Happiness is: $3 Massages and Kawh Soi

Seriously. Three dollars for one HOUR! Thai massage is different - your body is pulled and stretched; like passive yoga almost. It was amazing though, and for three bucks, I could definitely get used to it!

So, I am here and all you worriers can stop worrying. After all the explanations, all the goodbyes, all the plans (well, not really the last part I guess), I am here in a little cyber cafe sitting across from a shaved-head orange robe clad monk who looks 12 and is typing furiously away on msn messenger :-) With some Thai Michael Bolton crooning in the background to set the atmosphere.

Chiang Mai was the perfect place to develop first impressions of Thailand - peaceful, amazing food, and ridiculously clean. The people are so gentle and so polite - I stepped out in front of a motorcyle earlier and HE apologized to ME (none of this "doucement" business for you Benin people)! The language itself is very gracious and polite - though because it is tonal, I still have yet to master "hello".

I have made friends already - a once-Floridian- turned-scraggly-spiritualist who changed his name to Peeshta and is here for a month before moving to India to, uh, cleanse and pray with Hindu monks for a year. Then this dude Michael from Vancouver who has been here 8 times before and is returning now to move to a small village in the mountains and write books on yoga or something. Interesting kids - who can pull out these crazy Southern accents from nowhere (though my surprise is apparently unwarranted because, as Michael pointed out, Vancouver is definitely in Southern Canada). Anyway, I shared a taxi from the airport with them and am staying in a little guesthouse down the street from theirs, which made the initial scariness of walking out of the airport by myself a bit easier. While on the topic of my guesthouse, the Thai proprietor's name is... Tyrone. :-)

The food so far is incredible and I learned how to say "no spicy" so my digestion system doesn't go up in flames. Ate this amazing coconut milk and vegetable concoction called kawh soi for lunch and realized how much I have to learn. It feels odd to be so completely out of my element - no idea about custom or language or mannerisms or habits. I love it here. There are beautiful temples everywhere (Chiang Mai alone has over 300), coffee shops, fruit stands and little motos and tuk-tuks zipping in and out of everything. I have decided I'm going to learn how to drive a moto soon. Maybe I'll even buy one.

It has been cool, humid and rainy today and I adore it.