End of Chiang Mai

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Well, I got my ATM card back this evening and have decided that tommorow I will leave Chiang Mai. I really don't know where I am going to go yet. I think I'll just go to the bus station and decide...either that or I'll totally sell out and just go all the way back to Bangkok. Mainly because it's a lot cheaper to do it that way, and because Sarah is there and it would be cool to hang out with her for a few days. Who knows. There are a few places I wanna see in between here and Bangkok, but they are all within day excursion reach of the city, so, we'll see what happens. What I do know is that last night I had a good night up here in Chiang Mai. First I went to the weekend market, which I went to the weekend before. It was soooo packed with people, entertainment and importantly, food. I went into these temple grounds, and for under 2 dollars ate my face off. I tried a variety of things: Thai Pork Burger, steamed pork, deep fried won tons, pad thai, pork on a stick with peanut sauce and...oh yeah, and deep fried corn. Haha, from here I walked down to meet my american friend who sells baby clothes with his girlfriend. We had a few beers while she sold clothes and shot the bull on everything from movies to thai lingo. Apparently he doesn't get to talk with non-thais much so it seemed like he really appreciated havin' a chat. Me too, it's lonelier here in Chiang Mai because so many people you meet are leaving within a day or two and there isn't the mass amount of people like in the Khao San road area in Bangkok. After parting ways and exchanging contact info I walked back to my guesthouse. My intentions where sleep, but a large group of irish folk convinced me otherwise. I've never seen a funnier group of people. I told them about a bar nearby that I had been to, but when we got there it was absolutely dead. Instead we went to this bar down the road, well by "bar", I mean mini van that served beer out of the back and windows. Haha, it was actually very cleverly designed and tasteful. I wasn't into having any beers so I snagged a donair at a nearby shop and came back and sat with them (mmmmmmm, doooooonair.) We were all looking about ready to leave when we were startled by a "rawwwwr." An teenage elephant was standing next to our table.

So an elephant walks into a bar.....

anyway, this guy sold us some fruit and we fed this thing for nearly 10 minutes. I don't know if he starves it all day, but it was loving it. It feels downright funky having an elephant taking food out of your hand. All these elephants remind of Mr.Mcune in HighSchool calling me "trunky", making a elephant snout with his arm, and claliming I was always trunking in on other peoples conversations. As this thing leaves we get the behind view of it, where two blinkers are set up for it to cross the road with. Ahhhh, the good times. That was about it. I went to sleep, intended to get up early, didn't, oh yeah, then went to use the pay phone. I'm a calm person in general, and I haven't gotten riled once this trip, but today.....Today I woke up to call the ATM service. I had been givin a number, and when I used it, it didn't work. So, I tried the other number i was given, but the phone wouldn't work. So, I went to the next phone, put in some cash, got someone on the line, then the phone died. Okay, so in Canada you put in 25 cents and you can talk for as long as you want. Here, 50 cents apparently can get you like 15 minutes, but everytime I try, I get less tahn a minute. So I finally get a hold of someone and the convo goes like this:

"So, I'll need your name"
"Okay, but I don't have much time on this phone so please lets hurry."
"Sorry, that was Blodie DAn...dan...could you repeat your name"
"Who cares, I just want to know if the people are coming to get my card"
"I need your name, please repeat your first and last name"
"Okay, fine, Brodie D'Angio"
"I'm sorry, I didn't get that"
"I don't have much ti...." *CLICK*

Then smashing occured. I know it's not coshure to lose your temper in Thai society, but it couldn't be helped. The phone needed a good smashing. After releasing my rage, (and out of money, but checking anyway), I found that the phone had the "dead" dialtone. Ooops. A message popped up on the screen to possibly confirm that the phone was toast, or possibly to just put me in a better mood, but the message was "Handshake yes."

With that I went down to the V-shop convenient store where I lost my card and the clerk boys sorted it out for me. Good lads they are. I did some reading in the afternoon and bought some shampoo. I'd been using soap each day and my hair was starting to feel like a dirty mop. Ate at a small thai place, once for lunch, I had noodle soup, and once for diner, fried veggies and chicken. I liked the place and the owner taught me a few thai words for the dishes she served me.

Oh, and I just recalled something. The English buddy and myself who went out to the local Thai bar the other night were with this stunning Thai girl. She really was absolutely gorgous, but to top things off, she had an amazing tatoo on her chest. THE VANCOUVER CANUCKS LOGO. Don't know if she'd watched a game of hockey in her life. I just thought I'd toss that out there.

Well, I've been on this internet for far too long. It's almost 10. I'll keep on posting about what I get up to in the next few days. Take Care.

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Comments

[Dad & Donna]

sand and surf
Well we are off to the sand and surf....we will check your blog from there and hope we can keep up with your journey while we are gone. We will be thinking of you.....keep on enjoying everything you do.....and see...Be safe Dad & Donna