Arrived in Chiang Mai early yesterday afternoon just in time for a fabulous local event, the Flower Festival. Before getting to the festival we checked in at our place, the Baan Booloo Guest House (http://www.baanbooloo.com/). The owner, I'll call him A for short, built the entire place four years ago. He also planted all the trees which shoot up forty feet high. It's a lovely location and completely local. Even better is that the other owner, O, has a cute puppie, Lily, that the girls are loving playing with. And there's turtles too!

To get around Chiang Mai it's best to walk or get a tuk tuk so we wandered from Baan Booloo and meandered our way on the streets and found a great lunch place. Our US dollars go a long way in Thailand and our delicious lunch for four with drinks came in around $11. After lunch we took some more turns and got to the Flower Festival, a big yearly celebration in Chiang Mai. There were huge flower floats from all over Asia as well as plenty of stalls with gorgeous local plants.

During the festival there was a strong Hari Krishna presence and we got caught up in their dancing and singing, something sounding like, "hari, hari, hari, Bob Marley." Not sure if that's right, but it's stuck in my head all night and is still there this morning. I think when we head back to the festival today Amy might be on their target list for converts. She was quite chatty (shocker - Amy chatty) with them and I think they've identified her weaknesses as they kept giving her Cokes with rabbit poop-like ice and asking her if she'd design a new mud room in their temple. We'll see if she emerges today still with us.

No festival is complete without a bouncy house and there was a large one and of course plenty of food stands. Our favorites were soup in a bag, mini-ice-cream cones, and pizza in the form of a hot dog (it's too hard to explain). Of course there were all kinds of grilled meats, some I could not identify, including a sausage stand that would give Italians a run for their money.

There were great crafts as well including a gentleman who made a gorgeous large cricket out of bamboo shoots. Was quite cool watching him make this from scratch with all the intricate details he put into it. We bought one to decorate our room. One last bonus stall we came across was selling pets and the girls went gaga over the tiny bunny rabbits. After shipping the bunnies to all the girl's friends (Abby, Morgan, Casey, Maddie, Sam, Josie, Tara and Ashley we each sent one to your house so keep an eye out for them) we hopped in a tuk tuk and zipped through the streets back to the Baan Booloo. We were treated to a full-on thunderstorm and we enjoyed all sights and sounds.

The next few days we have cooking and yoga classes lined up as well as a bike ride into the country and a visit to hang out with some elephants so it's going to be a fun-filled few days in this beautiful city.

AG