Maddie and I started off the day waking up at 6:30 AM due to jetlag, and so we hung out around our shared room, went to 7-11 and the ATM, and tried to snooze a little more before heading out for the day. After meeting up with some of the CVs (Christian Volunteers), we took a tour around the admittedly large Payap campus. We were pretty tired by lunchtime, so we got some fresh fruit and then lunch! I got mango (mat muang) with chili sauce, and then Pad see ew with vegetables. After lunch, we made the trek to Big C, which is an indescribably large grocery store. Grocery store isn't even the right word: it's like a Wal-Mart crossed with a mall, and twice the size of either one. I had to get a phone and some other things like shampoo and towels. By this point in the day, it was getting pretty hot and humid, but we still elected to walk back to Payap instead of taking a song-tao (red taxi). Maddie and I took naps and almost didn't wake up in time to go to the Old City! We hopped on Aki and Alison's motorbikes and they took us into the city, where they dropped us off and we had a chance to explore a bit. Here are some pictures of our adventure!
One of the busy streets of the Old City, with a tuk-tuk coming down the road.
The top of a wat, or temple, peeking out from behind a city wall.
Me in front of some sort of building (unspecific, yes, but I honestly don't know what it was!)
A rickshaw driver just hanging out, a few minutes before it started downpouring.
It had been thundering for a while, so it wasn't a surprise that we came out of a 7-11 to find it torrentially raining. Unlike the Thais, who were waiting under awnings for the rain to stop, Maddie and I zipped up our rain jackets and plowed out into the rain. Looking back, I think the Thais had the better sense to not go out. After meeting up with Aki and Alison, we ate som tam salad (green papaya) and sticky rice (kao nil), which was delicious but also intensely spicy. And then we ended up doing the exact thing we were apparently not supposed to do on our first night in Chiang Mai, according to this blog...we went to Mrs. Pa's smoothie stand, which was absolutely delicious! She made us mango-pineapple-passionfruit smoothies for 20 baht. Needless to say, I'm going to have to go back there soon! We walked around the night market while sipping our smoothies, and then, exhausted, hopped back on the motorbikes to get back to campus. It's actually pretty far from the city, so it'll be interesting once we start bicycling. All in all, it was a packed day and we had a lot of fun!
Since it means both hello and goodbye, I'll sign off by saying sa wat dee ka!
