At the Chiang Mai Airport, we were met by a driver from our guesthouse and Jack Giles, a Rotary friend who lives in CM and wanted to welcome us. Upon arrival at Pak Chiang Mai B & B we had glasses of blue butterfly flower juice and settled into our rooms. Jack came to pick up Larry and Hal for a Rotary dinner and Barb and I headed out with Dave and Alan, our ‘spares’ as we affectionately call them, to find a recommended restaurant. Unfortunately, it was closed, so we headed back to a street restaurant that we had passed earlier. We were encouraged by the fact that there were about 30 local thais eating there under the stars on folding tables and plastic stools. The specialty was plate sized fritata type dishes that were filled with mixed fish or veg or mussels or ??? We ordered all of the above, while the men headed for a store to buy beer to bring back. This was actually Barb’s second venture into street food and she was getting the knack of it...and the good news is no tummy issues. I think the beer cost more than the dinner, which was about $3 each.
The next day Barb signed up for a cooking class and I took ‘the spares’ to visit a Buddhist site with both old and new shrines/temples and to join the ‘Monk Chat Club’ which is an open area with concrete tables and benches where one is encouraged to help the local monks or novices practice their English. We soon had a group of local girls join in and we could have spent hours with them as enthusiastic as they were to speak English. We eventually headed to the ‘anything BUT Buddhist shopping mall’...yikes!...to do some shopping for the wives left at home. We took one of the red trucks, the back of which resembled an open air paddy wagon. Our evening adventure was a trip to a huge open air market...Barb and I shopped while the men drank beer and took in the local color. The area is known for fish restaurants, and dance performances by zeigfield costumed transvestites...something for everyone!
The wives and the spares were invited along with the Rotarians to visit some hill tribe villages that are being considered for improved water supply projects. The format was to gather in the village church or meeting hall and listen to the villagers’ current experiences of hauling water, broken pipes, the dilemna of water not running up hill, etc. in an effort to convince the Rotarians that they need help. We never heard a drum, but in no time at all the venues were full and lots of opinions expressed. The women were obviously the force behind the men and were clear that the labor would be provided by the villagers if Rotary could come up with an engineering plan and the materials, ie the money.
Lunch was one of the best meals yet at a crossroads open air ‘restaurant’ with big pots of simmering curry and precooked noodles just reheated quickly in pots of boiling water. This was followed by one more village and a quick drive to the Burmese border and then thru a Chinese refugee town which was once a shanty town and is now quite built up, but the inhabitants are not allowed to expand beyond their restricted area. I wish them luck in trying to keep the Chinese from expanding!! Remember TIBET!!
One of the Rotarians with a small upscale cafe treated all of us and about 6 more people who were officers of their Chiang Mai clubs to another great meal...hits were the salmon in a red curry sauce and a fish that had the meat cut out in pieces, sort of tempura’d then restacked on top of the tempura’d head, skeletal body and tail...interesting presentation and melt in your mouth. A photo would have been helpful!
Jack’s wife, Yohan, then took Barb and I to the night market along with the entire population of Chiang Mai for a crushing stroll thru the rows of vendors. Fortunately they closed down at 11 or we might still be there!
Packing up, lunch with Jack and Yohan and then off to the airport headed to Bangkok for the night were followed by an early departure for Kathmandu the next day, Sunday, October 14. Larry and I were wide eyed looking at all the changes, Hal had been there in '03 and '08, Dave hadn’t seen it since the late 70’s and Alan and Barb, along with the rest of us, were experiencing the usual sensory overload that Kathmandu always presents. Our guest house is in a residential neighborhood, clean and comfortable with a nice lounge that we easily manage to take over for our gin and tonic and everest beer happy hours.
