Lampang

Lampang was the first city on our trip to the north, and to be honest was picked for only one reason:  Elephants. Today was agreed to be one of the best days of trip, because in our book, any day when you get to play with baby elephants is awesome.  We left our hostel in Chiang Mai early, picked up the bike from Tony's, and headed out.  About 80 km into the trip (another 30 or so to Lampang), we pulled off the road to our first stop.  The FAE (Friends of Asian Elephants) Hospital is the world's first elephant hospital, and is currently caring for 13 patients.  The first patient to enter the hospital, a lovely, expressive female named Motola, was in a landmine accident and had to have part of her leg amputated.  In 1998, she famously became the first Elephant to wear a prosthetic leg.  Apparently accidents such have occurred more than a few times in the jungle (there was an adorable 6 year old there also missing a foot), and due to the dwindling population of Asian elephants, the work done at the FAE Hospital is pretty crucial and amazing.  The hospital isn't a tourist attraction, and is somewhat off the beaten path, so the volunteers and mahouts (elephant caretaker and trainer)  allowed us to wander the grounds and meet the patients, as we were the only visitors there.

All packed

The road to Lampang

Motola

Wearing her prosthetic leg

Patients' charts

A very mischievous little elephant who kept trying to get out of her pen

After spending the rest of the morning at the hospital, we got back on the bike and headed around the corner.  Our next stop was the TECC (Thai Elephant Conservation Center).  Although unaffiliated with the FAE hospital, the TECC does a lot of similar work in rehabilitating the elephant population, but more through education.  It was definitely more a place for visitors (and field trips- so many kids!) and was laid out as a large park, with a nursery, an infirmary, bathing area, and the "elephant show" (where mahouts showed how elephants were used in logging prior to its ban in Thailand in 1989, a big reason why so many elephants in captivity were suddenly a burden).  It was fun to see what mahouts now did with the elephants on a day to day basis-- walks through the beautiful mountains, baths, painting, and a memory that will always stay with us of a very happy adolescent elephant clanging on a xylophone.  It was a magical experience, and a wonderful day spending time around such a magnificent animal.

Oh, hi.  The nursery.

I didn't want to startle the younger elephant so I approached cautiously 

but he clearly just wanted to hang out (I mean, look at his face)

Bath time

Big hug

Hand in hand

Arts & crafts

End result

We spent the rest of the evening finding a hotel (a fun backpackers hostel with plenty of motorcycles and adorable dogs lying around) and grabbing a bite to eat at a road side spot.  We poked around the town a bit, but decided to turn in pretty early.

Pretty average chicken for dinner

Pretty entertaining chicken at dinner

Next--- Phayao.

Chiang Mai

Oh, Chiang Mai.  It is easy to see why so many travelers have permanently unpacked there bags in this peaceful town.  We spent a lazy day wandering around Chiang Mai, enjoying the town and the people (and yes, the food), to realize that we could easily spend the next 10 days there... until we passed a motorbike rental shop.  Tony's Big Bikes, a bike shop run by two British men who moved to Thailand, had the perfect bike and maps to plan an adventure through the north.  We quickly decided that we wanted to spend about a week on the bike, Tuesday-Monday.  Elliot picked out the right bike, a roomy Honda 200 Phantom, and we spent much of the rest of the day plotting out our next big road trip.  Some pictures from the day...

Noodles with pork spare ribs for E

Noodles with braised beef for me-- great soup for lunch

Pork rinds

Chiang Mai

The best bowl of Khao Soi we've come across so far 

(a small family run restaurant on Ratchamanka Road, near Wat Chedi Luang)

New friend came to say goodbye as we headed out for our trip

First stop: Lampang!

Bangkok to Chiang Mai

Our last day in Bangkok started with a few more curries. Green for me and red for the mrs. Both good, with the green being one of the better incarnations that I've paid money for. The big difference between the curries here and in your average Thai restaurant back home is (as expected) in the concentration of flavor, but in particular they really nail the balance among sweet, tangy, savoury and spicy. They're not shy with the fish sauce, chili or palm sugar, and they certainly shouldn't be (but who am I to judge). 

The rest of the morning included a revisit to my new favorite hobby: browsing Thai street snacks. There are just so many inviting choices. They all cost about 10-30 baht (~$.30-$1), are usually fresh from a bubbling wok of peanut oil, and it's often left to the uninitiated foreigner to guess whether any one is sweet or savoury (or both, as is often the case here). I love this game.

These were weird enough that we had to buy one - not as tasty as it looks.

The morning haul (those donuts are soooo good, and only 20 baht for a whole bag!)

Perfectly crunchy, with a nice glazed sweetness and a perfect spiced undertone that builds after you inevitably eat a whole handful

Cashew flavored shortbread-ish cookies. They had an oddly pleasing charcoal-y taste

Birthplace of redbull! Here they're sold in little medicine bottles which I think is quite appropriate.

I'm digging the motorcycle culture in Thailand. Much of it is driven by practicality (not quite to the extent of Vietnam, with it's restriction on bikes above 175cc, among other things), but there is some interesting diversity. Has me itching to get back on a bike and filling my head full of all sorts of unnecessary add-ons to my theoretical wish list back home.

Saw tons of these converted three wheel rigs putting around with anything from rice to bubbling pots of  who-knows-what delicious street fare

Saw many of these little 150cc sporty scoots

Streetside rewiring. 

I don't even know

These little two strokes seem to be the two-wheeled workhouse of Bangkok. Saw countless numbers of these usually with big crates of something strapped to the back.

Reminds me of home (a bit prettier than mine)

Enough about that. The rest of the day included us dropping our bags off at the travel agency we booked our overnight bus tickets through, a long walk around town, the highlight of which brought us through an enormous mixed street and indoor market. Stall after stall of pirated DVDs, discount electronics, stacks of old-lady bras, appliances (I was able to bargain for a trimmer to deal with this unruly beard), and, of course, plenty of street food. We abstained for the most part, but at least couldn't resist the freshly squeezed pomegranate juice.  Couldn't think of anything better to help us on our way sifting through a hot, crowded street.

Before heading back to the bus station we grabbed a light streetside dinner of noodle soup with pork and won tons (nowhere near as good as the previous night) and chicken satay.

Basted with cocounut milk over the flames. The sauce was as good as any satay sauce I've had.

Then a lot of waiting at the travel agency, followed by a short tuk-tuk transfer to a different travel agency, followed by another length of waiting (with time past wandering around a huge indoor shopping complex, my fouling mood fixed by no other than a lone Dairy Queen stand offering up reassuring tastes of home - they were out of M&Ms, so I opted for the "chocolate explosion" Blizzard - no shame here).

We were finally herded onto the enormous "VIP" bus which ended up being reasonably comfortable for the 11 hour overnight trip that brought us to Chiang Mai.


We hired another tuk-tuk upon arrival and broke our newly acquired rule of not taking the first hotel room we saw. For 200 baht (~$6.60) a night in a good location with a clean room, hot shower, and free wifi (luckily it's cool enough here to forgo the comfort of a/c), we didn't feel the need to look around.

Now a brief bit of history explaining why Chiang Mai, for me, has been on of the most anticipated stops on our trip:

Many are you are familiar with my history with Thai food. My dad has Thai cookbooks with recipe and cooking notes that date back to the early 90s most of which are from what became weekly Sunday dinners - some of my favorite memories from my teenage years - where family and friends old and new would gather in our kitchen at Tyca to try our best at one or a few of the well worn recipes in those books. As an absurdly picky child, it was my introduction to cooking, and through that was my gateway into foods beyond the bland and starchy (thanks largely to Cindhu, my palate has expanded exponentially since). As my interest in cooking intensified and my love for great Thai food deepened, one dish in particular became a recurring favorite at such dinners (and their incarnations in my post college homes): Khao Soi. Hard to find in western Thai restaurants among the usually anemic red and green curries and often generic pad thais, it is a dish that is both unique to and emblematic of Northern Thai cuisine, and Chiang Mai is its modern Mecca. As far as I've researched, it is a descendant of Yunnanese influence, and has many Burmese sibling dishes across the northern border, and until recent local acclaim (and the resultant creeping onto tourist restaurant menus), was largely considered a peasant dish. At this point, it is the quintessential Chiang Mai street dish ('khao' is a common term for rice and 'soi' translates to street). After having dreamed of trying 'the real thing' for almost a decade, I've done my best to manage my expectations. But 12 hours and three bowls of Khao Soi deep into our stay in Chiang Mai, I have to say, I'm feeling a little giddy.

Our first shared bowl was around mid morning. One of the wonderfully common street side mini-restaurants that we'd grown to love in Vietnam offered only a few options, one of them being my much coveted authentic Chiang Mai (italics for dramatic effect) Khao Soi. Within moments of getting cozy on our plastic stools at the knee-high table, the beautiful bowl was set in front of us. The rich orange-brown broth belying a long-reduced stock laced with tumeric and a rich blend of other spices, spotted with beautiful tiny globules of fat, poured over chewy flat egg noodles, fork tender chicken still on the bowl, strewn with bits of scallion and fresh cilantro and a healthy pile of fried noodles and wonton sheets. I was already taking mental notes. Needless to say, it was enchanting. A world away from my versions at home, but still with the same essense of balance that is at the core of good Thai food. Crunchy and chewy, rich, savory, spicy, tangy, sweet, with a touch of brightness from the freshly squeezed lime. It was all there. The lingering trace of sadness that was brought by missing Thanksgiving was wiped away in the few minutes it took us to make good work of the one bowl (we were pacing ourselves).

Where the magic happens

Before

After

Before I try to get too poetic about a few bowls of seriously delicious curry (long day after the few hours of often interrupted sleep on the bus), here are the rest of the pictures from today. One more day in Chiang Mai then, with any luck, a new rented motorcycle, and the good part of a week exploring the northern provinces of Thailand on two wheels.

The second instance of us running into absurdly cute puppies in Chiang Mai

No matter what those goofballs in the corn lobby say, cane sugar just simply tastes better than corn syrup

Astonishingly detailed soap carvings

Evening markets

Round two

While it could have used some greens and lime juice, this broth was amazing enough to required a second bowl