A Much Needed Update!

Man, do I have a lot of catching up to do!  Olivia has been doing all of the postings lately, because I always fall asleep too early.  So I better get started!  This past week has been pretty jammed packed with activities.  In fact, I'd say one of the busiest since we've been here! Olivia's friend, Natasha, came to visit for the weekend.  Man! Does that girl have some energy! She reminds me of a Jack Russell Terrier.  Not the fat lazy ones like Riley, but the scrappy, crazy ones that run around nonstop all day.  But, before I get into our jam-packed weekend, I think I should first describe the progress I'm making in my future career as an explorer!  That's right! To all of you that don't think I'd make a good explorer...get this.  I got to teach a survivor course! Shane (our boss) runs these team building activities for big businesses.  So Olivia and I drove out into the jungle, where we got a crash course on how to build a fire, make a stretcher, a lean-to, bamboo pots (to boil water), chopsticks, and other such essentials.  This was all explained via demonstration by some Thai guys wearing military uniforms.  I don't know how they all didn't collapse from a heat stroke.  I was drenched in sweat, even though I was wearing a tank-top and running shorts (gasp! the horrors of my immodesty).  But I didn't even see a glimmer of sweat on these guys!  Constantly being the grossest person around (except for Olivia...I think she might even trump me) is really quite frustrating.  Hahaha!!  After our crash course, we met up with a bunch of people from Gore-Tex (you know, the waterproof stuff everyone in Seattle wears).  Sixty-two people, actually.  They were from all over the world.  We had Americans, Chinese, German.  You name it.  Anyway, we split 'em up, in roughly six groups of 10.  Each team had to complete the survival skills assigned in the most efficient and accurate manner.  Our job: instruct them in proper survival skills! It was great!  You would be AMAZED at the ignorance of some of these people! Especially the Chinese ones!  It was unbelievable! I don"t claim to be an expert or anything...but these people were just sad.  They must live under a rock or something.  For example, they were trying to start a fire, but instead of starting with tinder, they just tried to light a log on fire! Sigh.  Well, either way, I had a blast and think all of the people enrolled in the course did too.  Sadly, we didn't get any pics of us in action, so you'll just have to picture us making bamboo utensils and banana leaf rooftops.

The next day Natasha came for a visit.  She is interning in Singapore for the summer, so a quick trip to Thailand was manageable.  We took a cab driven by the respectable Mr. O, a very charming young man, who unfortunately I couldn't communicate well with because he didn't speak much English...and I speak virtually no Thai.  Natasha's flight arrived at 11:20 pm on Friday night, so that didn't leave much time for exploring. But we made up for it on Saturday.  I got up early, and went to Muay Thai, while Olivia and Natasha had some oh-so-delicious Smile Coffee drinks.  After that we headed into town.  Natasha insisted we try this thing called a fish spa.  It was SOOOOO fun!  It's a small room filled with couches and comfy chairs.  Underneath the couches are these fish tanks.  You put your feet in them (but only after someone washed your feet.  I super didn't like that part!  But, when I tried to wash them myself the little Thai lady looked very offended).  Anyway, as soon as you put your feet in the tank a bajillion fish latch onto them and start sucking away! It tickles like crazy! Olivia and I were rolling around in fits of hysterical laughter for the first 2 minutes.  But after that we settled down a bit.  Well, the result?!  Super soft, shiny feet! Sounds weird, I know...but definitely worth it. 

Tons of little fish nibbling away at my feet!

A very happy Fish Spa customer.

Natasha had a great idea!

Mango cheesecake from Love at First Bite.

Hooray for cake and pie!

Next we wanted to show Natasha some of the wats.  Naturally, Olivia and I got lost, and we ended up walking around in circles (actually circles) for the next hour. I think Natasha was getting frustrated by our incompetence, so she finally asked someone (a very good idea) for directions.  Hahaha! Turns out that we had walked right by it! Gahh!  Oh well.  Then we went to the night market.  Nothing new happened here, so I won't go into the deets.  Sunday was super duper fun too.  We went zip-lining through the jungle! 

Wheeeee!

Charlotte, ready for zip-lining action.

Charlotte and Natasha with Cash, one of our crazy guides, in the background.

Good advice.

Up in the treetops!

The view from midway up our waterfall hike.

Bottoms up!

Since we don't know the name of our apartment, we just told the company pick us up at Chay Yai Gym (that's where we train).  Well, I'm sad to say the people that were in our group were really lame.  It was this family from Holland.  Not a single one laughed, or screamed, or smiled the whole trip.  Despite the valiant efforts of our guide, Cash.  He was SOOOO funny, and had even more energy than Natasha!  Every now and then, he'd push against the ziplining wire to bounce us as we zipped through the treetops. We had so much fun, zooming along from platform to platform. And as we were zipping through the jungle on the world's largest zip-line we managed to see a family of gibbons with a mom, dad, and baby gibbon! 

Cute baby gibbon with it's mama!

That made the trip worth while.  Lunch was provided too! And it was quite tasty.  There was this delicious curry.  Olivia and I were the only people that asked for seconds...and when we asked for thirds the little Thai lady laughed, and brought out an entire new bowl of rice and curry for just the two of us! Naturally we felt obliged to eat it all..so we did.  That night we caught a Song Tao (the little bus/taxi combs) to the Sunday market where we met up with Khun Tin and Michelle (our friends from the office).  As usual I ate too much and went to bed feeling like a bloated toad.  Well, I realize this is getting to be a lot of info...but I'm not quite done yet, so I'll carry on. 

Monday night was the much anticipated fight between our friend Sean (the New Zealand guy) and some ridiculously jacked Thai dude.  So fights should be arranged by size.  Well, we hitched a ride to the stadium in the back of the guys' from the gym's pick-up truck.  We get to the stadium, and the guy that Sean has to fight is short all right (just like Sean) but he must outweigh him by 30 pounds!  Sean is definitely in good shape, but he's small...and not super ripped.  This Thai guy he's facing is like Gimli.  Short, stocky, and had bicepts about as big around as a coconut! Not a fair fight!!! I was so worried for Sean.  But he kept his cool.  The first round went okay, but you could tell every single punch or kick that Thai-Gimli landed hurt like hell.  At the very beginning of the second round Thai-Gimli kicked Sean super hard on the side of the knee.  Sean went down hard.  He looked like he was in so much pain.  He kept trying to get up so he could finish the round...but he couldn't.  It was really hard to watch, because I know that the fight meant a lot to him...cause he trains so hard.  I guess it'd be like getting to conference, and getting DQed, with a broken knee on top of it all.  I felt really bad for Sean.  He cried the whole ride back to the gym. Not from pain (I don't think), but cause he was so disappointed.  Poor Sean.  On the upside, Olivia and I are getting much better at sparring! The guys at the gym want us to fight....but after the several knock-outs, the dislocated shoulder, and now Sean....I'm pretty sure I won't be doing any actual fights any time soon!     

4th of July and Other Happenings

After an entire week without a single blog posting, Charlotte and I many adventures (both gastronomic and otherwise) that must be shared. Several days ago, Charlotte and I bought this mystery fruit at the market (from the same lady who sold us Charlotte's favorite brown mystery fruit). These ones were most peculiar, in that they resembled misshapen, waxy pears and had a textrure and taste similar to that of a cucumber-apple combo, if you can imagine such a thing. They were watery like cucumbers, but much more crunchy and they had a slight sweet taste. Most bizarre, although they made for a nice afternoon snack when chilled.

Behold! Mystery fruit #2!

While we'd originally planned on visiting the Chiang Mai Museum on Sunday, we were caught in a torrential downpour just after we left our apartment. We tried waiting out the rain as we munched on chicken and rice, but we soon realized that it was another when-it-rains-it-pours type of rainstorms. Not wanting to get washed down the gutter by the muddy water flooding the streets, Charlotte and I retreated back to our apartment, deciding to save the museum for another day.

Oh, and here's a super freaky anecdote: Coming back from work last week, we ran into Anne and Alex, both of whom live above us and are super-intense Muay Thai boxers at the gym we train at. Alex, who's from San Dimas, CA and used to work/teach at a Muay Thai place right near Claremont (this story already getting weird), mentioned that there were two girls at the gym who went to the Claremont Colleges. Freaky, right?! But, wait--it gets even weirder! So Charlotte and I book it over to the gym to meet them, and true enough, Karen and Dana, as they jovially introduced themselves, both graduated from Pomona a year ago and somehow ended up at the same Muay Thai place Charlotte and I train at. The chances of us running into Claremont students is quite slim (for numerous reasons, of course), one of which is that we're not in a tourist-y area at all. We're on this small residential street that's quite far from Old City. Anyways, after we talked to the girls for a bit, we learned that one of them is from Eugene, OR and used to swim with Diesel, Charlotte's boyfriend!! Ack!! Super weird! Almost Twilight Zone-ish, right? (Doo doo doo doo doo doo doo doo!) They were quite friendly and chatty, but they could only make it to one Muay Thai practice, since they're passing through Chiang Mai on their Southeast Asia tour. Bummer!


BUT, Charlotte also ran into Matt, a student from her French class at Whitman that had 11 students in it! We were biking to the Sunday Market during our second week here, and just as we round a corner, this guy steps out of a song-tao, turns around, and says, "Charlotte?" I couldn't get over it! We travelled half-way around the world, and still run into someone from Charlotte's 1200 student school. Clearly, neither Charlotte nor Matt could get over the weirdness of it all either, as they kept stopping mid-sentence with, "Woah, I can't believe you're here!"

On another note, Charlotte and I had a wonderful time celebrating the 4th of July yesterday with some marvelous pie. We ran across town after work, and made it just five minutes before Love at First Bite closed. Whew! When we went several weeks ago, I noticed they'd posted a sign saying all bakery items would be 20% off on the 4th. I suppose they wanted to help all the expats (and pie-loving Thais) enjoy a nice slice o' pie on Independence Day. Naturally, I'd made a mental note of this detail and we thankfully managed to get plenty o' pie. Charlotte had another slice of their insanely-good banana cream pie, while I tried the coconut cream pie, which had huge chunks of fresh coconut. Yum! I have to say, even though we had to go across town to get them and cart them home whilst hanging off the back of an overcrowded song-tao, it was worth every crumb. We also bought another rum raisin cake to share with all of the Muay Thai trainers (who we're now friends with) and a chocolate one for everyone at the office. So, as we were biking by the gym (after a lovely 4th o' July dinner of pie, coconut ice cream, chile-laden market noodles, and a pork burger for Charlotte! oh my!), we pulled over and offered Ga some of the cake. When we gave it to him, the biggest smile spread across his face. "For me?" he asked, excitedly holding the cake. "Well, you have to share it with everyone else!" Charlotte and I explained, trying to motion that he needed a knife to slice it with. However, given that Ga doesn't speak hardly any English (aside from "You go jogging jogging!" and "You have boyfriend?"), we didn't quite get the message across. Excitedly, he tore off a huge hunk of the cake (at least 1/4 of it!), and contentedly started munching away. At this, Charlotte and I were completely distraught at seeing the beautiful cake mangled in such a manner, and tried (in vain) to explain how a knife was needed. But Ga wasn't perturbed in the least, and blissfully continued to eat every bit of his massive slice before one of the Muay Thai boxers (who speaks some English) came to the cake's rescue. Despite having to witness the awful debauchery of the cake, I'm happy they enjoyed it so much!

"Yeah, it's almost pie time!"

Ta da!

Mango and durian smoothies, anyone?

Several hours later, we returned to the gym to carpool over to the Tha Pae Stadium for our first-ever Muay Thai fight! I don't suppose "stadium" is the best word to describe the area, as it was more of a boxing ring encircled by wooden tables and a bar (of sorts). Nonetheless, it was still quite an experience! The place was packed with foreigners, and all of the people from our gym (Chay Yai Gym) were there, including the trainers and the boxers. In fact, one of the main reasons we went was because John, a Korean American who trains at the gym, and Anne, who lives above us and also trains at the gym, were fighting. Scary! So here's how it worked: There were 5 or so matches the entire night, and each match is made up of five three-minute sections. The matches started with the youngest fighters, who couldn't've been more than 10 years old but had bigger six-packs and biceps than some of the guys on my college swim team. They may have been tiny, but those kids were freakishly ripped! Before each match, all of the competitors would get all greased up with goodness knows what (Vasaline? olive oil? chicken fat?). Whatever it was, it made them all really shiny and very slippery (I imagine). The fights were super intense, though! Those skinny little kids were jumping all around, kicking and punching like there was no tomorrow.

Huah! Action shot!

One of the kids even blacked out (a definite win for the opponent), Anne knocked her opponent out, and John totally obliterated his opponent. Granted, John was a million times his size (since the other guy was this beanpole of a Thai dude), but I was still hoping he wouldn't get as badly beaten as he did. Poor guy! I decided that it's exciting to watch the games, as long as no one sustains any serious injuries. Then it's just too stressful. I was so worried about those poor little kids getting the stuffing knocked out of them. I also decided that I could never do a fight in a million years. Everyone at the gym wants Charlotte and I to do a fight next month, since most people do their first one after a month of training. But I'm absolutely certain one of those tough Thai girls would kill me in the first five seconds. My only chance of winning would be if I could somehow crush her with my (comparatively) massive body weight. I don't think that's a Muay Thai maneuver, though....

John (USA) vs Skinny Thai Dude (Thailand).

Oh, and I forgot to mention that before each match, each player says a prayer at every corner of the ring and does a type of pre-game dance. (Maybe the dances are supposed to bring good luck? They certainly weren't very intimidating!) In between boxing sessions, the coaches poured tons of ice water over their boxers and massage/shake out their muscles. Crazy! According to our fellow boxer friend Sean (who's from New Zealand), each boxer is judged on their technique for their punches, kicks, etc., but the judging is sometimes rigged based on betting. I can't see how the boxers could possibly focus on their fighting, though, since there was this brain-piercing music playing the entire time!

They even had a halftime show (of sorts), in which they blindfolded six guys and just let 'em go at each other for several minutes. I couldn't believe it! The refs would occasionally push one of the guys into a clump of the other boxers, just to cause trouble. Of course, everyone was falling over each other and violently swinging their arms about, hoping they'd actually land a punch on something or someone. Several times, the boxers corned the ref and started going at him, too! Many times, they'd just do a preemptive tap, and if they actually had hit someone, they'd start flailing their arms at them. It was completely ridiculous! I felt really bad for this one super skinny guy, who clearly was not cut out for that sort of thing. He was by far the smallest of the bunch, and he always had his hands over his head and kept trying his best to avoid any sort of human contact. Unfortunately for him, the ref caught on, and kept pushing him into the thick of the fighting.

The Muay Thai "halftime show."

So that's the scoop on Muay Thai, but here's one last parting shot of Charlotte with our 4th graders. They're making quite a bit of progress, too, and I'm hoping they'll be able to read soon.

Exciting News!

I have some excellent news: some of our sixth grade students began to read English words today!!! Hooray! I'm so impressed by how much progress they've made, especially considering the fact that we just finished discussing phonics last week. I couldn't believe it! Today in class, some of the students were able to piece together the sounds of fairly complex words, like window. Go little Thai kids! Charlotte and I were so excited, we were jumping all around the classroom. I actually think we were more excited about the entire thing than the students were. While they're making tremendous progress with their English, I still haven't seemed to make any improvements with my Thai speaking skills. I've learned to just laugh and smile along with them whenever I try to say something in Thai. Oh, and we finally managed to take a few pictures while we were teaching today. We'll certainly try to take more, but for now here's one of our sixth graders during story time. They really liked it, especially since the book had pop-ups and funky textures, like fluffy "fur" for the dogs and smooth "bumps" for the frogs. I must admit, though, the book was somewhat tricky, even for a native English speaker. Who knew that U is for Uacaris, a type of monkey? I guess I learned something new today, too.

Story time!

What else? At the office, Charlotte and I are still working on writing the mahout-elephant booklet that we hope to sell at the elephant camp's visitor's center/souvenir shop. So far, we've discussed the history of the Asian elephant in Thai culture, the plight of mahouts and their changing identities from past to present, and the importance of elephant camps to the conservation of domestic and wild elephants. We've only just started and have much more material to discuss, but so far so good!

Skewers at the ready!

There wasn’t much work for us to do at the elephant camp today, though, since we interviewed all of the mahouts last week (to get info for the mahout-elephant profile section of the booklets). However, we still managed to give Tao, Bean, and Nung trunk rubs!

In my excitement about our students’ breakthrough, I completely overlooked our food update. Last night, Charlotte and I gathered together some very tasty bits and bobs for a yummy food stall dinner. I decided that we should try a Thai-style “breakfast for dinner,” so we bought an egg roti (similar to a crêpe with a fried egg in it) and two Northern Thai sausages that were much shorter and fatter than sausages in the US, much like the bananas here. The combo was superb, if I do say so myself! The sausages were super tasty and slightly sour. They went perfectly with the crunchy cucumbers that they came with. Then we had these really funky (by which I mean downright gross) balls. I had no idea what they were, and I’d left our Thai phrasebook at home, so I didn’t get very far trying to ask what they were. I just bought them anyways, and hoping for the best, popped one in my mouth all in one go. The verdict? I don't particularly care for mysterious gelatinous balls. They had a very slick, slimy texterure when coated in coconut milk, and were filled with what tasted and smelled like sugary, pan-fried garlic. It was an interesting combo to say the least. I had to wash them down with my green tea and black sesame milkshake. (I had to add the green balls to my short list of unpalatable items, right next to Charlotte’s funky squid-on-a-stick and this bitter root vegetable I recently encountered in some soup). Aside from that, everything’s in tip top taste and order! 

Egg roti-sausage-cucumber kabob!

A Not So Lazy Sunday

Oh, man. Charlotte and I were so tired last night from our crazy Muay Thai lessons that we slept in until 10:30 this morning, despite the fact that the super-ambitious Olivia from last night had set our alarm for 8 AM. So much for getting an early start! In spite our laziness, we soon took advantage of what was left of our day. Even though it was pouring all morning with no sign of letting up (it is the rainy season here, after all), we donned our raincoats, hopped on our squeaky bikes, and headed over to our new favorite (yet nameless) restaurant for another steamy bowl of kao soi and some roasted chicken. Apparently, plenty of other people had the same idea, as the place was packed with people downing bathtub-sized bowls of steamy soup. And even though neither Charlotte nor myself are big meat eaters, we packed that chicken away! It was so tasty, but I can't figure out for the life of me what they did to it....Charlotte thinks they drugged it, but I'm pretty sure it's the Thai iced teas that are drugged, not the chicken. I'm definitely addicted to their tea!

With full tums, we were ready to begin on our journey to...(drumroll, please)...Doi Suthep! One of northern Thailand's most sacred temples, Wat Phra That Doi Suthep is one of the two sacred peaks located in the Doi Suthep-Pui National Park and was established in 1383. For some reason, the whole part about this being a mountain temple completely escaped my mind, so I proposed to Charlotte that we ride our bikes up there for a nice Sunday outing. In fact, I knew that this was one of the mountain temples, but it just didn't register that if we rode our bikes to this mountain, this would involve a change in incline and in elevation, both of which can be very noticeable on a bike. Somehow, though, Charlotte didn't seem to think this all the way through, either, and we were soon pedaling up and down the city's puddle-laden sois (little streets).

Charlotte atop her trusty bike.

The super-slippery rocks at Nam Huaykeaw.

Trying not to fall in!

  Our first stop was the Huaykeaw Waterfall near the base of the Doi Suthep mountain. It was the perfect place for a bit of a rest and rock-scramble. The waterfall was nice, but it somewhat weirded me out how the water looked soapy. I'm not sure if that was from some sort of mineral deposits, pollution, or something else. I was trying to decipher some of the signs around the falls, but they were unfortunately all in Thai. All I managed to pick out was that the source of the water is much farther away, like near the Burmese border, I believe. No matter, we had quite a bit of fun scrambling about, and trying not to fall into the mysteriously milky-ish brown water. This is easier said than done, let me tell you! Those rocks were more slippery than Charlotte after a Muay Thai lesson. (Ewww!) 

Charlotte cooling off in the waterfall mist.

Once we had our fill of sliding and scrambling, we went to retrieve our bikes and begin our ascent. As we were unlocking our bikes, a song-tao driver kindly offered us a lift to Doi Suthep. "No, thanks! We need all of the exercise we can get, since we keep eating so much!" I replied with a laugh. He gave me a quizzical sort of look, and waved us off with a "good luck!" I quickly learned we'd need all the luck we could get to reach the top. Barely a minute into the ride, I realized that I was absolutely mad for suggesting that we bike up the mountain.

The mountain is 1, 676 m. tall, and we hardly had the proper bikes, what with Charlotte on her rusty old thing and me barely covering any ground on my squeaky, 5-ton beach cruiser. For three hours, we "rode" our bikes up the twists and turns of the winding mountain road. To say we actually rode our bikes up the mountain wouldn't really be accurate, since the max I could ever ride was about 200 m, after which I'd have to heave myself off my tank of a bike, and give it a good push until I could hop on again. Naturally, Charlotte and I were both soaked to the bone in sweat, and we frequently had to stop along the road for a water break or to day-dream about mango smoothies. (Ok, the smoothie part was just me, but I'm sure Charlotte would've gladly accepted one, had she been offered one.) Strangely enough, Charlotte seemed quite chipper about the entire ordeal, even though I seriously thought I was going to keel over dead just as soon as I rounded the next corner (from a heat stroke or from trying to bike while standing up, a skill which Charlotte thought it'd be best to master while riding in a two-lane road up the mountain). On the bright side, we provided endless amounts of entertainment for everyone that passed us. Some would wave to us and cheer for us to keep riding whenever we pushed our bikes (which was, admittedly, the majority of the time), while others couldn't help but laugh and smile at our (pained?) expressions. Every time we rounded a corner and saw that the road ahead was only steeper than the one before, Charlotte and I would moan (or in her case, curse). Two Westerners passed us on their motorbike on one such occasion, and they nearly fell off their bike they laughed so hard.

We weren't the only bikers, though! There were quite a few though old Thai dudes cranking up that beast of a mountain. They all had skinny little chicken legs, and always cruised passed us with the greatest of ease. When I saw one of them zooming back down the moutain, I thought we were surely getting closer to the top. Only when we'd been biking for 3 hours did we finally ask someone how much farther it was. While I was expecting it to be just around the next corner (we were almost in the misty cloud layer), we were informed we'd only covered 5 km and still had 6 more to go! Ack! Even though Charlotte had taken our suicidal bike-up-the-mountain to be some sort of test of her will ("You made me start this crazy ride, Olivia, and I'm going to finish it!" she kept saying), we both decided we needed to catch a song-tao the rest of the way if we ever wanted to see the temple before nightfall.

Soo tired!

Nyuuuh!

Thankfully, a song-tao driver saved us from our insane ride and drove us the rest of the way, just in time to see the temple 15 minutes before it closed. What a close call! The temple was well worth the trip (in a song-tao, that is...I don't recommend the biking method), and looked spectacular with all of the mist. There were also tons of jungle bugs humming and buzzing, which made for some very nice background music of sorts. We trekked up the 300-something stairs to the temple, and explored the temple, which gave us a chance to recuperate a bit before making our descent. (I certainly would like to go back again, though, so we could have more time to explore!) As it was, it was getting pretty late, and neither one of us wanted to be flying down the mountain in the dark.

One of the many paintings lining the walls of the temple.

An elephant-adorned lamp post.

The famous golden chedi.

We made it!

The ride down the mountain took us 27 min (just to give you an idea of how big it was), and that was with me going at an instantly-wear-your-break-pads-down type of speed. Although Charlotte screamed down the mountain with careless abandon, I was slightly more cautious (with my bicycle riding history and all) and sqeaked down the whole way. I'm pretty sure I rubbed my braked pads down to tiny nubs, if there's even anything left. Oh, and when I reached the base of the moutain, my legs looked the the windshield of a car that's just completed a cross-country road trip. As I was cruising along, all these bugs and dirt clods smacked into my legs, imparting them with a lovely, thick layer of mucky muck.

For din, we stopped by the Sunday Street Market and picked up, among other things, these tasty chips things. The bottom is a thin wafer/chip with a dollop of some mysterious creamy substance and topped with this sweet, shredded coconutty thing. Very vague description, but they were very yummy! A great way to end our day!

Outta Muay Way!!!

So that witty title...the "Outta Muay Way"...that's what I'm going to be telling people that get on my nerves now that I've been taking super legit Muay Thai kickboxing lessons!  I'll set the stage for you guys.  Olivia and I sorta had a relationship going with the instructors before we even started taking lessons.  The boxing arena is literally 15 yards from our apartment.  Handy, eh?!  But anyway, every time Olivia and I ride by on our ever-so-trusty-yet-rusty bicycles all the instructors are lounging around outside.  They always say "Oh! Hello!" They always sound so friendly, and genuinely excited to see us...I feel its safe to say we're right on track to becoming best of friends!  Maybe that's an exaggeration, but because the guys were so friendly, Olivia and I managed to overcome our fear of the place.  "HUAH HUAH YAAAAA!!!" noises always float up to our room.  Its generally accompanied by loud thumping noises...sorta like if you threw a watermelon against a wall.  But we were right! Everyone is so cheerful!  And the watermelon-hitting-cement noises, we now know, aren't that scary.  It's just 110 pound super jacked Thai men side kicking punchingbags...or each other.  And the HUAH HUAH YAAAAA!!! noise? Well, that's apparently what you're supposed to say when you punch things really, really fast.  But lemme fill you in on the deets of our instructors.  There is Tree.  He's in a boxing competition tonight! More powa to ya brotha!

This is Tree.  Don't underestimate him! He's a Muay Thai master!

Olivia in her typical stick-up-the -butt stance she adopts when trying Muay Thai

Then there's Saman.  He likes to laugh at us a lot.  But then again, they all do.  I think I'd vote him the friendliest of the bunch though.  There's Gah.  He's super serious.  And has trained in Australia and Japan.  He's pretty legit.  He also told me I was beautiful...and asked me if he could take me shopping on Sunday (at least I thing that's what he was getting at.  His English isn't very good).  Diesel...I know you aren't reading this...but for those of you that are...don't worry.  I told Gah no thanks.  Back to instructors.  There's A.  He speaks the best English, and has very helpful hints on mastering the finer details of Muay Thai.  Ohm is cool too.  He has stitches on his face, and the biggest bruise I have EVER seen on his leg.  I invented a dramatic story in my head at lessons today about how he got those injuries, but if i wrote it all out it'd make this blog post WAY too long.  Oh there is also Kob.  He looks really young.  But that could just be due to the fact that some Thai people don't seem to age really.  He's TINY! But super jacked, and he kicks things SOOO hard.  Lastly there is Jack.  He isn't an instructor, but he's this fat american dude that has been doing nothing for the past four months but take muay thai 2 times a day.  Yeah...you're probably wondering the same thing I am. How's he still fat?!! I have no idea.  But anyway, all the instructors like to yell at him.  They say.."Lazy Jack! One million situps!" or "Jack sparrow! You go jogging, jogging!" I think it'd be too hard to try to explain everything we do at Muay Tahi.  But Olivia and I did 4 hours of it today.  I don't think I even get this sore during training camp!  I'll wait till Saman stops laughing at me every time I try to do a left-leg side kick, and then I'll have Olivia film it, and we can post it on the blog.  But I can tell you guys about the food we ate today!  I was feeling ambitious after Muay Thai lessons today, and ordered the "super bowl"of this super tasty curry, pasta combo. Sounds disgusting.  But probably the most delicious thing I've had since I've been here.  It's called Koi Sow. 

In case you were wondering....we ate the whole thing.

And that's saying something!  Olivia and I also had a HUGE craving for some bread/carbs of some sort.  Yesterday the only bread-like substance I could find was this box of cookies.  They are a combination of chocolate wafers and saltine crackers.  I ate 7 of them.  But today we found this sort westernish bakery.  Olivia and I kinda went overboard.  We got a whole rum-raisin cake.  A slice of banana cream pie (neither Olivia and I really like banana cream pie...but it's apparently Love at First Bite's  specialty.  And since they made it using these delicious mini Thai bananas we figured we'd give it a go.  Good thing too! Superb!) And I got a Tres Leches cake. It was soaked in condensed milk.  Just like everything else here.  But it was oh-so-tasty. 
Sorry this post is so bad.  I'm just super tired from Muay Thai...ZZZZZZZ.....I guess it's just a bean in my yogurt! Hmmm...I was trying that saying out.  It's one Olivia and I made up today.  It means "It's kinda weird, but don't dwell on it".  Or more along the lines of "Don't worry about it".  That sort of thing.  We came up with it when Olivia was eating her yogurt this morning and found it was full of beans and corn. 

Beans and corn, anyone?

Naturally she ate it anyway.    

HAHAHA!! Olivia is gonna be mad when she sees I posted this....

Super Mondo Gianormous Donut!

We have been quite so busy these past few days, working at the Track of the Tiger office in Chiang Mai, the elephant camp, and the school. However, it would be best not to discuss our business plans (at Track of the Tiger) just yet, but you'll be happy to know that things are looking up for the elephants and their mahouts! For now, I'll fill you in on our work at the school and our yummy eating adventures (of course!).

I'm not sure what the name of the school is, but it is in a small village right near the elephant camp. The principal has been very warm and welcoming, and is eager to have whatever support Charlotte and I can offer, probably because it'll be better than whatever English the children are learning now. All of the children are fun to work with, and seem to enjoy their classes. Well, at least I think they are; Charlotte begs to differ, as I had predicted. We try to make the classes as interactive and fun as possible, by turning lessons into games and suchlike. I would never really want to be a teacher as a profession, but for now, I think it offers some excellent challenges for both of us. The language barrier naturally makes everything we do take a million times longer than it normally would, since we usually have to act out or illustrate on the chalk board whatever we want the children to do. And even then it can be difficult to communicate! For example, I had the sixth graders make name cards to place on their desk, as I figured I'd better learn their names soon enough. However, rather than increase attention and focus by having each student called on by their name, it merely resulted in the children erupting in great peals of laughter. I know my pronunciation of Thai words is pretty bad, since no one at the restaurants ever understands me, but I certainly didn't think it was that awful! Oh well, I suppose this will be a learning experience for both the students and myself. I do feel sorry for the students, though, because they always have such sweaty, smelly English teachers! Charlotte and I go to the school right from the elephant camp, where we're usually mucking about with the elephants and their mahouts. By the time we've walked to the school in the blazing afternoon sun, we're drenched with sweat and reek like a bunch of dusty elephants! Poor kids!And we just continue to bake in their classrooms, which simply have old creaky fans to circulate the hot, stuffy air. We've managed to find a wonderful method of cooling down, though: black sesame milkshakes! The heat just makes the milkshakes all the more enjoyable when we arrive back in Chiang Mai.

The funky bus on our way back to Chiang Mai. Check out the fans and ceiling!

Dreaming of milkshakes on the bus.

We've found a yummy little street cart nearby that makes these delicious milkshakes. The menu is in Thai and English (although none of the English is comprehensible!), so we sometimes just take a guess when ordering. Charlotte discovered the nutty-ish black sesame one. Yum! The chocolate banana one sounded good, but I should've known better when I didn't see any real bananas around. The lady used this funky banana powder instead. It still was refreshing, though! 

Super mondo gianormous donut!

Spicy squid Lay's chips

This is one serious donut.

 For dessert last night, we grabbed this GIANT donut stick from a street cart nearby. It's nothing but fried batter, so I suppose it'd be hard to mess that up. However, the key to this heart-attack-waiting-to-happen dessert was the somewhat mysterious but oh-so-delicious coconutty green dipping sauce. It was just slightly sweet, very creamy, and had a slight coconut flavor. What a great combo! We also grabbed some chips to munch on and yogurt for the morning. One of them has "cereal nuts and lotus seeds," whatever those are. They look like beans on the label, but I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see what it actually tastes like.

Finally, some yogurt! This one has mixed fruit in it.

Here are a few pics from our day at the elephant camp today:

Tao is posing for his beauty shot.

Roasted pork leg with rice.

As you may be able to tell, I finally learned how to change the format and settings on our blog, since I managed to switch the primary language from Thai to English. Thank goodness! I'm still working on the formatting, but hopefully now it'll be somewhat better than before.

For din tonight, we had this crispy fried fish in this yummy sauce with rice and a glass noodle salad. Charlotte's been craving a fish of some sort ever since she's seen the grilled ones at the local market, and she jumped at the opportunity when she saw this one on the menu of a local restaurant. They brought it out in this dish that was set over hot coals, which kept it nice and toasty as we munched away at it. I do believe Charlotte was very content with her fish, judging by the fact that she's already asleep from her big food baby. I'd better follow suit, since we're starting Mua Thai kickboxing lessons bright and early in the morning!

The long-awaited fish!