The train ride ended up being 20 hours, so we spent much of our Christmas on the train. Oh well! We had booked a room through a travel agency at the Bangkok bus station (don't recommend!) and got a room at the Mandala House hotel. I think the main portion of the hotel was nice, ut we got a nasty basement room that smelled like mold and was overrun by mosquitos. Decided we'd find another room after the first couple of nights that we already booked.
Chiang Mai is also a very busy city and even busier now due to the New Year Holiday - almost every hotel was booked. We like Chiang Mai, though. It's easy to get around in and has a more party and laid back feel than Bangkok. When we got in on Christmas, we went to a restaurant when I had a proper (well sortof) turkey, dressing, potato and pumpkin pie meal - yay! Yesterday, we took an all day Thai cooking course with Asia Scenic cooking school. It was AWESOME! We went to a local market and saw how you buy everything and saw the garden with spices, etc. We each learned to make 7 different things, including Pad Thai, Panang and Massaman Curry, Tom Yum and Coconut Soup, Cashew Nut and Hot Thai Basil Stir fries, Spring rools and glass noodle salad and Fried bananas and bananas in coconut milk - YUMMY! The food we made was amazing! We definitely want to try to reproduce these things when we get back home - maybe we'll even share! ;-) The woman who was our teacher was great and kept the group of 8 of us on track - she was really funny too. We met some oher cool people, including a couple from Wisconsin, two from Japan and a couple of American girls who were teaching English in Bangkok - great day!
We then went to the Saturday Walking Street where I went shopping crazy. They had so much cool stuff for great prices - scarves, jewelry, decorations, etc. I got come wood paintings that I'm really excited to hang in our room when we get back home. Scott and I both got new shirts that we liked a lot (see how nice we look!?) :-) If we had more ability to get stuff back, I would have bought much, much more.
At the bars here, we're seen many Thai girls who get very dressed up, constantly put on makeup and are very flirty. We're not sure if they just want dates or if there is prostitution of what, but it's an interesting scene. Thereare also supposedly a lot of transvestites in Thailand, so we look at a lot of people wondering if they are men or not - who knows! A couple of girls last night were all makeuped and dressed up and taking pictures. One girl was taking tons of pictures of the othre (who I thought might have been a man) and you would not believe the ridiculous poses she was making - it was like a crazy photo shoot!
Today, we're flying to Mae Hong Son which is even further up North in the mountains and out of city life - more excitement to come!
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