Well, I haven't actually written about stuff we've been doing for the past few days. I guess that's because we really haven't done anything exciting. We've been hanging out in the day, reading, napping, taking walks. For the past 4 nights we have gone to the east part of town and hung out either near or right next to the river.
On Wednesday, we went to the Night Bazaar which is a few blocks from the river. It's basically a tourist thing, a market that lines the sidewalks and operates every night. The road does not close to traffic like the massive Sunday market, which is in a different part of town and is popular amongst locals and tourists alike. And unlike the Sunday market, the sidewalks are lined with more permanent style stalls - maybe more similar to a flea market. But since they don't close the road, the stalls line the sidewalk and there is only a tiny path to walk between the market stalls and the streetfront buildings. It's a bit claustrophobic. Plus, everything is more tourist oriented (as opposed to the Sunday market), so everything is way more expensive and the sellers have significantly less reservations about trying to coax you to look at and purchase their goods. So, the first night I found it a bit overwhelming and annoying. Though I did buy a chain for a pendant that I had previously bought for mom, and some earrings for myself.
Apparently it is standard to bargain at this market. At the Sunday market, I think you can bargain too, but when they're asking a dollar for a hand made scarf, I just don't see the point in bargaining down to sixty cents. Whereas at the Bazaar, the girl was asking $19 for the silver chain and about $5 for the pair of earrings. I say no and it's like an automatic thing where they say "ok, ok, what will you pay; make an offer". So you do and then they do, etc., etc. I find it obnoxious, but I ended up paying $15 for the earrings and necklace, which I thought was reasonable.
Thursday night we went back to the market briefly on our way to a dinner cruise on the river. We had decided the night before that the beautiful setup of lanterns and statues lit up at night were beckoning us to buy a tripod to take better pictures of the area at night. We found one for $10 and got it. The dinner river cruise was full that night, so we made reservations for the following night and went next door for a nice dinner. There are a number of large restaurants by the river, which appear to cater to tourists, although there were few white people in the restaurant that we could see (maybe Japanese people?). I ordered a tofu and basil dish which turned out to be a "bit" spicy to me. After a few bites, I was nearly crying, liquid escaping from eyes and nose alike. I powered through the rest of the dish, which got better toward the bottom; I think they had sprinkled extra spicy goodness on top. It was very good despite it's affect on me. This place also had real ice cream. I got chocolate and it was heavenly. And it came in a dish that did not need a microscope to see, which was an added plus. Delicious! We walked the Night Bazaar again on the way home, this time being better prepared for the scene and enjoying it more because of that. We spent a good amount of time taking tripod pics and figured out that using the timer mode takes the blur out that comes from pushing the button that takes a picture. If the computers here weren't soooo slow, I could actually post some of these pics. You people are just going to have to wait.
Friday morning my body found it necessary to remind me of the spicy non-meat-a-ball from the night before and I had to spend some extra time in our hotel room, if you know what I mean. At least the timing was good.
Friday night we did our dinner river cruise from the Riverside Restaurant which was nice. You have to order all your stuff before you leave the dock because they just get it from the kitchen and give it to you before you take off, which was funny. So we sat on a docked wooden boat on the river and had dinner, which was nice in itself. It was actually very cold that night; it seems to be getting colder here, especially at night. It was probably 60 degrees and my long sleeved shirt did not suffice to keep me warm. Oh well, welcome to my life - I suppose I can't escape being cold.
Saturday night (last night) we hit up the river restaurants again for dinner and some drinks. I ordered a Sa-loong at the recommendation of my waiter, which was a bright blue drink that came in a silver bowl about the size of half of a coconut. It tasted like bubble gum, or another Bazooka product of some sort. It was a bit nauseating, but certainly could have been worse. We then went down the street to a place recommended by our tour book. There was a rock band playing Radiohead and Chili Peppers and the like. It was excellent, though we only caught the end of their set. Then we headed home in our first Chiang Mai tuk-tuk ride - we were freezing!
A good last few nights though. Tonight we go to dinner with Kane's local friend and hit up the Sunday market, which we have been waiting for all week.
Plans for where we are going next are being formed: we are tentatively going to head up to a small tourist town called Pai (pronounced "Bye") which about 60 miles north of Chiang Mai for a few days, then going to fly down to Ko Samui, a small tourist beach island in the southern gulf. If flights are still available, that is (it's peak season). We'll see how those plans pan out.
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