Chiang Mai - Warorot Market, Cafe Woo, Sunday Night Market (January 2018)

Chiang Mai Tour Day 3 fell on Sunday. After worship service at Dream Church and a quick lunch, we headed out to the Chiang Mai Old Town to visit the first and largest market, called Warorot Market.

Warorot Market
The oldest market in Chiang Mai is the most established and thus more famous. It is attracting both the locals and the tourists. Local Thais buy goods in this market to sell them in their own local markets. Tourist wander around to find bargain products and to experience exquisite cuisines of Northern Thailand.

We bought dried mangoes and several other products, including clothes. The prices are really affordable unless you are unlucky and get ripped off, which is really rate anyway. We did not have enough time to explore the upstairs and another market across the street from Warorot.

After shopping at Warorot Market, we walked by the Ping River (originally called Mae Ping River), that flows north to south right by the City of Chiang Mai. Unfortunately, the place where my mom and my sister stood to pose for the photo was stinky smelly due to urination probably by people as well as animals.

Cafe Woo
Chiang Mai Old Town, surrounded by moats, and its surrounding areas offer many boutique cafes and restaurants. One of such boutique cafes is Cafe Woo. Probably established by a Chinese, Cafe Woo provides not only cozy space and excellent foods and drinks, but also interesting artistic products available for sale as well as window shopping. The owner must be very artistic. Even the rest room was well decorated.

Definitely we bought the Cafe Woo's  experiences for the price we paid for the desserts and drinks.

Sunday Night Market
Chiang Mai's Sunday Night Market is surely on the top of the places to visit. For the past one year, I have not had a chance to explore this market and we were so glad to visit this place. At several places, street musicians were playing their instruments, supposedly hoping to collect some donation from people.

At 6:00pm, everyone in the market stopped their movement and listened to the national anthem played through the speakers in the market. In fact, the entire nation of Thailand comes to a stop at this hour to pay tribute to the national anthem. I recalled the old memory of standing still when Korean national anthem was played and the national flag was taken down to be kept inside the buildings.

It opens at 4:00pm until midnight. Approximately one kilometer distance of the city streets are blocked and only pedestrians are allowed to enter. All kinds of merchants put out their booths and solicit clients. The merchandises are tremendously diverse in options. My ladies made contribution to the city merchants with their purchases. I am sure they all enjoyed the products as well as their prices, on top of the joy of shopping.

A small park transformed into a food court and the selection was amazing. We were not hungry and ended up eating only small meals. But our satisfaction was great. I will certainly come back to explore more.

By the time we left, around 6:20pm, te entire street was packed with people and I was not sure if they will be able to even walk around freely. We were glad that we came a bit early to beat the crowd. It became one of the most memorable experience for my mom. - Jeffrey

Chiang Mai - Lanna Folklife Museum, Arts and Cultural Center, Historical Center (January 2018)

Chiang Mai Tour Day 2 was a trip to town to visit three museums related to Lanna culture which are all located nearby.

Lanna Folklife Museum
The first place to visit was Lanna Folklife Museum. This is the place where you can taste the folk life of people in the Lanna Kingdom that was once ruled by the Burmese for 200 years and later annexed to Siam Kingdom, the predecessor of the modern Thailand.

Arts and Cultural Center
Chiang Mai City Arts and Cultural Center displays more cultural items than arts, including the cultures of hill tribes. Thailand recognizes six major hill tribes: i.e. Karen, Hmong, Yao, Lahu, Lisaw and Akha. 

Historical Center
Chiang Mai used to attract people with its timer and later minerals. Timber opened trade routes to neighboring countries and trade attracted people in various fields.

This Historical Center was small in size, but displayed quite interesting stories of Chiang Mai. I will surely come back to spend more time reading the stories and understanding Chiang Mai history more in depth.

Outside the three museums were a small Budhist temple and other cultural landmarks,

Chiang Mai is the center in Asia for many mission agencies, due primarily to low cost of living, proximity to neighboring countries, little to no persecution to other religions than Buddhism. Lately, Chiang Mai has become attractive also to retirees who seek warm temperature and who wants to see their retirement money go further than in their home countries. - Jeffrey   

Chiang Mai - Sankamphaeng, Bossan Village, Thaisilk Village (January 2018)

Kristin and I had the joy and privilege of receiving the visitation of my mom, 88 years of age, and my younger sister, Minja. It was the first time that my mom has ever visited us overseas after we got married. The first day after they arrived in Chiang Mai was the trip to Roong Aroon Hot Springs in Sankamphaeng, Bossan Village and Thaisilk Village.

Roong Aroon Hot Springs in Sankamphaeng
Sankamphaeng is known for hot springs. There is Sankamphaeng Hot Springs, run by the government, different from Roong Aroon Hot Springs, a privately owned and run place. We have not been to Sankamphaeng Hot Springs nearby, which seems nicer and bigger, but blog postings are saying they are pretty much the same: individual hot tub, sulfur hot springs water, and picnic area. One preferred Roong Aroon to which we have already been. So we chose to go there anyway.

Other than taking the bath in the tub and eating snacks with eggs boiled in the hot springs water, there is nothing much to do. But Kristin prepared and brought breads and other snacks for us to enjoy.

The overall ambiance and facility cannot be compared to those in Korea. This Thai facility is far inferior, but it has its own unique experience to offer.

Bossan Village - Umbrella Making Center
Bossan Village is known for bamboo umbrellas. We have been here last year when Kristin's friends came to visit, but we thought it would be a good place to stop by and watch their production process.

The village did not have as many visitors as before. So it was quiet, but nonetheless, we took some photos.

Thaisilk Village
Not too far from the Bossan Village, we found Thaisilk Village where they demonstrate the process of pulling threads from cocoons of or caterpillars that grow by eating mulberry leaves for 20-30 days before they create their own cocoons and transformed into pupas. Cocoons are made of the saliva of the caterpillars and people pull the silk threads up to 800 meters out of one cocoon before the pupas transformed into moths. 800 meters!!! Wow...

It takes 3-5 days for the caterpillar to build a cocoon and it lives inside the cocoon for 7-10 days. It was impressive that they show actual silkworms that are crawling on mulberry leaves in different stages, along with silk moths laying eggs.

The silk road map displayed on the wall showed an enormous journey from Europe to China. Now China has declared One Belt One Road plan that reconnects and rebuilds the silk road to promote  China's global trade power. To me, Chinese President Xi is being used by God to bring the gospel back to Jerusalem via the modern silk road. We will see.

Silk products look pretty but they are expensive and not very practical for daily use.

Our first day of Chiang Mai Tour ended with a dinner at Okhajhu Restaurant. Three friends, chef, engineer and farmer, started this restaurant and their business thrives over their excellent business idea of serving only organic vegetables grown in their own backyards. Walking around the backyard is also a popular pastime for the restaurant clients.

Our Chiang Mai Tour Day 1 ended with an optimistic expectation for the next day. To me, it was an exciting and thrilling time spent with my mom in a long time. She has indeed aged so gracefully and has been preserved so well. I am so grateful to God for her. - Jeffrey