Chiang Mai Mountain High

So, after a night of whimsy at Bangkok’s Gaggan (the 5th best restaurant in the WORLD), Sarah and I flew north for our first visit to Chiang Mai, a smaller city in Thailand’s northern hills just over a hundred kilometers south of the Myanmar border. After the bustle and hustle of spirited Bangkok, we looked forward to a slower pace of an ancient walled city, the capitol of its own Lanna kingdom until the 16th century. But we worried about the air quality in the hills as the traditional crop-burning season hit its peak and for a couple days before we arrived, the region scored the highest pollution level . . . in the world.

But the breezes conspired and the air cleared for us so we landed in the valley of the Ping River and headed to our next boutique hotel, this one secluded in the heart of the old walled city. Tamarind Village was another quiet, comfortably rustic, sanctuary–one enters through a bamboo gallery–gathered around a hundred year old Tamarind tree.

Chiang Mai has become a well known expat destination, with a vibrant, active community and excellent, inexpensive housing options. We had contacted local expats and arranged to meet and get a feel for the city and its advantages and challenges, but little did we expect our first luncheon to be at a German–yes, as in Sauerbraten and Kartoffelsalat–restaurant just outside the walls and the moat that surround the old city.

One of our goals for our visit was to learn as much as possible—from locals as well as expats—about life in Chiang Mai, as we have it on our list of potential retirement locales, so we were delighted that Tamarind Village led guests on walking tours of the neighborhood temples and markets, and even demonstrated Thai crafts like tying lotus flowers and braiding jasmine wreaths. The temples and the many saffron-clad monks, along with the quiet of the walled city and the graciousness of the traffic as cars stopped when we even thought about crossing a street, brought both of us a welcome sense of calm.

We also found a highly recommended cooking school—Asia Scenic—and quickly signed up, yes, even me, too! We shopped together for our ingredients in a local market and made Pad Thai and even hand ground our own curry paste—I constructed my latest newfound flavor, Massaman—then we topped off the experience with our new favorite food in the world, Tom Yum soup with shrimp, oh my!

While the city abounds in history and charm, it also seems to have a trendy coffee shop or a Euro style bakery on nearly every block as well, creating a delightful blend of the ancient and the contemporary. One of the city’s noted attractions is the vibrant night market so we had to give it a try. From Happy Massages to Thai Boxing Shorts to unknown fresh spices to Thai Chess sets to all manner of dining options, we wandered and wondered and finally settled on the Ping Ping Fish Restaurant for a whole sea bass.

But the special highlight of any trip to Chiang Mai has to be a visit to the Buddhist Temple at Doi Suthep, perched high on the mountain just west of the city. Tamarind Village arranged a guide for us and she drove us up a long and winding road to Wat Phra That, where it is said a white elephant carried a bone fragment from Lord Buddha and proclaimed the spot for the temple. We climbed all 309 steps up to the temple and were fortunate to see the monks, old and young, chanting and offering lotus flowers.

All in all, a delightful few days in Chiang Mai, as Sarah and I loved the gentle pace and the easygoing charms of the old city with its ubiquitous temples and smart coffee shops and vibrant markets. Yet we have so much more to see, as there is one of Asia’s best elephant sanctuaries in the hills north of the city, plus the Hmong and the Kayan Tribal people (also known as “long-necked” people for their women with the heavy metal rings around their neck), although we may question the ethics involved and take a pass. At any rate, next spring we’ll just have to spend more time in Chiang Mai.

So, could we see ourselves living there at some point? Ah, but that’s another story, right?