Ban Khoen Artisan Village

Ban Khoen is an artisan village east of Chiangmai. Most of the handicraft you see within Chiangmai city are made in these villages that dot the perimeter of the city. This particular village specialises in lacquer ware, such as boxes, bowls, shelves and more. It was relatively quiet when we got there as it was a weekday with few tourists or locals.

Smacked in the centre of the village was a coffee place. This ahbeng lookalike creature popped up and made us our lattes.

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in the huts between the stores, you can sit there and admire the serenity of the place, or have a massage. I love how in Thailand, there are as many massage places as there are POSB ATMs in Singapore. You can wander into one of these places for a good 30 minutes rub.

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I spotted a lacquer chest and I had to check it out. Bryan laughed out loud and said I was imagining pressing E as I opened the chest. You see in most RPG games when you want to interact with an inanimate object like pick it up or open it, you press the “E” key. Hours of playing on Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim meant my brain automatically spotted a chest and I had to open it to check for loot.

Khao Soi

Khao Soi is a Burmese influenced dish found in Northern Thailand. It is a yellow curry-based noodle dish that’s slightly watery, as compared to the laksa dish found in Singapore and Thailand. The dish is often found at roadside stalls, but we couldn’t find any so we made do with a touristy Khao Soi restaurant near the night market.The touristy version came with a presentation of the noodle with the condiments neatly arranged in a crescent. There’s also a sheet explaining how Khao Soi came about and how to best eat it.

Khao Soi is served with soft and crispy egg noodles in curry sauce with coconut milk, and a range of ingredients such as pickled cabbage, shallots, lime, ground chillies fried in oil, and sugar. Each condiment is carefully chosen to give you a range of flavours in your Khao Soi. Bryan preferred something milder so he added more coconut milk to his already unspicy Khao Soi, while I threw in extra chili but sweetened it with a dash of sugar. A serving of sliced bananas is provided to temper the spiciness of the Khao Soi should you find it too hot for your tongue.

Bad experience at Beyond Beauty

I was shopping at Vivocity when I was stopped by someone. Thinking it was a surveyor, I agreed to be entertained for 5 minutes because I used to do market research and I understand how difficult it is to get surveys done. However it turned out to be a walking telemarketer who was pushing a spa promotion. It was an affordable $30 for 60 minutes of any treatment at Beyond Beauty so I took it, based on the guarantee that they won’t be pushing any packages to me.

Beyond Beauty has several outlets in the north (Serangoon Gardens), central (Orchard Central, Park Mall and Pacific Plaza) but I went to the one nearest to my office at Malacca Centre (Raffles Place). It wasn’t too hard trying to find parking after 5pm (Golden Shoe Car Park $3 / entry) right across the road. When you get out of the car park, you see Beyond Beauty on the ground floor.
I’ve been to Beyond Beauty once for a manicure / pedicure using a Groupon like coupon. While the manicurist’s service was okay, I didn’t like the receptionist who made a face when I told her I wasn’t interested in signing packages. I decided to give them a second chance, but at a different outlet, and try out their massage instead.

Entrance

I had to take off my shoes at the entrance. The receptionists were not unfriendly but they were not welcoming either. I handed over my voucher and made to fill in a form. The bathroom was in the basement where there’s no phone reception, which isn’t a big deal unless you get trapped in the toilet and you can’t call anyone to save you.

The Massage

They gave me an English-speaking masseuse, thank goodness, because there was no way I’m going to relax while mentally translating everything before I speak. My massage consisted of a very quick back scrub followed by a Swedish massage.

I typically don’t know how to enjoy massages. Half the time I’m lying there trying to get comfortable, or trying to ignore the strand of hair tickling my face. This time round, I really didn’t enjoy my massage. First instead of using slow measured strokes that I’m used to, she moved her hands really quickly in a rubbing motion so I felt like over-tenderised meat, like beef cooked in Chinese restaurants with overhanded black pepper sauce. It also felt like she was trying to finish the massage in 5 minutes.

half way through the massage I started feeling a slow burn. It was as if I was getting a fever. It was a strange feeling since the massage cream was on my back, not my front. It was only when I asked that she said the massage bed was heated. Okay thanks for informing the client that. When I flipped onto my back, she started massaging my tummy. DO YOU KNOW HOW WEIRD THAT FELT?

What ambience?

The room was relatively clean, the heated bed was comfortable. However the walls were thin and I spent the entire massage listening to the receptionists 2 rooms away. Then someone moved into the room next door and I could hear them so clearly it was as if they were in the same room.

*knock on door* ARE YOU READY?
I AM SHOWERING
YOU ARE SUPPOSE TO SHOWER ONLY AFTER THE BACK SCRUB.
OH REALLY? OOPS SORRY!

in between all the noise, I was listening to the relaxing spa music all spas like to play. except this place was playing some random chinese sounding tune of the ding ding ding variety. It was only after paying attention to it that I realised it was a Chinese New Year tune, that blended into a Christmas song, then back into a CNY tune. Pray tell how is that supposed to help me relax?

Guarantee my ass

after the massage I was brought out to a room to have tea. Immediately the sales person started pressurising me into buying a package. I told her frankly I didn’t enjoy the massage, nothing about the masseuse but I didn’t like her technique. Then I told her I didn’t like the place. She tried to sweeten the offer by another package with a better deal, and even a no interest installment plan.

Would I go back again, I guess not.

Bo Sang Village, Chiangmai

Bo Sang (meaning Umbrella) Village is 9km east of Chiangmai. A short drive out of the city brings us to this umbrella making village which has been around for generations. As you enter Bo Sang you are immediately greeted with streets littered with umbrellas and parasols of all colours and sizes. In the shade of her shop, a granny sat on her bamboo stool making an umbrella.

We got distracted and wandered into a furniture shop.

I got tempted and bought myself a few paper parasols, like when am I going to use a paper umbrella in Singapore right? The person who served me spoke minimal English so we went through the entire buying process by pointing (I want the medium umbrellas *point*, not the small ones *point point*) and throwing the other random English word she understood (“Bird”, “flowers” “this Butterfly”). I don’t like haggling because I’m embarrassed by it so lucky me, she gave me a discount because I was so pretty. And I bought more than one umbrella from her.

Our favourite food places in Chiangmai

As Bryan likes Chiangmai a lot, he keeps returning to the city and visits his old hangouts. Or rather, his stomach goes back to these places to get re-acquainted. as this was my 2nd trip back with him, I didn’t mind visiting the same restaurants where I enjoyed good meals.

Cristina is an Italian restaurant that serves up to 15 pages of Italian food, from pizzas to pastas to calzones and so on. The food is pretty good for a place in the middle of Northern Thailand.

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I ordered my favourite spinach ravioli with mushroom sauce, the same one where Bryan stole the last morsel I tried to hide from him by covering it with an overturned spoon.

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Bryan ordered his usual seafood pasta. I find it very weird eating seafood and pizza dough together so I ended up picking off the seafood and munching on the crust.

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Mad Dog is a farang restaurant that serves good ol’ western food like burgers, fries and steak. We were the only Asian customers there.

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Mike’s is a burger / hotdog joint that Bryan loves. It’s a simple counter + bar stools configuration where you munch on your burgers with the traffic roaring behind you and the burger meat sizzling on the hot pan in front of you. I wasn’t sure which was worse, the polluted air from the traffic or the smell of oil getting into my hair.

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Burgers & fries

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El Diablo, next to Mike’s serve pretty good Mexican food. I typically avoid Mexican food coz I don’t like to eat smashed beans but the steak quesadilla I ordered was divine. The minced steak was well-seasoned and topped with juicy tomato bits and served with sour cream.

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Bryan’s steak burrito. each table also gets a generous serving of the fattest nacho chips ever.