26th January: Chiang Mai, Thailand
Our first morning in Chiang Mai was a lazy one. Eventually, we headed out to find a place for brunch. It took a while to wander into the city, via a few fairly busy roads. Having taken my usual approach of going on hazy recollections and vibes, I’d only realised that this is actually a big place when we arrived last night. I like to be surprised in this way to a certain degree and purposely avoid details, beyond the necessary required to arrange transport, to give myself honest first impressions. So, apparently, Chiang Rai is a large city and it’s definitely not a chilled backwater. Over 200,000 people live here.
We found a chilled spot for pancakes and then continued our meanderings past the east city gate. There are lots of decorations and preparations being made for this week’s Chinese New Year celebrations. Also, there seemed to be some major event imminent with various officially dressed people and military personnel waiting outside of a decorated building. Perhaps something Royal related? We didn’t hang around in the heat to find out.
Instead, we continued our food adventures which would be the theme for today. We chilled in a lovely concrete-heavy modernist coffee shop and watched from above, hypnotised by the skill of the expert baristas. My iced coffee was perfectly balanced and one of the only places on this trip that made it as good as I do at home!
Doing a bit of research, we discovered that today was the final day of the Chiang Mai food festival. It wasn’t that close, a couple of kilometres south outside of the city walls at the old cultural centre, but seemed a good idea. The walk wasn’t fun – as ever, Thai pavements either don’t exist, have things blocking them, or have sun shields at my head height. Still, this was worth the effort. There were hundreds of stalls and the entire event had a climate and sustainability focus, with various workshops held all weekend in the beautiful surrounds of the cultural centre.
The garden area at the back, with stalls and comfy seating around a pond felt like a mini festival but with edibles. After chilling in the shade with mango and strawberry ice creams, we wandered into an area highlighting Burmese cuisine. Many of the stallholders had moved to this part of Thailand due to violence in their home regions and were glad to share their stories through flavour, both in person and interviews for cameras filming the event. We tried some fantastic flavours, including an amazing tofu sandwich (tofu sliced open, with a crunchy salad inside); cashew butter; home-made traditional crisps; and a sharp honey, ginger, and quince soda. It was a fantastic event.
Sunday night is also when the main street is closed for the night market, so we headed back into the old city to check it out. Starting at its western end, we could see straight away that it would be busy. Not long in, we’d gotten ourselves some more good-looking snacks – mango sticky rice, rice rolls, and a big bag of roasted cashews. By my reckoning the cashews worked out at around £7 per kilogram, which is a price I’ve not seen anywhere in the world for at least 15 years. A bargain and tasty too! Both sides of the road and the centre were lined with stalls and these headed off into side alleys and designated food streets. The crowds were thick as far as the eye could see. It took us an hour to cover the length of the main market street to the east gate! Even then, a 3v3 basketball tournament was taking place and Chinese New Year decorations were lighting up the street beyond. This is a vibrant, happening city!
