Welcome to Baan Deva Montra Boutique Resort

The next morning we were off to a place just outside of Chiang Mai called Baan Deva Montra. The place is beautiful and we have a house to ourselves. By house I mean that we have a small building that has a central entranceway/living room and has two suites. The suites each have a full bath (beautiful) and air conditioning; the central entranceway/living room/kitchen is not air conditioned. When we entered here I swear it was like a sauna. I thought they had built the living room on the surface of the sun. Even though all the curtains were closed I got instant sunburn when I entered the room. It was hot.

We took in the very small pool there after a sweltering lunch. The pool is about 8 feet wide by 40 feet long. We thought it looked cute when we saw it, but a bit dismayed by all the leaves and bugs in it. As we’re walking to the pool an attendant beats us there and turns on the pumps, skims the pool, and brings us fresh towels. The bartender meets us there to offer drinks. It’s nice to be the only people in the entire resort. The reason we’re the only people here is because there are no other people willing to barbeque themselves.

Our first day here we took in the Chiang Mai Zoo. The best zoo in all of Thailand, and it’s a pretty good zoo. The animals have natural places in which to stay. It’s pretty clean. The good thing about the animal enclosures is that they’re small (good for us, bad for the animals I guess). We were able to get close-up views of just about every animal we saw. The tigers were about 15’ away; the panda was about 5’ away, awake and eating; very close views of the hippos, penguins, tapirs and monkeys. We fed some deer. Good time.

The next morning Dominique and I spent at the market. I guess I should say that we spent the morning at The Market. The Market is a place of exchange, goods for currency, located in downtown Chiang Mai, and encompassing about 6 square blocks. Just getting there is an adventure as the streets are quite congested and sidewalks, grass, building walls all count as drivable real estate. I swear I saw some of the smaller taxis defying gravity and driving upside down through tunnels. These guys can drive.

Once we get to the market Dom and I set out to explore. We explore all the shops, the vendors, and the smells. Oh those smells. Again, the floral section was quite nice. Rows and rows of flower vendors with great colors and wonderful smells. Then we get to the clothes section, and the smells dissipate to neutral. The games/toys section follows with all types of cheap stuff. Then there is the VCD/CD vendors that sell pirated movies and music. You can get a pirated movie on two Video CD’s for 100 baht, about $2.50. Once you get high on the low price of movies, you find yourself in the Food Section of The Market

Chaing Mae Market Video

Note: if you can not see the video, download QuickTime and view the movie with it.

The Market Food Section. Not for the faint of heart, because they sell hearts there at room temperature and the flies and larvae are gratis. Pigs’ snouts, feet, lungs, liver, live eels, live hissing roaches are all available in their room temperature loveliness (remember room temperature here is a cool, cruel 102 degrees). So the meat is already half-cooked just from being in the open, and the smell of that half-cooked meat permeates your soul. While I cannot adequately describe to you the smells of live eel in 3-day old water mixing with pigs’ heads warming on the same table as liver and tripe, I can tell you that your clothes keep that smell for several days. What a wonderful treasure that is.