weekend in chiang mai...

With the King's coronation celebration weekend and getting two days off of school, Cece (another volunteer teacher and friend) and I headed to Chiang Mai to do whatever...no plans, no expectations...except that I would get as MUCH STARBUCKS as I could possibly fit into my system. That is really all I wanted to do.

It started with a short ride to the bus station from our neighborhood, where we bought our tickets ($3) on a non-air-conditioned bus (with fans but seats made crampt for Thais to fit in as many as possible). On the way we talked about everything. I tried to read as I have about three books to read each week (this week was Rime of the Ancient Mariner and other poems, Till We Have Faces, and The Great Gatsby). I was pretty focused as you can see in the picture.

As we were riding up and down the mountain passes as quickly as our bus would carry us, it got a bit too hard to read and I got a bit carsick or bus-sick. A boy in the row next to us started throwing up and kept throwing up for awhile. If you know me, I had to plug my ears and look out the other window so I didn't do the same. It was awful for him and for us having to listen (or trying not to), but these buses don't stop for anything, sometimes not even for wrecks.

Once we arrived, we got a ride into town and got out right in front of my paradise...Yes, Starbucks. I was so SO excited. We went in immediately instead of eating lunch and got a yummy holiday drink: Cece a Peppermint Mocha and me a Soy Toffee Nut latte...OH WOW!!! I sure missed good coffee.

As we settled down to chat for a bit, a male employee walked up to me and asked me in English, "Do you live in Chiang Mai?" I said, "No, I live in Chiang Rai." He said, "How many times you come to Chiang Mai?" I said, "This is my second time." He said, "I've seen you at the two other Starbucks. I like you. I remembered you." I said, "Yeah I think that weekend I went to both, because I used to work at Starbucks and I love it." He smiled big and walked off. Weird...I know!!

After chilling there for a bit, we went to check into a hotel, which ended up being in kind of a seedy part of town as we found later that night. We got changed to go to the huge market, which is about a mile long and five streets are involved crammed full of vendors, people begging for money, and so much more...it is an ADHD person's nightmare...you cannot think or concentrate...it is overwhelming. I will add a picture later of how crammed it was. It was like a solid river of people moving one way on one side of the street and the other on the opposite side. I bought a sweet lamp for my house upon returning to the states and enjoyed looking at the street art and hearing the musicians. It was incredible.

Since we were walking so much, we sat down to get a foot massage including oil and pressure points for only 60 baht, which is $2. It was for 30 minutes and was incredible until this man sat down with us and started talking. There was also an Israeli family getting massages for their three kids: a son about 12, a daughter about 7, and the youngest about 3 (which made quite a stir with her getting her feet massaged). Several Thais stopped to take pictures because she was so cute and smiled the entire time. It was less enjoyable as this man, who said he was from Papua New Guinea, but was a man of the world and had lived everywhere kept talking. He would have won an award for most stereotypes spewed out in a few minutes. But humorously, I kind of enjoyed it as I was reading The Great Gatsby, and he kind of reminded me of Jay Gatsby, the man that tells lots of great stories, but who knows for real what he is or who he is...a man of the world, a man about town...and a wee bit crazy!!

We took lots of pictures with the millions of yellow Thai lanterns put up to celebrate the King's birthday last week and the Coronation celebration this weekend. (As you can see, I am making the peace sign, which is totally a Thai thing for when they take pictures...haha!!) There was also a Thai's Christmas tree made of only lanterns as you can see. Absolutely beautiful...a fantastic weekend...not much rest, but lots of Starbucks (two more the next day...yahoo!!)

On our way back to our hotel that night, this is what we saw in the streets...not too uncommon I guess as we were the only ones taking pictures.


Blessings on you all as the Christmas holidays come around and you prepare for them and may the realization of who Jesus is to you be so real in this season!! He is the reason for everything!!