Chiang Mai, Thailand

After leaving Phistanulok, we got on a bus and headed to Chiang Mai. It was about a 5 hour bus ride where we moved from the valley up into more mountainous area to the north. The millisecond we stepped off the bus, we were bombarded with "where are you going Miss? What to play with live real tigers? Want to ride an elephant? Where do you want to go trekking?". We've learned to politely avoid these advances and just get a tuk-tuk to an area with many guesthouses. We found one called Eagle House 2 and hit the town.

Chiang Mai is very busy and fairly full of foreigners. The main tourist attraction seems to be trekking, zip line, elephant-tour type stuff. Kyle and I decided to eschew this scene and have those kinds of adventures in Laos in a few weeks. Laos has a better reputation for environmental tourism run by the Laos government and is generally a poorer whose government is making a strong effort to preserve it's natural beauty through eco-tourism.

The old city of Chiang Mai is walled in by a thick brick wall and moat. It has over 300 Wats (Buddhist temples) which dot both the new and old parts of the city. Some wats are older than others but all are still in use with practicing monks, young and old, all donning the orange robes.
We spent our first evening walking the closed off street in the middle of town which every Sunday sprouts up with craft vendors, musicians and of course food. We bought dinner of clear rice noodles (called glass noodles) in a vinegar dressing, honey chicken and some dumplings. Yum as usual. There were many beautiful things being sold and I had to use quit a bit of self control not to buy much because of the hauling-it-around factor. There was lots of jewelery and fabrics which all remind me of my grandmother. Turns out the fabrics that were practically her uniform were all from Northern Thailand.

Today was a lazy day. Quite a bit of sink laundry in the morning (which now decorates our room) and then off to a place that served big American food. It was absolutely astonishing to realize how our perception of portion sizes has changed since being here. After consuming as much as we could, we waddled out of the restaurant and walked through town. In the early evening we decided to go to a "monk chat" just outside of town. A "monk chat" is an informal discussion with a monk about Buddhism which helps him practice his English and farang (Thai work for foreigners) learn more about Buddhism.

We strolled around the wat but weren't sure if there was a formal setting or how it all worked until Roti approached us in his bright orange robes. I would guess he was maybe about our age or slightly younger and his English was pretty hard to understand but we started to chat. He told us all about the major principles of Buddhism and after about 20 minutes, we were joined by two other monks, likely in their late teens-early twenties. These two wanted to know all about America and show off their US knowledge. They all are excited about Barak Obama and continually mentioning how bad our economy is. I guess if Buddhist monks in Thailand are reporting to you about the US economy, it must be pretty bad.

Some funny complications in our monk discussions were explaining what exactly Washington D.C. is. What does 'Columbia' mean? Is it not a state? Is it a city? What was the official language of USA? We had to explain that "technically there isn't one". And trying to explain that "Kate" and "Kyle" don't mean anything, they just sound nice. I'm thinking of making up a meaning for next time! Anyway, a completely pleasant evening. We walked home, past boys skateboarding in a city plaza and girls having cheerleading practice just next to them. Ah, sounds of home.
Tonight is another market which is likely to be less crafts focused but as always, there will be delicious and mysterious food!