Train to Chiang Mai...

We hopped a train to Chiang Mai Friday. We headed up here too look for work after deciding that us slow country folk were going to get ourselves killed trying to stay in Bangkok. It's a decision Wade and I are both feeling great about now that we've been enjoying the pedestrian safe sidewalks of the jewel of the North for two days now. We took a night train up- an experience that Gwen LOVED. She was so excited when we got on the train and she saw all the little rooms divided from one another. She said in amazement "This is just like in Harry Potter!" She kept her change purse handy for when the sweets cart came by. In true Harry Potter fashion, she even offered to buy us each a pumpkin pasty. She chose the top bunk of course and for the four hours leading up to bedtime, there wasn't ten minutes that went by without some little Gwen part dropping down to check on us.

We didn't have any bookings for when we arrived. We had talked to a travel agent in Bangkok before we left and she said we didn't need any, so we took her advice at face value and went up blind. It worked out very well for us! There were two guys "promoting" their hotels there at the train station. They said that the ride into town was free if we at least went in and checked out the hotel. Chiang Mai is a very small city. If we got in and didn't like the hotel, we could walk from there. Wade had a class that he needed to teach so having in-room internet was a deal breaker. The hotel we were first taken to didn't have good internet, but said their sister hotel did. So they loaded us back into the free van and we went on to the second hotel. We asked there to test the internet before booking and they said it probably wasn't going to be good enough (all in a very friendly and helpful manner- they were in no means put out by us). Once again, they loaded us back into the van and sent us to a third hotel, The Chiang Mai Thai House. We tested the internet and it worked well enough and so booked a triple room for only 600 baht a night (which is roughly $20)! The restaurant here is really really good too. We feel quite pleased with the accommodations and the staff here are very helpful and friendly (and their English is really impressive!). We went to church this morning and really enjoyed the branch. It's a bilingual branch, which means that the Westerners and Thais meet together and someone volunteers to translate. I really liked it. I got to test out my understanding of Thai. There weren't that many Westerners, maybe six or so. Gwen was the only farang kid in primary. The Branch President called us into his office after church just to chat and get to know us a bit! It was really neat. The vibe here in Chiang Mai is just so much better than Bangkok. Even the Westerners we've been seeing around town are all couples- which is such a nice change from the dirty single men we were used to seeing in Bangkok. Overall, we are really sold on living in Chiang Mai. We are going out tomorrow to submit resumes all over town. We are feeling very positive and have already had many offers of help from the branch members here.

and the guest house is conveniently located next to a methadone clinic. this just made me laugh.