We stopped by the restaurant just down the street from the hotel and got lunch. It was packed even after the normal lunch rush. The food was decent but not as rich as the food we have gotten used to here. It was still very good food and the fried mango salad Steph got was interesting.
After breakfast we all packed up and headed into the old city to the Flora House. I think we may be staying in the prettiest house in the city.
We took a quick walk around the block to see what was around and ran across a good number of cute shops and restaurants. There are also a ton of temples in the old city and we stopped at only a few of them. We did get to see one of the larger older ruins of Wat Chedi Luang. The ch can also be written as j. That makes it the Jedi Temple.
The morning at fern paradise was really nice and we had an amazing breakfast. They were incredible at service and gave some great advice on what to do.
Nick and I got the traditional breakfast and it was a soup of rice and pork.
Dinner was ordered in advance and we just showed up and they put all the food on the table. This is truly the way dining should be. We were the only table there and the staff was close by but not hovering. The table was on a small platform next to a canal and waterwheel. The chandelier was composed of hanging moss and the whole setting made you feel both in a fine dining experience and in the middle of the jungle. The food was also quite well done. I was incredibly impressed with the experience.
After dinner we played some open face Chinese poker. The game was a lot if fun and I went mainly for the Hugh risk high reward route. I really wanted to get to the fantasy land part of the game, but every time I tried it didn’t work out and I usually busted. Adam was playing it safe and capitalizing on all the reckless playing from the amateur players.
The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was on the ground for about 30 minutes putting us into Chiang Mai about that late. The hotel picked us up at the airport. The hotel was out of the city a ways but was very nice. It certainly lived up to the name Fern Paradise. One of the most amazing things we have noticed is that it all looks wild but everything is meticulously curated. It is very pretty.
Once there we took a quick walk into town and looked at what food they had to offer. We decoded dinner at the hotel would be best. When out on our walk we ran across a little park that was empty while we were there originally but got very lively after sunset.
We got breakfast at the hotel since the tea shop was was closed. After that we checked out and got a van to the airport. I had timed it for the train so we got there significantly early. We sat in the terminal and got mainly snacky food for lunch.
We had dinner at a high end place that claimed to have molecular gastronomy. I would say that some of the dishes got way away from what was expected which is what molecular gastronomy is about. Many of the dishes also were rather traditional presentations. The mix of it was good. We ordered more on the adventurous side and were not disappointed.
Adam Nick and I went a few doors down from the hotel to grab some tea. The tea shop was absolutely adorable and we talked a lit about mid term future plans. Both Adam and Nick seem to have decent ideas of what they want to do.
The girls got back from the mall and we went to get a second round of tea.
Steph and I went to two parks but had adventures on the way to both of them
To start out the day we grabbed some tasty food at the street vendors on our street then started walking south to the tobacco monopoly. We then went east to the park but had to walk through some depot looking areas. The park had a fence going around the entire perimeter and we started wondering if we were even allowed in the park. We saw probably 30 workers cleaning it up but only 6 or so people that looked like they were using it for enjoyment. There was a group of 3 guys practicing parkor and they were interesting to watch. We stopped by some office buildings close by and grabbed lunch at the stands near their bases.
We took a cab to lumphini park, but took the long way around since the cab driver didn’t understand what we were saying. I downloaded Google translate to help out with that. At lumphini park we saw many lizards and got to see two of them fight. It was really nice to get away from the rush and noise of the city. We walked over to join the others at the platinum mall and I left Steph there with Tina. I went back to the hotel with Adam and Nick. Nick and I wandered off south of the hotel and stopped in the last restaurant on our street. It was tasty and filling.
It's an Exciting World 