Ali doesn't think I'm special

Ali doesn't think I'm special.

She knows it. 

If you saw Ali in this pose on Facebook, now you know why I wasn't in the picture.

Chang Mai!

Chang Mai is a popular destination for westerners, Chinese, and domestic tourists to explore Thailand's outdoors. There's a nice whiff of granola culture in the air as you browse all types of woven goods, crafts, and Bob Marley shirts in the Sunday night market.

You can pick up some real handy pants to put on the next day when you visit the local temples (a few require pants, all require no shoes).

Thai architecture is very ornate. They'll decorate anything and everything.

When you're done visiting the sites you can get a fruit and ice blend anywhere. Our guide's favorite restaurant was Whole Earth so we stopped there. They had Thai and Indian food which we found at lot of places.

After a great meal we saw a great sunset. Chang Mai has all of the natural beauty that you miss in the Bangkok streets.

Our next meal we cooked ourselves with a little help from our teacher at Asia Scenic cooking school. They took us to the market and told us all about the ingredients we would be using (still not sure what pig face is used in, we didn't see any here).

While we were at the market, I figured out how to tell who's who in Chang Mai. Apparently, all you have to do is look at the pants.

Ali talks about how she must have rabies now (she doesn't) because she couldn't resist petting this guy who didn't bite or scratch her.

Turns out that little guy was not on the menu. Thai people don't eat dogs. They told me that is more common in some Korean and Chinese cultures. Ali stuck with chicken in her pad Thai and khao soi.

 Everyone made their own dishes except for the spring roll filling. I volunteered Ali to be master chef so she got to make it for everyone that chose those. I made green curry for myself. The Thai chef sad it was spicier than she liked it and wished me good luck with the elephants tomorrow. This was the first time I have had my stomach ache from spicy the next morning.

Here's a picture of me the next morning.

But I felt great after breakfast and this city is all about the outdoors. That means we were off to see the elephants. On the way out to the country you see the mahouts carrying metal picks like these as they ride the elephants.

That's about the time you'll start feeling good about going to the sanctuary where you just feed and bathe saved "Eles" (el-ees).

Oh and you gotta hug 'em too.

Below is Ali's fav Ele, Meadow. She had her hip broken when her owner tried to mate her (bound) with a bull elephant that was too big for her. A lot of the eles have sad stories before they came to the happy elephant home. The Elephant Nature Park has rescued 38 elephants and you can google them to find out just how super cool they are.

This 10 month old baby spotted me from a few strides away and came over and grabbed my hand. 

The next day we were going biking around suburban and rural southeast Chang Mai. I was going to wear the same shirt for a fourth day, I'm not sure why I didn't. 

We visited an elementary school for low income families and refugees (mostly from Burma). The kids were all really friendly, a gang of kids came up and shook my hand and said "nice to meet you" one by one before I could take off my shoes. I captured a video of a line of them giving me high fives but alas I don't know how to post video here. It's on Facebook. Ali made friends too.

Chiang Mai was our favorite spot with our favorite happenings so far. Now for some quiet island time....

A Few Tranquil Days in Bangkok

There's an upside to being a tourist in a country with civil unrest. And that is empty hotels with cheap upgrades. $50 extra put us in 650 sq ft, on the 56th flr, with free breakfast, tea time and happy hour, and this balcony with this sunrise. 

Oh and these guys were two doors down.

Culture shock was also included in our stay. We had a tour on our first full day and our guide, Nang eased us into it. We drove straight out of the city to a salt farm where  the litter was sparse (for Bangkok) and I practiced timing my blinks. I'm still practicing.

Then we drove farther out to the floating market. 

We had a good old time at the floating market. We paddled around, saw coconut sugar being made, drank coconut, ate all types of local fruit, and Ali bought a Hanoi rice hat (think Rambo II... not Thai at all). Mickey Mouse would fit in great at the floating market, but it's not the most authentic local experience. Then we went to the Train Market and saw a rat big enough to eat Mickey's babies. Oh and we saw Porky.

This was one of the more appetizing meats for sale. I'll stick with the vegetarian options thank you.

Overall, I loved the train market. Ali wanted to barf a couple times. We're both glad we visited it. There were only two Gringos there and one of them may have also been a Vietnamese rice farmer.

Above was taken right after a train had passed through. The train passes over the goods on the ground and canapies are pulled back, moments before and after it looked more like this, though this is at the far end. It is much more cluttered looking the other way.

Then we saw the King's beautiful grand palace and took a bazillion photos. 

Thai people like their gold.

The demons in the picture below are actually guardians that face towards whatever it is they are protecting. Thai Buddhism uses many Hindi myths in there religion. In these myths the demons were bad but after they heard about Buddha they said "Buddha, broster, I'm with ya dude." So they show that people can change and we must guard against ourselves. 

We hopped on the Buddha bandwagon and made a wish and stuck a piece of gold leaf to Buddha.

We saw gold leaf stuck to all types of things. Even the inside of tuk tuks like this one.

We also got around on the sky train, which is exactly what it sounds like, a subway above street level.

We only saw protesters a few times. We walked across a bridge over this camp outside a mall near the National Stadium.

We checked out another mall, Terminal 21 for a little taste of the states.

And a real taste of the states.

And you gotta stop to smell the lotus flowers.

I think Ali looks pretty in that picture. Ali told me she thought I looked my best in this picture.