Daily Life

I realized I'd been posting mostly pictures of "special" occasions and not places from my daily life. I set out to photograph the places I thought were most representative of my day-to-day schedule this first month with my family... and realized afterwards that these pictures don't do justice to how beautiful or exciting many of these places are. Nonetheless, I think many of the little aspects will still be interesting to you all.

Morning Commute

The stop where I wait for the rot dang in the morning.

Typical traffic on the superhighway on the way to ISDSI.

One interesting note about roads here: they drive on the left side! I wasn't aware of that before coming. Also, all the highways are divided, but whereas Uturns are illegal in the US, they are the norm here. There are all these little spots built into the highway for cars and motorcycles to wait to make a Uturn.

ISDSI

The lane back to the main building. The tin-roof you see in the distance is the open Crossfit "gym" area. 

The ISDSI building. It's actually a house that was converted into classrooms and offices. The door that is open is to an addition which is the large seminar room.

Going Home

A sweaty rot dang ride home after an afternoon of Crossfit. Sometimes I change back into my student uniform, but sometimes, I'm just too hot! This was one day when the car was really full, and the only spot left was on the stool that can be brought out.

A city street

Katluang Market

 This is the massive market in the city where we switch everyday from the taxi to a bus. Since it's one of the main markets, I've been there many other times as well. The market includes shops and sidewalk stands along two major roads and a lot of side streets, and also has a large indoor area.

 The view of one of the streets

       

The indoor area. The central section is row after row of snacks, dried fruit, etc. There are also two more floors with clothing shops. 

Off of the main indoor section, there are also mazes of corridors... with even more shops! This is where I found the wrapping paper for Pim's birthday present and the final thank you presents for my family.  

Evening stop:

After about an hour (or hour and a half depending on the traffic), this is the market that is my bus stop. This is the view from across the street in the morning. There is a 7-11 (they're everywhere in Thailand), some shops, and a lot of food carts. To the right under the gray roof, there is also a food market.

Here's the view when it's bustling in the evening.

And all the motorcycles for all those people! Motorcycles really are the mode of transportation for the masses.

Markets

This isn't the market at my stop, but is very representative of food markets throughout Chiang Mai. Most people don't go to any kind of a supermarket to buy any of their food. There is a Target/supermarket chain called Tesco Lotus, but most home goods are bought at a market like Katluang and food is purchased daily at a market like this. Actually, the produce I saw at my one visit to Tesco Lotus was wilty and turning brown.

At the food markets, each seller sells a certain type of food (like a farmer's market, though most of these sellers are not growers themselves). There are fruit vendors, veggie vendors...

And meat vendors! All the meat is located in an area together. Pork and fish are the most commonly consumed meats, but there is also chicken, any other kind of seafood you can imagine, and beef. The seafood is often live, like these fish here. The shopkeeper pounded it's head a few times, cut out the insides, cut off gills, and put it in a bag for our consumption that evening.

Sometimes, the only way you can react to these kind of... different situations is just to be silly! Thus, me acting like I was going to eat these live fish.