After that in the muggy heat I still wanted to get some kind of a workout in so we hit up a local park and I got right on the exercise gear. This gets your heart going and it ain't for little kids!
After that first meal in Bangkok the meals got progressively better. Seriously tasty noodles and the traditional pad Thai plus other things I can't label but you can only get there. Our Hotel is great not to mention cheap. Meals are about 1.50 for the each of us and hotels about 40. We wanted to go extra for the pool and in this weather you have to.
After A while in Bangkok Kristen and I began to notice quite a bit of creepers. What's a creeper?
Middle aged, white male, beer gut, big mustache, walking around on a weekday solo or with a Thai girl 20 years younger who's not into him because of his charming whit. The car of choice they had back home was probably a late 80's model windowless van.
We took a plane up north to Chiang Mai. A bit cooler, more mellow and more conducive to the outdoors. In short, more our style. The best part about flying there? It's an hour, free food in the airport filled with sticky rice in banana leaves and a full meal on the plane. The most unique part being the instructional safety video on the plane you've heard a million times. This one on Bangkok airways was a full music video complete with choreography and auto tuned! Yes it beats Virgins.
Once in Chiang Mai one of the coolest things we've done was take a cooking class. We've taken cooking classes back home but this one was a bit more intensive. We started with a trip to the local market and bought all of the ingredients and took it back to the instructors house and made everything from scratch. We even made the curry paste which we pounded out and gave our arms a workout. After about five hours we learned to make six courses each and got a cool cookbook of the dishes and certificate.
For us the coolest things about traveling is simply the sights and sounds. It's hard to take in and process is almost everything is new or different. There are a million temples. Hundreds of street food vendors that range from the tasty to the unorthodox. I wish I had time to sample it all. The smells sounds and the locals warm smiles are probably what draws people from around the world here.
Speaking of sights. People watching is a sport. We notice styles and patterns. The most common here is the Whippie. Think Trustafarian or Roz Trent from SNL fame. Young, white and dress as though they are hippies but reflect nothing from the era except the look. They eat meat, smoke and drink like anyone but you can see their dreads and smell the incense and oil from a mile away. It's the new millennial of hippie that is not down with the standard Bob Marley or Che' T shirt as was evidenced by every t shirt stores sale rack. It's a newer mix of yoga meets homeless in a Thai street cred with the other expats. I'm sure the only universal is that when they call home for more money, their parents eyes roll when they have to fill their kids bank account with funds for their next hemp necklace. The only positive is none of the Thai people dress this way. Hopefully the Thai are too cool for this fashion trend. Not to mention Whippie clothing is darn pricey!
Tomorrow is more adventures with elephants and bamboo rafting and then off to my favorite spot the ocean as we visit some of Thailands islands. Until then, thanks for reading. Namaste'
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