Halloween. We spent two days thinking about and searching for costumes. Thai people don't celebrate Halloween so it was difficult to find anything good. In between my classes we motorbiked around the city trying to find a "Thai costume rental shop" on one of his maps. Turns out we found the place but it wasn't what we were hoping for. They were traditional Thai dresses and suits for rent. Damn. Off to the giant mall with more disappointment. I thought our best bet would be the giant department store called Robinsons. We were ascending the escalator to find some orange and black decorations. We're in luck! We come to the Halloween section which consisted of a white table the size of a small desk which had a couple of over-priced Halloween themed stuffed animals. We looked at each other and said, "Really? This is it?" I was discouraged and ready to resort to finding some 80's apparel (which is in style for Thai people, so it really wouldn't be a costume. It would be a lame attempt of a farang girl trying to look Asian-trendy). Luckily, Adam is good at making executive decisions in times like these. We stopped into a children's store and started discussing how well these polyester costumes could stretch (not sure if they were even costumes, they could have been kid's pajamas). When we were browsing through some princess dresses, the woman
running the store asked "For a child how old?" I knew Adam wanted to say "mid-twenties." He picked out two outfits and said he could wear one and I could wear the other. Superman and a Disney Princess. There was really no discussion on which outfit was for whom. Needless to say, we were a hit at the party, especially the pretty pretty princess. We rode around on a motorbike in these outfits; I had to hold his skirt down while my cape was flying in the wind. We got some stares. The security guard at my apartment got a kick out of it.German Micro-Brewery. I don't have photos of this place, and I wish I did. Video would be better. This giant micro-brewery in the outskirts of Chiang Mai can house around 1,000 people. They brew their own beer and provide live entertainment. We sat staring at the stage with our big beers in awe. Speechless. Could only look at each other and laugh. Young Thai women dancing in different outfits for their different song/dance numbers. One performance was of the ladies in traditional Northern Thai outfits with mortars and pestles acting out making somtam, a Thai food. We could tell who the coordinated dancers were and who the unfortunate awkward ones were. My personal favorite part of the performance was...and you will not believe me, nor will you ever know how funny and bizarre this is to see in person, especially when everyone sitting around you thinks it's normal and entertaining...but a guy was singing a song about being in the Thai military and he and he and his performance sidekick were in military uniforms acting out a battle. Then a medic comes out on stage wearing a white lab coat holding a giant (5 feet long) cardboard cut out of a syringe and sticks it into the injured soldier's ass. All during an upbeat pop song. Life can't get better than witnessing something like this. We went back the next night to enjoy the same performance for a second time.
Motorbiking day trip. We did a loop around the outside of Doi Suthep and through Mae Sa. We stopped and hiked the 10 waterfalls, motorbiked through the mountains on Adam's huge bike he rented for the week. He enjoyed driving and I enjoyed riding, so it worked out. Except when he popped a wheelie. I could have gone without that part. The drive was beautiful; it's supposedly one of the best motorbike loops to do in SE Asia. The views were unbelievable. We cruised through rice paddies and got lost in a village, drove through other little towns. So nice to get out of the city and see the different lifestyles that live just on the other side of the mountain from me. Luckily, we could see rain in every direction throughout the day but never got caught in it the whole day. Came back to scrape the bugs off Adam's shirt and face.
Rock climbing. Went out to Crazy Horse to do some climbing. This place is huge; people spend months going to these rocks and never do the same climb twice. We spent the morning outside in one quiet climbing wall corner. I'm a new climber so I learned a lot and I'm excited about doing more. Adam and Charlie are more seasoned climbers so it was fun to watch them. 
Pictures speak louder than words in this case, but I must add two things. The Superman outfit made an encore performance on the rocks (naturally, next time we will bring the princess dress). Also, we hiked into a giant cave to find more climbing areas that were lit by holes in the ceiling. The photo to the left is inside the cave. There was actually a lot of light coming in from above, but it was much cooler inside. Kind of a magical place.
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