Monday morning

We are on the bus driving to Chiang Mai. It is drizzling rain right now and periodically it rains harder. The rain makes it cooler but it is very humid. This is the last trip for the season for OAT as it gets too hot and humid and the monsoons come. Everything is green and lush and flowers are everywhere. Orchids grow on the trees and are blooming everywhere. And I am amazed at the variety and all the trees are blooming and it is really pretty.
I asked Ya why they put the cobras and scorpions and other critters in the liquor. He said they were supposed to have medicinal qualities…humm. We did not have a discovery event at the Opium museum, by the way! Ya joked about it. The cobras were really big-scary looking creatures. There is a difference in a cobra and a king cobra-king cobras are always fatal as they can jump and bite you waist high or higher.
The pineapple here is so sweet and delicious. I have really enjoyed it at all the meals. I like most of the fruit here and we have certainly tried all sorts of new things.
The Golden Pine resort was really nice. The cabins looked rustic from the outside but the inside was very clean and nice. The rooms were big and had wood floors and the bathroom had both a shower and a wonderful tub. It had beautiful tile and stone and was very modern feeling. The grounds of the hotel were so pretty with lots of flowers blooming. We wanted to use the pool and whirlpool but just didn’t have any time. By the time we got in and recouped each day, it was time for dinner and then the pool was closed. They had a great buffet for meals too. I really liked this hotel. We had time to catch up on laundry and think we can make it the rest of the trip now.
We have to have 44 lb on the plane from Chiang Mai back to Bangkok-just the big suitcase. But we have all bought and bought so our suitcases are bulging and heavy and I suspect that as a group, we are way over! He is banking on it averaging out but I don’t think it will. I’m not sure what we will do if we are way over. Expanded my suitcase is bulging. Coming home from Bangkok, we can have 2 suitcases of 50 lb each so we are fine for that. But this flight will be a challenge especially after we have the night market and the handicraft markets!
The food is spicy-always. They have been good to fix me stuff without the garlic and onions and other such. But they use curry and pepper and all sorts of spice and everything has something like it in the sauce or rolled on the meat or vegetable. I have just come to the conclusion that I really do not like Thai food. In China, I got tired of the food, but I did not dislike it every time. But here, it is just the same at every meal and I really do not like it except for the fruit. The fruit is awesome. We brought two packs of crackers and they are almost gone. We’ve had flowers and a fruit bowl in our room at almost every hotel as an Inner Circle member. It has been a nice touch as I love the fruit and I surely have not gone hungry!
Today is a holy Buddhist holiday-his birthday. So we are supposed to see hot air balloons tonight and maybe see other things along the way because of the holiday. And it is a Monday-on Monday it is common to wear yellow in honor of the king. There is a color for each day of the week and depending on what day you were born on, that is your color. I was born on Saturday so my color is purple. Megan was born on Thursday and her color is orange! The king was born on Monday so his color is yellow which is why everyone wears yellow on Monday. They love their president and his picture is everywhere-on billboards and signs and monuments all across the country.