Baansuwanburi to Maladee

So we ate at We-La-Dee for our second and final night at Baansuwanburi. We had a reservation -- good thing, because the place was packed -- and after some table shuffling, we were seated inside, instead of the outdoor table we'd reserved with reservations, because we really wanted to be inside. Since we'd ordered way too much food the night before, we tried to get it right. I ordered a salad with shrimp, Marc ordered stuffed squid in a curry, and we ordered what they called fried shrimp spring rolls, but which looked more like wonton.

That large bear in the parking lot is their thing, apparently;
there were lots of them everywhere. The place is otherwise
very elegant and understated.

 

This shrimp salad turned out to be too small for my entree,
but it was SO DELICIOUS. Super spicy, and simple but
perfectly balanced everything. Shallots and garlic,
tomatoes and shrimp, cilantro, lime juice, and fish sauce, just a bit.
I hope Marc can reproduce it for me.

The squid were stuffed with pork (an idea that always seems
so weird to me -- hey, shove one meat inside another meat -- 
but he said it was good. The curry was really delicious, too.

We walked home in the dark, and there were two very bright stars aligned vertically, in a violet colored sky that faded to deep, dark blue. It was beautiful. Even though we have been crashing after dinner, it's very weird, as if we don't have jet lag this trip. We make it through the day (well, I take little naps), then we go to bed and sleep until our usual wake-up time the next morning. Weird, but nice.

There are so many reasons we loved the sweet little hotel, Baansuwanburi: the beautiful grounds, the careful attention to every detail without any of it feeling fussy or precious, the actual true hospitality of thinking of what guests might really want, the fact that they didn't do a whole dog-and-pony show when we checked in (with elaborate taking of passports, welcome drinks, chitchat, oh we do not like that), and the breakfasts. The mama cooks them, and this morning's breakfast was a gigantic feast.

Not shown: watermelon and papaya, and rice crackers. 
The bowl holds a yummy curry with potatoes and chicken;
on the plate is a fabulous omelette, perfect peas and mushrooms, and 
truly delicious steamed rice. The small bowl holds pickled cucumbers.
Also capuccino and orange juice.

The young woman who works at the desk was just so warm and kind, and somehow maintained just the right balance of talking with us and not being intrusive. As we sat in the lobby waiting for our taxi, we were both feeling so sad to leave the hotel. It was so perfect for our first two nights, comfortable and quiet and a kind of space that let us gently ease out of the long travel and into our vacation.

Before that gigantic breakfast feast -- relaxed and not jetlagged.

The Maladee could not be more different than Baansuwanburi! Where it was intimate and personal and small, the Maladee is a standard hotel, impersonal and fully appointed, with a fancy pool (complete with a bar) and the dog-and-pony welcome process. In fact, we not only got one welcome drink, we got THREE.

Welcome, and please wait here in the restaurant while we
do our big long process with your passports.

The pool -- their deal here is that the sun lounges are in the pool.
Which is interesting, except that you have to stand in the cold
water to get in and out of the lounge, and if your Kindle and
iPhone are on the small table next to you, there's always the risk
that it could fall right in the water.

The third welcome drink, which was heavily flavored with 
jasmine and actually very good! They like to put a rose petal
in the glass. Not shown is the second welcome drink, which
was basically just a simple syrup poured over ice.

For dinner, we decided to do something we never do: we ate a different country's food. We were trying to decide between Lebanese and Indian, and the reviews of the Indian restaurant, Rajdarbar, sounded so good that we decided to try it. Ever since we went to India, and got the worst Indian food we've ever had, we've been kind of burned out on it. But OH MY GOD it was so, so good. So good. I got the best chana masala I've ever had, and Marc got tandoori shrimp and butter chicken, and we got garlic naan. The shrimp were charred and smoky but not at all dried out, and the butter chicken was just so good. We had to get a second order of naan, but that didn't surprise naan-loving me. The manager was the sweetest guy, who seemed so happy that we enjoyed the food so much. I loved watching a Bollywood movie on the big screen TV, and we were annoyed by a table of five uncharacteristically very loud French people, whose noisy conversation made it hard for us to hear each other. The whole walk home we just kept talking about how fantastic the food was.

Food so good it'll make you want to slap your mama.

The last time we were in Chiang Mai, we had such a hard time finding good food, and we were so bored we even went to the ZOO. This time we're finding nothing but great food, and there are things to see everywhere we walk. Like, for example, this crazy place, which was apparently a charity organization:

Make Donations coffin. :) That's not why we know it's a charitable
organization; the largest building in the complex said it.
As is true, I guess, for charitable organizations everywhere,
there seems to be an awful lot of money invested in the buildings.

It was a bit like Disney Land. This is the smaller building 
in the complex.

And then we passed this, which caught my eye because it looked like one of the faces was holding a cell phone.

See? Sword in the front, cell phone facing the viewer. :)

Getting Here

There were lots of ways our trip to Chiang Mai could've gone wrong. Marc had been following the flights and noticed that they were often (if not most often) late, which would be bad for us, since our connections were all on the tighter side. We left our car at Craig's and flew from Newark to Toronto, to Taipei, to Chiang Mai, and if we missed either (or both) connections, which seemed very possible, we would be stuck for a whole day. Cut to the end: it all went perfectly.

We flew United to Toronto, and then EVA for the remaining legs, and our bags were checked through all the way. In Toronto, the gate agent called us back a second time with what seemed like concern about our bags. And, in fact, the bag-check option in the United app didn't show the bags ever again, after they arrived in Toronto. But we boarded the plane, plenty of time, and prepared for the 16-hour flight. Marc and I both had window seats, one in front of the other, on the very full plane. Unfortunately, Marc was seated next to a very old Chinese couple, and the old man was sick, with a loud, juicy cough, and refused to keep his mask on. Poor Marc. The guy was hacking and coughing and his spit was all around Marc, who kept telling him to put his mask on. Finally, the flight attendant told him to wear a mask, and the couple dealt with it by switching seats, so the old man was on the aisle and Marc was next to the old woman. Better, even if still not ideal. Somewhere along the way, something bad happened to my gut, about which that's enough said.

We've made these long-haul flights often enough to know how the transfer happens in the major Asian hubs, especially in Hong Kong. We've flown EVA through Taipei before, but this connection -- a tight one -- was stressful, and we only got to the gate on time because Marc was willing to cut the long, long line and talk to someone so we could jump ahead of everyone. Had he not done that, we never would've made our connection (although once we got to the gate, the flight was delayed .... but we didn't know that when we were facing that long line in security). We boarded the flight and landed in Chiang Mai and our luggage arrived, and the driver was waiting for us, so all the stressful possibilities failed to materialize.

Our first hotel in Chiang Mai was a sweet little place called Baansuwanburi, a family-run place that's so lovely and lush, and a quiet little oasis of a place even though it's very near a busy highway. But you wouldn't know it inside the property. We were in that weird head, disconnected in time and space, exhausted from the trip (even though we both got some sleep on the plane), so we spent the cool first day dozing and relaxing and just kind of letting ourselves find ourselves. 

the landscaping is lush, with amazing huge ferns and plants

several sweet sitting areas

and lanterns hanging all around the property

these orange macaws were just stunning -- and there
were other cages of birds, including some raucous parrots

As always, Marc identified a couple of restaurants very near the hotel for our first night, and we decided to eat at the one called We-La-Dee, a five-minute walk. The restaurant has a Michelin star, and we were a bit concerned that it was too fancy for exhausted us, in blue jeans and casual clothes. OH GOSH. It was fancy, and we were the only not-Thai people in the very busy place (until right before we left), and the menu was huge. Everything looked so good, and I was torn between several dishes but wanted to be gentle on my gut so I decided against some of the spicier options. Marc and I both ordered fish -- tilapia for me, and sea bass for Marc. SO SO GOOD. We'd hoped to get dessert, but it was just so much food. We noticed people at other tables ordered the same dishes we ordered, but they'd get one of our dishes and split it among three or four people, and have leftovers to take home.

That display case on the back wall holds toy soldiers, kind of
like GI Joes (but not -- maybe Thai versions). The restaurant is
very large, and as the evening went on, it filled up completely.

One funny thing we noticed was that it took two people to get our food to us. One would bring the drinks over on a tray, let's say, and she'd stand there and wait for another person to come take them off the tray and put them on our table. A little weird, but it seemed to be the way they do things.

Marc's sea bass, with a bunch of fried shallots sprinkled all over it,
and a bit of sauce underneath it. It was good, but.....

....THIS, my tilapia, was just amazing! So, so delicious.
The fish chunks were perfectly fried, and stayed crisp,
even under the sauce (raw ginger, cherry tomatoes, lime, 
dried shrimp, red onions, red and green chilis, and cashews) in a 
lime juice/fish sauce/slightly sweetened sauce. 

After dinner, even though we mostly rested and dozed all day, we crashed early and slept all night long, really unusual. It's like we have zero jet lag.

When we checked into the hotel, time-shattered and dazed, the lovely young woman who checked us in asked what time we wanted breakfast and said that since we are American, we'd probably prefer the Thai breakfast. Her mom is the cook and she said her mom is a great cook, that we'd enjoy the breakfast. I always hate having to make that kind of decision at check-in, especially when we've just made a 26-hour trip, but we said 8am, Thai breakfast is great.

I didn't take photos of the breakfast, in part because of the bright sun making photos a bit tough, but also because it was just so delicious I didn't want to slow down. She made a beef penang curry that made my eyeballs roll back in my head. Steamed rice, that curry, a delicious egg dish, juicy mangos and papayas, a cappucino, and a bit of sesame candy for a sweet ending. It was so, so good. So good.

I spent some time after breakfast working on an art project, then we swam and walked over to the "organic coffee bus" -- not a bus at all, a three-floor restaurant with organic, farm-to-table ingredients -- for coconut smoothies. (Not all that great, but it was a nice little jaunt anyway.) Marc was dazzled by all the dishes that were being served all around us, every one looking so delicious -- but we're going back to We-La-Dee tonight.

Such a sweet place to work!

The Organic Coffee Bus -- no idea why they call it a bus!
Each of the several dining rooms was bright and airy,
and everyone was eating such good food.

When I first saw our coconut smoothies, I thought it was a pile
of whipped cream on top -- gilding the lily, I thought -- 
but it was strings of coconut. It wasn't very flavorful, not even lightly
sweet (or coconutty), but it was OK. I think Marc was happy
just enjoying seeing all the food around us.

Tomorrow we leave this little hotel and go to a different one closer to the old city in Chiang Mai, so that'll be a very different kind of experience. I wonder what we'll order at We-La-Dee tonight...