Walking to Market, Part 2

When I leave our room on the 4th floor, I take the elevator down and walk through the lobby to the street. This is nominally a two-way street, but it is quite narrow. Here is a view looking north, the direction I'll be walking. it is not usually this busy! Note the lack of sidewalks and the group of monks walking along. (By the way, traffic in Thailand drives on the left.)

At the first corner is the Baan Bakery, a very popular spot. The inside is packed full and people are waiting to get in just to order. It is open from 8 to 3 and a lot of people go there for breakfast. They have excellent pastries but I haven't been in yet this year.

After I turn the corner at the bakery, I walk on a much quieter street. This woman roasts bananas every day. We nod and smile. I tried them once some years ago, but we didn't care much for them (I think they are different type of banana than we are used to).  She has been there ever since we started coming here in 2015.

At the end of the cross street, I turn right. The corner unit has been many things -- Baan Bakery was here, then a restaurant. Now it is a modern laundromat. We take our laundry to a service, which is quite inexpensive. There is another similar laundromat about a block further on.

On the main street heading up towards Chiang Mai Gate, there is an enormous motorcycle/motor scooter dealership. They provide rentals, too. They have so many bikes that the big interior warehouse area is full and they cover the wide sidewalk area. At night the outside bikes are covered with huge plastic tarps. About the time I go by, the tarps are being removed and folded up.

Right after the bike shop is a big hospital and then a group of four small restaurants in a row. Cowboy, Guitar, and Friendly are three of them (not sure of the name of the first). We have patronized the Guitar Bar several times.

Finally I arrive at the corner of the main road that runs along the moat (which encircles the walls of the Old City). The west-flowing traffic has a pedestrian crossing here with a light. The view below is actually looking back toward the way I have come, with the market area behind me. Notice that bikes also wait here to join the traffic flow. Once I have crossed here to the island area, I have to make my way across the east-flowing traffic on the other side. Fortunately, it moves slowly and drivers are kind to pedestrians. You have to just take your chances!

The island between the two sides of the road is full of restaurant booths in the evening, but has a used clothing market in the morning.

The round-trip walk to the back of the market where I get fruit is about a mile. I usually buy two or three mangos, which we will have for lunch (they are large enough to share). Regular purchases include lettuce, papaya, bananas and pomelo.

Walking to Market

About three mornings a week I walk to the Chiang Mai Gate Market. The front section has vendors selling all kinds of prepared foods, from soup to sweets. I don't recognize most of these items. Toward the back of that section one finds baskets prepared for gifts to a temple and some household goods. Behind that is a large hall with vegetable vendors. Again, there are plenty of things I don't recognize. Since we don't cook here, I don't buy vegetables (except some lettuce for sandwiches). Behind the vegetables it opens out into a narrow street with fruit vendors along both sides. People navigate through and motor scooter riders weave in and out.

Here are a few shots from the inside of the market.

Buckets with goodies for the monks

Marinated cabbage for sale

Ready-made food to take home; the baggies on the right are a common type of packaging.

Array of Thai sweets

Vegetable vendor on his phone 

Chiang Mai Gate Area

In the evening, the plaza in front of the Chiang Mai Gate Market contains many small food booths. Lots of people eat here — tourists and locals alike. The booths are lined up along the edge of the plaza that faces the market area.

Food is cooked up to order. I had chicken pad Thai, which was pretty good. And just over a dollar in cost.

Behind the market is an old building that is a restaurant called Faces. I went by and it looked as if it was still open. However, when we went by there hoping to have dinner one night, it was deserted.

Across from Faces is this interesting building labeled a Terracotta Arts Hotel. Maybe I’ll have to go in some time and look around.

I’ve had a cold this week and haven’t felt up to doing much. But I did enjoy two massages! 

Settling In

We are getting into our daily routine. Dan retrieved his bags and rented a motorbike. He does the shopping that isn’t within walking distance for me. I found Et and had my first massage. (Her place is just a block down the street, very convenient.) Dan played pickleball on Friday morning. There are many more players now than when he was last here.

Our second evening dinner out was at the Guitar Bar. There is a row of four small restaurants about a 5-minute walk away. This is the one we’ve patronized most often. Both side walls are covered with guitars.

I had one of my favorite dishes, pineapple fried rice, served in a hollowed-out half pineapple. It had shrimp, chicken, and cashews in addition to chopped vegetables. 

The next night Dan went to a nearby market to bring home a few things. He brought a bag of noodles, several hard-cooked eggs, and a salad just for me.

 

The salad has chopped apple and another fruit in addition to lettuce. A separate bag has corn, beans, and another grain (barley?). The dressing is lemon vinaigrette. It is very delicious. The last time we were here, the bag was about twice as large, so served two.

An essential purchase is a fan. We leave the room door open to get a breeze from the windows. But if the door needs to be closed or it gets too warm, the fan is great. We do have an A/C unit and have used it a few times to cool the room off. 

I’ve been swimming a few times, but had to pass on Saturday, as the overnight temps dropped to below 60 and the water was just too cold. It’s supposed to hit the mid- to upper-80s this week, so I should be able to get back in soon.

India to Thailand

Some thoughts on leaving India:

It is amazing how reliant the culture has become on phone apps. It was the only way to get drinks from a vending machine at the airport. (I didn’t have the right apps, and a nice young man offered to buy me water for Rs. 10 - about 12¢ - and I let him.) In Bangalore we took autorickshaws and cabs a number of times — all summoned by app so they know where you are going — and no haggling. All the international fast food and retail chains are represented on the street and in the malls. 

Sidewalks are very occasional; most walking is in the roadway. And the custom is to walk with the traffic, not against it as we are taught in the US. This is always a little disconcerting for me, although I know motorists and cyclists are used to watching out for pedestrians.

Food is still delicious everywhere in homes and restaurants. We were able to satisfy ourselves!

It was wonderful to see our India family friends. And it was strange to be in India and not go up to Mussoorie.

Our trip was uneventful, although it felt long. Our 1:00 AM flight from Bangalore was less than 4 hours, so we had a very short sleep, about 2 1/2 hours for me. Arrival in Bangkok was easy; we got through immigration quickly, and fortunately our bags were checked all the way through to Chiang Mai. It was a long layover, so our gate wasn’t posted yet. We found a bar/cafe and had breakfast of croissant stuffed with scrambled eggs, ham and cheese. It tasted great! And it came with tea or coffee.

The flight to Chiang Mai was just over an hour, but we were served a nice hot lunch of Pad Thai. We were first off and our bags came immediately. We walked the length of the airport to the taxi stand, stopping along the way to get phone SIMs for Thailand. 

Our room was ready for us at Smith Suites. We had reserved a one-bedroom apartment, but there was a mixup in the reservation and we are in a studio again. The manager came up and apologized and said we will have the apartment in February. (He also gave us a bit of a discount for this month.) But now that we are settled, the thought of packing up everything and moving again isn’t very appealing. We’ll decide in a couple of days. 

We left a large bag in the storeroom with household items we’d collected. That was three years ago, but it was still there! The kitchens here are supplied, but quite sparsely. There is more in storage with Dan’s massage therapist’s sister (!). He’ll try to get those things today.

After unpacking, doing some quick basic shopping, and taking a quick nap, we headed out for supper. Our favorite place, the Blues Bar, appears to be gone. But we found the Organ Bar and had a good supper. My shrimp and vegetables came out first.

Dan had Pad See Ew, wide noodles with pork and vegetables.

 

We slept well and were up quite early. Breakfast was interesting. I had bought what I thought was milk for the tea, but it was a yogurt drink. So, black tea. I did get good yogurt and mango. No muesli/granola in the local shop, so we had strawberry cornflakes with it. Not bad at all!

After breakfast, Dan headed out on a variety of errands. I went to the Chiang Mai Market for fruits and got mangos, oranges, bananas, cut pineapple, and some lettuce for sandwiches. That was enough for my first outing. I’ll head out later to find some actual milk. (My former food shop was a Tesco, now it is a Lotus, and didn’t appear to have milk.)

I passed this shop selling chili powder of different types

Leaving Bangalore

It is now January 2 and we are preparing to leave Bangalore for Chiang Mai, Thailand. We’ve had a wonderful time but it will be good to settle into a place for the next two months. Our flight isn’t until 1:00 AM; we’ll arrive in CM around lunchtime Tuesday. (Chiang Mai is exactly 12 hours difference from EST.)

Dan and Mahesh returned Saturday afternoon from visiting the orphanages near Vellore. They had a great time, including a picnic outing with the children to the fort.

While they were gone, we went to a special Andhra Pradesh restaurant, where we had biryani served on banana leaf.

That evening, Nina made a snack of small idlis (rice cakes) with onion, etc., in them. Very nice! The special pan makes lovely little rounded balls to be dipped in a sauce.

Sunday we celebrated the New Year with a visit to Barbeque Nation. We first went to this restaurant when we were here in 2007. It is now a major chain all over the country. It is definitely a place to go rarely, as you will see.

First, they came around with pani puri, a common street snack.

Then they loaded up the barbeque in the center of the table, the specialty of the house. We had appetizer/starter skewers of fish, prawns, chicken, paneer, pineapple and mushrooms. I ate so much that I couldn’t enjoy the next course, which was a huge buffet of many different wonderful curries. There was also a dessert bar.

During the barbeque phase, a server came around with smashed potatoes. They don’t look very appetizing, but they were absolutely delicious. I remembered them from earlier visits. I’ve tried to make something similar, but it didn’t quite match up.

The next post will be after we are in Chiang Mai!