Seeking Curry Coconut Noodles

Yai and Sarah in Yai's tuk tuk
Photo by Madeline Horn

Khao Soi in Chiang Mai:
After a tour of temple ruins in Chiang Mai Sarah and I asked our cute tuk tuk driver Yai to bring us to the spot with the best Khao Soi in the city. When he tried to deliver us to a tourist restaurant we refused to get out of his tuk tuk and insisted he take us to a spot where locals eat. Yai laughed and brought us to Lam Duan Fan Ham, a colorful busy restaurant with very basic decorations, assuring us it was,"the best." We ordered Khao Soi, their specialty - thick yellow crinkly noodles in a rich yellow curry coconut broth, with chicken, cilantro, lime, red onion, and crispy noodles on top. We had juicy pork skewers with peanut sauce and cucumbers on the side. The meal was divine!

Lam Duan Fan Ham - Chiang Mai
Photo by Madeline Horn

Khao Soi is typically a lunch food. I am always entertained by food customs regarding time of day certain foods should be eaten. In Peru it is considered "wrong" to eat their beloved pollo a la brasa (rotisserie chicken served with fries and salad) for lunch, as it is considered to be strictly a dinner food. My Peruvian roommate told me that restaurants serve last night's chicken at lunch. I didn't necessarily believe her (she tended to be paranoid), but I never ate chicken for lunch again in Peru.

Thais eat foods Americans would consider lunch or dinner foods for breakfast. I will never forget a breakfast of fried chicken and sticky rice with my host family in high school in Chiang Mai. On our recent trip, Sarah and I ate chicken soup with rice for breakfast at the hotel cafe.

As soon as the dish of Khao Soi arrived on our table in Thailand I realized that I had eaten a very similar dish many times in San Francisco at Yamo, a Burmese restaurant on 18th Street in the Mission District. Yamo calls it "Chicken Noodle Soup." I've also tried a Trader Joe's version of Khao Soi, but it was not very good. I loved the Khao Soi we tasted in Chiang Mai, so I was tickled to find "Chiang Mai" noodles on the menu at Charlie Hong Kong in Santa Cruz.

Charle Hong Kong at night
Photo by Madeline Horn

Charlie Hong Kong:
Charlie Hong Kong is a cute and casual organic Asian street food restaurant in Santa Cruz. I've been going to yoga regularly half a block away for months, but had refrained from eating at Charlie's because I didn't want to enter an eating establishment in my yoga clothes. Last week something snapped in me - I could no longer resist the delicious smells coming from Charlie's. I walked in and ordered food while wearing yoga pants. No one stared. I forget that this is normal behavior in Santa Cruz. The floodgates have opened and I have been there for dinner three times this week!

The tiny building was once an ice cream stand. They've transformed the patio into an inviting space that feels more "indoors" than "patio." Tables are covered in floral oil cloth, the ceiling is green and there are heat lamps to cut the chill factor.

Charlie Hong Kong's menu starts with "signature bowls" (all vegan) which customers add a protein of their choice to. On my first visit I chose Chiang Mai Noodles (Khao Soi) with Teriyaki Salmon. The meal was large enough to eat for dinner, then lunch the next day. The generous portion of salmon was slightly undercooked, but so fresh that it did not bother me. The chow mein noodles were chewy and satisfying, but not crinkly like in Thailand. Although not nearly as rich, the broth's flavor brought me back to Lam Duan Fan Ham in Chiang Mai. On a return visit I tasted the same dish and the salmon was cooked perfectly, with more teriyaki flavor. I shared with my mom and grandma and we could not shut up about the deliciousness of the fish.

I also tried Laughing Phoenix Red Curry with Green Curry Chicken on top, with fresh-tasting yams, greens, carrots, and broccoli. The chicken had the juicy pull-apart texture and flavor of rotisserie with a green curry sauce much richer and spicier than the red curry on the vegetables. I would have been disappointed in the very mellow red curry had I not added the green on top. Together, they made a very satisfying meal.

On my third visit I tried Charlie's Pad Thai, which had a strong tamarind flavor that I loved. However, if you expect it to taste like your typical Thai restaurant's Pad Thai you will be disappointed.

In one week I've become a super fan of Charlie Hong Kong. I'm not the only one. They've won awards for the yumminess, sustainability, and healthiness of their food. Whether you are in Santa Cruz, Thailand, or San Francisco, try a bowl of Khao Soi by whatever name it goes in your town. It is a taste sensation not to be missed!

Charlie Hong Kong - 1141 Soquel Avenue, Santa Cruz CA
Open 11am - 11pm daily
831-426-5664
website - http://www.charliehongkong.com

Yamo - 3406 18th Street, San Francisco, CA
415-553-8911
http://www.yelp.com/biz/yamo-san-francisco

Lam Duan Fan Ham - 352/22 Charoenraj Road, Chiang Mai, Thailand
New York Times Article on Chiang Mai food which mentions Lam Duan Fan Ham - features a fun slideshow with audio

Living Underwater in Thailand

I love this video by Gideon Mendel of Thai flood victims doing their thing in waist-deep water.

Where not to stay on Phuket, Thailand

Our driver pulled over without explanation to pick up a casually dressed transvestite standing on the side of the road. Sarah and I had arrived on the Thai island of Phuket on a flight from Chiang Mai, a city known for cultural tourism. We were one our way to Patong Beach, described on the airport tourist map of Phuket as “hedonistic.” Keng, our travel agent in Chiang Mai, had booked a hotel for us, referring to the location simply as “Phuket,” far too vague a name for an island named Phuket that is 30 miles long. Similar, perhaps to telling someone they’d been booked at a hotel in the “Bay Area” without telling them whether they were staying in San Francisco or suburban Pleasanton. Once we hit bustling Patong Beach our driver dropped us at an alley in front of a hotel with sculptures of breasts in bikinis and butts in cut-offs filling the front lawn and pointed four doors down the alley to Erawan Guest House and the room we had pre-paid for. We hauled our own luggage down the alley in the oppressive heat only to be greeted by a shirtless European boy with dyed red hair and deeply burnt red face and chest with a small patch of bright white skin apparently from an amulet he’d been wearing in the sun. A red-faced British kid with long hair sat at reception as if checking in. He stood up to ask the other burnt Euro and a black guy sitting on the stoop smoking, “What are you doing tonight? Or should I say, who you doin’?” laughing heartily at his own joke as he walked to the corner of the lobby, picked up a large can of roach spray and thoroughly sprayed each foot and ankle with it. The lobby was tiled and bare bones, as if housekeeping needed to keep the room able to be hosed down at any moment. Who knows what went on here aside from daily doses of roach spray?

We sat down and the boyish Thai receptionist said, “Your agent booked you fan room, cheap room! Just one night!” The sympathy in his eyes showed he sensed we were professional women in our thirties who did not fit in there. He handed us a padlock for our fourth floor room and pointed us through the laundry room to the staircase. We huffed up the four flights in the extreme heat, catching a glimpse of a gray haired white man staring vacantly out the open door of his room. How long had he been there? I got the distinct sense that he was living in the hotel. When we opened the door to room 409 we whimpered at the sight of shabby linoleum floors, naked fluorescent tube lighting, a saggy pad on a faux wood platform that stood in for a bed, and a giant towel in place of a bedspread. It was truly hideous and struck fear in our hearts, for our safety, health, and sanity. Sarah asked, “What have we done Madeline?” We decided to leave the room immediately and try to forget it until we had to sleep. We had scheduled a 6am wake-up call for the once daily ferry to the island of Koh Lanta, but were willing to stay out all night if necessary. If anywhere could support an all-nighter, Patong Beach was the place. 

Crying over the sad room. The toilet was inside the shower.

Our faith in Keng, our polo shirt-wearing male-to-female Thai travel agent in Chiang Mai had hit an all time low. If we knew Patong would be just a one-night fiasco, we could have wallowed in the filth for a few hours, but we were terrified about what we would find once we arrived in Koh Lanta, our final Andaman Coast destination. We had entrusted Keng to choose, book and pay for a 7-night stay on the island of Koh Lanta, known for its remote location, natural beauty and peacefulness. If Keng pegged Sarah and I for the kind of girls that wanted to stay in a hedonistic beach town filled with girlie bars, partying with the European guys at Erawan Guest House ten years our junior (or 25 years our senior) drinking, doing drugs, and patronizing prostitutes, where did she think we should stay in Koh Lanta? Our propositions seemed desperately grim. 

            We got out of the third world jail cell Erawan was trying to pass as a hotel room, walking past tourist shops and large multi-story generic hotels that, contrary to our normal search for “authentic” lodging, looked so incredibly appealing in that moment. We longed for anything but the Erawan Guest House. We trekked a few blocks to the gorgeous beach on Patong Bay, reminiscent of Nice, France, with foliage-covered hills on both sides dotted with the lights of businesses classier than the ones in the flat lands. The sand was white and fine, met by lush greenery and palm trees. We walked in the warm clear turquoise surf just before sunset. Jet skis and powerboats sat on the beach, spreading the stench of gasoline and reminding us that we were not quite in paradise. We lingered as the Technicolor sunset took over the entire island sky while pale crabs the color of buttercream frosting scurried playfully at our feet.

Sarah at sunset on Patong Beach, ready to eat the buttercream crab

We enjoyed a delicious dinner of shrimp in tamarind sauce, pineapple fried rice with seafood served in a pineapple, and grilled squid at Baan Sabai restaurant, our toes wiggling in the sand below our table. To reach the restroom I had to leave the restaurant and cross the street, entering into frightening girlie bar territory. We had witnessed the awkward pairing of older white men with young Thai ladies in Chiang Mai, but Patong Beach seemed to be designed exclusively to bring the two groups together, with bars filled with listless young Thai girls waiting outside to lure in customers. Sarah and I were far from their target demographic. In fact, I found it surprising that any woman would willingly travel to Patong Beach, yet we spotted European families enjoying the restaurants, some with babies in tow.

            Just when I crossed the street to use the restroom it began to rain and never stopped. We were not nearly drunk enough after one beer with dinner to return to the Erawan, so we walked through the steamy rain up the hill to the nicer part of town. We found exclusive resorts and dining establishments patronized by what appeared to be upstanding citizens. We tried to imagine ourselves in an alternate universe in which scheduling a Patong Beach vacation would be acceptable to us, “Maybe if I was dating someone who was rich and they scheduled the vacation secretly and booked one of these nice resorts, and we drove straight from the airport and didn’t see the rest of the town…” I offered. “Maybe then it would seem okay.”

            We chose Joe’s Downstairs, a classy bar and restaurant perched on the ocean cliff, for a $10 drink. With prices in Thailand so cheap, this was comparable to ordering a $30 drink in the U.S.. We needed the fantasy of luxury to erase Erawan and girlie bars from our minds. There was an American wedding party in the bar dressed in finery. After one drink we descended the hill in the jungle rain towards the flats, not quite ready to return to Erawan, we stopped for one last drink at a bar/restaurant with a Coney Island vibe, offering mediocre vacation food and drinks in a slightly trashy setting. A British couple on holiday chatted us up while dining and smiling.  Apparently they were having a grand old time in Patong Beach.  

Grilled squid at Baan Sabai Restaurant

Back at the hotel with rain soaked clothes, we had two options for sleeping: shudder with terror in the dark, or blast the fluorescent office lighting. Thankfully I had packed a travel candle, which we lit as a nightlight. We would never have been able so sleep otherwise. Despite the candle, Sarah had nightmares and I tossed and turned. Our wake-up call never happened, but in our desperation to leave the place we woke up promptly at 5:30am. We hopped in a shared van, caught a ferry to Koh Lanta and never looked back.

Sunset on Patong Beach

                                           
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Lotus Blossoms and Lemongrass: Journey through Chiang Mai

Day time lanterns set off by child monks at the temple.
Photo by Madeline Horn

Bang! Pop! Crack! Explosions filled the blue sky with smoke as little boys ran away covering their ears and the crowd watched a puffy white lantern with a tail made of fireworks bob chaotically into the blue sky. A toy airplane detached from the tail and gently glided through the air. The boys were monks, celebrating Loy Krathong, the Lantern Festival, in their temple school. 18 years ago I lived with a family, wore a uniform to high school, and spent afternoons with teens at the mall in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I returned this year with my dietician friend Sarah to celebrate Loy Krathong and learn to cook.

Temple bells left by the devout at Wat Phra Doi Suthep.
Photo by Madeline Horn

The 300 steps of Wat Phra Doi Suthep.
Photo by Madeline Horn

On our first morning in Thailand, we woke at dawn, eager to see the sun rise from Chiang Mai’s magnificent temple-on-the-mountain, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. To reach the temple we climbed 300 steps, flanked by undulating golden naga serpents. As we ascended past a stream of descending monks, one smiled and greeted us with a gentle, “Sawadeekap.” At the top, worshippers circled the temple’s gleaming golden chedi, built to hold Buddha’s shoulder bone, clasping incense, candles and lotus blossoms in their hands before offering the items on bended knees. Touched by the ritual, we decided to join in.

Temple decorations for Loy Krathong.
Photo by Madeline Horn

Later that night, thousands of glowing lanterns filled the skies over the city for Loy Krathong. Thais and tourists alike posed for photos with big smiles on their faces in front of life-sized dragons and elephants, lit from within. By chance we discovered a temple lit by hundreds of candles. The temple’s golden chedi reflected the shimmering flames as a black and white cat slept peacefully amongst the candles and a kneeling monk chanted eerily into a microphone. As we exited the temple gate, decorated with colorful lanterns and palm fronds, hundreds of glowing lanterns floated to the heavens, competing with the stars for attention. As we wandered the city streets on this magic night we encountered one candlelit temple after another, wafting with incense, and filled with monks and revelers lighting and launching lanterns into the night sky.

Krathong for floating on the river.
Photo by Madeline Horn

These women were catching floating lanterns
to steal the coins tucked into them.
Photo by Madeline Horn

On the River Ping people set krathongs made of flowers, candles, incense, bamboo leaves and money afloat, meant to float away their troubles. Kids set off fireworks in all directions on the riverbanks while vendors sold plastic bags filled with live fish, eels, and turtles to be set free to gain merit. The Ping sparkled with floating candles while opportunistic men and women stood chest-deep in the river catching krathongs with bamboo sticks to snatch the cash offerings. All of this celebrating was making us hungry.

Me with my krathong on the River Ping.
Photo by Sarah Koszyk

We spent the next day at Thai Farm Cooking School, beginning at the market where we eyed tubs of curry paste, baskets heaped with dried chilies, and krathongs made of orange marigolds and purple orchids. At the farm, we picked and smelled kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, and basil, piquing our taste buds. Bright blue skies, crisp white clouds, lush greenery, lily ponds, and airy kitchens made for a fantastic setting. Sawat, our smiling teacher, and owner of the school, sprinkled Buddhist philosophy into his lesson, “Focus on your breath, it is your best friend,” while educating us on organic farming. Sawat coached me through five complex and delicious Thai dishes, leaving me with the ultimate souvenir: a new skill. Since returning home, I’ve impressed friends and family with home-cooked Thai feasts.

Chili sauces and oils at the market.
Photo by Madeline Horn

The morning of our departure we revisited the temple we’d been drawn to our first day by the child-monks’ daytime firecrackers. After worshiping, celebrating, and eating with Thais for a week, we had a much deeper understanding of the temple’s importance to social, educational, and spiritual life. I couldn’t have chosen a better time than Loy Krathong for my return to Thailand, a country that changed my whole outlook at the age of 15. On my recent trip I saw clearly the connection between Buddhism and the Thai warmth, compassion, and positivity that affected me so deeply in high school, a soothing antidote to American teenagers’ negative attitudes. When it came time to leave, I felt like I might start crying just like I did the first time I left Chiang Mai.

Culture Shock

As a freshman in high school I decided I wanted to study abroad. I really didn't care where, I just wanted to leave the country. I was 14 so my mom helped me do research on possible programs. She found the Global Youth Academy on Pacific Avenue in Santa Cruz, a traveling school that toured the world during the school year and took shorter journeys during the summer. It was 1993 and they were going to Thailand and Indonesia that summer. I don't know if I had ever heard of Thailand before. I looked at a map of South America expecting to find it next to Brazil.


I fundraised money and joined the trip of 7 students and one teacher. When I stepped off the airplane in Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand, my host family met me and drove me directly to their home. The next day they brought me to the uniform shop to get me outfitted for school and soon I was the tallest palest student at Wattanothaipayap school. I experienced major culture shock and home sickness. It was serious. I hadn't expected when I signed up that Thailand would be like Mexico (my only foreign point of reference at that time for places with spotty trash service and no hot water)! I hadn't realized many things, like there would be shanty towns built at the end of roads in my neighborhood, and we would eat fried chicken for breakfast with something I'd never heard of called sticky rice, or that each of us 7 students would be attending different schools across the city, so there would be absolutely no buffer between me and the Thai culture and students. Oh, and I hadn't realized that, at the age of 15, I would be a head taller than most of the teachers in my school and that it was disrespectful to have your head higher than a teacher, so I would bow down to avoid towering over them each time we passed in the hallway or a classroom.


I had an epiphany a few days into my stay. I sat down to lunch in the canteen at school and was introduced to a Thai girl who had lived in Los Angeles until she started high school. She complained bitterly about Thailand and lamented how much she missed California. She was unhappy. Our conversation cured my home sickness. Her attitude was so drastically different from everyone else I had met in Thailand. She was negative. She reminded me of my classmates in Santa Cruz, who had "everything" compared to Thais, but did not appreciate any of it and chose to focus on the negative in their lives. This had been me one week before when I left California. I decided right then and there at the lunch table that I would savor every minute of my time in Thailand because it was absolutely refreshing to be surrounded by people that smiled a lot, did not complain, and focused on the positive. Plus I was amazed by the orange robed monks wandering the streets, the incredibly ornate temples, and the armies of scooters in the streets. Thai pop was pretty awesome too.



Fast forward to 2011, my best friend Sarah and I took a trip to Chiang Mai and I met a bunch of students who weren't even born when I attended the school, but they look just like I remember them!


In my journal from high school I wrote that I had been worried that there would be no ice cream in Thailand. I was delighted when I found that they offered freshly scooped ice cream at my school. On my recent trip I was happy to see that the canteen still offers many ice cream options!

Returning to Chiang Mai After 18 Years

Arriving in Chiang Mai after 18 years away I didn't know what to expect. I was absolutely delighted to discover the city still holds a spell over me. The rhythm of the city is quite different than any other place I've been. On the one hand, traffic is intense and chaotic and sidewalks are ripped up with gaping holes in them. On the other, you happen upon ancient buddhist temples, oases in the middle of the city that act as public parks and places of worship.


Monks walk the streets of the city in the early morning carrying an alms bowl to collect food and other offerings for themselves and the temple. This photo was taken as the monks returned to Wat Phra Singh (wat means temple in Thai), just after sunrise, carrying their alms bowls.



Thai culture, including religion and their script, is influenced by India. You can really see this in this shrine on a temple compound in Chiang Mai's old city.


I made a donation in exchange for a Loy Krathong with my family names on it. I also cut a piece of fingernail and a piece of hair using the scissors and clippers provided by the temple to add to the little banana leaf boat. The boat was added to a larger boat that they floated on the river during the festival.




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Magic Gardens in the City

Chedis (also called stupas in other countries) can be found in all Thai temples and are a solid structure, meaning you cannot enter it, as it's more of a monument. They are built to hold relics and other treasures. Thais kneel before them to pray and give offerings of incense, flowers and candles.


The chedi at Wat Lok Molee is practically in ruins. Bare brick is all that remains. It is massive and golden Buddhas sit on various levels. The base of the chedi is the height of a 2 story building and is covered in green plants growing. Three monks in saffron robes sat smoking behind it. The top of the base was wrapped in what I call "monk orange" fabric.



The main temple was made of very dark wood. In front of the temple stood a tree of gold and a tree of silver with 2 white elephants with red and yellow details. It truly was a magic garden.



The very shiny Chedi Luang was in a temple complex where, on Sunday evenings, food vendors set up stalls selling ice cream, sushi, noodles, thai tea (sold out of lemonade machines that keep it moving constantly), skewers of meat and fish balls, and rice dishes.


This reclining Buddha at Wat Phra Singh is experiencing Nirvana even though they've built a tiny little house for him, which seems too small. He could never stand up in this structure! Notice Sarah standing at his feet to truly understand how gigantic he is.


This peaceful Buddha looks out over the moat surrounding the Old City of Chiang Mai. Ruins of the old wall on the inside of the moat still stand. Thais use the ancient gates in the walls (used to enter the Old City) as landmarks and meeting places. We stayed inside the Old City.
Here I am standing at one of the gates in the wall surrounding the Old City. The pink lanterns were part of the Loy Krathong lantern festival.

Mango Sticky Rice From Scratch

Kao Nio Ma Muang

Mango with Sticky Rice
1 cup of steamed sticky rice
1/2 cup of coconut milk
1 ripe mango (peel, remove the seed and slice into pieces)
1-2 tbsp. of sugar (or wet palm sugar, available at specialty stores like Rainbow Grocery)
1/4 tsp. salt
1 vanilla bean (or padang* leaf, if you can get it)


Place coconut milk, vanilla bean, sugar and salt in a pot. Heat until boiling. Turn the heat off. Add steamed sticky rice. Mix together well. Let it cool. Serve with sliced mango.

*Padang is a dark green sturdy leaf that imparts the coconut with a distinct flavor that is similar to vanilla. I don't have a source for it in the U.S., but would be happy to find it someday.
recipe courtesy of The Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School 

Do you know how coconut milk is made?...by pressing coconut shavings!

Making coconut milk from shavings at the market

We spent a delicious day at The Chiang Mai Thai Farm Cooking School (www.thaifarmcooking.com), visiting a market in the countryside before touring the school's farm of fresh-as-can-be ingredients, including bananas, mangoes, galangal, ginger, kaffir limes, lemongrass, and more. We cooked a feast with ingredients from the farm, including red curry chicken (kaeng phed gai), basil chicken (phad kaprao gai), pad thai, and chicken coconut soup (tom kaa gai). Are you noticing a pattern? Gai means chicken! We made our curry paste from scratch, but you can see in the photo below that Thai cooks can purchase fresh curry paste in red, yellow, or green from the market in bulk.

Green curry paste for purchase at the market (thai cooks' secret)


Chili sauces and oil at the market


Ladies and gentlemen, I present to you the 20 baht (70 cent) bag of FRESH green peppercorns.
That's galangal directly behind the peppercorns.

Sarah and I had these little balls of delight in a very thin sauce with red peppers and lots of broth on our first night in Thailand at a street market stall, served on a skewer of chicken, pineapple, tomato, and onion. Oh how I would love to have access to fresh green peppercorns in California.

In case you're wondering how to make sticky rice...
First, you must purchase sticky rice grains. You can't make sticky rice by using regular rice grains. Next, soak the sticky rice in water overnight. Finally, steam the rice in a bamboo steamer until it is soft. Voila!
We learned a very important lesson at cooking school.
How to eat sticky rice...
1. Grab a ball of the rice with your fingers (half the size of a ping pong ball)
2. Roll the ball in the palm of your hands.
3. Flatten the ball into the shape of a blood cell.
4. Use your patty to scoop up bites of yummy Thai food.

Loy Krathong Lantern Festival, Chiang Mai

Monks helping people light their lanterns at a temple.

                Sarah and I planned our trip to Thailand to coincide with the annual lantern festival, Loy Krathong. It was hard to get information about the festival before arriving in Chiang Mai, but once we were there, we could not escape the festival had we wanted to (which we didn't). We saw lanterns in the air, floating down the river, and set up in parks, temples and plazas across the city.  The sky was filled with thousands of paper lanterns lit from within by flame. The effect is intoxicating. I first noticed the lanterns in the sky after walking into a temple complex lit by hundreds of small red clay candles with orange wax, placed on every surface, including the golden chedi, which reflected the lights beautifully as a black and white temple cat slept peacefully amongst the candles. A monk’s chants were amplified on a loudspeaker for Thais sitting on folding chairs facing the chedi worshipping and leaving offerings. The monk knelt in front of the chedi, his amplified chants lending eerie sound effects. 

As I walked out of the temple complex gate, decorated with palm fronds and colorful lanterns, I looked up and saw lanterns floating in the sky. I couldn’t keep my eyes off the sky as I weaved through the busy night streets, until a massive parade diverted my attention.

Thousands of people flood the streets to celebrate Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai. Massive lanterns decorate the city in the shape of dragons, elephants, cartoon characters, and people. Thais and tourists alike pose in front of these colorful lanterns with big smiles on their faces and fingers in the air in the universal peace sign. Thousands of lanterns hang in parks, on city streets, and on temple gates as well.

Revelers set lanterns into the sky from temples and on the banks of the Ping River, where kids of all ages let off fireworks in all directions. The white tissue lanterns, sold by monks and street vendors, unfold to wider than a person’s width and nearly as tall. It takes two, but most seemed to prefer 4-5, people to ignite and alight a lantern. Posing for photos with their lantern right as the lantern casts an orange glow on their faces is a highlight for most groups.          

                       The stars themselves have competition from the beautiful lanterns filling the sky   and temples bedecked with candles and lanterns on the nights of Loy Krathong. The date of the festival changes every year, as it coincides with the full moon in November. I can’t imagine a more magical time to visit Chiang Mai.  

The spots of light behind the white chedi are lanterns.

Loy Krathong parade!

Elephants are everywhere in Thailand.

Fish ball vendor near giant lantern display

Note the black and white cat sleeping at the bottom left.

These lanterns were EVERYWHERE!

Touring Temple Ruins by Horse and Carriage

For less than it would cost for a taxi between bars in San Francisco, we rented a private tuk tuk and driver for the morning to visit the temple ruins of Wiang Kum Kam on the outskirts of Chiang Mai, Thailand. The ruins cover an area that is filled, not only with ancient and modern temples, but also family homes. We splurged on a private horse and colorful carriage with driver. Part of the thrill was voyeuristically peering into the patios of private homes from our carriage as we went from temple to temple.

The site is an oasis, where city dwellers can worship while marveling at the beauty of the ancient sculpture whose red and white brick is partially covered with green foliage. One of the most beautiful Buddha sculptures, of black stone draped in a saffron sash, was renovated through the efforts of concerned neighbors. Visitors can stroll in the park-like setting, but the site is not just for gawkers. We encountered a Thai family fishing in a pond that had formed inside a ruin. A shrine with fresh marigolds, cigarettes, bananas, recently burned candles and incense, and miniature sculpture overlooked the family as they fished.

The photo above was taken in a busy area of Wiang Kum Kam, where vendors sell offerings to worshippers and new and ancient sculpture and architecture exist side by side. Hire a tuk tuk and driver through your hotel in the old city. The tour takes less than half a day and is absolutely lovely!

Special Loy Krathong (Lantern Festival) strings attached to Buddha's hands

I'm not sure why lady cannot enter. This was the only sign I  saw like this in Thailand.

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