Chiang Mai Day Two

The girls are down the street shopping at tiny dusty little stores full of weird stuff and cool clothes. We just had a really pleasant relaxed lunch at a little place run by some karen tribesfolk. Super friendly. We're on a very noisy congested street and it's a bit hot and muggy, so we were delighted to be led way back into a pretty courtyard with flowers kittens and a fan. The girls got chocolate milkshakes that came with orchids stuck in the top! The kittens were very well behaved. Interested in tidbits, but not at all pushy.
On the plus side, all we have to do to get around is walk out front of our hotel and wait 30 seconds and a songtheaw (sp?) will stop to pick us up. I still have that little map the Canadian gal gave us and point then we climb in the back and away we go. It costs 40 baht for the 5 of us (Eden rides free I guess) and they drop us off, all smiles. On the way here we met a delightful young man from the Phillapenes who is here teaching ping pong (?) and a very pretty very shy school girl who bid us farewell as if we were old friends when we clambered off, even though we'd only exchanged a few awkward sentances.
By the way, a songtheaw is a little pick up truck with a tall covering and seats along both sides of the bed. It's well padded inside and has openings rather than windows and plenty of places to hold on. I have to say it's the most fun public transportation I've ever experienced! Very practical too. I do wonder what it's like in the rain, with those open sides and all.
Today we hired a guide named Poon, who took us around to three beautiful wats (temples). The wats are really walled compounds with at least one amazing temple, maybe a school for monks, lots of dogs laying around in the road. We (meaning the adults) were enthralled by the gorgeous architecture and statuary and ancientness of these places--one of them was 1000 years old apparantly. The kids were less enthusiastic after a while. It was pretty hot. We went to a hill tribe cultural center/museum which was even less intesting for them, although we saw three men swimming in this big lake with horses. Just the horses heads above water. Why? Who knows. The traditional Thai greeting is called a wai. We have lots of unanswered why's! Poon also took us to a real supermarket where we could get big jugs of drinking water. That was really fascinating! I bought the kids weird popsicles and they were content.
I've got more to relate, but I want to post this now. Just in case the conection is dicey. Can't really take certain things for granted here.