Mama and Papa Isham and Christmas

Well it has been awhile so hope this post isn't too long for you all. Mum and Dad arrived last week on the 21st of Dec. Em and I had a great few days with them exploring Chiang Mai together. The warm weather, and chilled out atmosphere of this city made for many relaxed conversations around cold drinks in the many quaint little cafes that are scattered around Chiang Mai, the pit stops our adventures.

On Christmas Eve we all attended the missionary church, packed out with expats, missionaries and other 'farangs' (foreigners) that live in Chiang Mai. It was an excellent Christmas Eve service, great classical Christmas hymns (Em sang beautifully up the front) and a good hearty sermon on Matthew, and the Christmas story he tells in that particular biography of Jesus. He talked about the three Magi being the first gentiles to see Jesus and how this is important to us as a sign of Jesus coming to save all of us, not just the jews.

Christmas
Christmas in Thailand is quite different to back home. The temperature is about the same, except those rare Christmas snows in Tassie. But most places are open, even for Thai school children it is a normal day. Most people are out and about, only the banks are closed (cos the rest of the world's banks acknowledge Christmas day, it makes it difficult for Thai banks to open).

Em and i joined mum and dad for an early breakfast and exchanged gifts. We then took a tour out to a craft village on the egde of the city. This probably sounds like a quaint little village with grass roof huts, little local people in traditional garb sitting with the wares spread out in front of their homes and dirt path weaving between the huts. But no, it was just an average street filled with shops ready for the tourist dollar, pretty much like any other shop in Chiang Mai. The other frustration with this trip was the stops at a Jewelry centre and a carpet place on the way, where they show you through their big impressive show rooms and try to talk you into buying their products. The Jewelry place had huge impressive display cabinets with all sorts of well crafted and glittering rings, bracelets and necklaces, a treasure trove that could feed at least three African countries. The carpet place was run by a little man from Kashmir. He served us tea and showed us all his amazing rugs and told us how they were made, etc But again these rugs were way out of our price range, so after much explaining of our limited funds and despite his Indian charm and persistance we left.

On the return from the craft village we stopped in at a place that made the whole trip worthwhile. It was a wood carving place. The work here was amazing!! Incrediable scenes of elephants, people working in fields, jungles etc all carved into table tops, chairs, cabinets various other furniture items. The work was so carefully crafted the creatures almost walked out of them. Emily sat and carved a piece that they had there for tourists to try, and they thought her a natural at it. So much so that one of the craftsman sold Em some of his tools.

In the afternoon we all had Thai massages, such a nice relaxing way to spend a Christmas afternoon. We then had dinner at this beautiful little resturant by the river. We were outdoors right by the river side in a little garden with hanging lights surrounding us. Hope all your Christmas dinners were in as nice a place as this. Em even got up and joined the band playing her little flute that she bought here.

Later after mum and dad had returned to their guesthouse we went out to find a quiet place for a Christmas drink. We'd heard about this rooftop bar and on our wanderings were able to find it. To get to it we had to climb up a series of staircases at the back of a building. The lighting was dim and odd graffiti marked all the walls. It was like some creepy place out of Blade Runner or Minority Report. Finally we reached the top, a ricketty platform on the top of the building, open to the sky, which i guess it needed for all the cigarette and 'other' smoke to escape. Again the dim and multicolored lighting and odd music filled the place, as did the 'farangs' seated on cushions around low tables. I hate smokey places, as does Emily, so we left. We found another place, with outdoor tables, a mixture of farang and Thai people. On the stage a Thai man played and sung country western songs. I had deep fried icecream, quite good, but not as good as the stuff my sister has made. Then Em decides she wants to sing, so she bravely goes up and joins the man on stage to sing parts of a song she barely knows. She was great, and got some cheers and applause when she finished.

So that was Christmas...then there were elephants....