I just emailed a friend (Krissy) that I haven't talked to in awhile and tried to explain why I love Chiang Mai so much. People are always asking me this question and this may not be the best description but hopefully it shows a bit of my feelings.
My life in Thailand is incredible. It is completely impossible for me to explain in words but I will try. Chiang Mai is the second biggest city in Thailand and is absolutely beautiful. The old city is surrounded by a moat filled with water and on the inside of the moat parts of the old city wall are still standing, though crumbled. Chiang Mai is home to Doi Suthep which is a mountain famous because it holds the Royal Family's winter palace. The entire city is green; trees, plants and flowers everywhere. It is littered with the most ornate temples I have ever seen, hundreds of them, one on almost every corner. I guess that it is not really beautiful in the normal sense, sometimes when I stop to really look, it reminds me of Tijuana. It has that poor, third world look to it, but I still find it beautiful. It is amazing to live in a place where I can stand in the middle of a crowded market and not hear one word of English, where everyone around me has dark skin and black hair. I eat most of my meals from vendors on the side of the street and I shop in open air markets where I barter for a good price. I frequent the same places enough that if I don't show up for a couple days, the owners ask if I am okay. It makes me smile every time. I eat noodles and rice for every meal and the most amazing fruit and vegetables that I have never even seen or heard of in the states. I drive a motor bike on the wrong side of the road. I wash my clothes and hang them up to dry on a clothes line. I speak really slow English or really bad Thai. And I laugh a lot. I have amazing friends and I struggle to communicate with them every day but it just makes me love them more. I am challenged every day to stop thinking about myself and share my faith with those around me because otherwise, why am here? I am truly and completely happy here.
By the way, I posted some new photos on my Flickr account. Some of them are of my bungee jumping experience this past week. :)
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