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Except  for  the B  at our  B&B, we  ate  -- who claimed to make the best crois-  ple) try on a sample neck coil. Ouch.
            every meal on the street or in street-  sants in Chiang Mai -- as well as a part-
            side cafes. Our favorite food experience   time tour guide. Chai was a character;  Our other excursion outside the old city
            was a night of gorging at the market in   his favorite expression of surprise was   was to explore the markets just east of
            Nong Buak Hard Park. In honor of the  “Oh, my Buddha!” When asked how he   the moat. Crossing the Ping River, we
            Flower Festival, the park exhibited doz-  learned  English,  “Rock  and  roll  songs.  came across crews sticking chrysanthe-
            ens of flower arrangements while wom- Eric Clapton, John Denver, the Beatles.” mums on flowered floats and Chiang
            en in elaborate costumes danced to                                    Mai beauty queens touching up their
            the music of traditional Thai pipes and   Our first stop was Wat Phra That Doi   costumes, coiffures and makeup.
            lutes.  But the real action was at the   Suthep, on a mountain that overlooks
            food booths, where much of the animal   the city. Built around 1383, it’s one of   Which brings us back to the Flower
            kingdom was  being sizzled,  steamed   Chiang Mai’s most famous wats. Just a   Festival Parade.
            and barbequed.                     couple miles away, on the same moun-
                                               tain road, we visited Wat Palad -- Wat  A cross between the Rose Parade and
            By the end of the evening we sampled   Phra That’s opposite. Set in the forest   a high-school homecoming show, the
            chicken and chicken livers on skewers,  by a cascading stream, Wat Palad has   Festival parade featured 40 floats, high
            fried fish balls with basil hot sauce and   no tourist shops selling mini gongs, no   school and college marching bands
            greens, fried intestines of some small   market stalls, and no crowds. Stone   (one band was decked out in cowboy
            creature that we hoped  wasn’t dog   paths lead us through the trees to adja-  hats), troupes of drummers, costumed
            (we’d heard stories about dog-knap-  cent shrines and overlooks that invited   Hmong  and  other  ethnic  groups,  and
            ping) and coconut balls. Topping it all   contemplation.              lovely young women dressed in kalei-
            off was a chocolate-banana-brownie ice                                doscopic colors riding serenely above
            cream flattened on an anti-griddle and                                the crowds on fabulously flamboyant
            topped with whipped cream and choc-                                   floats (think Liberace of Thailand).
            olate syrup.
                                                                                  There were some 3,000-4,000 partic-
            When we could eat no more we sat by                                   ipants -- including us, it seemed for a
            a pond guarded by an enormous illu-                                   moment. But just before we were run
            minated snaky-dragon creature that                                    over by a float full of beauty queens, a
            looked like it had slithered over from a                              young girl and her mom ran out from
            nearby temple.                                                        the crowd and stood in front of it. The
                                                                                  float obligingly stopped while the two
            By contrast our cooking school experi-                                had their picture taken and we pushed
            ence was tame.  Our group of 12 learned                               our way back safely into the crowd.
            to make Tom Yum soup, papaya salad,
            spring roll, Pad Thai, hot basil stir fry,                            Turns out photo ops are as much a part
            and a red or green curry.  Class began                                of the Flower Fest Parade as lilies and
            with a tour of a local market where our                               marigolds. An estimated 50,000 lined
            teacher, Prawd, gave us lessons in coco-                              the parade route and somewhere out
            nuts, noodles and rice. Her theory on                                 in The Cloud there are at least 50,000
            spices was simple: “If you eat more chili,                            digital photos of spectators posing
            it’s more sexy.”                                                      with  floats,  beauty  queens,  and  drum
                                                                                  majorettes.
            When we’d  finished  our lesson  and
            sat down to eat our creations, our fin-                               The next night we found ourselves in
            gers were the colors of a monk’s robe   Our most memorable stop of the day   another throng. The Sunday Market,
            from grinding a curry paste of lemon   was at a village of the Kayan people,  which extends for a half-mile along
            grass, turmeric, coriander seeds, shal-  many of whom are refugees from a   Ratchadamnoen Road, the city’s main
            lots, galangal root, chilies and peanuts.  civil war in Burma. These are the long-  drag, and spills over into numerous
            The verdict? Not bad – the deep-fried   necked women, so called because at age   side streets. We bought five hand-made
            spring rolls were crunchy and fresh   three or four the girls start wearing   paper lanterns, one batik backpack, a
           – but nothing like Chiang Mai street   heavy brass  coils around  their necks,  pair of tribal cloth shoes, an animal
            food. Not sexy enough.             adding a new coil each year in an at-  print shirt, a pair of pants and one tur-
                                               tempt to stretch their necks. They nev-  quoise purse — all for under $100. We
            One popular Chiang Mai attraction   er take the coils off.            sampled more sexy food and listened
            we avoided was the elephant ride and                                  to a kid karaoke show.
            show. We’ve each ridden elephants in  The Kayan sell a number of crafts in-
            our pasts and what we read about their   cluding hand-woven scarves of flam-  Sometime around 11 o’clock our feet
            training in Thailand was troubling. So   boyant color combinations. We bought   were hurting. Was it time for a tuk-tuk
            we spent the day  exploring the coun-  six. They were gracious to visitors and   ride back to the B&B or a foot massage?
            tryside beyond the city moat. Our driv-  seem  unperturbed  by  gawkers.  They  The answer: both. We were in Chiang
            er, 40-year-old Chai, a full-time baker   even let “farangs” (foreign white peo- Mai, after all.



            84    Wine Dine & Travel  Summer 2014
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