Chiang Mai (again)

I just noticed that I didn't actually talk about Chiang Mai very much in my last post... It's probably because I really haven't spent much time in the city.

Last night we went out for dinner at the night market and I had something amazing to eat (some form of basil chicken) - very spicy but not so spicy that I had trouble eating it (my mouth was on fire by the end of the meal though). I find it funny that some people in my group really cannot eat any spicy food. Also, there's this whole 'macho' thing happening with the guys (there are 4 guys who are about 24 years old who keep trying to show each other up) where they force each other to eat things that they think are hot. It's pretty funny to watch them do this as they look like complete fools doing it (I think only one of them can eat spicy food - the others are just wimps trying to act tough and who in some cases end up crying after eating a hot pepper). For some reason the girls are excluded from this competition (I have a feeling I could out-spice the 3 of them, maybe even the fourth!)

Anyway, my food was really good... Actually, in general the food here has been really good. After dinner, we (the girls from the tour) walked through the night market and found ourselves some sarongs for the hike (we were told that we needed these in the villages - I don't even know how to put it on but whatever, I can use it as a sheet if need be!)

I'm looking forward to coming back here. Chiang Mai looks much more interesting than Bangkok did to me. I want to go back to Bangkok and see a few things that I didn't get the chance to visit. I still don't know what I'll be doing between the end of the tour and when Ryan meets up with me. I'm thinking of maybe flying down to Singapore... but at the same time I wouldn't mind spending a little more time just discovering what there is in Thailand. I think it'll all depend on how well the tour goes and how I'm feeling once it's done. So far I've really been enjoying the pace of this trip - I haven't been feeling too rushed to do or see anything.

That's it for the next little while. I'll be back in a few days.