We had to postpone the zoo visit yesterday due to some serious rainfall. A storm front from the South China Sea is splashing its way through southern Asia and Chiang Mai is getting drenched on an hourly basis. The prospects for a trip to the zoo look better tomorrow.

Despite the rain, we still managed to enjoy a nice day in town, including a dip in the pool, a nice lunch by the river and a dinner at a place that used to belong to the Indian consulate. I can easily imagine how extravagant the receptions must of been there back in the day. And with the British consulate right across the street, I’m sure there was something going on almost every day of the week.

The place is called Dalabaa and it was amazing. A popular place among locals, the Dalabaa is decorated in a lounge-ish kind of style, mostly in hues of deep red and white with lots of plush pillows and mellow lighting. We ate a terrific meal in the garden next to a lily-covered pond and under a huge tree with large, sweet smelling yellow flowers floating above us.

Keeping with our Asian traditions, we ordered a selection of recommended dishes: marinated beef in coconut and curry soup, basil flavoured crispy pork, garlic sautéed chicken wings raw salmon with sweet chili and coriander jam and deep fried spicy crab sticks that looked like grassini but tasted great.

A couple of cold beers had probably been fantastic, but we opted for some freshly made juice instead. I went for the passion fruit variety while Charlotte made a better choice with lemon grass juice, which she couldn’t get enough of.

Elle was happy with her chicken wings and a bottle of soda water – or bubble water as she prefers to order it as. Speaking of ordering. We were almost alone at Dalabaa and had a small armada of waiters and waitresses looking after us. Its a little weird when the staff outnumbers the guests. But we’re slowly getting used to it here in Chiang Mai.

For dessert, Charlotte had freshly sliced and diced mango with coconut rice and Elle ate a generous portion of coconut-flavoured ice cream with fried bananas. I had a plate of seasonal fruit that included my new favourite fruit – one that I had bought two kilos of earlier in the day at the market, rambutan. I can’t seem to get enough of those hairy little things!

I am about to continue documenting street life in and around our hotel. The area belongs to a temple called Wat Kate and most of the surrounding neighborhood dates back roughly 500 years. Should make for some interesting shots.