Monsoon Tea and the (Almost) Final Farewell

When we first arrived in Chiang Mai, Indira and Martha went out in the city one day when I was sick. They visited Monsoon Tea then, but Indira has mentioned that she would like to go back and, of course, I didn't want to miss it either. So we planned to spend our last afternoon in Thailand in this delightful place...having tea and a late lunch.

You come in through the door and past this counter. Notice all the many teas they offer. I wish I had taken photos of the tea menus. There were black, oblongs and green teas of all varieties and flavors. They buy their teas from sustainable tea plantation in the north of Thailand and also from wild, not planted, tea bushes that grow in the jungles. 

There was nice outside dining, but we chose to settle inside where the traffic sounds were muted. 

The area was nicely spacious with tables and chairs, but we decided on a more causal couch and chairs spot with a low table. 

We each chose something to order and share...starting with two pots of hot and one decanter of cold teas...each a different kind, of course.

Checking out bathrooms is an interesting and utilitarian past time. See the little stack of washcloths on the shelf by the sink? They were to be used as hand towels and then put in the basket for washing. Very nice touch. Plus there was actually soap! I hardly ever found soap at sinks and never before something to actually dry one's hands with! A nice western toilet was much appreciated, but, of course, the little can for depositing one's used TP was present. Can someone explain why you can't flush TP in Thailand?

 The vegetarian Tea Leaf Salad was the first food selection brought to our little low table. Tofu and veggies, plus tea leaves (had never eaten fresh ones before), lemongrass and onions and a very nice vinaigrette. Quite yummy! Isn't the presentation delightful? Loved the carved wooded long bowls.

 Next came the chicken in a creamy tea sauce served on a banana leaf with a nice salad. It was a good, but maybe a little bland. When we got back to finishing it up a bit later, the sauce flavor was a little more intense and much better. Some of the oil had separated from the cream sauce and that might have been the reason for the increase in flavor. 

Then the pork dumplings arrived. They were my choice and not at all what I had expected. I was thinking more a steamed bun with pork filling, but these were more like a lasagna wrap only a rice noodle and a nicely flavored pork filling. The sauce was a sweet chili with a peanut flavor...really good and made a perfect little glaze to the more bland rice noodle of the dumpling.  

And what's a special lunch without dessert?? We ordered two of the cream brulee to share. I'm pretty sure they were milk based...we wondered if they might have had just a bit of a tea infusion which would account for the color. The texture was a bit more dense that what Simeon makes, but it was really totally yummy, with a sugary crunch topping. My experience with sugar in Thailand is that it is not white, but a little less processed, so a caramel in color. The little dabs at each corner was slightly whipped cream.

 What a delightful afternoon we had.

We were all really excited about the dessert!

After we could eat no more, we visited the actual tea sales room.

 A different kind of tea in every canister! They weigh out what you want by the gram, place it in a little foiled paper bag and seal it with a seal-a-meal type machine. Very nice. 

And then it was time to go home. It took a while for a songthaew going our way to come by--we tried Uber, but the GPS didn't have us in the right spot, which apparently is a problem in Chiang Mai. Eventually a songthaew appeared and we were on our way.

We stopped at the fruit vendors at the South Gate Market...

 ...watermelons, dragon fruit, pomelos and durian-the smelliest fruit in the world! Indira was determined to taste it! Fortunately she could buy some already taken out of the smelly husk.

 The stalls lined up at the South Gate.

 This goat is tethered to a motor scooter and has been coming to market with his owner for a quite some time.

Of course, having gotten out of the songthaew at the South Gate, we walked the rest of the way home...(sigh)

 ...past the Motor Scooter dealer...

...a balcony on wash day...

 ...the every present "spirit houses"...

...past this decorative fence...

...and turning the corner onto "our" lane, I saw this pieced fabric panel hanging up as a sun shade. At the beginning of our time in Chiang Mai, I saw a grandma working on this at her treadle sewing machine and stopped and "chatted" with her. (I say "chatted" very loosely--think lots of grunting and hand motions) : ) I presumed she was making a comforter top, but it was fun to see the finished product put to its intended use. It did the job very nicely!

Back to our guest house...

...through the swinging doors of our courtyard...

...and unlocking our door for the very last time.

In the morning we would head to the airport for our journey home. Martha, who is going to Nepal to volunteer, will fly with us from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. So while we had to say our farewells to Tee, we don't have to say goodbye quite yet to Martha.

Back to Chiang Mai and Winding Down

We originally thought we might take two days to drive back to Chiang Mai, but somehow the day just moved along and Tee, our ever patient driver (who surely was on overload of time spent with the Ladies on Tour), suggested just keeping on to home. So we did. He called the guest house we had stayed at before and reservations at for out last two days and yes, they could squeeze us in.

 We were coming out of the mountains, so still lots of ups and downs and curves, but nothing like the road up to Pai and Mae Hong Son. We stopped at an overlook and saw this beautiful terraced hillside.

 Here's a close up view. 

Totally couldn't survive in Thailand without 7-11. They happily make change from 1,000 baht bills (approximately $30) and they had sodas with ice!! And yogurt. And Snickers. And...well, you get the idea. And they are everywhere!

Martha and I in the back seat of our little Toyota Vios...Tee drove (on the left, remember) and Indira rode shotgun.

Our guest house welcomed us back with orchids on our beds.

 The next day, Tee went to work and we went to:

Butter Is Better, an American style diner. The food was great...the atmosphere was 60's rock music and diner decor! Sandy, if you haven't been, it's a definite destination!

 Waiting for our order...

...I had a BLT which came with cole slaw and potato chips. How cool is that? The bread tasted like homemade. And if you know me, you know I love my bacon! : )

We then went to a little "mall" and found a small suitcase (very pink!) for me to bring home...I need more room than I came with. (Indira is borrowing one of Martha's extra duffels). And we wandered our way back to the guest house. Martha went home and worked on getting ready for her trip to Nepal and we kicked back. It was a good laid back afternoon.

Tee joined us after work and we took a songthaew around the outside of the Old City, across the river and back to Duke's for a final dinner together. I had a steak salad and very yummy onion rings. Too full! : )

 This flower pot was one of a series on the bridge where we crossed the river.

The next day, our last day in Chiang Mai, The Ladies on Tour headed out across the city with a final special destination in mind.

 On the balcony of our guest house (we were on the second floor)

No matter where were headed, it usually started out with a walk.

 This vertical garden was actually a panel that held pots.

Our first stop was a barber shop where Indira got a haircut for 80 baht...about $2.25

 A little shorter than usual, but very nice.

Martha was getting a Mohawk style for going to Nepal (where she will be volunteering for a month with All Hands Volunteers building a school).  

Once that task was completed, we headed off for a delightful afternoon repast at Monsoon Tea. And that's where I'll pick up the story next time. : ) 

Tee's Village in the Jungle - Huay San, Part 2

Eating in Thailand has had its ups and downs for me.

It started off with a Pho type soup near the guesthouse in Chiang Mai which I really enjoyed.

The next day we were off to the Botanical Gardens and stopped at a roadside spot and had quite a local feast. All good, though the soup and the “salad” were pretty spicy.

That night I got violently sick and I’ve been been very hesitant ever since. We ate in an American-English type place several times in Mae Hong Son. Not being a fish person means that the smells sometimes make me queasy. I will totally confess that I stocked up on crackers, peanuts and granola bars to tide me over while at Tee’s village.

But I wanted to post some photos of the kitchen experience here.

I stuck pretty close to eating just rice, the things I brought, and mostly not eating at all. This morning Tee came back with two bats which will go on the BBQ.  I’m sticking to crackers. : )

Tacked onto the end of the main house is the kitchen area. This is the pantry...veggies, garlic, rice, plus there is an enclosed glass cupboard with some other things, probably to keep away from critters.

Tee and Indira doing the supper vegetable prep.

The stove at the end of the kitchen. The walls surrounding it have open slats so the smoke can get out. The very large kettle is used to boil water, that then cools and is put in a large 5 gallon jug to use for drinking. They may be doing that just for us.

The dish washing area. There’s a dish drainer to the right. Tee’s mom won’t let us help with dishes...we’re the guests. She’s very adamant!

Indira is stir frying garlic as part of the supper prep. She’s sitting on a little low stool that allows her to be up off the floor enough to reach into the stove area. At Tee’s aunts, she has both an electric two burner stove top and this more traditional one. She was using the traditional one when we visited. : )

Tee and his uncle found a very long bamboo pole with a knife attached and went off to cut down some coconuts. So we all had a nice drink of coconut water. I’ve learned that coconut water is sterile and has the same PH as human blood. Apparently, when needed, it can be used as a blood transfusion. The coconut milk I buy is squeezed out of the coconut meat. If you wait until the coconuts are brown, the water has dried up.

Tee chopped off the green outer husk and then made a hole to pour the coconut water out into our mugs. Light coconut flavor and refreshing.

I had a hilarious moment with a coconut.

Tee and his uncle had cut down three coconuts and then opened up two of them. The other one was sitting on the edge of the table. Everyone else had gone to pick peppers and I sat at the table enjoying the quiet, the mother hens/chicks and blogging offline. (So pleased with the battery life of this little Chromebook!) At some point I got up and picked up something that knocked the coconut from the table and it landed right in the middle of one of the log stools, but before I could grab it, it rolled off the stool onto the last level of the porch steps landing where a momma hen and her chicks were wandering. That landing sloped to the edge and the coconut started rolling... chicks scattering...finally off the edge to the ground. By this time I was scrambling after it, but it had momentum and the ground sloped toward the road. It rolled through the stems of some bushes, dropped down a foot or more to the road which, you might remember, sloped down the hill to the creek. The coconut rolled all the way across the road, up a little embankment and hit a rock which sent it back into the road and down it went, around the curve and it was gone!

The road down the hill.

By then I was to the road, but all I could do was stand there and laugh. The best pinball experience ever!! I decided not to go down and check on its fate and hope nobody asked where the other coconut had gotten to. A couple hours later a woman and her two young children came walking up the road past the porch area carrying a coconut!! Glad she received a blessing from my little mishap!

At some point today, this hunk of sugarcane showed up on the table...Martha pretending to eat it!

Family members of a number of villagers are arriving from other places. Tee was enlisted to do a hair cut for this man.

People gathered round and chatted while he cut. An open air barber shop!

I’ve been trying to get a good photo of this fellow all day, but he skips away into the shadows. He’s definitely running the roost at this end of the village!

And one of his competition, but definitely 2nd man down.

Not something you see every day! This pig had been killed and they were pouring boiling water over it so they could scrape the hair off the skin. I grew up with pig butchering, but we always had a huge tub that was over the fire and pig was hoisted up and dipped in the boiling water all at once. Hadn’t thought of this way of doing it, but it works! The village folks killed three pigs to celebrate the New Year.

This evening, we had the privilege of attending a vespers mass. The church bell rings around 6 in the morning and evening, and I heard the evening bells. But then a little while later the bells rang again and longer. Tee said a priest had come to hold services for New Year’s Eve. As you can see the men sat on one side and the women on the other. Of course the service was in the language of the Village or Thai, so I couldn’t follow much of what was being said...maybe “Thanks be to God” and the Lord’s Prayer.  Communion was offered, but only the bread. After the service I went in to speak to the priest, Brother Peter, who spoke a little English and was very happy to greet us. I told him that I was a Christian and so appreciated the communion of spirit with him in this land surrounded by Buddha worship. He shook my hand and heartily agreed. So glad for this short contact. There were about 50+ folks attending.

Tee’s mom gave Indira and I each a hand woven bag, woven by the lady who lives across the lane. They are a traditional carry bag.

One evening that we were there, Tee's mom came up and called to him...we had all gone to bed already. (It gets dark about 6 p.m. and not light until 7 a.m.) Someone in his Grandma's village had killed a deer and they were all going to enjoy the fresh meat. They loaded into the truck and were gone! This is the kind of deer-a red muntjac (barking deer)...(googled for a photo)

http://thailandwildlife.photoshelter.com/image/I0000TNny.ddd6hI

We ended up leaving a day earlier than planned. Martha was still trying to get well and it seemed better to be back in the city. It was hard for Tee's parents to say goodbye-and hard for Tee to leave. 

I woke up before 4 a.m. that last morning and got up and sat on the step with my headlamp and read. About 5:00, Tee came barreling down the stairs and into the house where his mom had been up and sweeping and generally cleaning. They chatted a while and then he left in the truck. When we went down for morning tea about 6:30, his grandma was there! He had seen her at the deer feast the night before, but knew she would want to see Martha (and us), so he had gone to fetch her. So special to meet her. 

She had been Buddhist most of her life, but became a Christian about 10 years ago. Very precious lady. When I took the photo, she wanted me to wait so she could open her jacket, so it shows she's wearing the traditional woven clothes of the jungle villages.

After breakfast we packed up the car (the cement had hardened and the car was then driven right to the house) and said our goodbyes. 

The family gathered for a photo: Tee, his grandma, Martha, Indira, an aunt, his mom, a cousin, his dad, an aunt. The traditional woven shirts and skirts are really beautiful and practical.

The ladies as we drove away-Grandma, Mom and aunts. Mom to Mom, Grandma to Grandma, Aunt to Aunt...I know just how they were feeling see Tee drive away. 😢