11.1.09 - A night of culinary delights

The first day we're up on our finances. It;s been a day of a lot of walking and sight seeing. From taking a stroll down to the river to a walk through into the old city. We've taken in the vibes of Chiang Mai and loving every minute of it. Tonight however was a favourite, starting out with a walk through the Sunday markets by the "Gate". I was into trying locally6 made wine. I started with a lychee wine - semi dry, not so pleasant on the nose but a delicious drop none the less. 11% alcohol, 50% fruit (lychee I suspect) and 40% herbs. In fact it was such a nice drop that i had to try another. The only thing missing was Ginny & Scott our wine tasting pals! Second drop was a strawberry wine, it was sweet, soft pink and easy to drink. Shaun i and tried some Chiang Mai sausage, chicken kebab (which we ate one bite of and decided to throw the rest out - neither of us wanted a repeat of the previous weeks Thai belly, and well i don't think our chances would've been high with the gai (chicken) being barely luke warm. As we began to walk past the other food vendors heading for the Roof Top bar (RTB) our eyes sighted steamed spring rolls, had to try those, along with chicken balls. All that for 20 baht ($1) seemed a steal. Lychee wine was 30 baht and strawberry wine 20 baht a glass. We climbed the stairs of the RTB after kindly being escorted across the frantic road by traffic police. They'd come on duty in preparation for the madness of the night markets that were still to come. Shaun and I watched an amazing sunset and a birds eye view of the night market below. We finished our drinks ready to peruse the markets once more. We were so spoiled for choice we'd already had wine, entrees and next was the main course. There were savoury treats for miles and in every block to tantalise our taste buds. We settled on BBQ moo (pork) possibly the BEST pork I've ever eaten, had the smokey flavours of the best Matapouri BBQ's. Next on the list was prawn steamed dumplings, more spring rolls and finally to finish mango and sticky rice and banana and chocolate roti - Aroy Mark Mark (delicious). I arrived back at the guest house feeling particularly spoiled by the culinary delights I can't wait to see waits in store for tomorrow as we move on to our next destination - Pai.