2019 had been a busy year and we were in need of a break before hosting the family for Christmas. The Christmas lights were up, in Steve’s usual tasteless style, so we thought “why not take off to Thailand for a couple of weeks?” This time it was all about familiarity; revisiting places we have been before.
We were planning three centres; Chiang Mai, in the mountainous north of Thailand, and then flying south for some diving in Koh Lanta and then chilling on the beach in Railay.
We had booked long legroom seats on our 11.50 flight from Heathrow to Bangkok, which gave us pleny of space for a very modest surchange. Certainly much cheaper than paying for premium economy or business class.
After a 95 minute stopover in Bangkok we had the short, 80 minute, internal flight to Chiang Mai. Much less room on that flight, but it wasn’t for very long.
The first time we stayed in Chiang Mai we chose a hotel away from the centre and needed to hop on and off of tuk-tuks or songthaew busses to get to and from the hotel. This time we decided to stay within the old city walls, which are laid out in a square, surrounded by a moat, with North, South, East and West gates. Our hotel was on the road running between the West and East gates and close to the road running North-South, so very central. It was also right in the middle of the night market.
You couldn’t really miss our hotel. It had even more fairy lights than Steve had left on our house back home!
Chiang Mai cooking school – Thai Akha Kitchen
We had booked a cooking school that included a tour of the local market, to buy ingredients and sample some local delicacies. Steve’s Facebook update said: “Today I have learned that pigs’ testicles taste very nice, their brains taste OK and crunchy silk worms don’t taste enough like cheese puffs for me to want a second one.“
The dishes we cooked in the cookery school were much less exotic:
Starters:
- Papaya Salad
- Fried Spring Roll
Curry and Paste
- Red Chicken Curry
- Green Chicken Curry
- Panang Chicken Curry
- Massaman Chicken Curry
Soup
- Chicken & Coconut Milk Soup
- Hot & Sour Prawn (Tom Yum) Soup
- Clear Soup and Egg Tofu
Stir Fry
- Sweet & Sour Vegetables with Chicken
- Chicken with Hot Basil
- Chicken with Cashew Nut
- Pad Thai
Deserts
- Mango with Sticky Rice
- Pumpkin in Coconut Milk
For the curries most of the time and effort going into making the curry paste from scratch, grinding the herbs and spices in a mortar and pestle. (Useful tip: you can buy freshly prepared ready made spice paste in the market!) Steve made Panang (Jungle) curry, which is very hot, and Debbie made Massaman curry, which has potatoes. Steve made Tom Yum soup and Debbie the Chicken & Coconut Milk one and for the stir fry, Steve was Pad Thai and Debbie Chicken with Hot Basil.
The Happy Elephant Home
We had wanted to go to an elephant sanctuary but, having read up a bit, we learned that many of the tourist attractions exploit the elephants. The Happy Elephant Home seemed to be more ethical; rehoming elephants that had been used for rides in the tourist trade and offered educational volunteer placements as well as day visits.
It was about an hour’s minibus ride outside of Chiang Mai and when we arrived we were given a choice of tatty old smocks to pull over our t-shirts. Apparently the elephants are used to the look and smell of these clothes which helps them cope with the ever-changing flow of tourists.
Our first job was to chop sugar cane with machetes and fill shoulder baskets with the cut lengths. Then we were taken to meet the elephants. I’m not sure that they recognised the clothes we were wearing but they certainly recognised the sugar cane bags. A two ton elephant isn’t a very subtle pickpocket and we were soon being mugged for sugar cane!
The enclosure that they were fed in also had a large muddy pool that they wallow in and spray muddy water over their backs as a sun-block and we spent a while watching them before escorting them down to the river to bathe. It was clear that the elephants were very used to this routine and knew exactly where to go.
Still images really don’t do the visit justice so please take a couple of minutes to watch the video.
Wat Prathat Doi Suthep
Doi Suthep is a Buddhist temple (Wat) about ten miles out of Chiang Mai. “The name”Prathat” means relic of Buddha and, according to legend, a fragment of Buddha’s shoulder bone, that was carried to the site on the back of a white elephant, which trumpeted three times and then dropped dead – so they built a temple on the site!
It is quite a climb up to the temple (309 steps!) but there is a great view of Chiang Mai from the top. There is also a model of the Emerald Buddha and an Amber Buddha.
Logistics
| Outbound: | Thai Airways TG 911 depart: London Heathrow (LHR) 06/12/2019 11:50 GMT arrive: Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) 07/12/2019 06:15 GMT+7 Thai Airways TG 102 depart: Bangkok, Thailand (BKK) 07/12/2019 07:50 GMT+7 arrive: Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNX) 07/12/2019 09:10 GMT+7 |
| Accommodation: | Saturday 7th December U Chiang Mai Address: 70 Ratchadamnoen Rd, Sri-Poom Chaing Mai, 50200 Thailand |
| Internal Flight: | Bangkok Airways PG 246 depart: Chiang Mai, Thailand (CNX) 12/12/2019 11:50 GMT+7 arrive: Krabi, Thailand (KBV) 12/12/2019 13:45 GMT+7 |
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