Chiang Mai, Thailand

October 2nd

Once we arrived in Chiang Mai we headed for Julie's house. The reception did not open for another 15mins. We were the third to check in and got a room for the 4 of us only paying 160b for the two nights. We went to breakfast at Aromas on the street as our room was not ready yet. They had the most amazing coffee here. I read that the coffee and tea planations are easily visited in the North and would love the chance to go to one. After bfast I took a quick shower and waited about 20 mins, the room was ready momentarily. Dropped our bags and went for a walking tour of the Wats and temples in the old city.

Chiang Mai is easy to walk and get around. We went to Chedi Luang for a good hour, I knew what was on the list but not sure if the boys were aware. Taking our time walking it took a lot of energy in the heat . We stopped for a good while each time, only made it to Wat Phra Singh.

Then said we should go back and rest if we wanted to go up to Doi Suthep. Easiest way to get up there is rent a motorbike or get a tuk tuk. The others were wearing down and didn't want to go anymore. I was debating how to get there.
Decided I should relax if we were going to the night market as well. Kerstin and I made plans to go to the Elephant Nature Park in the morning. We talked with the guy on 2 different ones and he was pushing the one we didn't want. I said we should wait and Kerstin started to think the one she heard about there was no riding the elephants, we asked if they had that and he said yes. We signed up.
We all regroupped around 5:30p, I spoke to some German girls from Dusseldorf and Berlin. They were sisters traveling and the one was really sick for the past 3 days. Found out she was a nanny in Chicago. Some others talked about how great the Thai cooking class is and I was wishing I had time to do that as well.

I changed my clothes and was ready to go shopping at the night market. There is a special one on Saturdays. Then we were waiting another 40mins because no one was entirely ready. I debated about eating and was going to wait to get some market food.

We set out there was about 8 of us, too many, to go shopping. I stopped for food and the others left. Andrew, Kerstin, and I all sat to eat. I got Pad Thai with Tofu and it was the best yet. Then we were ready to shop. The street was huge it went for about 2k full of stands. You had to kind of watch for stuff you liked because they had everything.
It was just Kerstin and I for the last hour and half since the boys went to watch the Thai boxing. I bought a few things and touched everything in sight. Then we headed back because it was very tiredsome.