Arcade Inn Chiang Mai

... and customize the day to our liking. We picked and choose the activities that interested both of us so stay tuned tomorrow on what we ended up doing....
After exploring the hotel grounds - we took the hotel shuttle into the city for the night market. It had a lot of vendors, but pretty much all the stuff you can get in China. I bet most of them came from China too like the fake designer bags and the DVDs. We walked around and ...

So this is my first entry on the blogosphere and I have a lot to live up to according to Eoin.



1 week+ in and so much has happened. bangkok has long since been and
gone and there's not much more to say other than what eoin has already
written so eloquently.



And so with the incessant sound of "ping pong" "tuk-tuk" ringing in our
ears it was on to ...

... meters, kilograms to our distance and weight. My weight sounds alot better in kilos than pounds.
6. The cleanest toilets are free, the squat toilets are flithy dirty and require a payment of 3 bahts and you have to use a water bucket to flush your contents. TMI?
5. Never pay the first price..you must bargain...they have a misconception that we are walking ATM machines. In the beginning I would ask for a ...

... brush which they seemed to enjoy as they lay, eyes half closed enjoying the attention.
“An amazing once in a life-time experience” we agreed, as we left waddling, legs spread wide apart western movie style...

I have uploaded some clips to youtube from the day:

Riding Lesson

Jungle trekking

Wash down

... line of orange robes walking by. I was invited to participate in the alms giving by a 19yr old girl that worked at our hotel that Will and I befriended. I kneeled on a mat next to her and her family on the side of the road and was taught how to give the monks each little balls of sticky rice. Although I have very limited knowledge of the Buddhist religion and culture, the whole experience was really quite touching. We were then shown how to place an offering ...

... that's my excuse anyway!).

We also got taken out one evening to watch some real teachers working for the British Council School in Chiang Mai. I watched this rather mad American bloke called Dom (bald head, bushy beard - looked a bit like Charles Bronson). He spent the first 30 minutes marking off the register and the next hour marking homework....it was sooooo dull!! He also had this weird habit of braying ...

... which is known as a jewel on the mountain). The mountain top weather was a welcome relief from the sweltering heat and humidity of Chiang Mai. The mountain top offered excellent photo opportunities of the temple itself and the city below.

... in a huge truck and stood in the back, drove to a corn field and each picked an aisle of corn. Then with machetes we cut down all the stalks of corn and put them in piles. The Thai people that were helping us tied the piles up and then we had to carry the piles to fill up the truck. This seems like a simple task but it was all done in long sleeves shirts and pants and gloves, so as not to cut ourselves with the corn leaves. It was also well over 100 degrees ...

... kinds of terrain. It was challenging, but we were rewarded about half an hour before our final stop with a beautiful flowing waterfall. We all washed off - it was clear we all needed it! (the heat, walking & backpacks made us look like we had just been trekking in the rain - not a pretty sight!) And arrived at the village where we would spend the night around an hour later. The village was beautiful - with plenty of animals to keep us ...

... thing.

Tida, ever caring in my infirmity, suggested we salve my Alzheimer's zone-out with a foraging expedition for another see-saw-ou, but I vetoed the idea. Returning empty-handed when I'd been all psyched to tackle a new instrument will be brutal, but the last thing I want to do is run off into town and miss the flight due to some unexpected Murphy-type snafu. I'd love to dive into Chiang Mai 'cause it's a beautiful place, but...another time. For the duration I ...