How ‘bout those Hill Tribes?

Jack had to go to Chiang Mai this week to extend his student visa so I hopped a bus on Friday to meet him and spend the weekend on a little getaway. Every time I visit Chiang Mai I like it a little bit more, probably because we avoid the other farang (Westerners) and get into the rural surrounding areas. This time, I wanted to visit some hill tribes so we wandered a bit to find the best price on a tour. Pro tip: The way most of the tour companies work here is that they all book on the same tour: usually no matter who you book through, you will be on the same minibus with the same people. Knowing this, we can shop around town for the best price (which can be as much as $10 difference) on whichever tour we want, as long as we pay attention to the descriptions. I had already found a place I wanted to book with online, but on the way we spotted these guys outside a tour company and I started snapping photos.

The Temple on Top of a Mountain (Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep)

Yesterday Pii Pan had to go to Chiang Mai to pick up her daughter and she was sweet enough to invite us along. Chiang Mai is about an hour and a half drive from Hang Chat, through some beautiful (and sometimes treacherous) mountains. We are always up for an air-conditioned car ride anywhere, especially with our good friend Pii Pan. We had some extra time before we had to pick up her daughter, so she brought us to the most famous wat (temple) in all of northern Thailand—Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. It is a beautiful temple on top of a mountain overlooking the city. Jack is somewhat “wat”-ed out, having seen a dozen temples already. I agree that many Thai temples are similar-looking, but they are always very beautiful and we can appreciate the craftsmanship and work put into creating them. Besides we couldn’t pass up the trip to the top of a mountain.

Day One of Bangkok Fun

How bizarre it felt to wake up this morning thinking, oh yeah we're in Thailand now! Once I heard one little noise this morning, I was wide awake and totally excited again.

Not exactly what I had in mind for my first Thai meal
but hey, we have places to go, people!

Jack and I got ready and headed out for some breakfast. We'd read that Thais don't really eat what westerners would consider breakfast foods like eggs, toast, pancakes, etc, so we decided to just get a few quick things at the 7/11 on our corner (they are everywhere here). We ended up getting yogurt, chocolate milk, iced coffee, coconut cookies, water, chopped mango, and spongey cake for about $3.50.

Most everything was better than we thought it would be (we didn't know what to expect so we kept our expectations low). I realized after we got back to the hostel that the mango bag said pickled mangos--uh oh! The ingredients list was also in English and I didn't see anything about vinegar so I suspected it might be a translation issue. Oh well, let's try it!