CHIANG DAO, THAILAND

Before our weekend trip to Chiang Dao, I thought I had seen some beautiful things. Maybe I had, but nothing could prepare me for the shock of finding out that the most breathtaking views I have ever witnessed were less than three hours from my (albeit temporary) home. After hearing from friends and driving halfway there multiple times, we finally managed to make the entire trip, and it was just magic how it coincided with our one-year anniversary of moving to Thailand. And it was the best weekend for that celebration, in all honesty. It was the embodiment of rest, celebration and... well, perfection.

We lucked out about a month before this trip, finding the deal-est of deals on Sibsan Resort & Spa in Maetaeng. It was almost exactly halfway between Chiang Mai and Chiang Dao. We felt a little out of place in such a nice resort, but it was fun to play the rich tourist card when we knew we got 80% off our room!

In the morning we headed into Chiang Dao, our first stop was Wat Tham near the famous Chiang Dao Cave. The wat was unlike anything I've ever seen, blue with white carvings all over the exterior. We walked around admiring the flora and the pools beside the wat and outside the entrance to the caves before heading inside.

Inside the caves there were two options: walk along a lit path for the flat entrance fee of 40 baht, or hire a tour guide to take you deep into the cave armed with only a lantern for 100 baht more. We chose the latter, our 70 (or more)-year-old guide walking us through low ceilinged tunnels and around endless abysses. We walked into the cave for about 30 minutes before turning around, our guide expertly maneuvering around in his tread-less slippers while I stumbled around in my Chacos. A wooden cross at the beginning of the tour sparked some good conversation as well as things our fearless leader pointed out like a rock formation that looked like a rhino, a chicken, and a few bouquets of orchids.

Gulping down the fresh air once we left the caves, we found ourselves at Chiang Dao Nest for a delicious lunch and some refreshing drinks. We sat in the open air, gaping at the mountains surrounding us on all sides, the mist and cool air making it actually feel like fall.

Before my camera died, we took in some of the most incredible views, thankful for reminders of God's glory and how small we are in light of his unsearchable and unfathomable greatness. There were quite a few moments were we decided to spend "60 seconds with no pictures," which proved to be some of the best moments. 

PINEAPPLE UPSIDE-DOWN CAKE

I got a little ambitious the other week with some almost-too-ripe pineapple and the good deal of baking things we have amassed over the months we've been living without hungry mouths to feed (aka, no more twenty-something guys hanging out at our house begging us to bake things). I'd never made an upside-down cake and Oh, Ladycakes made it look like too much fun to pass up. I'm forever in awe of her recipes: how simply put yet how carefully measured and planned. Just follow her. Forget my blog when it comes to food, just go see hers. The only differences I talk about are the fact that I can't find half the ingredients and have to worry about the tiny-ness of my oven. Moving on...

This cake, though made due to the necessity of keeping the pineapple from going bad (the rest of which made a few delicious popsicles), was the perfect goodbye to summer. Since this recipe Katie and I have made several fall treats and hopefully some good enough to make it up here before the (short) season is over. For a first try, I'd say it turned out pretty well! Here's how I did it in Thailand.

- 4 tablespoons brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons coconut oil
- About 2 cups of pineapple slices
- Triple-berry preserves
- 1 3/4 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 2/3 cup sugar
- 1 tablespoon corn starch
- 1/3 cup coconut oil, melted
- 3/4 teaspoons almond extract
- 2 eggs
- 1/2 cup pineapple juice
Preheat oven 350º degrees.

Finding fresh raspberries in SEA in the summer is pretty much impossible. And even though strawberries were my second choice, I didn't feel like forking over $9 for one little package. So I went to the jam aisle and grabbed a little jar of triple-berry preserves and used those instead. Unsure how they would bake in this cake, I'm happy to say that they worked just fine and gave a pretty good kick in the middle of all that pineapple.

I cut thin slices of the fruit chunks we had left over, laid a silicone mat in the only pan we have for baking (around 9x13, but you can use any size, the only difference will be your cake's thickness), and after greasing the pan with the coconut oil, I sprinkled in the brown sugar and laid the pineapple in, filling any little gaps with a spoonful of the jam.

Setting the pan aside, I made the batter. Mixing some of the dry ingredients first I combined the flour, salt, baking powder and soda. After this I got a separate bowl to combine the corn starch and the sugar, mixing the coconut oil in with it until it's all mixed and slushy-looking. Add the almond extract, eggs and pineapple juice and keep mixing. Take two thirds of the dry mixture and combine it with the wet ingredients. Then use a spatula to stir in the remaining third. Once well combined, pour the batter over the pineapple in the pan (make sure you tap it on the counter a couple times so it can get all the way to the bottom and between the fruit).

Bake at 350º for about 38 minutes give or take a few, then remove from the oven and cover with a towel for another 20 minutes to keep the steam in. Flip your cake over onto a wire rack and transfer to another plate if you wish after an hour.

Usually you'll store this baby at room temperature for two days, but I kept mine for three via the refrigerator. The folks who helped me eat it on Thursday night say it tasted great, but it was definitely best the afternoon I pulled it out of the oven. Bye, Summer, you were great.

PENANG ISLAND, MALAYSIA

One of my closest friends, Sarah, spent six months loving people and playing frisbee in Malaysia. I had originally hoped to shadow her around her city, but instead I found myself visiting after she had headed back to the states. I wasn't alone, thankfully, and Casey made plans to come along with me. We planned to plan for about three weeks but instead left our actual plans to right before and even during our trip. We had a list of things, a very small idea of what to expect, and no checked bags.

Upon arrival in Penang, we took a taxi to our guesthouse, Carnarvon House. The space was incredible, an old shop house converted to house about fifteen guests at a time. Every morning had light like you wouldn't believe and the owners, Terry and Eunice, took it very seriously that each of their guests feel at home. They even found out what we liked for breakfast and brought it to us on our last day (it's called Roti Canai, make sure you try some if you go to Malaysia)!

After settling in, we headed to a little café called the Mugshot, a place known for it's bagels. We made sure to try the fresh ones: sesame seed, with a huge smear of cream cheese. The bagel warmed up the cheese and the whole thing was enough to fill me up for the rest of the evening. We walked to find the shore, anxious to see the ocean each day since we never see the beach in Chiang Mai.

Day two was for street art exploring and boutique hopping. We saw every color of the rainbow possible on buildings, in shops, adorning temples and in the sprayed and painted art throughout Georgetown, the capital of the island. We walked Armenia Street probably five times in that one day, finding beautiful postcards, henna artists and water chestnuts out the wazoo.

After a lunch of the famed char koay teow (a pad thai ish dish with three times the meat and slimier noodles), we found the Blue Mansion and then made our way to The Alley, the coffee shop where Sarah worked during her last three months in Penang. The place was industrial and hip, the perfect hidden café for any foreigner who doesn't want to look too much the tourist. We had churros and split a cronut (I could have eaten my own, but I denied my sweet tooth... miraculously). While we hung around a couple days later we got to judge a latté art contest. Check out that upper left, the art from the newbie won out! 

In the morning we bought a ticket for the Penang Hop-On Hop-Off bus, the tourist bus that hits all the hot spots in town. (My advice, buy a bus pass for the rapidPenang buses instead. It's the same price as the tourist bus and is for seven days instead of one. Wish we had found that out before our last day!) We headed to the lookout outside the main city, called Penang Hill. On the way there we saw several different types of monkey, brown, black, you name it. The flora was beautiful and colorful like everything we'd seen of Penang thus far, plus the view didn't disappoint either.

The next stop we hopped off at was Kek Lok Si Temple, a Buddhist temple of epic proportions. Traveling from a mainly Buddhist culture, it was interesting to see that this temple was even more over the top than many of the wats we'd seen in Thailand. There was an entire pool of turtles waiting to greet visitors before you even began the journey up the stairs leading to the entrance.

Before we hopped onto the beach route of the tour bus, we stopped for a lunch of Penang Laksa, a unique noodle soup in a fish broth. I think I said to Casey at one point that it "tastes like medicine I wouldn't want to take." I'm not sure what I meant by that, and I don't remember hating it, but I also remember thinking I wouldn't want to eat it again. The Malay men next to us told us we used chopsticks better than the Chinese, and that's all that really matters in the grand scheme of this lunch. We cleansed our palettes with Chendol, an icy peanut soup with red beans and cold jelly noodles. Something I never thought I would enjoy, enjoyed.

We headed out on the beach route and went all the way to the end of the line, getting off at the Penang National Park and running out onto the wharves and the beaches to experience the impending doom of the storm rolling in. We didn't escape before the downpour soaked us through!

As the sun was setting we (after freshening up of course) walked to Kapitan for incredible indian food, and then over to ChinaHouse, a café with amazing cakes, a beautiful bar and a never ending hallway that led to a music venue in the back. The tables had paper on them and they offered fancy pastel crayons to draw with. Arted rice boxes hung everywhere and the place was buzzing from the moment we walked in. Casey ordered a chocolate cake neither of us could finish and I had a malted milk brownie.

Saturday was our third full day, most of which was spent going to, traveling and recovering from our time at Monkey Beach. We took the bus to the park where we hired a boat to take us to and from the area. Once we arrived we walked up and down the shore to check things out before wading out in to the super blue (but not so clear) water. We ate and basked and walked, and I'm still surprised we didn't burn at all.

In the evening we enjoyed a ferry ride to and from the mainland (free one way, less than $.60 to go bak), gawking over the views and loving the salty wind. When we returned to the island, we met up with a couple of Sarah's friends for a trip to where the locals eat: street stalls on Chulia Street. We tried Wanton Mee, which is like the heavenly version of the noodles soups here. Only better. Think thin noodles in a saucier soup than a traditional broth, with greens, pork, and crunchy, fried fat. Yes. Fat. We also tried Curry Mee, which is a cuttlefish soup and I wasn't a fan. You can see for yourself if you look at Casey's Instagram (@cmccollum12). The pictures were pretty indicative of how I felt. After dinner we wrapped up the evening with a visit to the massive Macallum, a restaurant and café that also teaches classes in baristadom.

For our last morning we headed to Constant Gardener (another of Sarah's recommended shops) to debrief our trip and have some time to read and record what we'd been doing all week. It was nice to have some quiet and calm time to process all that we'd done, and CG was a perfect place to do so. Eric, one of our friends from the night before, picked us up and we picked up a quick lunch of chicken rice on our way to the Penang Bridge, particularly a part of it more known to locals. Eric and Jovern were fantastic hosts to us during our last couple days in Penang, showing us the best spots and treating us like long lost friends.

Jovern and Eric took us to the Lobby, a new space born out of the owners of The Alley and a clothing line called Pestle & Mortar. Having just opened a week before we were there, the place was pleasantly busy, several shoppers stopped in and we saw lots of customers while we sipped our iced coffee and (for Casey) juice. Jovern ordered a "piffle," which may be the combination of a pizza and a waffle, I'm still trying to figure that one out. Our last stop before the airport was dinner at Sri Ananda Bahwan, an indian restaurant known for its banana leaf rice meal, which I happily (and as a challenge, since Jovern didn't think I could finish it) devoured. We left for the airport with full stomachs.

We may have been prepared to hit all the things that we wanted to in Penang. We did just about everything on the list we had when we arrived. We weren't expecting to fall in love with the colorful and culturalful atmosphere of the island quite as much as we did. Though we explored it to the full, we can't wait for an excuse to go back.