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.

T minus 3 days

And by "T", I mean Thailand and other parts of southeast Asia.

The plan is to fly out of Vancouver on Wednesday, spend a couple of quality hours in Narita airport in Tokyo, then off to Bangkok. Plans get a little fuzzy after that. We will probably go up to Chang Mai and Chang Rai fairly soon after we arrive in Thailand, then down to Ko Samui (yeah, you'll want to call up Google Earth now), then across to Ko Lanta Yai (on the west coast), then down the west coast until we get to Malaysia (Pulau Pinang?). Up to the Cameron Highlands before dropping into Kuala Lumpur, then south to Singapore. Flight back to Bangkok, and home some time in mid-January. Best laid plans...

Of course, it has been interesting watching the Government of Thailand dissolve under massive protests via the nightly news. The airports are open (as of today), and cooler heads seem to have prevailed, so it seems the government there is more stable than the one we will be leaving behind in Canada.

If we get anywhere to post pictures and stories, I'll do so here. If not, then this is going to be really dull.