Back to Thailand

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So nice to have the trains running again
After an eventful flight from Singapore to Bangkok on September 26 (I always classify having to adjust your flight path due to lightning as eventful - lightning is not beautiful at 30,000 ft!), we arrived in Bangkok. After spending the night, Dan and I made our way to the train station to buy 2nd class sleeper tickets for the 13 hour ride to Chiang Mai.

We love Chiang Mai! We were feeling quite disappointed at having to rush back to Thailand after realizing we could not even afford one more night in Singapore ($200 CDN for a hostel----what?), and Bangkok is hardly a homecoming. However, Chiang Mai is different. The city has over 300 temples, many of them inside an old walled portion of the city. The city also has glorious night markets with handicrafts, linens, weavings, and most importantly....food! We spent last night wandering the Sunday night market eating pad thai, dim sum, rolls, and Dan had some weird beef jerky. It was wonderful - until Dan was bit by a street dog! The bite was quite minor, but it did break the skin....Thus, we spent this morning (our anniversary) at the hospital where Dan recieved his first of 5 shots over the next 30 days to prevent rabies. Fun. He was quite nonchalant about the whole thing until he looked up rabies on Wikipedia and realized that it is uniformly fatal and endemic among street animals here. We could not find who, if anyone, the dog belonged to and so the doctor advised that Dan recieve the post-bite treatment because we were not immunized for rabies before we left.

Unfortunately, this means we cannot travel to Laos shortly as planned. Dan must be in Thailand for all the dates he requires shots - and this is wisest anyways as medical facilities in Laos are not great. On the positive side, we can see more of the north of Thailand which is beautiful! Also, I am so thankful that we have insurance, and that we were able to get the medicine he needed very quickly and easily. The hospital this morning was fantastic.

We spent the rest of the day wandering the old city and visiting temples. We have not visited so many temples since Vietnam and I had forgotten how peaceful they are. We are meeting up with a friend tonight. We met Gary in Halong Bay, and bumped into him last night in the market in Chiang Mai. This is the 3rd time we have run into Gary totally by chance here in southeast asia - crazy!

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Photos

Tasting organic fruit wine in Chiang Mai
Lychee and strawberry (Dan also couldnt resist testing the longan wine)

Shawarma?
It was fantastic as Dan's pre-dogbite smile reveals

For Sandra
cute cat selling wares in Chiang Mai night market

Malay Sun Bear
A group of tourists were feeding this bear junk food. I tried to scold them in English....

Comments

[barb]

Happy Anniversary!! You sure it's been two years? .... wow, time flies! Rabies shots ... sounds like a good time :( Keep safe ... I can't believe that suspension bridge you went across ... sounded scary. I loved the picture of the kitty .. so cute! Enjoy yourselves! Love the blog!