Arriving in Chiang Mai

Yesterday I took a plane from Bangkok to Chiang Mia, arriving in late afternoon. I spent part of the evening wandering around the city, trying to get my bearings. The layout is just as crazy as Bangkok but on a much smaller scale. (Bangkok has a population of about 15 million, Chiang Mai about 200,000). Monday I head to the retreat center for my 21 day “brain training”. Before I go I need to buy two pair of white pants…not sure why but that’s the required dress code at the mediation center. In the meantime, I’ll just throw out some random things:

• I mentioned bad translations….here’s what it says on the ticket for the bus to the Bangkok airport…”Please remember the bus number, route, date and time which in serviced, for your benefit if there are any service problem to inform”. Ummm….okay…I’ll do that.
• Forgot to mention this earlier but when I arrived at the Tokyo airport en route to Bangkok, we had to pass through security again. There were about 12 people running the security check, all of them women.
• At both the Bangkok and Chiang Mai airports I saw stores that sold fruit. Not bananas or apples or anything that you could pick up and start eating. No, the fruits I saw were about the size of a cantaloupe with the tough skin to match. Who would buy something like that at the airport???
• Thailand is definitely a vegetarian’s paradise. And not just Thai food. There’s Indian food, Italian, Middle Eastern, Chinese and a few others. My guidebook says that Chiang Mai has at least 25 vegetarian restaurants. And many menus are in both Thai and English. And like Mexico the food is dirt cheap. The other day for dinner I had a plate of vegetables and tofu with rice and a mango shake to drink. Cost…about $2.