The night train to Chiang Mai was pretty uneventful – hard beds and smelly loos, but nowhere near as difficult as the last night train I was on (the Sofia-Istanbul Express). We arrived in CM not too far from the scheduled arrival time and headed off to leave our bags at the hotel, the Movenpick right near the Night Market area.
We wandered up towards the Old Town to kill some time until we could check in, and ate some brekky. browsed a bookshop and posed at the gate like all the other tourists, before heading back.
I’d researched tailors here a little more than I did in BKK, and settled on one around the corner from the hotel called New Moda tailors. Like many, these guys do mainly menswear, but they do have one female mannequin in the window and two fashion books amongst the catalogues of men’s suits. I ordered two pairs of linen trousers and two shirts (one cotton and one linen), and was relatively happy with them when they came in. The shirts didn’t have a back yoke, and the pants didn’t have buttoned pockets as the inspiration photos showed. but they fit well and were an ok price.
I’d unearthed an archery cafe in my reading, so we headed there for a day of shooting. In the years since I’d done classes, I’d forgotten everything, but I did manage a couple of bullseyes. A convivial day with the guys at The Arrow Rest.
I’d also booked a handcrafts tour to get an idea of some of the local artisan areas, which I’d known would be a bit of a shopping trip, but I’d thought we’d get maybe a bit of info about local arts and crafts in amongst the showrooms. Unfortunately it was more a focus on the showrooms, with maybe a minute of demonstration at the beginning at some of the places. We did see local gemstones, silk weaving, umbrella-making and walked through a wood carving and furniture making shop, cotton weaving, silversmithing and importing businesses. We also would have seen lacquerware but we were too exhausted by avoiding the sales pitches by that point! We both bought a few items at the silk weaving shop – R picked up a few new silk ties and I grabbed some fabric (yes, I know… I have lots already, but…)
One of the highlights for Chiang Mai for us was going to the cabaret show at 6ixcret, just off the night market. We ended up going twice, seeing a different show with many fabulous performers each night. Sequins, feathers and wigs were flying! The venue was quite small and intimate, plus there weren’t many audience members, so we had a lot of personal attention from the performers. They did a great job both times we were there – putting on an extravaganza even when there were more performers than audience members!
We tried going to Ram Show Bar as well, but it was too packed and we ended up leaving a few songs in after being bumped into too many times by drunk tourists.
The food at the Night Markets was great. We ended up having the same thing a couple of times as the fresh mixed seafood was just too good to say no to. It arrived on paper and accompanied by plastic gloves so we could eat it with our hands. We tried a couple of the other food stalls selling Thai pancakes and omelettes etc, but the seafood was the best.
R was keen to try out a local speciality, khao soi, which according to an ex-pat kiwi guy we met at 6ixcret, was best from a little hole-in-the-wall place in the old town. After wandering a couple of the plethora of temples in the Old Town, we followed the map and located the home restaurant located in the garage of someone’s house. Apparently it was delicious!
Our final stop was to Butter is Better, a little American-themed diner that I’d heard had gluten free food. I’d decided not to bother since I was having such yummy Thai food, but we were killing time waiting for the tailor and it was just up the road. I’m glad we did! They were just closing but we were able to grab gluten free cinnamon rolls (almond-flour-based apparently). So good!
Two Weeks Away 