I'm off to see the wizard

R.I.P Kermit and Miss. Piggy

Finally made it to Chiang Mai! I was originally planning on coming up here last Monday but I decided to really see Thailand and stopped as many times as possible on the way up. I'm so glad I did too even though I had to struggle with a huge language barrier in some cities and using the public transportation helped me work on my patience. Anyways I'm sure you are all dying to hear what I had for my wonderful Christmas dinner!! Last night I went out to see the night market and it was all rip off designer cloths and useless crap and no food. At the end I found an out door restaurant over looking the Nan river and I got a seat right beside the river. There was a brige not to far up the river covered in Christmas lights and it was a nice night out. Luckily they had a menu in English and as I was flipping through I couldn't decide what to have. Then when I was about to ordered fried veggies I saw at the bottom Fried Frog and veggies and without thinking I ordered it. When the waitress walked away it hit me what I just ordered and my mind started running and my stomach started dropping. I was worried they were going to bring me a whole frog or something I had no idea what I just got myself into. When it finally came out it was in a red sauce mixed in with the veggies. It was chopped up into little pieces and it was mainly bones but the meat that I did manage to suck off was delicious. It wasn't until I put the last bit on my plate that I noticed the arms with the hands still intact. That took me by surprise and almost stopped me but they turned out to be the best part. After that I got a big beer = 3 reg bottles for a buck and a half and went to my room to read and relax b/c I had to be up early this morning. At 2:30 last night I woke up to the two ladies having a nice load coversation in thai outside my room, I don't know if they just got home or where just getting up but it wasn't pleasant and they were there for quite a while. Finally 6am rolled around and I was already up to hit the alarm at the first beep, I've come to hate the sound of that alarm more then anything! I got up showered and re packed my bag before heading over to the bus stop. I took the city bus to the main bus terminal where I was trying to catch the 7:20 bus to Chiang Mai, when I got there they informed me the next bus wasn't until 8:10 so I bought a news paper and waited. The bus ride was a long long 7 hours but when the sun wasn't coming in on my side of the bus there was a beautiful view of the mountains we were flying through. I managed to read a whole book and sleep a coulpe hours on the bus. When I got here I found a nice guest house and got some lunch, well actually it was breakfast if you don't count the bag of chips I had on the bus. Now it turns out that I'm very attractive to the northern thai people, especially one of the guys working here. He's really funny and when I told him I had a girl friend he got all upset and told me I couldn't talk to him anymore. Later he came to my room and asked me to pretend to be his b/f b/c there was a french gay guy here who he was interested in but he just showed up with another guy and he wanted to make him jealous. I politely declined! At round 5 I headed out to check out the city while it was still light out but right down the street from my place I came across a Wat that they recommended I visit so I stopped in. I got there right as the monks started chanting so I sat at the back and listened to them for a while. The wat is the oldest one in town, over 700 years old and its amazing to see them in there chanting and imagining that this has been going on for 700 years now. Altho I doubt they had cell phones and tvs back then, when I left the main building I walked around the grounds and saw the door to a smaller building that was chained closed before had been opened. So I walked up and entered to find two monks laying on the floor watching tv, I looked around at the amazing murals painted on the walls and then left them with the news. After that I walked to the Sunday market which was huge and had tonnes of crap. I walked around for an hour before coming across a lady selling bugs, I had to do it so I bought two bags, altho I'm not sure of what, I think one was grasshoppers and the other i have no idea I couldn't look at them that long. They are sitting in my room waiting for me, anyways after that I went and got a 30 min back and shoulders massage, which was just what I needed. The girl who was working on me also seemed to have a crush on me but I don't know enough thai to know what she was saying to the other ppl working there but it seemed pretty funny to them. After that I was nice and relaxed and picked up a orange and beet juice which was surprisingly good and a pork sausage b/c I didn't want to eat too much incase the bugs didn't agree with me. Then I walked back to my gh and stopped at 711 to pick up a water and a big beer to help me deal with the bugs incase they don't stay down. Well I'm going to work up the corage to go eat them and I'll take lots of pics of whatever happens.

posted by Brandon Share @ 8:44 PM