Chiang Mai

The first thing we did after returning from our trek was to take a shower. We were really dirty! As soon as we were presentable, we walked across the street to receive a blind massage. Everyone that works there is blind and it's a great source of work for them. The main guy, Mr. Knot, gave Evan a massage and he loved it. Thai massage is a lot of pressure points and stretching. They compare it to yoga. At the end of Evan's massage Mr. Knot got on the bed and had his knees in Evan's back and pulled Evan backwards and popped his back in at least 8 different places. All for 150 baht or about $5.

Refreshed after the massage we decided to head out of the old part of the city and had a great authentic thai meal at Hong Tauw Inn. We had about four different dishes and enjoyed everything. Evan mistook a green chili for a green bean and paid the price.

Thursday morning we toured the town. Our first stop was Wat Phra Singh where we were impressed by the size of the temple complex and its jade buddha and golden buddha.



There was a park area in the complex that had some signs full of advice:



And in the park there were monks surfing the net:



The next temple we went to was Wat Chedi Luang. This was also very impressive as it had a very old crumbling structure with a buddha up at the top as well as a temple with an embalmed monk in it.

Our next stop was to the women's prison where we both got foot massages. They let the inmates specialize in something (sewing, massage, etc) and they get to keep part of the profits for when they get out. These aren't murderers (or at least we think not) as they are about to get out in the next 6 months. For $4/hour it was a great deal. That evening we went to the night bazaar (a big market) which we found quite enjoyable as the merchants weren't too pushy and we enjoyed bargaining with them.