Chiang Mai uncovered...

hey, everyone. jill and i are sitting at a nice little cafe on tuesday morning and basking in the experiences we've had since the last time we checked email. yesterday was especially unique...as we headed up north towards the chiang mai zoo and a great part of the city in the northwest. we stopped at this gorgeous restaurant for lunch. it was an open-air restaurant where the entire family helped in serving us. we were the only people there and once we ordered (pad thai w/ pork and a fresh apple juice) we literally heard them go back, chop up the apple, lemongrass (for jill's drink --- fresh lemongrass juice...WOW) and make our dishes RIGHT THEN! the interesting thing about thai eating is they bring dishes when they become available. they don't bring them all at once...another reminder of how fresh the dishes are and how they are making them exactly when you order it. the food is out of this world good. i cannot believe how fresh everything is...i can taste every ingredient and nothing is left out. thai food is the perfect blend of yin and yang...absolutely mouth watering. i'm still getting used to the spiciness...as i'm constantly asking the waitresses for kleenex, making the gesture of blowing my nose so they know what i'm talking about! (smile) they all giggle and bring me back TOILET PAPER! ha! my other personal favorite lately is asking for the bathroom. "horng nham" (which means water room) so i go up to someone and basically say, "toilet" to them with a shrug of the shoulders and an inquisitive look on my face. i'm obviously pronouncing it incorrectly but they love the attempt and politely show me to the restroom. all it takes is a little effort around here - showing everyone you care and appreciate their culture enough to attempt the languate - and they immediately welcome you with smiles and pleasentries. i absolutely love the thai people. after lunch we went to the zoo and saw the most beautiful landscape. the zoo is set into the foothills of the local mountain range and has unbelievable elevation gains within the zoo perimeter. (they could tell me they shot jurassic park here and we would have believed them) the cages are essentially built into the range and provides the animals with the closest thing to "the wild" as a zoo can get. at the top of the zoo setting we had a dynamite view of chiang mai and were amazed at all the wats. much like paris, no building can rise above the tallest wat (or cathedral) so there are no skyscrapers to take away from the cityscape. it truly is an amazing place so far and we haven't even left chiang mai. we can't wait to head to the northern villages and be introduced to an even deeper understanding of the thai culture...especially in the north. we are finding out that the northern culture is much different than in the south. so for now, we are entrenched in northern experience.
after the zoo we headed back into the city for thai massage from a couple of blind masseurs. they say that thai massage is better learned by touch rather than sight. so in taking that belief to heart, we have heard that the blind give unbelievable massage. we went to this place in our guide book and couldn't find it. we stumbled into the school for the blind and asked if there was massage. this was after dark and around 6:30. they were so unbelievably sweet and next thing we knew we were being introduced to two people that, although unable to see what we see, have vision beyond our wildest imagination. we were swifted away to a place (that had closed over an hour ago and reopened for us) and directed - with the most beautiful of smile - to lay down as we were about to be treated to energy work that opened up all my meridians and helped me open up to a much higher frequency than earlier. going into the massage i was pretty tired from walking all day and sweating out about 10 liters of sweat (HA!) but after the massage i felt so much more alive. the massage was great, but the experience with these unblievable souls was much more memorable. then we headed out to yet another beautifully decorated open-air restaurant where we "splurged" on dinner and were treated to fresh coconut custard that i'm still thinking about today. jill did everything but eat the dang shell it was so fresh. did i mention the food is unreal??? (smile)

today we are off to make our very own "krathongs." today and tomorrow is the celebration of Loi Krathong...a chance for the thai people to celebrate the end of rainy season and cast away their sins for the year and look forward to happiness and health in the coming season. they have been shooting off fireworks and lighting baloons ever since we got here in preparation for Loi Krathong. tonight is the best part from what we have heard. this is when everyone takes their "krathong" (a floating candle amidst flowers, banana leaves and anything else significant), lights it and places it in either the river on the east or the moat which encircles the old city (where we are staying). we will be left with a mesmerizing display of floating candles all around the city with music, food and loving culture dancing all around us. we can't wait. we'll be sending pictures as soon as we have a chance as we are already compiling a long list of pics. we haven't really done much with it yet, but we are planning on it. right now, we are just too overwhelmed with all that there is to do. but hopefully we'll take the time (or else we'll never do it) someday and submit some journal entries (which we are doing religiously on our own) and pictures for everyone to see.

anyway, as you can tell...we are absolutely loving our experience so far and have so much to look forward to just in the north of thailand. time is already flying and we are so happy to be here. now if i could just get used to the heat and spicy food i'll be good!!!

take care. sa wat dee kap (ka)!

tom & jill