More from Chiang Mai

Still here!

Yesterday we got away from the exhaust smoke and constant buzz of crappy two-stroke motors by... riding a belching city bus 60km out of town, then renting a crappy little two-stroke scooter to buzz our way to...

....Don Inthanon National Park. This is several hundred square kilometres of national park surrounding the mountain that is the highest point in Thailand (approx 2500m).

The jungle was deep, the air was cool, and it was actually fairly dry, considering we were riding through a cloud forest.

Tig's lungs were back to normal, until we returned to town.

Today we did a "cooking school", where we were picked up and taken to a local market to look at the offerings, and to buy a few supplies...

then rode out of town about 20km to an organic farm where the remainder of our ingredients were grown...

We then learned how to make a variety of meals (Pad Thai, Green and Red Curries, Tom Kaw Soup, pumpkin and coconut soup, amongst others).

Then, we ate. Somewhat more than we should have. Very full right now...tummy not so good...a little beer will cool that fire.

I have to say, Tig was very fetching in her cop-gear, and I was quite the scooter operator.

"License and registration?"

Chiang Mai

Much to see and do here, thats why there are so many tourists. I can't imagine the place at a time that the nations airports havent been shut and the tourism industry is in trouble. apparently everything is really slow this year, and yet we are seeing a lot of white faces. Not many americans, though.

Chiang Mai is an ancient city, and a former capital. not much remains of the original city walls, but most of the moat is perserved, a significant traffic barrier between the central city and the outlying modern city.

Tig is quite the street food denizen. Here she accidentaly buys 30 cents worth of barbrqued chicken livers.

Temples "Wats" are everywhere in Chiang Mai. We are, I am afraid, getting a little templed out.

But the impressive amount if slave labour and gold leaf represented by each one is rather astounding.

Remember when we were in school and the emphasised the importance of keeping your hands inside the school bus?

Today we also toured an remarkable curio museum operated by one of thailinad's eminent mosquito/malaria researchers. A peculular person, but quite the collection. It isncluded a display of 436 species of Thai mosquitoes (10 identified by the proprieter himself!), fossils of all ages and types, a seashell collection including samples from 98 genera (1,674 species), an insect collection including 4,668 species of 315 genera, including 51 genera (1,109 species) of butterfly.

Now tig is at a woman's prison getting a massage.

I am not kidding.