There have been lots of things!

Sorry about the radio silence here, it's been a tiring and somewhat stressful few days, waiting for internship results.  In case you haven't already seen our posts, I matched!  Mu and I will be moving to Baltimore come summer.  In the meantime, we're still in Thailand for a few days, continuing to do fun things.  This will be a summary post without pictures, since we're a little behind on getting those up.

So, highlights!  On Wednesday, we went to the zoo, which was one of our favorite things from the last trip.  It was as big as we remembered, and just as great!  Of course, I had to feed hippos and giraffes again (as did Mu, but I had been looking forward to the hippos pretty much since last trip).  There were also adorable adolescent monkeys playing what I can only describe as tag -- they kept running after each other, taking turns chasing and being chased, and literally bouncing off walls in the process.  There was also a tiny baby monkey who was clearly still trying to get the hang of the game.  He'd chase the teenagers a bit, but when he got too close, he'd freak himself out and run away!  It was super cute and we hung out for a good 10 minutes, just watching them.  Monkeys doing cannonballs off their structure into the moat is especially amusing. :)  It was nice to visit again, especially since we came earlier in the day and were less hurried than the last time.  We got to take our time and be leisurely, and even visit the surprisingly pretty rose garden in the middle.  We also probably walked about 5 miles, which was a good thing, because we had a foodie tour in the evening!

The foodie tour was through the same company that the morning tour was with last week.  This time, there was another couple on the tour, from England, and a different guide, Montri.  We visited two different markets and tried a huge variety of things!  There was stir fry with squid (cooked very nicely), preserved egg (a strange ingredient and one I wouldn't choose on my own), and frog (to make the most cliched statement ever, it really did taste like chicken).  There was also stewed pork leg and garlicky chicken and spicy fish soup and spicy pork salad, all in close succession.  We then had dessert, mochi and egg in coconut milk.  We thought this meant the end of the tour, but it was only a break before moving to the next market.  There, we had the smoothest green curry I've ever had (yum!), more Chiang Mai sausage, some very strange jelly dessert, mango and sticky rice, and a coconut flour pancake thing.  It was super tasty, but we thought we were gonna explode by then!  It's a good thing we prepared for this and only had a small meal earlier in the day. :)

The next day, Thursday, was very relaxing, as we went tubing down the Ping river with Chiang Mai Tubing, a very well-run operation.  We were driven (along with about 16 others) for about an hour up the river, to the Chiang Mai Beach Club, which had cabana-like things with hammocks and cushions, as well as a volleyball net and other games.  After selecting what drinks we wanted to have on the river with us, we were driven another ways up and dropped off with our tubes at a convenient entrance.  Everyone got their own tube, and each group also got a tube with a cooler with ice and their drinks, as well as an oar.  You then strapped your tubes together so you wouldn't get separated and went floating down the river at a leisurely pace -- it took us about 2.5 hours to float the 8km (or so).  It was really great -- quiet, not too hot since you're on the water, and utterly relaxing.  Upon our return, we camped out in the hammocks, barbecued skewers (it was a choice between DIY skewers or American-style burgers, and we had no desire for the latter), and generally relaxed some more with our books before returning to Chiang Mai in the evening.

We knew that yesterday (Friday) was going to be a stressful day due to waiting for internship results, so we booked a tour for early in the morning, since we were unlikely to sleep well in any event.  It started at 6am (!) with a visit to a morning market to buy food to give to monks.  Monks have to rely on the community to feed them, so every morning, they go walking with their bowls, dispensing blessings in exchange for food.  They go barefoot, so when you approach them, you have to take off your shoes as well.  You put food in their basket, then kneel/squat and they recite a blessing.  We gave food to novices (a monk under 20, we've been privately calling them baby monks) who looked like they couldn't have been more than 10!   They recited the blessing in unison, very precisely.  We also got to visit Wat U-Mong, a temple in the forest, and hear some monks chanting, as well as another wat (I don't remember the name) where we attended a talk by one of the monks.  He had great English and was actually quite funny and engaging, and of course the message of letting go of attachments was quite timely, given the internship nonsense.  We were super sleepy by the end of this, but it was very worth it.

Today, we've been taking it easy.  We stayed up late with excitement of the match, so we've been resting and wandering.  We did get some things at Warorot market, and will probably go to the Saturday walking street (another night market) tonight, mostly with the goal of eating more yummy street food.  I can't believe that we leave in 2 days!

"Do not stick anything into tiger cages, especially fingers and hands"

Ready to go!

Bye bye, Mu!

I'm blogging later in the day than I normally do (it's about 6:45pm here, and I tend to blog during our afternoon break, around 3pm).  As a result, there are more people in the lounge area, and in addition to the marching band practice from before, we're serenaded by frogs.  These guys are super loud all evening.  We've taken to saying hello and goodbye to them when we're coming and going after dark.  Oh, and I learned today that we've been unfairly blaming the neighborhood wat for waking us up with its loud-speaker -- it turns out to have been the school (the one with the marching band) all along.  Sorry, wat!  Also, sorry that the pictures are formatted so weirdly.  Blogger is not cooperating, so I'm just giving up.

Incoming!  And a guide in the foreground

The last 2 days have been repeat-ish activities from the last trip.  We still took a bunch of pictures, especially today at the Tiger Kingdom, but many of them are pretty similar to pictures from last year. They will still go up on Facebook, though. :)  Anyways, yesterday we went ziplining, and today we went to play with tigers!

Gibbon mom and baby

Ziplining was really very similar to last year, especially since we went with the same company.  There are many others that have sprung up over the last 2 years (and even before that), but Flight of the Gibbon is the original, best known, and most extensive.  There are 32 platforms (not all are ziplines -- some are rope bridges and such -- but most are) and about 5km of zipline total.  The longest is 800m and there are 2 300m ones that are pretty awesome, too.  Our guides (Hobbit and Shy, apparently) were ridiculous and enthusiastic, just like the guides last time.  I think it's a job requirement. 

Beautiful waterfall

Although the experience wasn't new, we had a great time!  It's pretty exhilarating to be flying through the jungle, and the view all around was spectacular!  We were in a group of 6, which was nice because there was less waiting.  Overall, the course was less crowded than last year.  We saw other groups (and got to see other people zooming by on neighboring ziplines), but we didn't bump up against other groups, which was nice.  We were definitely in better shape this year, too -- the hike up was still not very gentle (the company's description of the trail), but much less tiring.  At the end, though, we went to see a waterfall that we didn't see last time, and that hike was a killer!  There was a hugely steep and long climb, about 35 floors according to my fitbit.  The view was pretty glorious, but I'm not completely convinced it was worth it.  The climb back down was almost worse!  Needless to say, we got massages upon our return to Chiang Mai. :) Oh, and we also saw an actual gibbon family, which was adorable.  Unlike last time, they didn't take pictures with our cameras (though they had some photographers along, taking photos for purchase, which we declined to do).  Perhaps to make up for this change, we got free t-shirts.  Heh.

Us and a medium tiger

Kitty is sleepy

Belly rubs!

Today, we went to the Tiger Kingdom.  Although the name is similar to the place we went to last year, it's actually a different place, in a totally different part of Thailand.  I had done some research ahead of time, and it seemed like this place didn't have complaints against it about tigers being drugged or mistreated (sadly, the Tiger Temple, where we went last year, has.  I wish we'd known this before).  They do sleep a lot, but that's because they're cats!  They sleep 18ish hours a day just naturally!  Anyways, we weren't convinced that the space was super great for the tigers -- some of the areas were quite big and had activities, but others were smaller and seemed boring.  The people who worked there were mostly pretty good with them, though there was some poking and prodding.  To us, though, it seemed more like familiarity than meanness.  The way the guides interacted with the tigers was kind of like how we play with our cats at home -- you pick them up and move them around if you want, but most of the time, they do their own thing.  The tigers also seemed pretty playful and content.  So, leaving aside the general issue to animals in any zoo-type environment, I think this was a decently good place. 

Us with a grooming small tiger

Playful babies

The Tiger Kingdom allows you to choose which cages you want to visit.  We decided to do 4 out of 5 -- smallest, small, medium, and big (the 5th is another small cage, with different tigers).  The rules said not to pet the tigers' head or paws, since that would seem like playing or attacking, but we could sit behind them, pet their backs and bellies, and snuggle up to them.  Although the sign said guides wouldn't take pictures of you, ours offered to themselves, so we were able to get a few pictures together. 

Taking a nap

Overall, we had such a great time!  The tigers were mostly chill and snuggly (they love having their bellies rubbed, apparently), with some of the younger ones roughhousing with each other in a very familiar cat way.  There was so much cuteness!  They also romped in the water as we watched, and just were generally ridiculous and adorable.  I think I actually liked the small ones the best -- they were the most fun to watch.  The very little ones spent most of our visit sleeping.  The only downside was that I think I'm allergic to tigers!  After laying on the big one, I developed a rash on my chin and arm!  It went down after I washed off, but was a little unpleasant.  I guess it's not super surprising, given that I'm slightly allergic to cats, but still.

Not a tiger, but this little girl was waiting in front of our door

Anyways, tomorrow will be another repeat activity (the Chiang Mai Zoo) and an evening foodie tour, and the day after that, we're going tubing!  And in 3 days at this time, we should know our fate for next year -- it'll be internship match day.  Wish us luck! 

Elephants, wats, and museums

Look at the baby elephant!

There are 30 wats in the old city, and another 300 or so in the rest of Chiang Mai.  In the last 2 days, we had ourselves a wat weekend and saw 17 wats within the moat and one outside of it, bringing our total to 22 wats so far this trip!  We also saw 2 of 3 history museums in the old city (we plan to see the third one the day after tomorrow) and took a trip to the Elephant Nature Park to feed and bathe and generally interact with adorable elephants!  Also, given that there are elephant figures at almost all the wats, and in the museums, I really could've just titled this post "Elephants."  As with the last post, we took a ton of pictures and I'm only including a few, so if you want to see more, head over to Mu's Facebook where many more are posted.

So many bananas, and it's only a day's worth

Us hanging out with Dani

Mu is feeding Lucky, a blind elephant

So, 2 days ago, we went to the Elephant Nature Park.  We wanted to see elephants, but we also wanted to make sure we weren't supporting animal abuse, so we researched ahead of time and found this place.  They focus on rescue and conservation -- all of their elephants (except the ones born there) are rescued from bad circumstances, such as logging, circus, trekking, or street begging.  At the nature park, they are taken care of -- fed, given medical attention as needed, allowed to socialize with each other, and generally made pretty happy.  They don't have to work at all, and their interactions with visitors are voluntary (the fact that food is involved probably helps).  If an elephant doesn't want to participate, it doesn't have to.  All the elephants we saw, including the one in the sick area (she had a skin abscess that was being treated), seemed pretty content.  There were also several adorable elephant babies!  Basically, this place is elephant heaven.  They have 37 elephants, mostly females (the males are more aggressive and difficult to keep around humans).  It costs a lot of money to care for an elephant, so while they're expanding, they're doing so cautiously.  They also have a large number of rescued dogs, cats, cows, and water buffalo.

The elephants have a routine that they're pretty familiar with and we got to participate in.  They are fed at 10:30 and we got to hand them food -- watermelon, pineapple, and sugar cane.  Each elephant gets a basket (though they would probably eat more if allowed to, the park tries to spread out their food over the course of the day).  On average, an elephant will eat 250-300kg of food each day!  That's a big part of the costs, along with staff -- each elephant has its own caretaker (mahout), plus vets and others.

This elephant had 4 hip/leg breaks in the past.  She's not very steady on her feet now, but seemed to be doing pretty well despite that

About to throw water at this very happy elephant.

Baby, mom, and family after a bath!

After the feeding, we wandered around and saw some elephants who were hanging out and not participating in anything organized.  Some of them were waiting for their pedicures (they get their toes cleaned every day), while others were eating away from the crowds.  There was a group of 4 elephants, mom, mom's friends, and baby, who were hanging out and munching in a field a little ways away.  We got to take photos with them and generally ooh at the baby.  He's only 5 months old and tiny compared to the adults!  They were totally chill about humans being around, though of course we didn't come very close.  We also got to pet Dani, a friendly elephant who was waiting for her turn at the pedicure station.

After lunch, a group of elephants went to the river to bathe and we joined in.  It was pretty great -- the elephant stood in the water and ate watermelon while we tossed buckets of water over her.  I think if this elephant were a cat, she'd be purring!  As it was, she had her eyes closed and ears and tail swishing (signs of happiness).  We all got a little damp in the process, but given the heat, it was rather welcome.

Super grand wat with a huge outdoor Buddha

In addition to bathing, we got to meet more elephants (including a large family group with another baby, some blind elephants who were injured or abused in the past, and the oldest elephant in the park, who's in her 80s), feed another elephant, and take lots of photos.  By the time we were ready to head back, everyone was exhausted and conked out in the van!  Mu and I had originally wanted to do an overnight at this park and couldn't due to lack of spots, but I think it turned out to be a good thing -- we felt like we got a good amount of elephants for the day, and more might have been overkill. :)

Surprisingly, this wat had horses rather than elephants

Mu in front of a stupa

Donation boxes based on day of birth.  Mu's is Thursday and mine is Friday.  Note the cool wall decorations.

Mu and a whole lot of Buddhas!

After several days with pre-planned things, we decided to spend the weekend wandering around and seeing wats and museums.  As I mentioned, we saw a lot of them!  Yesterday, we saw 9 wats all on our way from our guest house to a vegetarian restaurant that we really like!  Today, with a few detours, we saw 9 more.  Some (many, actually) were under construction so we couldn't always go inside, but we walked around where we could.  It's interesting how different they are, despite basic similarities.  There are always Buddha figures, but the number, size, and what they're made of varies a lot.  Some wats have stupas in the back (a mound in which a Buddha or respected monk relic is buried).  All have monk housing, but the size and elaborate-ness varies.  Inside the main structure, some have paintings and murals, others have carvings, and others just have blank walls.  Painting styles vary, as well.  One wat had what looked like enlarged photos instead! We saw several grand wats that are clearly rich and famous, but I think my favorites were the smaller ones that were more peaceful. 

Paintings depicting hell

As a way to cool down in AC, yesterday and today we went to a museum each after our day of wats.  Yesterday, it was the Lanna Folk Life Museum (the Lanna are the ethnic group who lived here before it became Thailand and who still are a large group today) and today it was the Chiang Mai Cultural Arts Center.  They were both really well done and rather informative.  We didn't take many photos because it just didn't make sense to, but we did rather enjoy ourselves.  We still have one more museum in the series, the Chiang Mai Historical Museum, which we will go to probably on Tuesday.

Elaine and a fake elephant. :)

I know I haven't mentioned any more food, but that's because we haven't had anything really new.  We did end up in a super adorable cafe today called "Into the Woods," like the musical!  It had a mural, books, and a general fairy tale theme.  The best part?  The doors to the bathroom looked like a wardrobe!  Mu and I want to do that in our future house now. :)  Oh, and the food was pretty good, too, and surprisingly decently priced, considering it was a touristy place.

Into the Woods!

Anyways, tonight we're going back to the Sunday market to eat more street food and maybe get souvenirs, and tomorrow is the repeat of Flight of the Gibbon, the ziplining adventure.  I can't wait!

"It's 7:26, must be time for people in the wat down the street to start yelling into the loudspeaker again."

 

There were way too many pigeons

 We took tons of pictures of food and animals over the last 2 days, so these (and a few others) will be throughout the post in roughly correct order.  Mu is posting many more pictures on Facebook, so you can check them out there.  This is a pretty long post because there were lots of things!  Also, right now I'm sitting outside in the lounge area of our guesthouse and what sounds like a school marching band is rehearsing very loudly a few blocks away.  It's kind of awesome.  Also also, the blog title is how we feel every morning.

Selfie on boat, not that you can tell where we are

We had quite a full day yesterday and a busy morning today, but we're back to chilling now.  Yesterday morning, we went on a tour/river cruise called the Mae Ping River Experience.  Mae Ping is the name of the river that goes through Chiang Mai, but the tour name was a bit of a misnomer.  We spent some time on the river, yes, but there were non-river related components to the trip!

Boars, including Cindy's name sake

Our guide, Nong, picked us up in the morning along with one other person, a woman named Hannah from Australia.  Our first stop was actually a wat on the river bank whose name I'm not sure I ever got.  This wat was built by Burmese Buddhists, back when this area was under Burmese control.  It's now popular for both Thai and Chinese Buddhists as a place to release live animals to make merit -- since it's on the water, you can release both fish and birds there.  Nong told us that the only problem is releasing turtles, since not all of them actually want to live in water, so the well-meaning pilgrims might be killing them!  We did not bring any animals to release, but we did make small donations to feed pigeons and fish.  I'm not sure why feeding masses of pigeons increases one's merit, but here we are.

Jackfruit in the wild!

Nong, who's a Buddhist himself, wanted us to make alms and receive a blessing from a monk.  We each got a basket, looking rather like a prepackaged gift basket but with things such as bottled water, dried noodles, and soup.  We also got flowers, and Nong wrote all our names, and his own, on an envelope.  The monk on duty received our gifts (Hannah and I had to place ours on a piece of his robe, since monks aren't allowed to touch women or take things directly from them in case touching happens by accident), recited a blessing, and tied a white string around each of our wrists.  I think it's one of those things you're supposed to wear until it falls off, like red strings Jews will sometimes get in Jerusalem.  Mu's and mine are still on today.

A small section of the huge market

The wat visit was probably my favorite part of the tour, though the rest of it was nice, too.  We took a reasonably fast boat about 45 minutes up-river to visit a farmer's house, where we got to see tons of fruit, vegetable, and herb plants (including mango, jackfruit, and coffee, which I was most excited about), as well as pigs (one of them was named Cindy!), very large bunnies, and chickens. We also ate lunch there -- kao soi again (the Northern Thai curry noodle dish), but with chicken this time.  I liked this version better than the one the other day, actually.  After lunch, we took the boat back to the city, but got off earlier to visit one of the big markets, Warorot Market.  Mu and I went there briefly last time, but really didn't see much of it.  It's a place you can buy pretty much anything.  There were fruits and vegetables (fresh and dried), prepared food, clothes, fabric (a huge section devoted to just fabric stores, Cindy!), purses and watches and jewelry, and lots of random stuff.  We wandered around for a bit, though Mu and I want to go back again in a few days to get some souvenirs. 

The massage place even had a sleepy kitty.

Scary-looking albino wallabies

That was the end of the tour, but instead of going back to the hotel, Mu and I got another massage (Thai for him, foot and leg for me -- it was nice, but I didn't expect to have my toes and feet poked with a wooden stick in the middle!  I also didn't expect to get a short back and shoulder massage that felt like being attacked by someone very angry and/or sadistic!).  We had to also make a brief trip back to the airport -- we had forgotten my jacket on the plane and needed to retrieve from the Air Korea office, which is only open from 4-8pm, and was surprisingly hard to find (the airport map was less than helpful because it turned out that each section -- offices, services, food -- had its own set of numbers that were all the same but listed in different colors.  Thus, yellow 38 was not what we wanted (taxi services), but green 38 was (Air Korea office).  Anyways, having accomplished that, we decided to go back to the Chiang Mai Night Safari.

Thirsty kitty!  Look at those paws!

Mouse deer, very strange.

You may remember that we visited there last time and were a little underwhelmed.  I wanted to go again, though, because we were pretty rushed last time and while we got to do the trams, we had a really short time for the Jaguar Walk, which is where a lot of the animals are housed. This time, we came super early and spent over an hour wandering along, taking pictures and generally geeking out over random critters. They had a whole albino section -- wallabies, porcupines, a raccoon, and alligators!  There were also beautiful wild cats.  I particularly loved the leopard cat (about the size of a housecat, meaning smaller than ours) and the leopard (full sized, with adorably fluffy paws!).  There were also some creatures we'd never heard of -- a kinkajou (apparently often mistaken for ferrets) and a binturong (sort of like a beaver?  maybe?  it never actually came out.).  As evidence that we're not in the US anymore, you could, if you were sufficiently stupid to want to, stick your finger into the cerval enclosure, or touch the monkeys.  We, needless to say, did not.  Also, there were mouse deer (really tiny and strange looking) and pygmy hippos (tiny, for hippos). 

The Uncles.  Could they have a creepier name?

Our dose of weirdness that evening happened when we made the mistake of eating dinner at the park.  We hadn't planned our timing very well, so we knew we'd have to get crappy food there.  It turned out to be quite an experience.  The only restaurant in the park was a 2-floor building where from the second floor, you could see/feed giraffes.  That part was cool (though we didn't feed the giraffes, we'll do that at the zoo).  What was less cool was that there was a "60s and 70s style!" band called, creepily, The Uncles who were crooning American light rock loudly the entire time!  The food was super expensive for Thai prices (though still pretty cheap for US) and not great, and the waiters, surprisingly for a place like that, spoke no English.  Weird.

Our instructor sowing us vegetables for Tom Yum

Taking a turn at curry paste

To make up for that food fail (well, not really, but it did make up for it), we took a cooking class today and it was great!  There were 8 of us in the class -- 2 other Americans, a couple from Germany, and a couple from Spain (well, one of them is French but they live in Spain).  Our teacher, Anne, took us to the market to start (different market than any of the ones we've already been to, and one that seems to cater to cooking classes because we saw at least 3 other ones there at the same time, heh).  After learning about different ingredients, we headed to Anne's house to cook and eat.  One really cool part was that we got to choose which dish we wanted to learn in each category -- appetizer, stir-fry, curry (with curry paste), and soup.  Mu and I picked all different dishes so we could learn and try multiple ones.  We also got a recipe book with all the dishes in the end.  As Cindy said when I talked to her before the class, we'll have to cook a Thai feast when we return. :)  The hard part will be finding ingredients!

Mu is about to make stir fry

The plan for tonight is to chill and maybe walk around some more, and tomorrow, we go to visit (and bathe with) elephants!  Sounds like fun!

"Please don't let garbage, no have bin here."

First off, it's Mu's mom's birthday today!  Happy birthday, Marilyn!  We hope you have a wonderful day and a very happy year!

Random adorable "See no evil, speak no evil, hear no evil" monks

Small but lovely new-to-us Wat

Buddhist University at a large Wat

We've been in Chiang Mai for 2.5 days now, and they have consisted of mostly unorganized wandering about, some wats, massages, and lots of food.  We seem to have been successful at having a more relaxing vacation than normal, at least so far!  We've also been adjusting to the time zone (we're still falling asleep and waking up super early, but it's getting better) and just getting used to being in Thailand itself.  It's really such a contrast from India, but also from the US. :)  It's definitely a poor country, with dubious water and a distinct lack of trash bins, sidewalks (though that's a US problem in some places, too), and safe crosswalks.  On the other hand, it's much cleaner (though not exactly clean) and less crowded than pretty much anywhere in India.  The public toilets (when they exist) are usable, and we've felt safe eating meat and drinking fruit juices.  We're in the Old City, which is pretty touristy, but we're in a less touristy area of it.  We rarely get hassled by taxi drivers (only when we go to the more touristy areas) and never by shop keepers or restaurant owners, unlike India.  You all know we loved India, but we're glad to be on a less effort-full trip this time!  Things here are also much cheaper than they are in the Western world (and about on par with India).  Apparently, this is only true for Northern Thailand -- Bangkok and south are more expensive (though still cheap compared to, say, Europe).  Anyways, we're glad to be here.

Random crepes!

As I said, we've mostly been taking it easy.  Mu's shoulders had a major fit over our flight schedule, so one of the first things we did when we got here was go get massages!  He got a Thai massage (which he enjoyed, and it helped his shoulders some), and I, somewhat stupidly, decided to get an oil massage (what we would call a Swedish massage) because I wanted to see what that would be like here.  Well...it was kind of the bastard love child of a Thai and Swedish massage, with not much to say in its favor.  There was an inordinate amount of oil involved (which later got wiped off, helpfully but somewhat weirdly), there was very little focus on specific muscles, and there were Thai-style stretches.  Very odd experience.  I spent half of it contemplating what I'd say in the blog about it, which tells you something. :)  Anyways, the next day (yesterday) we got massages again so that Mu's shoulders could keep getting better, and I got a Thai massage this time, as well.  It was very much an improvement.  I don't know that we're going to get daily massages, but at 200 Baht (about $6), it's pretty easy to justify getting them frequently!

Pig ears at the market. They're huge!

The other thing we've been doing a lot of is eating!  I tend to travel with food in mind, as you probably know, and while Mu doesn't do it to the same extent, he goes along for the ride with me.  Last trip, we had a slightly more difficult time in Thailand as far as food goes.  There are lots of veggie options, but they can be hard to find and communicate about.  Thai people love their meat, especially pork!  Now, Mu is no longer vegetarian and I decided that just for this trip, I'll eat pork.  It just makes life so much easier here.  I'm not seeking it out, but I'm just not going to worry about what meat is in my random dishes.

Rice dumplings, made blue by a flower

Chiang Mai sausage, among other things

Anyways, eating!  The first night we were here was Sunday, so we went to the Sunday walking street (a huge market in the middle of the Old City).  We didn't buy any stuff (except 2 pillows to supplement those in our room), but mainly walked around, took it all in, and ate street food.  I love how cheap it all is!  For 120 Baht (about $4), we had popcorn chicken to share and a mango shake, noodles, meat on a stick, and custard tart each.  I posted about this on Facebook, but the contrast in prices between traditional Thai food (especially street food, but even in restaurants) and Western or packaged food is amazing.  A candy bar at the 7-11 costs as much as a bowl of soup.  Even street food snacks have a similar price difference.  A crepe (which I had to have, because Nutella and banana crepes in Thailand?  Yes!) cost about twice as much as mango with sticky rice.

Our breakfast (and toppings in the background)

Sticky rice in natural and 6 other colors!

To continue with the eating theme, this morning we went on a street food tour!  Our guide, Chang, picked us up in the morning for a breakfast and lunch walk.  Breakfast happened at the market, where locals go to buy food each day, both for personal use (at least, the ones who cook at home) and for cooking at restaurants.  You can buy pretty much any food stuff there -- fruits and vegetables of all kind (at least the ones that are available around here, though a few exports for more money), meat (primarily chicken and pork), fish and other aquatic creatures (shrimp, frogs, eel), tofu, noodles of all kinds, rice, and spices.  There are also tons of prepared food stalls where locals eat breakfast.  There's lots on offer: stews and curries, noodle soups, Chiang Mai sausage (made fresh daily with pork, basil, lemongrass, and probably other spices I can't identify), chili paste of all kinds (veg, with chicken, with fish, with pork, with frogs), pork rinds, sticky rice (both sweet and not), pastries, dumplings, and much more.  In addition to being delicious, some of the food is made for prettiness -- one vendor, in particular, makes sticky rice in 6 different colors, all using natural dies from plants and spices!  Our (extremely large) breakfast consisted of sticky rice with spicy chicken salad, pork rinds, Chiang Mai sausage, chili paste for dipping, rice dumplings with onion, pork noodle soup, sticky rice with potato filling, mango with 6 colors of sticky rice, an egg custard, and some other sweet sticky rice thing that I never caught the description of.  Phew!  Also, you can see why I've decided to eat pork for this trip!

All those things in the front are different types of eggplant

As if all that wasn't enough, we walked around for a while and then had lunch!  Lunch was less crazy, but still intense, especially given that it came a few hours after breakfast.  There was chicken khao soi (a traditional Northern Thai dish, consisting of crispy noodles with yellow curry and meat), boiled chicken over rice (better than it sounds, and flavored with a super spicy sauce), fresh coconut ice cream (which I actually liked, despite not liking coconut), and deep fried banana.  After all this, we felt like we had to be rolled back to our hotel!  The guide also talked to us about random things -- both food-related (for example, people here eat every part of the animals, like they do in many non-Western countries) and not (Thais from all over the north come to Chiang Mai because it has the best universities in the area).  He was pretty cool. :)  We liked the tour a lot, and are doing an evening food tour (visiting places outside the Old City) with him next week.

The obligatory book store visit :)

We've also been visiting some wats, both ones that we saw last year and ones that are new to us.  I'm hoping to get to see more of them during our stay, as there are apparently 36 in the Old City alone!  There was a cute but baffling museum in one of them that seemed to be about random kings, not entirely related to the wat itself.  We also went to a used book store (of course we did!).  Tonight, the plan is probably to go to the Night Bazaar, which is a nightly market outside the Old City.  Coming up in the next few days are a general tour (we never did that last time), a cooking class, and a visit to an elephant conservation park!

This is called "stopping relatives from fighting posture."  If I stand like this when family is having an argument, you'll know why.