Intro to local Chiang Rai

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Slept in a bit today.  Felt good to have a long nights rest.  After enjoying some coffee on the deck, Margarett and I finally took off for town.  On the way we stopped at a local restaurant for some classic Northern Thai food (cashew chicken, fried morning glory).  Margarett wanted to show me some local places in town, so our first stop was a nursery.  Actually, it’s a bunch of smaller nurseries all selling different types of plants and flowers.  We spent a bit of time there buying plants.  Margarett was going to purchase a couple pots but the salesman tried to charge her 100 baht, 30 more baht than she’d paid for the same item last week.  She wasn’t having any of that and we left empty handed.

Our next stop was grocery shopping at a large shop similar to Costco.  We picked up lots of food for the next few days, some of it frozen, so we asked for bags of ice to keep it cold.  Apparently one worker told his friend, “This farang (foreigner) wants a lot of ice”.  The lines to check out resembled Costco.

Margarett wanted to pick up some flowers for the house, so we stopped into town, but she didn’t see any she liked and we ended up at a small hotel having a drink instead.  It was lovely sitting outside enjoying the afternoon mojito in hand.  We stayed around since the night market was getting under way and wandered through the stalls.  The market is similar to those in the rest of Asia; lots of handcrafts, jewelry, clothing, etc.  I picked up a copy of Eclipse (its not even out yet in the States) for just over $3, but other than that, I kept my wallet in my pocket.  While I was ordering a plain rosti, we bumped into Warren and David (from the airplane).  It was pretty random considering that Margarett doesn’t even live in Chiang Rai and we just happen to be browsing the market.

David, Warren, me and Margarett

Next thing we knew, it was 9pm and we haven’t eaten dinner.  So we stopped at the food stalls and ordered mixed tempura and beer, before driving back.