Adventures in Chiang Mai

We had a very wonderful first weekend in Chiang Mai. On Friday night, we were able to get together with a friend of the family, LeaAnn Hoppe. She and her husband have been missionaries in Chiang Mai for seven years now. Although we'd never met her before, I was wonderful to meet another Christian, and we had a great time. She took us to Carrefour, yes, to my astounded French friends, a Carrefour in Thailand, except that they pronounce it Ka-Foo. For those of you who have never heard of Carrefour, it's actually a large French supermarket chain, and apparently it's made it all the way to Asia. She treated us to some good, familiar food: Pizza Hut and Dairy Queen, and helped us maneuver through the sea of people to get some school supplies and shaving cream (a very difficult thing to find here, and only in men's scents. I guess I (Dana) will get to smell like a man for the next 5 months.)

On Saturday, we got in another song thaew with our British friends and set out to explore downtown Chiang Mai. I had a very cultural experience in the Warorot Market.

I was trying to find a Thai skirt that would fit me, but the longest one available was still three awkward inches above my ankle. So, somehow, with a combination of my broken Thai and the salespersons few words of English, I was able to buy material and have a tailor sew it for me. In 45 minutes, I had a beautiful, custom-made skirt, that even fit my Western hips! It was amazing! Here's a picture, please forgive the clashing shirt.

Sunday morning, we went up the mountain on the edge of town to visit Doi Suthep, one of the most famous temples in Northern Thailand.

The architecture was so intricate, and the view was beautiful!! Oh, and did I mention, there were a lot of steps!

That afternoon, John and I found our way to the International Church, where we worshiped with people from almost all the continents. We met some people from world venture who had been in Chiang Mai for a long time, as well as people visiting the church for the first time. It was amazing to realize that no matter how far we go, we will be able to find other believers if we look hard enough.

However, the adventure was really on the way home from church. We jumped in another song thaew, but it must have been this driver's first day on the job, because he had no idea where our hotel was... or our street... or the bigger street near our street... or any of the landmarks we were familiar with!! In fact, even when we pointed out where we wanted to go on a map, he still had no idea how to get us there! But since this is a "saving-face" culture, he kept nodding and repeating what we said with a very confused look on his face. The result: we drove around for a very long time and saw many unfamiliar parts of the city. Fortunately for us and the poor driver, we finally hit a road that we recognized, had him drop us off, and walked from there! The moral of the story is: if the driver looks confused, wait for the next song thaew. Yikes!!