Gaun and I were back in the garden nursery area of Chiang Mai in a burst of enthusiasm after getting back home after our Australian trip and to replace some plants that didn’t survive the heat while we were away. Our lease includes a gardener twice a week but it has been hot here and unless you water every day some plants suffer.

I decided to call into a small furniture shop I had visited before, mixed in with the huge range of plant outlets, and found they were having a sale. The cost of good quality furniture here still has me shaking my head – it is so low. Add a sale to that and it all becomes a bit dream-like. As you see from the examples below my decision to leave furniture in Australia and save the huge shipping costs makes sense when you see these replacement prices. My main problem will be not to over-furnish the new home because I won’t be able to resist the bargains.

Here’s a taste below:

This is a 3.2 meter solid wood dining table. Cost – $930.00. You couldn’t buy a flat pack table at Freedom for that!

Clever way of incorporating the split into the table design.

My brother and sister-in-law, Richard and Sam, feel in love with the table at the back when visiting us in February. They were thinking of shipping it back to Australia because even with shipping added to the $270 purchase price it still would have been a fraction the cost of an equivalent piece of furniture in Australia. Think of the prices in The Woodworks, Braidwood, for my Canberra readers.

Make a lovely modern office desk

What a great statue for the garden for horse lovers.

When the time comes to furnish our new home in Isaan, early next year, we will re-visit Chiang Mai and spend a couple of days to the South of the city in a place called Baan Tawai, which is a “suburb” of workshops and shops making and selling everything we will need. I will be spending a day there sometime later this year so will write a blog entry with lots of photos just so you can get an idea of the amazing quality and prices.

Update 7 October 2014:

I called by here recently and the stock levels are pretty low. It has that going out of business feel but that may not be true.

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