Night Bazaar Place Chiang Mai

... had a quick brush up and put on our No 1 outfits - dress code was 'casual elegance'.   The charity dinner to support World's Aid Day was held at The Chedi.  Organised by the guys at La Luna Gallery in Chiang Mai and hosted by John and Pim (who runs Chiang Mai 'City Life' magazine), it was a great success and made over 300,000 baht which goes to several different charities.

All in all we had a hi-so time.

Chiang Mai is a really relaxing place, it's an old city, buddist, and hot during the day; which, when all added up means that everyone is all about relaxing. I've been here about 6 days or so... The lady travelers come for the spas, Thai massage, and treking, and the guys traveling through like the mountain biking, motorbikes, and cheap livin is good for all.

Thai people ...

... about the things that were entertaining as a kid (ie the song "Apples & Bananas"). After the pit stop at midnight, Whitney and I switched and we attempted to sleep. Needless to say, it was the worst night of sleep of both of our lives. The road to Laos wound through the mountains, constantly causing us to shift. Whitney lacked the support a door and spent the night searching for a stable place to sleep, including my shoulder. Every time she moved on my shoulder, I'd wake up ...

... next day I browsed the waterways of Bangkok and kicked it in a couple cafes.
Before long I was on a shuttle packed to the brim with backpackers and
backpacks. I couldn't help but to laugh at the rediculous clutter, as we made
our way through the dense streets of Bangkok and onto the busy freeways. I was
blown away at the massiveness of Bangkok as we headed to the airport. The
airport wait for my flight to Chiang Mai was great, because Bangkok ...

... most places just sold the tickets and didn't actually provide the tours, we decided to hear what our place had to say. There were two types of treks being offered, the touristy one and the non-touristic one. From just looking at brochures and chalk boards around town, we knew that all tours offered trekking, visiting tribal villages, elephant ride and a ride on a bamboo raft. Our guide pushed the non-touristic option boasting that the villages are further out and never see foreigners and ...

... ourselves we push the dishes aside and stretch out on the bamboo watching in wonder as hundreds of fireflies appear just like fairies in the dark. I have never seen anything so beautiful. There is lighting that flashes bright purple, lighting up the entire sky but no rain. The guides light a candle and play games with strings and sticks with everyone. I feel a cool breeze on my face and listen to rainforest sleepily thinking that the fireflies are lifting our little hut up ...

... University at Yaw 3. It slept a max of 15 and we had a very comfortable 12 people in our cabin. There were also three hong nam located inside of the cabin...one with a hot water shower! A generator provides electricity from about 6:30 PM (at this time of the year) until 10 PM at both the cabins and the dining hall/game room. Other friends stayed in some of the additional cabins located on this ...

... the dessert. It is an easier/acceptable process if you make it with a food processor. We were then shown how to make banana (or pumpkin (buat fak-thawng)) in coconut milk and sweet sticky rice with mangoes (khoa-neeaw ma-muang). Coconut milk is heated with sugar and salt for both recipes then the bananas, pumpkin or rice is added until cooked through (around 10 minutes), not too much stirring. I liked the sticky rice more than the banana dessert. I thought that the ...