chiang mai

dan "patiently" waits for the train to get moving from our stall in the countryside

after a 17 hour overnight train ride, and our overwhelming experiences in bangkok, you might imagine how happy we were to get to chiang mai, a city in northern thailand. at the train station only about 10 taxi drivers were there to meet us, and we were able to secure a ride in a songtao with a very nice man named tom. he didn't speak much english, but he had a book of letters in his cab that recommended him as a driver. the reviews were glowing and the price was good so we headed into town with tom. we might head out of town with him tomorrow to get to the elephant park, but that's still in the works.

chiang mai is a very managable city with a moat surrounding the old city. our hotel is a great little find tucked away by one of the gates of the moat. this four story walk up doesn't have a pool, which i could use right now, but it does have charm. the english couple who own the place have made our stay very comfortable without being intrusive, and we had a lot of fun talking with the receptionists, one of whom is very attached to her thai soap operas.

since chiang mai felt so much more welcoming we relaxed, dan by checking his email and me by getting a thai massage. the massage was not really relaxing - in fact it was crazy! i didn't even know my body could stretch into positions like that, and i've done yoga for many years now. pon, my massage therapist, was a vibrant and lovely woman who energetically walked all over my back, swung me in the air, and told me her life story all at once. after 'relaxing' we headed for the giant night market. here we engaged in some vigorous bartering (more dan than me) and ended up with some fun things and a great experience.

one stall was manned by a smiling little girl of about 8 or 9. she saw me looking at her wares and immediately engaged us just like the adults do. 'you like? i give good price!' she punched a number into her calculator and showed it to us. dan and i laughed out loud at her ability to parrot so beautifully but i think she thought we were laughing at the price so she said 'i give you discount!' too fun. of course we ended up buying from her, and she probably got way more out of us than another vendor. we went back to take her picture because we were so smitten with her. she was off having an ice cream at the 7-11 but her parents were very proud of her to have made such a good impression on us and to have made a great sale that they went to get her. we posed for a picture and i thanked her in the chiang mai dialect. she let out a precious little surprised giggle. it was a great night.

thailand's number one saleswoman - under 10 category

today we attended a day-long thai cooking class which started by either learning to make curry pastes or going to the market to learn about local fresh ingredients. dan and i opted for the market since we've made curry pastes before. there we met a funny old man with a long white beard and very few teeth. he was selling spices and would have us sniff an unmarked bag and then guess the spice. it was tough since i'm not that familiar with dried galangal or cardamom pods, but it was fun. then back at the school we cooked on open-air propane stoves with the ingredients from the market and the pastes made by our classmates. we made five entrees and a dessert! i'm stuffed.

working the wok in class

chiang mai is turning out to be just what i had hoped from thailand. bangkok was what i expected, but chiang mai is much more my speed. our fellow cooking classmates all felt the same. in fact another american couple, USAFA grads for you CO folks, were also taken in on a tuk tuk scam in bangkok. everyone had a story about getting ripped off or driven around in circles for hours. it was comforting to know we weren't the only ones who fell for it. apparently american cooking class going types are particularly gullible folks. i'm okay with that. (just to be clear - i love tuk tuks, we take them all the time - the problem is not inherent to tuk tuks but to selected bangkok tuk tuk drivers.)

tomorrow - elephant rehabilitation. then we're off to angkor wat, where we hope to meet up with bernadette and our cooking classmates again. for now i'm off to find more silk and a suitcase to bring it all home in.