Empty Nesters on a Green Global Trek

Lychees in abundance! It’s lychee season and there are rows and rows of them for sale at low prices. They are HUGE and juicy and delicious! What a treat

Lychees anyone? The season lasts until end of June.

Pork stew served on rice and with a perfectly cooked soft boiled runny egg.

Huge bowl of soft boiled eggs to go with the soft pieces of pork. The insides are bright orange. Definitely free range!

We were lucky to find this spot making a Thai version of a sweet dim sum. Here it’s called “Bat Moh”. A  ground pork, palm sugar, peanut filling in a soft rice noodle, covered with coconut milk. Absolute sweet deliciousness! These three are working hard to get the orders out for the ongoing flow of motorcycle pick up orders.

A Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai specialty ~ “Khaow-Soi”. Soft egg noodles, with crispy noodles in curry. If you are wondering how this tastes, Adam’s expression tells it all.

A Thai classic: Chicken satay with peanut sauce and pickled salad on the side. Not that original, but yummy nonetheless.

BBQ is quite a popular street food with everything from chicken to pork to sausages and duck heads and innards.

Some of the stalls have prepared large bowls of a variety of options: Curried fish, veggies, meat, noodles, seafood salad, minced fish mixed with coconut milk (far right).

In the evening, the streets of Chiang Mai become active with people and vendors. It’s the rainy season now and the crowd briefly scatters until the rain subsides. Rain down pours don’t usually last very long.

An absolutely delicious coconut curry over fresh vegetables such as baby round eggplant, fresh peas, basil and tofu.

A plate made especially for me at “Bubble Live” ~ Shitake mushrooms with black sesame seeds, sunflower sprouts and grilled tofu.

We also understand that Chiang Mai strives to maintain its reputation as a cultured city.  For instance, we are here during the 2014 European Film Festival.  We are keen movie watchers and opportunities to see non-Hollywood movies are relatively rare.  Adam has gone off to the Northern hill town of Pai and we indulge and structure our days around the free European Film Festival.  Our selection from the 20 or so films:

* A Belgium movie “Hasta La Vista” about 3 handicapped young men who go on a trek to Spain to have sex for the first time (or as they say “at least once before we die”)  at a brothel in Spain that serves the handicapped community; a Romanian black and white drama,
* “The Exam” about the fall of the regime in 1957 and a spy versus spy culture that takes over the Interior Ministry under Soviet influence; and
* a great movie from Hungary “Revival” about the come back of a rock band, 40 years later.

Quite an offering of free award winning European movies at a mall in Chiang Mai.

Before each movie shows, the Thai national anthem is played, every one stands up in respect in the movie theater and it ends with photos of the King of Thailand.

The King of Thailand is clearly a dog lover and a good role model for treating animals well. The national anthem ends with a succession of royal portraits of the king. Each time he is photographed with different dogs. In one photo, he had 6 dogs around him.

Always great to be amongst trees.

Some local feathered friends near Temple Doi Suthep.

The infamous Siamese cat! I grew up with many Siamese cats in South Africa, so it’s fun to see them in their original habitat the Kingdom of Siam.

Another feature of Chiang Mai is the prolific craft culture in the region.   Combine this with the high level of international visitors and the result is the BEST night market we have found, so far, anywhere in our Asia travels.  The Sunday night market once a week, blocks off all traffic and becomes a walking street only. The large street is filled with very friendly and unpushy vendors (very palpable difference after Viet Nam), interesting products and wares.  This is not generic tourist stuff that one finds at other popular “night markets” but rather, many artisanal one of a kind products.

We go to a few yoga classes and have a yogic experience at the Wild Rose Yoga studio which is both humbling and inspirational at the same time. The class is made up of mostly very advanced yogis, both Thai and Westerners. If one considers that for Peta, access to yoga can become a daily staple, this is not a peripheral matter.  Just as having  a yoga studio across the street in Granada, Nicaragua, significantly colored our Granada experience, not only because of the availability of yoga, but also because of the community of yogis that became a community of friends, we are mindful that a vibrant yogic community is of importance to us.