Damn Roosters

The roosters are still waking us up at 4:50am every morning and that is how our day started. Gary, Dave and I headed into Bo Sang which, is better known as the umbrella town. There are many, many, many little shops selling trinkets of every type for the avid tourist. The umbrella factory is located downtown where an assembly line of busy workers take part in different areas of creation. The painters are not busy enough not to stop and offer to paint anything you are wearing or holding. We had our cell phone painted for 50 Baht.

Outside of Bo Sang we stopped for a lunch where the family grew everything they served. We waited until it was time to meet up with a friend of Gary and Somsee's. She is a tour guide and took us up the mountain to Doi Suthep. This is the temple at the top of the mountain, it is truly spectacular. The view of Chiang Mai was incredible from the top.

After the temple we went for dinner, Dave and I were not hungry at all. However, we thought that wherever we went we'd order a soup...or we could go to a buffet. Our guide, her driver and Somsee decided on a giant Korean style eating hall, you cook your food yourself over coals and a dish of water. It's hard to explain, but you BBQ your fish/meats and boil herbs and vegetables in the water below creating a broth. This is as authentic as it gets, not a single other person of the 600 in there was a foreigner.



All in all, tourism was a success. We only counted 3 other people with the same Lonely Planet book as us. Of course we didn't have ours pulled open out on a street corner, but I'm sure that will happen when we don't have Gary and Somsee.

Splashback...

I've got to say, I'm not entirely sure I'm a big fan of Thai toilets. I had been warned and yet I was not prepared for how truly disturbing the communal "ass bar" was. Yes, you read correctly, people share a bar of soap to clean their butthole. There's really no eloquent way to say it. Another thing, unless you are a Thai woman with uncanny flexibility, it is impossible to squat over a toilet hole without splashback and then trying to grab the cleaning hose from the squatting position??? My father-in-law has informed me that he knows too much about me now.





Dave and I spent a relaxing day in Chiang Mai, in and out of Somsee's salon. I was lucky enough to cash in on some free treatments. Dave and Gary took off for a pub called "Mad Dog". We spent some time in the largest and most organized mall I've ever seen called Airport Plaza. Dave and I walked down the street from the salon and found Wat Chedi Luang. This temple complex dates back from 1441, now in partial ruins. Inside this complex is a small community of people and rescued dogs cared for by the monks, who also look after the temple. An interesting game with a 2 teams of 3, a badminton net and a hackysack was taking place here which, a monk informed us was called "original football". It seems to be played like volleyball, but only soccer/football type moves are allowed. After Somsee finished work we headed off to the Anusan Night Market to get some food. This market is best known for its seafood, but a traditional Thai dance performance and the lively atmosphere really made it worthwhile. Off to bed, still suffering some jet lag. Below is a photo of Wat Chedi Luang with mountains in the background.

Sawadee Thailand!

I like this language, your grammar doesn't have to be perfect for sentences to make sense. We are at last in Chiang Mai which, if you don't know is in the northern part of Thailand. We flew from LAX to Bangkok for 18 hours with fully reclining seats, 3 huge meals and every amenity you could possibly want. Dave was " meal raped " once, this is where the flight attendent doesn't give you time to wake up but simply pulls out you tray and gives you food before you know what's happened.
Gary and Somsee were waiting for us at the airport and took us to their home just outside of the city. There are 5 dogs living here: Pepsi, Fanta, Cola, Mi and Soda who is the new edition. The house is very nice despite the presence of a 10 inch millipede which, Somsee promptly killed. We just got back from a restaurant called, Johnny Walker's where fried crickets and serpents are a part of the menu. There's a huge party going on down the road, but it's time for rest and relaxation.

Day 1: Welcome to LA!

At present, we are waiting to board the Thai Air flight to Bangkok at LAX. It has been such a long day, but we've caught our second wind. It took all of 15 seconds for us to find the free alcohol in the Thai Air business class lounge. Check.

On our 10 hours layover in LA we toured Manhatten beach and did some shopping. The shopping was for my benefit of hearing Dave say..." do you know how much this will cost in Chiang Mai?" Needless to say, nothing was purchased. The Manhatten beach neighbourhood is very pretty, where laneways sepearate uniquely designed homes with well manicured, postage stamp sized gardens.

Making the Rounds!

Computer literacy at last! Dave will mock my efforts to no end, apparently I need to acquire scripting skills to design a unique website...otherwise, this is what you get. We're in Peterborough right now visiting Dave's Mom. Tomorrow night we'll head down to Whitby to stay with my parents. We'll be staying there until Friday at which point we're off to Etobicoke for our final stop at Dave's Grandparents' house. We leave Monday morning (26th!) for LA and make it to Bangkok by the 28th.