Mae Sot to Chiang Mai

9/23/2006

We left Mae Sot in the morning and arrived in Chiang Mai after a 5 hour ride in air conditioned vans. Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand. After checking in to the guesthouse in Chiang Mai, we all went out to have Thai massages. Thai massage is a bit different from other types of massages in that the person giving the massage pushes very hard on your muscles and pressure points and stretches you into pretzel positions like a gymnest. At least this is what I understand being that I've never had a massage. The Thai massage that I had felt very good while it was going on (lasted over an our), but I didn't feel much different once it was done. Maybe they just didn't push hard enough.

After dinner we walked around the night market, which basically consists of little stores selling silk, t-shirts, shoes, VCDs, wood handicrafts, lamps, jewelry, clothes, candy, art, etc. Since I'm a very cheap person and have no desire to lug stuff around for the rest of the trip, I decided not to buy anything but rather to wait until going back to Bangkok to buy gifts.