I get to Chiang Mai and I think, “I like this place”.  Every time I am here, I can’t help but remember the person I met with on the placement team.  They asked what I was looking for and I said I’d like Chiang Mai.  She immediately said “You don’t want to go to Chiang Mai”.  YES – I ACTUALLY DID WANT TO LIVE IN CHIANG MAI.  I might be staying in Thailand longer if I had gotten placed in Chiang Mai.

Last night I had a warm shower.  It seems like a simple thing, but it’s not.  I didn’t have to wonder if I was going to go into shock as unnaturally cold and painful water hit my skin.  I could take the time to soap up and make sure I was actually clean since I wasn’t trying to rush through it and get to clean enough status.  It was pleasant instead of a chore I have to work up the courage to do.

Last night I ate at an Italian restaurant. It was expensive, not quite Italian, and disappointing.  Oh well, I knew it was risky going in and you can’t win them all.  This morning, I had eggs fried in a skillet with veggies on top.  Tonight I had a wonderfully healthy dinner at a vegetarian restaurant.  There was no rice, deep fried food or sugar anywhere to be seen.  I already feel ten times healthier.

Today I decided to be a tourist for half a day.  I had been avoiding any tours that included handicrafts and shopping.  I already have too much stuff.  What am I going to do with more?  But outside Chiang Mai are a bunch of handicraft places where you can watch them making the goods the way they use to.  I’m not sure if they are actually making them for real there or if they are just making a few to show the tourists and the stuff in the gift shops come from factories elsewhere.  I’m leaning toward the latter.  Still, it was something to do.  I started off at the Bo Sang Umbrella Factory.  They make paper bamboo umbrellas and fans.  I watched them make the umbrellas and watched some women glue fabric onto fans.  There was another area where they painted them.  So, if you bought an unpainted umbrella, you could pay them to paint them for you.  It was a bunch of painters calling out to you to get your attention and get you to pay them to paint something.  They all had cell phone cases with examples of their art.  They won.  My cell phone case now has some flowers, two butterflies and a lot of glitter on it.  I bought an umbrella and a couple paper lanterns too.  How are those getting back to the US?

I asked the taxi driver where he suggested next.  He took me to a place that had a jade shop, a silver shop and a silk shop all next to each other.  That all sounds great.  I went into the silk place first.  I’ve been wanting a traditional Thai skirt in silk so maybe I can check that off my list.  You got to see the silk worms and the cocoons.  They take the cocoons and put them in hot water and then pull the thread off the cocoons.  I wonder if the hot water kills the worms.  Do they get to become moths if you put them in hot water?  Do they become moths if you take all the silk off the cocoon?  There was a lady leading me through and telling me lots of fun facts, but she didn’t fill me in on this.  I wanted to ask, but I didn’t.  They showed how they dyed the silk with natural colors.  I’m pretty sure they use not natural colors too…..  Then they had a bunch of looms where they created the fabric.  I’m going to guess this is all done by machines now, but it was very enjoyable to see.  Of course, the tour ended in a giant store.  I wanted everything in that store.  The colors are so wonderful.  I really like the two tone rougher heavy fabric, but I couldn’t find anything in it that was in the right size or that looked right on me.  The thinner fabric is comfortable and beautiful in a different way and unfortunately, I did find clothes that looked good in that silk.  All the traditional Thai skirts and jackets were so expensive that I didn’t even try them on.  I’m not talking Thai expensivec I mean American expensive.  I found two skirts and shirts that I couldn’t seem to part with.

I got back to the taxi driver and told him to take me back to the hotel.  He questioned why I didn’t want to go see the jade or silver.  I have spent more than my flight to China.  I need to leave the area immediately.  I spent the rest of the afternoon at a coffee shop trying to do some work for my old engineering firm.  Maybe I can make back the money I just spent.  No, I did not.

(c) All rights reserved Kimberly Fiore