Last days of Thai.

After the trekking trip I had two more days in Chiang Mai. With absolutely no plan, I asked the front desk of my guest house where to go. "Can we help you?" I turned around and a darling woman and who I thought was her daughter were having breakfast in the garden. Kirsten was from Germany and Vicki, not her mother, was from England. They had met the previous day and invited me to go to the market with them. "Sure." The best decision I could've made.

We had the best day. Both women were great but Vicki, at 61 years old, was a crazy, interesting gal. A retired attorney, Vicki was in Thailand starting her second year teaching English in the villages. She had so much energy and spirit and was a total inspiration for living life to its fullest. At one point she stopped at a street vendor and purchased 6 or 7 different kinds of bugs. Vicki and Kirsten tried them all except the cockroach and in the end they were able to convince me to eat some maggots and a small beetle of sorts! We walked for six hours and then split and agreed to meet for dinner. At 7pm we grabbed a Tuk Tuk and headed over to the night market. We had so much fun! Walking and talking and laughing. After returning to our guest house around 11pm we heard music from a neighboring bar. Vicki said, "Let's go where the noise is!" And we headed out for some beers on my last night in Thailand. A great finish!

I had breakfast with Vicki on my last day and she was off to the villages also. Then Kirsten and I walked to Wat Suan Dok in old Chiang Mai. As we were leaving I happened to see a sign that said "Monk Chat". The Monk Chat Program has been running for 6 years giving information about Thai Buddhist culture and exchanging inter-culture between foreign visitors and Thai monks by talking informally. Curious, we sheepishly sat down and started "chatting" with this young monk in his bright orange robes. It was great! We were served tea and could ask him absolutely anything. And we did, for nearly an hour.

I love Chiang Mai. I loved the last four days of the trip so much. I'm happy to be home too.

AND, ITS POSSIBLE I'VE LOST HALF OF MY PHOTOS! Having a minor meltdown about that. Someone I work with is going to try and recover them. In any case, I'd like to post some pictures in the upcoming days.