All in 1

October 30, 2025

All in 1

We are having a wonderful time getting reacquainted with the many charms Chiang Mai offers. One does not have to go far from one's guest house to be immersed in them either. Our guest house, with its odd name - All In 1 Guest House - has a near hidden entry from the tight little soi (lane) through big thick always open wooden doors into a mass of vegetation which surround an inner courtyard. Tiny fish seem very happy in their little worlds of miniature lily pads in small ponds and containers whereas big Koi show off their flashy colors in a bigger pond. Vines reach out and pull you further inside to the reception desk.

One of All in 1's cats trying to blend in with the motorbikes.

The owner is a friendly character from France who came to Thailand nearly forty years ago and married a nice Thai woman. She is at the front reception area all the time and he holds forth with all the travelers in the courtyard. He's good at holding forth. I really enjoyed talking with him about the world and now ya'll can rest assured we have solved a lot of its problems. I expressed grave disappointment about what is going on in the U.S. and he kept stopping me short with, "For now.... For now." He had a look of knowing as if he had seen such things before. His repeated, "For now," was strangely reassuring for me. He said he had had the opportunity when young to have a career in something he didn't elaborate about. He said it would have made him well to do but it didn't feel right. He took a trip to Thailand and his heart felt more at home. Forty years later he is still here and loves being here every single day. I wasn't a bit surprised by this and we talked about the essential Thai personality. He said sure there are problems in the country, there are problems with the government but the Thais don't dwell on any of those problems. They don't let the problems create divisions and anger. They understand that "For now," he was talking about. Thais go about their lives knowing they live in paradise and are gentle and happy.

It was fun to talk with him (sorry, I never got his name!). He was saying everything I already knew about Thais. He wasn't sad in the least for choosing the life he has had and he looked at me and said, "You are the same. I can tell. I have talked to tourists for nearly forty years and I can almost always size up a person immediately. I know you. You have lived the same way as I have." He was right. And when he said that I realized maybe for the first time that a lot of the directions I've taken in my life were influenced by Thais; the Thai way of life. I first came to Chiang Mai a decade before my guest house owner had. Chiang Mai was smaller and even more peaceful then and like him, I felt at peace and at home.

The northern Thais especially have a built in sense for creativity and the ability to make beautiful architecture and gardens. Our soi alone is lined with various flowering plants squeezing through and over fences from everyone's yards and gardens lining the little winding lane. To walk through a person's house you learn what they like but to walk through their garden is like an opening to their heart. The entire old part of Chiang Mai, which is the area inside the old city walls and moat, is like walking through a big Thai garden; Chiang Mai's heart - the heart of its people. You walk in a maze of quiet little lanes usually called sois. Because the sois are so narrow, large vehicles cannot fit through them and they are so windy that small vehicles cannot race through them, making for permanent quietness to the old city. There are hundreds of guest houses and hotels now but all is quiet for the most part.

This is actually an entrance to a restaurant!

Our guest house has the oddest name of which I never asked why. All in 1. I figure the owner finally sat down after building his new guest house and not having had time to think about what to name it saw a bottle of shampoo sitting in front of him; All in 1 shampoo and conditioner. Of course I can make up a scenario or theory about anything. It is a very odd name for a guest house though. It must refer to something akin to One Stop Happiness in that they can serve breakfast and organize transportation or tours and give information to make your Chiang Mai vacation experience perfect.

We love our guest house partly because of the owners and their laid back ways. It's an old school sort of Thai place which I love more than the slick clean new buildings. There is a funk factor here that is so whimsical that I am smiling all the time. We originally planned seven days in Chiang Mai (nowhere near enough but any number of days is never enough either) and we reserved the first three days to stay at All in 1 but then put it out of our minds. We should have reserved all seven nights because all accommodations fill up in the old section of town for the Loy Krathong festival which means that we will have to leave our funky guest house with the funny name to another newer place nearby but just outside the old city walls.

I want one of these toilet seat covers. In our funky room.

People come from all over the world to experience the famous Loy Krathong festival here in Chiang Mai but we are the odd ducks and are getting out of Dodge the day before. I experienced Loy Krathong in Chiang Mai fifty one years ago and it was beautiful. Lovely, beautifully dressed women lined up to crouch down at the river bank to launch their little banana leaf boats with one lit candle to carry away all bad things downstream. It couldn't have been more beautiful with all the little candles on the river.

The other part of Loy Krathong was absolute craziness. Fifty one years ago I was a student at Chiang Mai University and I don't remember hardly any tourists in the city for Loy Krathong. I remember vividly wild young Thai boys lighting crude homemade skyrockets which they then dropped on the ground right in the middle of crowds of people in the streets. Sky rockets whizzing around at eye level was not my idea of fun. It was terrifying. I have no idea if they still do such things but we aren't sticking around to find out. We planned from the start to ride our bikes to Lamphun just 25 miles away where there will still be a Loy Krathong festival but with far fewer people and be more subdued and beautiful which is the way Loy Krathong should be.

From what I have just said, you might think we have been hanging around our guest house a lot but in fact we have been out walking the tiny sois exploring while constantly salivating over food which is everywhere and I want to eat it all. We stumbled on the cleanest tray food restaurant we've ever seen and I was in heaven. The reason I like tray food so much is because it allows a person to choose foods that are new to you. You don't need to know names, you just point. It is far and away my favorite Thai food. It's true Thai food, old style Thai food, and this place had no tourists. I'd say 99% of the Thais lined up to choose their dishes were on their way to work. It was a very popular place and I see why. I loved the two selections that I got but that left 23 other things to try! Why is my stomach so small in situations like this! I want to try it all.

The cleanest tray food restaurant I've ever seen. Great food!

We found our favorite old style, 60 cent, Thai coffee from a street stall and in the evening we had our dinner outside on stools at a rickety metal table next to the ancient bricks of Chiang Mai Gate. The food is always delicious but it is enhanced by the ambiance which is pure peaceful Chiang Mai.

Traditional old style Thai coffee - cafe bolan.

The Thais as well as tourists love eating dinner in night markets. This one is just next to Chiang Mai Gate which is the south gate.

A typical market although this one may have more stuff for celebrating Loy Krathong than normal.

We've done things other than eat too but I don't know what they were at the moment. We still feel we have just arrived but we did get the bikes assembled today and they made the trip perfectly. My limited Thai language is rusty, we are still tired from the tortuous flights and we amble up and down sois from temple to temple from iced coffee stands to fruit smoothie stands. It's humid and fairly hot. We aren't used to sweating but we are happy to be here. I've always said that Chiang Mai is my second home and now I'm thinking it's also All in 1.

lovebruce

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Steve Miller/GrampiesYou make it all sound so lovely, and of course Thai food always is wonderful. But oh the heat! Dodie especially suffers when too hot. The crowds are also, for us, a deterrent. But oh, the food, the flowers, the colours, .......
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2 months ago

Andrea BrownTo Steve Miller/GrampiesThe heat is a huge issue for me, and the humidity. We’re bugging out of Chiang Mai before the huge festival crowds convene. I imagine a crowded German or French square may be hard for you sometimes too. Our hope in starting in the north is that as the rainy season tapers off the higher elevations here will get far more comfortable. Wish us luck with that!
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2 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Steve Miller/GrampiesHi Steve,
Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and with Loy Krathong about to happen it will get too crowded for us. Most of the population of Thailand is in the big cities where we don't spend much time. I bet one fifth of the entire population lives in Bangkok alone. Where we cycle we see very few people. We don't like crowds either. Germany's population density is way higher than Thailand's actually.
The temperature really isn't bad at all, hitting highs of about 28. It's the humidity though. Northern Thailand usually gets really nice in the winters and can even be quite cold if we are lucky. It's the south that is always hot.
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2 months ago

Kristen ArnimI’ve never trusted all-in-one shampoo and conditioner but I do like your room funk. And I’m going to hold onto the “For now” mantra.

So, so good to see you guys kicking around in SEA again!
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2 months ago

Bruce LellmanTo Kristen ArnimI always love your comments, Kristen. Thank you for following along.

Yes, I have from the start basically said, "For now" as well. Everything changes all the time. Ebb and flow. Up and down. This way and that way. What's happening now doesn't have a chance of holding. It's just a matter of time.

The Thais are famous for bending with the wind. That's why they have never been ruled by anyone. They had to let the Japanese try to cross to Burma in the war but they were never completely controlled by them. The Thais have a lot of tolerance. I have learned much from them.
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2 months ago

Charlotte FloryReally enjoy reading your entries while I munch on a normal American made salad😹speaking of food, how would a vegan do at these establishments? It’s so great you got to see your friends by coincidence again!
I love that the garden is the heart. As a new gardener (bought my first home in ‘21), I feel so much love for my plants and joy tending to them, and imagining them grown up and wanting them to thrive and be happy and help out all the animals and insects. Lots of hope, imagination, future thinking goes into a garden too, so it makes sense that it is the heart. It’s magical that the plants cycle through the seasons each in their own way, with innate intelligence. Anyway.
For now.

Take care
Charlotte
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2 months ago

Ron SuchanekThis entry is kind of All in One. Markets, tray food, the Frenchman, the funk, flowers, festivals, the history, your history. We the readers are getting a lot of bang for the buck here.
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2 months ago