Southeast Asia

Oftentimes, one of the most enjoyable aspects of travel is all the wonderful food you get to try along the way. Journeying to a foreign country allows you to entice your taste buds with delectable dishes you may have never tasted before, while traveling in your own country can bring you to some of the tastiest cities in the nation. This week, we’ll be bringing you a plate full of the world’s best cuisine from international destinations like Thailand, China, and Belgium, and U.S. cities such as, Philadelphia (cheese steaks!), and San Francisco.

Chiang Mai Restaurants, Markets, and Food Stalls

If you’re a fan of Thai food, you won’t regret a visit to Chiang Mai, the cultural center of Thailand. While Chiang Mai is a popular destination for its vast number of beautiful temples, its fantastic mountain views, and its lively culture, it is also known as the best place in northern Thailand to eat. Restaurants are abundant, serving northern dishes that spice up your day. Sticky rice is commonly used in northern Thai cuisine, while coconut milk is used less often. Sticky rice is often eaten with curry, chili paste, and fresh vegetables, prepared in a variety of delightful ways. Depending on which restaurant you patronize, styles will differ, but most all will be delicious. Khan Toke is one of northern Thailand’s more distinct styles; a variety of small dishes served family style with sticky rice. Some restaurants entertain patrons with traditional dance.

Resources for finding great restaurants
Chiang Mai Restaurants
Restaurants in Chiang Mai
Chiang Mai’s River of Restaurants

Another fantastic way to get your fill of delicious Thai food is to visit one of Chiang Mai’s many food markets and stalls. Head to the Chiang Mai city center for a great day of market hopping — here, you’ll find everything you can imagine, and a lot of things you would never have, from flopping fish to wild vegetables to natural remedies made with curious ingredients, and so much more. Produce, fish, meats, chili, snacks, and sweets are easily found, and transformed into a tasty meal. Ready-to-eat food is everywhere too, and super cheap. Travelers to the markets and food stalls can fill up their bellies without emptying their wallets. The markets are also extraordinary people-watching venues, as hundreds of locals and foreigners gather to haggle and chat.

RealTravelers The Cheng Family experienced the colorful energy of a day market in Chiang Mai, saying:

“The day market is very different than the night market because it is geared more to the locals, so the prices are much more set (and cheaper) and virtually no tourists. I think we were the only foreigners there! It was amazing though seeing all of the interesting food throughout the market. I made sure to get pictures of the fried cockroaches and worms, which have yet to try.” (more…)

On the other side of the day, RealTraveler Allthai experienced Chiang Mai’s popular night market. This night market is one of the most touristy markets in the city, with multitudes of travelers commingling around stalls and booths overflowing with intriguing foods and trinkets. Allthai writes:

“When it comes to the open markets of Chiang Mai, most newly arrived foreigners are steered directly either by guidebooks, travel agencies, hotel desk clerks, and even tuk-tuk drivers to the Night Bazaar on Changklan Road between Tha Phae and Loi Kroh Roads. This sizeable market, with a gigantic, well-lit sign in English and surrounded by many familiar food chains of the West, is no doubt most oriented to foreign tourists. It’s here where most Western visitors get their first taste of a traditional Northern Thai shopping experience. Once amongst the tightly packed stalls, visitors very soon become acquainted with the bargaining game.” (more…)

Resources for finding great markets:
Markets in Chiang Mai, Thailand
Chiang Mai Markets
Night Bazaar in Chiang Mai

Learn to cook the local cuisine:

Several RealTravelers wanted to experience the delicious cuisine of Thailand from the other side of the kitchen. Curtis, for example, along with his travel companions, took a Thai cooking class in Chiang Mai where they learned the secrets to culling the proper ingredients into delectable dishes. Here’s what Curtis writes about the experience in his blog, Chiang Mai - Cooking Class:

“Now among the may activities that I would recommend to do in Thailand, one of them would be to partake in a Thai Cooking Class (try to get one with only a small group of people as it makes it that little bit more personal). This was a fun day had by all and for those who are keen home chefs, it helps to clear up any curiosities that one may have about the ingredients used and how they are to be used properly. Besides the usual green curry we partook in creating a Cat fish Salad, Pad Tai noodles, mango salad and fried banana’s for dessert….YUM. By the end of the day we were filled to the brink and had to go for a casual stroll in order to walk down all the food.” (more…)

Fiona and Dave Slater, a traveling duo from London, rolled up their sleeves at the Baan Thai Cookery School, learning to make sweet and savory dishes in a fun atmosphere. They appreciated the small sizes of the groups they worked with, as well as the excellent organization the school showed. They write:

“We booked the Baan Thai Cookery School which turned out to be fantastic. On day one we started by doing some vegetable carving, creating marvels from cucumber, carrot, egg plant, tomato and spring onion! Then it was straight into the cooking- each person making fried noodles, tom yam soup, sweet and sour vegetables, penang curry and sticky rice with mango.

It was very well organized school with all the ingredients ready to be chopped up. All the cooking utensils were clean and we didn’t have to wash up after we’d finished. The group sizes were small with seven of us on the first day and we had a really good laugh during the day preparing and eating all our creations.” (more…)

RealTravelers Kevin and Jo decided to try a different cooking school in Chiang Mai — the Phad Thai Cookery School. One of the highlights of their experience was beginning the day shopping for fresh ingredients from the local market:

“We got a real taste for the Thai Culture in a 1 day Thai cooking school named “Phad Thai Cookery School” we both passed with flying colours and got our own certificate and cook book. The day started with a visit to the local market where many of the fresh ingredients were purchased and then it was off to the school where we cooked 6 Thai favourites and got to eat them all. We finished the day so full we thought we wouldn’t need to eat for about week. ” (more…)

Cooking schools are abundant in Chiang Mai — it’s just a matter of finding the right one for you. You may prefer smaller groups, or picking out the ingredients to your dishes yourself, or having vegetables pre-cut for you or not. Check out the links below for more helpful hints on finding a great cooking class that’ll help you spoil your friends back home with authentic Thai food:

Cooking Schools:
Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School
Kaohom Cooking School
Chiang Mai Kitchen Cooking School
Baan Thai Cookery School
A list of Chiang Mai cooking schools

RealTravel Cooking Stories
Thailand, Chiang Mai by Kyle and Dan
Chiang Mai Revisited by Kevin & Jo
Loy Krathong Festival by Globally Speaking
Chiang Mai, Thailand’s Cultural Center by Sus and Pete

Whether you want to experience traditional dining in a fancy restaurant, navigate through exciting markets, picking, tasting, and haggling your way toward a great feast, or tie an apron around your waist and learn how to cook delicious Thai food yourself, Chiang Mai is the perfect place to enjoy authentic Thai food in Thailand. For more resources to help you plan a tasty trip to Chiang Mai, visit the links below. And don’t forget to stay tuned this week for more mouthwatering tips on fantastic food destinations around the world.

More Useful Links:
Chiang Mai Travel Guide
Chiang Mai Trips
Chiang Mai Hotel Reviews

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Sometimes shopping is as much about the experience as it is about the purchases. That’s definitely the case in Bangkok, where shopping is a 24-7 activity and the variety is endless. With low prices and good quality, Bangkok has virtually everything under the sun for sale, from fabrics and silks, handicrafts, art, and jewelry to electronics, silver, household goods, trinkets, and pretty much anything else you can name. It’s no wonder Thailand has become such a popular shopping destination in Southeast Asia. Along with souvenirs to bring back home, clothing is the city’s special draw, offering travelers designer brands as well as tailor-made garb which is easily accessible as well as inexpensive.

Siam

Street chic and high-fashion reign in the Siam area. Here you will find gleaming air-conditioned malls, perfect for escaping the heat, as well as a labyrinth of young designer stalls and stylish boutiques. Travelers are sure to find all their retail needs and then some. And once you find your outfit, you can have it hemmed and tailored while you wait (or shop elsewhere). You can even retreat into one of the movie theaters to rest if the shopping frenzy wears you out!

Chatuchak Weekend Market

One of the biggest and most famous markets in the world, this massive shopping site is a bargain-hunter’s paradise. It houses as many as 9,000 stalls, organized by themes, from clothes to pets to cookware to souvenirs to spices and more. Bargaining is the norm here. Even if you aren’t in the mood to shop, a walk through this market is recommended for its sheer entertainment value. The festival of colors, sounds, and smells will overwhelm and delight you!

Just Outside Bangkok

Had your fill of the big city? For a fun day-trip from Bangkok, take a bus tour to the Floating Markets of Kanchanaburi, as Realtraveler Miss Brown did:

“Yesterday I went on a day trip to the Damnoen Saduak Floating Markets…our first stop was a quick one - we saw coconut sugar being made from the flowers of coconut trees…my tour group arrived at the Floating Markets after 10am, so along with the other tourists we saw both the traditional fruit sellers and the souvenir stalls. Some of us took a wooden paddle boat up and down the market, while the others went to the Cobra Show.” (more…)

More Stories from Realtravelers

Niamh and Cathal captured the variety of shopping in their blog entry, Bustling Bangkok:

“If we come through here again I won’t be held responsible for the battering that my credit card will get. There’s a gorgeous shopping centre called Siam Paragon that has all the shiny designer brands and all the shops you see in London…we then went for more shopping to the Night Bazaar where Sabrina and I both fell in love with some shoes….on Sunday we went to a produce market and to Chatuchak market. We got up early and were back by midday. Chatuchak market is huge and great for household items, shoes, clothes and it also sells pets. Very cute ones.” (more…)

Caroline in Asia immersed herself in the Bangkok shopping experience as well:

“We had heard about some fantastic shopping in the area, so we decided to follow the crowds and ended up at the most gigantic mall I have ever seen. One entire floor of this multi-block mall was devoted to electronics. It was literally too much — all the techies out there would have been drooling.

We did a bit of shopping and walked off our meal and suddenly it was 7PM (no idea how that happened), so we decided to head off to the Patpong night market again via the Sky-Train. The market was crazy! Vendors lined this tiny road into 5 rows with their carts full of t-shirts, wooden pottery, DVDs, sunglasses, shoes, pashminas and so much more. Overall, this market was a pretty cool place to be. My favourite part was when I was negotiating with this woman and she said “You good shopper!” Mum, you would have been proud. She was enjoying the bargaining almost as much as me, but we definitely got a good deal.” (more…)

Jan & Lee found camera heaven, perfect for any traveler who needs to replace a lost or broken one:

“Next day we decided to take a tuk-tuk downtown to the shopping plazas. We had lots of little jobs to do before moving on from Bangkok. Managed to get a tuk-tuk for 20 baht - bargain - to the MSK shopping centre. After a visit to the 4th floor which apparently is the ONLY place in Bangkok to buy a camera - we are talking about over 100 tiny camera and mobile phone shops and stalls crammed into one floor and all selling the same thing…” (more…)

Shopping Tips

-Though most vendors and store staff will speak enough English, you can help your bargaining cause at the markets by learning how to say numbers in Thai. Non-fixed prices for those who don’t speak Thai are often bargained through a calculator method: the shopper and the vendor alternating with typing numbers into the machine. By speaking the basics, you can save this step and possibly even score a better deal.

-Know your standards: Street stalls often offer the same knock-off items as the stores, but often for lower quality. The prices reflect this, so decide ahead of time whether you’d like to sacrifice on the quality or the cash.

-Don’t want to carry all your purchases home in your suitcase, or to your next destination? Many of the larger and more specialized shops offer shipping abroad, and they will even help with the required documents and permits for doing so. Specialized companies also offer this service for a fee.

See more Bangkok shopping tips here.

Resources:

Bangkok Travel Guide
Thailand Travel Guide
Things to Do in Bangkok
Thailand Travel Deals
Khao San Road Official Site
A Shopper’s Survival Guide - Shopping Tips for Bangkok

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