First days in Chiang Mai

Since our clothes are grossly dirty we found a little house across the street where a lady washes clothes, 30 baht for 1 kg. We have no idea how much this is but we're banking on the fact that it's cheap because all of our clothes are with her! Chiang Mai is very different from Bangkok, more green (but still dirty), smaller buildings, lots of Thai houses intermixed with hotels, with more vendors lining the streets. The main mode of transportation for Thais and foreigners are scooters and tuk-tuks. Last night we walked around to find a Thai massage place, we couldn't find the one we were looking for but ended up going to a great one nontheless. It was a two-story wooden house on the side of the main road (there are hundreds of massage places lining the streets). We changed into light cottony massage outfits and we were tugged and kneaded for the next hour. David had never gotten a massage and was very worn out after. David also had uncontrollable laughter for the first 15 minutes of the massage, because he was uncomfortable/awkward that he had a guy masseuse. This made me laugh even louder and we couldn't stop laughing and I think they thought we were crazy. Our masseuses would chat over us for the next hour in loud Thai, his guy would imitate girls voices half the time (no idea why) and we would start shaking while repressing our laughter. After massages we walked to the Sunday night market which lined every street in central Chiang Mai. We bought lots of gifts at the market, I had strawberries with salt on them (didn't know there was salt on it until after I ate it--not the biggest fan). At 6 pm every day they play the national anthem (like before the movies) and everyone walking stops in their tracks and stands still and doesn't talk until its over, then everyone resumes what they were doing. It was kind of fun to see because we hadn't seen it happen in a market before. We saw fried crickets, worms, grasshoppers, and cicadas; we didn't try any of it : ) Later that night we went back to take a nap and ending up sleeping all the way until this morning.

This morning we ate breakfast ate our guesthouse then walked to a motorcycle shop to rent a scooter to ride up a nearby mountain to a temple, Wat Doi Suthep. We rented a red Honda manual 125 cc, and started our journey up the main road and onto the curvy mountain roads. It was so beautiful. The air was at least 20 degrees cooler, and we were surrounded by a jungle. A side note, they drive on the other side of the road so every time we switched lanes or turned onto a different street we would ask each other if this was the right side to be on. We did very well in the midst of all the trucks, tuk-tuks, and scooters around us. When we reached the temple we climbed up the 306 steps that lead to Wat Doi Suthep on the top of Doi Suthep's summit. The temple was first established in 1383 when a visiting monk from Sukhothai instructed the king to take the twin of a miraculous relic to the mountain and establish a temple. The relic was mounted on the back of a white elephant, which was allowed to wander until it 'chose' a site on which a temple could be built. The elephant stopped and died at the spot on Doi Suthep where the temple would be built. We walked around the temple and admired the many buddhas and a giant gold chedi it has in the center of it (which is under construction). Then we rode our bike back down the mountain and found a sign for a waterfall. We debated the $3 a person charge but decided to go big or go home, and so we paid it and drove in. The waterfall was a lot bigger than either of us expected, it even turned into a jungle trek when we discovered a path through the trees up the side of the mountain. We hiked up the dirt/mud path, surrounded by insects and branches; it was very steep and a good workout in our long pants and shirts! We climbed until we found a second waterfall and briefly admired it. Then we decided to head back to the city to find a good place for lunch and rest. We made our way back to the city, then turned through many streets trying to find a good place for lunch. After about twenty minutes of being lost/adventuring on the scooter through all the traffic and locals we finally just picked a place. Lunch wasn't the best, but we found a small dessert bar next door where we enjoyed an Oreo shake that was really good and different than what we have back home. Speaking of our lunch, we have now found that the street food we try is typically better than the food at the local restaurant that we sit down to eat at. We are now gonna try and stay adventurous with the street food cause we have really enjoyed it! We are resting and trying to stay out of the heat until tonight when we are planning on going out to the night bazaar and enjoying Chiang Mai during the night. Tomorrow we have our big elephant day in which we both are super excited! Keep everyone posted soon!

PS: Chargers are gonna open up a can of whoop ass on the NY Jets!!!