More Chaing Mai

Starting off the day in a cool truck taxi on our wat to Ratana's Kitchen.
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So today Paul and I decided to take some time to plan the next few day in Chiang Mai since we will be leaving here Monday night to head back to Bangkok. We decided to go get some food at this restaurant call Ratana's Kitchen which is one of our favorites (we have been there 3 times)!! When you go to restaurants here they have games they provide like Janga, dominos and connect four. So we play some games and eats some great food! We like to sit for a while and enjoy the locals and travels coming and going. Anyways we eat and migrate over to the other restaurant/Guest House called Daret's it is like a backpackers dream! It has cheep food and this little desk off to the side that is a tourist reservation desk. So we walked a few blocks and talked to the very nice lady who helped us plan the nest 2 days. We will be having lunch on a river boat, taking a thai cooking class and taking a day tour of a city called Doi Suthep. So we should have some pretty cool things to do to end our stay in Chaing Mai. Well After we booked our plans with the tourist lady we were off in a taxi car to the train station to get our tickets for the overnight train to Bangkok. We figured the sooner the better because we will NOT be taking a bus back!!! So we hop in and tell our driver we would like to go to the Train Station and also we would like to go see the Tuk-Tuk factory. Tuk-Tuk's are those little bike cabs that hold 2 people and zoom us tourist around town. He looks at us and says yes, and we are off. He was teaching us some of the Thai language in the car and having lots of fun with us. It turns out he wanted to take us to all this places like the silver and jewelery shops, and we kept on saying no no no. Then he just turns into this place were Paul and I look at each other and are like "is this the e Tuk-Tuk Factory"? Well no it was this place were they make laker wear. Paul and I were like "oh no we do not want it", and taxi-hustler man is like "oh it is ok you look for free", HAHA!!! So we humor the guy and go in and look at this stuff we will probably never in our lifetime own. We take pictures of people painting the pieces and go. It took us 5 min to do a round of the place. So we get back in the taxi and we are off to what we think is the Tuk-Tuk factory and then our driver is like "oh you like silver" and we immediately say "NO!" and believe it our not he pulls into the silver place and talks us into going to a place where they make silk and cashmere rugs. It turns our when he takes us to theses places he gets tallied off on the card and when the car is full he gets 2000baht. What a joke I could not believe he did not tell us this but hey he was smart to pull it on us and you gotta give it to him for going for it. So after we agree to go to one last stop of his (silk rug place) he will take us by the Tuk-Tuk Factory and then the train station. We get to the silk rug place and have this long ass talk with the salesman you tells us how and why the rugs are made. SO BORING yet Paul and I are too nice to just get up and walk out. So we sit and listen nd look at the rugs and keep telling the guy we are too poor and too young to own a $4,000 rug. He continues to sell and try but we finally say no thank you and leave. Now we are back in the taxi and go past the Tuk-Tuk factory and see it is a small building and it is closed, but oh well they have a bigger and better one in Bangkok we hope to go to so we brush it off and head to the Train Station. It turns our the sleeper tickets are not running during the time we want to leave so we get seats instead which are not horrible so we take them and leave to go back to our hotel. Our taxi driver agrees when Paul says "back to hotel". Well the driver drops us off a ways away from our hotel but hey Paul and I are just happy to get the hell out of the taxi! What an exhausting cab ride!! We get out and stop at 7-11 for a drink and snack and start walking to our hotel. I make Paul stop at this temple on the way. The reason for me wanting to stop at this temple is because the day before when we walked by it the doors were closed (we have a picture of Paul and I outside the big red and gold doors from yesterday blog). Since I am a curious bugger I "must" go and see the inside. Well sure enough it looks just like all the other ones we have seen but I enjoyed it non the less. To be honest I could see every temple in Thailand and enjoy every min of it! I think they are so beautiful and peaceful. Now we are back at the hotel and Paul must be pretty exhausted from the day because he is napping, and I am tempted to watch some of the episodes I have missed from Grey's Anatomy...but I won't...I don't think, hehe!

Trying to act interested as we take pictures and run thru the Lacker Wear place our awful taxi driver took us to.
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Few hours later...Paul wakes up and I decided we should go to the Night Bazaar which is a popular location right next to our hotel that has bars, food and shopping all outside!! I read that they have a free cabaret show every night an I thought we should check it out. So we go to this bar called the Sham Rock and grab a front row seat. Of course we decide to have a drink and play some connect 4 and janga with the locals. an hour later the show starts and it is a bunch of men all dresses up as women lip-singing to these songs (some in english and some in Thai). It was so funny!! After about 4 songs they were done, then they all came off the stage and walked around with a tip box and took pictures with people. Of course Paul and I had to do it!! They were all about Paul!! They grabbed his but and for the picture one of them wrapped his arm around their neck and placed his hand on his/her fake boob!!! HAHAHA!! THen we were off in a decked out Tuk-Tuk to dinner at the river side restaurant called Jonny Walkers. It was really great food, live band, and big screen TV which Paul was glued to and I could care less because I was full and buzzed from 2 drinks...cheap date! Well that was our day. I hope I did not ramble on too much. Paul jokes that I take so long to write these but hey it will be nice to look back on and I am sure you guys like to know what we are up to...Mom I do it for you XOXOX!!

Paul and I were like "oh no we do not want it", and taxi-hustler man is like "oh it is ok you look for free", HAHA!!!

More Lacker Wear. I have no idea if I am spelling that right, but hey who cares!
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Ok we will write more later!

Love and miss you all!!

XOXO

Paul and Cass