Day 2 1/2/14 "Elephant Pants"

Today we woke up feeling well rested, hungry for breakfast, and adventure. We ate breakfast in our hotel which offered us the option of breakfast for an extra fifty cents a night. They had a buffet of mini pancakes,french toast, cereal, fruit, fried rice, chicken,veggies,french fries, salad, rice soup, coffee, and juice. Two plates of food and three cups of coffee later , we were more than satisfied and ready to start our day. Up at the room I called the phone number of the man I was suppose to contact for the school to organize a meeting to go apartment searching. He told us that it would be best to show up to class on Monday with our belongings and that our first day would be spent touring the city and looking for long term housing. He said that because it is right after the new year many places are choosing to rent out apartments to people for a nightly rate because they can make a better profit than renting to someone long term. This surprisingly worked out perfect for us since I booked our hotel until Monday. After getting off the phone with the coordinator Ryan and I got dressed and ready for our day. We took out our city map and looked for a place we wanted to explore. Chiang mai is famous for its night bazar so we decided we would check it out. The taxi driver at the hotel told us it would take us an hour to walk there, but we decided to do the walk anyways to familiarize ourselves with our surrounding and to allow more opportunities for spontaneous adventure. Our walk ended up being really fun. We stopped in at a little store that sold hippie clothes. I bought two pairs of cute hippie pants with elephants on them, one in black and one in red for $3. The pants were thin and perfect for the warm tropical climate of Chiang Mai. As we meandered through smaller side streets we came across a lot of houses that were also businesses. We came across a little hidden cove of trees with a wooden sign with an arrow pointing inside that read " food and drink". As we walked inside we questioned whether or not we were trespassing because it looked like someones back yard. There were a few small tables, a refrigerator with drinks, and a small menu with food. We weren't ready for lunch but we thought the experience of going in and ordering something would be fun. The woman greeted us with a smile and a bow. We bought a soda and a water for 40 cents. We sat under the shade of the canopy trees and enjoyed the experience. From here we continued our walk to the night bazaar. After about an hour of walking, we realized we took the long way around the city to get to the bazaar. Our long way around allowed us to discover a cool spot called the Rasta Bar. The Rasta Bar was closed when we came across it but it looked like a cool place. The walls had murals of Bob Marley and posters for reggae festivals in Chiang Mai. It was definitely a spot we would come back to. When we got to night bazaar area it was 3pm and the bazare didnt start until 6pm, so we decided we would get a massage. The place we walked in to was small and welcoming. The three women working there were all occupied massaging other people, so we sat down and waited.The ladies didnt speak English so communicating was a bit of a challenge. We sat there and waited  for about 15 minutes. I could see that the woman in charge seemed a little frantic about the lack of employees, and saw she was making phone calls, which I assumed were to her employees asking them to come in. Sure enough minutes later, two women came in and began our foot massage. The massage was heavenly and costed a whopping $4. After our massages we decided to head back to the hotel for a bit to relax and kill sometime before the night bazaar. Back at the hotel we watched some tv and freshened up. I changed into my new elephant pants which I was so happy about buying. Around 6 we headed out to walk back to the bazaar. Along our walk I must have seen over a dozen people wearing the same elephant pants. I swear everyone and their mother owned a pair.It didn't bother me though, the pants were cute and comfy. When we arrived at the bazaar we were blown away. The market was huge! It started at the beginning of a main road with stores and street vendors selling everything from food, clothes, knives, art, jewelry, shoes, tapestries, and all kinds of gizmos and gadgets. When we got to the end of the street we decided we would walk back, this time on the other side of the street to see what we had missed. There were similar vendors on the other side as well as two huge open courtyard areas selling all kinds of goods including the elephant pants! The courtyard was lined with food vendors and restaurants. They even had massage stations, and little tanks where you rest your feet in water and  little fish eat the barnacles off your feet.So strange!The market was a happening place. We decided that before we go home to California we would definitely need to buy a huge suitcase and fill it with all sorts of treasures from the night bazaar.Half way through our night bazaar exploring we stopped to have dinner at a cute little restaurant. Ryan ordered chicken curry and  a beer. I got a chicken curry coconut noodle soup and a coconut. The food was to die for! After dinner we continued through the market. We came across a vendor selling thin sweaters that were cute. We wanted to know the price so we asked the woman in Thai " how much"? We were all happy and proud of ourselves for asking the question in Thai and even happier that she understood us. We then felt stupid when she responded and we realized we didnt know any numbers in Thai past the word ten. She could see that we didnt understand, so she grabbed a calculator and typed in the price. We thanked her and walked away, making a mental note to learn the numbers in Thai. After exploring the market for several hours we made our way back towards our hotel, but not before stopping in the bar next door for a drink. The bar was outside with a pool table and a small stage for kareoke. We sat down and ordered a beer. There were two paintings on the wall, one was a large mural with a woman dangling a cherry in her mouth, and the other was an animated painting of two people having sex and a man watching. We laughed at the strange pictures and Ryan joked that the place was probably where hookers worked. Within ten minutes of him saying that four small Thai girls came out of a side door from the back of the bar wearing super short dresses and stilettos. They walked around to a few tables and tried flirting with men, but  the girls weren't having any luck. We finished our beers and headed back to our hotel room where we finished our night with tv and sleep.