Text 19283, 65 rader
Skriven 2014-11-13 09:09:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: Asia trip 259
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Our next destination was the Doi Tung royal villa and
gardens, home of the King's mother, the late dowager
princess, a nurse by trade who met her husband (the
king's father who was never king himself, as he died
at a young age) in Boston - a long and interesting story,
you could look it up. The place is enchanting - idyllic
enough for a princess and modest enough to be suitable for
a champion of the people. A low rambling building with
tasteful landscaping, but the real gardens down the way
are superb and memorable. I swear we could have spent the
entire time of our trip here. Alas, our time was limited,
and there were other things to see. I'd heard interesting
things about Wat Phrathat Doi Tung, a 10th century temple,
first in the ancient Ngoenyang kingdom (predecessor to
Lanna), built to house the Buddha's collarbone and other
arcane relics. I brought this up with Sunthorn, who acted
puzzled. Do you really want to go there? It wasn't top on
the tourist list, as it's somewhat out of the way and is
relatively small, but after being convinced we actually
wished to visit it, he seemed to know the way pretty well -
down one of the peaks, into the valley, and then up the
other one, and, after crossing a recently washed-out but
somewhat repaired hillside area, there we were, and it is
very fine in its way, more like a temple was meant to be
than the urban tourist attractions we are more accustomed
to seeing. We got a half hour here; when we returned to the
car, Sunthorn rather gleefully pointed out that the little
devotee trinket on his dashboard was in fact a model of this
temple - which was in fact the temple that he worships at,
and he had just been funning us earlier.

Back to the Meridien for beers and snacks at the bar, after
which we decided to try the house Italian restaurant Favola,
a short stroll outside in the pleasant warmth.

The place, romantically lit, could be anyplace in the
civilized world; the staff were pretty polished and with
serviceable at least English, some better than that.

First came an amuse of sea bass crudo with cucumber, very
nicely done, followed by focaccia and tapenade that could
easily have been served in New York or Rome. Rather tasty
all, and I at least could have made my meal of these (not
Lilli, though, as she eats neither fish nor olives).

Our appetizer was foie gras with spiced pears - a couple
impressive slabs, balsamic drizzle, the fruit done just
al dente and best off eaten separately. I tried making a
little open-faced sandwich with some liver and the brioche
that came with, but the cinnamon of the pickle obtruded,
and so we just ate the rest of the foie gras alone. Later
I looked up on the Internet and found that most likely this
duck had been from China.

I had just a strand or two of Lilli's spaghetti carbonara,
which was too cheesy and too scrambled eggy for my taste,
though the bacon was fine. My linguine bolognese, with
fresh housemade pasta was fine.

Our bill, though extravagant for the middle of nowhere
Thailand, was half of what it would have been in the west.

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