Yeah, I haven't really been all that interested in posting lately.  I can't really be bothered to do much of anything lately, really.  I'm probably wrong, and maybe it's just because it is the Christmas season at home and people are busy being full of family things, and baking, and shopping, and other miscellaneous Christmas related/family related things, but I've been pretty depressed the last couple of days, even though I've played with elephants, and I'm out exploring all these cool things.  I haven't heard from many people at home lately, I guess. 

It's no fault of yours - you all have lives too.  I guess I just feel a little forgotten about.  Roommates who don't send emails, family members who don't comment on my blogs, etc.  It leaves me with little inclination to share my travels, simply because I don't feel like I'm being paid attention to.

I'm probably just being moody.

Did anyone see that lunar eclipse?  I didn't even really know about it, until I was traveling by train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai.  Tim and I watched it from our window as we fell asleep that night.  I wanted to see the whole thing, but I fell asleep before it happened.

The train ride was really cool - I've never ridden in a sleeper train before.  We caught it in the evening from Bangkok, after a very rushed day of ferry rides, and seeing Wat Arun, and even going for a semi-okay meal of fish and chips at a British restaurant.  The fish and chips were sub-par, however, I had an amazing cheese and branston pickle sandwich (oh branston pickle, how I love you so) ...oh, and Tim got himself a suit tailored.  Some very sharp looking wool.

 Wat Arun, in Bangkok - from the other day when I couldn`t load photos

We met a really cool couple on the train from England - they live in Chiang Mai now, and were both vegan, and gave me this huge list of vegan/veggie places to eat in Chiang Mai and Pai.  I've eaten at all of them now - and they've all been fantastic, including this one place we've eaten at a few times now, where we get a full vegan thai meal for 20B (less than a dollar).  The place we went to today at lunch was spectacular - I had an avocado sandwich, and a soy-avocado-banana smoothie (you don't understand how hard it's been to try and find soy alternatives in this country.  I've gotten really good at asking for "no milk" with lots of hand shaking and head waving) ...and their scones are so fantastic we're going to return there for breakfast in the morning.  Oh, how I love real food.

We've done a ton of stuff while we've been in Chiang Mai, despite my mood.  The morning we got in, we acquired a guesthouse (which we're no longer in, as the beds were hard, and there were too many people and we could only book three nights anyhow) ...and we spent the day at a thai massage place (the legitimate kind).  That night was a Sunday Walking Market, and the streets filled up with vendors, and we shopped until 10PM that night.  We both found really cool, handmade leather journals, and I got some postcards, and a jade bracelet.  Just little odds and ends - ate some delicious sticky rice out of a bamboo stick - love that stuff!

The next day, we rented bicycles and cycled around the city - my bike was baller.  The day after that, was elephants.  After having cancelled that 7-day elephant trek, I wanted to still see elephants while we were up here, and so with the same company, we booked a one-day volunteer thing at the sanctuary grounds.  Holy hell, it was touristy.  Trying to take photos of elephants without tourists in the way was bullshit.  And so many Americans!  Oh Americans, why are you so rude when you travel?  Why can't you be nice and polite like Canadians?

It was still really cool though - we got to feed elephants, and then they fed us a delicious thai veggie meal (pumpkin soup, oh my god) and we got to bathe elephants in the river.  It was a lot of fun to throw buckets of water onto the elephants and wash all the mud from them (not that it lasted long; darned things roll in the mud after they finish bathing!) ...elephants are beautiful creatures.  Each one has their own mahout (guy who belongs to the elephant and trains/takes care of them) ...and the park itself has 36 elephants, including two baby elephants that were unduly adorable.  I even got kissed by an elephant, which is far grosser than it sounds.  My goal for the day was to high-five an elephant, and it never happened, but I can't win them all - Tim got to high-five one and I didn't even see it!

Yesterday, we took a cooking course, and basically spent the entire day cooking and eating.  I finally found a bag of dried chilli's at the market, and I bought a giant bag of them.  In Thailand, they serve four sauces with each meal - something spicy (dried chili), bitter (fish sauce), sweet (sugar), and sour (limes).  The dried chilli's are delicious - and I bought a kilo of it.

The cooking course was great - there were 6 of us in our class, and we learned how to cook five dishes: stirfry, curry, soup, salad/appetizer, and dessert.  I chose: fried cashew nut with tofu, papaya salad, tofu in coconut milk soup, panaeng curry, and mango with sticky-rice.  I think the curry was my favourite dish - we made our own curry paste from scratch, and I liked the panaeng curry spice so much I returned to the market to buy some of my own.  It's delicious!  The school gave us a cook-book with all the recipes in it, and each recipe includes the vegetarian alternative (as all the meals are originally meat-heavy)  ...fish sauce is disgusting, I'm sorry.

I haven't been sleeping well lately - Thai's are very fond of hard beds, and between that, a few late nights, and my sore shoulder (thank you backpack, you jerk) ...I've been sleeping terribly.  As such, I crashed at 6PM last night, and didn't wake until 7 this morning.

Tonight is our last night in Chiang Mai and we're going to go meet that couple we met on the train at a bar - it's called the Rooftop Bar, and plays live reggae music, and has a giant potleaf plastered to the front of the bar.  Should be a good time!