After years of dreaming, we'd finally made it to Chiang Mai. I can't put my finger on exactly what it was that made us become so obsessed with making it there but after just 24 hours in the city anything we'd ever hoped for had been realised.
Just 15 short hours of travel got us there and the first port of call was a bowl of noodle soup followed by a few beers on the moat that rings the city, watching rats crawl in and out of drain pipes and a father and son attempt to hook a few of the fish that the moat is loaded with. They told me the name of the fish but I don't seem to be able to write or translate Thai.
The next morning we headed off and fed our temple addiction before walking out to Akha Ama.
Coffee is a big, big deal in Chiang Mai and these guys are one of the main players. I started off with a decent espresso and Nix a cold drip, or 'Black Juice' if you will, and we shared a shakerato (a double espresso shaken with ice) which presents like a Belgian brune and has been added to the home recreation list.
We stopped at a couple of other nice thirdwave outlets and it never ceases to amaze me how impressive these coffeeshops in places like Chiang Mai are. A lot of what we saw in Chiang Mai wouldn't be out of place back home.
The rest of our time was spent lounging around, plotting our next moves, reading and refining backgammon strategies before heading out at night to one of the many, many markets that make Chiang Mai so famous. There is some very cool stuff on offer and good food. There's also a f*ckload of swanning.
We've just come from the east where people move through markets in a clockwise direction and it's one of those moment in your existence where you go, 'wow! People can operate together in a logical manner and not defy rational thought'. In Chiang Mai though? Throw a few tourists in the mix and all that rational thought goes out the window.
People go against the tide, across the tide, whole groups stop in the middle of proceedings and people just generally become disgustingly selfish and outside of what they want in that exact moment, nothing else matters.
So yes, the markets were cool but god people can be shit.
Our market highlights were the morning Warowot and Dok Mai markets. We started off with breakfast in an alley tucked beside Dok Mai that consisted of Crispy Krullers and pandan Kaya with two steaming hot glasses of sweetened soy milk on the side.
After that we wandered through the Dok Mai market seeing someone else's breakfast writhing about before I let Nix loose in Warowat market.
She passed the Thai wife test acquiring some Chiang Mai style sausage, Nam Prik Noom and pork rind, and some coconut jellies. Second breakfast of the morning was served.
Of course there were some other food highlights too. Khao Kha Moo from the cowboy hat wearing lady at Khao Kha Moo Chang Phueak, Northern Thai style Laab at Sorn Chai and a pomello Som Tam at Huen Phen were all very memorable and have left a very nice Chiang Mai flavoured taste in our mouths...
After that we wandered through the Dok Mai market seeing someone else's breakfast writhing about before I let Nix loose in Warowat market.
She passed the Thai wife test acquiring some Chiang Mai style sausage, Nam Prik Noom and pork rind, and some coconut jellies. Second breakfast of the morning was served.
Of course there were some other food highlights too. Khao Kha Moo from the cowboy hat wearing lady at Khao Kha Moo Chang Phueak, Northern Thai style Laab at Sorn Chai and a pomello Som Tam at Huen Phen were all very memorable and have left a very nice Chiang Mai flavoured taste in our mouths...
