Last Day in Chiang Mai

12/27/09: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Today was our last day in Chiang Mai.

Our last day in our little hotel heaven with the bathrobes and DVD player and two shower heads in the shower (one was detachable). Our last day with the candies on the pillows and the stocked minibar we never used but liked to periodically look at to remind ourselves that those things come in real hotel rooms. Sigh.

I think the staff at Ayatana would have let us stay in our room until our 9pm train to Bangkok, but they apologetically kicked us out this morning because our room had already been booked for tonight. But not to fret! One of the things I’m slowly learning on this trip is optimism – which to me translates into looking at something and making it out to be good when it’s actually not – e.g., “oh, it’s actually good we couldn’t stay in our room and watch DVDs or lie by the pool or nap all day, because it’s so much more fun to walk around Chiang Mai for eight hours!” I told you, it’s a slow process, this whole optimism thing.

But that’s what we did on our last day in Chiang Mai – just walked around the city all day. Kevin loves to walk. Myself, I’m more of a stroller. It’s a difference of philosophies.

After spending an afternoon shopping (and yes, even buying some things) at the Sunday Walking Street, we were headed back in the direction of our hotel when we happened upon a breaking competition. (Apparently breaking is the preferred term for what we squares would otherwise call breakdancing. Thanks Wikipedia, now I know that I am officially uncool.)

Not sure what is going on here, but it involves legs moving wildly in the air.

So we sat down and watched it for an hour. Totally random and totally awesome.

Then we walked back to our hotel. We planned on eating at one of the stalls on the main road by our hotel. The only problem with this plan was that since we weren’t in the touristy part of Chiang Mai, everything was written in Thai. We stopped at the busiest stall on the street – and this place was completely packed at the relatively early hour of 6pm – and tried to figure out what to order. Unfortunately our old standby of ordering pad thai at any place that doesn’t have an English menu didn’t work because this place didn’t serve pad thai. Only noodle soup. Fortunately for us, one of the women at the stall explained the whole noodle soup thing to us. Because it wasn’t clear as we were staring at all the noodles and the soup. Anyway, it turned out to be some really really really good noodle soup. Probably the best noodle soup 25 baht can buy.

As we walked back to our hotel to get our bags before heading off for the train station and yet another overnight ride, we talked about how much we enjoyed Chiang Mai. Kevin summed up his sentiments by saying, “I just wish we could have stayed here one more night so we could go back to that noodle soup place.”

Me too.
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Picture of the Day: Chiang Mai sky at sunset.

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No Wrapping Paper, Just Gibbons

[Editor's note: This is the second post today in the last of our "Two for Tuesdays" series, as we have learned we won't be able to access the blog in China and thus need to keep a ten-day lag.]

12/25/09: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Bright-eyed and bushy tailed, Zhou and I awoke at 6:30am and ran downstairs in traditional Christmas morning fashion. It’s what happened after this that sets this year’s Christmas apart from any other. We were greeted by a man awaiting to take us to the Thai jungle for a morning of ziplining from treetop to treetop.

Upon arriving at the “Flight of the Gibbons” office in the jungle, this morning became my present to Zhou as I was the one who pulled out the wallet and paid for it. (Zhou, where’s my present?) Also, as we’re still in our honeymoon period (unlike Obama), I requested the temperature of the jungle be turned down to remind us of Christmases back home. If only I had remembered to remind Zhou to wear her fleece, she might have appreciated my efforts.

The ziplining itself was billed as the top attraction in Chiang Mai, but unfortunately I think they used the word “top” in it’s most literal meaning of “highest.” Don’t get me wrong, we had a good time and would recommend it for families traveling with kids, but it wasn’t quite as exciting as we expected. There were ten different ziplines, three spots where we abseiled down trees and about thirteen places where I yawned. I guess in my head I’ve always pictured ziplines as wires that could transport you from the top of the Empire State Building to Atlantic City.

The morning’s activity was followed by a hike up a waterfall which turned out to be more of a babbling brook at an angle. After a ten minute climb we reached the unscenic apex: a small sign that said “do not pass.” All we could do was shrug our shoulders and head down to lunch.

…

Before leaving on our trip, Christmas Day was the one day that I was dreading most. For 24 years, Christmas has been the one constant in my life. There’s hotpot with my mom’s side of the family, games with my dad’s and a morning of Steve, me, Mom and Dad alternating opening Christmas presents youngest to oldest, one at a time. Steve always dons a Santa hat and passes the mountain of presents out from under the tree that our family decorated together, and after the festivities we grab the cats out from under the wrapping paper they’re playing in and force them into our family picture. This year was obviously a bit different. As cool as Thailand is (not literally), it wasn’t easy to be away from home during the one day I could always count on being at home.

However, Christmas is a time for spending with family, and I was able to do that again this year. Not the family that I have known my entire life, but my new family. I spent today with the one person who understands me better than any other and the only one with whom I could survive an 11-month trip with. It’s been 3.5 months now of spending all day every day together and we haven’t had one argument. Not one. Sure, we’ve had our differences of opinion on things, but we have yet to let them get in the way of the great experience we’re having. Not everyone can be so lucky.

So although today may have been difficult emotionally, it was also really special: it’s the first of many Christmases with my wife (I’ve promised her at least three). No need to worry though Mom and Dad – next year we’ve vowed to return home and celebrate with both our families, because after all, that’s what Christmas is about.

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Thought of the Day: I haven’t heard the new holiday CD, but I feel like David Archuletta’s sole purpose in life is to make Christmas albums.
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Picture of the Day: A tasty western Christmas dinner of ribs and burgers at The Duke’s.

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Cooking on Christmas Eve

12/24/09: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Did you know that it’s not mango season in Thailand? It’s something that didn’t occur to me until we were at cooking school today, reading through the little cookbook they gave us. On the mango sticky rice page, it says, “This is one of the most popular Thai desserts and many foreigners who come to Thailand regularly make sure that they come in the mango season so that they can have this dessert every day!”

Huh.

This one sentence illuminated several important things for me: firstly, that I am NOT alone in this intense mango sticky rice love and therefore slightly less crazy than Kevin thinks I am; secondly, that it must not be mango season, because I have yet to see any mango sticky rice carts; and thirdly, that my image of Thailand as a magical land with mounds and mounds of mango sticky rice everywhere is still intact. When mangoes are in season, of course.

Anyway, back to the cooking class. Kevin’s awesome groomswoman (and good friend from high school) Rachel got us a cooking class from Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School as a wedding present. Hi Rachel! We love you!

I think Kevin has mistaken his knife and pot for a pair of maracas.

Don't mind my menacing look.

Our morning activity was carving things out of tomatoes and the largest carrots I have ever seen in my life. First we made tomato-peel roses.

One plate has my rose and one has Kevin's.

Then we made lotus flowers out of tomatoes (Kevin says mine looked like Audrey from “Little Shop of Horrors.”) and carved leaves from carrot slices. Another bonus from today: I have finally found something that I am better than Kevin at – carving flowers out of fruits and vegetables! It’s not much, but I have to take what I can get.

Then we started our cooking. (And eating.) In less than five hours, we cooked (and ate):

Clear soup with minced pork and glass noodles.

Vegetable spring rolls.

Roasted duck red curry and ginger chicken.

Chicken wrapped in pandanus leaves.

Mango with sticky rice.

[Full disclosure: we didn't actually get to cook the mango sticky rice, which I was kind of bummed about, but we did get the demonstration. When we get back home, the first thing I am going to buy is a steamer.]

The actual cooking part was like cooking boot camp – the instructors walked around our stations telling us what to do, barking out orders like, “Add the eggplant now!” and “Sauce, sauce! Sauce now!” A few times I was calmly stirring things around in my wok when an instructor would come by and shout, “Done! Done!” which was really dangerous because I then frantically tried to simultaneously shovel everything from my wok onto a plate and turn off my gas burner at the same time. I know it would make more sense to turn the gas off first, but it’s really difficult to think clearly when you have a small Thai woman shouting “Done! Done!” at you.

The food ended up being really good – we ate every single thing that we cooked, which would have been enough food to feed four normal people for an entire day or two semi-hungry people who never know when to stop eating. So basically it was perfect for us. I enjoyed it so much that I’ve already wrestled a promise from Kevin that we’ll do a cooking class in Siem Reap next week and in Beijing next month.

Thanks again for the awesome wedding present Rachel! Now if someone will only get us a steamer and a couple of bamboo baskets…
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Thought of the Day: I’ve never had brain freeze. It must be a myth.
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Picture of the Day: Wat Arun in Bangkok has some of the steepest stairs I’ve ever seen. (They’re not crooked, the photographer is.)

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Zhou and Kevin in Heaven

12/23/09: Chiang Mai, Thailand

Oh what a difference a day makes. Last night we slept on a crowded, smelly, grimy train filled with cockroaches. Tonight we’ll stay in a tropical paradise known as the Ayatana Hamlet and Spa.

How could two budget-conscious backpackers possibly afford to stay at sucha nice hotel? Three words: Mom and Dad (I suppose that could have been two words depending on how you look at it). Thanks to an amazing Christmas gift from my parents, we will live in the lap of luxury during our stay in Chiang Mai. In my pure, unadulterated excitement for the days that lie ahead, I’ll make you sit through my third consecutive post that contains a list as I describe a the top ten things here that we hardly recognize any more after 3.5 months of hostel living.

1. Q-tips: The way I see it, I’d much rather go deaf from Q-tip overuse than from this massive buildup of earwax.
2. Shower curtain: It’s this drape-like thing that blocks the water from getting the entire bathroom wet while you shower.
3. Bathroom phone: Joey on Friends taught us never to underestimate the importance of a phone near the toilet.
4. Mouthwash: Is it kosher to spit out your used mouthwash into the bottle to reuse it again?
5. DVD player: This in itself isn’t that great, but it comes with a whole library of DVDs to watch.
6. Scale: Everyone can breathe now – we aren’t slowly disintegrating. We weigh the same as we did when we left.
7. Fitness room: This would be higher on the list, but there’s no chance either of us will use it.
8. Sewing kit: I kicked a huge hole in our sleeping bag liner on day one, and Zhou hasn’t been able to get it fully sewed-up since. Until now.
9. Maid service: Someone will come into our room everyday and replenish our q-tips, mouthwash and sewing kit! She’s going to think we have the cleanest mouths and ears and the most torn-up clothes since Maggie Grace in her short run on Lost.
10. Other complimentary items: Candies on our pillow, bathrobes, slippers, shampoo and conditioner, and a breakfast buffet complete with omelet station.

We’ll spend the next four nights living like I can only imagine Macaulay Culkin did in his prime. Then, like Macaulay we’ll head back to our crowded, smelly, grimy life filled with cockroaches.
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Puzzles for Postcards

Why Do People Spend Time Here? Anagram

Light Oak And Bank
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Thought of the Day: If I were a shoe thief like Rupert from Survivor, I would permanently relocate to Thailand. Every temple, hostel and bowling alley has you take your footwear off, and not one claims responsibility if it is stolen.
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Picture of the Day: If I were a shoe thief like Rupert from Survivor, I would steal from everywhere but this temple.

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