Chaing Mai days 2 and 3

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Hey guys,

Yesterday was really great weather in Chiang Mai, it didn't rain at all! I had a delicious breakfast at the Peppermint cafe, some glass noodle soup wit vegetables. Here they don't do all the flavorings of the soup for you, they let everyone do it themselves. So alongside the soup you get four little tins with different sauces and spices: each one if spicy, sweet, salty, or sour. Those are the four basic components of Thai food, so your supposed to kind of make your own favorite ratio.

We walked along the alley from our guesthouse onto the road beside the moat that surrounds the city and flagged down a taxi to take us to the Zoo. We really wanted to go to the top of Doi su tep mountain, but the previous night dad's friends had told us it would be cheaper if we went to the zoo, then tried to get on a taxi truck with a bunch of local people, so we wouldn't have to pay the tourist price. Anyways, that's what we did, and we managed to get up the mountain for 40 Baht instead of 500 😊

At the top there was this HUGE steep staircase with this big dragon railings going up, and at the top was a bug buddhist temple. Their temples are AMAZINGLY gorgeous, and also at the top you could look out and see the city of Chiang Mai! We got really lucky because it was a clear and sunnny day so the view was beautiful. We spent a while looking at the temple and the view, then eventually went back down the steps.

Then we went to the Kang Saeu Kan (Or something like that) shopping center. In the truck we crammed into the front seat with this old thai driver, because the back was filled with all these young Thai students who were up at the temple fundraising for their school. He was trying to teach us hwo to say Khap Khun Khaa (Thank you) the Chaing Mai way, which has a different accent from the Bangkok way. I don't think I got it, because he just laughed no matter which way I said it.

After we had some food and looked at the mall a bit, We tried to walk back to our guesthouse because we thought it was only a short distance. Bt we went thr wrong way and ended walking all the way around the outskirts of the city around 230 pm int he afternoon, when it was super hot. I kind of had a bad heachache in the morning and that made it way worse, so by the time we caught a tuk tuk and got back to our guesthouse I was completely shattered.

I laid low for a bit, then we met up with some of dads friends who live in Chaing Mai for dinner. We went to this tiny Thai restaurant called the Lemon Tree. Dad's friends Andy has a Thai wife called Kami, who'se really nice, and she ordered all of the food. We had a bunch of stuff: a completely intact deep-fried talapia fish, which was delicious, panaeng ckicken curreny, Laab kai (which is a northern thai dish), and stir fried veggies. It was really delicious, obviously.

The heat has been really tricky for me to adjust to. I've been drinking so much water, but I realized that I'm losing all my salts and electrolytes beacuse I have to keep drinking water. So finally last night I bought some rehydration salts from a pharmacy and drank a litre of that before I went to bed.

Today I did feel better in the morning, but I usually do because it's not that hot out. It is REALLY muggy though. Dad and I have been taking it easy this morning, moving slowly. We're just going to mooch around the city a bit more and check out a few more of the temples. Eat more delicious food (I'm obsessed with the food, this morning I had a Dragon Fruit shake, which is like a smoothie, but its just the fruit with some ice. I'd never had dragon fruit before, it's like a really mild melon, with a kiwi texture and like a sort of pomegranate and licorice aftertaste. Pretty tasty.) Then we're catching the overnight Train back to Bangkok! This time when I'm at the New Siam II I'll deifinitely go swimming in the pool!

Miss everybody, I'm still waiting for some e-mails! I'd love to hear what's going on back home

Love Lara

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