Some where in the upper right of the sea of people is meg, sitting on the floor as we wait for the over night train to Chang Mai. We experienced the national anthem for the first time; every night at six oclock all over the country every one stops, stands up with their arms at their side while the anthem is played. When it finishes every just continues on as if someone hit the un pause button.
We boarded our train at 7:30 pm with second class sleeper tickets; the berths were not to bad, the car was almost all backpackers. As dawn broke, we awoke to misty mountains and green jungle wizzing by the window. With bangkok far behind us, we arrived in Chang mai, which was truly a breath of fresh air. The differnce is night and day. Below is our guesthouse, run by a friendly couple from Hawaii.

We truly feel at home here, and envision ourselves staying here for longer than we planned. Our room is comfortable, has a hot shower and western toilet. Although it has a fridge and satellite TV, we downgraded from ac to a fan, as we slowly become accustomed to living without creature comforts. Our room is 4.50 US per person. After washing bangkok off our feet and bodies, we head out in to town, had some decent greek food, then splurged (4 dollars) on traditional thai massages. The antibiotics finally came in handy as we made a mad dash back to our rooms so Meg could say hello to the travellers big D. Luckily the Cypro worked and we soon headed back out to explore the Sunday evening market: a night when the whole town seems to be out.

Crafts, art, clothing, and food crowd the two main streets that intersect the center of the town. In the center intersection was a jade buddha that locals where pouring water over as is the tradition. Meg and I braved the street food for the first time and came away with full happy bellies. We can’t wait to be here for the festival next week. We will post more as our adventure continues.