I made it! After 34 hours of traveling I made it to Chiang Mai. I wasn’t able to get to much sleep during my 16 hour red eye flight from Vancouver to the Philippines because of a couple screaming babies, but I was able to meet two very resourceful people during my flights, especially on my second flight from the Philippines to Bangkok. When I arrived in Chiang Mai, there was a cab driver hired by my program waiting for me along with one of my new friends/co-workers, Adam from Boston. When we arrived at the hostel/apartment complex that we will be staying at for the next month, there were two more teachers on my team anxiously waiting for us, Kelsey and Blair. Adam and I had a couple of minutes to freshen up after our long flights before we went to an awesome restaurant. The hostel that we are staying at was shockingly nice, and the people working here are very friendly and helpful. I posted video of me giving a virtual tour of my room in the hostel to this blog.
So far I’ve been really impressed with the food and prices here. Thai food at home doesn’t come close to the food here. Everything that we’ve eaten here has been absolutely amazing, and very cheap. For my first full day in Thailand my three colleges and I went to the local market for breakfast, it ended up costing us about $1.50 in US dollars for fresh fruit, waffles, a bundle of bananas and coffee. After breakfast we took a cab to the old city of Chiang Mai and walked around to most of the temples in a 10 block area. The temples were beautiful and it was easy to find our way. I found that exact walking adventure in my lonely planet book. We ended our excursion in the old city by getting an hour long massage from female prison inmates. The massage was AMAZING; I’ve never felt so limber and relaxed. The four of us are fully addicted to Thai massages and the hour only cost 5 US dollars. The massage sounded kind of sketchy at first but the ladies in the program were very friendly. The inmates have to be within 6 months of release, the crime has to be non-violent, and the money from the massage goes towards helping them getting set up back in the community when they get out, so they don’t end up going right back. We will definitely be going back.
It is currently the rainy season in Thailand, but both days that I’ve been here have been sunny and in the upper 80’s/ low 90’s. I couldn’t ask for better weather, friends, and hostel.