Kim and Dyki... girls night out!

From the first time I saw Dyki I was fascinated with her hair. Instead of dozens of little braids, she had her hair done in dozens of little twists. I could not figure out how she got the twists to stay in! After we became friends she offered to take me to her hair dresser to get MY hair twisted. So, on my last night in town,, I took her up on her offer. It was so fun! The ladies working on my hair were both Tibetan and were stoked to work on my hair. The whole process took almost 2 hours, in which time Dyki hung out with me in the shop and the 4 of us girls chatted and giggled... They washed my hair then put some kind of gel all through it. She took small pieces of hair, made the twist, and then ran the straightener down the length of the spiral. Crazy amounts of smoke were flowing up from my head each time she would use the straightener. Don't know if you can see the smoke in the photos. Guess it was because my hair was still wet. Anyway, the twists DID stay in... and lasted about 10 days, even in the humidity of Chiang Mai. I was stoked! I thought the twists were about the coolest hair-do I have ever seen. In fact, I don't think I have ever seen twists before. Lots of people with small braids, lots of people with dreads, but never twists. Oh, by the way, this 2 hour beauty treatment cost me 16 yuan... 2 dollars!!

"last night" in Lasa

After getting my hair twisted Dyki and I met up with Fish for some warm drinks and hanging out. Dyki was a wonderful person we were lucky enough to get to know in Lasa. A waitress at one of our favorite restaurants, we saw her every day, and she became a really good friend during our weeks in Tibet. She was intelligent, honest and lots of fun. She surprised us with silk scarves, in honor of our journey, and gifts for each of us. A necklace for Fish and a prayer wheel for me. We were so happy to have met Dyki and feel really blessed to know such a true and good person. We were sad to say goodbye.

Headed to Gongkar Airport...

On our way to catch a cab. We were sad to say goodbye to the girls at the Daxia Family Guesthouse. We had bonded with them, especially after their help with Fish's haircut incident (more on that later). We gave hugs all around and had said our fond farewells, when one of the girls asked us to wait a moment. She came back with two white silk scarves which she draped around our necks. White silk scarves are a tradition here in Tibet, and are given to people on auspicious occasions... departing/returning from a long journey being one such occasion. They are also given to show respect or honor and you see piles of them left at the feet of sacred images and draped thickly over revered objects, such as the thrones of past Dalai Lamas. It was a surprising and touching gesture. The people at the Daxia had become like family to us over the weeks. Little did we know we would be back in 2 hours! Argghhh!! China Eastern!!!

Scenes from the Barkor

On our "bonus" day in Lasa. We enjoyed a nice sunset with the other pilgrims in front of the Jokhang temple. We made it all the way to the airport that morning ( an hour away) only to be told that our flight had been cancelled and we had been moved to the same flight for the next morning. Hence... a "bonus" day in Lasa.

Thanka Shop...Barkor Square, Lasa

Our last night in Tibet we discovered this beautiful Thanka store. It felt more like a museum than a store. The man who painted all these is descended from a long line of men who practice this ancient art. Each piece was perfect and very intricate. Thankas are sacred art in Tibetan Buddhism... a tool for meditation while it is being painted and ever afterward. There are many Thankas being sold in Lasa, but this shop had by far the best quality we had seen.

Leaving Lasa

We had to stay an extra night in Lasa due to China Eastern cancelling our flight without notice. It was so random that I did not believe we were actually going to be able to leave this morning as promised. Notice the worried look on my face. This was our last photo in Tibet. We really did have seats on the flight that morning, and we were off to Kunming...

Kunming Airport

Trying to work it out with China Eastern Airlines. They cancelled our flight out of Lasa for the previous day, causing us to then miss our flight to Chiang Mai. In consequence we were stuck in China for 2 extra days waiting for an open flight into Thailand. This cost us and when I tried to ask for compensation in Lasa, I was treated amazingly rude and told they would not comp us anything. When I got to Kunming I decided to try again. The people here were actually friendly and apologetic and agreed to comp our room and meals. They booked us in a swanky expensive hotel, which was a nice surprise. The dinner, while spendy, was the worst ever. Why is it difficult to get a decent fried rice in China???

We are leaving China!!!!!!!

So, we had a near disaster on our exit from China. On the last day of our visas we were told we did not have seats on a flight we were booked for. We were put on standby, and we were anxiously waiting to hear weather or not we would get on board. I have to admit I busted a tear at this point. I don't know if that had anything to do with the outcome or not, but not only did we get on board our flight, they gave us first class seats! First class on Thai airline is such a treat! The food and wine were very top quality. We both had to agree that the best food we had in China was on the Thai airline plane on our way out of the country!

First day back in Thailand

Motorbiking On Doi Suthep Mountain...
This was quite a day! We both jumped on this little motor bike to take a scenic drive up this, the closest and tallest mountain near Chiang Mai city. There is a very nice temple halfway up, which had been our destination. It was a very smoothly paved road, but very windy as it climbed, and on the final curve before the temple, we skidded out... our tire had totally gone flat and we almost ate it bad! We were lucky to keep control. We were also lucky in the fact that in less than 5 minutes we were sitting down drinking a cold water while someone patched the already previously patched tire on our rental bike. It was the first business or home of any kind for 15 miles! With our tire fixed and our nerves recovered we decided to keep going up the mountain. We didn't stop at the temple due to the crowd. We did not know what we would find. There was a royal palace a bit furthur beyond the temple, but it did not seem very interesting, so we kept going up. The trees at this point changed from tropical to more evergreen trees, and the temperature dropped drastically. Paved road eventually gave way to dirt and we found ourselves at the top of the mountain! After a quick stop here, rather than turning around, we kept going down a very rapidly deteriorating dirt road. We were way out of our league on the dinky motorbike, but through the expert driving skills of Fish we did eventually make it. We found a cool coffee plantation and ran across a Hmong village on our explorations. We came down the mountain at a sweet little lake outside of Chiang Mai town. It was an insane tour through the hill country of Northern Thailand, but we made it safe and relatively unscathed, and back to town in time for the big Sunday Market on Ratchadamnoen Avenue!

Thai Massage...

hurts SO good!

Market Tour

Team holler has seen plenty of markets, but this time we had a guide. Gan educated us about the ingredients we were to use this day in class. Many fruits and vegeables are similar to what we use, but different. The bananas are Thai bananas which are less sweet and more firm in texture than bananas sold in the US. Also much shorter and fatter. In the other photo she is explaining to us about cashew nuts, which are filling those big plastic bags. My assignment that morning was to buy snake beans(crazy long green beans) and a type of wide leaf cilantro called eryngo leaf. Fish gathered eggplants and bananas for the class. Good times...

Action Shots...

This day we were at the schools in- town location, behind Sompon's restaurant... The Wok. Wau is helping me fold a banana leaf around my fish with red curry and eggplant so it can go into the steamer. We learned several ways of preparing food by steaming, using a banana leaf or sometimes a pandanus leaf as a container. Very fun... and some of the best fish dishes I have tasted have come out of banana leaves. We love cooking school!

In the classroom

Looking up at the overhead mirror. Such a nice classroom set up... complete with air conditioning! Team holler took a front row seat for the curry demo.

More cooking school...

Our last day! We bought a large and quite heavy mortal and pestle to pound our own curries. Very exciting. These are two of our favorite teachers. The lady with Fish is Gan, and the lady driving is Wau. These ladies were hilarious. Both of them should be stand up comidiennes, especially Wau! Also, please be impressed with our vegetable carving skills. The tomato rose and the carrot leaves turned out sweet, but the tomato lotus needs a bit of practice! If anyone wants a carving lesson, team hollar can oblige.

Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School

Here we are at cooking school. We took the five day intensive course. It was amazing! Professional and beautiful. Our head instructor was Sompong Nabnian, a world reknown Thai master chef. He runs the school behind his gorgeous home, amid lush gardens. Here you can see the ingredients to make curry paste from scratch. This was a Chiang Mai style curry paste. He gave a demo for each dish, then we went to our work stations and tried to replicate his mastery. Fish is proudly displaying his finished curry. It was alot of work to pound the curry, but the subtly and flavors brought out by hand pounding are worth all the effort!

Getting our yee ping on...

We were having so much fun!! Thai people throw a very good party!

Yee Pings everywhere

Yee Pings are a very important aspect of Loi Krathong here in Chiang Mai, and other cities in North West Thailand. Yee Pings are balloons made of some type of paper that does not burn very easily. The paper is on a small wire frame, and a kerosene soaked ring is attached at the base of the balloon. When that ring is lit the hot air and smoke quickly collect inside this balloon, and within minutes it is able to rise up and float off into the sky alone. People were letting these things go literally all over town. At some points in the night the skies were engulfed ... they were like the stars. This went on for all 3 nights of Loi Krathong, and on the last two days it carried over into the daylight as well...

Getting my krathong on...

Banana stem base, banana leaf, chrysanthemums and purple orchids for decoration. Three sticks of incense and a sweet homemade clay candle. We set it adrift and watched it until it disappeared with the current, the candle and incense still burning.

Super Crazy Krathong Contest

The typical krathong is much smaller and simpler than these.... but krathong making is a true art form here in Northern Thailand.

krathongs on the Mae Ping River, Chiang Mai

Traditionally Loi Krathong is a festival to honor and celebrate rivers. Krathongs are little handmade floating flower arrangements, made out of banana leaves and decorated with various flowers and beautiful leaves. A small candle and three sticks of incense complete the krathong. People take their krathongs down to flowing water ( a river or canal) and set them adrift. The longer they float the better your luck. Chiang Mai is one of the most popular destinations for this festival and here on the Mae Ping River, as you can see, krathong back ups can and do occur.

Wat Phra Singh, Chiang Mai

This is the oldest tree in the city planted here in the 1400s to mark the founding site of Chiang Mai. Every wat complex has a bodhi tree... the sacred tree under which Buddha reached enlightenment. But this was the tallest bodhi I have seen by far.The wat is also the oldest in the city. This complex had five or six beautiful temples on the grounds, but the giant brick temple is the oldest and most revered. We especially liked the elephants....