Oh my, Chiang Mai!

In the past 3 days, I ate a fried pork chop with sticky rice for breakfast, gave alms to monks in the form of a chinese noodle dish, received hugs from the trunks of three elephants simultaneously, saw two binturongs hanging upside down, watched an otter recycle, picked star fruit off of a tree, ate star fruit from off of a tree, thought about how star fruit will never taste that good back home, rubbed a one year old elephant's tongue, looked through four used book stores in the span of one block, lived with a Thai family who does not like spicy food, did not pay extra at the zoo to see the stupid panda, ate spare ribs with sticky rice for breakfast, took pictures of Asian tourists taking pictures, took pictures of people pushing giant brass bells along a temple wall next to a sign saying do not push the bells, watched a parrot ride a tricycle, was humbly out-eaten by a 60 year old Thai man, learned more Thai from a seven year old Thai boy named Wich than I had in the previous five weeks, ate Indian food including three kinds of nan with a sheltered New Zealand engineer, wiped elephant snot from my forehead, saw white tigers, lit three sticks of incense (one for the Buddha, one for his teachings, and one for the monks,) lit one candle, received a blessing from a monk at Wat Doi Suthep, got yelled at by the same monk for wearing my hat (CMNH hat) inside the temple, heard an elephant play a harmonica, ate chicken butt with sticky rice for breakfast, jumnped into a swimming pool while holding a small Thai boy, witnessed giraffe foreplay, am almost certain I found Captain Jack Sparrow painted within a temple mural of pious Thai buddhists, finished The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon, and bought airline tickets to the Phillipines.

As an offer of explanation, Lizzie and I spent the past few days with a Thai family in a suburb northeast of Chiang Mai called Sansai. We visited the Chiang Mai zoo, Wat Doi Suthep  (perhaps the busiest of the 302 or so temples in Chiang Mai province atop Mount Suthep) during a Buddhist holiday weekend, took their seven year old son to an elephant camp to see the elephants for his first time, and ventured through maybe six different markets around the city. It has been a busy few days, but a great few days.