Sunday, I arrived home from Thailand. Three days later, I still can't read for any length of time without falling asleep. Jet lag, you know. Let's see if I can at least write a short blog post!
It was a short visit, just six days, making the best of what had been planned as a rather different trip. But it was a highly enjoyable visit, poignant because it may have been the last such visit to the beautiful northern town of Chiang Mai.
Not that I will never visit Chiang Mai again, but that it will never again be the kind of visit I've enjoyed over the past six years. My nephew Denny and his daughter moved to Chiang Mai in 2017, where Denny accepted a job teaching middle and high school classes at an international school. They were joined later, after his marriage, by his wife and his retired father. Visiting Chiang Mai became an annual family event, until interrupted by the pandemic. This year's visit was my first since Covid's chokehold on travel. Sadly, it was to be my last. Denny has decided to return to teaching in California, together with his family.
Any future visit to Chiang Mai will be as a simple tourist -- not as a family guest. The difference is significant.
Since 2017, I've become familiar with central Chiang Mai. Every return to the city is fun and this year Denny and I spent part of a day revisiting favorite areas. Favorite areas shared with any curious tourist who visits the city.
But Denny lives outside the downtown area, southwest of the airport and close to the hills of the Thanon Thong Chai range running north and south west of Chiang Mai. One day, we drove into the city on his motorbike, following a bewildering route through a maze of small roads, thus avoiding the semi-freeway -- enjoying a much more beautiful drive. The city is surrounded by pleasant neighborhoods, such as his -- forested with semi-tropical trees and plants -- in many of which live members of the area's large expatriate community. Spending your days in these neighborhoods is a very different experience from staying in a hotel in the city itself.
My experience with these neighborhoods has derived from two primary sources, both highly enjoyable. First, riding on the back of Denny's motorbike as we tooled along small streets and roads, both in the valley and up in the hills. And second, sometimes related to the first, meals at numerous small, local restaurants and cafés. These eating spots -- aside from the numerous pizza joints -- all served both Western and Thai food. They were inexpensive (at least by American standards), beautifully designed for both indoor and outdoor dining, and welcoming to locals, expatriates, and any casual tourists who may have been lucky enough to blunder in.
We also had one luxury dinner at a restaurant close to Denny's house -- the Little Glass House -- specializing in French, Italian, and other Mediterranean dishes. Thailand's restaurant scene is not provincial, not even in the provinces.
A third source of experience with these suburban neighborhoods is the well-marked maze of bike/pedestrian trails, at least near my nephew's house. Formal bike trails are almost superfluous, because the narrow streets and roads are so lightly trafficked, but they help guide you through some of the most beautiful, forested areas in the neighborhood. We went out for walks virtually every day I was there.
Why can't I, as a tourist, simply return to this area on my own? I could, in theory, but I would sorely miss the guidance of my relatives, taking me to the places best worth visiting. Also, these are not areas where you find hotels, anymore than you expect to find hotels in an American suburban neighborhood. I was staying in a rental next door to my nephew's house, rented to me by a couple known by Denny. There was no neon sign in front advertising "Rooms for Rent."
Having gushed over the charms of suburban Chiang Mai, I should emphasize that the Chiang Mai downtown is full of hotels and bed & breakfasts -- everything from youth hostels to luxury hotels. And you could easily spend many days enjoying the world of historical and modern day Chiang Mai without ever venturing beyond the ancient walls and moat.
But just be aware that there's a lot more out there in the open countryside.
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