Where is Steph when I need her???

We arrived in Chiang Mai about 30 seconds behind schedule, which by any standard is pretty good. I had a good feeling about the place from the start. Ant and I had heard good things all around, but it all depended what you were in Chiang Mai for. Some people come for hilltribe treks, which I have mixed feelings about. I would feel weird (though definately interested) in visiting a tribal village just to see the women with the long necks. I'll be back through Chiang Mai, so I can figure out my feelings on this one at some other time.

Ant was interested in the Thai cooking schools, and I am MOST interested in the shopping!!!! I have a thing for material. I don't sew but I am constantly buying textiles in some form or another. I bought 4 meters of kickass blue Tibetan silk last year (for $8) and gave it to my sister who is now too nervous to make it into anything for fear of wrecking it. I can barely contain myself here. What I've figured out I'd do, it take all the goodies I've collected so far, and make em into snazzy looking wall hangings. I'll attach a wooden stick to the back and hang em like a huge calendar on a nail. Rock on.

However, there is the matter of all the kickass antiques as well. Last night we visited a shop called Below the Bo and they had all sorts of weird head hunter type stuff. One helmet/headgear type thing had a mini monkey skull with it's mouth in a scream with scary fur all around it. Ant found this one shop with some sort of animal skull cracked open to hold a metal bowl or bottle. Remember in Indian Jones and the Temple of Doom when the evil Kali priest forces Indi to drink the blood? Well, this looked like the bottle he drank it from, but scarier. I just kept thinking "KALI-MA!!!! ... KALI-MA!!!"

Ant seems to have been drawn into the melee and has been checking out old gurkha knives and random oriental swords. For someone who doesn't twitch about shopping, I had to hold his hand pretty tightly.

We spent the day/evening "looking" and only came away with 1 silver ring, 1 small amulet, 2 silk pillow cushion thingies, 1 book, and a handmade shirt all for less than $18. Today is the "shop" day because tomorrow Ant has cooking classes and I am not to be trusted on my own. :)

Hopefully, I won't put myself into too much of hole today!!! Where is Stephanie to beat down the shopping demon in me when I need her????