Shopping Party

Hi all,

Anna Kate again. We're continuing to enjoy Chiang Mai. Today is our last day here unfortunatley but looking ahead we can't complain... after all, it is almost BEACH TIME. Which is what I've been looking forward to most - swimming, snorkeling, boat rides, waterfalls, etc.

Colin described yesterday's adventures perfectly. The rafting was definitely the best part. It was nice to get wet both from the major down pour and the river.

We woke up this morning (Wednesday, I think) and Krystle and I noticed our faces were just a touch itchy. Looking in the mirror we had huge rashes across our face - convienently in the same location as our chin strip from our rafting helmets. Mine is a very defined row of redness all around and Krystle's resulted in huge 2nd chin. Her face looks like she weighs 100 lbs more than she does. Since we noticed that the elephants were doing their business in the same river as we rafted in we've been calling our affliction - elephant-poop-strap-ititis.

This new look we have, coupled with our extremely bad hair and always glistening faces, makes us feel even more insecure as we see all these beautiful Thai women strutting around in the best clothes and always looking fabulous. I'm sure they could all star on "Sex in the City."

Krystle stayed back at the hostel to nap so Mark, Colin and I went to a great cafe - Liberand Cafe. It was walking distance and our Lonely Planet guide said they had the best banana pancakes there. But what I loved most was the cafe latte milkshake with vanilla ice cream.

Then we went back to our hostel (a new one, cheaper than the first but we still have A/C) and collected Krystle. I had read about this area with great shopping (our book described it as "where the trendy Thais shop." So, the four of us headed in that direction. After we arrived there Krystle and I split off to do some serious shopping while the boys looked for scooters to rent to go back up into the mountains. Krystle and I were a little wary of driving on the wrong side of the road so we weren't at all sad to miss that.

Well, shopping we did, and did well. We both spent about $50 Canadian and bought amazing thai-designed clothes. Most of the shops were boutique-esque, very fancy, very expensive - in Thai-terms. Got three great tops and a bracelet.

After the shopping K & I went looking for spring rolls bought got lazy and just went into 7 Eleven for water, chips and juice. I am now drinking kiwi juice, water and eating some exotic kind of Lays chips. Good though, especially for less than 1 Canadian dollar. THe food and fruit here is incredible. We'll have to do a whole blog entry of the different things we've tried. Deep fried banana might be my favourite though.

Tonight we're eating stall food (street vendors here sell EVERYTHING) and getting foot massages. Gosh, life is hard.

Hope you all stay well,
AK

---

---