Thailand - Day Three - Bangkok to Chaing Mai

We take the Sky Train to the weekend market. It is bignormous. Just massive. If I ever wanted jewelry, watches, dogs, converse (that wouldn't fit me) or a leather anything... this is where it would happen. Lisa found one necklace. It started at 250 Baht, but she got the good face discount and it was hers for 150 Baht. The negotiation process is nuts. About half the time there is a sticker price, otherwise they seem to come up with an arbitrary number and you just start going back and forth. With stuff you can't get in the states you just have to decide what you would pay. It's very odd to not have a reference point. If they say 3500 for a watch... you can say 300 and see what happens.

We pass a place that has kitchen stuff and plates for insanely cheap prices. Lisa says, "Don't say it." I ask "What?" She says, "That we should have registered here."

We then go to the 49th floor of a fancy hotel and have amazing Indian food. It costs $55, was a bit pricey and the best Indian food I have ever eaten. Totally worth it. This was Lisa's dish.

After that we got a Thai foot massage. An hour and 250 Baht each. It was S & M for your feet. Pain to pleasure in a second. At times they used a wood instrument and just pushed against the inside of your toes. It was worth the experience and the feet felt totally refreshed afterward, but pain, it hurt.

We head to the train to take a 12-hour ride to a city called Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand. The train was perhaps my only idea for the trip. Before the trip I had two large beers. We encounter a kid from Stockholm (seen in the background) who we talk up a little bit. He introduces himself as McLovin and eventually shows us the the tatoo he has just below his belly button which actually says, "McLovin." He looks 14 even though he says 21.

Then the amazing happens. Lisa says that an Asian girl approaching looks like a fellow med student from UIC by the name of Georgie, but couldn't be since she was traveling with another Asian and Georgie's boyfriend is white. She gets closer and says, "Lisa?" Yup, it's Georgie. Neither knew the other was traveling. So we chatted for a while, McLovin joined in the conversation, then we had to run off for our train. I put the odds at 1 in a billion.

We took a first-class sleeper train. Lisa was told to stay away from the dinner, I only ate the rice and a hint of the cashew chicken.

I drank a few more beers and we watching "Gossip Girl" on the iPod Nano, then it was time for bed.

Once again, Lisa was prepared. The air-conditioning was freezing so we were in pants and long sleeves... That didn't last long.

After being asleep for a couple hours I awoke to the most humid, stagnant air of my life. It was probably close to 100 degrees. The air had gone out and we had about 8 more hours to go. I woke Lisa up as any caring husband would to explain to her how hot it was. She then went to wake up the attendant. He came into the room, tapped on the air, shrugged his shoulders, then left to turn the entire electrical power of all the first-class passengers on and off. No luck. He left. Did I mention there was no English spoken here? At this point the 4 large beers sloshing around in my stomach were a bad idea.

By morning I was a pool of sweat, and we arrived in Chiang Mai 1.5 hours late. There was no hope since the windows are locked shut. So, just to recap, as far as successful ideas for the trip -- Lisa was winning about 47 to 0. Especially once she told me it would have been the same price to fly. Hell on Earth.