Day 8 -(last day of) Chiang Mai

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Well, I’m writing about Day 8 by default because Mike spent the day in our guesthouse valiantly defying the wrath of “Traveler’s Diarrhea”. It affects 30-50% of all travelers to SE Asia. Mike wins the “takin’ one for the Keat team” award. Poor guy. While Mike watched hour upon hour of bad tv, I went about my wife/nursing duties to the best of my ability. I purchased every kind of beverage possible from the market across the street - those people love us now! Kem and Kat (our amazing hosts) noticed quite quickly that Mike was m.i.a. and I eventually told them about his ailing intestines. Kat insisted on making Chinese tea for Mike and Kem lent us his own, secret stomach-problem medicine. Again, they are ridiculously nice!

It was our last day in Chiang Mai and so Mike kicked me out of the guesthouse and sent me to do “something fun” without him. I took a short walk and signed up for a Chiang Mai river cruise. I had about an hour and a half until the longtail boat departed so I decided to explore the nearby Wat (Buddhist temple). I took my shoes off, entered one of the temple buildings, and was approached and spoken to by a monk for the very first time!!! Most monks are not allowed to have any contact with women. It is a major cultural faux-pas for women to speak to, exchange money with, or even brush up against a monk. Some monks, however, are in a certain part of their training and they can/will speak to others/women. The rule of thumb is to let the monk initiate all interactions. Anyway… this one monk started talking to me!!! In fact he asked me a bunch of questions about America and my travels to Thailand. It was very cool. I thought of five million things to ask him about Buddhism…right after we had said our good-byes and he had walked away. After my monk convo I had time to sit inside one of the temples for a while and observe as people came and worshipped. There was a steady stream of people in and out and, after a while, I began noticing patterns to their visits and gained a tiny bit more of understanding about this religion.

The Chiang Mai river boat cruise was about 2 hours long. I went with 7 other travelers down the river and into the rural outskirts of Chiang Mai city. It was a great way to see the city from a different perspective. I was really struck by the sight of 5 star hotels built just a few feet away from dilapidated stilt houses. The cruise was a great experience and conversation with the other travelers was fine, but I found myself missing Mike a lot (and worrying about his poor stomach!).

After the river cruise, I met up with Mike back at the guesthouse. He looked terrible and had experienced a really horrible afternoon spent mainly in the bathroom. He ate some crackers while I had vegetarian Khao Soy, a Chiang Mai specialty. The Khao Soy was seriously spicy, but I was proud that I forged my way through it. Early that evening, Mike was feeling worse and worse. We got some advice from webmd.com and Dr. Smita and came up with a pretty spot-on diagnosis for Mike’s illness. Then, I googled pharmacies near our gueshouse and went and bought cipro (antibiotic) over the counter for my honey, Gotta love Thailand! I also did a little shopping at the Night Bizarre and tried to lighten Mike’s spirits by buying him a pair of thai pants. You’ll see them the next time you hang out with us, I’m sure. I really improved my market bargaining skills during this excursion. The prices at Thai markets are completely negotiable. Usually, items aren’t marked with a price at all. If you are serious about buying something you ask the vendor “How much?”, they think for a minute and give you a number about twice as high as they are expecting to get for it, then you act uninterested and go back and forth a few times until a price is agreed upon. The language barrier makes this even more interesting! Usually, the vendor will bring out a calculator and you will take turns punching the numbers in to communicate your bartering. Very interesting! It’s also important to keep in mind that all this is done with smiles on everyone’s faces. It is a very important part of Thai culture for interactions to remain pleasant, calm, and light-hearted. So all of this bartering looks very different in Thailand than it would in NYC!

It was an early night of packing in preparation for our 8 a.m. flight from Chiang Mai to Koh Samui. We went to bed feeling quite sad about leaving this wonderful city. Our five days and nights in Chiang Mai were so completely amazing.
-BK

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