December 2, 2014 Chiangmai, Thailand

Tuesday, December 2

Tom and Sue set off for a power walk, while Greg and I wondered around the morning market by ChiangMai Gate.  Bought some black sticky rice for 10 baht and a waffle for 12 baht (total about 60 cents.)  waffles are popular street food - we've had banana, chocolate, raisin and the one we had today had a little something in it - we think maybe rose apples.

We wandered through Wat Jetlin again - very quiet and peaceful place.  Then stopped at a tiny place called Bagel House Cafe which produced some pretty good bagels!

At 10:00 we went back to the hotel and caught a taxi that Mam had arranged and went back to Ban Twai and their shop.  Greg wanted to re-visit a wood carving shop there called Baan Tipmonee and we delivered Mam and Chap's pictures.

Cars and trucks here are not tiny, though most are compact and though there are many pick-up trucks, none are the monsters that you see in the US.  Many Toyota, Hilux, Isusu, Chevy, Ford...few BMW and Mercedes.  Most have manufacturing plants here.

At the wood carving shop, a gentleman took us upstairs and showed us quite a few buddhas, monks, furniture, etc.  His English was broken but he expressed much enthusiasm and told us he had opened the shop 20 years ago.  Some of the carvings are large and very intricate, taking 3-7 years to complete!  People, animals, nature scenes, etc. No photos allowed  inside:(

We visited a few other shops before meeting Chap and Mam for lunch, and then Chap drove us back to town.  Read, blogged and relaxed till about 6:00 when we headed out to We's with Tom and Sue.

Tonight's adventure was Muay Thai Boxing.  There are several arenas around town and we went to one over by the Night Bazaar.   The Boxing arena is surrounded by bars, clubs, pool halls, etc. - lots of music and neon.

We saw several fights, including one with women, and saw 2 KO's.  Each match consists of 5 3-minute rounds and the fighters wear gloves and use their feet as much as their arms.  There were about 100 spectators - mostly farangs (foreigners) like us.  We suspect this is not the highest level of fighters and it was interesting but not terribly exciting.  It is their national sport, so now we've seen it.

Took a tuk-tuk back to the hotel about 11:30.




Wednesday, December 3
This morning we went to a little coffee shop that overlooks the market from an upstairs balcony.  Quite nice - quiet, not too busy and friendly folks.

The security at our hotel is interesting.  The elevator is accessed with a card that is scanned and a female voice says "Ok, verified, Thank you."  The door to our apartment is accessed with a palm reader and 4 digit code.  And of course we have a room safe.  There are many small hotels and guest houses, as well as some large "deluxe" hotels.  Rooms can be as little as 200 baht a day ($6.50) or as high as $300-400 a night.

We walked an area of town west of the hotel, through small neighborhood market and little side streets and alleys and ended up in the night bazaar area at a large white museum called "Art in Paradise".

 We expected an art museum but discovered that it is a 3-D museum.  Very well done and we had a ball posing for pictures. We spent a couple of hours here! .

 Began walking back and stopped at an Italian place called Georgio's that Chap had said was good.  Obviously a nice dinner place, they did serve lunch and we shared some pizzas.  Very good - very thin crust. We ordered one with 3 toppings and were surprised that they were separate, not mixed.  Only one other table was occupied.

Back to the hotel and worked on pictures, read.  At 3:30 we all headed out for a Thai massage and foot massage at Sabi-Khlavsen.  2 hours for a grand $12 including tip.  Ahhhh...a little tough (I ended up with one bruise) but good overall and felt good afterwards.  They served us tea and since we were close to We's restaurant, we decided to go there for our final ChiangMai dinner.  Talked with the owner a bit - he is from Finland and married to a lovely Thai woman who is the chef. We had assorted dishes and ended by sharing mango sticky rice and a fried banana with ice cream.

Back to the hotel to pack for tomorrow. Verified check-out with the front desk and set up a red truck to take us the 15 minutes to the airport tomorrow morning.  We leave the hotel at 5:00 and will meet Chap and Mam at the Thai Lion counter to fly to Bangkok and then on to Siem Reap, Cambodia.  Chap has graciously made all the arrangements, so we just show up with passports in hand.