Rest of Thailand

Here are some pictures from the rest of my Thailand Trip:

Sunrise we saw from the train on our arrival to Chiang Mai

Outdoor market near our hostel

The best Thai restaurant ever -- we walked in it by chance on the first morning and wound up talking to two separate expats in their; one asked us where we had heard of the restaurant, and the other was on the board of tourism in Chiang Mai. A great sign for us - we went back three more times in the two days we were there.

My meal that morning, Mango and sticky rice. The rice is cooked specially inside a bamboo shoot and it is sweeter and stickier (and not served hot) -- an awesome combination.

After our meal, we checked into our hostel and then went up the mountain to Doi Suthep, which is a temple on top of a hill that over looks all of Chiang Mai, it is really impressive up there.

Back of Buddha

Stairs going up

View from the top

Also in Chiang Mai, we took a cooking class (I can now cook Pad Thai, among some other food):

Our instructor is at the head of the table. The other students were mostly middle aged Europeans, some of the men really didn't seem to care to be there or pay attention, but we had a great time nonetheless.

Papaya Salad that I made (I made three other entrees as well including pad thai)-- very spicy

Knives for chopping red curry ingredients

Our class hard at work -- we took the half day class but it was still over 4 hours long

After class we walked through a night market outside of the city wall, I obviously had to take a picture of my twin brothers names next to the word thai. Not to worry Tom and John (if you are reading this) I didn't buy these for you.

After the night market, we saw a roadside bar (literally on the sidewalk).

...and an elephant

There are pictures of the King of Thailand (who is now much older than this -- I think in his mid 90s) all over Thailand in every shop and restaurant, and basically anywhere you turn. I liked this picture which we saw in the Chiang Mai cultural museum on our second day there.

I should also note that we went for Thai massages on our second day, which were amazing. I was told beforehand that thai massage hurts more than normal massages but it didn't bother Katie, Albert, or I. I could use one right now.

After Chiang Mai, we went back to Bangkok where I spent the day and night (I flew back to Singapore on Saturday Morning). We visited Jim Thompson's house, A huge shopping center, and a huge complex which sold all electronics. I bought a bootleg copy of snowleopard (operating system for macs) to put on my laptop when I get back.

Photos of the terminal in the airport in Bangkok -- very early in the morning. I had to wake up at 5 am.

I've tried to catch all of you up to speed with this post as far as my pictures go, because I'm very excited for the next post.

Emily