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On the morning of the 26th (mind you, morning as in 4:30 AM) I realized that my Bangkok escapades the night before were not the wisest. The flight that Jeff, Jason and I took from Bangkok to Chiang Mai coudl have possibly been the worst flight of my life. To begin with, the flight was late. To get to the plan we had to get on a bus and drive to it. We literally drove in a whole circle and ended up 50 yards from the original terminal...for some reason we drove an addtional 10 minutes what could have taken less than a minute. Then on the airplane the intercom was loud and scratchy and gave you that feeling of when nails scraped on a blackboard. All this plus a little drunk/hungover....makes you think about things the next time you have an early flight! Regardless we made it to beautiful Chiang Mai.

My home in the Mountains

Casey Lary
2006-02-20 15:18:35

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was fabulous and some of the best I had in Thailand. I was in love with Chiang Mai.

Due to foul weather we were not able to go on a day trek like planned. We had the option of seeing hilltribes, yet I honestly felt like I had better things to be doing that exploiting hill tribes closest to Chiang Mai. I read in my travel book that the "Long Neck" women of the Karen tribe do not even like to
have the rings around their necks anymore because it basically paralyzes them, yet they will do it in order to receive money through tour companies. Indeed I would love to see some real hill tribes, yet that would have been like a 3 day trek...which I would have LOVED to do...but our "Experience all of Thailand" trip did not give us enough time....gotta leave something to come back to. I did learn an interesting fact. Chico has a huge Hmong population and I never knew exactly where Hmong people were from. Mystery solved- Northern Thailand into Myanmar and Laos! Silly I know, but it made my day. Instead of trekking we wandered the many temples and old part of Chiang Mai. Thailand has the most amazing architecture with vibrant colors. At one of them we went to the "monk chats" next to the temple. They encourage people to talk to the monks and hear about their lives, as they eagerly ask us about our lives. We sat down with this monk named Thiwa. He was the same age as us and was studying for a test he was going to have that afternoon. Coolest part about this monk....he spoke Japanese!

Liz and Leah He had studied Japanese for 4 years! He even game me his meishi! So random and so cool. I also learned (do not worry i did not ask him, i found out through other sources) that monks do NOT wear underwear! Tonight we went to this really cheesy and I would call it very Asian "Simons Famous" drag queen show. The ladyboys are all over Thailand...beware if you pick up someone off the street, you will never know if its a boy or girl! I was definitely amazed that some of them were guys.

The next day we went to a Thai cooking class. I am obsessed with Thai food and learning to cook it was so much fun. First we went to the market, then we cooked coconut soup, red curry, long rice noodles with pork, stir fried veggies, papaya salad, and a banana cake. It was HEAVEN! They gave us a cookbook and substitutes for foods we could not find at home- and an email to contact them with questions which I am not afraid to use. It was sooo much fun and can't wait to try the recipes here in Japan and at home. Afterwards the boys
So much funand I went to get a drink with some of the cooks. I could barely move from the table afterward i was sooo full!

So I am in love with Chiang Mai. I have always been a mountain person over the beach, and on top of that I just loved it there. It seemed big enough that there were plenty of things to do and easy ways to get away from the city, but not the congestion of Bangkok nor overly touristy like parts of Phuket and Koh Samui. Can't wait to come back someday and explore more of Northern Thailand. Next stop...Phuket.

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