NEW YEAR NEW COUNTRY- First Impresions

We started the new year, January 1st, by arriving in Chiang Mai, Thailand, after a 21 ½ hour flight - ready to start our new adventure.  We both slept ok on the flight due to the intense stress of organizing, leaving home and leaving the kids leading up to that.  Humbled to say, despite me thinking I was the organized one (check lists, critical paths, lots of details) versus Peter’s more chaotic, fly by the seat of the pants approach (i.e. he dropped his computer off to get fixed the afternoon we were leaving), that I was the one who forgot my tablet at home.  The kids turned around after getting home and drove right back to the airport with it.  My kids are the greatest, and it is a tribute to them that we feel confident embarking on this adventure on our own.

If I had to pick a few key words to describe our first impressions it would be FASCINATING, SENSORY OVERLOAD, CHAOTIC, and UNKNOWN.

We initially stayed in a nice hotel in the center of Old City, in order to acclimatize and get a few good nights sleep.  Starting at the Tha Phae Gate, part of the ancient wall that surrounds this 1200 century city, we visited several of the golden, ornate templates that dot the landscape - including Wat Chedi Luang with its rather interesting sign below.

The night markets are shoulder to shoulder people and full-on magical chaos. Street vendors hawk handmade local wares as well as exotic foods - both familiar and strange (deep fried crickets, grasshoppers, scorpions).  We have not been brave enough yet to try the latter, but maybe we will when our stomachs have fully acclimatized.  Great news is that $2-$3.00 Canadian per person will get you some phenomenal tasting meals – the Pad Thai, Sticky Rice on a stick, Tom Yum noodles, papaya salad, and Kai Soi have so far been excellent, with just the right amount of spice!  The $0.25 breakfast options included in our hotel price - white rice and white bread with sweetened condensed milk spread - have not been a big hit, however.

On day 3, we moved to our $22 a night hotel, close to the school and more suitable to our unemployed student budget & status.  That, plus the $60 per day “everything else” budget we are trying to live on (about 1360 Thai Baht), leaves us wondering just how far our money will stretch and what our standards will realistically be on an ESL teacher salary. One of the many unknowns still. Note: Peter blew the budget the first day on a 900 Baht Thai massage – cheap by Canadian standards maybe but still 2/3 of our daily budget.  He said it was worth it!!

Our inexpensive hotel is nice enough, despite the compact bathroom with the all-in-one toilet/shower/sink – convenient yes, but hard not to get the toilet paper wet when you take the shower! 😊 Note: we did learn that we have been using the toilet all wrong so far. Apparently 1) you are supposed to use the “water gun,” not the 1 ply (or less) toilet paper; 2) if you do opt for tp, try not to forget that it is on the outside of the stall not the inside; and 3) if a man starts to massage your shoulders while you are using the urinal, don't freak out as this is just his job! 

Not sure yet about the neighbourhood itself.  To say it is humbling relative to Canadian standards is an understatement.   Not exactly dirty, but not clean either, there are food vendors on the street right beside tire repair shops, and low budget bazaar clothing stalls beside 7 story Yorkdale-esque shopping malls. There are beautiful flower wholesalers set up along a "brown" river, and barking dogs & roosters waking us up in the morning (not that we aren’t already awake at 3 a.m. naturally!).  The sidewalks are rough and uneven, making walking a risk. The traffic is chaotic, making crossing the road a true adventure.  Our motto for attempting to cross the road is “Half-Way … Then Pray!”

On the roads there is everything from luxury cars, to tuk tuks with side cars (i.e. our local coconut vendor transporting & selling his coconuts directly from his "vehicle"). The red “songthaew” trucks provide shared taxi services, with passengers riding in the back cab. Apparently the rate for “farang,” foreigners like us, is 30 Baht per ride while the locals only pay 15 Baht. I think we will need to learn more Thai words before we can get the local rate! And there are motorcycles and scooters galore!!! They often drive on the sidewalks as well as the road, and we've seen whole families on one bike - with none of the passengers wearing helmets or even shoes!   We've been told that Thai's don't like rules, and since stop lights seem like a suggestion, I totally believe this when it comes to driving.

Peter has been busy setting up all-things technology and telecommunications.  We’ve got our Magic Jacks (so that we can communicate using our Canadian numbers via the internet) and our new Thai SIM card/phone numbers (for local calling).  We’ve downloaded WhatsApp (best way to communicate with us directly), Grab (Uber equivalent), Agoda (Air BnB equivalent), MapsMe (for getting around) and Google translate (for obvious reasons).  I am feeling very technologically advanced right now … not!

All in all, a great beginning - despite the somewhat overwhelming culture shock.  We are certainly having an adventure & experiencing new things daily (hourly).  We started ESL school on Monday- more to come on that. They are going to teach us some basic Thai words. This is a really good thing since the 3 words we currently know and use for everything - sawadee (hello), khap khun (thank you) and bie (beer) – really aren’t appropriate for ALL occasions.  And we keep forgetting to add the required "ka" (when I, a female, speaks) and "krap" (when Peter, a male, speaks – really!) to the end of all of our “sentences.”

Until next time, sawadee (also means goodbye apparently) take care and keep in touch.  Please enjoy the first of our Chiang Mai photos in the photo gallery. 

Love,

Susan & Peter