Damn do I wish I could do that! I guess living vicariously through others will have to do ... for now.

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/274.html



The full moon celebrations are still in full swing in Chiang Mai. Typically throughout the rest of the year, the population here numbers around 400,000 people, but during Yi Peng, an additional 200,000 tourists flock to the city, exploring every nook and cranny during the week around the full moon. We arrived a few weeks before all the mayhem, but because we're travel fatigued, we didn't venture out too much. Now with Iva pulling us out into the city during the few short days that she's here, we're astounded at just how many people are here.


The old town of Chiang Mai used to be walled off in a square. You can see the configuration in the map above.

Today, most of the walls have crumbled away, only the four corners and a few bits exist along the moat that still surrounds the old city. We still don't know the city very well, but we use these corners and wall bits to orient ourselves when we're navigating through Chiang Mai.


Wat Lok Moli. This is the closest temple to us and we pass it all the time when we head to the old city

Tonight, we're walking to the Sunday Night Walking Street Market, which is held near the Tae Phae Gate, on the other side of the city. As we get closer to the old town the crowds become a lot thicker.


Lanterns at Wat Lok Moli. Some of these smaller, lesser known temples are not as crowded during Yi Peng, but they are still decorated quite nicely

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Incense sticks at Wat Lok Moli


Every Sunday, the streets west of Tae Phae Gate into the old city close off to vehicle traffic and stalls set up for pedestrians to walk by

It just so happens that the bazaars during Yi Peng are absolutely packed. There is barely any room to move! A few times I lost Neda and Iva because while they perused the stands looking for bargains, my eye was glued to my camera.


Need shoes? You've come to the right place!

These are Hmong embroidered shoes, mostly for kids. The Hmong are one of several ethnic hill tribes that live in Northern Thailand. Each of the hill tribes have their own dialects and style of dress.


In the process of knitting hats worn by the hill tribes

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

These are tiny dyed soaps sculptures carved into flowers! We saw a guy making them, it was quite intricate. So small it fits in the palm of your hand.


These ladies are from the Karen hill tribe. They seem to wear less embroidered clothes than the Hmong.

Some of the Karen hill tribe women wear gold rings around their necks to stretch and elongate them over time. I'd like to visit a Karen village and see this during our stay in Northern Thailand!


Heavy full moon traffic outside the Tae Phae Gate

See those red covered trucks? They're the most popular mode of public transport in Chiang Mai. They're called Song Thaews, but Iva called them Fire Trucks and the name stuck with us. Having been here for a while, we also found out these Fire Trucks are the cheapest method of getting around. Only rich farang tourists take the tuk tuks, which will cost you about 50 baht ($2) to get you anywhere in the old city. By contrast, hail a Fire Truck heading in the direction you're going and it will only cost you $20 baht (less than $1). The only catch is that you share them with whoever else hails one along the way, and the Fire Truck driver will often take the least direct/most circuitous route to pick up as many passengers as possible.

Still, it's a good deal and we feel like such locals willfully ignoring all the drivers who cluck at us as we walk by: "Tuk tuk? Tuk Tuk?"

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Iva and Neda look for some scarves. Later followed by some competitive rounds of haggling...


So back to taking more pictures for me...


Thai glass sculpture

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Buddha art. This is not considered very ethical by Thai people

When we first arrived at Bangkok Airport, we saw lots of signs and posters informing us that it is disrespectful to use the imagery of Buddha, either as pictures or statues for decoration. Since it's a very religious symbol, Buddhists only use it for worship. So all of these Buddha paintings and carvings that are sold to tourists to hang on bathroom walls and used as garden sculptures are very offensive.


A proper use of the Buddha statue


Incense and bells are two of the most important objects in Buddhism. The bells signify the voice of Buddha are a call for protection by heavenly deities.


Colourful painted bowls. The Bazaar makes for some colourful night-time photography!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

I'm glad that we took a week off before Iva came to visit us in Chiang Mai. We have quite a full itinerary while she's here... But if it wasn't for her, we wouldn't see any of it!


Of course food plays an important part of any celebration!


Neda orders some fried dumplings. Mmmm...


Gahhhh! So many people! Is it wrong to long for Yi Peng to be over and wish them all away from our city?

Yes, it's only been a few weeks but already we've started to think of Chiang Mai like home. But more on that later...

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Thanks Gino!

No big secret. We funded it the old fashioned way. Saved up for many years, then sold our home and now we're living very frugally off the proceeds. Kinda boring story, I know. Sorry.

Can't wait to see you out here as well! Hurry up!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Oh, oh Gene, you've been outed how far behind you are

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My memory is becoming that good, I should be able to organise my own surprise party soon

But that's November 15th, 2025.

I'm actually so far ahead, I'm reporting from the future!!!

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Updated from http://www.RideDOT.com/rtw/275.html



Sawadee Kruhp!

We've been in Thailand for just over a month and not too much has happened. Iva was only with us a for a few days longer in Chiang Mai, so the girls took a cooking class just outside of the city.


First stop before cooking class is a trip to the local market to pick up ingredients


I also took a cooking class, so there are some pictures interspersed of my trip to the market. This is our cooking instructor Phern

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Neda is getting some good tips on which are the best spices and sauces to use


About 45 minutes outside of Chiang Mai, our cooking school is in the middle of the farm. Cool!


Fresh ingredients are picked from the garden just outside


The class is set up so that all the ingredients are brought to you and all the pots and pans are washed after you're done with them.
We should go to cooking school every day! 55555!

Oh yeah, I also picked up some Thai Internet lingo. The number "5" is pronounced "ha".... so "55555" = "hahahahaha"

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Neda's cooking up some delicious Tom Yum Soup.


I'm only attending cooking class for all the eating at the end. And because I look so good in an apron...


Before this class, I had no idea what went into green curry. Basically you pound a bunch of ingreendients and you end up with a paste. Neat!

My green curry paste is on the right, Neda's is on the left. Mine's smoother... 555. The only thing I'm better at cooking than Neda is brute force mortaring and pestling.


The format of the class is that for each dish, our instructor shows us what to do
and then we are off to our individual stations to make magic

I found out that there are just a handful of ingredients that you use for Thai cooking: coconut milk, lime, fish sauce, palm sugar, garlic, shallots and basil. It's the combination and amounts you use to come up with a variety of dishes.

__________________
Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Lining up to extend our visa (exemption)

Our Thai visa ran out after a month. It's actually not a proper visa, but a visa exemption - since Thailand has an agreement with a lot of first-world countries that allows you to enter the country without having to obtain a visa beforehand. This exemption gives you a 30-day stay in Thailand, but you either have to leave and come back, or you are allowed to extend the exemption once for an additional 30 days while you are in the country for a fee.

We would like to stay longer. A lot longer. Because we've fallen in love with Chiang Mai.

The northern mountain weather is dryer and cooler than the rest of the country. Outside of Yi Peng, there aren't a lot of attractions in the city - no beaches, no big temples - so not as much tourist traffic as a Bangkok or Phuket. Despite it being one of the cheapest places to live in Thailand, it's a very middle-class city with plenty of amenities all centrally located. We've not felt this at home in a city since we stayed in La Paz, Mexico and Medellin, Colombia.

The cost of living here is about 25% of the cost of living in Toronto, with all things being equal. We left a very comfortable lifestyle back in Canada, spending most of the last three and a half years living in a tent and sleeping on friends' couches. Now that we are able to afford the same standard of living that we left behind, that kind of luxury is seductive. We originally came to Thailand not just to escape the European winter, but also to figure out what we want to do with our travels and our lives moving forward. What we're feeling right now is that we are very burnt out and it doesn't look like a few months will solve that. We haven't experienced what Chiang Mai is like all year round, but we are now seriously talking about settling here full-time as ex-pats.

It's such a stereotype - the western ex-pat in Thailand. But once you get here, stuff just starts to make sense: The weather, the friendly people, the low cost of living, the high standard of living you are able to afford... And to think, just a month and a half ago, we weren't even planning on coming here!

There are a number of things we still have to research and figure out. What do we do with our big bikes in Croatia? Do we ride them from Croatia to Thailand? What are the route/carnet/visa issues involved with that? If we do that, we'll only have a window of time in the spring/summer/fall of 2016. Just talking about planning and doing that ride down here is stressing us out, with all its timelines and schedules. Can't we just ship the bikes here? Are we even allowed to import them into Thailand? And how do we stay full time in our newly chosen home?

So much research to do.

Also, we are getting sick of haggling with the Fire Truck drivers. We were thinking about renting scooters. However, after our 30-day visa exemption extension expires, we cannot extend it again and will have to leave the country to either come in on another 30-day visa exemption or apply for a proper 60-day tourist visa outside of Thailand. We looked at renting bigger motorcycles and riding out and back into Thailand, but the rental companies don't allow you to leave the country on their rentals.

So the plan right now is to buy a couple of cheap, used motorcycles. I've found a bunch of on-line classifieds and also put the word out that we're looking for bikes. We've got a month before we have to leave the country so that should be plenty of time to find two-wheeled transport.

Putting the "Ride" back into RideDOT.com!

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Gene - http://www.RideDOT.com

Sounds fantastic! Massively happy for you - been following this thread for 4 years or so and am very envious!

Good luck for the future - whatever that brings...or perhaps I should say wherever that brings you!