My Chiang Mai

Thailand’s leading shopping-complex developer Central Pattana (CPN) have confirmed that the new Central Festival Chiang Mai shopping plaza will go ahead.

The site of new shopping centre was cleared last year ready for construction to begin, however Central Pattana announced earlier this year that the plan had been temporarily placed on hold due to a perceived downturn in consumer spending and an increase in the cost of building materials.

The site is at least 50 rai and is at the junction between the Super Highway 11 and the Doi Saket Road (Highway 118), the project will feature a modern Lanna style and will be the biggest shopping complex in Northern Thailand, though it’s going to be more than two years till it opens it’s doors.

Central Pattana (CPN) had posted a 23% year on year growth with revenue of Bt2.7 billion in the first quarter of this year, the company had plans to develop new shopping centers around Thailand and also to renovate some of the older ones.

It’s not immediately clear what the future will hold for the Kad Suan Kaew shopping centre which has been home to a Central department store in Chiang Mai for many years, it’s officially the largest shopping centre in Chiang Mai, it includes a hotel, bowling alley and a cinema.  Most importantly for many British expats in Chiang Mai it also houses a branch of Marks & Spencer.

Starting on the 2nd of August, 2009 Air Mandalay will be operating twice weekly flights between Yangon (AKA Rangoon) and Chiang Mai.

This is great news for tourists and for local residents who want to take a break to Mandalay, where it’s easy to travel onwards to many other intersting places in Myanmar (Burma).

As the main gateway to the rest of Myanmar, the Yangon Division is located in the southernmost part of the central plain and borders Bago Division in the north and east, Gulf of Mottama in the south, and Ayeyawaddy Division in the west. Coco archipelago, which is part of Yangon Division, is situated in the Bay of Bengal. The total area of the division is 3,927.15 square miles.

If you have never been to Myanmar then it’s well worth a look, it’s a different experience and most visitors are very impressed with the warm welcome of the Myanmar people.

Myanmar has some spectacular beaches for the more adventurous traveller, including Ngapali, Ngwe Saung and Chaungtha.

Other tourist destinations near Yangon include Shwedagon Pagoda, Botataung Pagoda, Bogyoke Market and Kandawgyl Lake.

Myanmar can be very hot and humid in the summer months, the best time to travel is in the cooler season between October and March.

It’s now just over one month since Lin Hui, the Giant Panda in Chiang Mai zoo gave birth to her cub.  The zoo is having a competition to find a name for the cub.

The female cub’s 1-month birthday was celebrated at Chiang Mai zoo with an enormous cake.

Thailand is the third country (the others are Japan and the USA) other than China to have bred a Giant Panda in captivity.

Chiang Mai zoo is the only zoo in Northern Thailand , unless you include the Night Safari.  It’s located at the foot of Doi Sutep in more than 500 rai of land, it was established back in 1974 and it now boasts 700,000 visitors per year.

Chiang Mai zoo charges foreigners double to get in, however if you show a Thailand Drivers Licence they will usually waive the surcharge.  After you have paid to get into the zoo you do have to pay (double) again to see Pandas!

Personally I don’t like zoo’s, they are (in my opinion) just prison camps for animals and the arguement that the animals are well looked after doesn’t do it for me.  However, that’s only in my humble opinion and I’m sure that if you do go to see the Chaing Mai zoo you will find it an entertaining and rewarding experience.

It was some years ago that a raving optimist first described this effect, saying that in all economies the poor would benefit from some wealth, however modest, ‘trickling down’ to them from the governing elite.

Almost needless to say, the man was run out of town and has never been seen again. There were reports of him picking through an enormous garbage dump on the outskirts of Mexico City, but they were unconfirmed.

What I can confirm is that in recession (yes, we can use the R word now, worldwide. Recessions R Us!), the losses most certainly do trickle down, and they affect the great and the good, just as much as our noble local re-cyclers and the baby-toting beggar gang from Burma at Thapae Gate.
Northbound on route 118, just south of Doi Saket, you can U-turn and pull into a clean but unremarkable Thai cafe. I do so about once a month at lunch times to sample their very good (almost English-style) fried fish and (sadly US-style) skinny fries. They are very generous with their salad garnish too, but you have to take your own tartar sauce and black pepper. And vinegar, of course, if you are English.

Coming belatedly to my point, I noticed a year ago that I seemed to keep coinciding with the Coca-Cola truck, making what must be its most northern stopping point from Chiang Mai city. This handsome red vehicle would swing jauntily around the U-turn, never spilling a drop, stop outside the caff, and a tall thin man would shoulder a full crate of Coke bottles and march purposefully between the tables to deliver to the boss at the back. Past tense, you’ll note.
Three months ago, the same thing happened, but this time the man, looking rather dejected, shouldered the full crate out again and drove away without making a sale. Two months ago, he walked in slowly, carrying nothing, and took out half a crate of empties.
Last month – the same.

This month? The truck was half the size of the original – and it was almost full with full crates. And it didn’t even stop!

Let’s set aside the horror stories of echoing footfalls in the empty, marble, lobbies of brand new 5 star hotels; staff being lost through ‘natural wastage’ and the rest on a 4 day week.
When sales of a staple Diet (!) like Coke suffer so, this is Serious!

Copyright David Hardcastle

Chiang Mai’s new art gallery Look At This hosts Singaporian painter Li Li Tan this month and many of her bright, happy images had sold before the first champagne corks popped.

“I dream a lot in both colour and black and white” said Li Li (left, above), who is a TV commercial producer and photographer. “One of my favourite paintings here is Ave Maria. I dreamt it in black and white, then painted it in colour”.

It must have been a good dream because the acrylic on canvas Ave sold for 40,000 baht on the opening night with a larger painting selling at an impressive 80,000 baht.

Li Li is currently Bangkok based is so impressed by Chiang Mai that she plans to settle here soon.

Ave (top) sold fast but Soaring High was still available at time of writing. Look at Look At This opposite the Amari Rincome Hotel, Nimmanhemin Road anytime!

Phra Ajaan Pairat, also known as Phra Kru Ba Noy, is the young Abbott of Wat Doi Noi, the “Little Hillside Temple” near Lamphun, and since he arrived 6 years ago the place hasn’t been the same since!

In late 2003 he fulfilled his dream of building a huge Buddha image in just 24 hours (‘Good Morning Chiangmai NEWS’ January 2004), now he has opened the temple’s own radio station which broadcasts on 88.50FM every day, and a plant for producing smokeless diesel fuel!

Oh, and there is a free English class for beginners every Sunday morning, organised by, yes, you guessed it, Two years ago Phra Ajaan was on his own at the temple, now there are 14 monks and novices, all eager to learn from him. He is self taught in English and everything else he does.

To produce what he terms “Bio-Diesel”, Phra Ajaan mixes ethanol alcohol and potassium hydroxide with the oil to produce his smokeless fuel.

He has used the fuel in his family’s car for 3 years to ensure it was effective and safe. If you go to see him at the temple he will gladly show you an experiment in which he dips one tissue in diesel fuel and another in his bio-diesel, then sets them both alight. The one soaked in diesel fuel burns with a terrible black smoke, the bio-diesel burns cleanly with no smoke.

There is now a fuel pump at the temple.  With the residue oil left after the filtering processes, Phra Ajaan uses it for cooking. Nothing is wasted!

You can hear English on his radio station from 9-10.00am every Sunday, one of my contributions to the temple, the other being English conversation for the monks afterwards.

Anyone coming here will love the place as much as I do, the surrounding countryside is breathtaking. Don’t expect a Wat Pratat Doi Suthep, but expect a lovely warm feeling at a very simple temple with this exceptional Abbott.
Take the Super Highway out of town, past the Big C Supermarket, and continue due south along the Lampang road (route 11). Some 30kms from Big C you will see a blue sign written in English: ‘Community Forest’. Do a U-turn here, drive past a small police station and turn left at another ‘Community Forest’ sign and follow your nose.

By Derrick Titmus