Friends, Food, Fireworks, Tigers... and the Best Festivals Ever - Chiang Mai 11/13-11/18/13

I was going to write an entire post about this rad street food tour I did last Wednesday, but I woke up the next morning with food poisoning... so harumph, it only gets a mention for shock value. It's hard to not speculate which specific dish poisoned me when you peek at the beautiful item on the left (and below).

This is not a photogenic or attractive dish at all, with the star being the gelatinous brown/black pieces. It wasn't a part of the planned tour, but a woman in the group asked "What's that pink [shelled] egg?" and suddenly it was on the menu. This, folks, is known as a preserved or century egg.

I'm glad I didn't have a chance to read about it before I chowed down, because it actually tasted good. Just imagine a more flavorful hardboiled egg and try to IGNORE THE HORRIFYING COLOR. Anyway, I had many other questionably safe items that night involving barely cooked eggs and fun meats like liver, intestine and stomach. I decided to try to push myself and I guess I paid the price, but it's not going to stop me moving forward.

Thankfully I felt better about 24 hours later, because my friends Chris and Alison were in town on a pit stop for their honeymoon! I tried to not monopolize their time, but secretly told myself their trip here was to see ME! Yay, MY first visitors :) and they luckily picked the perfect dates that overlapped two amazing holidays.

But before the party, comes the hard work. Hanging out with tigers. We spent a few hours on Saturday morning petting, hugging and laying on tigers of all ages at Tiger Kingdom. We got a CD of "professional" photos, but as none of us has a CD drive here, these will have to do for now.

I have to admit I'm still on the fence if I'm a bad person because I did this - I'm glad to have had the experience, but the animal lover in me knows I supported the exploitation of tigers. I can report, however, that the tigers definitely did not seem drugged, and were very active and playful with each other. But refrained from eating us alive.

After a cat nap (or TIGER NAP, heyooo), we went to check out Loi Krathong and Yi Peng, which are Thai festivals that have skyrocketed in popularity with tourists in Chiang Mai over the past few years. They are marked by the plethora of gigantic sky lanterns in the sky, as well as krathongs (small decorative floats) that are sent down the river.

The peak of the festivals is the night of the full moon, but we weren't sure of this so went out all three nights.

I've read a few different explanations of the purpose of the lanterns and krathongs, but I think it comes down to paying respects to Buddha, while letting go of things that pain you, or asking for forgiveness for any wrongdoings.

That first night we went to a recommended restaurant called Riverside, which provided an awesome vantage point for the start of the festivities. We then ventured to the river for Alison and Chris to set off their first sky lantern. A very sweet thing to do on your honeymoon if you ask me. :)

Unfortunately none of our cameras did a very good job of capturing the lanterns.. but honestly I don't think there is any way to really capture the experience with pictures. It's something that you almost don't even believe with your own eyes.

We ended up running into a large parade and I set off a lantern for a friend, then parted ways at Thapae Gate as Chris and Alison had a day of playing with elephants ahead of them.

Krathongs

Lantern for Kevin's family.. I wrote upside down :/ but hopefully it's the thought that counts. :)

These things get hot!

View from Xanadu rooftop bar at Furama hotel.
Those aren't stars, those are lanterns.

We met up again the next night at a rooftop bar (another great recommendation - thanks Jesse :) with a view of Chiang Mai. Peering out into the city it was clear that there were many more lanterns in the sky than the previous night, which was a hard thing to comprehend. After eating and taking some pictures, we headed back to the Walking Street Market, ate some street food, checked out the temples and gazed at more lanterns.

I went home and stared off my deck for a good hour because I've never seen something so beautiful in my life. I had a perfect view of hundreds of lanterns dancing through the sky at the mercy of the wind.

The following morning we were picked up for a cooking class - something I will try to do at every destination.

We started at a local market where they showed us Thai ingredient staples and then drove us to the school, where we cooked seven courses. We got to choose from about 5 dishes for each course, so each of us choose a different recipe in order to sample as much as possible.

I was full after course 2, so it was a day that I felt needed many naps, but it was definitely worth the effort and subsequent bloating. Chris and Alison now have beautiful recipes that will be fantastic for the Seattle winter. The recipes in general are very simple, but delicious, maybe with the exception of making red curry from scratch.

Go Alison go!

I made khao soi!

Our bellies too full for dinner, we headed back to Thapae Gate and ran into another parade. I think there was a parade every night - in previous nights we had also seen a pageant, and we surmised that this parade was to show off the winners.

We realized we still had not let off a krathong into the river, and started to head in that direction. We ducked into a bar for a quick drink, where they gave us a lantern and multiple fireworks for free.

I don't know about you, but giving me free combustibles with my beer is a great way to make a happy customer. Then... the rain came. Most of my storm experiences in Thailand have come and gone quickly, but this one stuck around and interfered with our krathong plans. But that's OK, because we still had a great time playing pyromaniacs and throwing fireworks into the street.

We got into one last tuk tuk and said our goodbyes. It was so nice to have a little piece of home for a few days in Thailand, and I hope they have a great rest of their honeymoon.

I for one was so impressed by Yi Peng/Loi Krathong that I have already started to dream up future plans around it, like bringing Darryl and my family here. This also includes end of life plans, as I can't imagine a better farewell than having my ashes carried away attached to a blazing sky lantern, in the midst of a stunning and symbolic Buddhist festival.

Click for the full set of Tiger Kingdom, cooking and festival photos.

-Erin

Munich, Germany and Oktoberfest - 09/23/13 - 09/29/13

On a lovely Monday 2 weeks ago, Darryl and I made our way over to the country of my "people," as my father is German. I'm not sure if you've noticed before, but my last name sounds pretty commanding/German and translates to "Count". I used to think this meant something like Count Dracula or The Count from Sesame Street, but it still impressively is a title of nobility.

Our first night in Munich was fairly low key as we were the first to arrive, and it was nice to have some alone time before the festivities began. Knowing our diets would consist of meat, bread and beer over the next 2 weeks, we found a Pakistani restaurant around the corner. The menu was in German only, though, and as my one year of German in college was subpar at most, we helplessly asked them to choose their favorite dishes. We are so glad we did - it was one of the best meals I have ever had!

Once most of the group of friends from around the world (shout out to Mikki for organizing this!) arrived the next day, we headed to the Hofbräuhaus brewery in central Munich. The hall boomed with chatter and a live band, interrupted multiple times for traditional song and dance, including 2 American songs which we would hear on repeat the entire trip: "Hey Baby" and "Country Roads". It was a little surreal seeing Germans in full on lederhosen/dirndl jumping up on tables, chugging large beers and singing in English on and off.

By the way, if you ever go to Oktoberfest and are wondering if you will be an outcast dressing up - don't worry about it! Almost everyone, especially the locals, is dressed up.

The next morning we went on a unique walking tour of Munich where the birthday boys (Brian and Dustin's 30th birthdays were both approaching) pulled a wagon with 2 kegs of beer. Our guide provided us with a historical perspective of the city while enforcing drinking games. There aren't laws against drinking in the streets and the other folks on 'normal' tours were extremely envious. Our tour guide, Lenny, drank as well - I think he may have come up with the most genius income generator of all time, if he doesn't die of a heart attack or liver failure before making his first million. 

After the street tour, we had a beer tent reservation at the actual Oktoberfest grounds. On our way, it almost started monsooning and we were all soaking wet by the time we made it into our (tiny for Oktoberfest) tent. I think my shoes are still drying out. Each tent ticket came with 2 liters of beer and a half a chicken - the most delicious chicken of my life! 

The fairgrounds are huge and have multiple beer tents, food and souvenir vendors and carnival rides. I ended up on an awesome roller coaster and swing ride with Darryl, which both provided a spectacular view of the lit up grounds at night.

Kenny and Kristin on the swings before take off

We went to bed pretty early after a day of fatty meats (seriously, so much meat...) and beer as we had another tent rented the next day. We wandered onto the grounds that morning and I was finally able to get a picture of the main entry because we were not trapped in a torrential downpour.

It was time for one of the BIG tents (Schottenhamel Spatenbrau) that holds around 10,000 people, and we spent the next 3.5 hours there eating another half chicken each (not as good this time) and drinking more beer. We had 2 tables upstairs with a view and it was the one of the most intense events I have ever experienced - about 10 times as large and loud as Hofbräuhaus: drunken Germans singing, roaring and dancing with a HUGE band in the middle playing all of the German (and again American) classics. 

View of the tent from our table

Brian and Ryan getting the party started

The first of many of Brian's amazing dance moves

After our time in the tent was up, we headed to another outdoor tent and split up into a few tables as our group was too large to accommodate. This is where one of the the true beauties of Oktoberfest lies - meeting people from all over the country and world, and I made a few friends from New Zealand/Australia/England, which made me even more excited about who I will run into in Thailand.

The next day, Saturday, was our last full day as a group so we decided to try to take another waking tour through Munich (self guided), since we didn't make it very far with Lenny's beer 'cruise'.  We ate some delicious bratwurst in the park and perused the local outdoor market, which was full of fresh produce, cheese, meat and various knickknacks.

One of my favorite spots after this was the Englischer Garten, which is a park larger than Central Park in NYC!

Not sure what is going on here, but it was fantastic

It was (compared to previous days) a fairly lazy one in anticipation of the main event of the evening, which was a medieval meat feast in a basement cellar of Feldherrnhalle. The street level of Ferdenhalle is where a confrontation between Hitler's followers (in an attempt to take over Bavaria) and the Bavarian Police escalated and resulted in the arrest of Hitler, which made for a peculiar location.

The cellar was filled with large tables and designed for big groups, and was catered to German tourists (always a good sign!). Most of the information was given in German first, then relayed specifically in English to our subset. You were only given a knife, cutting board and large napkin wrapped around your neck for eating and the intent was to use your hands for eating as much as possible. 

As it was Brian's official birthday, they took him in the back and dressed him up as a friar (fake beer gut and all) and he came out and threw water at the crowd, much to the displeasure of some of the other tourists. The food was ridiculously good and filling... if you ever go to Munich, it was highly entertaining!

We had a lot of hardcore Husky fans in our group, so the trip to Munich closed with a 1am viewing of the Husky vs. Arizona football game. I passed out pretty quickly in and we said most of our goodbyes then.

In closing, here are some fun facts about Oktoberfest in 2011 - seriously, how does someone lose an electric wheelchair?!?!:

• 6.9 million people drank 7.5 million litres of beer
• 48 children were lost
• 226,000 steins were recovered by security as people attempted to steal them from the tents
• Police attended 2175 incidents and made 487 arrests
• Lost property items included: live 8cm grasshopper, viking helmet, crutches, an electric wheelchair, 1300 items of clothing, 520 wallets, over 1000 ID cards, almost 500 mobile phones, 370 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 425 sets of keys - not forgetting a set of dentures (every year there is at least one set of dentures!).

Full set of photos can be found here.

-Erin