Friday, March 03, 2006

Chiang Mai enroute to Chiang Rai

Chiang Mai is Thailand's second biggest city after Bangkok and we have been here for 3 days. Paul and I stayed in a modest hotel on the bank of a river, while Frank and Rebecca, the honeymooners, stayed at this hotel called The Chedi; it is the swankiest hotel I have ever seen. Our jaws dropped when we walked in, then dropped even further when we went up to their room--they were assigned their own butler, if you can believe that. We were more than happy to live vicarously through them during cocktail hour on their terrace every evening.

Chiang Mai is a really cute city that is easy to get around. The area we stayed in was not heavily touristed and on our first day of adventuring around we looked for a place to eat lunch. Everything on the menu was listed in Thai, which gave us little choice but to wing it and see what we ended up with on our plates. I have to say that I am pretty thankful at this point I have falled off the vegetarian wagon, as it is practically impossible to avoid meat if you want to be adventurous and eat in local joints. It turns out that many restaraunts specialize in just one thing, so there is essentially one dish on the menu with a choice of either pork or chicken with broth and vegetables added in, with rice on the side. It feels odd to order hot, spicy soup in 95 degree weather but there you have it. I haven't had one bad meal yet, regardless of how much I sweat while eating it!

The other night Frank suggested this cabaret/Vegas style show at "The Simon's Dream" and it was pretty hilarious. Think extreme schlock and drag queens mixed up with traditional Thai costumes and dancing, with jungle motif. I don't know how else to explain it. The costumes were outrageous and glittery and the stage sets changed with every dance routine. Of course, the gay national anthem was played at the end--"I Will Survive"--and this fabulous trannie yanked Paul out of his seat and dragged him on stage. We were laughing so hard that I almost forgot to pull out the camera. He wound up with glowing red lipstick marks all over his face by the end of it.

We couldn't board the 10:00 bus to Chiang Rai so we are currently killing time in an internet cafe, awaiting our 12:30 V.I.P. luxury bus with toilet and air conditioning -- only $12 for two one way tickets.

We keep spacing out on bringing the USB cord out with us to upload recent photos and hope to have some up on the next post.

After Chiang Rai, it is off to Laos! Just in time for the heat wave. Wish us luck.

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