Life Flies By.

I wrote this while sitting in an airport about a month ago, and realized I never posted it! It was a bit of rambling, but I may as well let you read it :-)

As a kid, adults are always saying that to you. Enjoy your youth, because soon you’ll be old like me and you won’t know where the time has gone! As a child, you smile, roll your eyes and think “ha, they’re just upset because they’re old”. As I get older, I can’t help but think that I agree! Days go by quickly, weeks go by faster, and after I blink, it’s another new year. I think some of the perception of time flying by is keeping my time filled. I think being busy, working hard, and staying excited about different things in life certainly makes time fly. The saying “time flies when you’re having fun” didn’t come from nowhere. The few days that I don’t have much to do at work, or a weekend day that I have no plans seem to drag on to no end, but the other 99 days out of 100, are gone before I know it.

It’s not really a complaint, but more of an observation. I love my life, and I feel like I’ve been doing as much with my time as I could ever expect. Of course, my personality of trying to be “the best” at everything certainly doesn’t help with taking “me time” and relaxing. I’d much rather work on doing something better than I already do. It doesn’t hurt if I enjoy what I’m doing at the same time. Keeping up with my dancing, and always trying to improve; ensuring I take care of myself, my family, my house, my car, and my job is always a daunting task. Some easier than others. Once in a while, I spend a few days catching up on this and feel incredible the after that. You know, the day you go to a physical, get your teeth cleaned, your oil changed, and then cook dinner for your family – it’s like you spent one day and caught up on everything you wanted to do. I need those days more often, but I think that at this point in my life, I am just not willing to give up the selfish nature of what I like to do already – spend my times dancing and with my friends.

16 things...

I was "tagged" by Jodie, and learned all sorts of interesting things about her, so maybe it'll work where I can learn more about you :-). Reminds me of the old chain letters, but figured I have fun reading them, so I'm sure I'd have fun writing them.

Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 16 random things, facts, habits or goals about you. At the end choose 16 people to be tagged. You have to tag the person who tagged you. (this is being posted to Facebook for this purpose)

1. Growing up, I was the "athlete" in my family, doing all sorts of sports – Baseball, Gymnastics, Volleyball, Track…I was always the only girl on my baseball team, but I kind of liked it that way.

2. I love junk food. I try really really hard to not eat it all the time, but I LOVE it. I rationalize eating it by dancing a lot and running as often as possible. I try to laugh a lot too. I hear it's good for the abs :-)

3. I have a very "engineery" personality and am kind of a control freak. I am not sure what that means, but I know I function differently than most people I know, I like to do things my way, and often I think about things differently. I wrote a whole blog about it once here: http://belanaomi.blogspot.com/2007/11/i-are-engineer.html

4. I have more clothes than most people I know, but am far less fashionable than many of them. I just love certain things (corduroys, knee length dresses, fun sneakers, sweaters) and when I find new things that meet my criterion, I buy them. However, of every 10 things I buy, I buy 9 with a coupon or on sale. Otherwise I rationalize myself out of it as quickly as I'd originally convinced myself to buy it. Meanwhile, I HATE shopping, and can't do it for long.

5. I am one who is quick to make new friends, but often don't become close to them until later. I've never really had a "best friend" for everything, but instead a ton of other great friends who fill different roles depending on the situation. Sometimes I wish I had that one friend that was inseparable from me, but oh well.

6. I have a really hard time saying no. Especially if I think that something will not happen without my help. I am much better at staying completely out of something if I don't have time for it since otherwise I will end up taking up more tasks than I'd initially intended (see the control freak comment earlier), and then secretly be miserable about it.

7. I run into people I know everywhere. No joke. Every country I've visited, I've run into people I know. Argentina, Spain, Thailand, Germany, Sweden, Austria, Israel, Italy, Mexico, cruises…Other people also tell me that they run into people I know. It is very crazy, but it's true.

8. Speaking of which, I LOVE to travel. For work, I "travel" a lot to small towns to visit sites, and for dancing I sometimes (though not often) travel to dance. But I love going to new and interesting places for my vacations. I try to get out of the country at least once a year if I can pull it off. I do however try to avoid organized trips and tours, and experience as much as possible on my own or with a friend or two.

9. My job is pretty cool. For those who don't know, I design manufacturing and distribution lines for food, beverage, and consumer products companies. The brands/companies I've worked with are: Kimberly-Clark, Gallo Wines, Edy's/Dreyer's/ HaagenDazs Ice cream, Snack Factory pretzels, General Mills/Yoplait Yogurt, Gatorade, and a few others spattered along the way. I love my job, but as is true with probably any job, I sometimes dream bigger. For now though, I am just too lazy to act bigger.

10. My entire family lives in Atlanta. I have a little sister, an older brother, and an older sister who is married and has a 2-year-old baby. We get together nearly every Friday night for Sabbath dinner, and although it is partially a religious gathering, it is also a great excuse to guarantee seeing the whole family on a regular basis.

11. I bought a house as soon as I could after college, and living with roommates helps pay for it. I can't stop planning on upgrades to it though, and wonder when I should stop planning since I probably won't be in this house forever. I do however LOVE my house, and love being home and hosting gatherings as often as possible.

12. I have strange dreams, and sometimes remember to write them down. I dream a lot, but mostly right when I go to sleep and right when I am "waking up" (after the alarm has gone off but before I'm awake). If I am woken up at this point, I can usually remember my dreams. Many times I don't blog my dreams though because they are a bit to embarrassing to share to the world. I haven't posted them in a while, but here's where they go when I remember: BelaNaomiDreams.blogspot.com

13. My mom is a musician, and teaches violin as a career. She started all of us kids playing violin at age three, and we all continued through college. As a matter of fact, I minored in music in school, even though most people don't know that. Lately I miss playing, and keep saying I'll play more. I haven't followed through, but need to.

14. I took a lot of crap in college (and still now) about wanting to marry someone Jewish (doesn't matter if they were born Jewish or converted). All I know is that I want to raise my children Jewish, and commitment to raise kids by any guidelines, be it religious or anything else, takes participation from both parents to enforce. I would never ask someone to convert, because years later, I wouldn't want anyone to blame me for a decision. If they did it on their own though, I'd have no problem dating them.

15. Weird things I can't control: I have different colored eyes. When I get stressed out or am really tired, I have problems breathing, I subconsciously pull out my eyebrows and eyelashes, or scratch my head. I am really really ticklish. My older sister doesn't remember this, but she used to tickle me until I'd cry to stop. I am still just as ticklish.

16. I was a very shy child. I always was (and still often am) intimidated by people who I think are "better" than I. Better can be defined as anything in the world that at that moment seems important for comparison. For many years, pretty much all through preschool, elementary school, and middle school, I was even considered "the shy kid". Yup. Believe it. My dad has it on video.

Poems

Josh sent this via email today, and I too, laughed out loud. Enjoy!

A WOMAN'S POEM:

Before I lay me down to sleep,
I pray for a man, who's not a creep,
One who's handsome, smart, and strong.
One who loves to listen long,
One who thinks before he speaks,
One who'll call, not wait for weeks.
I pray he's gainfully employed,
When I spend his cash, won't be annoyed.
Pulls out my chair and opens my door.
Massages my back and begs to do more.
Oh! Send me a man who'll make love to my mind,
Knows what to answer to 'how big is my behind?'
I pray that this man will love me to no end,
And always be my very best friend.

A MAN'S POEM:

I pray for a deaf-mute gymnast nymphomaniac with
huge boobs and a nice butt who owns a bar on a golf course,
and loves to send me fishing and drinking. This
doesn't rhyme and I don't give a shit.

Wordle

It's interesting how un-interesting the wordle of my 5 years of blogs is:

Pensacola goodness.

I needed that. Although I'd been on "vacation" earlier this summer on my trip to Thailand, it was only a vacation from work, not a vacation from doing stuff. I took advantage this past weekend to go down to sunny Florida and hit the beach. A couple months ago, I had been talking with my friend Alan, and we both said it'd be fun to go to the beach. We picked a weekend we were both free (which didn't happen until 2 months later), and began some planning. It turned out that it was us and 6 others (Julia, Jaime, Bonnie, Nick, Adam and Matthew) - a total of 8 people from Atlanta, and we decided to go down to Pensacola.

Many times when events happen in Atlanta, we host out-of-towners in our homes, and a few times, Phillip and Ashley from Navarre (near Pensacola) FL had stayed at my house. They kept offering that I should come down and visit and they'd take me to the beach, so I figured I'd take them up on it. They were awesome and lived up to and then exceeded all our expectations.

Our car arrived on Friday evening, and we did the required meal at McGuire's Irish Pub - where there was a bagpiper, 18 cent bean soup, and cheap drinks. We started off the weekend having fun there, and it did not stop until we went to sleep at our own homes after arriving back in Atlanta. From the pub, we went to the Pensacola weekly swing dance. I did not start dancing until after the swing craze in the late 90's, but Nick was around then, and he said being at this dance was like going back in time. First off, the average age was much younger than our dances. Our dances consist of mostly 20's & 30's young professionals and students. However, the people attending this dance seemed to mostly be in high school with a spattering of college/older people around. After honing and refining our music tastes in Atlanta to what we thing is the greatest types of music to dance to, our ears bled with the rockabilly, neo-swing music they played at the dance. Ashley and the other few P-cola lindy hop dancers that were there kept apologizing for the music and the other dancers, but to us, it was quite the experience! The energy of these kids was amazing, and it was my first time being on a social dance floor where aerials were permitted! At 10:30 on the mark, there was a jam circle. Most cities form impromptu jam-circles when there's a pretty fast song on, someone starts clapping, and immediately, a circle forms, and couples trade off the spotlight showing their best moves. While this circle wasn't impromptu, it certainly had everyone showing their best moves. The kids would go in and trade of showing their best aerials and jumps, and then leave the middle. I'd never seen so many aerials in one night. A few of us even went into the middle of the circle, but it was a far cry from the showy aerials they were doing. By the end of the night, we were exhausted. We headed back to P&A's house to go to sleep, but we were so riled up, we ended up talking until 3 am.

In the morning we got up after Matthew had already returned from a 15 mile run. Alan and I went out for a 3 mile run, but it was not comparable to matt's run - however it was much hotter outside at that point. After everyone was up and dressed, and alan had made a wal-mart run to get enough gatorade and water to last the weekend, we headed to the beach. We could not have asked for a more gorgeous day on the beach. The water was beautifully clear, the weather was warm, there was a nice breeze, and we were with awesome people. Other than Phillip and Ashley, and the 8 of us from Atlanta, we were joined by Becca, Hilary and Leslie - 3 of the pensacola dancers. We spent the whole afternoon out on the beach, and Phillip gave us surfing lessons. Nick, Jaime and I all tried our hand at surfing for the first time and had a blast. We spent the rest of the time that day swimming, throwing the frisbee, playing paddle ball, sitting on the sand, and taking walks. It was sad to leave the beach that day, but at least we had another day to return!

We got back to the house to shower and get ready to go out for the evening. Alan wanted to make us promise that if we went out dancing, that none of us would Lindy hop. Booty dancing only. Of course, no one promised. Adam and others feasted on ice cream, M&Ms and Julia's amazing homemade pecan pie - dessert before dinner. We hit up Cocodries - a restaurant on the beach for dinner, and Bonnie and I shared a dish. I think a lot of people shared since the dished were pretty big! We surprised Alan and Adam with some man-killer cupcakes for dessert since Alan's birthday was in 2 days, and Adam's in a week.

Then it was time to hit the town. We drove to Pensacola, and Matt was already falling asleep. After meeting up with the 3 p-cola girls again, we went to flounders and most of us each got a "Diesel Fuel". Matt woke up and joined the party for the rest of the evening. This is basically a mixed drink in a huge jar, and you get to keep the jar, but the drink is only $8. In Atlanta, I would guess a drink like that'd be around $20. minimum. We couldn't seem to find a place on the boardwalk that we really liked, so we went from bar to bar, each for a short amount of time. We ended the night at Bamboo Willies, which I think we agreed had the best music that was fun to dance to. The bars were getting ready to shut down and so were we. Time to head home.

The next day, Nick and Bonnie had to leave early, but the rest of us hit the beach again. Phillip used the second day to teach the boys how to work the kite so that one day they could go kite surfing. After getting over the fact that they had to all hold onto each other, they made it sound "cool" by calling it the "diamond formation", and they were out on the water at least an hour practicing. Jaime gave it a try too, and the kite literally pulled her out of the water since she was so light!

We went back around 3:00 to have a delicious homemade spaghetti lunch cooked by Ashley, and then after showering, packing, and saying our goodbyes, headed home. The trip that should've been uneventful ended up taking longer than expected, and included some interesting conversation, a malfunctioning door, and a cracked windshield. We finally made it to Alan's house around midnight, and wished him a happy birthday before all heading home to crash into bed.

Thanks to everyone that made this weekend so amazing! we'll call this the first ANNUAL Pensacola Beach vacation trip. Oh, and if you want to see photos, Most of them are posted here, and there are some on Facebook

My life in July.

I have been keeping a list of a ton of things I want to write about, yet haven't had the time over the last few weeks to write! It's amazing that I feel compelled to write every couple days when I travel, but when I'm home I slack off for weeks at a time. I guess life doesn't get in the way as much when you're traveling.

First off, I want to give a shout out to Josh, who I was finally able to talk to on the phone!! Josh is currently serving in Iraq, and although I try not to pry too much to find out what exactly he is doing, I do know that he is flying his Cobra and saving lives. I'd missed his call twice over the last few months, but this time I happened to be awake in the Tulsa airport at 5:45 am when I finally got to talk to him. It's a funny thing, trying to think of what to say when you don't have the chance to talk to someone often. I felt like I needed to ration my words and really only say what's important. It was a funny feeling.

Since my last post, I hosted my second annual summer party. About 50 people showed up to swim, drink, play pool volleyball, grill out, and just plain enjoy themselves. I had a great time, and always hope that hosting parties allows others to do the same, and maybe meet some new people along the way :-)

Because my trip to Thailand, fun as it was, wasn't as relaxing as a vacation should be, this weekend 7 friends and I are driving to the Florida panhandle to do a bit of dancing and a lot of beaching. I have been looking forward to it for weeks, and can't wait.

Sooo, in the Lindy Hop world, it seems that West Coast Swing is seen as the enemy. The Dark Side, the ...well you get the idea. I had never been westie dancing, so about a month ago I found out Alan was DJing, so I went out for a whirl. I had a good time, but it was definitely not my style. I heard Alan was supposed to be "the best of the westie DJs", so I decided not to go back unless Alan was DJing. Well, he was DJing again last week, so I went for my second time. There are a lot of similarities in WCS and Lindy hop, but the differences I think are what make me enjoy Lindy more. I like the Lindy demographic more as they're more my own age and personality. I also like Lindy because I feel a lot freer in my moves while WCS seemed more limited (perhaps because of the lines). It may have been however that I just don't know WCS well enough to have given it a fair chance. Who knows.

Speaking of giving a fair chance to other forms of dance, yesterday was my first class in an 8 week Argentine Tango series. Again, there is a huge difference in the tango vs swing movement, but I liked that a lot of the language was the same. Again, an older crowd in tango, but I signed up with Leandro, and then Alan also joined, so at least there are 2 people in the class I'll be happy to see on the rotation!

Work is treating me the same, I still enjoy what I do. I am currently working on 3 projects - 2 in Tulsa, OK and one in Neenah, WI. So if you don't see me out, that's probably where I am.

meanwhile, it's wedding season. That means if I am in town over a weekend, I am probably doing something for a wedding. I have been to countless wedding showers and bachelorette parties this summer, and still have 3 weddings to attend! phew! For Josh and Allison though, I'm excited to see them dance at their wedding since we've had some private lessons to prepare them for the big day. They've gotten awesome!! :-)

Lastly, Sam moved out this weekend, so now I am on a roommate hunt, but you guys all probably knew that. I just remember learning one time that for recognition of an ad, one has to see it like 5 times. So I do what I can.

Marta

This is how you take MARTA to work when there's no station near your office:





I took these pictures on my way to work today.

indepen-dance day

all sorts of fun plans, yet none include dancing! can you believe it??!!

Thursday - go to the Norcross fireworks

Friday - wake up super early and run the Peachtree Road Race 10k with Nick (and maybe Noah?)
1:00 go to Matt's BBQ
3:30 go to Jamie's BBQ
6:00 go to Rachael& Michael's BBQ
maybe go to the braves game? oh, where to see the fireworks?!

Saturday - go to Scott's independence party.
Sunday - go to Leandro's BBQ and pool.

wow. I don't think I'll be able to eat any more burgers after this weekend.

Jdate

well, I am considering getting on Jdate. I have been kind of stuck in a rut here, and although I could blame it on all sorts of things, I am just going to say I haven't met the right person here, and it's because I haven't met enough people.

Now, I am sure some of you are reading this and saying WHAT?? but you know like...everyone in the world!! :-)

Luckily, that's not actually true. That means there are other people in the world that I haven't met that may be the person that is perfect for me. What does perfect mean? well, I am not sure. And I guess that could probably be part of my problem. A couple years ago, I wrote a blog post about what I was looking for. I just re-read the list, and my taste really hasn't changed much. I think that a few of those things are learned, and not necessary, but a few are still very important.

I've heard some great success stories about Jdate, but many more failure stories of bad dates. That you spend a lot of time dating people just not right for you, or downright creepy/crazy. Also that some guys are just on there to get with a girl for one night and that's their goal. ::sigh::
I am trying not to talk myself out of it before trying it, but it's hard.

Suggestions? offers to help on essay content or photo selection? help!

THE BATHROOM!!!

Finally I've gotten my act together enough to finish with the fixtures and accessories for the bathroom enough to post it all. For those of you who don't know, I had my bathroom remodeled while in Thailand last month. It was a project that I'd been toying with doing partially myself, but ended up deciding that it was well worth avoiding the inconvenience to pay the extra to have someone else take care of it. I think I posted this before, but as a refresher, here's what I had done:

Tear down wall and door between shower/toilet and vanity.
Remove Shower
Remove linolium flooring
Remove carpet in the entryway/vanity area
Install Bathtub
Tile the floor
Tile the bathtub walls
Replace toilet
Replace vanity top with granite top
Add wall on the end of the bathtub
Add a French door between bedroom and bathroom

Here is the set of pictures of how the bathroom looked before the renovation:




Here it is after the renovation: woohoo!

a sandwich for a drink. and karaoke

I have finally caught back up with my life since returning from Thailand! I haven't had a chance to finish my hardcopy scrapbook, but my pictures are posted to Facebook Here, Here, and Here.

Meanwhile, since I've been in town, I've been getting back to my normal life of work and dancing and working out. I tried a few new dance things this week - I went west coast swing dancing for the first time, and I took a hip hop class. Both were different than I expected, but both were quite enjoyable, and perhaps I'll do each again. Meanwhile, neither excited me nearly as much as lindy hop.

Saturday night I went to Marcia's going away dinner at South City Kitchen which I'd heard of many times, and had never eaten there, but it was delicious. After dinner I met up with a bunch of people for Jamie's b-day at the kareoke place. It was my first time going to a karaoke bar where you get your own room. Normally it starts out with a bar full of people, and by the time I'm done with the song, I have my own room, but to start that way?? haha no, just kidding. It was awesome though. I helped close out the night with Chicago's "All that Jazz", and it was awesome.

I spent all week at work (and the past 3 weeks) preparing a bid for a project, and I think this is the first bid that I have spent this much time and effort on. Hopefully we'll get the project and I'll get to keep working on it. Finishing it at the last minute, I rushed out of the office to deliver the bid, and then off to the airport. I figured since my flight was a 6:30 flight, I'd pick up some dinner at the airport, but rushing in, I only had time to get a "to go" dinner. I brought my sandwich on the plane, and ate half of it. The middle aged guy sitting next to me sat down, and took one look at my sandwich and says "what can I offer you for the other half of your sandwich?" he was joking, but I was full after half, and so I gave him the other half. In exchange, he bought me a drink when the cart came around. Not a bad deal. He was actually one of the more interesting people I've sat next to on a plane. He is an ex-navy pilot who flew in 'nam and then came back and became a lawyer. He had come from Tulsa to the SE to buy a jet (his second). He showed me pictures, and you could tell he was excited. The conversation was great over the next two hours, and I must say, I am not sure if it was the conversation or the fact that my last flight was 15 hours, but we landed in no time.

When I arrived in Tulsa, my colleague Mike and I were staying in different hotels since each hotel just had one room available when we booked. My hotel however has no workout room. I make a point to work out when I'm on the road because a) I eat a lot worse and a lot more on the road, and b) there's usually nothing else to do. I have seen my share of hotel "fitness centers" which are often a bedroom with no beds, but replaced with a treadmill and a stationary bike. No air circulation, and a 30"TV about a foot in front of the treadmill. blah. But this Holiday Inn gets you a pass to the gym down the road for free. So I headed over to the gym, and I was awed. The gym was huge with brand new equipment, and a nice set up. Maybe I'll work out extra while I'm here. but on the way home from the gym at 10:00, I was hungry since I'd eaten a half sandwich for dinner at 6:00, so I got some ice cream. Not the best idea after working out, but it sure was yummy!

planned to arrive back home in 2 days, but until then, I will be in the plant here doing what I do.

Reflections on Thailand

After spending the last 2 and a half weeks in Thailand, I am going to use this entry to recap my own perspective on my trip and on the country in general. I will write by category and keep in mind, these of course are my personal opinions. This is a bit long, but I wanted to get it all out :-)

Street Food:
80% of the food we ate in Thailand was from a street vendor. Most street vendors own small carts or motorbikes so they wheel onto and off of their corner. Meals from street vendors are usually less than a dollar, but you needn't get a whole meal from a vendor. Here is a list of some of the things we saw regularly being sold by the street vendors:
- Chicken, Whole Fish, beef, or pork on a stick
- mystery meat on a stick
- fishballs on a stick
- corn waffles
- Fried chicken (as in, KFC style)
- omlettes
- Fruit of every possible type, larger fruit sold in a piece on a stick
- Grilled corn or corn cut off the cob mixed with an option of butter or sugar
- mango with sticky rice
- fruit smoothies
- Crepes

I will probably eat Thai food much less often here in the states knowing that they are charging $10 for what we paid $1 for in Thailand :-)

City Transportation:
Buses: Most every city has a bus system, and they're fairly reliable. The larger city's systems however have an option of 1st class (A/C) or 3rd class (no A/C) busses. The price is not much different, but the weather is.

Boats – Because the Chao Phraya River flows from North of Chiang Mai to South of Bangkok, the cities are divided over the river. To get from one side to the other or across the city, there are boats that function similar to subways. They have stops along the river, and people hop on or off quickly as each stop, tie-up, and exit total approximately 30 seconds. Rides on these boats range from 3.5 – 15 baht depending on the distance.

Subway/Metro/Skytrain - Rides on the subway or Metro lines cost a bit more than the boats, my guess is because of the obvious reason of a more complex infrastructure to build and maintain. These systems (in Bangkok in particular) charge different amounts based on the distance you plan on riding, costing 20- 50 baht.

Trains - Used primarily between cities, not within cities, they come in first class (A/C) or Third Class (no A/C) versions. Don't be surprised if your third class train has hard wooden benches rather than chairs.

While a single city may have either boats, Metro, Skytrain, busses or all five, they never seem to work together. No city that we visited had any sort of all encompassing pass that you could get for a flat rate to ride all public transport for the day.

Tuk-Tuks – While not part of the public transport system, Tuk-Tuks are a highly popular form of getting around between shorter distances. Tuk-Tuks are essentially a motorbike front with a small bench seat in the back with a shade cover over the top. Tuk-Tuks are fairly cheap, and can squeeze through traffic. It’s hard to avoid the beckoning call of the drivers who will hound you incessantly no matter where you are – “tuk-tuk?" "Where you go sir?" (everyone, regardless of sex, is 'sir') Beware of the Tuk-Tuks in touristy areas though. Here’s what the drivers will inevitably do. First they will ask you if you need a ride. Without waiting for an answer, they will also mention that the place you’re about to walk into (for example, the Grand Palace) doesn’t open for another 3 hours because of a national holiday, important meeting, construction, insert reason here – but that they can take you a bunch of other places until it’s open. They’ll tell you that they’ll be your personal driver - anywhere you want to go for just 20 Baht. This may interest you. However, the truth is that the museums nearly never close, and they make up the excuse to have you hire them, and during their “unlimited run” around the city, they will stop at multiple stores and factories where you would have to get out and “shop”. They earn the bulk of their money from the commissions they get from this, and if you are in a rush to get places, or don’t want the experience of this process, make sure you ask them to take you DIRECT to your destination. At this time, they’ll probably turn you down for the ride.

Songtaos – These are pickup trucks with the bed decked out with two bench seats along the two sides, and a roof over the top. You can hire a Songtao same as you would a taxi, but along the way, people may hop on if they’re going in your same general direction and pay a minimal price (not to be subtracted from your original cost). The first person on picks the destination and the price to take them there; all secondary passengers have no say since they’re getting a cheap ride. These were more common in the smaller towns than in Bangkok.

Taxis - Same as in any other major city - you can get flat rate or metered to any destination.

Markets/haggling – Every city, no matter the size has at least 2 markets (competition, of course). Most cities have many more. While the larger cities markets are bigger, for the most part, they all sell the same stuff: Souvenirs, Food, random hardware and electronics, and clothes. Markets can be in many forms, the most common being weekend, night, and floating markets. While tourists love going to these markets and getting deals, I didn’t see a single market that was functioning on tourism alone. The regular buyers were all locals, and all participating in the same bargaining that the tourists were. I posted a link earlier in another post on the haggling, and it is right on the money. No matter what the starting price of an item is, you should be able to get it for 2/3 to ½ that price once the haggling is done. We were getting really good at this by the time we left, but it’s embarrassing to finish haggling over something, and then realize you were haggling over 5 cents, and it was probably that person’s dinner money. Oh well, it was fun and we got some great buys for cheap. Probably the best and cheapest things we bought there were silk items, wood carvings, and clothing. Beware though. The minute you begin haggling, if you settle on a price, it's considered a done deal. You can not back out at that point without truly insulting the shopowner.

Manners/ Dress – I think it’s fair to say that Thais are the most mellow-mannered people I’ve met. I didn’t meet a single one who yelled or got mad. That’s probably why they need the Thai massages so often – to get rid of all that pent up anger and stress! It is customary when entering a home, and mandatory when entering a temple to remove your shoes at the door, I guess this is why so many Thais were wearing sandals and not lace up shoes – they were much easier to remove. As for clothing, all Thais were modestly dressed. I had read before our trip that we shouldn’t wear tank tops. I couldn’t believe it since it was about 100 degrees every day, but packed accordingly. As expected, in Bangkok and Chiang Mai (and of course all the temples), I didn’t see a single Thai in a tank top, and very few in anything that showed their knees. However, in Phuket and amongst tourists, I saw many more tank tops. There is a concept in Thailand of losing face, where essentially you embarrass yourself or someone else, and apparently not dressing modestly has you lose face to the Thais.

Toilets and public restrooms: Nearly every public restroom required a fee to enter. It was usually between 1-5 baht. Sometimes they'd hand you some toilet paper upon receipt of your payment, otherwise you'd better have brought your own. There would rarely be soap at the sinks. The toilets were squat toilets about 70-80% of the time, and regardless of the look of the toilet (squat or "western", many toilets were the type that had no flusher, but you poured water from an ajacent sink and bowl into the toilet to wash away whatever you left. This article gives a better description. There was never TP, as apparently they don't use it, and for us westerners that brought our own, there were always signs EVERYWHERE saying to throw paper into the trash lest we clog the toilets. lastly, the line in public bathrooms are PER STALL not like a regular queue. So if you are unlucky, the whole line may go in and out before your predecessor leaves their stall. Don't take a long time in your stall, or you'll get some nasty looks from the people in your line when you leave too.

Temples, or Wats as they're called, are everywhere around Thailand. The country in primarily Buddhist, and the Buddhist temples are beautiful. I honestly do not know too much about Buddhism, but kind of reminiscent of Europe's churches, the Wats are in every city, and no matter how small the town, the Wats are large and beautiful. We would be on a train riding through a town of 5 homes, but there would be a beautiful temple in the middle of nowhere. It seemed that all temples had dragons and/or elephants "guarding" the front steps, which I assume are there for some sort of protection, but I am not 100% sure. Either way, all the temples we visited were beautiful, and filled with Monks. Monks came in all ages, and I believe the youngest they can join is about 13. It's always somewhat funny to see monks doing everyday things - riding buses, buying a drink, smoking a cigarette, or doing manual labor. For some reason it seems out of place. I took this picture at the top of Doi Suthep where a Jack Fruit had fallen from the tree, and he was sweeping up the exploded fruit.

I have a few other topics of things I would've liked to write about, but at this point, I think I've covered the topics at the top of my list. The items on the rest of the list, which I haven't written about are:
- The high number of stray dogs in every city
- The air pollution so bad that city workers, pedestrians, and most drivers wear face masks over their noses and mouths, or even wrap a cloth over their whole face with only their eyes showing in order to block the pollution and sun.
- There are 7-11 convenience stores on every block. Many blocks have multiple 7-11s. We used these to buy water and as an air conditioned haven.
- Many Thais wear some sort of white powder on their faces and necks. It looks like sunscreen that hasn't been rubbed in very well. I think the powder is supposed to show that they are clean. I can't find any more info on it right now.

I hope you enjoyed reading my summary on Thailand and perhaps even read some of the daily posts. I write these for myself, so I can remember what and when I did things, but love that technology allows me to share the experiences with you :-)

Shanghai - Day 16

After flying during the night, we arrived in Shanghai at 6:30 am. We'd hoped to check in to our afternoon flight upon arrival, but as we should;'ve expected, flight check-in wouldn't open until 2 hours before the flight. So we put all our bags in luggage storage, and ventured out to see Shanghai. We took the Maglev bullet train from the airport. We'd heard that the taxis were incredibly cheap, but also that it was a long way between the airport and town, and we didn't have time. We bought round trip tickets on the Maglev, and riding that was amazing. We went 30 km in about 7 minutes. The train went at 430 km/hr. It was incredible. I felt like we probably would've taken off if we weren't attached to the tracks.

We spent the day walking around town, and it was much easier than walking around anywhere in Thailand, since it was about 80 degrees in Shanghai instead of the 95+ in Thailand. We walked around People's square and park, the Bund, and the old street/town. From there we took the metro back to the airport, and waited for our flight to leave. Our whirlwind tour of Shanghai was a nice break between flights, but after not sleeping over the night, I was tired. Our plane to Atlanta boarded on time from Shanghai, and after the grueling 14 hours of flying time, we arrived an hour early in Atlanta. But honestly, on a flight that long, an hour doesn't seem to make a huge difference. When we arrived in Atlanta, Moshe was there to pick us up at the airport, but before we could get out, we had to go through customs. While in Thailand, DZ and Leah purchased pre-packaged seeds to plant themselves some chilis, basil, and eggplants. Being the honest citizens that we are, we declared them, and of course, the customs agents confiscated them. Oh well.

We got home and I traded DZ his stuff that I brought in my bag for his 1000+ pictures from the trip. After trading, he went home, and I stayed awake to attempt to prevent jet-lag. I went to bed at 11:30, but once I woke up a little after 5am, it didn't seem to matter to my body that I hadn't slept in days.

On a good note, my bathroom looks awesome. I will post an entry soon with the pictures of the renovated bathroom!

Thailand Day 15 - Bangkok

Our last day in Bangkok, and we wanted to sleep in. Sleeping in for me meant that after being up in the middle of the night because of the loud people below us, I woke up at 6:00 am and could not go back to sleep. Not a good start for the coming days when I'd surely need the sleep.

I tossed and turned in bed until 8 when I finally got out of bed and ready for the day. DZ and Leah were still sleeping, but they eventually got up by around 9. We packed our bags, and were out at 10:30 - I think the latest we ever left any hotel. We left our bags in their luggage check for the day since our flight was to leave that night at 2 am.

We went to the malls, and looked around at the spectacle that they were. The first mall, Central World was probably 7 stories, and reminded me of Phipps plaza - all pretty fancy stores. The food court had a ton of restaurants. So many in fact, that we didn't even know where to begin for lunch. Eventually though, we each picked something and ate. After lunch, we headed outside the mall to a salon. All three of us got manicures and pedicures. The salon was recommended by Naomi (alana's cousin we met the night before), and they were pretty good. I believe we each paid $8 for the mani/pedi.

From there, we went to the other big mall right down the street, called MBK. This mall was much lower level stores than Central World - aka - we could afford stuff there. But we were trying to save our last few baht to afford the rest of the day's plans, dinner and the taxi ride to the airport, so for the most part, we didn't buy anything - shocking, I know!

We took the skytrain back towards the hostel and decided to stop at an internet cafe to trade pictures. After a half an hour of getting errors, we finally left, and headed out to get a final Thai massage. It was rush hour, and so all the massage places had a wait, but after about 30 minutes, we got in, and got a last massage. It's really incredible how these little Thai women who each probably weigh no more than 100 pounds, can give these amazing massages. Thai massage is thought of as a necessary activity for physical and mental health of Thai people, and so even the poorest people treat themselves to massages.

After getting our massages, we stopped for a second at the market by our house to get a couple last minute souvenirs - as if we didn't have time to do that before. For dinner we ate in a Lebanese restaurant. Before dinner, we each decided what we'd get, and since we knew the cost of the cab ride to the airport, we took out exactly enough money for dinner and the ride. As it turned out though, some of the dishes we'd planned on ordering didn't come with necessary components (like hummus came without pita - silly, I know), and so once we'd paid for dinner, when we combined our cash and all of our coins, we were at about 290 baht. Uh oh.

We went back to our hotel and used the showers (they allow you to use the public showers if you stay the night before, knowing full well that many flights leave in the middle of the night). We caught a metered taxi to the airport, and dumped all of our money into his hands. He seemed a bit upset since we were definitely paying him a little less than it cost, but we didn't want to take out money again and then not be able to change it at the airport.

So by the time we got to the airport, we had zero baht, and 2.5 hours to kill. We survived, and even ran into the girls that took the cooking class with us in Chiang Mai (they had a flight at the same time as us). At 1:20 am we boarded the flight to Shanghai.

Thailand Day 14 - Bangkok

Leah and I split from DZ today and we each did our own things. Leah and I got out by about 9:00, and caught the metro as far as we could take it, and got off at Chinatown. We walked the 3-4 kilometers of Chinatown, and couldn't really believe how HUGE it was! And it wasn't like Chinatown in SF or LA. Almost no one was selling crappy souvenirs or anything. It was genuinely where the Chinese people live in Bangkok. We continued walking to Wat Po, close to the Grand Palace. Wat Po is home of the famous Reclining Buddha. When we arrived there, the swarms of Tuk-Tuk drivers assured us that Wat Po did not open until 1:00 (it was about 10:30), but for 20 baht, they'd be happy to drive us all around town visiting all the other tourist attractions, returning us to Wat Po at 1:00. I had read in my guidebook of similar scams, so we went to see for ourselves. Sure enough, it was open.

After visiting the temple, we were ready to actually hire a taxi or tuk-tuk to take us to the Vinanmek Palace and museums where we were anticipating a dance show. Everyone and their brother wanted to offer us a ride there, and all around town. Again, for only 20 baht. However, they do this by stopping at their friends stores and factories. They'd give the list of destinations so quickly, you'd barely hear that they were taking you to some unwanted stops! We finally found a taxi that would get us there "direct". We were very thankful and got in.

When we got to Vinanmek, we discovered that they had cancelled the traditional Thai Dance demonstration that our book had said would've happened at 2:00. We were pretty disappointed since that was one of the main reasons we'd gone all the way out there. We already had a free ticket to the museum from a few days before. However, once we came to get the guided tour (that was free with the visit), they told us that all purses had to be checked into a locker as you were not allowed to carry them through the mansion. That was understandable. What we thought was not cool was that they charge you to use the lockers! after charging you to go to the museum, they don't tell you not to bring a purse, and then they charge you to store it. Geez. Good thing all the temples didn't charge you to store your shoes when you go in!

After Vinanmek, we figured out which bus would get us to Kho San Road - which is the road that pretty much all backpackers stay on. However, after waiting at the stop for 20 minutes, and the bus did not come in either direction, we had our doubts as to if the bus actually existed (even though it was printed on the sign and the lady at the palace confirmed it). So we decided to catch a metered taxi instead. We decided that since Kho San was close to the National Museum, that we'd see the museum first. We went to the museum that gave Thailand history and was full of all sorts of relics - from old elephant seats for royalty to beautiful mother of pearl inlaid items.

From the museum, we walked to Kho San Road. Just as expected, Kho san was full of hippie backpackers, many of whom have probably been traveling the world for months or years, and all of the required street vendors. After walking through the street, Leah and I headed to the port to catch the boat down the Chao Phraya river. There is a stop where the river boat overlaps with the skytrain, so it would be the easiest way to return to the hostel. We finally got back to the hostel around 6:15. It was certainly a day filled with sightseeing!

For dinner, the plan was to get together with the cousin of a friend of Mine and David's - Alana. Her cousin, Naomi has been living here for the year. Naomi had this grand plan of going to a restaurant for dinner, and then a bar for a couple drinks afterwards. Unfortunately, she'd mentioned that if the weather didn't cooperate, we'd have to change plans. Of course, the weather did not cooperate, and it poured. it poured for a LONG time. She finally made new plans, and we'd have to catch a taxi to get to the restaurant. After two taxis denying us service saying it was "too far" or they didn't understand where we were going, we had one agree to take us there. In order to go the direction we wanted, we had to turn onto a one way street out of our hotel, and later make a u-turn. There was so much traffic though, that by the time we went left, and then u-turned to get to the end of where our street was, took about 30 minutes, so we talked to Naomi and finally got out right where we started. We all finally agreed on a place that the skytrain could take us to. The place was called Skybar, and it was a pretty chill little place on the top floor of a building. It was nice getting to hang out with her and meet her, and we were out until about midnight when we caught the last skytrain of the evening back home.

Thailand Day 13 - Bangkok

Wow. We spent a long time on busses today. We got up early and caught a Songtao to the Kanchanaburi bus station (10 minutes)
Then we took a bus from Kanchanaburi to the Rachaburi region (2 hours)
Then we caught a minibus - AKA songtao to Damnoen Saduak (30 min)
We wanted to get to Damnoen Saduak because there's a floating market there, and Thailand seems famous for these (or perhaps just markets in general haha).

The minibus dropped us at a place where long tail boat tours began, and we were out of walking distance from anywhere to just walk the market, so they "conveniently" forced us to use their boat people. When we arrived, they "graciously" tried to rent us a long tail boat and driver for an hour at a "discounted price" of 800 baht a person. We nearly choked. Long story short, we got the boat for 200 baht a person. He floated us through the market, and slowed at all the booths where we're sure he would've gotten a commission had we bought anything there. We purchased a few little things and snacks, but none of us had any cash so it was sparse.

The boat dropped us at a stop near the bus "station" which was actually just a stand that sold tickets that buses occasionally stopped at. We paid for a ticket to the bus that goes to Bangkok, and spent 2 hours on that bus. At least it had A/C =)

Once arriving in bangkok, we pretty much didn't want to see another bus, but we took another city bus to the opposite side of town back to our hostel (another hour or so)

Phew. By the time we got back, we were wiped, and we felt like all we'd done was ride buses! For dinner, Leah and I went to an Italian restaurant where the food was overpriced and not very good. Oh well. We walked around a bit until the impending thunderstorm finally came and the sky opened and buckets of water came pouring down. Leah and I sprinted back to the room in just enough time to get pretty wet.

Thailand Day 12 - Kanchanaburi

Today was a day filled with firsts.

David went on his own, and Leah and I stuck together for the day. We started off by renting bikes again, and went to the tourist office in town. Neither Leah or I had ridden bikes in years until this week, but like they always say "you never forget how to ride a bike!" or something like that ;-) It was already hot when we left at 9 am. We rode into town and found out that most places we would've considered going in the AM were farther than we could get by walking or bike, and expensive by tuk tuk or Songtao, so we opted to stay in town. We first went to the Jeath WWII museum. It was about the allied POWs who were forced to work to build the tracks from Kanchanaburi to Burma, and the horrible facts that went along with it. The Bridge over river Kwai was where it started, and was bombed multiple times by allied planes during WWII.

From there, we rode into what we thought would be "downtown". Apparently we rode right through it and didn't notice. We did however find a Tesco which was a shopping mall type thing with something like a superwalmart inside. We noticed a hair salon, and decided that maybe we'd come back later for Leah to get her hair cut. We each ordered an overpriced ice cream while we were there, but when they arrived we realized they were not overpriced, we only underestimated the size of the servings. We each left half of our orders to melt (YES, Leah and I DID NOT eat all of our ice cream) We bicycled back to the hostel at midday.

In the afternoon, we hopped a Sontao to the Tiger Temple, famous in this region for rehabilitating and rescuing tigers, and taming them. Onlookers even have a chance to pet them. I really enjoyed this.

When we got back home, we planned to head back out to the salon for Leah's haircut. We knew that the Songtaos didn't go as far as the Tesco, so we were planning on hailing a cab (we didn't want to bike the 6km each way again). As we were walking from the hostel to the main road a random thai guy with a motorbike and a sidecar (similar to the onces we'd seen food or entire families riding in) stopped us trying to give us a ride. well, we were looking for a taxi anyway, so sure! He told us he'd charge us 20 baht each by showing us 2 20 baht bills since he didn't speak a lick of English. He didn't seem to have a clue where he was taking us so we just kept waving him on through town. I think the Tesco was farther than he expected, so we tipped him another 20 baht, and he seemed thrilled.

Upon arriving at the salon at the tesco, Leah and I quickly picked out a hairstyle from a book, as they too did not speak English, and she didn't want them to botch up her hair. The guy took about an hour an a half, and was sweating by the end, but he did a great job. He charged her 180 bahts ($6) for the whole thing (washed, cut, blow dried, styled, and obbsessed to perfection). Leah tipped him an extra 200 and he was beside himself.

We tried to take a Songtao back to the hostel since they were waiting outside, but none of them wanted to take us all the way there (we had to say 'choo choo" to emphasize that we stayed near the train station since again they didn't speak english). But lucky for us, a motorcycle taxi driver offered to take us for 80 baht, so nervously, Leah and I took him up on it and hopped on the back of his motorbike. It was awesome. Pretty scary since I'd never been on a motorbike, but awesome nonetheless.

We met up with DZ for dinner, and I got probably my worst meal since I've been here, but I haven't really had any bad meals until now, so I can't complain.

Thailand Day 11 - Bangkok/ Kanchanaburi

There are 2 trains a day between Bangkok and Kanchanaburi. We'd planned on taking the 6:45 train since it's cooler and would get us here earlier, but when we discovered it'd take over an hour to get to the train station, we opted for the 1:55 train. We still got up early, and each packed an "overnight bag" for the 2 nights we'd be in Kanchanaburi. We left all our other stuff in the luggage storage at Suk 11 in Bangkok. We took a city bus for 13 Baht to the Grand Palace. It was about 100 degrees and sunny, so we tried to do the sightseeing quickly. The place was gorgeous, but after seeing the temple, the emerald Budda, and the outside of the palace, we'd had enough heat and sun, and decided to make our way to the train station. The sophistication of the Bangkok public transport is about as good as Atlanta, as far as I can tell. You can get places, but you must know the intricacies of the system. Well, we didn't know how to get to the train station from the Palace, so we asked someone at the info desk. He was VERY impressed that we were going to go a) to Kanchanaburi, and b) on a 3rd class train (all trains to Kanchanaburi are 3rd class)

We walked about a KM from the Grand Palace to the pier (the train station is on the other side of the river. We took a boat for 3.5 baht a person (10 cents) across the river to the "railway station pier". However, there was no station there, we had to take a Songtao to the train station, and once we arrived, we purchased our three tickets to Kanchanaburi. 100 Bahts each. We had about 2 hours to kill, and we were tired of carrying our bags around (even though they were just overnight bags, we'd been carrying them for 5 hours and our shoulders were still feeling yesterday's shopping purchases). We walked around the train station looking for lunch, but there were only a ton of fruit stands, each with the owners asleep. We passed a few people peeling the tops off of chilies, but no food. We finally found a little stand near the station where they didn't speak English, but we knew the names of our favorite dishes in Thai by now, so we ordered lunch, 2 cokes, and a beer. My meal of Pad See Ew Kai (chicken with fried noodles) and a bottle of coke cost me 40 baht ($1.30). The owners were very nice, and we joked with each other that at home, we would NEVER consider eating in a place like this - a dirty, fly infested outdoor skillet. But we ate it, and 12 hours later, none of us are sick! We killed some more time at the station until the train arrived.

We boarded the train around 1:30, and waited to leave. there were some oscillating fans attached to the ceiling to "cool" the train, but other than that, the open windows provided all the "fresh" air we needed throughout the ride. At every stop, peddlers would get on selling their fares - usually the same food you see at street stands, and drinks. The best was when a woman came around with a huge over heaping tray of fried chicken. We noticed we were the only westerners (read: white people) on the whole train. This was not a normal tourist stop.

After about 2 hours, the thrill was gone, as the sun started shining into the cabin, and the hard wooden seats were making our rear ends hurt. Luckily, the ride only lasted 2.5 hrs, so it ended just as we were about done with it.

We walked to a guest house, and since we'd heard about the raft rooms in Kanchanaburi, we decided to try one out. Kanchanaburi immediately struck us as cheap (at least, even cheaper than the other cities) when our triple room came out to be $5 a person for the night. Because the room really is floating, it's like you're on a boat, so when the wake of a boat comes, the room shakes.

We rented some bikes, and rode out to see the Bridge over River Kwai at sunset. It was beautiful out, and we were glad to get some more fresh air. We ate at a bunch of random stands in the night market, and DZ finally was the first (and only) one of us to try the fish balls on a stick. He said they were actually pretty good.

We headed back to the hostel, and I finally was able to set aside some time to catch up on my posting!

I hope you guys are enjoying reading these 1/10 of how much I am enjoying experiencing all of this. I am sorry there are no pictures, but internet connections are brutally slow here, and I don't have the patience or time for it. I promise though that they will all come once I return!

Thailand Day 10 - Bangkok

I have never shopped so much in my life. The plan for today was to visit Bangkok's famous Chatuchak weekend market (JJ) in the AM, and then go see a floating market in the afternoon. We'd heard all sorts of tales of this market, and all our books said to get there early as it gets too hot and crowded later. So we set the alarm, and once we'd had breakfast, paid for the next night in the hotel, walked the 1/2 mile to the skytrain, gone to the end of the line and walked to the market, it was 8:45. We arrived and went in one entrance and we weren't really sure of what kind of strategy we should use to get through. After all, JJ is the largest market in the world. At first we wanted to do a quick walk-through of it all, but we quickly realized that a) we would never see the whole thing, and b) we should probably buy what we want when we see it since we may not find our way back to that booth again. It started out hot outside, even early, so we opted for the interior stalls covered with makeshift roofs. Some stalls were still setting up when we arrived. We started buying. We searched probably 5 stalls minimum before purchasing any item, and then bargained our way down for less (read that linked article. It is EXACTLY on the money hehe). We visited hundreds upon hundreds of stalls, and walked by many more. At 12:30 we realized there was no chance we were getting out of there any time soon, so we stopped to eat some lunch.

At the table next to us sat some Australians, and next to them, 3 middle aged southern American men who fit all American stereotypes to a T. We all had fun talking and swapping travel stories, and when I got up to go pay, one of them paid for our lunch! (granted, it was only like $5, but it was sweet)

Once we'd regained some energy, we went back for more. I think even David was having a good time, even though all the guys at lunch kept telling him he was an angel for putting up with us shopping! Early afternoon brought more heat and more people, and we eventually felt smothered by the quantity of people and the thick air in the stalls, but that didn't stop us! I really wanted to find where the fruit and flower stalls were since I'd seen and heard it was great for photo ops, but we never did find it. By the time we left the JJ market, we had each purchased a backpack full of stuff, and were holding a couple shopping bags too. Our legs were weak, and our bodies were ready to collapse. Leah and DZ may have bought about $10-$15 less than me, but we certainly all did our fair share of shopping. Here's even a list of a bunch of the stuff and their costs:

A Thai Silk Robe - 400 B
Some souvenir gifts - 200 B
4 Skirts - 600 B
Rose string lights - 300 B
Lamp - 130 B
Wall Decoration - 150 B
A couple hair clips - 80 B
2 Pillow covers - 250B
Total purchased - about 2100 baht = $70.

We came home and showered off the days work and refreshed before dinner. We went to a restaurant called "Cabbages and Condoms" for dinner. The Profits from C&C are all used towards promoting Aids/HIV awareness, and educate about family planning. The person who created it has been a huge proponent of education in Thailand, and has apparently made significant strides. The restaurant was really nice, and the food was surprisingly reasonable. They even had free internet afterwards, so I spent a few minutes to write my day 8 blog.

After dinner, we went to the subway station, and took the subway to one of Bangkok's famous rooftop bars. We went to one called the Moon Bar at Vertigo, and it was on top of the 60th floor of a fancy hotel. The bar was so nice that they had a dress code! Leah and I were wearing skirts, but they made DZ change into loaner pants since he was wearing shorts. The bar was really cool, but the prices were ~$10 for a drink. That is WAY more than one would ever expect to pay here, but it was awesome ambiance. DZ got a beer, and Leah and I just enjoyed the view. I was still stuffed from dinner.

Once we went home, we all crashed pretty fast. We were exhausted. But we had a great day.

Thailand Day 9 - Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is known for their abundance of Thai Cooking classes. We opted to take "the best" one, at the Thai Cookery School. We made six dishes over the course of the day, and were able to eat them all. After course 2, everyone was already full! We made:

Thai Hot And Sour Prawn Soup (Leah and I got veggie broth and Tofu instead of the prawns)
(Tom Yam Goong)

Green Curry With Chicken - mine came out kinda grey instead of green.
(Gaeng Kheo Wan Gai)

Thai Thai Style Fish Cakes - a mix somewhere between gefilte fish and bunuelos. Don't ask. They were good though!
(Tord Man Plaa)

Fried Noodles
(Phad Thai)

Spicy Minced Chicken Salad

(Larb Gai)

Water Chestnuts With
Sugar Syrup And Coconut Milk (Tab Tim Grob)

It was actually a ton of fun minus the point where I accidentally touched my eye after slicing and cooking with chili peppers. My eye immediately turned bright red and swelled up, and it was incredibly painful. I washed it out, but it took a good hour or two to feel normal again.

Once we were done, we went back to the hostel and picked up our luggage. We hired a taxi (a pickup with seats in the bed) to drive us the 45 minute drive to the top of Doi suthep - the oldest temple and a major landmark for Chiang Mai. We climbed the 400 or so stairs to get to the top, and got to the city overlook. From there we headed to the airport and flew back to bangkok.

Upon arrival in bangkok around midnight, we took a metered taxi (always do this from the airport as the fixed rate often rip you off) to our hostel - "Suk 11" (check out the website link, the place is pretty awesome)

I will write about day 10 later tonight. We're going out now...until later!

Thailand day 8 - Chiang Mai - Day Trek

Day 8 began early. We set the alarm and got ready and dressed and had breakfast before the shuttle picked us up at 8:30. We were going on a "1-day trek" which consisted of more individual activities than I could've imagined. We started off the day with the first stop at a butterfly and Orchid farm. It was pretty cool, but neither compared to Botanical or Calloway in Atlanta, but still a nice start. From there we visited our first hilltribe, the Long Neck Karen tribe. In this tribe, it is considered beautiful to have a long neck, and so from the age of 5, all the females put brass rings around their neck, and gradually add more rings as they get older. Most of the tribe lives in Burma, but this smaller portion immigrated here about a year ago. We got some amazing pictures, and I'll post those soon. From there we went Elephant riding. We hopped an elephant, and Leah nearly died of fear. She must've said "oh my god" 30 times in a row as we were descending the first steep hill. A local corrected her and said "no! 'oh my Budda!'" Riding the elephant through the hills, trees, and river was pretty cool, and then when we were done, we fed the elephants some bananas, and then had lunch ourselves. It was a quick buffet lunch, but the food was good. After lunch, we visited the second hilltribe, who had immigrated here 5 years ago by foot from southern China. For the rest of the day we were wet. We first went to the waterfall, where it started raining as soon as we started the walk from the car. by the time we got there, though, the rain had lessened to a drizzle, and we took a dive into the water. Leah and I slid down the natural rock slide, and got a "massage" from the quickly running water in the falls. Soaking, we went back to the van for the short drive to white water rafting. We took a 30-40 minute rafting trip down the river, and although there were not too many rapids, it was pretty fun. The one eyed raft captain had a little thing for leah, and kept throwing her out of the boat. We didn't even get out of the water after the rafting, because we then boarded some bamboo rafts. The river isn't exactly the most pristine, clean river, but it was a nice day out, and we enjoyed the ride. Phew. We had a long day of doing stuff! we all piled into the van for the ride back to the hotel when we got a surprise stop at a place where they make paper out of elephant dung. Yummy.
Tonight we'll hit up the night bazaar again, perhaps for a bit longer than before