The Shopping Malls in Chiang Mai

I personally do not like shopping. It’s such a hassle to try on things (most of which don’t fit me) and spend money, and of course, you end up spending money quickly.

Anyway, with another trip to Shanghai on the horizon, I actually needed some shoes that are not sandals. I still can’t believe that I did not keep at least one pair of good leather shoes! I don’t know what I was thinking at the time, but I did not keep any warm coats (just  thin leather jacket) and any closed-toe shoes (only sandals). Even if we were going to stay in Thailand forever, we would still be visiting cold places like England now and then, so I have no idea why I was so resolute in getting rid of all these clothes and shoes, especially given how difficult it was to find clothes and shoes that would fit me, and I had pay a small fortunate to own what I had.

Anyway, a new mall called Central Festival just opened up close to us a week or two ago. It is advertised as the biggest shopping mall in Southeast Asia. With the opening of this mall, there are now three major shopping centers in Chiang Mai. Central Airport is the oldest mall with most stores (at the moment). Promenada is a new mall that was opened just months ago. And now the Central Festival mall.

We got to the mall shortly after it was opened (10am-10pm), and there were already quite a few people. The parking lot is quite big so we did not have any problem parking.

Once we walked inside, we saw there were many booths setup promoting anything to do with Great Britain. As it turned out, this was UK festival. There were booths for all the international schools in Chiang Mai, some small UK colleges/universities whose names you’ve never heard of, and some other UK related things like British cars and motorcycles on display. The funny thing was pretty much all the stores on that floor are British.

Inside Central Festival Shopping Mall

The inside of this shopping mall is pretty much the same as most other shopping malls. Just stores after stores and floors after floors. We looked into every store that sold shoes and couldn’t find any that had closed leather shoes that would fit me. There isn’t that much diversity in the stores here, mostly British brands, and nothing really that special. You would think that they would have a few special Thai-theme stores, but nothing other than Thai banks and Thai mobile stores. At least there is a Northern Thai store in the Central Plaza.

The restaurants here also lack diversity, mostly Japanese and Korean BBQ, similar to those offered in the Central Airport Plaza.

There is an ice skating ring and a large movie theater inside the mall. We were not in the mood for either.

The only thing we liked was the large food shopping store on the ground floor. I found many snacks and items on sale there tempting but we were pretty hungry at this point for lunch.

Disappointed with the offering in the Central Festival mall, we headed over to the Promenada Mall, which is about 10-15 minutes away. It was quite a bit quieter here with the big new mall’s grand opening. We ate at the Duke’s so that Gary and Samantha could get their American fix. I seriously need to get a sushi fix soon!

Inside the Promenada Mall

The concept of the Promenada Mall is a mall in a resort like setting where one can just wander around. There are two buildings and two floors in each building. The stores are wide spaced out, with a lot of room in between, and not in the standard circular formation like most other malls.

Bridge between the Two Buildings

There are also a lot of glass and natural lights inside the mall. The bridge between the two buildings are open air, but with a huge canvas covering the top so that you are shaded from the strong sun and/or rain.

There are a lot of the typical international stores, but also quite a few small-name stores (maybe Thai?) that make it a little more diverse. There are a lot of Japanese restaurants here too, but also a few other restaurants such as Duke’s (American), and there is an Italian restaurant that looks set to open.

Besides the stores, there is an ice skating ring, a children’s playing place, a bowling place, and a movie theater (we had been to this movie theater twice already). I do definitely prefer the more relaxing atmosphere here. You could breathe a bit.

We looked at the shoes in one Thai-own store (they are actually setup at the center of the lane with no walls) and amazingly, they actually had a few pairs that fit me, and not too expensive. Frankly at this point I would pay more but I was glad to find something to wear, even though not perfect. Other than that store, all the other shoe stores did not have shoes small enough. Oh well, at least we had found one pair so that we did not completely waste the whole day.

If I have learned anything from all of these unsuccessful shopping trips, it is that don’t throw away all your clothing and shoes that you really like even though you cannot see an immediate need for them!

International Day and Thai Festivals

We had heard much about the lantern festival (Yi Peng) since our visit to Chiang Mai back in 2012. Samantha really wanted to light a sky lantern (khom loi) but it was not the right time then. We had promised her that we would do that once we lived here.

Started on Friday (Nov. 15), we noticed that our housing development started hanging up long white lanterns along the main entrance. When we went to pick Samantha up from her school, we also saw a whole street in a village decorated with lanterns of various colors outside the houses. It was really charming. Unfortunately, the quick picture I managed to take from the car did not do it justice.

Samantha’s school held an International Day event on Saturday, Nov. 16, which also celebrated Yi Peng and Loi Krathong festivals.

International Day

The International Day started around 3pm on the school grounds. When we got there, there were many people. There were many booths set up by country, probably around a dozen or so different countries. The Japanese, Korean and ASEAN/Thai booths were the biggest and with the most efforts put in. The American booth was probably the lamest, and the Chinese booth did not seem that much better. We couldn’t really complain since we did not help at all.

 

There are actually 33 countries represented by the student body. For a while, when we thought that Samantha had to choose on nation club, we actually agonized over this issue a bit. So which country should she go to, the one in which she was born (USA), the one that her Dad came from (UK), or the one that her Mom came from (China)? We felt that she was a combination of all of those and really shouldn’t have to choose. In the end, we did not choose and that was fine. We visited all the different booths and Sammy got her fair share of snacks from many.

There was a Parade of Nations when people dressed in their national costumes and walked with their flags.

 

 

 

There were also various performances by the students and parents, ranging from after school Glee club to cultural performances from China, Myanmar, Bhutan, etc.

Performance of Chinese Classical Instrument

Bhutan Dance

We also saw this animal dance at the end. I guess it must be the Thai version of the “lion” dance, though I am not sure the animal is.

Some people also made krathong (floating boat) for releasing it into the river later.

When all the performances were over, we went over to a large open ground organized by countries. We went to the USA one. Each country got a sky lantern. We lit the lanterns and then everyone released them at the same time. Even though there weren’t that many lanterns, it was still very beautiful to see all these lanterns floating to the sky.

With a little firework display at the end, it capped off a nice afternoon/evening.

Thai Festivals

Yi Peng is a Northern Thai festival when they release sky lanterns. We heard that the biggest celebration was taking place in Mae Jo University. As we drove towards the university on our way home, we saw hundreds of lit lanterns floating to the sky. Even from a distance, it looked absolutely amazing!

There was another lantern release in the Night Bazaar for the tourist on Sunday night. We did not go. We saw some more lanterns and fireworks in our development. The whole festival just feels so beautiful.

Loi Krathong happens to take place around the same time. It is for people to send floating “boats” on the river. Samantha was busy sharing with us the knowledge she learned about the festival from her Thai teacher, including the fact that there would be a beauty contest to  go along with it. For his amusement, Gary asked Samantha if she would consider participate in a beauty contest. At first Sam said that she was too young for that. Gary then asked, “So would you join if you were old enough, like in your 20s?” Sam said maybe. Gary asked why “maybe”, didn’t she think she could win. Samantha said, “I am not sure. I don’t know how I will look when I am 20. If they are having a cuteness contest maybe I will win, but I am not sure if I will be beautiful.”

Gary and I couldn’t help but smiled. What 7-yr olds would differentiate between cute and beautiful? May she always be this cute!

 

A Hectic Week and Goodbye to a Life of Leisure?

Life has suddenly become very busy since Sunday before last. I made a trip to Shanghai and brought home with me an occupied mind.

Chiang Mai – Bangkok – Chengdu – Shanghai: Nov. 3

A driver came to pick me up at 5am to take me to the airport. The streets were deserted at the early morning hours, only a few cars on the road. Everything was so quiet, and I felt peaceful.

My flight to Shanghai was actually a very crazy route. I was flying through Bangkok first, then changed in Chengdu, China, before I would finally reach Shanghai. What was worst, when I was checking in at the Chiang Mai gate, I was told that they could only check me through Chengdu, and I would have to pick up my luggage then, go through Customs, and re-check in again. Since there wasn’t much I could change, I decided not to worry about it. Good job my suitcase was small.

When I arrived at Chengdu and went through Customs, I found out that I would actually need to go to a different terminal to check in. There wasn’t any sky rail etc. either. When I asked at the counter, someone told me that the terminal I needed to go to was about 800m away (which I couldn’t conceptualize how far), and that I could pay ¥10 to get on a little cart to take me there.

Outside the Chengdu airport, the sky was pretty grey. The air was a little cold, especially for someone like me who had been used to the Chiang Mai weather. I found the electric cart stand and paid ¥10. Soon enough, I was in the other terminal, checked in, and everything was fine.

Once I got to the Shanghai airport, I realized that my Thai phone was not actually picking up any signal in China. I couldn’t get on the WiFi either, so I was was hoping that my driver would be just right outside.

As I was walking out of the airport gate, there was a huge commotion right in front of me. Even people a few steps in front of me started pulling out their cameras and smart phones and taking pictures. I guessed someone famous must be right ahead of me. As it turned out, there was some famous Chinese star and a lot of teenage fans were waiting outside to welcome him. The security was pretty tight. Everyone was rushed to get out of the gate area and I had no chance to see if someone was hold my name card. Luckily it wasn’t long before I saw someone holding a cardboard with my name so I was relieved not to be left stranded in a strange airport. However, it took us another hour before being picked up by the driver due to traffic and confusion about the airport and where to meet up. I was having a nice chat with D. so it wasn’t a big deal, just amusing.

By the time we got to the restaurant to meet up with other people, it was almost 9pm (8pm Chiang Mai time). We had a nice chat and I ate some food, which was very nice, but I did not want to eat too much after my long trip.

I was dropped off at the Shanghai Expo InterContinental around 11pm. The hotel room was nice with views of the Huangpu river from these floor-to-ceiling windows. I couldn’t get the thick curtains in the bedroom to close, but I was so tired that I just went to bed like that.

Shanghai Visit

I spent time every day during my visit talking with the people I came to Shanghai to see. We talked about potential business collaborations/investments. I visited hospitals, university labs, health centers etc. In between meetings and visits, I walked along the river outside the hotel, the preserved old liquor factory inside the hotel, worked more on business ideas, and exercised. Of course, since I was in Shanghai, eating was also a recurring thing. I loved food and Shanghai had a lot of good food. I had gotten to know the people I came to see better and I really liked being able to talk about various business ideas with them. I liked their personality as well. Maybe things will work out for all of us.

Hotel – Living Room

View from the Hotel Room

Another View from the Hotel Room

Sculpture on the Pier Along the River

Preserved Old Liquor Factory inside the Hotel

Rice Vermicelli in Pork Soup

Pan Fried Meat Buns

Shanghai was actually a lot nicer than I had expected. I was here several times before on business trips but I never really had time to do much. This time, I was at least going from one place to another in a car so I got a sense of the city.

Shanghai is very big, with about 23 million people. Pudong, where the hotel is located, is the newer area. To my surprise, the traffic there doesn’t seem to be very busy. The streets are wide, and the congestion is not too bad. The highways are actually built on top of the streets (like skywalks). On the highway, there are digital displays showing the highway and the connected highways, roads and exits, and the traffic pattern on those road: green for good, and red for slow moving traffic. There are big walk ways along the sides of the roads and it is actually a very walkable city.

Shanghai – Beijing – Chiang Mai: Nov. 7

I left Shanghai for Chiang Mai, going through Beijing this time on Air China. Once I got on the Air China flight to Chiang Mai, I heard from the announcement that this was actually the very first flight from Beijing to Chiang Mai. There were people handing out flower leis to us upon arriving at Chiang Mai. The white flowers were very fragrant. It was nice to be home!

Fireworks Night: Nov 8

The next day, Samantha’s school was having a Fireworks Night. We met up with another family and had dinner at the school restaurant, then headed over to the fireworks celebration.

People Working on the Sky Lantern

It was a fun night, spending time with Gary and Sammy in the warm evening breeze, watching sky lanterns and fireworks. I was worlds away from Shanghai. If we do end up moving to Shanghai, a part of me will always miss Chiang Mai, its fruits, its people and smiles, its scenery.

Saturday Nov 9

We took Samantha to tennis in the morning and walked around the school campus by ourselves while her lesson was on. We went to the wet market later on to get some fruit, and then to the supermarket. By the time we got home, I was already feeling tired.

I did some more work on my business ideas and made some more communications. I also talked to Mom and Dad on the phone, letting them know that I arrived safely.

And so a week had gone by, it seemed both so fast and so slow at the same time. Since my trip, I have been busy working on the business ideas, and my mind has been occupied. I even got Gary hooked on thinking about those ideas and he kept sending me information he had found as well. We discussed ideas constantly. We are both obsessed. It’s a good feeling, working on something you like for a higher purpose. I think we are both at our best when we have something we like to work on.

We’ll never know what the future holds for us until that future arrives. In Chiang Mai, I have finally found the time to slow down so that I can discover what I want to do with my life, and so I can become busy again. A life of leisure is definitely not for me, but finding some leisurely time in a busy meaningful life will definitely be a joy!