Chiang Rai Living

Welcome to Chiang Rai


Peter's House

We've now been in Chiang Rai for 10 days and the pace of life is steady. We needed to orientate ourselves to begin with. We thought we would have to buy a cooker and a few domestic necessities as the house we were going to let from Mr Chian of Chian House guest house in Chiang Rai was totally unfurnished. But because we had left it late to confirm our tenancy, he had let it to a more certain tenant and offered us Peter's House instead. Peter is a Canadian who we met last year and discovered there were rentable houses associated with Chian House. He lives in one but spends a lot of his time teaching English in Chian, which he prefers because the students are more interested than in Thailand. Right at the start of thinking about living in Chiang Rai, we had one eye on renting Peter's house if he was away. The big advantage is that its fully furnished and equipped so setting up home was a lot smoother once we had the house cleaned of its two months of dust and bird shit. I'll post some photos of his house soon. Chian House is on a little island formed by a narrow, mostly dried, loop of the Mae Kok River.

The house next door is used by a family who make different meals or dishes, presumably for restaurants. We overlook the guest house where some of the employees usually hang out at night playing guiter, singing and generally providing a relaxed backdrop of people enjoying themselves.

We've settled into a Kaya-led routine of breakfast, morning by the Chian House pool or going out with Kaya while it is not too hot, lunch then the same as the morning but the other way round with going out waiting until after it has stopped being very hot, followed by Kaya's dinner, bed time for Kaya, our tea, maybe a bit of hanging out on our balcony (which is where I am now) then bed. I've some freelance consultancy work for Natural England writing audio trails and podscroll trails for Wye and Stodmarsh nature reserves in Kent so I've been working a few mornings to get the first drafts done for a 20th November deadline.

Every other evening we visit the local produce market to stock up on veg, fruit, tofu, curry paste, rice, noodles and eggs. Most things are sold in 5 baht bunches, bags, plates or blocks - even the tofu which is stored in a large vat of ice. We've been cooking green and red curries, tom yum and noodle soup so far.


Wat Phra Singh apsara

We've discovered plenty of small scale trips out that we can manage with Kaya and avoid the hot part of the day. There is a promenade on the Mae Kok River with a set of tennis, football, basketball and sepak takraw courts. Kaya loves watching as an evening stroll between dinner and bed. She's especially fond of tennis much to Georgia's delight! There is a play park and public library within easy walking distance in a municipal wooded and grassed area. Further along from this is Wat Phra Singh where Kaya undertook her first long crawl, a 12m dash for my mobile phone from one end of the temple hall to the other. There are a couple of great cafes we've discovered for tea with aircon and a cake - the more Western Doi Chaang and a more Chinese one. Both have seats big enough for Kaya to have a play. The Chinese one has a strange fish with a protruding forehead called Elvis.


Walking Market 'food court'


Walking Market

Further afield are the 'evening out' markets. Every night there is the Night Bazaar in the town centre which begins about 5pm. We've only been once to as its a bit of a trek. Each Saturday one of the main streets a bit closer to Chian House is converted into a long 'Walking Market' which is lots of fun. We've worked out how to do this with Kaya. We head down about 4pm, find a place to feed her with what we've brought, then continue along and about 7,30pm or so she'll fall asleep in the sling. Its a short walk back along quiet streets. That's what we did tonight, except she only had a little of her dinner before she got fidgety and gave up on it. Later she eyed my bean-filled rice dumpling and when offered some of the bland dumpling she became very enthusiastic and had a whole one!


Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra

Tomorrow we're planning a repeat visit to catch the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra in Doi Chaang. They play every Sunday for an hour from 3pm in the foyer with a waterfall and pond. We met an American woman there last week who tipped us off about a pool to visit in the attractively named Rim Kok Resort on the other side of the river. We've been twice already for day visit sampling of luxury tourism. The pool is huge and Kaya has picked up on her swimming there again, as well as in the mini-sized pool at Chian House.


Evening Chiang Rai

Chang Prang

Chang Prang
Originally uploaded by Bill Bevan

Elephant-riding tourists lumber by Wat Phra Ram, Ayutthaya Historical Park.

Mor Kok Massage

Mor Kok Massage
Originally uploaded by Bill Bevan

Can it really do what it says or is it just hard sell? Seen in Sukhothai October 2009 just before Loi Krathong.

Broken Buddha of Wat Phra Singh

Broken Buddha of Wat Phra Singh
Originally uploaded by Bill Bevan
A Buddha statue lies apparently abandoned below a Bhodi tree in the grounds of Wat Phra Singh. However, he is far from forgotten. Taken at 3.30pm in the afternoon.

Day out at the Rim Kok pool

Today we took a sangthaew, a little bench taxi, to the Rim Kok Resort - one of the posh riverside resorts in Chiang Mai because it allows non-guests to use the pool. It did take a while for the driver to understand where we wanted to go which seemed strange as it is a major resort. First I tried Rim Kok Resort, then again slower, then Rim Kok Hotel. Eventually he got where we wanted and repeated back to me the name - Lim Kok Lesort. Silly me, we're in east Asia of course.

The resort is a pleasant 10 minute ride over the Kok River Kaya loves being on sangthaews and tuk-tuks, specially if she can get the breeze on her face. We spent most of the day there. We all had a swim, and two lengths were about enough for us as the pool is about 50m long. Kaya enjoyed a pool side lunch then Georgia and me took turns doing some yoga while Kaya first snoozed, though only for a short time, then she met some friends - a gentle German guy with his Thai partner, then had a tour of the grounds.

It's only 80 baht a person to use the pool. There's also a jacuzzi, bar that plays music over shot speakers and a lunch time buffet for 150 baht though you need to order dishes when you arrive if you're vegetarian. The resort is right by the river opposite an army camp.

I think we'll be going back again soon. We'll just ask for the Lim Kok.

Red Curry

Chiang Rai

We arrived in Chiang Rai, a quiet small city in north-east Thailand, a bit like a small version of Newcastle without such a good football team, on the afternoon of the 5th November, just as people were waking to Bonfire Night in the UK.

We are renting a two-bedroom house from a Canadian ex-pat who spends time teaching English in China. The house is part of a street owned by Mr Chian of Chian Guest House which is over the street so we have access to their pool, laundry service and wifi as well as restaurant if we need it. We're just settling in now. We have a kitchen and are cooking ours and Kaya's food again! She is loving carrot and sweet potato with coconut milk and scrambled eggs as well as new fruit to her - pineapple, watermelon and papaya.

We shop for fruit, veg, eggs, tofu, rice and noodles in the local produce night market. Today we came back with two types of long green veg that we've never cooked with before. No idea what they are, except one looks like a sort of aniseedy flavoured vegetable seen in Thai dishes. One cost 2 baht.

The Mae Kok river is nearby with a fancy new concrete prom. Also at hand are a couple of play grounds, the public library (where we went this morning and read Kaya a story about a baby with two mouths who ate lots and worried his parents but went to see a wizard and lost a mouth, got upset he couldn't eat his huge lunch by a pond, was advised by a stick person to go back to the wizard and next thing you know he is on a three seat bike singing songs with his happy parents!), some shops, an on-street 1 baht a litre water dispenser and a som tam stall.

We've been into the Saturday night Walking Market today, a long street packed full of stalls selling all sorts of gifts, clothes and handicrafts, a few food stalls (thought not as many as you'd expect in Thailand), live music and lots of people. Kaya loved it. We bought her two rattles and a pair of long pants. Thai's worry we don't cover her feet as the cold weather of winter is setting in and its only getting up to about a nippy 29oC during the day. That's much higher a temp that in Britain parents would be worrying about getting their children out of the heat.

We also visited a temple yesterday where Kaya rolled around on the carpet in front of the Buddhas and poked the carpet a bit. It is the beautiful old Wat Phra Singh temple which is all wood with red and gold decor inside. Today we saw the Chiang Rai Youth Orchestra perform at the Doi Chaang Coffee Shop.

We should be here for three weeks and then plan to move on to Pai, Koh Lanta and either Bangkok or return to Ayutthaya for the few days.

Kaya in Thailand

Were here! In fact we've been here two weeks already. This is the first time we've had a chance to blog. Our first two guesthouses were without wifi or easy reach of an internet place and my mac has gone down with a kernel panic so is now in the Chiang Mai Apple Centre.

We had four days in Ayutthaya at the Sherwood guesthouse and six days at Orichid Hibiscus in Sukhothai, both places we stayed before with great managers and staff who were all excited to meet Kaya and see us again. We're now in the White House [no relation] Chiang Mai.

Kaya is taking everything in her stride. She didn't have any problems with flying, take off or landing, except for the first part of the first flight when her recent constipation caught up with her and her bowel movements made her cry. Once that was sorted she was fine. She was awake for most of the first flight, falling asleep just before landing in Dubai at her normal bed time. She had already slept through customs leaving the UK. She then slept through most of the second flight, first in the bassinet cot then on us. Her first long bus journey was fine for the first four hours but then she filled her nappy and it came loose due to her squirming and crying! We did a quick change on the moving bus and then she was happy again.

She enjoyed Thailand immediately as Thais love babies, and go ga-ga over them, especially farang babies. It means she is having lots of lovely happy interactions but we do have to be on guard against strangers pawing at her hands or going in for cuddles. Its men and women both who are gooey, but especially women. She returns their smiles with great smiles of her own and wiggles her legs with excitement. She also took to the smiling Buddha in Sukhothai with a big smile for his.

She is an absolute trooper. We sorted out her night time routine once in Sukhothai and have had a few late nights out with her recently as it is Loi Krathong so there are lots of fun things to see. She usually falls asleep in the sling about 8pm-ish but then wakes about 10 for a feed and a great big play. We'll have one more late night as it is the finale of loi krathong tonight with floating candles on the river (River Ping here in CM), a big parade, chinese flying candles and fireworks. She has slept through thunderstorms and not noticed fireworks. She is a star.

We've just about worked out routines and food for her. Restaurants and stalls with good english cook her something with no salt. Breakfast at the Orchid Hibiscus in Sukhothai was a big hit - scrambled egg, coconut pudding, toast and banana. The pumpkin soup with coconut milk was a big success, the pureed watery vegetable soup on rice as popular as her first attempts at parsnip and avocado. She definitely prefers food she can chew now. She has also learnt to drink water through a straw but then I guess sucking is something she has plenty of practice at!

Everyone says how good-natured and happy she is and she certainly is. She usually wakes up in her excellent LittleLife cot singing and rocking on all fours.

She has been coo'd at by a Buddhist monk on a bus and yesterday a young monk sang Old MacDonald had a farm to her in a temple in Chiang Mai! Now how many 7 1/2 month olds from Sheffield can say that. And if they could tell you about it would be something of a miracle anyway.

Cockerney of Errors

A Duff deflection finally relegates Newcastle United with an own goal during the last game of the 2008/09 season when all Toon fans were preying for an Owen goal at the other end. Why does it not surprise me, a Newcastle fan since I was a child, that this season's Comedy of Errors ended with such a signature? The likelihood that the season would have one more pathetic twist of the knife has been signposted for a few weeks now that is for sure. And I think pathetic is the right choice of word as it is defined as 'having a capacity to move one to either compassionate or contemptuous pity'. Though there is nothing about piercing humour there.

Mike Ashley has managed to preside over a season that has gone from bad to worse to sublime and in doing so has showcased his amazing lack of ability for owning a Premier League football club. First he brings in Dennis Wise as Director of Football, presumably somehow fooled into thinking that the taxi door kicker possesses some form of footballing acumen. Well Collocinis to that idea. Then he manages to upset Kevin Keegan by allowing Wise to buy and sell players without consulting Keegan. Whether you would go the whole way to supporting Keegan as a tactical genius is one thing, to confront him so bullishly while preferring the advice of the Wise Man is another. Few, very few, club owners would surely do that.

Ashley, again following the Wisened advice in his ear, hires a Joe Kinnear, a manager with a known heart problem to step in to a highly stressful situation. When the heart attack unsurprisingly materialises and Kinnear undergoes heart surgery, Ashley thinks it a good idea to save money by allowing the gifted coach Chris Hughton to manage. The season drifts along, Newcastle plummet. Did Ashley not know from his business dealings that a small investment up front can reap riches, on in this case, avoid a massive income cut. Your not selling trainers here Ashley, and I'm certainly not going along to where you do offload them to buy any from you now.

So, one last throw of the dice brings Shearer off the Match of the Day pundit's couch to try and save the season with eight games to go. An untried manager backed by Iain Dowie.

No sodden luck Mike. You blew it good and proper. Perhaps your business sense has never been too hot for you didn't undertake due diligence on buying the club and so didn't find out in advance the mortgage on the ground would have to be paid off immediately on a change of owner. It takes a lot of hard work to make Freddie Shepherd and his annual round of sacking the manager, look like a safe pair of hands. But you've done it. You've blown it. Two seasons and you've ruined Newcastle.

Newcastle fans also have to broaden their horizons. We have to stop looking for a Messiah and we must widen our opinions of who is suitable to manage the team. There has been too much Cockney bashing on fans' sites this and last season. Harry Redknapp was mooted as a manager after Allardyce was sacked last season but the fans howled in protest. 'No 'Arry the Cockerney!' Then Newcastle and Spurs began this season disastrously. How our fates have parted since Redknapp became the Spurs manager. Personally, I'd rather have spent the last couple of games of the season fighting for a place in Europe with a Southern manager than being relegated with a Geordie one. Our fans must end the calling for the hangmen within a few games of each season with a new manager that is not totally to our taste.

There was a time, at the dawn of the 21st Century when Chelsea and Newcastle, then managed by Bobby Robson, were regularly vying for third spot in the league behind Arsenal and Man Utd. How the two clubs' fortunes have diverged since then. One is taken over by a Russian Oligarch, wins the league and challenges for Europe. One is sold by Tweedle-dum to Tweedle-dummer who thinks changing manager once a season not often enough. Here is a plea to you Mike. Consider a return to peddling cheap trainers on the High Street or learn about football very, very quickly, coz' so far you have demonstrated you and your Managing Director Derek Llambas, are clueless n goalless.