0

[TRAVELS] Cultural & Food Tour @ Chiangrai

Posted by swisscheese on May 29, 2016 in chiangrai, coconut ice cream, pad thai, papaya salad, thai cuisine |

บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่ photo coconut house3_zpsyetjrjel.jpg

Since both Vivienne and I were putting up at Upcountry Bungalows during our Women2Women retreat in April this year, we signed up for a tour with Nuna that cost us 2,000 baht per pax. This tour comprises of trips to Phu Chi Fa, Phu Sang National Park and everything else mentioned in this entry.

8th April 2016

Thai Lao Border Market

Weaving photo weaving chiangrai_zpsqoxgrovg.jpg
Weaving photo weaving chiangrai4_zpsy2hhmyxl.jpg
Weaving photo weaving chiangrai2_zpsdcs4x6vl.jpg
Weaving photo weaving chiangrai3_zpsxmwfxfzs.jpg

Due to our retreat programs, we went to Phu Sang National Park after exercising, mediation and breakfast on our second day and Phu Chi Fa during the wee hours of the morning on our third day. Right after our trip to Phu Sang National Park, Nuna and her husband brought us to the Thai Lao border market to take a look at their textiles, cloth and heritage clothing. Although I love all things old school and found the market interesting, I felt that there was nothing I could buy since I do not sew my own clothes or have any inspiration to design any of my clothes.

บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่

บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่ photo coconut house4_zpsfmpdrhyb.jpg
บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่ photo coconut house3_zpsyetjrjel.jpg
บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่ photo coconut house_zpscsalkcia.jpg
บ้านมะพร้าวเชียงคำเมืองใหม่ photo coconut house2_zpspclz62mw.jpg

Vivienne was raving about how good the coconut ice-cream is in one particular store she tried previously and mentioned to Nuna to take me there and so she did. Both Nuna and her husband ordered the original coconut ice-cream while Vivienne and I got the coconut and honeydew ice-cream. Honeydews in Thailand are much sweeter and more fragrant than the ones sold in Singapore. With the combination of honeydew and coconut ice-cream, this is definitely one of the best and freshest coconut ice-cream I have ever tasted! Hands down, it beats the coconut ice-cream served in Bangkok! I enjoyed it so much and wanted to go for seconds but decided not to. Turns out Nuna’s husband loves it so much that he went for seconds although he could not finish it. It was a good treat since the weather is so dry and hot at Chiangrai in early April!

P/S: The coconut ice-cream was paid by Nuna & her husband.

TESCO

DQ Mango Ice-Cream photo TESCO DQ_zps2w6htzaq.jpg

After our ice-cream trip, Vivienne wanted to go to TESCO to purchase some items. Nuna drove us there and while we were browsing through the products at TESCO, Nuna went to buy live hens for her mother. Vivienne never fails to get her Dairy Queen dosage while at Thailand so both of us went to order their featured ice-cream. Since our days at Chiangrai was nearing Songkran and mangoes are in season in April, the featured flavours for Dairy Queen is mango flavour. I got the mango sticky rice DQ ice-cream while Vivienne had another mango DQ ice-cream flavour. In comparison to the coconut ice cream we just had, DQ failed terribly. The ice-cream was too sweet and I did not want to even finish it!

Wet Market

Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR6_zps2uiotm1r.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR12_zpspsdrozw9.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR10_zpse8xnjr9a.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR2_zpsatyudcy9.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR13_zpsmpylb6pa.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR11_zps9azc67ra.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR4_zpslva5wsxb.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR3_zpsadq0eacg.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR5_zpstpd7zj3s.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR8_zpsflgocbnk.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR_zpsmgjifdi9.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR7_zpsbgv0j84c.jpg

Nuna came back to TESCO after getting the live chickens. At the same time, Vivienne has completed her purchases so Nuna brought us to the wet market since she wanted to buy some ingredients for dinner. Vivienne got herself some fruits while I only bought a small honeydew for 20 baht. I absolutely adore the smell of Thai honeydews! You will be able to see interesting food items such as silkworm as depicted in the third last picture as well.

Live Chickens & Chicks

Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR14_zpsb4bsivsq.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR16_zpshywsiieu.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR15_zpse8qhuphy.jpg
Wet Market in Chiangrai photo market CR17_zpszuz3eejk.jpg

Right before we were dropped off back home, Nuna sent the two live chickens she got to her mother’s home. It turns out that Nuna wants the two newly bought hens to mate with her mother’s existing rooster. I was amazed by the number of chickens in her village and went down to chase every one of them!

9th of April 2016

Kluay Tod

กล้วยทอด photo deep fried banana CR2_zps8dbu6grv.jpg
กล้วยทอด photo deep fried banana CR3_zpsllccw5ri.jpg
กล้วยทอด photo deep fried banana CR_zpshxuu0imo.jpg

After our Phu Chi Fa trip, Vivienne and I went back to Upcountry Bungalow to continue with our retreat programs and had breakfast and meaningful talks along the way. During lunch time, Nuna brought us out once again to buy food home for lunch. I have never tried deep fried bananas from Thailand (Kluay Tod) before and you have no idea how addicted I was upon consuming just one of it. Despite knowing that lunch will be eaten once we have reached home, I continued stuffing myself silly with kluay tod. Even after our huge servings of lunch, I continued eating more deep fried bananas! Totally orgasmic if you ask me!

P/S: The deep-fried bananas was paid by Nuna.

Lunch

Pad Thai photo pad thai CR_zpsytmyqb1w.jpg
 photo pad thai CR4_zpsjv6rlnuz.jpg
Pad Thai photo pad thai CR3_zpsphngwzu5.jpg
Pad Thai photo som tam11_zpsiaxzon7a.jpg
Pad Thai photo som tam12_zpsmmwjnifx.jpg
Pad Thai photo som tam13_zpsgecjqnjx.jpg
Pad Thai photo pad thai CR5_zpsqi8rnhol.jpg
Pad Thai photo pad thai CR2_zpskjxyilvb.jpg

After buying a couple of deep fried bananas to go, Nuna brought us to take home a couple of Thai dishes such as pad thai (4th picture), pad woon sen (5th picture) and pork with broccoli and cauliflower dish (6th picture). While we were waiting for the food to be freshly cooked and tuck into the takeaway stryofoam containers, we saw how the Thai people bet while watching a match of Muay Thai as portrayed in the second last picture. I found this very interesting as Crystal and I also discovered non-airconditioned cafes in Siem Reap hosting many people to watch movies.

P/S: Lunch was paid by Nuna.

Som Tam

Som Tam photo som tam6_zpsfgxlxy6f.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam5_zpsvg8datvk.jpg
Potatoes photo potato_zps7s4vwrfs.jpg
Potatoes photo potato2_zpstbualxms.jpg
 photo meat CR_zpsftrdkfpl.jpg
Grilled Meat photo meat CR2_zpsdwf3rtfw.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam_zpssigcoe8y.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam8_zpsf7wja9qw.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam9_zpslxri2zkj.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam14_zpsp9dc0thv.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam7_zpsfjdqjwd9.jpg

Nuna drove us to another unenclosed place selling som tam and grilled meat just opposite the beautiful rice fields! The lady took awhile to prepare it as Nuna ordered an extremely spicy som tam and another portion of less spicy som tam. The food preparation methods were unhygienic and Vivienne joked that if this was held in Singapore, it will definitely fail the NEA standards. Well, I find that street foods often taste the best in developing countries! I would try all sorts of street foods if my stomach was not so sensitive.

P/S: Som tam was paid by Nuna.

Som Tam photo som tam4_zpssbdrwxj4.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam2_zpsbrv4kx6m.jpg
Som Tam photo som tam3_zpsdhwpq5id.jpg

While waiting for the lady to finish preparing the som tam, I noticed that the shape of this plant on her table is heart-shaped and decided to snap it!

Lunch is served!

Pad Thai photo som tam10_zps1qksw37l.jpg

Although the ever so generous Nuna bought way more than we could eat, I love all the food especially the pad woon sen and som tam! The less spicy som tam was still spicy though. It was such a hot afternoon so I would recommend coming over in November or December to better enjoy the local delights here!

PAYMENT METHODS: CASH ONLY!
All of the above coupled with trips to Phu Chi Fa & Phu Sang National Park  = 2,000 baht (CAD$73.15 / SGD$77.48/ USD$57.08)

The tour should have been a day’s trip so I am thankful for Nuna for catering the tour according to our retreat schedule!

*swisscheese

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>

Copyright © 2010-2024 All rights reserved.
This site is using the Desk Mess Mirrored theme, v2.5, from BuyNowShop.com.