailand for 5 years but said that the heat of the summer - April onwards is just too unbearable reaching over 40 degrees.

So now she just comes for the winter months and lives cheaply and comfortably until the weather warms up a little in Holland.

 

After a late breakfast I walked around and admired some of the many Temples in the city. You can't help but to marvel at their beauty, I love that they are just on a regular street alongside shops and banks, can't quite imagine this next to Primark somehow.

  

They are all individually splendid in their detail and all contain many forms of Buddhas inside.  

You have to take your shoes off when entering and be silent.     

How touristy is this photo? A Chinese guy insisted on taking it after I took one for him

In between visiting Temples I was browsing outside a Thai antiques shop and struck up conversation with the aforementioned couple from Bristol. They travel each year to SE Asia for about 4 months to escape the British winter. Each year they spend much of their time visiting some familiar places and countries such as Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Malaysia and then add on somewhere different, this year they will also visit China and Burma. They were very chilled and interesting.

For the recent festival all of the Temples had lanterns outside with small lamps in, now the festival is over a kitten decided it was a good place to hang out!

                                                   Or hide....

Or sunbathe................

Last night while having dinner and a beer, I got chatting to a girl travelling alone from London, she has been here for a month volunteering in an orphanage having already spend a month in Vietnam. Tomorrow she she heads South for another month to do some island hopping, and then,  after a couple of weeks in Cambodia, she will go home to spend Xmas and new year with her Mum in Edinburgh. In January she is off to Africa for 3 months!

Later on,  I stopped to chat to a German guy who was planing a trip by river through Laos, V'nam and Cambodia.  I asked how long he had been here and he casually replied that he left Europe 9 months ago and is on a round the world trip, having visited NZ, Oz, Latin and Central America and Malaysia and Singapore before arriving in Thailand, simply amazing!

I encouraged him to say where his favourite place was and he decided it had to be Peru for its shear diversity.

That is what I love about travel, you meet so many interesting people doing the most interesting and wonderful journeys.