Yes I cried, a little, but only after the lovely orchestrate / bango renditions of Christmas Carols were turned off and a Thai with an acoustic guitar started singing the Beatles. Christmas at my dads always included Beatles sing-a-longs, or any other night for that matter. We had Christmas dinner at Riverside Bar & Restaurant in Chiang Mai, which is a lovely place. Mikae had Fillet Minion with breaded shrimp appetizer and a large Singha. I had a small carafe of Margarita, Some Mushroom and Tofu soup, and some Penang Curry with Brown Rice. The bill came to about $27, or under 1000 baht. They also offer a lovely river cruise for an additional 90baht per person, or around $3. If we can get reservations, we want to do that for New Years. There were some "wealthy" Thais dining near us. Four small girls, nicely dressed, had bottle service of a full 26oz of Vodka and another of Red Label whiskey. They also ordered about 8-10 full dishes and picked off of them lightly. It was pretty funny, primarily because they were so tiny and making no dent in either food or booze. They looked like they were having a great time however.
Afterwards, We sat in the park Riverside for a little bit, and then loaded up on the Happy phone cards and called all of the parents. We came home and watched the Simpsons Movie. Thats it.
Earlier During the day, we ate Indian Food that was half decent, FINALLY at Spices. It was nice and spicy. We then went looking for the ancient city.
Wiang Kum Kam, the Underground Ancient City In 1984, just outside the modern Chiang Mai metropolitan area, archaeologists uncovered the remains of an ancient city. Research concluded that this was the city of Wiang Kum Kam, one of many fortified cities built by King Mengrai as he consolidated his hold on the north. In fact, it appears that Mengrai may have lived at Wiang Kum Kam for a few years before Chiang Mai was founded in 1297 a.d. Nearly 20 temple sites have been uncovered in the area, which lies between the Ping river and the Lamphun highway. The buildings were buried underground by years of flooding, which apparently is the reason Mengrai eventually moved his capital to Chiang Mai. In fact, the Ping river originally flowed along the north side of the town, but at some point during the Burmese occupation from the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the river changed course and now flows along the west side of the site. The change of course was apparently the final straw which caused the city to be largely abandoned for 300 years.
Most of the sites are not much more than platforms and ruined chedis. The scenery was really nice though. Nothing like exploring ancient ruins in the middle of a field with a cow munching beside you.
This morning, we had to bring in the motorbike as it had been a week with this one. We also had to get Mikae to the dentist for 1pm. I opted to go back to my favorite massage place, for a one hour foot massage and a one hour Thai massage. I think it is called "Thai Healing Arts Center Chiang Mai." As I said before, it is just inside the walls of a Wat. The massage here focuses on healing, and it is very rough. 120 baht for the foot massage and 120 baht for the Thai massage, I gave her $300 even, which is $10 including tip. It was lovely.
Mikae's experience was not so lovely as he had three cavities drilled and filled at Dental4U. He said the doctor was very thorough, but it was painful. He is now sleeping.
The best part of the day was the weekly maid cleaning, we got home and this place was spotless. Hooray! Note that I went to buy some multi-B-vitamins here at Boots, and vitamins are very very expensive here. I paid $16 or so for 60 caps. Tonight I think we will take it easy as Mikae is in pain.
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