Thai ----> Laos

Jules and I have been excited about this blog post. For two main reasons: 1. Our trip to Lao(s) was--in a word--weird. And in a phrase, a plethora of things that makes one wonder and question. 2. When we came back, we researched Wikipedia'd more about the country and let me tell you, that explained a lot. But before you read that link, I thought it would be interesting to separate this post into those same two parts: 1. Our experience and observations and 2. Some helpful facts and anecdotes as to why Lao is the way it is.
We'll also be switching off who's doing the writing, so we'll clarify that with an A or a J (And just to clarify everything and make this an even more long-winded intro, we made a friend! on the bus ride from Thailand to Laos, and she makes a few cameos in our stories).

A: Our trip to Lao, or more accurately, Vientiane, was an interesting one. To be perfectly honest, Vientiane is a surprisingly uneventful place to visit. And this is not to say that Lao is not a beautiful and exotic country. I'd like to think Vientiane is to Lao what the Midwest is to the USA (In the same way that Delhi inaccurately represents the whole of India). Nobody goes to Kansas and feels like they know America. (Also so as not to offend anybody I'd like to clarify that I'm not saying the Midwest isn't probably a great place to live, just that it doesn't represent America as a whole, and I'm hoping that Vientiane is the same.)

First of all, we're pretty sure the whole town is populated either by tourists waiting for their Thai visas or locals who were born and raised there. In an almost depressing way, I don't think anybody else is in that town by choice. The Thai consulate won't do same-day visas, not even emergency ones, so everybody is forced to stay there for at least a night. Which seems like a great marketing ploy by the government except that everything closes by 10, and the most happening bar still closes at 11:30. In fact, when asking one of the locals who works a backpacker-friendly dorm hostel about the great eats and night life, he responded with, "no, there's no good food" and "no, there's nothing to do." The town was once under French rule, and the remnants of that mostly lie in the cheap and abundant baguette sandwiches. When we were walking around at night trying to find a place to relax possibly with a Beerlao in hand, we were pointed to the only place where everybody was--a rooftop bar on a lonely street by the river (sorry to interrupt the flow of this story but I'd just like to point out that naming your most popular beer "Beerlao" is exactly equivalent to us having a "BeerUSA," which becomes comical in that context because you know, 'murica and all).

(Side story to my side story, when we were trying to find this bar, we might have already had a few Beerlaos, and we ended up walking to the top floor of what I think was an apartment complex and finding this place:

Haleigh even tried looking around the corner to see if we were missing something. I think Jules' face says it all. J: No, I think it says a lot that these are our only 3 pictures from Lao.)

J: There are a couple perplexing things that stand out in Vientiane. Most prominent are what appear to be the only forms of advertisement: signs for Beerlao, the country's most popular beer (why do you need to advertise your only - and thus very popular - beer?), and communist flags. Taken alone they are a bit odd, but seen together, they're enlightening! Beerlao appears to be the most exciting thing to do in Vientiane. Activities topping the tourist to-do list include, but are not limited to: drink a Beerlao while watching  the sunset on the river. When we finally found a bar, much less one that was open after 9, men attempting to buy us drinks insisted feverishly that we simply must try the Beerlao. Judging from the resounding Laotion appreciation for this cheap little beverage, to them this was probably the equivalent of suavely recommending a medium bodied, reddish brown IPA with a balancing malt backbone. To us, it was more like someone insisting that you really must try the Miller Lite; you won't regret it; nothing is going to top this experience. Imagine our horror when, after coming back from the bathroom, we discovered that they had ordered a 6 liter beer tower of the stuff for us. Luckily, the unspoken Vientiane curfew of 11:30pm cut that night pleasantly short.

Naively, I assumed that a 750ml beer for $1.22 was the cheapest way to forget your communism woes. A quick trip to the minimart proved me earthshatteringly wrong - apparently you can easily pick up a liter of very sketchy looking whisky for $1.10. A country that's willing to drink hard liquor that costs less per liter than its own beloved beer (and not even twice as much as the cost of water) has got to have an interesting story. Turns out Lao has an unbelievably rocky history. Going from a country torn asunder by invaders and rebellions to one dominated by the French (who, as it turned out, were pretty apathetic about the country too), Lao's pre-independence years don't seem all that great. Subjectively speaking, post-independence hasn't been that kind either. After the communist revolution and Laos' subsequent involvement in the Vietnam war, the US launched a bombing campaign that lasted nearly a decade and made Laos the most heavily bombed country per capita in the world. What with this and what appear to be huge human rights issues, it's interesting that Lao is such an invisible entity to most Americans when we're clearly so entangled in its past, and thereby its present.  

A: One thing that I believe Lao so desperately needs to do is devalue its currency. Currently, $1 is 8,000 kip. What's even worse is that the conversion from Thai Baht to Lao Kip gives us a terrible rate. At one point we were trying to go to the bathroom and a lady was posted up outside charging us 2,000 kip! That's like 10 baht! Which is like being asked to pay $5 in America (I know I'm going on a lot of tangents, but one thing I really miss is being able to be like, "I'm sorry, I thought this was America! I thought this was the land of the free!" because even though that's just me making a joke, I don't get to say that here). We couldn't really find food for less than 20,000 kip although that might have been because we were in the tourist section of Lao. Yes 80 baht is still less than $3, but when living and working in a foreign country it's important to start thinking in that country's standard of living and in that case, paying 100+ baht per meal could get expensive. All of Vientiane lets tourists pay in Baht as well as Kip, however, which makes their exorbitant pricing reasonable. Because I felt like buying their resources and paying in another country's currency is like going to America and being like, "Well I don't have any of those dollar thingies but I've got Euros is that cool?" So rather than having to pay the ($8+) bank fees from pulling out of the wall, we would pay in baht and get kip in return.

This plan went great until our final hours, when our kip quickly dwindled. After a quick meal (a Lao street food sandwich consisting of dried shredded pork, a laughing cow cheese, cilantro, some red stuff, and some brown stuff in a baguette) and an unexpected extra 1,000 kip on the bus fee, we were but 5 baht short of the fee to get to the border, and this included what spare coins we had. Now don't think that we were ill-prepared and broke in a foreign country, just that all we had left was a 1,000 baht bill (which if you still haven't figured it out from all of our comparisons, is like having a fifty) and we weren't about to get a quarter of mil' kip change on our journey back to Thailand. So when the lady came around, we played pleading and desperate foreign tourists and explained that our last few kip and baht coins were all that we had. We were a little afraid of getting kicked off the bus, but India experience has taught us differently, and eventually the lady graciously let us only pay for one of us. Here we thought we had made it without having to break the bank, but Lao really milks the whole "we know you're only here for the visa run and not to tour our country, jerk" and they have a needless exit fee. To our benefit, the way they collected this fee had a loophole, and that was to walk around the lady that was collecting the fee. I see this as one of those moments where a country or government mimics more powerful countries by implementing similar practices, but doesn't quite do it correctly. The lady who made us turn around to buy the "ticket" that was our exit fee (of 9,000 kip each) was sitting at a table after immigration and customs and from what we saw, only ripped your ticket. So Haleigh pointed out that nobody was across the street and we all just made our way casually but quickly to the other side and walked past the point where the woman was sitting. There also happened to be duty free shopping there so we pretended like we had money as I called the minibus service to come pick us up. And, not surprisingly, that worked. Again, we saved ourselves 70 baht, and we were in the clear...

But we had yet to cross the Thai border. So here we are in no-man's land between Lao and Thailand and the bus to cross "Friendship Bridge" (A bridge built as a donation from Australia as a development aid for Lao) is 30 baht each. We asked a few people if we could just walk the distance, and found a guy that told us it was no more than half a kilometer and even gave us a map:

Man I wish I had a better quality picture, but this was all I could get at the time. Jules put it well when she said that as soon as he drew a circle and wrote "Laos," we knew this map wasn't winning any cartography awards. The thing is, he took SO long and was SO careful to add all the arrows and the lines in the road. I'm seriously still laughing as I upload the picture now (also the title of this blog entry was inspired by this map).

So we foolishly perked up believing half a kilometer's walk was worth 60 more baht in our pocket (J: and we still only had that 1000 baht bill. Sidenote, what currency does an ATM give in no-mans land?). Oh. My. God. Not only did the walk turn out to be 5.5 kilometers (as Jules looked up later on google maps), but the sun was setting, the weight of our backpacks was getting heavier, and it felt like the Thai border would never come. We had to climb over some barricades to pass the "Welcome to Thailand" and "Welcome to Laos" signs on the way too (at least I'm assuming that's what they said, since they were written in Thai and Lao), an indication to me that people don't normally go for strolls on the Friendship Bridge. Still, with the help of Jules', "It's just around the corner, I know it!" we made it to the Thai immigration and happily showed them our shiny new "Non-immigrant B" visas (also known as our "You can now legally work in Thailand" visas). We made it just in time to grab some yummy street food dinner, paid for at a reasonable price with reasonable currency. I missed Thailand. And to think Jules and I were going to originally stay in Vientiane for another day because we thought we might as well explore if we're being forced to travel there, but we quickly called the company the morning we were picking up the visas, because one day and one night in Vientiane is truly more than enough (not trying to sound like a miserable unappreciative white person, just being dramatic and also calling it like I sees it). We did have time the next day after picking up our passports to go to the Lao "Arc de Triomphe," which was actually quite beautiful and had a cute little market and a great view of the city (see pictures at the end).

The visa process--the whole reason we made this trip to Lao--was actually somewhat smooth. Anybody who wants a Thai visa has to go to the consulate and submit their paperwork sometime between 9 and noon. So that means grabbing a number and doing our best to check the correct boxes and answer unclear questions on the form as numbers are electronically called out in Thai and in English over the speakers. I was inexplicably nervous as it came closer to our number, but of course they ended up skipping us. And as the numbers continued upwards, I decided to just get up and go to the window, which turned out fine since they just took my paperwork and gave me a receipt. We then went inside and waited for our number to be called again so we could pay the 2,000 baht. This time Haleigh and Julia's number were called one after the other...and mine was skipped. But I think the guy entering the numbers saw how I reacted and figured out I must have been next so he went back and let me pay so we could leave. I'm probably going into too much detail on this part, but my reasoning is that you who are reading this might have been curious about the process and I didn't want to give more attention to the ridiculous 2,000 kip bathroom fee than the more important life-relevant visa run.

Then we had to go to the consulate the next day between 1 and 3 to pick up our passports. And that's about it. It went smoothly for us because our school thankfully provided all the proper paperwork, but I overheard some people getting rejected at the window. Though they won't refund you if you are denied a visa, they are nice enough to usually reject you before you pay. That way you don't end up thinking you're in the clear for your visa and finding your passport empty. All in all, mission accomplished right?

From the top of Vientiane's Patuxai

The delicious street food sammich

What'd I tell ya, mysterious red stuff and mysterious brown stuff

Some interesting old coins that every vendor seemed to have. Jules and I suspect they are fake, especially since one of them was an "old" American coin that we're pretty sure was never actually circulating currency

J: Now we're back in the comfort of our little home, regularly making batches of thai tea and nommin' on bananas and longans and mandarins. We missed Thailand.  

Saving Face

So far I’ve been pretty disappointed by how completely un-absurd the Thai people are. My favorite part of travelling is reveling in the absurdities around me, but Thailand is giving my drive to overanalyze an unwanted vacation. The Thais are just efficient and reasonable and logical people. Sigh. But don’t fret. The Thais still have their quirks.

Most pervasive, yet most invisible, is the Thai concept of saving face. This is definitely an Asian thing in general but absurdly prominent in Thai culture. Basically, anything that causes embarrassment or conflict is avoided at absolutely all costs. Sometimes this is more obvious than others – the oft-used anecdote of Thais giggling at an automobile accident, for instance. Thais try to laugh these situations off in public and (if absolutely necessary) deal with the conflict in private. This has been great for us, because as Americans we can be pretty embarrassing. Think of all the awkward and ridiculous things you end up doing as a tourist as you try to adapt to a radically different culture. Now subtract all the inevitable staring, dirty looks, and pity from passersby. In Thailand, moments of confusion and naivety get to be private instead of broadcasted. For someone like me who really values privacy and hates looking like an idiot, that aspect of saving face totally resonates with me. Saving face not only applies to embarrassment but also to arguments – we always find Thais breaking into awkward giggle fits during a debate that looks unequivocally heated. It’s certainly puzzling to have someone laugh at your obvious distress. Normal conclusions (e.g. they’re callous people or have major issues with social cues) don’t apply here. We’ve experienced this quite a lot in relation to our boss, who has given us a ton of trouble in the past couple of weeks. In some cases, we’ll be extremely upset about the situation and be further aggrieved to find her cavalierly tossing our concerns aside. Just as we’re about to call it a day and refuse to work for someone so heartless, she turns around and makes a concerted effort to give us what we want. It seems that us having a problem with her is twofold: she wants to downplay the situation for herself so that there is no conflict, but she also wants to keep us from showing anger so that we don’t lose face. To complicate matters, she also can’t confront that she’s made a mistake and is at fault. As a result, she fixes the problem for us only because she wants to maintain pride in herself for being a good, respected person. If you’re confused, don’t worry. So are we. It seems to me that a society that hinders people from using constructive criticism or calling someone out could be dysfunctional, dishonest, and unproductive, but there’s definitely more to the puzzle.  It prevents a lot of conflict and makes for a pretty peaceful society. It’s an odd balance between maintaining pride in yourself and trying equally hard not to destroy anyone else’s. Starkly different from our fend-for-yourself society! It’s fun to see how saving face plays such a huge yet subtle role in everyday life here. It’s also wildly confusing.     

Going out at night has also been something of a foreign experience. In most other countries, people tend to interact more in these situations, but the Thais very much keep to themselves. And by themselves I don’t necessarily mean their friend group, I mean they tend to sit in silence either doing nothing or on sort of electronic device. At one of our favorite bars, it’s not uncommon for people to be taking naps on the thai dining mats or just lazing around in big groups texting. Certainly a different sort of student life than I’m used to, but we obviously have yet to explore all the facets of it. So far it’s really difficult to make friends because while Thais are smiley and friendly, it’s not easy to break through that barrier of politeness into the actual friend zone. Unlike India, where people are constantly coming up to you and asking all about your life and what you’re doing that night, a Thai coming up and asking you anything at all would be absurd and generally sketchy.

In exciting news, our friend Jenna just arrived in Chiang Mai! For those of you who haven’t heard the story, basically several coincidences happened. After Ariel and I decided to move to Thailand to teach English, we found out that my roommate in India, Jenna, was planning to do the exact same thing. We ended up picking the same city as well (unless Jenna decides to leave, but seems like she’s loving it already!). My other roommate, Alex, happened to be going back to southeast asia and will be in Thailand to visit us in a couple weeks. So, a year later, we all independently chose to be in Chiang Mai all at the same time. Crazy. I’m so excited to see them and have a little reunion!   

Everything Else is Irrelephant

A parcel for room 718!!!

Go Sam :)

Julia captured me trying to find a tea strainer in one of the stores at our local market. So much color, so much confusion. Also that clock is wrong.

From the tunnels of Wat Umong on the mountains of Doi Suthep

A cat we befriended in Wat Umong. We named him Buddha and wanted to take him home :)

Elephants!

The inside of a Songthaew

An ode to Coca-cola

Wat Phra Singh in the Old City. The biggest and most famous in central Chiang Mai.

I hesitated going into this wat because I thought these guys were real...

But upon closer inspection...

How we get really cheap drinking/cooking water!  Just put in 5 baht and you get  about 6 liters of water.

We wanted to capture what a coat of paint can do for a building. Goodness.

Julia's new age!

Never thought I'd be seeing the inside of an elephant's mouth!

Even though these outfits give me no shape whatsoever (and even though I look like an alien), this was one of the best ways to capture our elephant journey :)

Crazy bug!

Pictures for the guest book

A unicorn sculpture in the Chiang Mai Art Museum right down our street

The rent was too high in our apartment, so we found a traditional Thai home to live in.

Julia chilling on our new front porch.

Welcome to our home!

It even comes with a loom

And is pre-furnished with a throne

The view between the market and our apartment. So pretty!

My first time making Thai tea!

Apartments and a Note on Ethical Issues

It seems like distant past for us now, but I thought it might be fun to relive the apartment hunting experience. By far the easiest time I’ve had looking for a place to live in a foreign country. Everything was pretty straightforward, and, as per usual, imbued with a mix of Ariel and Julia approaches. To start us off, I found a list of the 140 condo complexes available to us in Chiang Mai, and then narrowed it down to about 50 or so that were on the west side (more about the west side later). From there we set to researching them all to see if they even had a web presence or were vaguely in our price range or comfort level, by which time we had about 20 places to visit and a rough map indicating where all of them were. Then we were off on our scooter, starting with the lowest prices! The first places (about half the price of what we are currently paying) were…pretty dismal. Dirty, sparse, dingy, and with furniture that was falling apart. From my research I knew that the quality would increase significantly if we were willing to pay just a little bit more, so we pressed on. In the end, we narrowed it down to the two complexes that seemed both livable and inexpensive, both with varying facilities and styles. One had included wireless internet, a pool, a sauna, and a fitness club. All the rooms in that complex are owned and outfitted by a central owner, and it’s located on a busy main street with very few shops in immediate walking distance. The décor was very IKEA-esque, and our favorite room had a glass door dividing the bed and eating area, which we really liked. However, we were slightly put off by the smell of what seemed like rotting manure that permeated the area, as well as things like banana peels in the shower of otherwise empty rooms. How does that even happen?! Our current apartment, which is cheaper, did not have included wifi (we have to pay for each of our 4 devices, and are constantly being logged out, which is annoying) or fitness club. There’s no pool and our view is nowhere near as nice. However, we have all new appliances, a kitchenette, a tv we can plug our computers into, and homier décor set up by a tasteful English fellow. When we walk outside, we’re right next to a 7-11, a Tesco Express, and a bunch of cafes, bars, and boutique-y stores. Not to mention our new favorite place, Salad Concept, which lets you make your own enormous salad and compliment it with a refreshing fruit shake and/or baked good!  

The west side of Chiang Mai is markedly different from the rest of the city, although only a couple miles from the center. Here, it’s easy to forget that the backpacker-filled area of the old city even exists. All the shops look very up-market and it’s obviously geared toward a trendy, coffee-loving student clientele. Because we’re close to the university, there are a lot of cultural events and moving showings we can attend. The local fauna is obvious, especially in the sois, and you don’t have to struggle to remember that the hills are literally right there. It’s definitely a better feel for us – it feels closer to nature, further away from transient backpackers that don’t make for very stable friends, and closer to other expats who are also trying to set up a relatively permanent life here. So in the end, I think we really lucked out by finding our current apartment, which is somehow nicer, cheaper, newer, and better furnished than all the other more expensive ones in this building. It’s a definite win. Having a home to come back to has made us feel a lot more secure, and being able to cook whatever we want in our little kitchenette has been so fun! Cooking has always been something of a comfort activity for me, so it’s nice to be able to rustle up some eggs, home fries, and whatever else we want on our little hot plate and then eat on our couch while we watch shows projected onto our nice tv. The kitchenette also gives us an excuse to go to our local market, which, as Ariel mentioned, is a great place to practice our Thai.

On to more exciting things! I believe we neglected to debrief you on our elephant trip. Which, I think, is the best way to celebrate one’s 22^nd birthday (aka the first birthday in your life where you start to feel sad about getting old. Adults, don’t give me any snark!). I think it’s cool that conservation and ecotourism is becoming such a big deal in Chiang Mai. Sure, there are a lot of debates going as to what’s good and what’s not, and there are a lot of inexcusably bad practices still going on that plenty of well-meaning people contribute to – for instance, elephant shows in which the elephants are forced to perform circus tricks for the crowd. More debatable are things like the visits to the Padaung tribe. But there is definitely a movement towards less damaging forms of tourism, whether or not these are going to be successful in the long-term. It’s always hard to know whether what you are supporting is going to help move the participants in a positive direction, or what repercussions the industry is going to have, but part of travelling is just trying to research and check things out and make your own decisions the best you can. It’s easy to get paralyzed by the thought of the damage you’re doing and it’s also easy to just let go and do whatever sounds good. I guess I live by the motto that conservation has its pros and cons. If, after research and my own experience, I can see definite pros of supporting a place, and can’t immediately think of alternatives, then it’s probably reasonable to support. I think it’s okay to disagree with parts of their model, just like it’s reasonable to find flaws in our own policies but still think they’re the best move forward. It’s kind of like saying you shouldn’t bother recycling because a lot of places just put it all in the garbage anyway. You just do the best you can.

Anyway, I think we did a pretty good job in selecting Baanchang Elephant Park. I’ve heard the Elephant Nature Park is also great, but we chose the former because we wanted to be able to ride the elephants. At baanchang, they at least give the illusion that you are learning the basic commands for the elephant (lie down, left, right, stop, go), even though the mahout did most of the maneuvering and the elephants are used to the path. They clearly care a lot about their elephants and view this as the only viable alternative to keeping them in the (quickly shrinking) jungle, which the elephants are not prepared to live in anyway. They expressed frustration at not being able to keep them in a larger, grassier area, but explained that this is all the land that is available to them, close enough to the city and tourists which comprise their livelihood. Being able to ride the elephants bareback (commonly used seats hurt the elephant) was a novel experience, and while a little painful it was so cool to feel the elephant move underneath you! I think the best part was getting to bathe them at the end of the day, although it felt like it was cut a bit short. Somehow while scrubbing my elephant I ended up sprawled on its back while he decided to take a walk around. At this point he was my buddy, so I just lay there and enjoyed the ride! While I understand the very necessary touristy aspects, it would have been nice to just spend some more time playing with the elephants and getting to know their varying personalities. You could tell they were rushing us through a bit so the next group could get in the water. Elephant Nature Park also has the option of paying to volunteer for 1, 2, or 4 week long positions, but at a hefty cost. Still, it would be nice to have such a rare experience and actually get to know the elephants!    

We’ve already received some flak about going to pet the tigers, so I’ll explain our stance on that as well. Here are some pros: at Tiger Kingdom, they actually seem legitimately offended if you ask if the tigers are drugged. I imagine it would be like asking a mother if they gave their baby Nyquil to keep him asleep. Of course I don’t let that convince me – we spent time watching the tigers before we decided to buy time in their cages. I’m no vet, but the tigers just clearly aren’t drugged. They’re constantly playing with each other, unelicited by the trainers. They’re feisty. Some we weren’t allowed to go near, as they were feeling grumpy that day. All ages of tigers are available, not just the cute and cuddly babies, so it’s a sustainable environment for them for the long-term. I was frustrated by the trainers, who were constantly trying to get the tiger to look at the camera or give us various other photo ops. I really just wanted to lie down with the tiger and not bother him. I didn’t like the enclosure, as the ground was mostly concrete and there wasn’t much actual dirt or greenery for the tigers to enjoy. It was annoying that the area was obviously set up more for tourists than the tigers, but maybe the tigers don’t actually mind…who knows! I definitely got the impression that the tigers here were happier than tigers in a zoo – there was no pacing and they actually interacted with one another. So if you’re willing to support a zoo, where tigers are trapped in inappropriately small cages and stared at yet understimulated all day, I really don’t see much of a moral difference. I appreciated that Tiger Kingdom was using their funds to build another sanctuary where tigers aren’t bothered by tourists. So, mixed feelings about this place. To sum it up, cons: lackluster enclosures, annoying trainers, poor sleepy tigers. But it provides a sustainable way to breed more tigers, a way to get money to feed the tigers, and is equivalent to or better than a zoo.

Real time update: Ariel just made bomb thai tea on her second try! There are a billion recipes and ways to do it so getting it right is actually a bit of a feat! But now we know we can make it ourselves, cheaply, whenever we want! We also received our teaching licenses today, so we will finally be off to Laos probably Sunday night. I’m not particularly looking forward to it, as the visa run system seems to be a bit of a cash cow. Basically anyone who wants to work here has to do one every 90 days, and it generally entails a 12-14 hour overnight ride in a cramped minivan, lots of transfers, a $35 Laos visa, and a $160 Thai non-immigrant B visa. For reference, $160 is how much the two of us have spent on food this month. Total. The whole process takes a couple days, if you rush, but you generally don’t have much time to enjoy the city. As always I’m sure we’ll make the best of it, so look out for or update about it coming soon! 

Getting to Know Our Home

It’s been too long since we’ve posted a blog entry on here! Hope I don’t forget too much.

I’d like to talk a little about the neighborhood we live in. Julia and I have had some fun exploring the area during the down time before our jobs start. We typically either have no destination in mind and just wander up and down the streets, or we pick a place and end up having multiple adventures from there. The other day, we set out to walk up and down our main road and we found an adorable park just 10 minutes away. It’s a combination workout park, botanical garden, oasis with tons of equipment and pictures for various exercises (as well as plenty of people jogging/walking around). We think it’s connected to some vocational university, or it may just be an extension of Chiang Mai University. It’s really beautiful and a nice escape from the city. Great to have that right by us :).

Then yesterday we decided to head to the world famous Museum of Insects, which I think the linked article describes well. The man and woman who founded the museum have dedicated most of their lives to studying Thailand’s mosquitoes and have discovered multiple species of mosquitoes, including one which is named after the main guy (toxorhynchites Manopi). He has this funny and semi-inspiring (but mostly funny) story about how when he was a kid, his grandma gave him a rock and told him it was a vulture’s egg and he was so fascinated by it that he carried it with him everywhere (at one point he wore it around his neck, and it’s a pretty big rock). It’s now in the museum as the first piece to start his collection of interesting insects, rocks, wood, collections of art, and more “wonders of the world” (which as Julia says, is pretty much whatever the hell else he wants). Ripley’s! for insects? He has this theory about mosquitoes in that there is one species that is “vegetarian” (doesn’t feed on humans or animals) that feeds off of the larvae of other mosquitoes. He believes instead of mass gassing of mosquito-infested areas, we should focus on trying to release these mosquitoes. It’s an interesting theory to go with an interesting collection, but the stories and books in the museum can easily lead one to believe this guy verges on insanity when it comes to mosquitoes. Also I’m pretty sure the museum is in their house (not the other way around), as they have various rooms throughout the exhibits that are closed off that seem like a regular room in a house like an office or bedroom. When we were leaving, we received a brochure that had a crude map of Chiang Mai that mostly included where the museum was and where some of the open air markets were. Because we were looking for our nearest market, we saw the names of two of them right by us and decided to wing it and see if they really exist/still exist/are open. So it’s kind of funny that we ended up finding our local market via a picture of a shopping cart on a mosquito museum brochure.

This market is huge and bountiful, with tons of fresh fruits, veggies, meat, fish, etc. and a lot of cheap supplies. We were able to snag some extra bowls and glasses, a laundry hamper, and some cleaning supplies. We also got tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, onions, and garlic and a giant papaya (yum!) that amounted to a few bucks. They do fruit and veggies SO well here in Thailand. The tomato is really meaty and the carrots were so orange that I thought they were already peeled! The fun part is that everybody speaks Thai and it’s a little more difficult to communicate only in English and gestures, so we get to practice our Thai here (although so far all we really have down are hello, thank you, and our numbers). With everything so cheap, fresh, and delicious plus our kitchenette, cooking meals is going to be inexpensive, healthy, and entertaining.

We’ve been able to go out a few nights as well and are still on the hunt for, as Julia says, that one place that we love with cheap cocktails and a great atmosphere. It seems like most Thais go out at night just to relax and drink (at least around 9 to midnight), though we haven’t been out in the early morning hours yet, a time when it sounds like everyone goes clubbing. Seriously, going to bars at 10 is still way too early for most places around here. And unlike the backpacker scene in the old city, the expat/local scene is more about keeping to yourself or your group than socializing with others. Thus, we haven’t been able to make many friends yet.

Backtracking a little more, when we first moved into the apartment last Monday, we set out to find things that we needed (like towels and toilet paper), things we wanted and that would be cost-efficient in the long run (like a rice cooker and pots/pans), things that would make our place comfy and home-like (like air freshener and decorations), and anything in between. In retrospect, we started at the richest/most expensive place and worked our way down by chance. We started at Kad Suan Kaew, the nearby mall, since it was within walking distance of our place. Here we found towels, a cute rice cooker, a trash can, and a sheet for the bed (which thankfully came with bedding and a duvet cover). Unsatisfied with the prices, we then researched the nearest Tesco Lotus, which was HUGE, I mean BIG. It has everything one could ever need ever. Julia tried to capture it with some pictures, but I’m sure none of them do it justice. We brought a backpack because we knew we’d be taking a songthaew home and we’d hopefully be buying plenty of things here. And as I strapped the empty bag to my back, Julia turned to me and excitedly stated, “Are you ready? Because we’re going to go down every aisle in this place I hope you know that.” I think that sums up our experience there. Julia LOVES this kind of stuff. Me, I managed. Here we got a fan (we have AC, but to be cost effective we don’t run it at night and we thought having the option of a fan would be good), a pot and pan, a rug, some strips to put on the top and bottom of our shitty door that doesn’t keep sound or light out, and some basic food items in bulk, like rice, cereal, and noodles. We treated ourselves to a pack of rootbeer and some tea as well.

This is the first time I’ve really had to live in an apartment on my own (though Julia shared a place with some friends while she was in college, I went from dorm to sorority and therefore never had to fend for myself [I’m not saying this in an, “I was spoiled and I’m awesome” kind of way, but more in a, “I am thankful for that unique experience, but it does not entirely prepare me for renting or owning my own place.”]). So what’s interesting to me is the amount of things you “need” but don’t think about, like magnets for the fridge! I wanted magnets so that we could put things like receipts or whatever on the fridge and that was near-impossible to find. And here in Thailand, tumble-drying your laundry is way more expensive than just air drying, so we had to get hooks and the like to do that. It seems like we never run out of big (and little) purchases. I mean, you start with the obvious like towels and toilet paper, but then you realize you don’t have a way to clean the tabletops, so you have to go buy cleaning fluid, and then you’re making eggs and you think maybe it’d be good with salt and pepper so you go on a hunt for that (also surprisingly hard to get a hold of) and then one time while you’re looking for the keys before you go, you discover that it would probably be convenient to have a hook or something by the door so you purchase one of those, and when you cook food or cut up papayas and you don’t have a place to store them, you have to go get some containers, and while I’m sitting here, Julia is currently hand-wiping the couch and I’m thinking a vacuum cleaner or even maybe some tape would be brilliant right about now. You get what I’m saying? Though that run-on made it seem exhausting, it’s actually pretty fun for me. Depending on who’s reading this blog, I know I most likely sound like a naïve youngster in my 20’s discovering my independence, but maybe it reminds you of that time too. Maybe? Maybe we should start flirting with the boys next door to borrow a vacuum cleaner or—I’m not kidding you—a cup of sugar (long story short: tried to make Thai tea at home today and thought it would be fine without sugar. And folks sugar is such a clutch ingredient it’s not even funny [Julia would like to interject here and point out that she said we needed sugar and I was the one who thought the condensed milk and evaporated milk would be enough sweetness]).

We went into the school today to sign some paperwork for our work visas so it looks like a trip to Laos is on our agenda real soon.

In later entries I’d love to talk about (or force beg plead get Julia to talk about what it was like to find the apartment, our experience with the tigers, our experience with the elephants, and anything else I may have missed). Julia would like to mention that she does contribute to the writing of the blog and adds sentences here and there!

The internet's being dumb right now so I'll try to upload pictures later. I know this was a long one but I hope I kept it entertaining and informative :). Thanks for reading!

Oh also our address:

Hillside 3

1 soi 8 Nimmanhamin Road, R. 718

Suthep, Muang, Chiang Mai, 50200

Thailand

If you're curious: Hillside 3 is the name of our condo complex. The way the layout of Chiang Mai works is there are main roads and there are soi's which are side streets (which is an amazing exhibition of good urban planning). So we are the first ones on soi 8 of the main Nimman road. R.718 is our room number. Suthep is the subdistrict in the Muang district in the city of Chiang Mai in the country of Thailand. We haven't received mail yet so we're not 100% sure if it will work, but they have a little chalkboard in the lobby that says "Parcels For" and then lists the room numbers so we look for 718 everyday ^-^.