Rise and shine! Early birds gets the best view from the top of the mountain! It was a cold chilly morning in Chiang Mai. We were all wrapped up, ready to face the morning chills, even more ready to face the mountain air.
I've got him by my side to keep me warm. :)
My OOTD for the day to prep me for the cold!
I think their porridge and fish maw soup were one of the hits here as alot of people were ordering the same thing. I had the fish maw soup, and it was so heart-warming. However if you want to sustain the cold, better to have more than just a bowl of soup. Else you'll get hungry probably halfway through the journey.
Fish Maw soup
Warm porridge
I do not know what's the name of the stall but here's a picture of the signboard if it helps? Haha.
It's s cold that their pets have their own winter clothing! How adorable! Believe it or not, this cat was actually sleeping. It had it's tail curled up in the middle of the entrance of the house, napping away. Even when we touched it and sneak up right beside it to take a picture, it didn't budge at all.
After a good breakfast to wake up the body, we were on a 1 - 1 1/2 hours ride to the mountains, destination, Doi Suthep. But before you reach the top, don't forget to stop mid-mountain to catch the view and some grub.
Don't forget to stop mid-mountain for some snacks!
Turns out Doi Suthep wasn't the highest peak yet. the surrounding felt sort of like Cameron Highlands. There were rows of small shops by the roadside selling food and clothes. Lots of visitors both locals and tourists. Most who were there for prayers and give offerings. You will walk flight of stairs, line up to purchase your ticket. There is a lift to reach the top. Alternatively, you could take a long, long flight of stairs, but we took the lift instead, Hehe.
Entrance fee is 30 baht per tourist.
As any other or most temples, you should be dressed decently. We were also required to remove our shoes before entering the temple. There are lockers for rent if you worry that your shoes might just magically disappear if being left on the rack outside.
The entrance to the temple
The temple is really magnificent. Probably the most beautiful temples I've seen. There are also other areas outside of the main temple that spans through a landscape of the mountains.
Would you climb the steps up? We didn't but we did take the stairs down.
He doesn't look impressed... At all.... haha.. but don't worry, He didn't carry me down the stairs. It was only for picture purposes. Disclaimer: Boyfriend was not hurt during the process.
Abundant food awaited us at the bottom of the hill! Trust me, we never went hungry one single second in Chiang Mai. Generally, most of the stall sells the same food stuff but they don't taste that far off from one another.
In Bhubing palace, visitors will get a chance to walk through the rose garden. The roses were really beautiful. I'm sure they are handled with delicate care. Accompanied with the cooling weather, it was a lovely stroll while stopping now and then to look at the roses. I took alot of pictures of the roses, but fitting it all here would mean that I will require a post on it's own. Below are a few of my favourite flowers.
It's quite the scenery in the palace. Further down is the water reservoir and then there are a few other royal residences around the area as well. We didn't take the outer walkway, instead we took the inner shorter way.
And of course more food
You can't miss this huge Bamboo tree!
Since we were in the area, we thought that we should drop by the local tribe village to take a look. It was my favourite part of the Day 2 tour. I loved the hills and the cold air. Makes me feel like if I lived there, I would be running free-spirited up and around the hills. The cold air makes it even better.
Feels a little like Cameron Highlands
There is a sample houses for visitors' to enter and take a look. It is amazing how the government ensure that these local & traditional cultures & lifestyle are preserved as much as possible. I find that by allowing visitors to these villages, it serves as a source of income for the locals as well, which is a smart move by the government.
A few more pictures of the interior
One of the best dessert you can possible get in Chiang Mai. Coconut Ice Cream! I had mine with bread, or you can opt for non-bread instead. If you are a slow ice cream eater like me, need not be worried because the ice cream didn't melt that fast. Maybe due to the weather and the bread blanketing the ice-cream. So get your ice cream, and enjoy the beautiful landscape.
We got a chance to see Poppy Flowers!
As you go down the hill, there is a stretch of stalls selling all kinds of items such as textile, clothes, handicraft items, etc. The price is on a higher end because after all it is a tourist spot. Nevertheless, it could work as window shopping!
Such a smart dog. It knows who to go to for food.
Before taking off to our next destination, we took a quick bite. Each of us had 1 pork skewer, as it was quite a distance to our next destination. What a glorious taste it was! Glazed and grilled to the right texture. Available widely in Chiang Mai, sweet, flavourful and juicy.
It was lunch time by the time we got to ground level. Our tour guide brought us to try Northern Thai food. Boy was it good. In English the restaurant is called Northern Thai Food (quite a vague name don't you think?) But if you do visit Chiang Mai, get your tour guide/cab to bring you here! You won't regret it!
I don't converse nor read Thai, so I just looked through the menu while our tour guide and uncle ordered away.
Similar to Malay mixed rice, they have all these food laid out for you to pick but you can opt for ala carte instead which I recommend because you get to taste the flavours of North Thailand.
No meal is complete without sticky rice in Thailand. I just love their sticky rice. It was really soft and fresh. The sticky rice was different from the one I ate in Sungai Golok. The secret was because they were contained within the little rice basket. A good way to ensure that the sticky rice says soft and doesn't harden is to take out the rice little by little only when you want to eat it.
Minced pork with mango salad side
Thai Curry
Some vegetable to accompany the dishes
One of the few things that we ate a few times in Chiang Mai which is one of their speciality. It is widely available in Chiang Mai, which you can find mostly by the roadside stalls.
Doesn't this look like "Siu Yuk"? But a leaner version. haha
Minced pork
Pork Ribs
Chicken Khao Soi
Hand cut rice or egg noodles, coconut milk, curry soup base
Khao Soi is basically the Thai version of curry noodles, consisting of egg noodles, coconut milk & curry soup base. Unlike Malaysian curry noodles, its soup wuite close to a broth like texture but it is not very filling as the soup is proportionate to the noodles as if the noodles are just floating on the soup. there is a choice of chicken or pork Khao Soi. I personally preferred the Chicken Khao Soi. The chicken was fall-off the bone tender and immersed with the curry flavour.
Pork Khao Soi
Mango Salad
The Thab Thim Krob were so much bigger than what they have here in Malaysia. Only thing was that the syrup was too diluted.
That sums up our lunch, the Thais truly have a way with their pork (if that even made any sense). We headed on to the silk factory from there.
Silk Moth says hello!
The silk moth looks cute doesn't it??!! They breed the silk worms in the factory itself and it is all free for all to view! Amazing right? As you enter, you will find a shelf with baskets of silk moths & silk worms. I find it so magical that they don't fly away from the basket. Must be something that keeps them in the basket.
Silk worms.. Err.. ok. This is not cute at all... haha
The cocoon... which is..
...boiled after that to extract the silk. :O
These ladies are so skilled. Surely and truly they have been doing this for decades or more perhaps. The lady below is weaving the silk to form a piece of fabric. As a matter of fact, there are about 4-6 weaving stations.
After you have finished the tour in the fabric production area, you can proceed to their shop where they sell fabrics in all colours! Lined up in hues according to their colour group. There are also more premium fabrics with an array of designs and colours.
Aside from fabric, they sell items such as apparels (men & women), toys, pencil box, hair scrunchies, key chains just to name a few. They are pretty to look at and to own too. Of course it would be slightly more expensive too. After we had settled what we needed, we decided that we should call it a day and head back to our hotel.
Later at night, we walked around our area, remember that beautiful decor which I took on the first day? They lit up the fairy lights and it was magical! We went into one of the cafes Kantary Cafe (https://www.facebook.com/cafekantary/timeline) to chill. I knew that they wanted to celebrate my birthday. :) Celebrating my birthday overseas *checked!*
A small cafe but it was very comfortable as there weren't many people. Actually if I remember correctly there was only one couple during that time.
I believe the above was hot chocolate. Yums.. Look at the cream oozing from the cup! I loved the french toast though. My first time seeing such an elaborate french toast that comes with ice creat & whipped cream. I find it considerate of them to keep the syrup seperated and on the side so that we can pour our desired quantity over the toast. The toast was light and fluffy, I just couldn't stand the ice cream. Cold weather AND ice cream man... oh yes, and their air con was super cold too.
The macarons were just average. Not something I would order them the next time should I return.
There was no "Happy Birthday" cake but only "Happy New Year" cake which was close enough. hehe.
The cake was mildly moist but the ganache was too overwhelming for my liking. The chocolate ganache was too thick that it became dense. Whereas the texture was close to pasty-like. After a few spoons of the cake, I got sick of it. Couldn't even finished my portion.
Look how nice of the staff! They even have prepared cutouts for photo purposes.
Now that dessert was taken care off, we took a night stroll along the roadside, stopped by 7-11 to get some food. to me, 7-11 in Thailand is like the Jaya Grocer of Malaysia. Cause you can get everything there! :O They have interesting items and those which you can't find in Malaysia. But now I noticed that Malaysia is slowly bringing in some of these items from Thailand.
We retreated to our rooms early because it'll be another early day as we had plans to visit another mountain - Doi Inthanon. The 3rd day in Chiang Mai is one of my favs! Will (do my very very best) to blog about it soon! :p
