Chiang Mai

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So we have been derelict in our blogging duties since we arrived in Chiang Mai! Our apologies. There is simply *so much good food* and so little time to eat it in that we have been too busy to catch up. Anyway, here's the short summary of our longest stay in Thailand:

Chiang Mai is a sprawling university town / cultural capitol of ~1,000,000 residents, with over three hundred temples and some of the most beautiful forest-in-the-city landscapes we have seen this trip. It is located in the North, near the border to Myanmar and Laos. Located on a wide, verdant plain, the city is laced with murky waterways and ancient stone walls that have been perfectly preserved. It sits in a bowl between the mountains, and at night you can see the twinkling lights of Doi Suthep and other famous temples glittering down from the mountain peaks. Safe, intellectually vibrant, and clean, Chiang Mai seems like the ideal place to raise a child or settle down for retirement away from the red lights of Pattaya or Bangkok. There are vegan bicyclists galore, vegetarian restaurants aplenty (to Kendall's delight!), and it only costs 70 cents to ride a public taxi anywhere in the city.



The local cuisine is especially notable. Known as Lanna style, it is prepared with traditionally northern ingredients. This means a lot of green veggies, pork and spicy lemongrass sausage, pickled tidbits, and thick savory curries. The signature dish of Chiang Mai is "Kao Soi", a curry-coconut soup with yellow egg noodles, pickled salad, and crispy fried bits of noodle on top. This is straight up the tastiest dish we have ever eaten, and it is a sin that you can't find it in the States. It's curried crack. We want to live on it. There are also thick, granulated dips served with a variety of chopped vegetables to use as spoons (Lanna food is traditionally eaten with the fingers), tea leaf salads, spiced chopped meats, a universe of soups served from roadside stands in plastic bags, and sliced fruit as far as the eye can see. It is all very healthy, with a lot of lean protein and leafy greens, and the residents all seem fit and healthy as a result. Some of the food is a bit questionable to the western palate - see the blood soup, which is just a bowl of blood with noodles. But if you toss a stone in the air, chances are it's going to land on something delicious here in Chiang Mai.



I am studying Muay Thai for three hours a day at Lanna Muay Thai. Lanna Muay Thai, also known as Kiat Busaba, is the home of the "Beautiful Boxer", who was the first kathoey muay thai fighter to achieve mainstream success. It's a fighter's gym, with no structured classes and a fairly brutal pace that leaves me injured in a different way each day. I'm having the time of my life! I learn more in three weeks here than I would in three months back home. The trainers are incredibly idiosyncratic, and they possess wicked senses of humor that often use literal punchlines. It's terrifying, exhilarating, and immensely satisfying because I am just barely good enough to keep up and hold my own against the ripped-to-death lifelong martial artists around me.



There are fights three times a week in four stadiums, so it seems like every day one of the gym fighters is gearing up for war. We accompanied them several times to shout and clap when our dude won and sort of shift uncertainly when he lost. One Australian father brought his kid to train with him for several months, and they both fought the same night. The jacked dad smashed his pudgy opponent with an onslaught of punches, and then his son got kneed in the groin so hard that he walked away a soprano. Also, we got to see Buakaw! Buakaw is the most famous (though not the best) Muay Thai fighter in the world, and we stood maybe ten feet from him at one of the fights! That was really cool. He had a huge gold chain with a sacred amulet on it, so he looked like a religious gangster. Strange combination of styles.



We are staying at the Green Hill Apartments north of the Old City, sandwiched between a shopping mall and a forested residential area. A ten minute walk down the superhighway brings us to Nimmanheim, which is basically mini-New York. The University is also nearby, so there's a very younthful feeling to the neighborhood. Head west towards the foothills, and you run into the Chiang Mai Zoo. This is a gigantic sprawling zoo where anyone that isn't crazy or my mom would rent a golf cart just to get from exhibit to exhibit. Luckily we went with my mom, so we walked the 8km loop in the noon heat. They have every flavor of lemur, as well as many cool native birds and some really depressed looking penguins. Those penguins messed up somewhere along the line. This is not penguin territory. Kendall took a bunch of great photos, and now she has scratchboard material for the next few years.

Also, congratulations to Kalyn and Vartan on their engagement! We are both so happy for them. Time to plan another wedding!

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