Muay Thai

Today is Saturday and I think I am finally over my jet lag. There was constant daylight westbound the whole way from San Francisco to Tokyo and then darkness started to creep in on the flight from Tokyo to Bangkok. I was excited for my layover in Tokyo as I planned to eat some authentic sushi but after I finally figured out where I was supposed to be there wasn't time (the airport was a little daunting). I have to tell you about the toilets in the Tokyo airport. Besides the fact they come with a boudet (sp?) they have a button where you can play music. So naturally I pressed it and the sound was of a flushing toilet! Why you would invent a toilet with music playing a flushing sound is a question for the Japanese. I spent the night in Bangkok and flew the next day on Thursday to the north of Thailand to a place called Chiang Mai, the second largest city in Thailand. You can thank my Mom for the Thailand map as it was driving her crazy trying to figure out where the heck I was in Ecuador.

Last night I went to a Muay Thai boxing match. It is a form of kickboxing that kind of looks like the boxers when they aren't punching each other, are grappling standing up.

It was pretty cool to watch and I snagged a seat in the front row. I watched about seven fights and then opted to go to a bar where I listed to the Thai version of Bob Marley play. In Thailand they have a saying, "same same but different" and I guess that the Thai Bob Marley would fall into this category. There were a ton of international travelers there and everyone was super friendly. Maybe too much so because I could have felt better this morning.

Today I took an all day Thai cooking class. I made the chicken lemongrass soup, green curry, fish patties, this type of cashew chicken, pad thai and thai spring rolls.

I hope I remember how to make all of that again! That was a lot of work.

This little girl shyly watched us take our lesson, she was so cute.

Tomorrow I am going on an overnight trek to check out nearby villages which hopefully will include an elephant ride. It is pretty hot here. Going from inside to outside is like going from a cold pool into a hot tub.

This dog, Coffee, has the right idea. As cute as he is, he smells!