Chiang Mai

Dear All,
This is going to be a short letter as I have to run home and pack.
I wanted to tell you about our wonderful trip to Chiang Mai and all we got to do and see while we were there but since I'm in a hurry it'll be the abbreviated version.
We got in Friday and spent that night with a woman and her three children who are missionaries that are supported by our church in Colorado, our parents really wanted us to meet them while we were over here so we scheduled to have dinner. It was fun and interesting and good to add people to the list of people we know here in Thailand.
Saturday we met up with old friends of our family who were in Chiang Mai for a medical conferance that they were teaching part of. They had the day off and we went and did the entire tourist package, renting a Song Tiaw to drive us out to first the monkey show where they had monkeys kissing E on the cheak, sitting in our friend Judy's lap and pulling Sam's watch out of a pool of water, these monkeys play basketball and recognise numbers and are overall amazing. They live and work in conditions that no one would really approve of if they took the time to worry about it but somehow you let it slide when you're passing through and are on vacation.
Next we went to a snake show that did more to gross out and worry than entertain as a man put a python in his mouth and kissed snakes, swam with them and waved them around your face. E and I both had a water snake twisted up and put on our heads like a crown- not a very pleasant experience.
And then to the elephant camp where Sam and Judy rode an elephant (we passed as we had already done that at a much cheaper price) and watched the elephant show where they played soccer, painted and showed off. It was amazing! My favorite was the painting, we looked through a book they had there and you could see these elephants all had their own style and technique- who would have guessed? They do dots and stripes and flowers and trees and all sorts of stuff. We were disapointed we couldn't afford a painting but we got a pack of postcards. Ha.
We ended our day with our friends at the Mexican food place that we have already grown to love in CM, they were surprised to be eating Mex while in Thailand but were kind enough to indulge us.
Sunday we were supposed to go on a rock climbing trip with a company there, E had set it up the week before and we sent them a note telling them where we were staying as they were supposed to pick us up at our guest house. We waited and waited but htey never came so we went out to the Sunday walking market and around to the umbrella painting, wood carving and thai silk factories outside of town.
Overall it was a great trip and we enjoyed ourselves.
Now we're leaving tonight on an eleven hour bus ride to Bangkok to travel the south for a couple of weeks before flying to Malaysia. Keep us in your prayers, Kristen Rose