THAILAND SINGAPORE DAY 2 – Connecting Through Food

Nolan, a restaurateur friend of ours highly recommended a daytime food tour here in Chiang Mai.  By "highly recommend", I mean five superlatives and six F-bombs over the course of 4 texts. We cannot possibly resist such a suggestion.  So instead of indulging in the beautiful breakfast at the hotel, it’s just some coffee and a few nibbles.  By 9:15 we’re in a tuktuk and on our way to the meeting point, the Wat Lok Moli temple.  The Wat has a fantastic entryway, a couple life-size elephant statues and a beautiful Naga.  We spend a few minutes taking it in while we wait for our guide.  We meet Moui, our guide near the gold, four headed Buddha, because, well, Thailand. 

We find out right away that it’s just us on the tour, it being a quiet week just after Chinese New Year.  We climb into the back of the songthaew, the ubiquitous red open air taxis pickups that operate like New Jersey’s jitney busses.  Moui has hired this one for the day, and we’re off.  I could blather on for paragraph after paragraph about each stop, but that’d be a yawn and I’d run out of my own superlatives.  Instead, I’ll hit on some of the highlights, USA Today style:

• Khow Soi Lamduan Faharm (Traditional Northern Thai): Our first stop named after Khao Soi (cow-SOY), the region’s signature Northern Thai curry noodle soup.  We’re also served a big bowl of nam ngeow (nam-NEOW, where the NEOW is kinda like meow).  We’re assured by Moui that these are the best examples of the dishes in the city, and, judging by the fact that we’re the only tourists in the place, we’re inclined to agree.

That would be enough food for the two of us for an entire meal.  Only 5 stops and 20 more dishes to go. 

• Lap Pa Tan Di Khom (Traditional Northern Thai): Water buffalo laab, fermented pork jin som steamed in a banana leaf, Northern Thai braised pork curry.  Surprising flavors an textures, unbelievable spice combinations.  Again, we’re the only westerners here.  Lean in Dorthy, we’re not in Kansas any more.  And learn the right way to eat sticky rice (hint: it’s like how Italians use bread).

Being such an intimate little group, our conversation wanders easily from the evolution of the food culture through ancient trade and exploration to eating etiquette.  The feel is more coming-into-town-to-visit-a-friend than tourist experience.

• Neng’s Clay Oven Roasted Pork (Local Fave Today):  Great big Chinese clay pots, traditionally used to hold water, we long ago repurposed as high temp charcoal fired roasting ovens.  They make chicken and pork belly… best crispy skin in the game.  I’d fly here from Philly just for lunch. 

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• Plawann (New Local Success Story): Coconut and purple sweet potato flours used to make this sweet pancake treat about the size of a small muffin-top.  Woman started making them at home during Covid.  Crowd goes wild.  Now 33 franchises in Chiang Mai metro.  Yum sells!

• Pa Yod Shan (Vegan/Vegeterian): Pizza it ain’t.  But that’s what they call it even though it looks more like a quesadilla.  Make up a new name, it’s worth it.  Fermented tea salad was an unexpected highlight, especially this far down the food bunny hole.

It’s after this stop that Moui explains how shifting food culture has indelibly changed architecture.  The side effect of the evolution in work from agriculture, where you socialized while you toiled, to industry, where socialization during the day is discouraged, caused the population to gather for meals instead of making them at home.  Combined with the wide availability of high quality, inexpensive food choices, essentially, “nobody cooks at home any more.”  As the main gathering places went from homes to restaurants, the kitchens themselves went from the largest, busiest room in the house to the smallest and cleanest.  It’s common that a modern kitchen in Chiang Mai only has a tiny refrigerator and microwave, and no stove or oven at all.

• Siriwattana Market (Where We Shop Every Day):  As we hop out at this last destination, Moui announces that, after five full meals, “we’re going on a picnic!”  We can barely keep up with her as she hits her favorite stalls and grabs Chiang Mai sausage, green chili dip, peanut dumplings steamed on a cloth over a metal pot, sticky rice steamed in a foot ling hunk of bamboo, pork rinds, deep red roselle juice and bright pink ruby water chestnuts.  And bugs… a big ol’ scoop of black crickets, brown crickets and silkworms.  We wander over to an empty stall where our intrepid leader turns her sack of groceries into an impromptu multi course meal, appetizers through dessert.  If this stop had been the entire tour it would have been worth it.

That Mandy hung through every course at every stop (and yes dear readers, that includes the insects) absolutely amazed me.  The tour was highly recommended to us and surpassed the hype, letting us connect to the regional culture via cuisine.

Deep in the throes of some bizarre food-drunk, we’re dropped off at the starting point and say our goodbyes.  Right across the street is Wat Rajamontean, another of this city’s 1500 temples.  This one features a massive seated-Buddha statue overlooking the Old City.  Its charm is unmistakable and makes this temple outstanding indeed.  We walk along the canal – which formerly served as the gator-rich castle mote, catching the sites along the way. 

Inevitably, the 90F heat gets the better of us.  It’s not an exaggeration to say that every third door on any given street in Chiang Mai is a massage parlor, ranging from very basic to full-blown Beverly Hills spa.  We pick something modest and walk in.  60 minutes, two insanely great massages, $19.28USD total at today’s exchange rate.  We should do this every day!

Hotel, dip in the rooftop infinity pool, nap.  Ahhhhhh, vacation.

The nightly night market in Chiang Mai literally starts outside our hotel door.  Rested, we venture into the melee.  We only saw a small portion of the market last night so we make a few different turns to check out some more.  For some reason that only Buddha understands, we’re a little hungry.  For 200 baht, just under $6.50 USD, you can pick your own whole red tilapia and watch it be salt crusted grilled right in front of you.  Add a whole squid and some chiang da, local, seasonal greens, and coconut ice cream, and a world class dinner for 2 costs less than I typically pay for a martini.

THAILAND SINGAPORE DAY 1 – Buddahs, Banana Nails and Bros

We connected from Singapore to Chiang Mai, Thailand.  The transfer was easy, but the three hour flight with Scoot, Singapore Air’s budget carrier, somehow felt longer then the 19 hour flight we just disembarked.  We land in Chiang Mai, a city in the mountainous region of the country with 1.8 million inhabitants and a bustling airport straight out of the 1970s.  We hop in a black Peugeot 508 borrowed from Sixt, and only realize that the steering wheel is on the wrong side when the lot guy pulls it up and exits stage right.  Ohhhhh, stunt driving.  What could possibly go wrong?

Pulling into the Marriott, we are greeted by literally a dozen people who were all genuinely concerned for our wellbeing.  Our room is ready even though it’s only 11:30am.  We go up, and the staff has decorated the room for a birthday celebration because Mandy mentioned somewhere that this is the inaugural trip on our 60^th birthday celebration.  The trunk-locked pair of towel elephants show quite the dedication to the staff’s mission.

(click on the image to view the full size pic)

Hosed down, we head out.  Tired be damned.  We got a city to see and Mandy has a plan.  We’re walking towards the Old City with stops along the way.  The makeup of the shops on the average block is 6 bars (mostly open air with various themes), 6 massage places, and a custom tailor or 2.  As we get closer to Old City, the temples start dominating the architecture, from small one room structures to big campuses, from ornate to crazily ornate, from ancient to merely very old.  The first one we pass is a simple structure adorned with very detailed dragon headed, serpent shaped railings called Naga (pronounced naak) and are symbols of wisdom and protection.  Next to the small building is a 10 meter temple that enshrines a Buddha figure.  The two buildings are situated on about half a city block and create a quiet park for rest and reflection. 

The next temple we pass is larger, with a gold leaf chofah (pointy part at the top).  This temple holds a different version of  Buddha and we realize that there are many different representations of Gautama Buddha, varying in historical styles throughout history.  There’s a second building and a few surprisingly young monks we suspect are studying or serving  there.

We turn right onto the much wider and busier Phra Pokklao Road and things get way more serious temple-wise.  We arrive at Wat Chedi Luang, a complex the size of a small college campus.  Inside the gate, there are various shrines and places to make offerings.  We walk into an impressive Viharn (assembly hall) with a red interior flanked by 2 rows of gold columns and featuring massive Buddha image flanked by dozens of other statues.  We think this is the main event here until we walk around the building and see the actual Wat Chedi Luang, the Temple of the Great Chupa.  One of Chiang Mai’s most important temples features a massive Chedi (pagoda) on the top and was built from 1391 to 1475.  Some hundred years later it was mostly destroyed by an earthquake, and in the 1990s was partially restored to what we see today.  The massive Nagas on each side provide leading lines to each of the four Buddhas.  Once ringed with 32 massive elephant figures, those figures are near extinction with a mere five members left on a single side.

Another smaller assembly hall on the site is actively undergoing renovations and fully encased in chaotic bamboo scaffolding with the acrobatic workers scrambling  from perch to perch while working on the roof.  The contractor in me gets the biggest kick out of the project sineage.  OSHA would have a field day here.

Next stop is the Three Kings Monument, the actual starting point of Mandy’s list  It’s a royal monument dedicated to Kings Mangrai, Ramkhamhaeng, and Ngam Mueang, considered the founding fathers of Lanna Kingdom and the city we find ourselves in today. 

Just around the corner we stumble over our sightseeing highlight of the day, Wat Inthakhin Sadue Muang.  This compact temple is enthralling outside and beautifully preserved.  Inside there are five Buddha images arranged on three tiers, the biggest of which nearly scraping the high peaked ceiling with his head.  It’s breathtaking, and for the first time today we sit quietly and reflect.  The peace here is tangible.

Working on very little sleep, we change gears and do that most Thai of activities, his and hers mani-pedis.  We pick Yaya Nail & Spa from one of the myriad available spots and are taken straight away.  The woman gives us prices then she and her coworker get down to business.  About halfway through, I think to ask her name and she replies “Banana”.  This got the conversation rolling, and that conversation continued on when a woman from Wales takes my chair while Mandy is finishing up and drying.  Conversation wanders from ice cream to weather to travel Wrexham football before we finally part ways.  Total bill for both of us was about $24USD each.  We’re back to the hotel by 5.

While travel for us is certainly about meeting new people, tonight we’re meeting an old friend.  I met Joe DeQunique, my freshman year in college.  It is no exaggeration to say he profoundly changed the course of my life with one kind gesture on a Saturday night in October 1984.  Me and a bunch of my Drexel freshman dorm floor friends were at a ∑AM party and get to hanging out with Joe. He’s kind, happy, buzzy and huggy.  At one point, he askes us if we’re pledging the house, something we had never thought to do.  Apparently there’s a weeks long process where the brothers discuss each candidate and decide who should get a bid (invitation to pledge), a process my friends and I were absolutely not a part of.  When we tell Joe that we don’t think so, he says “come with me, I have the book in my room!” with the wide smile, squinty eyed expression known to accompany a night involving great quantities of cheep college beer.  In his room, he finds the pledge book and has us write our names and dorm rooms in it.  We don’t actually think anything of it until the next afternoon when bid envelopes are slid under our doors.

Becoming a Sammy was a seminal moment in my life.  It allowed me to shed the awkward  insecurities of growing up a misfit in my little hometown.  It gave me a chance to define the man I wanted to be.  It provided us with group to call our own.  It taught us the incalculable value of unity.  It taught us how to not be amateurs.  It taught us how to take the serious things seriously and the bullshit things bullshittiously.  It taught us trust and responsibility and service.  It was also THE animal house on campus.  There is a very straight line from that night with Joe to the person I am today. 

I think I have seen Joe once in person since he graduated in 1986.  We’re social media friends, so when I see he’s and his wife Tanya have landed in Thailand, I DM him.  To our collective surprise, we’re getting into Chiang Mai on the exact same day.  We meet in the lobby at 5:30 and have regressed to our 19-year-old selves by 5:35.  Decades later, same infectious smile and easygoing way about him.  Introductions with Mandy and T and we head out into the night market to check out the street food scene. 

The market is everything we hoped for.  Block after block of vendor booths and food stalls.  Turns out we’re all seafood fans, so first we order some massive shrimp and a big piece of octopus which the purveyor puts over a narrow grill.  While that cooks, we wander around and score some veggie dumplings, flash fried to order.  At one point we’re discussing exotic local delicies and Joe asks me if I ever ate scorpion.  I tell him that I had the opportunity once but didn’t, and I regret it because it would have made a better story if I did.  We find a table near a makeshift stage and the conversation among the four of us flows as easily as the Singha beer while we’re serenated with covers of Barry Manilow and Eric Clapton tunes. 

When searching for our next round of food, we spot the kabob lady’s display of Scorpion-On-A-Stick and decide that we are where we are supposed to be at this moment.  We grab a pair of the little critters along with some shrimp skewers.  A few spots down we order seafood fried rice in a pineapple and, while it’s being prepared, a big British guy sees our crustations and decides that he needs to join us, which he does.  So here’s some footage of me, a long lost brother, and some huge random dude from London eating fried arachnids.  This is why we travel.