Life in Chiang Mai

So I jumped right into work on the 4th. I will usually be in the office, helping with research and writing up different papers, but on the 4th and the 5th there were two school groups coming for a “survivor camp”, so I got to go up to the mountains and help with the groups. During these survivor groups, the kids are split into teams. The teams have to pretend that they crash landed into the jungle, and have to build a shelter, a fire, cook an egg, build a raft, and raft down the river about 2 km. They are given bamboo sticks and banana leaves to make the shelter, they have to find all the supplies for the fire (except the matches), they are given a hollowed out piece of a bamboo stalk that makes a bowl to boil the egg in, and then they are given 6 big tire tubes, 12 big bamboo sticks, and rope to make the raft. It was so much fun to watch (and offer quite a bit of help) for all of the tasks. Since we were in the mountains near an elephant sanctuary, while we were rafting down the Ping River, there were elephants on both sides of the river. It was so crazy to see them that close up – and in their natural environment instead of a zoo. A few of them were even in the water as we rafted by. The second day of the “survivor camp” was different group of kids, and they had a much more challenging day since it was raining quite a bit, so their shelters had to be good in order to give them a dry place to eat lunch. My co-worker took a lot of pictures during the second day, so I will try to get a copy of some of them so I have proof of the elephants! Monday I will start my usual ‘desk job’ in the office, and most likely go to a village school on Wednesdays and Thursdays to help teach if there are not any other special events going on during the week.

I have also spent time exploring Chiang Mai with one of the German interns that has already been here for two months. We have gone to a few temples, many different restaurants, and to one of the many Thai massage places. The only sit down restaurants are the ones for farangs – so usually you just walk around the markets and get lots of little different plates of food. It’s customary in Thailand that everyone you are eating with shares food, so normally everyone will get two different plates, everyone puts theirs in the middle, and then everyone just passes the different dishes around. In Thailand you never eat with a knife – only with a fork in your left hand and a spoon in your right hand. The fork never touches your mouth – only the spoon. It has been quite an adjustment for me (especially after so many lessons from my mom on how to eat properly!). The Thai massage places are so amazing! Like everything else, they are just rooms on the side of the street. No shop or restaurant really has doors here – everything is just open and you can walk through or in and out of all of them. It costs 120 baht / hour (which is $4/hour) for a massage – and they massages are amazing! Better than any that I have had in the US.

I moved into my apartment (well it’s more of just a room with a bathroom attached) on Wednesday. It is just a 10 minutes bike ride from the office, and a 15 minute tuk tuk ride from downtown Chiang Mai. I am lucky since my room has internet and air con (air conditioning – but no one calls it that here). Its right near a market – and since I don’t have a kitchen or fridge (which is also pretty common), I get all of my food from the market on a daily basis. Everyone eats lunch at the office, and we usually always go out to dinner, so the only meal that I am really in charge of it breakfast. There is a smoothie and fresh fruit shop right below my room, and then many of food stands along the street. I have already made friends with the lady that owns the smoothie shop downstairs, and she usually just makes me whatever fresh fruit and yogurt smoothie she has in for that day. Today was pineapple – it was delicious! The smoothies only cost 20 baht – which is about $0.60. I also have been buying mangosteen by the kilo on a daily basis since it is only 18 baht per kilo and they are in season right now.

Today I am going to go explore the city for a little by myself, and then meet up with some of the people from the office for dinner and drinks. They love going to a reggae bar in downtown Chiang Mai, which has a Thai band do covers of different reggae songs, which is really amusing. It is so funny to hear American hip hop and rock coming out of some of the bars. I even heard some Dean Martin at one of the bars last night! Tomorrow is the big Sunday market on one of their main streets in Old Town Chiang Mai, so I will probably spend my time shopping around and eating lots of food!