Our trip to Chiang Mai!!

Hi! I'm back in Chiang Klang and wanted to update you on what it was like for us going to Chiang Mai, Thailand's second largest city.

Last Tuesday, we had clinic and had about 40 patients. I was supposed to share during evangelism time, but would you believe that we saw the patients so efficiently that there weren't any left by the time we do evangelism. Well, there was one patient left in the waiting room when it was time for me to share. I totally would have shared with him, but they didn't want it to be too overwhelming for him. So, we rescheduled my talk for this Monday. Actually, I think that is a blessing, b/c I think I'm going to change what I was going to talk about. mindy came this friday and picked us up from chiang mai to bring us back to chaing klang. she is a missionary about my age, 27, who is a physician assistant. she works with the clinic but has been out of town at a conference with her mission agency ever since we arrived. so, we had a lot of time getting to know each other during our 5 hour car ride back. i told her my testimony and she thought it might be even better for me to focus on how hard it is for thais to leave buddhism and come to christianity. she thought if i shared some of my life stories with different family beliefs that it might help others to be brave enough to share with people who have other beliefs. we'll see, but i will totally do it if it is a better way of communicating and relates more to their pressing needs.

okay back to tuesday. right after clinic, we left with jerry to head straight for Nan to catch the bus that would take us to chiang mai. by the way, everyone knows everything about everyone here. it is so cute. i found that out when i was trying to tell the nurse aids about our trip to chiang mai, and they already knew exactly what time we were leaving and what type of bus we'd be on, and what hotel and tours we'd be staying in and taking in chiang mai. it's such a communal family environment here and everyone takes care of everyone. i love that!

our trip to Nan with Jerry was bombarded with kids, parents, and grandparents standing outside of their houses with buckets and barrels full of water and throwing it on us, motorcyclists, and trucks with people in the back. the windshield wipers were used very often and it wasn't for any rain. it was for sang kran! throwing the water on someone actually symbolizes blessing someone. it was so fun! i wish you could have seen the little two year old children in diapers standing on the side of the road getting so excited that a car was coming and throwing water in the air. that was only the beginning. we were headed to the capital of sang kran festivities, let me tell you! if i had only known what i know now, i would have brought so many more clothes b/c they all ended up soooooo wet!

the bus from Nan to Chiang Mai was 5 hours not b/c of the distance but because of their roads. there are no highways, so you just go down small country roads that wind around mountains and it takes a long time. i took dramamine and was pretty much useless for that day of travel. i guess it did it's job. the bus we took was actually a "VIP" bus, whatever that means. it was a bus with a/c and tvs with movies playing in thai. not any that we've ever heard of or ever seen. the ashburns had already made hotel reservations for us in chiang mai that was located right next door to the night bazaar, which chiang mai is famous for. the ashburns also wanted us to take some guided tours so we had to meet up with the tour agent and get those set as soon as we got there. we signed up for an elephant riding tour for one day, a thai dancing dinner show, and a handicrafts tour. tuesday night, julie and i hit the bazaar. it literally doesn't open until around 6:30pm and it stays open until just after midnight. everyone is there!!!!! there were tons of tourists from europe there, too, i think especially more than usual b/c of the sang kran or thai new year going on. jerry inspired me to buy dvds and cds in thailand b/c they are so much more affordable. so, i did! i quickly made friends with a thai vendor and told him "i need a good price, b/c i'm going to buy a lot!" Toto, was his name and he was about our age. he got so excited and all he could say was "thank you, thank you!" it was precious. it was fun making his night, too. my dvd's were only about $2.50 U.S. That's a deal!!!!! as we were making conversation with him, he kept saying "thank you" after everything, even if it didn't make sense with the conversation, i.e. i said, "learning thai seems very hard" and he said, "thank you." hee. do you see what i mean?
very funny.
we wondered around rows of booths all lit up by lights in the dark of the night. everyone was squeezing by each other to get around other tourists. the first prices they'd give you were too high and everyone was bargaining to get the prices lower. it was hard b/c if you even looked at something, they were on you like vultures to carefully watch if you were going to get it and tell you every wonderful thing about that one item your eyes happened to glance at. i almost had to not look interested at things when i went in booths, just so i could have enough time to see the other booths. i forgot to mention, we did have a thai dinner across the street and saw children and their mothers or grandmothers coming up to us as they were selling various things they made from their mountain villages. they were adorned in black head gear with silver beads and black pancho like vests with silver beads and other colors. the children would stand next to us as we were eating and just stand there waiting to be acknowledged. we would tell them if we were interested or not interested in what they were selling, but it never seemed to matter. they would still just stand there in hopes that our hearts would be softened to buy something from them. trust me my heart was softened. i know they know what they are doing by sending the kids to sell the stuff!