Chiang Mai Thailand: Elephants, Hill Tribes, and Dirty Hippies!:

Wednesday Night, Manila to BKK
We left work a bit early on Wednesday afternoon and ran home, packed, and rushed to the airport for a Lufthansa flight to Bangkok! We basked in the glory of German efficiency (and food) for the 2.5-3 hour flight. We got to Bangkok without a hitch, and caught our transport to our hotel near the airport. By the time we got checked in and whatnot, it was time for bed, so that we could catch our early flight to Chiang Mai the next morning. This is a HIGHLY recommended method of traveling to Chiang Mai from Manila because you otherwise lose a big chunk of your day waiting around in the Domestic Terminal of BKK waiting for your Chiang Mai connecting flight. Though if you ARE stuck there you should eat at the restaurant there nearest the checkin counters. The best Tom Yum Goong I've ever eaten there the last time we went to Phuket.

The most notable chunk of Wednesday night was the massage card in our hotel room. The text explains it all:

Massage: Nobody could quite deny that business fatique is number one problem. Tiresome looks as other sees you is an undeniable shame. So cast away those looks, plunging into the jacuzzi pool in complete privacy is a relaxing treat combined with therapeutic massage would certainly do the trick.

Thursday - Doi Suthep
The flight the next morning went off without a hitch, and we were picked up from the airport by our tour guide (we didn't realize that we had a tour guide, but we rolled with it). He took us to our hotel and wanted us to come right back down after putting our things in our room. We felt as though we were being rushed and were seriously considering cancelling on him. Boy were we glad that we didn't! He took us to Doi Suthep, a buddhist temple just outside and above Chiang Mai on the hillsides surrounding the town. The ride there was wonderful, fresh air and all. We even had to turn off the aircon in the van so that it wouldn't overheat. Riding in a vehicle with the windows open, and feeling a bit of a chill was a welcome experience after the nastiness of Manila day in and day out.

Once we arrived there, we walked up to the temple, just before a huge tour bus disgorged its passengers. We finished our tour before they were all able to invade with any show of force.

An interesting thing happened to Misty here. There are several shrines here, and at least one of them had Chinese Fortune-telling sticks. I think the proper name for them is Chien Tung. Regardelss, the principle behind them is that you think of, or wish for something while shaking the cup containing 70 odd sticks with numbers on them. Well, her number 10 fell out, and it corresponds to a fortune. When we read it we were so taken aback, that I didn't even think about photographing it so that we could get the exact text... Some of you out there know that we plan on adopting a baby girl from China some time the next year or so (after we wade through the mountain of paperwork of course). Anyway, back to the good part of this tangent. Her fortune was freakishly accurate. It said that she loses things valuable all the time (true), and that we were searching for and would find our Chinese girl child. Crazy, huh? The best part about it is that she was thinking about how she wished she could share our travels and adventures with our familes. Maybe someday soon we'll have our own family!

After the temple he took us to a jade factory, and while it was very interesting, the proces were a bit too rich for us. He tried to take us to a craft place right after, but it was nearing noon and we decided that the touristy stuff could most decidely take a hike. I tipped both our guide and driver well, but other than that we didn't see him the rest of the weekend. Though I did have a suit made from a place that he recommended! I'm very happy with the jacket, but the pants are a bit too European cut for my tastes.

The rest of the day we wandered around looking at the town and eating. Unfortunately there's a Starbucks in Chiang Mai now (which we patronized). I'm afraid we've not been too many places where there isn't one. That might be a sad statement about just how wilderness of a place you find yourself in... No Starbucks, officially in the boondocks.

Thursday night - Night Bazaar

Friday - Fishballs and Walking lots of places
I don't remember where we ate that first night, but all day on Friday we ran around and checked stuff out, bought a few statues, etc. We DID find both a great fishballs and noodle place. 30-35 baht for a big bowl of steaming hot soup! Our whole lunch was filling, and delicious for less than $3. We also ate at a little antique shop called Regina's, right on the river. That was pleasant after so much walking. I bought 3 kilos of limes, and they gave me a knife and cutting board so that we could make our own lime sodas.

We hung out at a blues bar Friday night, and ate Falafel ate an Isreali expat's place. The food there was right up our alley.

Saturday: Elephants and filthy, dirty hippies