Chiang Mai – Mae Tang (Sp?), Thailand
I woke up this morning at 8:00 and headed to the travel agent (in an attempt to change our tickets to the day after Christmas). Unfortunately, the office was closed. Not knowing what to do, I returned to my room, took a shower, and packed up my things.
At 8:45 I made another trip to the travel agent. Once again, they were closed. After a quick breakfast, I made on last effort to change our tickets. This time they were open and very helpful. Changing the date on our ticket to Laos was not a problem.
Once all the new details were arranged I called Lisa and told her we would be spending Christmas with her and Alicia. I then returned to my room and attempted to fall back asleep. After 15 minutes I have up and we chilled out in the room and watched some more Entourage (for some reason it is one of the only DVD’s that is working in my computer right now).
Shortly before 10:00 B came over with this things and was excited to hear that we would be celebrating Christmas. We then all made our daily pilgrimage to the internet café. We spent a long time on the internet sending out Christmas emails and communicating with friends and family.
At around 13:30 Spizzle and I took a break from the computers to get some lunch and wander around town (B stayed on the computer for 5 hours straight!). After trips to the post office (closed on Sundays), bookstore, and craft store, we returned to the internet café to kill some time (we were not meeting Lisa until the late afternoon).
At 16:00 we had all had enough of the internet and decided to head to where we were meeting Lisa (Thapae Gate). We spent the rest of our waiting time chilling at a small restaurant, sipping fruit shakes and reading our books (I started The Life of Pi).
Just before 17:30 Lisa showed up at the gate. The four of us jumped in a song tao and headed to a large market in Chiang Mai. At the market we found a special white song tao (the others are red) that goes to Mae Tang, where Alicia lives.
We piled into the white song tao and started the journey. Not surprisingly, the driver crammed as many people as possible into the vehicle. We probably had about 20 people crammed into the back of a pickup truck (7 of them were hanging off the back). Throughout the 45-minute drive we added passengers.
We finally arrived in town at 18:45. We met up with Alicia, put our things in the back of her car, and then grabbed a quick dinner (fried chicken). Next, we made a trip to the convenience store to get some supplies for the evening.
Once all of the business was take care of we got back in the car and took a short drive to the school where Alicia lives (and teaches). It was an incredibly nice school! In fact, it is an old resort that has been converted into a school for orphans. The grounds are complete with swimming pool, tennis court, basketball hoops, and putting green.
We tossed our bags into the rooms where we are staying and then went to Julie’s house (one of Alicia’s coworkers). By the time we arrived there were 3 other farang (white people) there. We celebrated Christmas Eve by drinking some beverages that would enhance our holiday cheer, listening to Christmas music, and just hanging out.
At some point in the evening Julie got out some fortune telling cards and told gave us a glimpse into our futures. We all had a good laugh and then partied the night away. Toward the end of the evening we put in Elf (one of the greatest Christmas movies). Unfortunately, everyone was quite tired and B was the only one that managed to stay awake for the entire film.
At some point in the evening someone woke me up and we all made the trip back to the school. B and I (sharing a room) fell asleep as soon as we got into our beds.
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