New feet

I had a lazy start to the day, mostly due to the fact that I now have internet access in my room, so I can check my email, catch up on news, and whatever right from the comfort of my bed. I actually listened to my favorite Portland radio station, WCLZ, as I was getting ready to go out. I finally grabbed breakfast around 11 or so, a yummy banana pancake and the world's strongest-ever ginger tea. Then I grabbed a sorng-taa-ou, which are these red trucks that are shared taxis, to Chiang Mai University. It's got a beautiful campus, which was really quiet because I think they are between semesters right now. But it was nice to walk around the tree-lined streets, get a view of the mountains in the background, and breathe some fresh air on a warm sunny day. Ahhh...

Afterwards I walked back to the center of town, stopping at several trendy (i.e. expensive) boutiques along the way. It was quite a hike, so I grabbed some food at a vegetarian restaurant before I geared up for the Sunday night market, which spans the entire length of one of the main tourist streets here. It was like the Saturday market, but times a hundred. A little too crowded for me at points, actually, but pretty incredible. There were delicious treats to be had about every ten feet and I did my best to keep up. A few stands were selling my beloved mango sticky rice, so of course I had to have some. Unfortunately the mango was a little underripe... so I had another one at another stand down the road. :) I also had some tasty little coconut cookie-type things, a coconut smoothie, taro ice cream and, just so it wasn't ALL sweets, some rice noodle veggie cakes. I may stay through next weekend in Chiang Mai just to hit this market again. As I was making my back to my guesthouse, I walked by chair after chair filled with tourists getting foot massages. Everyone looked so blissed out, and I had walked so much today, that I decided to join them. Good idea. A half hour foot rub for $2, which left me feeling like I had a new pair of feet and asking myself, why am I not doing this every day??

Tomorrow I'm going to get serious about looking into some of the touristy things I want to do here, namely visiting the Elephant Nature Park where you get to interact with the elephants, NOT ride them, which is not really good for them. Also, there seem to be dozens of cooking schools here, so I need to pick one so I can get my fix of these foods anytime I have a craving in the future. I love Thailand.


Bamboo casting shadows.


Check this out. It's called chow-guai. The sign says it's a jelly that comes from a Chinese plant. They serve it with ice and brown sugar. I might get daring enough to try this next week.