Our home stay in Chiang Mai

Tui, from her instagram account, Windowofthailand.

Arriving at Chiang Mai, we were met by a new driver/guide, Parr and taken to the home of  Khun Pom where we met Pom and her adult children Tui, Ta, and Manoj who live tucked away from the city traffic of busy Chiang Mai ( Two million inhabitants).   It is an elegant house with an open kitchen ( open to the outdoors that is), and a courtyard where three busy kittens like to sun.   The neighborhood has Catholics, Muslims and Buddhists living happily together in close proximity.   Tui was our main hostess and we spent much of our time with her and with Parr, our driver over the next days.

  
  We were given lovely rooms in the family house and settled in.   We then set off with Tui for a walk around the neighborhood followed by a Thai dinner cooked by Ta ( pronounced Da....sticking your tongue for a second to the top of your mouth) who we found prepares excellent Thai cuisine.

When asked what we liked for breakfast, we agreed that we ate protein ( as opposed to rice, sweets, cereal etc).  Tui liked two special tea shops that served protein breakfasts so we started the next day with our favorite "roti" of the trip...an unassuming little place with an excellent chef at the hot-plate.   We each had the freshest fried eggs in coconut oil and a side dish of a kind of potato filled envelope of stretchy dough.   This was served with coffee or tea and garnishes of pickled cucumber, sauces and a dessert side dish of shredded dough sprinkled with sugar. 

Looking across the street at our Roti with the pink chair. 

Our Roti chef adding a special mixture of cubed potatoes and chicken for the inside of the dough

The chef's husband gives us the thumbs up while Dave watches his wife cook our breakfast.

Roti stuffed with chicken and potato cubes , garnishes with cucumber in vinegar with red onion.

Notice the complementary herb tea and the tiny little forks used in Thailand.

Tui also bought us a couple of breakfast rice dishes from another shop for us to try.  One was made with a custard of condensed milk and I believe the second one had toasted coconut and palm sugar on it.

Condensed milk is a favorite addition of toast and breakfast rice

Thai breakfast options from another shop

Something that impressed me was this Tea Shop was opened at 5 am.  It seems a good solution for insomniacs and breakfast early for people who must be off to early morning jobs.    Indeed there was an elderly woman there who was there every day when the tea shop opened at five in the morning.  


After breakfast Parr arrived to take us to an orchid farm, and to bathe at the Mae Sa Waterfalls.  We had our swim suits on and our hiking sandals for climbing up to all 10 tiers of the cascade.

A most unusual orchid at the farm

All kinds of lunch options for sale at stands outside the waterfalls. 

One of ten cascades of the Mae Sa Waterfalls

  In the end we chose this setting where we had a flat rock to lie on and there were no other bathers... just a pretty duo of young Thai girls taking photos of each other.....a world wide phenomena now.