Khao man gai, the Thai variant of the original Hainanese chicken rice, is hugely popular in Thailand and found just about anywhere you go in the kingdom. Known in China as wenchan chicken it was brought to Southeast Asia by Hainanese merchants and sailors, so presumably spread out from ports frequented by traders from the … read the full post

The Blue Diamond health-food cafe in Chiang Mai‘s old town is hugely popular with expats, locals and tourists and has a reputation for being perhaps the best Western breakfast spot in town. It is actually open all day — 07:00  to 21:00 — so it’s a lunch, afternoon tea or dinner option as well, with … read the full post

Instead of trying to cover the whole of Chiang Mai zoo in one post we’ll concentrate on what to our mind is the best part of it — the aquarium. Chiang Mai’s state of the art aquarium opened some three years ago and it’s been improving ever since. There’s an extensive array of fresh and … read the full post

We’ll begin with a warning — not about snakes, as the majority of those are pretty harmless, but about our identification abilities. Not being a qualified herpetologist (we ahem looked that up on Google), it’s often very difficult to identify our wriggly friends who tend to vary considerably in colour and markings from region to … read the full post

Having found out I had to go to Vientiane for a meeting my first reaction was #@!* — what a trip, or words to that effect, until my wife pointed out there was a Chiang Mai to Udon Thani flight (CNX-UTH). This is extremely convenient, with Nok Air running a twice-daily flight for a little … read the full post

So with Huay Tung Tao being our recommended Sunday afternoon spot, and Grandma’s khao soi‘ our default lunchtime eatery, this French restaurant logs in as a firm family fave for birthday evenings and special occasions. Not that La Terrace is at all expensive (but you know … a Travelfish.org bloggers’ wages …), which is why … read the full post

A very traditional little shopping spot, Somphet market is just off Moonmuang Road, right in the heart of Chiang Mai’s Guesthouse-land (see map). In fact we can only assume that most customers in the market these days are guesthouse cooks, since there really aren’t many private houses in this part of town anymore. Now there’s … read the full post

A few people had recommended the Doi Kham shop to me and it sounded interesting, but could I find it? Could I (deleted)! In my defense when I did eventually stumble upon it, it looked like this: That is, it looked just like a small, unassuming government office not unlike several dozen other small, unassuming … read the full post

Any self-respecting country laying claim to ‘wilderness areas’ has to have them! Reports of large ape-like creatures emanate from remote mountain and forest areas of every continent bar Antarctica: the Sasquatch or Bigfoot of Canada and the United States, the yetis of Siberia, yowies of Australia and abominable snowmen of Tibet — and Southeast Asia, … read the full post

Anybody residing in or spending any length of time in Chiang Mai will know of the famous Kasem store, a genuine Chiang Mai city institution. It’s an old-fashioned style, family-run grocery store rather than supermarket as per Bangkok’s glitzy offers or Chiang Mai’s own Rimping supermarket chain, but still specialises in mostly imported products catering … read the full post