weewee at wawee

gentle reader,
you may think that it takes a few moments in an air-conditioned café, sipping from a fresh coconut to update matacodotcom, your favorite travel blog. alas, this is not the case. this morning’s “adventure” in interweb technology has turned into a test of patience, will and loyalty to you, our adoring public. let’s just say that after several failed attempts, we have found a solution. the apple g5 imac at the wawee coffee shop. when i saw the gleaming white square of magicalness, i just about peed my pants. thank you imac. you’re the best invention of life.

now onto the first of a series of general observations:
* thai dogs wear t-shirts. not the tiny show dog in a burberry sweater style. big fat shop guard dogs in old t-shirts, knotted at the waist. we assume this emphasizes their non-stray status.
* you can ride a motorbike in the street here as soon as you’re old enough to handle it. kids go to school, three on a bike. why, oh why, were we not allowed to do so? think about how much cooler we’d all be.
* according to our source, gai, all school costs money. no public school. you gotta pay to learn.
* according to the conversation overheard through the thin walls of our guest house, thai prostiutes in chiang mai will cost you about $6 us. and they giggle a lot too.
* cool kids are cool kids around the world. we continue to hang out with b-boys and bmx riders, punks and artists. also, rebels are rebels. see photo of our friend gai, below.
* the same word spelling can have 5 different meanings, depending on the tone. we knew this before, but it can be a challenge when the word can mean “beautiful” and “bad luck curse”. fun with language.
* beef blood soup with tripe is not so much for us.
* old guys playing music on the street is generally good and entertaining.
* buddhist shrines are everywhere.
* if you look closely, you'll find an opportunity to mope around a graveyard and listen to the cure.
* it takes about two seconds for us to turn our clean hotel rooms into vortexes of chaos.

now, let us elaborate on a few key points.
point one: eccentric collector geniuses are universally cool.
evidence: dr. manop rattanarithikul, founder of the museum of world insects in chiang mai. this man researches and collects the coolest bugs, nests, rocks, fossils, shells and stories from the globe. he’s also a painter. we love him. when you come to chiang mai, you must visit him for hours, as we did. you won’t regret it. he’ll tell you all about ‘the manager’ (the brain). he also identified the bug that was in our toilet in petchaburi.


point two: food is good. especially if you know how to cook it.
evidence: the chiang mai cookery school. we learned to make our own fresh curry paste, penang curry, chili sauce for fish, glass noodle salad with pork, black sticky rice pudding, sweet and sour veggies, and chiang mai chicken curry. we also ate all of it. we got the itis. corey had to take a nap. one of our teachers is called princess. why do you call her princess? “because she is gorgeous.” please admire the food the we made ourselves. if you send us the right comments, we might make you some when we get back.

point three: try to avoid eating in restaurants with walls. three, maximum.
evidence: 9 times out of 10, when we eat somewhere that has more than three walls, it's just ok. the closer you get to no walls at all, the closer you get to delicious. for example: kao kiam pah moa. mung bean flour filled with roasted peanuts and spices, swimming in coconut milk with cilantro on top. made before your eyes at a food stall with no walls. right next to the vietnamese pancke stall. best food ever.

point three: friends are where it’s at.
evidence: if not for our thai friends, we would be stuck bar-hopping, trekking with other farang to visit “authentic thai hilltribe culture” villages, or hiding in our guesthouse doing arts and crafts, like we were in new york. it’s hard to see the thai side of things from a tourbus. so we end up hanging out with pok the designer and bmx rider, gai, the motorcyle mechanic and general rock star, nid, aimee, prom, and new, the most talented and fun masssage therapists in chiang mai. we love them. look at them and love them too.

and now, dear readers, we close. we’ve been staring at one malfunctioning computer after another and, even though corey wants to be close to this imac for as long as possible, we have things to do. like go to the dentist for laser teeth cleaning.

exhaustingly yours,
corey + lucy + mari + tara
xoxooxoxo

p.s. -thai kids rule

p.p.s. - you can drink beer in class here: