Chiang Mai Part 2

Our first week in Chiang Mai was very relaxed. We took advantage of this time to do the tourist thing and rest as much as possible. Chiang Mai has a lot more to offer than we had ever thought it would. For one, we had never really heard about Chiang Mai until we learned about this annual conference. Turns out Chiang Mai is a very interesting and beautiful city.It is not a very large city, so it was easy and cheap for us to travel around. We would usually take a ride in a tuk-tuk or a red truck taxi like the one in the picture. A tuk-tuk is a motorcycle style vehicle with a two seat bench built on the back with a top covering it. That was certainly the way to experience Thailand. The sides were all open, so the breeze could just blow around us as we were driving. It was quite nice. After the frozen north, a little sunshine and warmth was wonderful!A few days after we got to Chiang Mai, we decided to take a look around the old part of the city. We began walking to the center of town but decided along the way to hire a tuk-tuk in order to save our feet and maximize the sight-seeing time. We ran into a tuk-tuk driver who offered us a good rate to take us to the major Buddhist temples of the city. From an architectural and historical standpoint, the temples of the city were very impressive.The city itself is over 700 years old. Many of these temples are equal in age. However, many more temples have been built all around the city since its establishment. This was an interesting part of our stay but certainly not our favorite.

A few days after our temple viewing outing, we went to a huge mall with our teammates. You may be thinking, "Why did they go to a mall in Thailand? Weren't there other things to see and do?" We have got two words for you: Diary Queen!

Ah yes, the frozen treats that are DQ Blizzards! Again, you may be thinking, "Haven't they got enough of blizzards? They do live in Mongolia." Indeed, we have had our share of snow this winter, but we have had no Blizzards that included Oreo cookies. Besides, we were in Thailand, and it was much warmer at the time. While we were indulging, we ran into some good friends from Tibet. They are the couple in the middle on the top and bottom. There is nothing like visiting with friends over a DQ Blizzard!

After walking around the mall and eating our ice-cream, we parted with our friends and stopped at the Flower Market on our way back to the hotel. The Flower Market is exactly what the name indicates. Two sides of the street lined with nothing but flowers. Most of the flowers were some variety of Orchid, one of Thailand's most noted flowers and Jennifer's favorite flower. Joshua was so overwhelmed by the number of cheap Orchids that he went crazy and bought Jennifer three colors and varieties of them.

Jennifer took three empty water bottles and made three beautiful arrangements out of her flowers. Many of these flowers adorned our hotel rooms for the next week and a half. Not a bad way to spend about $6.