Chiang Mai Shopoholics

Our four hour bus ride back to Chiang Mai was uneventful. We found a new hotel right next to the Sunday Market where we would do most of our shopping.

First, we headed to the government shop for our second fitting of Jason's suit and my coat. The suit fit perfectly and Jason looked great! My coat needed a few minor adjustments, so we left the shop and promised to pick it up later in the night.

We caught a late lunch at Aroon Cafe where I had the best Pad Thai I've ever eaten! Jason had a yummy chicken curry...we bought a couple of packets to try our hand at curry at home.

Then the shopping began. We bought pants, shirts, hats, plates, vases, jewelry, and wooden knick-knacks. It was lots of fun to walk through the markets and hard work to get those Thais to come down in price. Jason was definitely better at bargaining than I was....I felt kind of bad trying to get a $4 t-shirt for less. At one point, I was bargaining with a girl that couldn't have been older than 8 (seriously!) for a pair of earrings. Eventualy, I got them for $2.

In total, we spent less than $100 for 25 pounds of stuff. We know it's 25 pounds because we tried to ship it from the airport in Bangkok and it would have cost $175 to ship. We decided against this...and instead are opting to carry with us.

We ate on the street that night for so cheap! It was delicious. My only complaint about eating from ther street vendors is that there are a lot of mangy dogs in the streets that sit by you while you're eating.

The next morning we got up early to leave for our 8AM flight to Bangkok. It took us awhile to hail a tuk-tuk (a motorcycle carriage), but finally we caught one. We were so excited for the beach!