Day 18: Back to the Grind

Started the day off by going to philosophy class then got an invitation from Bitoey to get coffee/lunch with her. I ended up having to ride with her on her motorbike because I didn't know how to get to Unilofts. Riding with her wasn't bad, but when she turned around halfway through the journey and said "wow, this is scary, I'm not used to driving in Chiang Mai" I got 10x more nervous. That being said, we made it to Unilofts just fine and she gave me a tour of the building and her room!

Bitoey and her room! 

After the tour, we met up with Jenny, Tou, and Ben to go get lunch at a restaurant next to her dorm. I had a rice/chicken dish and it was very spicy but very good. From lunch, we all took a sung tao back to Uniserv and then Ben, Tou, Bitoey, and I walked to the mall from there! We ended up heading to the same mall that we went to on our first day.It was fun getting the chance to all hang out and just joke around. Going to the mall isn't something I typically do at home, but it's almost more fun here- not because I'm buying tons of clothes or anything, but because it's all part of a bigger adventure of figuring out what the heck the signs mean and where everything is.

Tou enjoying the company of a teddy bear

Tou giving Ben a lift home

We eventually caught a sung tao back to unilofts to drop Beebe off and then Tou and I adventured our way back to Uniserv!

After resting (and cooling down) for a bit, a bunch of us headed out to dinner. Because there were 20ish of us, that meant another round of taxi tetris! We beat our previous record and managed to fit 20 in the sung tao with two riding motorbike beside us!

The place we ended up eating dinner at was, as Nate put it "Like a Sams Club Buffet." I don't think I've ever seen more food in my life and the restaurant itself was as big as a football stadium. They even had little grills on our tables so that we could cook our own food (if we so chose).

After dinner, I went with Chanelle to the Night Bazaar! Our sung tao driver originally dropped us off in the middle of a local market and I swear I've never seen more shoes in my life! After doing a bit of shopping there, we tried to find the other (touristy) night bazaar and had to do a bit of adventuring to do so. Eventually we came across a couple of ladies from South Korea who were happy to let us follow them to the night market.

part of the flower section of the local's market

Shopping with two people is always nice because it's easier to keep up with and you can make great time! Of course, I got the ultimate benefit as Chanelle has been taking Thai classes and was able to haggle like a pro! Seriously- it was awesome! I was just glad to be able following the numbers they were spitting out! (And I was, after a point, able to follow their haggling). It's always a lot of fun to go to the night market and it's even better when you have such a great haggling buddy!

-Haley