Phil and Julia Tackle the Globe: Livin the Sabai Life

My first entry!

We got to Chiang Mai fine yesterday despite some "accidents" along the railroad that delayed us two hours. Never found out what that meant, lost in translation. The train ride went quickly, didn't seem like 12 hours at all because we got on at 9 PM and slept through the night and got up for breakfast the next day. I slept on the top bunk of the train beds, so I woke up a lot getting tossed around fearing I would fall off the top bunk. We decided to stay at a guest house the first night so we could get acquainted with Chiang Mai again. The place we're staying in is 250 Baht a day total, 125 each. We figured it out and if we decided to stay there for a month that would be about $106 a person for the month or about $3.50 a day. Not bad. It feels great to be back in Chiang Mai.

Yesterday we met up with my old friend Som who worked with my abroad program two years ago. We quickly caught up and the three of us found ourselves on a red truck taxi to the Chiang Mai Zoo and Aquarium where her friend works. For some reason Thai people treat their guests incredibly well and she paid for everything despite our insisting. The aquarium was amazing, where her friend, Nan worked and got us in for free. We saw feeding shows and there is the lonest under water tunnel in SE Asia there. It really was unique how the most tropical fish in the world were right on top of us eating and Nan's boyfriend was in the water feeding the rays and sharks and gigantic groupers the whole time. Don't take this the wrong way but I kept thinking how good that huge grouper would taste. It was at least 80 to 120 pounds. We also went to the panda house where the first ever panda baby to be born in Thailand lives. Things got awkward when this baby was born because the parent pandas are on loan from China, but the baby was born here and the Thais have been nursing it here, so they are trying to figure out to whom it belongs. Of course my favorite part of the zoo was the non-caged gibbon area, where a bunch of gibbons just seem to play all day swinging and jumping on tree limbs 40+ feet in the air. Made me jealous. There is no cage or fence around them, but there is a 10-12 ft wide moat keeping them from crossing.. they have the most incredible strength but can't swim i guess.

Som and Julia at the panda nap show

During the feeding. The feeder threw up the peace sign through the glass in the tank.

Me, Som, Julia at CM Zoo

After the zoo, Som, Julia and I went to the Walking Street market. It's famous in Thailand for being just about 4 or 5 square blocks (very large blocks) of street vendors selling arts and crafts, food, shoes, jewelry, clothing, cloths that go on anything, old musicians, young musicians, blind musicians, instruments, pretty much anything. If it were possible to bring back a lot you could get something at every table. Another friend of mine, a really nice guy who recently spent three months in a temple meditating and not talking to anyone because of relationship issues, met up with us. We ate the best Pad Thai in Thailand, I'm convinced, had the best watermelon shakes, incredible spring rolls, and a fresh chocolate chip waffle topped with coconut ice cream on top for dessert. Just tryin to watch my figure. I usually try not to get Pad Thai very much as it's kind of the "foreigner food" and I thought Thai people also don't like it, but they all liked this one vendor, apparently the only one from which Som and friends eat. It was the same guy making the Pad Thai as two years ago in the same little corner of this gigantic market right next to the same fruit shake vendor as two years ago. Good to see nothing has changed besides the wireless internet connections and the bootleg dvds (I bought the entire Planet Earth series for $9, a $115 value in the states!!).

Julia and I went for a jalk this morning, big Flip style, convinced it was just a muscle and joint warm up for getting in shape later. Now we're trying to get jobs. Just applied for an English teaching position. We would really like to be in Chiang Mai for the majority of the time in Thailand. The temperature is bearable (I think saw a goose bump this morning...), the people are waaay more relaxed than Bangkok, it's cheaper, and there's a ton more to do than Ayutthaya, the entirety of which we saw from rented bikes in about 5 hours. That bike rental process was the most relaxed I've ever seen...no deposits, pay your 50 baht ($1.25) when you get back at night. Anyway, gotta start emailing everyone I know and looking up more volunteer/teaching positions. One of my friends from ISDSI is here as well; she's leading backpacking trips to Karen villages. Hopefully I can find something in the health field, but probably won't get paid that way. Housekeeping?

Dinner tonight at my favorite all you can eat Thai buffet (puts Golden Corral to shame) with the same friends from last night. They saw two Americans coming in and started making jokes on the comedy stage. That's the real reason I want to get fluent, so I can understand what they're saying right in front of us. Probably "Ooh, foreigners! Bring out more food!" We lit a couple traditional Loy Krathong hot air balloons equipped with green fireworks on top of a bridge and made a wish that we'd get a job. Tomorrow we'll head to my host family's house to meet the new baby and stay for a few days (but just got an email for an interview on Wednesday morning!)