Avatar: The Way of Water
Now that we are living like locals and don’t have jobs we can enjoy seeing a movie on a random weeknight. There is a nice movie theater, SFX Cinema Maya Chiang Mai in the mall near our Airbnb where we watched the new Avatar movie in the “First Class” Theater. The seats reclined and were super comfy. They also gave us blankets and all you can eat popcorn. Definitely a great way to watch a 3.5h movie!
Khantoke Dinner at Old Chiangmai Cultural Center
The most memorable night we have had so far was at the Old Chiangmai Cultural Center where we sat under the stars and experienced a traditional dinner with song and dance from the Lanna culture of Northern Thailand. The food was delicious (you can check out the Khantoke Menu here) and the dances ranged from calm and peaceful movements to thrilling fire dances.
There was a part where two of the dancers came out dressed in what appeared to be a llama (or maybe mythical creature?) and the kids in the audience came out and fed it money. There was one young boy who didn’t get a chance to give the dancers money so he went around trying to give it to other adults in the audience. It was the cutest and most hilarious thing I have seen.
The night ended by joining the dancers on stage for a dance lesson. Sorry, there is no video evidence of my (lack of) dancing skills but you can see a snapshot below.
We ate bugs!
We took a morning food tour of the food markets in the Old Town. We traveled to the different markets via samlor. A samlor is a carriage seat attached to a bike and a person pedals you around. This used to be a common way of transport in Chiang Mai but is becoming less common because of ride shares and other motor vehicles. The tour we took aims to preserve this means of transportation (Read more about the samlor conservation project here).
The food markets were full of fresh produce, meats and seafood. We had a tasty Thai snack at a food cart on the side of the road. It was called Khao Kriab Pak Moh, which is a steamed rice skin dumpling with a peanut and caramelized onion filling. These tasty treats are served with coconut cream and roasted garlic and green chilis. It is actually a Michelin recommended stop. Delicious!
At one of the stops we ate a variety of bugs including crispy wax worms and large crickets. Well, Zach and I didn’t eat the cricket but we watched Ken, our tour guide, enjoy the crunchy goodness.
One of our favorite stops was at a Burmese medicinal tea shop that has been open for more than 100 years! It is a ginger tea that helps with digestion.
Ringing in 2023
Zach and I are not late night people so we took a 3h power nap before heading out to One Nimman to check out the New Year's Eve Celebration. One Nimman is a cute little shopping center which had a live band playing in the middle of the courtyard for New Years. We quickly realized we were at least 20 years older than everyone watching the band so we decided to check out some of the other local bars to feel less old especially since we were already staying out way past our bedtime.
Many of the other bars were either closed or packed so we decided to head to our go-to spot, Tub Tim which is a new Chinese fusion restaurant. We also had our Christmas dinner there (they have the best crispy pork!) so we consider it our refuge when everything else fails.
The owner and his family were super welcoming and gave us confetti poppers and a flaming shot to take at midnight. We also had a nice view of the fireworks show that was a few blocks away. A friend of the owner was telling us about her experience as an exchange student in the US where she (unfortunately) ended up in the suburbs of Michigan near Lansing. She said she remembers it being very cold and going to Walmart a lot. One of the highlights was when a Target opened in the town where she was studying ?. Just throw in prom, hanging out at the mall and summers at the local community pool and she pretty much got the classic suburban midwestern highschooler experience.
Thank you (ขอบคุณค่ะ /khoob-khun ka/) for reading our New Years update. I look forward to sharing another update with you next week which will be a special post on my favorite topic, coffee!
