Chiang Mai, old and new

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  Chiang Mai, Thailand
Friday, December 5, 2008

We've been in Chiang Mai for a week now and are still enjoying it very much.  It's such a mix of old and new together.  Inside the moat are small, quaint streets where you can find anything from stunningly beautiful gold wats(temples) quaint little teak houses and miniature shops, and then outside the moat are the super deluxe shopping malls, and enormous condo buildings.  I think in general we've been surprised on this trip by how modern things are, especially how high-tech everything is.  For instance, even in our super inexpensive hotels in Vietnam, the air conditioners were modern, silent and efficient, and in the small towns of Vietnam, the modern stores sold super-modern appliances.  It shouldn'be surprising -- after all, we're not that far from Japan and Hong Kong, two places I think of as ultra high-tech and modern. 

We've taken some lovely trips -- yesterday we went to the botinical gardens which were so large we only saw a very small part of them

bathing elephants

.  They're in the mountains so in a beautiful setting, and then in the afternoon we went to an elephant conservation camp which we thoroughly enjoyed -- saw elephants bathing in the river, saw a show of elephants painting pictures, and Alison had her earring eaten (and then spit out) by an elephant while she was sitting on its knee.  (Yes, yes, you'll see a picture of that, once we get home and can download them.)  We've also been to the zoo, which is set on the mountainside and is like wandering through the jungle, and the aquarium (the largest in south-east Asia.)  And Alison entered paradise when she had a Thai massage. 

As for the political scene here -- well we naturally had some concerns the longer the airport shutdown went on, and then when we checked our airline's website and discovered that our flight had already been cancelled.   It was interesting to see it from the Thai perspective -- in particular to see how important it was to them toavoid a violent confrontation and also to see to the lack of action that led to.  We couldn't get through to the airlines until yesterday when our friends called the office in New York, and now we are confirmed on a flight that will get us out of Bangkok and into Taipei to make the same connection we're originally booked on.  Today is the King's birthday, but he's been too ill to make a speech and people here are very concerned, as he is very beloved.

Well, I have to go now so that we can gear up for our next meal out...

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painting elephants	temple in Chiang Mai	playing elephants	loving elephants
elephant preserve	elephant preserve	botanical gardens	panda at chiang mai zoo
king's palace, botanical gardens	songthaew	water lily	orchids

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