7NNT25: Day 15 – Chiang Mai

Soundtrack: “Yellow”, Coldplay (sigh)

Khao soi day. I dragged my slightly tired carcass out of bed, quick stop for some hotel noodle and egg breakfast, and then headed out to a laundry I’d spotted on my wanderings that offered 50 THB/kilo. I handed over my trusty orange laundry bag (it’s been with me since at least 2009) and was told it would be ready after 6pm (note that I put in this detail about the time because I occasionally think I can do clever writer things, like foreshadowing future events, so you’ll just have to read along until I get to 6pm — FYI I’m under no pretensions that this is likely why only 10 people ever read this blog).

Noodle 6.1: Khao Soi (Khao Soi Maesai)

Feeling brave, I risked another tuk tuk to my first khao soi stop, the multiple Michelin Bib Gourmand rated Khao Soi Maesai. This also appears not to be a franchise, though to be honest, I’m not sure if there is an actual khao soi chain in Chiang Mai, or anywhere, which I guess in a loss to the world. Negotiated the tuk tuk driver to 150 THB, which was probably a bit much but I wasn’t fussed. I was going to the much awarded and rated Khao Soi Maesai, and was a little bit excited to check it out. I think it’s great that noodle houses get awards, given all the things that tend to get awards these days. Bring on the Golden Noodle Award I say. Khao Soi Maesai is pretty much all about the noodle, by all accounts they get razy busy at peak times, which is why I chose to head in early. They’ve got rudimentary to a fine art, the restaurant is basically the size of a two car garage, the menu is stuck to the wall next to each table, and the food comes out fast from a human assembly line. It’s a simple menu, 11 noodle and 6 drink choices, but for me it was always going to be the traditional chicken and a thai milk tea. It came out fast, a bowl of steamy goodness, with a bit of chilli heat and definitely a strong lemongrass influence. The usual suspects of condiments appeared on the side (pickled leaves, red onion, lime). The chicken practically fell off the bone, and the noodles were decent, subtle and a touch creamy even. The fried ones on top were wonderfully crispy, the soup wasn’t too thin so it stuck to the noodles, each mouthful was well received and I was a little sad to finish. Khao soi portions tend to be on the smaller size, there aren’t any bathtub-sized servings like you sometimes get with pho and laksa. My fellow diners all looked like locals, and seemed very happy as well. It’s good khao soi, and and magical finish was the whole meal and drink came to 75 THB (then I tipped an extra 25).

Spacing out the noodle, I headed across Chiang Mai to The Arrow Rest via a Grab car (121 THB, so that’s 271 THB for transport to get a 50 THB noodle), a cafe with it’s own archery range (though it’s really more of an archery range with a cafe tucked on the side. While waiting for my slot, I sipped on some more milk iced tea, and found some old photos of when L and I came here in December 2022 (they ask if you’ve shot before, as it’s a bit more expensive to have an instructor for beginners). Next came just over an hour of flinging pointy carbon fibre sticks at a harmless piece of paper pinned to a big block of foam rubber. And for an occasional archer shooting at fairly close range I did okay, only missed the target paper once (well, I caught the edge of it) and hit the centre ring 4 times. Just as last time, I tend to shoot a little high and right of centre. Was a whole lot of fun, and something different.

Noodle 6.2: Khao Soi (Faham Khao Soi)

Next noodle shop recommendation came from one of the wonderful Arrow Rest staff, as I wanted to try somewhere a local goes. This led me half way to nowhere, or the Myanmar border, to Faham Khao Soi, about 15 minutes outside of the Chiang Mai that most folks visit. This was local country, but that was what I was after. My Grab dropped me at the side of the road, as the vacant space the locals park doesn’t appear on their GPS as anything. The menu was mostly in Thai with occasional English thrown in, and sometimes but not always pictures. I find the Thai script amazing, I can’t recognise any of the actual symbols, but it just looks crazy good. I almost wish I could do a tour activity of watching someone write it. Anyway, at least I could say “khao soi”, and then thought I was pointing at the milk tea. Out came the khao soi, but I’d managed to order a brown sugar bubble tea as well. The khao soi was again wonderful but very different to Maesai, the broth was more earthy but a similar heat and texture. The fried noodles noodles were crunchy, the soup noodles held the sauce well, the chicken again fell off the bone, and Faham don’t mess around with condiments (or I just didn’t know how to order them, but I’ll go with the former). Three very different and awesome bowls of khao soi downed. I’m not picking a favourite, it’s all mood: want a good bowl, less chilli and don’t want to eat around a chicken bone, Aroon is the place. Want spicy and lemongrass, go Maesai. Want spicy and earthy (and a ride out to nowhere) then Faham is the place.

My Grab back to the hotel again stopped roadside, and 30 minutes later I was back at the hotel for some resting and writing yesterday’s blog entry (my schedule now means I’m writing these entries the afternoon after, so I’m typing away now in a little eatery at Bangkok airport waiting for my next flight). The writing took a while, so it wasn’t until just before 7pm that I headed out to pick up my laundry. Thais seem pretty cruisy with opening and closing hours, I’ve noticed a bunch of the places around here like chemists etc open until 10pm or 11pm. Remember that blah blah previously about foreshadowing? Turns out that I’ve found probably the only shop in Chiang Mai that actually keeps to regular trading hours, so when they say they close at 630pm, they actually do. That’s just weird. Of course the open hours were front and centre of my little laundry docket, which I didn’t read, so it’s totally my own fault. And I do try to be prepared, so while I’ve got a flight the next day, they’d be ample time to pick up the clothes and pack before. But this adhering to closing hours thing, just weird.

Feeling like I needed a noodle-free meal, I headed back to the Phaploen market and ordered a bunch of fried food, prawn fritters and cheese balls, which were pretty tasty. Had a night off from shows too, though I had a dark Beerlao so wasn’t totally alcohol free. Picked up a few cheap souvenirs of pressies, and checked a couple of chemists to sort some cold and flu/cough medicines ahead of heading to Viet Nam (when L was there recently and wanted cold and flu tablets they’d only give her weird herbal things). Thai chemists are strange in that they tend to sell tablets by the sheet rather than the box, though this time I got a whole box (though it did only contain a single sheet).

FYI I’m not really going to go into the whole Thailand and semi-legal cannabis thing they have going on right now. As I think I said similarly when in Amsterdam last year, it’s just not a good look being a weird old white tourist stoned in a foreign country when I don’t even know the words for “munchies” in the local language, nor exactly my way around. If other folks want to do it, that’s fine, just not my thing (and as Shaun Ryder sang, “Get stoned in a differentlplace, don’t you know I’ve got better taste”).

Got back to the hotel right before the weather broke, thunder, lightning, and lots and lots of rain. So that’s Chiang Mai pretty much done, just a morning to get laundry, pack, and then airport for a quick bounce in Bangkok before it’s 2 days of a huge communist party in Ho Chi Minh City.

Btw, when you check out the photos below, note now supremely self confident/brave/foolish/awesome I was choosing to wear my only shirt that has any white in it on a day when I was going to eat lots of turmeric-yellow noodle soups. And I didn’t spill a drop.