Chiang Mai and Cultural Thai

After several more hours by bus we are now in Chiang Mai.  Varying from our usual routine of checking out every guesthouse in town before deciding where to stay, we picked the first one we came to.  It may not be the best one in town or the best one we've ever stayed at but the price is reasonable, it's clean and the bed is comfortable enough.  Done and done!

We arrived early yesterday evening and got going almost right away.  We walked into the old city (a minute or two away) for lunch/dinner, a game of pool (I think Darren's been suffering withdrawl), and then it was off to the Sunday Night Market (of course).  It was actually one of the better markets we've been too in a while, not only because of the variety and reasonable prices, but beause it's a local art and crafts market.  Some of the stuff was pretty basic, scarves, t-shirts, and local, traditional clothing; but, they also had some cool stuff like hand made lamp shades, hand painted book marks, hand-made jewellery, paintings, photos, wooden carvings, etc.  It was refreshingly different and very colourful.  There was food of course!  Everything from local snacks and deserts- calamari, sticky rice, pad thai, sticky rice with mangos and sweet milk, fried chicken, etc- to other cuisines such as sushi, cakes and pastries!  We were really enjoying ourselves just walking amidst the stalls and snacking on the various foods when it started to rain.  That literally put a bit of a damper on our night because it was raining quite profusely.  We came back to our guesthouse to dry up and rest a bit and once the rain let up we tried to go back.  A lot of people had packed up for the night which was unfortunate (welcome to the rainy season I suppose), but we managed to find some of that good ol' banana roti and Darren found some sumai (dim sum).  We finished the night off by sharing a pizza and watching some soccer at one of the local sports/pub joints before calling it a night.

Today was just a planning day.  There's quite a bit we want to do here and it was all just a matter of figuring out what day and which organization, at least until we got to talking to some of the other guests.  There is an agency/organization stationed here at our guesthouse who runs jungle treks.  Let it be known that EVERYONE in town "organizes" jungle treks-every restaurant, book store, mini mart, you name it and they'll organzie a trek for you.  However, according to the guide here the other shops don't acutally "organize" they treks themselves, they just sell them to you and you join the other twenty people who have signed up for the same tour.  Anyway, the other guests that we got talking to had just gotten back from a jungle trek with this company and had nothing but amazing things to say about it.  From what we gather, aside from the difference in price (five times more than the other ones :S), this trek not only takes you hiking through the jungle but the guides teach you about the plants and the animals, everyone in the group participates in cooking the meals, and you stay in hill tribes and participate in their daily lives as well.  There's a lot more that goes on as well, but I'll save that for after we actually do it.  The people we talked to loved it so much that we pursuaded ourselves to join.

The next week is going to be a busy one.  Tomorrow we're going to the Tiger Kingdom, the next day we leave for 3 days and 2 nights into the jungle and minority villages, the night we get back we're going to watch some real Muay Thai, then it's a Thai cooking course for me, and we're down the river to Chiang Rai.  The next week should be pretty exciting with plenty to tell you all about if anyone is actually reading this anymore!  Hope you're all well!