It's an Exciting World

Dinner was ordered in advance and we just showed up and they put all the food on the table. This is truly the way dining should be. We were the only table there and the staff was close by but not hovering. The table was on a small platform next to a canal and waterwheel. The chandelier was composed of hanging moss and the whole setting made you feel both in a fine dining experience and in the middle of the jungle. The food was also quite well done. I was incredibly impressed with the experience.
After dinner we played some open face Chinese poker. The game was a lot if fun and I went mainly for the Hugh risk high reward route. I really wanted to get to the fantasy land part of the game, but every time I tried it didn’t work out and I usually busted. Adam was playing it safe and capitalizing on all the reckless playing from the amateur players.

The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was on the ground for about 30 minutes putting us into Chiang Mai about that late. The hotel picked us up at the airport. The hotel was out of the city a ways but was very nice. It certainly lived up to the name Fern Paradise. One of the most amazing things we have noticed is that it all looks wild but everything is meticulously curated. It is very pretty.
Once there we took a quick walk into town and looked at what food they had to offer. We decoded dinner at the hotel would be best. When out on our walk we ran across a little park that was empty while we were there originally but got very lively after sunset.

We got breakfast at the hotel since the tea shop was was closed. After that we checked out and got a van to the airport. I had timed it for the train so we got there significantly early. We sat in the terminal and got mainly snacky food for lunch.

We had dinner at a high end place that claimed to have molecular gastronomy. I would say that some of the dishes got way away from what was expected which is what molecular gastronomy is about. Many of the dishes also were rather traditional presentations. The mix of it was good. We ordered more on the adventurous side and were not disappointed.

Adam Nick and I went a few doors down from the hotel to grab some tea. The tea shop was absolutely adorable and we talked a lit about mid term future plans. Both Adam and Nick seem to have decent ideas of what they want to do.
The girls got back from the mall and we went to get a second round of tea.

Steph and I went to two parks but had adventures on the way to both of them
To start out the day we grabbed some tasty food at the street vendors on our street then started walking south to the tobacco monopoly. We then went east to the park but had to walk through some depot looking areas. The park had a fence going around the entire perimeter and we started wondering if we were even allowed in the park. We saw probably 30 workers cleaning it up but only 6 or so people that looked like they were using it for enjoyment. There was a group of 3 guys practicing parkor and they were interesting to watch. We stopped by some office buildings close by and grabbed lunch at the stands near their bases.
We took a cab to lumphini park, but took the long way around since the cab driver didn’t understand what we were saying. I downloaded Google translate to help out with that. At lumphini park we saw many lizards and got to see two of them fight. It was really nice to get away from the rush and noise of the city. We walked over to join the others at the platinum mall and I left Steph there with Tina. I went back to the hotel with Adam and Nick. Nick and I wandered off south of the hotel and stopped in the last restaurant on our street. It was tasty and filling.

We went to a really nice restaurant near where the massage palace is and it was incredibly tasty fusion food. I got the tom yum pizza which had all the tasty cheese and crust of pizza with all the spice and seafood of tom yum. We got dessert which was tasty and then Steph went to the massage palace but they were fully booked for the rest of the evening. We walked through soi cowboy a few times since we were near there and then took the train back to Nana station. Nick Steph and I were the only ones still out so we decided to randomly wander for a bit. We went north into the Arab district and saw more of the same market stalls. Steph and I then headed back to the hotel for a reasonable nights sleep. Nick went out wandering and I am hoping to hear a good story tomorrow morning.

The second part of the tour was very enjoyable. We took a ferry across the river to the temple of the dawn. It was a really amazing older structure. The temple was also something one can climb. We went past the lower level of hell, up to the middle level of earth, and made it all the way to the upper level of heaven. I suppose one could consider Tue very top of the temple to represent nirvana. The stairs got steeper as the steps got higher so that at the top of the temple I was having trouble lifting my foot to the next step. It was a glorious view of the city and the river from atop the temple. After the dizzying descent from the temple we went to the canals. I really enjoyed seeing all the houses along the canals and was intrigued at how mixed the level of house was. There were mansions and shacks very close to each other. There were also decently large sections that had been destroyed in flood and never rebuilt. There were many temples along the canals and we stopped at one to feed the fish. They were of the giant catfish variety but the largest if the group were only two feet long or so. Jeremy got a beer from one of the random shop boats that was in the busier areas of the canals. Since we were going to be staying at Khoisan road on the way back through Bangkok we decided to just head back to the hotel.

We stopped for lunch and got some really tasty food and drinks. A large contingent got more of the Thai ice tea and I had the problem of not knowing what my food is supposed to be again. I might want to start knowing and remembering what I order but where is the fun in that.