Christmas in Chiang Mai

One of the reasons we wanted to come back to Chiang Mai was to take the kids to the great zoo here and see the pandas. So on Christmas Eve we jumped in a car and went up to the zoo to do just that. Unfortunately someone forgot to tell the pandas, as they’re not here anymore! Or ‘at the moment’. Where they are, we’re not sure. Also, the zoo has declined somewhat from its heyday so it was a little more tired than it was on our previous visit.

Both Hamish and I were still quite sick so it was a slow meander around the zoo looking at all the animals. There were still plenty there of interest, in particular the elephants, which we were able to feed, the hippos, sun bears, lions and capybaras. It was a pretty full day there and we were knackered afterwards so headed back to the hotel where we dropped the kids off with granny and grandpa for a swim while Jim and I went and did some very last minute Christmas shopping.

On our way back from the shops we browsed at the dinner options. If it was just the two of us we’d be going for the cheap and cheerful (and delicious) street food, but with various dietary needs to consider we had to look a little harder. It took us a while, but we found a suitable place so walked home to pick up the others and head back there.

Christmas Day arrived, and after breakfast in the hotel we opened the small number of presents we can carry (but mine sparkled so I’m definitely not complaining), then headed into town to lunch at a fancy hotel. It was a bit of a challenge to find something special to do for Christmas lunch – many years ago Jim and I had Christmas in Hoi An in Vietnam, another place where they don’t do Christmas, and had a very memorable seafood and beer feed for about $10. This time we went the other way and went to a fancy hotel for a Christmas buffet. The food was excellent – a mix of local cuisine, traditional Christmas roasts, sushi, seafood and desserts. Heidi had a lifetime’s worth of sushi, while Hamish found the carb table (chips, pizza, pasta). The rest of us sampled a wide variety of cuisines.

We rolled out of there and back to the hotel for a quiet rest of the day by the pool – very relaxing, and a good way to do Christmas without all the hard work of having to prepare everything.

On Boxing Day we woke up early, in part to listen to the Boxing Day test from the MCG (first ball at 6:30am), but also because we were due at cooking school, getting picked up at 8am. Jim and I had been to this cooking school previously and found it really good. It’s obviously doing well as it has grown significantly in size in the intervening years. First up they take us to the garden to show us some locally grown ingredients, then to the markets. Then it’s back to start cooking. We decided to pair up cooks with non-cooks, so Hamish was with me, Heidi with Granny and Jim with Grandpa. We could all choose from a selection of things to cook so each chose one salad, one appetiser, one soup, one stirfry, one curry and one dessert.

The cooking part was pretty fun, and was interspersed with eating along the way. All of it was delicious (compliments to all the chefs!) and the kids did really well keeping up. Again we rolled out of there and walked almost all the way home, except Jim and I left the others right near the end to go and check out the local supermarket. Somehow the other four split into two groups of two, with one getting horribly lost.

They made it back somehow, but how they got lost I’m not sure (it really was only a few minutes’ walk from the hotel).

No dinner that night after the five course lunch, so we had a few beers next to the pool, then because the walking street markets was right in our street we ended up there having a few bites to eat as we wandered around. Very convenient to have it right in our street! Even better, there was a stall making cocktails right outside the door of our hotel so we grabbed a couple of Mai Tai’s for 100baht each ($5) to have in our room with our dessert.

Yesterday we jumped in a red taxi (a ute with seats sideways at the back) and went up to the Royal Park Gardens. This place was a weird mix of strange buildings (one about being financially literate, one about populating Mars etc). But beyond the buildings the gardens were really nice, especially the orchid house. We also went into the Royal Pavillion which was quite impressive. It was once again a lot of walking though – I’m slowly getting better but by no means 100% but Hamish is still quite unwell so it was a slow wander around.

Back in the red taxi home again for a swim and a rest before heading out to dinner – this time to another rooftop bar I found a couple of streets away in the Moose Hotel. Conveniently they had 2 for 1 cocktails so the big people enjoyed a Chiang Mai Sling – we all agreed it is not as good as a Singapore Sling, but anything with lychee in it is a win for me. The food was delicious too so it was a good choice.

Today we were up early again as some other guests in the hotel had mentioned that there is a good trail to do up the mountain to a couple of Wats. Called the Monks Trail, it starts near the university/zoo, so we got a red taxi up to the start and go walking just after 8am. Again, Hamish and I are still not really up for that sort of physical activity so had to stop a lot, then decided to stop at the halfway point, which was a very impressive Wat and other buildings while the others went on.

As it turns out, the next bit of the climb was very challenging, steep and busy, so they others gave it away before reaching the next Wat. There was also a bit of smog over the city so they didn’t get the view either which was a shame. We then walked back down the hill, had a coffee near the university, then walked the extra 30 mins or so to home.

The kids have been back in the pool while I did a bit of work and wrote this. For our last evening here we are heading back into the old town to the big Chiang Mai Sunday Walking Street. We remember this being great fun last time, and have high hopes after the fun, but smaller market we went to a couple of nights ago.

Tomorrow morning we farewell Granny and Grandpa who are catching their plane back to NZ via Singapore, while we jump on our bus for the almost four hour trip up to Chiang Rai. Looking forward to exploring a new destination!