Oh dear

I'm waiting for my bus to the airport and so decided to check on who was reading my blog. Apparently, someone recently found my blog by typing in "blog chengdu hookers". I've just tried this myself and my blog comes up in google as the third suggestion.

I'm guessing that whoever did this search found my blog a bit disappointing.

A few photos

Thanks to Rob, I can upload a few photos of myself.

Don't let Sha read this blog

Sha told me not to talk with strange people, nor do anything dangerous. This occurred to me as I was clinging on to the back of a "taxi" hurtling down the highway with people like Rob Hollow wearing a very silly shirt. My shirt has bells on it.

Anyway, I didn't fall off and so that's okay. We had a rather dramatic conference dinner. It involved dancing and setting off hot-air balloons (actually huge lanterns). In contrast to a few, our lantern did not catch on fire. I've just been looking at my photos and they all seem to be of Rob posing with some Thai ladies.

I had to chair a session today. I didn't understand any of the talks.

Another great day in Chiang Mai

I gave my talk today to a rather empty audience. Oh well! Afterwards, Rob and I went out for dinner. Chiang Mai really is excellent. We had another dramatic tuk-tuk ride into the city, walked around the Wat (where you can have a chat with a monk: "suggested topics: The life of Monks"), admired the trees (I thought that the massive trees were Bodhi (or Bo) trees, but I've just looked them up and now I don't think so --- Faith, what's the tree in the first picture -- it's massive?

We had a fun dinner in a restaurant that was "perfectly located" and "nicely decorated with Lanna Puppet". The rice came in a "chic banana leaf cone". "You will definitely enjoy the chef's laughter". Well that was true ... I accidentally ate the strongest chilli that I've ever encountered and, I'm sure, without drinking copious amounts of beer would have ended up in hospital.

We walked through the night market, stopping to buy some gifts and to decide whether Rob needed a large pair of boxer shorts or not and having an icecream. We ended up walking back to the hotel. Tomorrow is the last day of the conference. Then a day riding elephants. Then off to LiJiang. I'm really annoyed. Vikram and I discovered that we could get to LiJiang by a bus ride to Laos and then a 12 hour boat ride up the Mekong. Instead, I'm flying and have to spend from midnight to 6am in Kunming airport.

Attracting dogs in Chiang Mai

I've happily survived two tuk-tuk rides. One, alone and in the dark. Chiang Mai is wonderful! The conference is going extremely well. The opening ceremony was very spectacular. It seemed a very odd mix of Thai traditional music (in a contemporary style), drumming, the Eurovision Song Contest, dancing and a fashion show (oh ... and some random images of stars and an asteroid belt). When we first arrived we were all invited to go and have our photo taken with a lady who wasn't wearing much. I declined the invitation, but had a garland of flowers placed around my neck instead.

The food has been excellent! Actually, that reminds me to state that everyone should fly on Thai! It's a great airline whose air hostesses think that one should have two beers and one cognac with your breakfast.

A few hours ago, Vikram and I decided to skip a few talks and go out and work on a paper instead. We found a few bars in the centre of Chiang Mai that helped with the paper writing.

We also went past some amazing Wats. The largest one was incredible. There was a sleeping buddha. Life-sized stone elephants. Lots of monks walking around. Also incredible realistic wax statues of long-dead monks in glass cabinets.

Later, after walking around a bit on my own (and seemingly attracting all the dogs of Chiang Mai to follow me), I met back up with Vikram, Emma and Justin for dinner at an excellent restaurant. We had "thorn soup" with "banana flower" and a few other delicious dishes.

Just so you know, the "recitation of Monks' disciplinary rules is held on the full-moon day, or the 14th or 15th day of waning moon. The community of monks who are eligible to perform this ceremony must belong to the same sect or nikaya, and have not committed the big offense."

Wombat ... we're coming again

We went back to see Sha's wombat today. She says that she could identify it amongst another 100 wombats!!

Sha's wombat

Another picture of Sha's wombat