Thailand: Part 3.7 - More Chiang Mai

Upon returning to Chiang Mai, Robin, Patrick, Alston and I headed out to the Sunday night market. Robin prefers the Sunday night market over the Night Bazar that many tour books rave about. We hit the Night Bazar towards the end of our stay and I'll have to agree. We found lots of fun things - crocheted animals, handcarved/painted wooden animals, handcrafted bags, beautiful home accessories, odd T-shirts, musical instruments. Many of the markets have the same stuff but the Sunday night market seem to have more unique vendors. I personally could spend days meandering through vendor stalls hunting for cool things in markets like this but Patrick found that this Sunday night market to be his own personal hell. After a long day, Alston was a bit tired and crazed about everything - Including this Ultraman-like balloon (I'm sure you'll see the resemblance to actual Ultraman, as seen below). Thus shopping was maybe more exhausting for Patrick, who was playing Alston sherpa and balloon wrangler. Here's Patrick amidst the throngs of tightly packed people with his squirmy baby screaming and stretching to reach his balloon.

Funny buns I spied at the market.

There is so much to write and share about how amazing Thailand is. Especially, Chiang Mai which seems to have more character than Bangkok. Many parts of Bangkok feel like other industrialized cities - built up in a familiar western sort of manner. Chiang Mai feels more evolved out of history and culture. Even layout of the city has grown from its original walled configuration. So, you must traverse around the moats and gates, as seen on this map below. The large blue square depicts the moat and shows bridge points across into the downtown area of the city. Chiang Mai's preferred mode of transport - motor bike and tuk-tuk. We enjoyed the tuk-tuk rides quite a bit. The open air, whizzing around, a break from carrying Alston and the sheer joy Alston expressed with the wind in his face was worth what ever price we negoiated!
Wat, wat tons of wats - too little time! We could have spent weeks visiting all the wats. We chose to hit just a couple for the flavor. The first of which was Wat Phra Singh



The Buddha below is from the wat (I think, Wat Pan Tao)next door to Wat Chedi Luang, which was our REAL destination. There really are so many temples that you could just stroll from one to the next, if you have no agenda on specific places you are seeking. They are all beautiful.
Chedi Luang translates to "royal pagoda". Wat Chedi Luang is Robin's favorite temple in Chiang Mai and I can see why, as it has the best of all worlds. It has the very beautifully maintained and recently renovated (2007)prayer hall and an ancient chedi all on the same grounds.

This images really shows off the glided quality of the artistry. Below is an interior picture of the prayer hall with ornately decorated columns, crystal chandeliers and a stunning alter of Buddhas. Below is a woman selling birds in wicker cages on the grounds of the temple. The concept here is that you can purchase the experience (and good luck that it brings) of setting the caged bird free. Robin explained that the seller then usually works quickly to re-capture the "freed" bird and you guessed it sell the "good luck" again. So, it's a bit of a racket. We opted to be un-lucky in a bird freeing way.The other impressive part of this temple grounds is the 14th Century chedi that collapsed during an earthquake though there is some differing information on the date of the earthquake - some say 1545, others say it happened in the 17th century and yet others say it was damaged by cannon fire in the 18th century AND another source sites it was lighting that destroyed the spire! It once housed the famous Emerald Buddha(believed to be one of the most important objects in Thailand), now located in Bangkok(we'll see that later in our trip)

NOW, for one of my favorite stops!
i - berry!!!!!!
We spent an entire afternoon at the sublime ice cream garden of i-berry! This place was made for me. Quirky minimal sculpture garden paired with chilled shabby modern ice cream parlor with innovative and distinctively Asian flavors! One thing I have not mentioned till now is the climate in Thailand. IT'S HOT and HUMID. Something Patrick and I are definitely not use to. Some afternoons we'd walk a couple of blocks in the heat and be ready for yet ANOTHER cold refreshing beverage. We both would completely sweat through our outfits and have either a backpack or Alston stuck to us with perspiration. So, imagine the bliss....
when we stumble in to the air-conditioned i-berry, order some interesting frosty beverages with ice cream and Alston just passes out on the couch for an hour or two.
Above, I think you really can see the delight in Patrick's eye. I think he's sipping on an iced green milk tea and I opted for the ice strawberry tea with frothy strawberry puree. Of course, my favorite part was the ice cream. I ordered the magically whimsical "ice ice baby set", a grouping of 5 miniature ice cream cones!
What are you kidding me! This is the cutest food thing since the hello kitty waffle iron! You get to select the flavors (which was difficult), they scoop them up and deliver the cones in this cute little cone rack. The single cone above is blueberry mango sorbet and then displayed in the rack - rambutan sorbet, coconut, grape sorbet, and coffee. Patrick opted to get a dish of mangosteen sorbet (a very popular fruit in Thailand - coveted by our friend in SF, Kate). How he could pass on the ice ice baby set, I'm not sure!

As a side note: Maybe Thomas Keller found these ice cream cones an inspiration for his salmon tartar cones, as seen in this photo from our French Laundry dinner in April 2008.
The hours spend at i-berry were indeed splendid and pretty much all we managed to do one day. But there was tons of beauty right there - plastic cup lamps, garden with oversize dog man sculpture and plenty of well-dress puppies for Alston to meet (once he finally woke up).

Yes, the fluffy dog in the middle image does have on BLUSH!!!

Sadly, our time in Chiang Mai had to come to an end. There was one last trip to the mall near Daniel and Robin's place and photo with giant pandas for our niece, Grace (she loves her some pandas, as does Thailand currently due to the Bangkok birth of a new baby panda in May).

I've blogged just a sampling of some of the amazing things in Chiang Mai and we just BARELY scraped the surface of cultural beauty here. Wow, I kinda want to go back already.

It was sad to say good-bye to our generous hosts. Not sure when we'll have the opportunity to see Robin and Daniel again. They're easy going nature and fun spirit really set the tone for a lovely time in Chiang Mai. Personally, visiting and chatting with Robin and Daniel was half the fun of this stop on our trip. I so love hearing about their Thailand life and catching up on our lives on either side of the globe. They are truly GOOD people and have a friend in me for life. I hope that we will all live closer again some time soon.