Cycling in the Old Town....

Day 2 in Chiang Mai started with a massive downpour. We then had a short walk to the market in search for some breakfast. The market is fantastic, it is filled with fresh produce, food, drinks and lots of pork crackling which is one of Alvo's favourite snacks. We had to start with the crackling at 5 Baht a bag (around $0.25), it was sooooo nice. We walked around checking out all the cool stuff and right up one end is a few stalls selling sweets which I was eyeing off for a little snack later. We found our breakfast at a local restaurant and it consisted of green curry chicken with rice and a fried egg.....yum. After eating we walked more in the market as Alvo wanted an iced coffee, we found a lady who just sells coffee's and for a massive 15 Baht or $0.50 Alvo got a very large take away cup and enjoyed every last drop. I headed for the sweets stall on the way out and treated myself to some syrup filled coconut covered ball thingys that tasted just as I remember. I phoned Mum to let her know that we now have phone credit and that I love her and then we hired a push bike each from our hotel, again at a bargain price of 50 Baht each so a bit less than $4 and got to pedalling around this cool place. There are lots of Wats here, they are like temples where people pray and they are beautiful, I have decided to take photos when we walk around as it is easier than stopping and starting on the pushy and getting the camera out of the backpack. We rode for ages and stopped in at a little cafe for a juice and Alvo settled with melon while I thought I would try the red dragon fruit....the range of juices here is fantastic and if you want to turn it into a shake you can just add milk or coconut milk, I like it better than alcohol most times. We thought we would check out another market close by and when we arrived there I spotted the mango sticky rice, I had to have one and Alvo agreed that is was absolutely delicious....man I love the food here. There was a lady there who we got chatting to and when she shook my hand she told me that I am not drinking enough water.....ok, lucky guess maybe and then she told Alvo that she has some lower back issue and there is a problem with her hip. Funny enough, Alvo told me this morning that her hip was a little sore...ok, getting interesting now. After talking to her about a lady she knows who has studied some sort of healing modality in China for 15 years she walked past me, touched the back of my head and told me that I have a problem in my neck....ok, this is getting really interesting now. She sat near me and told me that the bones in my back are not right and the nerves are being affected.....she said that she can tell all of this by just looking at my lines. She told me that if I went to see her friend by myself then she would not see me so offered to get her to Chiang Mai to see me as she comes from the mountain. For 600 Baht ($20) I had nothing to lose.....Mum, I will try to take notice of what she does to me so I can maybe help you xx. Fate and meeting people is a funny thing, I am just going to give it a go and see what happens, she tells me that her friend can fix me so I will meet her tomorrow morning and I am not allowed to eat anything for breakfast as she said the energy is better that way. Stay tuned. We pedalled off and got back to our hotel just as the rain started to fall again. We heard from our friend Zoe, who we met in Vietnam, and when the rain stopped we headed off to meet up with her. We went to a little cafe for shakes and some curry when we were asked a couple of questions by some English girls at the next table, they were really nice and we got chatting for quite some time. They are staying just down the road from us and asked if they could tag along on the day we hire a moped to explore further so we will catch up with them again for sure. We were due to meet a lady, Mon, that our great friends Mick and Brian put us onto so we paid our bill and headed off again. Mon apparently loves to show people around the city and help with information and she whisked us off to a restaurant in a part of town we had not been to yet and we ate great food and chatted about things we would like to do while we are here. She offered to show us around sometime over the weekend as she works as a teacher during the week so we will definitely be seeing her again. The rain has again started to fall and Mon dropped us back at our laneway so we can get some well earned rest......we are cycling and walking more than we would normally at home so hopefully the curry will not add too many extra kilos. Tanya xxx.