Chiang Mai...How Beautiful (Day 12)

We made it to Chiang Mai, finally, after a very bumpy bus ride. We grabbed a tuk-tuk from the bus station, which brought us to S.K. guesthouse. It was right near the "action" and was about 500 Baht/night for a very nice room with a private bath. The room was supposed to have A/C, but it did not work, so they only charged us 300 Baht/night. My sister went back to sleep, but I was way too wired for all that because of the Coke and Coffee I drank in the morning on the bus. i went to the Internet spot in the guesthouse lobby and uploaded my pics online. Later on, we walked around the town and looked into some tours. They were expensive, as were the cooking classes, so we walked around some more and did some budgeting. We saw some temples and looker around a bit.

They were very beautifully decorated and peaceful and quiet.

There were many of these very, very large gold and bronze statues of Buddhas.

We found a little hole in the wall and my sister got an iced tea (Thai of course, but you don't have to say that because we're in Thailand).

My sister got some fresh jack fruit from the market next door and it was amazing.

I got some red curry chicken. Well, it was a Thai sized portion.

We went back to the room and were greeted by some new friends.

These things were bigger than they looked and could be pretty noisy. They mostly just freaked us out because they would all run when we walked up.

We then went out looking for the "Night Bazaar", which turned out to be a pretty far walk and reminded me of a bad version of Canal Street in NYC, with about the same prices. Only for tourists. We got away from the Bazaar a bit and found a street vendor and decided to get some food. This was our meal that we shared. Well, actually, I ate most of it. I got this amazing green curry chicken, the spiciest and best version I have ever tasted, as well as this piece of the best fried chicken I have ever tasted for about $1.50.

During our meal a Caucasian man pulled up in his pick-up truck speaking perfect Thai and handed a cooler off to some locals at a nearby restaurant. We were intrigued and he then turned to us and in perfect English, with an American accent told us that he eats there every day and that he grew up in Chiang Mai. He was a fisherman, but we could not figure out why he had grown up in Chiang Mai. We then walked around a bit and saw some of the nightlife, which looked pretty fun. My sister was tired though, so we headed back to the room to lay down. We saw some ladyboys on the way back congregating in this little square.
I knocked out as soon as we got back, but woke up to realize that it was Friday afternoon (about 2 am in Chiang Mai) back home and that I needed to call to find out about my income back home. I ran out to an ATM, but my card would not work. I went back to the room and borrowed some money from my sister and went in search of the internet. I found one and made my calls, but did not get the info I needed. I could not figure out why my card would not work. I went back to the room and knocked back out.