We laid low today... breakfast and lunch at Juniper Tree, and Monica started packing for the return to China.
We went to the Sunday Market in the afternoon to get gifts, souveniers and stuff only available here. The market is HUGE, with hundreds of stalls selling everything from junk to traditional crafts to treasures to art. There was a huge food section where dozens of stalls were preparing barbequed foods ranging from bananas to sausages to whole chickens to dove eggs to dumplings to ant larvae soup. I got tons of photos and will try to get them posted. I'm having troubles with shutterfly, so haven't been able to get pics up for people to look at.
Sunday evening, we ate at a restaurant overlooking the Ping River in downtown Chiang Mai. I had Kau Soi, a noodles/chicken/egg/veggie soup that was out of this world!! Jake had TomKha, a coconut milk soup with mushrooms in it, Monica had PadThai and Creed had green curry on rice. Everything was amazing.
On the way home, Monica and I stopped for a massage--she had her back worked on while I just did my feet so I could hold Lincoln. It was awesome, of course.
March 28, Monday
PACKING UP!! I took Chloe out to go birding and we saw some pretty cool stuff. Probably the best bird we saw was a red-whiskered bulbul flying around with a big chunky of gauzy material. I'm pretty sure this is breeding season here, because they were sure acting like they were courting!! After watching the bulbuls for a while, I realized that there was a White-vented Myna that was tormenting them and trying to get the piece of fabric it was carrying around. The Myna eventually succeeded and flew off with his prize.
We returned to the night market to get a few more things, then to central market (an enormous mall that would rival the mall of america for size and bustle to get some items from the pharmacy.
March 29, Tuesday
We leave this afternoon for China. We'll be in transit for a couple days, but I"ll be able to see Kunming and Guiyang/Huaxi on the way, and I'll get to meet some of Monica's friends in Guiyang (where they lived for the first 3 years of their time in China). I'm really looking forward to it! Our itinerary:
3/29, Tuesday: Chiang Mai to Kunming, Yunnan Province (arrive late at night, stay at hotel) 3/30, Wed: Travel from Kunming to Guiyang in the afternoon by plane (1hr. flight), once landed we'll head to Huaxi (the town we used to live in) about 45 minutes from Guiyang. We'll be staying at a friend's apt. while they are away. 3/31-4/2: Stay in Huaxi. We can't get a flight from Guiyang to Liping until Sat. the 2nd. Creed and Chloe will be able to play with friends in Huaxi, and Jake will have meetings with officials in Guiyang, and Monica will
have a chance to reunite with Wang Ayi, Zhou Ayi, and a couple other expats. 4/2, Saturday: Fly from Guiyang to Liping, arriving home in the afternoon.
I won't be able to easily post to the blog while in China, so posts will be less frequent. I'll also be away from email for the trip, but will be in touch again by the 3rd of April.
Thanks for reading, wish you were here!!
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