Good Food and Friends

Chiangmai, Thailand -- Nov 30-Dec 1 -- Day 2-3

True to form, our first few days in a new country tend to involve a lot of planning. This was even more true this time in Chiangmai because of the chance to coordinate possible visits from my sister, De Ann in Australia or New Zealand and with good friend Mike “Y” from the Bay Area in either Hong Kong or Vietnam. We’ve now sketched out a rough itinerary, and it's looking like we may have to rely on a few more flights than usual to make it all work out. (Eh hem, well, you know, we do have a schedule to keep since we have to be in southern Cambodia to meeting up with the Pfyffer’s for Christmas.) And so it went, bus tickets, plane tickets and tour reservations.

Down graded hotel room.  Nice enough at one seventh the cost.

Bad hair day

Trip planning

Tuk Tuk ride

In a bit of luck, Meg just heard from her sister, Beth, yesterday morning that one of her friends was in Chiangmai that very morning. By the miracle of email, we soon had plans to meet Anne and her mother, Jean, for breakfast at a nearby restaurant. They would be leaving that night to help with construction at a women's center in Chiang Dao.

Despite our lack of sightseeing, the real highlight of the last couple days was our dinner time visits with Isabelle and her housemate Maria. On Wednesday night we attended a Mexican themed dinner that Isabelle arranged at her place. Since there was apparently no street address for the small apartment complex, she “called in” the Uber taxi so she'd be able to pin point the exact location. In the end though, with the driver confused anyway, she hopped onto her little pink “Scoopy” scooter to meet us en route and lead the way back.

The guest list for the party was made up of Thai women Isabelle had first met during her language training at the beginning of the summer. I was a little suspect whether Isabelle really had any friends when after a couple hours no one else had yet arrived. The kids though were unconcerned having hit it off with Maria, particularly when she brought out a cool puzzle and hidden picture book that she loved as a kid.

In any event, the other guests did show up en Masse soon after and then the chopping, slicing and dicing for guacamole began in earnest. Kylie squeezed the limes for margaritas while Dex did an excellent job cooking up the homemade tortillas.

The evening was topped off by whacking the homemade piñata and stumbling through some salsa and cumbia accompanied by Isabelle's favorite Spanish language tunes. What fun.

This evening, Thursday, we managed to talk Isabelle and Maria into joining us again for dinner and a stroll through the night market. My first impression of the market was of how clean and well lit it was. We mosied around a while checking out the shirts, bags, and small souvenirs. The colorful, hand carved soaps shaped like flowers's were very impressive while the wooden string/ball//loop puzzles kept the group distracted despite our ultimate quest for food.

In the end, we found a small table outside one of the many food stalls and ordered a half dozen Thai dishes, sticky rice, iced tea and beer. Incredibly flavorful, tangy and spicy Thai food has quickly become one of our favorites. We toasted to another great evening and the kids had a great time showing off pictures from Nepal and Africa. Although we didn't get around Chiangmai too much, we still managed to enjoy ourselves. What we've missed out on in major tourist sites, we've more than made up for with good food and friends.

Maria and Dex