Chiang Mai

After a couple of fast and furious days in Bangkok Supy and I zipped up our backpacks and took to the road. In a first-time-for-everything experience I got to spend the night on my first sleeper train. 

{My bunk}

{Supy across the aisle}

It was a pretty decent experience over all. I love traveling by train. The 12 hour ride that was an additional 3-4 hours late, the French tourists getting their drink on, and the fact that the train swayed significantly at night (making me paranoid I was going to fall off my upper bunk) distracted me a bit from the journey--but not too much.

To top things off, as soon as we got off the train we were in lovely (and warm) Chiang Mai.

{In Chiang Mai temples abound. This is the one that was directly across from our ($12) hotel room.} 

{A banana for each elephant} 

This particular wat (temple) was built during 1296-1297 AD 

{You can buy gold leaf to place on the buddha}

At another temple in town we got a chance to take part in some "Monk Chat." They have a time set up where you can talk with the monks--they get to practice their English and you get to ask them anything you want. We met a nice young Karen monk. We didn't quite muster the courage to ask anything to terribly interesting (like how they get those robes to stay on) but we did learn a bit about the monk life.

They also had a garden with words of wisdom on the trees to aid in enlightenment: 

{One of my favorites}

{A giant stupa}

{Probably my favorite meal of the trip, which included the very best Thai tea I've ever had. The grand total for the meal? One dollar.}

{Temples galore}

{More enlightened words}

While we were in Chiang Mai we also decided we needed to visit the women's prison...for a massage! It sounds a lot sketchier than it was--They have a training program for the women where during the last 6 months before they are released they get to give Thai massages to clients. They receive their earnings to get them back on their feet once they are released. It was a great experience overall (and only set us back about 5 bucks for an hour long massage). The funniest part though was trying to get the outfits they gave us on. Neither one of us could figure out how to tie up the one-size-fits-all pants. Tired, dehydrated, and a little delirious, we couldn't stop laughing about our inability to tie on our giant pants.

To cap off our evenings we hit up the night markets to browse, drink fruit smoothy after fruit smoothy, and eat whatever we came across. 

Chiang Mai just had a good vibe overall. It was a city, for sure, but didn't zoom past you too fast--there was plenty of time for temples, good eats and the slow life.

Austin, Etc.

Well, I am not doing well at my attempts to be productive today. I'm sorting through boxes to get ready to move and I keep running into files full of memories. I've been cringing (oh middle school), laughing (my freshman year in the dorms was possibly the funniest year of my life), and just generally being thankful for all the wonderful people and countless memorable experiences I have had over the years.

Speaking of memorable experiences, while I'm not being productive I thought I'd share some of what I've been up to--namely my trip down to central Texas!

I went down to Austin last weekend A) to see my brother Casey, B) to hear Buena Vista Social Club, and C) to get out of town!

I had a fantastic time. I toured a friend's coffee roasting facility, ate meal after meal of good food, heard five live bands/artists, made my best flan yet for the boys, sweated it out at Batfest (without seeing the bats...which was ok by me!), had brunch with an old friend and then poked around in small towns on my way back home.

I was too busy in Austin to take many pictures, but here's a few from the weekend: (you'll also notice from a few of the pictures that I was finally forced to break down and upgrade my 1998 version phone for an iphone!)

Touring Kohana Coffee's roasting facilities and getting the inside scoop on the entire process from the impossibly friendly owner!

Coffee beans from all over the world! She even had beans from Boquete, Panama! Piper was also kind enough to let me take some of the empty coffee bags with me--I ruffled through and found some good looking ones to go on my new walls. 

(I of course chose one from Boquete!)

I mentioned to one of Casey's roommates that I was on a flan making kick...and then of course I had to make it. I ran to the store and threw one together--surprisingly I think it was my best flan yet!

Buena Vista Social Club put on an amazing show! And let me tell you, 80 year old Omara Portuondo was the life of the party! Grandma can still get down!

On the way home I decided to humor my curiosity and poke around in some of the small towns I passed through on my way back to Fort Worth. When I saw the signs for Lorena, Texas I had to stop.

(I peaked into the windows of this old building to find a bank counter that looked straight out of It's A Wonderful Life!)

Then I made a stop in Waco for gas and drove around a bit: 

A shot from the Dr. Pepper museum!

Then, it was time for the best part of the drive: West, Texas! (Emphasis on the comma!) I stopped quickly in West on the way down to grab a kolache for Casey and me, but I did not hit the right bakery. This time I got it right, and, with time to be nosey, found some great old buildings and colorful locals. 

West was settled by Czech immigrants and still has a lot of Czech flavor...specifically in their bakeries! 

Yum!

You can also pick up some pickled pigs feet if that's more your style

My treasures--apricot and cream cheese kolaches, with cherry and cream cheese kolaches underneath them. I brought enough home to share with my family...but when Brian wasn't home, curiosity got the best of me and I ate his too! : )

Then I had a look around town: 

(An old theatre!)

Overall, a fantastic Texas weekend!

Pueblos Blancos--Nica Style

It's the first of the belated Nicaragua posts! I really loved Nicaragua, so even though I am already living it up in Greece, I had to show it a little blog love (if for no reason other than so that everybody can see there is more to it than the civil war that ended two decades ago!). So here we go: 

One of my first afternoons in Nicaragua we took a little afternoon trip to the Pueblos Blancos (The White Towns) in southern Nicaragua. It struck me as strange that in southern Spain around the city of Granada there are clusters of white villages known as the Pueblos Blancos, and then here in Nicaragua, around their city of Granada, there were the same type of towns. Who knew?

After an helado (ice cream) we stopped in the white church in San Marcos. Our fearless leader Bergman leads the way!

The church holds one of only two "black Jesuses" in Nicaragua

Bell tower: we were all very tempted to pull that string...

Roof view

Street view of San Marcos with volcanoes in the distance

Another shot of the church

We visited a little farm that had every kind of medicinal plant you could think of. They also had all kinds of regular things growing--but things that most of us only knew in their processed state. For example, here Bergman is taking a machete to a cacao plant!

There are the beans--the cacao is inside them. You can suck on them, and they are sweet, but if you bite in, it's bitter. Very interesting. 

We also stopped in Masatepe, Nicaragua's furniture making capital, to watch them weave banana leaves into furniture

We then passed through Niquinohomo which is the birthplace of Augusto Sandino

Ah, and finally we stopped in Catarina to take in the view at the Mirador. The view was so beautiful that it was jarring (unfortunately my pictures can't do it justice!). From there you could see Laguno de Apoyo (a crater lake), Granada in the distance, Lake Nicaragua and the slopes of the volcano Mombacho (see next picture). 

The view was fantastic, the musicians were good, the company was lively and the drinks were cold. An all around good afternoon and beautiful part of the country. 

{...I'm not going to lie...I kind of miss Nicaragua}