me and shaun get our groceries from the tops grocery store in one of the huge malls in chiang mai, the kad suan kaew central mall. it’s just outside of the north-western corner of the old city wall and has a bajillion stores in it. the stores range from some pretty cool, trendy boutiques to venues where you can buy rip-off levis for like $5USD. we passed by a place selling ultra cheap dvds and saw two seasons of one tree hill for $2USD apiece! one tree hill is shot in wilmington, nc, which is where we just moved from.

we took a tuk-tuk there (i’m looking a little cockeyed here, and i think shaun’s trying to play it cool):

the mall is huge!

right inside the entrance is a shrine to (i think) the three kings – king mengrai, the founder of chiang mai, king ramkamhaeng of sukothai, and king ngam muang of payao. according to legend, they worked together to lay out the city of chiang mai:

we then ate at the pizza company, which is pretty much pizza hut in the states, except they have some exotic toppings that i’m too chicken to try. this particular pizza company has a bitchin’ view of the street in front of the mall:

kad suan kaew has a really cool outdoor area:

there’s this crazy dragon fountain… usually it’s shooting water out of it’s mouth but today it was off. there’s some big koi fish in the water, too:

the phra phom (thai representation of the hindu god brahma) shrine is freaking huge! big enough for a children’s playhouse:

the spirit house itself isn’t as huge, but still fancy as far as spirit houses go (i’m not so sure that these are specifically for the landlords, i think that spirit houses are just used to house spirits that might cause problems if they’re not appeased):

Filed under: chiang mai, places to eat, places to shop, spirit houses, thailand by Administrator