happy chinese new year

We have now arrived in chiang mai in northern Thailand, the second largest city after Bangkok of about 250,000. Like in Bangkok, everyone is so nice and cheerful and people are greeted with a smile and bow. For $35 a night we are staying in a quaint guesthouse with orchids on our balcony and a view of the gardens, pool and river. They serve American breakfast and we never thought a piece of toast would taste so good!

We rented motorcycles for a large sum of $6 a day and saw how the town goes from historic old town area to more stylish trendy area to free range cattle in a matter of three blocks. Chiang mai is much nicer than Bangkok though, but still somewhat chaotic with the motorcycles racing around. there continues to be no shortage of massage parlors where you can also check your email and get your laundry done for you while having your feet massaged all at the same time, again for about $6 total. Happy endings are optional.

Similarly, we found out you can also go to the local women’s jail where the inmates are learning the art of massage and two hours will cost you about $4 for the top criminal masseuse to save you a couple baht.

Dinner in chiang mai involved some more questionable ‘meat’ in noodles although the thai man covering james taylor was very entertaining. We also found a german brewhouse where the thai woman out front is actually costumed in leiderhosen drinking from a big stein, still speaking Thai.

Day two we went up into the bamboo forests in the hills for a day trek. We actually got to ride elephants down the river then trek through the forest to a waterfall pool swimming around to cool off. One of the couples that we were with didn’t seem to be getting along very well, and he apparently decided to end it on the oxcart ride and broke it off. Oh boy. This made for a very long and dramatic ride down the river, but it was still a nice ride on the bamboo raft. Fortunately tourism still has a strong hold in the jungle and a man floating his raft down the river sold us a few beers to soften the blow.

There are tons of night markets with rows after rows of fake handbags and bootleg dvds with of course more delicacies like friend worms and steamed frogs. Mike’s worms were a little burnt but found the mussel sauce more enjoyable. And nothing tops of the delicacies like another foot massage, twice in one day is just right.

Happy Chinese New Year! Maisie and Ryan invited us over to the state deparment compound where they all live in mansions with maids and everything. Ryan barbequed some GREAT burgers, we couldn’t believe that we were actually seeing pasta salad and brownies! I guess we have really become accustomed to shrimp flavored potato chips and fried eggs on EVERYTHING. Which reminds me that in Thailand, the Americano pizza includes an egg overeasy smack dab in the middle of the pizza (mayonnaise is optional). Which Americans are eating their pizza like this?

So now we are off to Kho Samui and the beach islands for some rest and relaxaton.