Clean teeth for all!

Deja vu anyone? We're back in Thailand again... We took a rather effortless trip from Luang Prabang, Laos to Chiang Mai, Thailand via Laos Air. The other option was being stacked with people, rice, grain, chickens, and whatever else was agriculturally in vogue at the minute onto a barge that would slowly drift to Thailand in three days... or more... depending on the weather. Given the fact that our time is beginning to run out and our waning sense for adventure... we flew. On the plane we met Cyrus, a middle aged recently divorced East-coaster, who became our new travel mate. We settled arrived in Thailand during the King's week long birthday celebration (and the king may just be more popular than Buddha here) and the Chiang Mai flower festival AND the official "Start of the Thai Tourist Season Celebration". The city was completely packed with Thai and foreign tourists... but we managed to find a hotel room after a bit of a search. Chiang Mai is famous for it's night market, a daily affair, and we spent our first night in the city walking down the night market street wondering how many silk ties we really did need (in the end we bought none).
Chiang Mai is also famous for dentists. Seeing as my lack of health insurance and throbbing pain in one of my back molars spelled financial ruin, Justin and I checked out local dentist rates. Much to our surprise and dental joy, they were relatively low. So after two stints at two different dentist clinics I manged to get a cavity filled and my teeth cleaned, polished, sealed and whitened for just under $200 US. I'm sure the cavity came from long overnight train rides in China... the country is really that dirty. After our teeth had been properly assaulted, we searched the city for some painkillers, and fumbled around the Weekend Night Market (a different affair from the daily one) until we found a lady making waffles out of a street cart and called it a night.
We also rented a motorbike and took it up to the mountain top temple of Doi Su Theph, just outside of the city. The ride up is entirely switch backs and steep, sudden inclines so it was a site to see and experience it itself. The temple is one of the holiest in Thai Buddhism, and surrounding the golden central stupa are several sets of large heavy prayer bells... that I had the pleasure of ringing... all of them. The whole place was very noisy and crowded with Thais.
That night we met up with our friend Cyrus and went shopping at the Weekend Night Market. There were generally more Thais than foreigners at this market, and that worked out on our behalf as the prices were then lower. We had a very good time and went a little overboard with the shopping... but you're only in Thailand once, eh?
After Chiang Mai we'll take the night train down to Bangkok for some last minute shopping, temple viewing, and a trip to Ayuthaya, the ancient capital, before flying home to Guam!