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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

