Last Day in Chiang Mai

Well, it's my last day in Chiang Mai.
Tomorrow I leave for sukothai which was the first capital of the northern thai people also known as the Lanna people.

Bus ride for 3 hours to an elephant preserve where elephants will paint and do other things like that. Then onto some ruins that are thousands of years old. I'm look forward to it, but it is supposed to be the hottest day of the year when we are supposed to wander around during the day of this ancient city :-(

Tonight I went to a lovely little organic restaurant named blue diamond and had a tofu and avocado sandwich on home made bread. It was my last chance to get some western food before Nong khai. The i bought some dried tamarind that tasted like a cross between a date, fig, and an orange. SO Yummy. It is also used in mexican cooking so luckily it can be found in cali.

Nong Khai is about 60000 people and very influence by laos and vietnam. The is a famous vietnamese restaurant there that people from all of thailand come to. They even have boxed meals at the airport from the same restaurant.

We are right across from laos and i plan to take a 3 day trip into it. They were colonized by the french and prices are in american dollars. The only bummer is that to go into the country costs $35 each time. They are still not quite as modern as thailand, but cambodia is way worse.

I love the comparative societies class that i am enrolled in while im here. We are focusing on south east asia. i get to see the history and the history in the making. Thailand has a history of using such great diplomacy when it comes to dealing with other nations. we could learn a few things from them. For example, Thailand makes most of all the automobiles and motorcycles in south east asia. They told all the manufacturers from outside the country that if they wanted to import vehicles there would be a high tariff. The other option was to do a joint venture with thai's owning 51% and they would get incentives to build in thailand.

Thailand gets jobs and long lasting companies to stimulate their economy. Automakers get slightly cheaper labor,employee acceptance, and security. This amongst other things has helped thailand go from having close to 50% in poverty about 60 years ago to less than 2% today. Thailand's people are some of the bets off in southeast asia if not the entire east.

2 nights ago, all the girls on the trip went on a dinner cruise along the Ping river here. We all got dressed up and it was so fun. All the lights at night made for a memorable last nights here in this city. The cutest part was that all these thai couples were sitting by the river and just talking. Since they are not really in PDA here; most of the time they just sit, talk, and hold hands which is so wholesome compared to back home.