Merry Christmas 2008!

Well, it's now the evening of Christmas here in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the year 2008.

It's bizarre and somewhat of a relief having Christmas in Buddhist country. There is very little hoopla about the whole holiday. We have some people wishing us Merry Christmas but for the most part things are just business as usual.

Christmas eve we went to dinner at a lovely restaurant and then walked back to our hotel. While people were enjoying Midnight Mass, I went and had a Midnight Mass-age. Absolutely fantastic! Tong-ma at Moonlight Massage in Chiang Mai is incredible and the massage is only 150 baht (approx. $4.29). It's very hard to do any better than that!

We then slept in until about 10 AM. We walked into town to our favourite vegetarian breakfast restaurant. Not very vegetarian since we have eggs quite often and they offer dishes with fish and meat ... but the fresh baked bread is great and the fruit and muesli along with cinnamon toast is to die for!

After breakfast, we headed to the Royal Lanna to help one friend who had damaged his computer system and then meet-up with Linda and Mike who we had made plans to have Christmas Supper with at "The Garden" (the place we stayed at when we first arrived in Chiang Mai a few months ago).

The meal was a nice buffet of both Thai dishes and a few English/Christmas favourites. We had Northern Thai green curry and prawns over noodles, as well as roast turkey and mashed potatoes. The owners of "The Garden" had also hired a Ponglan (Eastern Thai) musical group to play during the afternoon and they were very, very good!

After supper, we waved goodbye to Linda and Mike as they were off to hand out gifts at a local orphanage and we then had a nice cup of coffee and slice of chocolate cake. Afterwards, we went to Lila massage and both of us had a fantastic hour long Thai foot reflexology session! (same price as the massage the night before).

Now, evening has come upon us and we're going to go have a little bite to eat and then join some friends at a bar near the night bazaar. I hope you all have a very, very Merry Christmas!!!