Chiang Mai

Levi and I have been telling ourselves that the broken a/c bus rides between cities adds character and adventure to our trip, we've come to feel like we've had so much of it, character is bubbling through our pores, for the next leg of the trip we boarded a quick 70 minute lux flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. On just this short trip we were served a small lunch, water, coffee, juice, pillows, blankets and a comfortable temperature - this was a well appreciated break from our backpacking style - awe.

Chiang Mai is a larger city, we're staying in the hub-bub of it all with a pool and an unnecessarily a/c'ed room. We arrived here late afternoon and decided to have a chill evening which consisted of a small romantic dinner cruise through the city and a long stroll through the night market to refine our bartering skills. The details are escaping us now but the evening was mellow, the food was delicious, the scenery was beautiful and the haggling was... interesting. Oh and Jen delighted in the opportunity to feed a random small elephant in the middle of the street for 20 baht.

We learned we're not the best at bartering - sure we get the price down but we're unclear about how we feel about it. Prices vary wildly here so there isn't really a good measure to determine a fair price, also most the people at the market are poor so you're torn between not wanting to deprive the family of the appropriate hard earned profit and the desire to avoid getting ripped off, because we're unclear of this line we're also unclear to as if we should feel angry for being ripped off, guilty for undercutting a starving family or satisfied with our excellent bargaining skills. Our friends Adrian and Kerry visited Thailand and had a similar blog (which actually inspired this one), one of their many entertaining entries depicted their similar struggle and final implementation of a good cop/bad cop bartering strategy. We've decided to give this method a go on our next Night Market visit :)