Chiang Mai City Life: Issue 105

Life in the fast lane: Will takes me to school every day on our shiny red motorbike. It looks like we're having heaps of fun huh? We have this much fun every day! Don't you wish you were us?

Doing it Buffet Style: We've had dinner at this place called Gap's House where they have a vegetarian buffet with the best curries I've ever tasted in my life! If you wouldn't go near a vegetarian buffet with a 10-foot pole, then I'll have to kidnap you and make you. Once you're there you'll wonder what all of the fuss was about. Seriously. Two words: vegetarian buffet.

The Art of Feng Shui-ing: They say if you have a spotless room you'll have a spotless mind. This is the box we live in. Complete with a balcony and it's obstructed view, a bed so hard you can place a glass of wine on it and not spill it, even after repeatedly getting up from the bed and sitting back down and a floor that always seems to resemble the aftermath of a dust storm even if you clean up the mess every single time. It's great though because we have internet and a DVD player we bought for 1600 baht ($42). We can now watch all the O.C. we want on an acutal screen that's not a laptop screen. Yeah!

Doi Suthep: The Temple in the Sky

This is a picture of the Doi Suthep temple. It pretty much resembles every other temple I've seen in Bangkok and Chiang Mai, except this one is up in the sky. By sky I mean mountain side. At night if you look at the mountain side you can see some lights which resemble a flying saucer in every way. Will and I went up the mountain on his motorbike, which looks kind of like this:

Sometimes I have to stop and remind myself that I'm in Thailand and say, "Hey! I'm in Thailand!". This reminder usually comes to me when I pay 50 cents for a meal and a Spy Red- a wine cooler in a bottle that actually contains a fair amount of red wine in it. Other times it happens when I want something and can't figure out for the life of me how to ask for it, not even with hand signs. Try asking a security guard where the dentist is in hand signs, it's hard.

In thai class today I learnt how to ask the price of things, as well as count to a million. I can know order food in a restaurant with out having to point to the menu--but I still point at the menu and order in English. How farang of me. (Farang: it's what Thai people call white foriegners)

I wasn't sure I'd say this but, I actually miss Western vegetarian food. Well, I think I miss my own cooking is what it is. There are so many vegetarian restaurants here it puts other countries to shame, but my choices are pretty much limited to a zillion of variations of fried rice and curries.

I like green curry better than red curry. I like brown rice with soy sauce rather than white rice with soy sauce. Phad Thai is tastier and lighter than anything I've tasted in America. The spring rolls here contain no meat. Fish sauce is the most vile tasting condiment on the planet.

"Is this good?"

I decided not to eat a normal lunch today and when for the dessert instead. After Thai class, which is going amazingly well, I went to get lunch with two classmates. On the way we stopped at this stand to get mangos and sticky rice for 20 baht (50 cents). I stood in front of the stand for some time and in the end decided not to. Afterwards we went to grab some lunch at this vegetarian restaurant. When the waitress comes over I attempt to order mangos and sticky rice for twice the price. They didn't have any so I settled on bananas and coconut. When it arrived, it was a soup with sweet coconut as the broth and bananas floating in it. One word: TASTY


One of my classmates live in my building so I took the song thaew back with here and stopped at Central (the local department store) to attempt to do some shopping with the AMEX. No luck. The clothes were too conservative and too boring (read: void of fashion or trends). I found three tops for $6 a peice at this shop I'd never go in if I wasn't desperate...some L.L Bean type shop. I went home happy.

My inventory of Thai consists of the following:

Is this/he/she good/small/big/tall/short/cold/hot/comfortable?
This/he/she is good/small/big/tall/short/cold/hot/comfortable.
This/he/she is not good/small/big/tall/short/cold/hot/comfortable.

How are you?
What is your name?
My name is__________.
Hello/Goodbye
Thank you

I can get around. I guess....

How do you say_______ in Thai?!

Oh what a day, what a wonderful day! We moved into our studio apartment this morning--the snazzy Huay Kaew Residence. We moved into the same building as our friend Keely, but unlucky for us she's moving within the next week or so to a house on the other side of town. Rent is $165 a month and internet is $6 a month. We went to the supermarket to stock up on some edibles and did you know that eating in is more expensive than eating out in this country? For the sake of our bank accounts we HAVE to eat out. A can of lentils cost $2.50. We ate dinner at the Chiang Mai Coca and had vegetarian green curry with rice, vegetarian fried rice and 2 lemon drinks for $2.50. Hmmm, a can of lentils or a feast?

I start my Thai classes at the American University Alumni Language Centre tomorrow. That's pretty exciting because pretty soon I can stop going around speaking English to everyone as if I were in America or something. Luckily enough a fair amount of English is spoken in Chiang Mai--just enough to rip you off for riding the song taews (red pickup trucks with covered cargo areas that serve as passenger cabins).



I had a taro bun for dessert from some convenience shop. It cost 5 baht, which is 12 cents. I ate it while using internet at this extremely slow internet cafe that charges 20 bath for one hour--that's 50 cents.

Ahhh, the trials and tribulations of living in a foreign country where you have no idea what's being said around you. Gotta love it.

Chiang Mai, Baby

Well, I've made it. I've made what I considered to be one of the most nerve-wrecking trips of my life. I was quite nervous on the way to Bangkok and I went into panic mode while we were being transported from the airplane to the terminal: I don't speak Thai! How am I meant to communicate? What if everone stares at me because I don't look Asian? What will I EAT?

We arrived in Bangkok last Wednesday and stayed for 2 nights. I can describe Bangkok in 3 words: over populated, dirty and crazy. It's very much like Mexico city, except I can't read an of the signs, I don't understand what anyone is saying to me and everyone looks Asian. I arrived in Chiang Mai on Friday and have been staying at the Suriwongse Hotel since then. It's right in front of the night bazaar, an amazing night market that IS HUGE.

Today we are moving to the international youth hostel and going apartment hunting. Two things that have blown my mind since being here:

1. All of the apartments I've looked at so far don't have kitchens. Who needs to cook when you can get lunch for 50 cents? Pad Thai is 50 cents!
2. An apartment in an expat condo building is $250 a month. My friend Keely pays $75 a month for her studio!

Chiang Mai is a charming city/town. I think I just might like it here. Now if I can only figure out how to communicate...Thai classes anyone?