Chiang Mai

Even from the air you can tell that Thailand is more developed than Vietnam.  After a short stop at the Bangkok Airport we flew here and could immediately tell we were in a more developed country.  There are fewer scooters (but still lots) and the traffic is much more orderly.  There are even sidewalks that you can sort of walk on.  And even a few crosswalks where cars actually stop and let you cross the street.  We are feeling spoiled.

We checked in and found the room to be quite serviceable - after all this is listed as a hostel.  We unpacked - made a huge laundry pile and set out to explore.  We are hopeless with the street names here.  The large street near us is Nimmanhaemin Road.  We will never get even close on that one so it has become the "N" street.  We located a cafe with air conditioning on "N" street and had some great Thia food and cold Singhai beer.  We crashed and both got up this morning ready to continue exploring.

Carol met with the Thai coordinator named Krith and Christina (the other professor). They clarified a few details about the schedule and red taxi pick-up. Then off we went with Christina to explore a little more.  Lunch and a little rest got us all ready for the "Sunday Walking Street Market."

There is a great system here of the little red trucks with covered benches that you share with whoever is going your way.  You tell the driver where you are going and if that suits him, you agree on a price, usually 20 baht per person, and climb in.  20 Baht is roughly 70 cents and almost all trips around town are 20 baht.  I will post a picture of this favorite mode of transport soon.  We walked around the market and surprise! surprise! Carol found a few things to buy. [ A Carol edit: I bought ONE thing]. I even found a cool t-shirt.  Dinner at an open air restaurant recommended by an American fellow who ran a used book store and then another little red taxi ride back to our home for the next few weeks.  We ran into a few of the Cal Poly students at the market who arrived today or yesterday. They were very polite and very zombified with jet lag.

That's it until tomorrow and the official start of the program.