Five Days in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Phillip and I spent five days in Thailand, in our favorite city of Chiang Mai. I did not make a post there because typing while sitting on the bed was just too uncomfortable! We loved our hotel, Cheeva Dee, with its friendly staff, huge modern bathroom, and made-to-order breakfasts, but there was no desk in our room. I waited until moving on to our next hotel to make this Chiang Mai post. We had flown from Malaysia to Thailand on May 20th, with our first order of business to have Thai food. We walked to a nearby small restaurant (all restaurants are nearby in Chiang Mai!) where I had a northern Thai specialty, Khao Soi. It is curry noodle soup and delicious. Phillip had pad Thai. 

Our hotel was within the walls of the Old City, so during our first full day, we walked the Old City perimeter, 1.6 km for each of the four walls around the enclosed square (total: about 4 miles). 

The ancient brick walls are no longer continuous around the Old City, but the streets and moat still define it as a specific area. 

We stopped at a small market area where I bought some fresh jackfruit from a fruit vendor. 

One of the main gates was home to many, many pigeons. People were taking pictures with the pigeons, but yuck! Pigeon poop! 

On Friday, the 22nd, we had a half-day e-bike country-side tour. I figured we wouldn’t pedal much with an e-bike, so we’d be fine. Well, pedaling was involved and I didn’t fully appreciate the effect of a bicycle seat for 35 km. Although most of the rice fields had just been harvested, our guide took us past some lovely spots. Our first stop was at a wat (temple).

He said that this temple was the location for a movie scene a few years ago, so now people are showing up in traditional costumes to make Instagram posts from here. No costume for us, but he did take our picture there.

We did get tired and sore by the end of our ride. Phillip and I both were using more battery than pedal during the last five km. 

the e-bike that I rode

The following day, we waited until the evening before we went out because we were sore from the bike ride. We walked to the Saturday Market and had Chiang Mai sausage for dinner, purchased with rice from a street vendor. Phillip’s sister-in-law, Miriam, made this for us at the ranch one year. It is delicious, but spicy from the Thai peppers.

I saw grilled corn and could not resist. 30 baht is less than $1 and this was coated with coconut milk when grilled. Wonderful!

A major street was closed to traffic for the Saturday Market and the vendors set up in the roadway. Over a km of vendors and crowds of people.

Although Miriam teaches us to cook Thai dishes whenever she visits, Phillip and I took a Thai cooking class on Sunday. A van picked us up and drove outside of the city to an organic farm where they had cooking stations under a large, covered area for us to use.

One of the dishes that I made was chicken with holy basil. Holy basil is spicier than Thai basil. 

Phillip made chicken with cashews. 

We also made curry dishes, and we pounded the seasonings to make the different curry pastes for our dishes, no food processors!

On Monday, we flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, changed planes, and flew on to Danang, Vietnam. We had plenty of time to catch the second plane in Bangkok, so the travel day was easier than I had anticipated. We have four nights here in Danang with activities planned. 

More KL: 2nd tallest building in world, Petaling Street, Batu Caves, and Orchids

As Phillip and I continue our week-long stay in Kuala Lumpur, we are visiting more of the must-see places in this city. We aren’t using public transit because, although it’s reputed to be decent, the structure and payment systems are not tourist friendly. There’s an MRT (subway), an LRT (light rail), a commuter line and a bus company or two. All are different companies and the access points to the rail lines do not identify which line has service there. Also, one must buy their token or card to ride. So, we are either walking or taking Grab. 

On Sunday, we walked to Merdeka 118, currently the second tallest building in the world. The 118 in its name refers to the number of useable floors in it. 

The inside of the structure isn’t finished. It will have a shopping mall soon, but we could visit the lobby which had a cool water feature. 

Signage at the front identified the height and specifics. 

After Merdeka, we walked to Petaling Street, which is the main shopping thoroughfare of Kuala Lumpur’s Chinatown neighborhood. We see people with personal rechargeable fans so Phillip bought himself one here. 

Leaving Chinatown, we came across some public art installations.

In this same area of town was a feature called the River of Life. Kuala Lumpur translates to “muddy confluence.” This River of Life spot is where the city was historically born, at the confluence of the Klang and Gombak rivers. One of the oldest mosques in town was built here and this area has a nightly light show on the water. 

We didn’t go back at night but enjoyed watching a local inhabitant while we were there during the day. 

Near the River of Life was the square where Malaysian independence was declared in 1957. Ornate buildings surround the square, including this one, the Sultan Abdul Samad Building, constructed during the 1890s, and refurbished in 2012 and 2025.

As the Merdeka 118 is the tallest structure in the country, it can be seen from just about any point in Kuala Lumpur.

Monday, Phillip and I took a Grab to Batu Caves. About a thirty-minute drive from our hotel, entrance into the main cave is free. We walked past a few Hindu temples to reach the main cave. Monkeys populate the area and were all over the temple ornamentation.

Batu Caves is famously known for its 272 colorful steps that lead up into a cave where a Hindu temple was built in 1920. 

The golden statue at the steps is the 140-foot representation of the Hindu god, Lord Murugan. This site, in addition to being a tourist spot, is a legitimate Hindi religious location. 

I walked up the steps and into the cave. At the top, two large caverns are found, a covered one with the temple built on the side 

and the second one which is partially open to the sky and contains vegetation growing up the walls… and monkeys. 

Walking back down the steps was easier than climbing them, although I must admit that I did not spend a lot of time looking at the view, rather just at the next step in front of me. I did not want to tumble down those rock stairs. I stopped at a landing for a picture.

We paid 10 MR each ($2.50 US) to visit a smaller cave that had dioramas of the Hindu epic stories. 

Peacocks strutted near the entrance,

where we also saw a brief Hindu cultural show

and visited another small cave of colorful exhibits.

And a final picture of a Malaysian monkey. This guy was next to my handrail as I came down the cave steps. The monkeys got plenty of fruit from other guests, so they did not bother us. 

Today, our last day in Malaysia, included a trip to the Perdana Botanical Garden. Kuala Lumpur has at least three public gardens. I chose this one because it was closer and did not have any major closures for reconstruction. Also, its orchid garden was free to enter during weekdays.

And plenty of orchids to see!

The Gardens had paved walkways, bricked walkways and these graveled walks.

As we strolled around, we frequently came across water features also.

Bananas anyone? Not quite ready but this is what they look like on the plant.

Near the Garden's major lake, we noticed these trees. Not natural but weaved together as they grew.

Also near the lake, the pavilion had an amusing cover, reminding us of Singapore's attractions.

This botanical garden was smaller than the one in Singapore but it had a steep hill in the middle of it. We didn't relish climbing the hill again at the end of our visit to get to our original drop-off point, so I was very happy to find an underground tunnel near the lake that took us under a major highway to the National Museum and its Grab pick-up spot! We found that sometimes, based on safety concerns, Grab only picks up at designated locations. 

Back at our hotel, we did a load of laundry and will repack soon to fly to Thailand tomorrow. On to Chiang Mai and our 7th country of this adventure.

Kuala Lumpur: cooking class, a walk in the park, and ladyfingers for dinner

Kuala Lumpur is the largest city in Malaysia with just over 2 million residents. Relative to other large SE Asian cities like Bangkok and Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur is a relatively young city. It was established first because of trade from tin mining in the area. In the early 1900s, rubber took over as the leading industry of the area. Malaysia got its independence from the British in 1957 with Kuala Lumpur as its capital. Speaking of the British, Kuala Lumpur is the birthplace of hashing. In 1938, a group of Brits here formed a running/drinking club. WWII stopped it for a while, but these hashing clubs took off again in the late 1940s from here. "A drinking club with a running problem" is their slogan and beer consumption is traditional at the end of their non-competitive runs. My daughter Robin participates in hashing in New Jersey.

We neither ran nor consumed beer at our cooking class yesterday, but we did learn and eat. Our instructor, Renee, had us prepare rice with coconut milk, lemon grass, pandan and other seasonings and get it started in the rice cooker for the base of our nasi lemak.

We then prepared our dessert, onde-onde, a soft chewy dough with a brown sugar center. Made with glutinous rice flour, these tasty treats reminded me of mocchi. We made the dough, rolled it into small balls and filled them, then boiled them for 3 minutes or so and rolled them in coconut flakes. 

Our main meal item was nasi lemak, Malasia's national dish. We next made the sambal. Because we made our own portions, we were able to adjust the heat level. Renee had done two steps of the sambal preparation already, pureeing the garlic/shallot mixture and soaking and pureeing the chili pepper/onion mixture. We sauteed these two mixtures with a few other ingredients to compete our sambal.

With the coconut/pandan/lemon grass flavored rice cooked and our sambal prepared, we put together the dish. I went for presentation.

Phillip had a tough time getting his hard-boiled egg sliced!

Our nasi lemak was delicious! Phillip even ate the fried anchovies as they were more crunchy than fishy. We moved on to masala chai tea and another tea. Having made chai tea at home from scratch, I could identify all the spices that Renee was using. Phillip enjoyed adding the sweetened condensed milk.

Our cooking class was a morning activity. That afternoon, we did two loads of laundry. Our hotel had self-service washers and dryers in a room off of the parking garage. Not air conditioned like our Manila hotel's laundry area, but the room did have a fan, and the machines were very new. 

Our next foray out and about around Kuala Lumpur was a trek to KLCC (Kuala Lumpur Convention Center) Park this morning and a nice view of the Petronis Twin Towers. The distance was just over 1 km, a really easy walk. We were fortunate to find the overhead walkway so we didn't have to wait for the lights to change at the street-level crosswalks.

The Petronis Twin Towers were built in 1998 and until 2004, they were the tallest buildings in the world. Not being a fan of heights, I had no desire to go to the glass Sky Bridge, the 170-meter-high bridge that joins the two towers. 

We enjoyed the stroll around KLCC Park. We weren't sure if the dirt washed away or the tree roots grew above the dirt, but this was interesting.

We saw lilies, bougainvillea, and other flowers and shrubs in bloom, but this one really caught our attention. 

The park had several ponds, including this one with a whale and a dolphin statue. 

Another pond was called Symphony Lake because it had a fountain that sent up the dancing watersprays on the half hour for ten minutes. During the evening, music is played and lights illuminate the moving water jets.

This evening, we waited until dusk to go find dinner so that we could check out Jalong Alor, one of the famous evening street food vendor areas. 

We went at about 6:30 pm, walked the four-block length and decided on a restaurant. We wanted to sit and eat, so we didn't just get items from vendors. The street was closed to vehicles with restaurants on one side extending their seating areas out into the street and food vendors, without seating, on the other side. We selected a restaurant, sat down and ordered. The freshly cooked food came quickly:

Ladyfingers, known to us as okra, sauteed with sambal

chicken and beef satay with peanut sauce

nasi goreng with seafood (shrimp and calamari)

The peanut sauce for the satay was sweet, not spicy and the beef and chicken had been brushed with a sweet glaze before being grilled. The okra was perfectly cooked to the tenderness/crunchiness of the fresh okra cooked on the grill when we had the ranch. Phillip enjoyed his rice dish and said it had plenty of seafood pieces and it didn't taste fishy.