Milling about in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Recently, we stayed for 2 rather wholesome weeks in the northern Thailand town of Chiang Mai. Specifically we stayed in the Old City which is a 1.5km square in the centre of the town surrounded by crumbling walls and beyond that a full-fledged moat. The moat no longer prevents intruders, but it does seem to ease traffic flow which means the Old City is the quiet eye of the bustling Chiang Mai storm.

The town is lovely, especially as it's flanked by jagged forested mountains to the east and west, but it's not really the cultural hotspot it's often referred to as - there are treks to visit hilltribe villages and suchlike, but in the south of the city these are advertised in every third shop, and every second shop is a coffee shop. This does make it very easy to find things to do and drink coffee but not really see any proper culture. Whatever that is.

So apart from sip Americanos we took a Thai cooking class, did the Samoeng Loop twice (covered in the previous epic sprawling blog post), went downhill mountain biking and watched the 2013 CDC (Chiang Mai Downhill Challenge).

We didn't fancy visiting the elephant parks, snake farm, tiger kingdom, monkey centre or other such ethically dubious attractions - but here are a few of our favourite Chiang Mai things...


1. Sunday Walking Street

Every Sunday from around 4pm, Ratchadamnoen Road and adjoining lanes are closed to vehicles and market stalls are set up in any available space. As the sun sets the Walking Street starts to get so busy that the foot traffic becomes two slow-moving trains, down one side of the street and up the other. These trains weave in and out of Temple courtyards and across junctions in all directions.

So what can a mile or two of market sell? Well, apart from the obvious souvenirs (anything you like in elephant form) there are more unusual things like traditional musical instruments, miniature furniture and wooden postcards. You can buy glass jewellery that is blown to shape in front of you, or a freshly constructed leaf hat (better than it sounds).

The atmosphere is really quaint. There is very little in the way of loud disco music and musicians give the street a beat. There are no hard sells and no litter anywhere - and best of all it's full of Thai people rather than just pandering to the armies of tourists. You can find trays and mats sold at the market in cafes across Chiang Mai, which is strangely nice.

Maybe buy a sueng. Maybe have a fish spa.

Really, though, it's all about the food. Unsurpringly there is an abundance of snacks like mango and sticky rice or banana spring rolls. We tried fried quails eggs, Takoyaki (Japanese style octopus in a batter ball), blocks of fried seaweed (also better than it sounds), Luk Chup (little fruit shaped sweets made from mung bean flour), tiny sweet pastries, and some Thai spicy egg salad.

To wash this down there are refreshing beverages such as Matcha green tea, Bael fruit tea and fresh coffee - all of which can be tried hot or iced and with condensed milk.

Needless to say after all that food Monday was a bit more like waddle street.


2. Funky Monkey Cafe

Awesome family run cafe with low key decor and low key prices. You can get fantastic "farang" food like French toast or muesli with fruit salad (includes dragon fruit!) and the Thai food is of the finest quality too.

We found ourselves here quite regularly drinking their specialist coffee and banana "Funky Monkey Shake" (possibly but unlikely to be trademarked). Smoothies are the best in Thailand (no hyperbole) and homemade banana loaf is available at a steal.

3. Museum of World Insects and Natural Wonders

Found through TripAdvisor we visited here because of combinations of words such as "surreal" and "informative". It is both of those things. The museum mainly documents Dr Rampa Rattanrithikul's decades of research on mosquitoes and the diseases they carry, but also features cabinets full of painstakingly preserved other creatures, rocks in the shape of dogs and bizarre paintings.

We were lucky enough to meet the doctor, who is still wonderfully enthusiastic about her strange collections - and told us how she had identified several new species of mosquitoes, gave us some details about "biological control" of disease carrying mosquitoes using friendly giant mosquitoes(!) and how she'd helped narrow down the malaria-vector species of mosquitoes to just 3 out of over 400.

It only takes a couple of hours to look around, but it's funny and interesting and surreal and informative.


4. Brown Rice Restaurant

More food! A vegetarian restaurant which blew our minds a little bit with some amazingly tasty meals full of fresh herbs and vegetables, to the extent you didn't notice the lack of meat (and we're carnivores). We also had some bright and refreshing herbal beverages including a 'Tom Yum' drink - lemongrass, lime and chilli. And brown rice too of course.

We bought homemade cereal bars here intending to take them on our cycle round the Samoeng Loop, but only one made it that far...


5. North Gate Jazz Co-op

We went to this small bar for its Tuesday jam night, which we found to be so popular that the crowd spread out into the street. As well as some sweet jazz we also got a free balloon magic show (why not?) and some spicy peanuts. Not bad!

- Us