Thank you, Asia "Chiang Mai Diary 2018" (23 days until Green Bay)

 Here is a run down of my trip to Chiang Mai, Thailand, Sept. 27 - Oct. 2, 2018.

The Adaptive Leadership Conference with Harriet Thurber Rasmussen (27-28th) was a great learning experience.  Someone has really figured out this leadership business in the midst of change (Technical versus/and Adaptive).  I learned much throughout the week, but mostly I learned that I know a lot and can stand my own next to any of the other leaders in the room (even administrators).  

The time with Helen D. (my travel buddy and birthday buddy) began fortuitously; I walked out of the conference at El Meridien and across the street toward Movenpick Suriwonse and there she was having just arrived!  

We did so many things together in the few days we had.  I am so grateful! And I spent less than $400 USD.  First, I had a whole lot of massages: head/neck/shoulder, Thai body, oil body, foot.  We ate Thai food, as you would expect.  Wonderful Thai food.  One day we spent half the day (for $27 US) getting picked up, getting a tour of the local food market, going to cooking school and making five dishes, touring their herb garden, and returning!  Sticky rice, pad thai, tom gung soup, papaya salad were top recipes.  Another day we hired a driver for the day and went into the MaeRim region.  There we hit up the Orchid/Butterfly garden (where we also had lunch and I bought mom a lapel pin made from an actual orchid), the Siam Insect Museum and Nursery?, the Botanical Gardens with so many hot houses including one just for varieties of lotus as well as a canopy walk, Tiger Kingdom (where I bought Alec a huge White Tiger backpack).   It was hot and humid, but we didn’t let that stop us.  The whole day was less than $150 including my share of the driver.  Another day we went to three different Buddhist temples - all very different in style and feel from ornate and overwhelming reds and golds to ancient ruins, to subdued and functional.  Of course we hit up many markets including the Saturday night street market (where I bought Saundra a pretty gold choker) where we tried the Mussel omelette and also ate at a very local restaurant (I never got sick!)  

We had good chats about family, life, the world and where it’s going, school and school culture, old friends, and beauty.  We really enjoyed capturing amazing photos and laughing and eating together.  It was quite easy to travel with Helen as she and I turned out to be quite similar in our approaches.

One thing that I encountered that I had never encountered before was seeing rain fall that never hit the pavement.  One day we were inside a 7-11 waiting in a humungous line while school children filed through at the end of their day.  The sky was bright but clearly raining significantly and for quite some time.  But when we finally emerged from the 7-11 (rain drops still sprinkling) we felt almost nothing and the ground was dry!  Freaky!