Last Day! Where did the time go – it seems like we just got here. But that’s always the way. While we love it here, we are looking forward to moving on to Hanoi and Laos. The morning is spent doing laundry and packing chores, with a quick trip to 7-11 for beer and wine. Then tonight, we’ll spend our last evening at Outlaws and the street food market.
We had grave concerns about the street food market. We were told it had been sold, effective Feb 1, and that the new owner wanted 51 stalls there, instead of the 25 that were there now. That didn’t seem quite right, but you never know. Then on Saturday we noticed they were building permanent stall structures, and we thought, “uh oh – will it be ready by Monday? Will all the original vendors come back?” They continued working on the stalls, putting up corrugated roofing on Sunday as well. It’s just a wait and see game now.
On Monday, as we passed on our way to Road Side, we were relived to see many of the stalls filled with what we assume are the same vendors. So, tonight, we will see exactly who remains, and what we can find to eat (yeah, like that will be a problem regardless of who is there!).
We arrive at Outlaws a little before 7, and it, along with the street market, is packed.
We manage to secure a table, and the adorable waitress/bartender tells us she missed us. Sweet. We troll through the market, settling on a first course of squid for Ed and Papaya salad for me. Even though I told the woman making the salad I only wanted a little bit of chili, and she let me pick out the smallest ones – that salad was scorching hot! OMG. I had to chug down about half of Ed’s beer just to finish it. Phew.
As our second course we had the pork belly we’d been eyeing for 2 weeks now. Oh boy, what we were missing. This had to have been the best pork belly we’ve ever had. It was cut into thick strips, baked, then re-heated in some sort of bizarre portable oven – it looked like a cross between a dehydrator and a air popper for popcorn. Then when it was heated through, he took a torch to it to caramelize and crisp up the cracklings before chopping it up into bite size pieces. Awesome.
After eating, we were just content to sit and watch the crowds go by. The little peanut sellers come and go – these little 7 or 8 year olds with peanut bags in little baskets. As its our last night, we decide to go ahead and buy a bag. SCAM! They are raw! Now we know why no one ever buys them. LOL. At least they were only 20 baht and the kids are cute…
Of course now we’ve established our bonafides as suckers, so the deaf mute guy comes up with his little card explaining how 100 baht helps teach others to communicate, etc. And we get to choose a little gift for our donation. Ok, we’re in – it goes to a good cause, and he does seem to know sign language, because I give him the thank you and love sign and he replies back, so…whatever, 100 baht and we have a little plastic-made to look like wood- “Friend” heart charm.
Finally it is time to leave. We say goodbye to our waitress friend (yeah, don’t even know her name), and when she finds out it is our last night she runs to get the owner, who comes out and wishes us a fond farewell. This is one of the reasons why we love this place.
Of course our final night would not be complete without a banana roti. I document the making and cooking process, then we dig in savoring the flavors and the atmosphere of our last, lovely evening in Chiang Mai.
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