Chiang Mai - Riverside

Riverside in Chiang Mai is between the western wall of the old city and, as you might expect, the river. It has two major markets - Warorot and the Night Bazaar - as well as many establishments for the consumption of beer, with a few nice places to eat thrown in and the biggest hotels in town. Despite quite a lot of negative feedback on tripadvisor, I went for the Chiang Mai Plaza Hotel, an older establishment just to the south of Riverside and near the largest bookshop in Chiang Mai, Suriwong. Apart from some initial hassles with wifi and a bar that never had any people in it, I was happy with my choice. It has an enormous restaurant which spills out into the garden where they run a great breakfast buffet and a nice lobby where a couple of musicians play in the evening. There is a bar, but no-one was ever in it so I didn't go in.

I moved in there on New Year's Day. I was super lucky because I hadn't bothered to plan anything for the day until a couple of days earlier, when I found out that the best restaurant in Chiang Mai on tripadvisor was also the best fine dining restaurant in all of Asia. Despite the proximity of New Year's Day, I was able to make a booking. It says something about the nature of those who use tripadvisor that nothing on the menu was Asian - instead, David's Kitchen is pretty much a classic French restaurant, run by a Brit. He's quite effusive - greeting guests as they arrive and then wandering around as they dine, trying to talk to everyone. I went for a classic French dinner - chicken consomme, boeuf bourguignon and a molten chocolate pudding along with a G&T and an IPA. It was all very good but still surprising that this is the best place in Asia.

I only actually went into the Night Bazaar a couple of times - once just to check it out, and the second time purely to eat. There's very little appeal in what is sold in the Bazaar - junky jewellery and tools, perfumes, clothes and dodgy souvenirs. It is in a building, but the stalls spread up and down all the nearby streets, making it very difficult to walk through. It is really for tourists. For me, the best thing about the market is that there are plenty of places to eat - by way of a complete contrast to my dinner at David's Kitchen, I was probably just as happy to hoover up a basil and beef with a cold beer in one of these places. I think it is the freshly fried egg which makes all the difference.

Wararot Market is a day time market, where you can buy actual useful stuff, and where most of the customers are locals - come to buy a pound of chillies and some flour, or whatever. There are actually two markets in large three storey buildings, pretty much duplicates of each other and connected by an overbridge. I was surprised to find that there was very little to eat - the basement was set up as a foodcourt, but very few stalls were operational.

Of course, my first need was for coffee and in my wanders, I found three great places (two actually had hostels above them). One was Marktel, just up the river a bit from my hotel.

Another I found when I went on a wasted journey to find a cake shop I had heard about - after a long walk to the south, I did find it, but it was closed, so I decided I would carry on walking to the Airport Plaza Mall,, to see if there were any movies showing (nope) or donuts and orange drink available (yep). On the way, I found Volcano II (the original is back where I started, on Su Thep Road, although I never noticed it).

The other was out near the Suriwong bookshop. I walked past one place a few times, it is on the road to the railway station, that intrigued me - it has a French name and a freezer full of New Zealand ice cream but the big draw was that it had lots of musical instruments, including a drum kit. When I finally made it in, I was not impressed with the food on offer or the coffee really, but it was a nice space in which to sit and read.

One more Chiang Mai post - about an area I found by accident - and then I am off to Colombo!