Author: Ian and Julie Fallis

We’re back home, so I thought I’d fill you in one some things I found out … I don’t like riding elephants. Enough said. I’m better at bargaining than I thought. One vendor in a street market cut his price for a silk scarf from 200 baht to 150 baht (about $5). But we were […]

OK, here’s a quick quiz for you. Sidewalks are for: a.       Pedestrians b.      Riding motorbikes, especially against the flow of traffic c.       Parking, especially for motorbikes d.      Setting up stands for selling food e.      All of the above In the USA, of course, the answer is “a.” But not in Thailand. On one-way streets, or […]

It wasn’t nearly as scary to ride in a tuktuk as you’d think it’d be. A tuktuk is a tiny three-wheeled motorcycle-rickshaw hybrid, with no seat belts – just a bench and a couple of grab handles. Crush zone in case of accident? That’d be … you. And they’re driven on streets where the lane […]

Prices in Thailand are amazingly low on many things. At the Sunday market, Julie and I ate dinner from street vendors, and including fruit shakes and dessert, it came to $4. Another day, we passed on dinner at a place that sounded too expensive. They wanted 290 baht for dinner. That’s less than $10. I’ve […]

One of the stranger experiences Julie and I had was at the Sunday market in Chiang Mai. Every Sunday evening, the main street in the old city is closed to traffic and filled with vendors of almost everything imaginable: silk, leather, clothing, carvings, food, massages … It’s a noisy, crowded, active place. Then all the […]

We came around the corner in Chiang Mai one day and were faced with something I would hope to see only in a nightmare: A truck full of durian. A woman was just setting up to sell it, and fortunately she hadn’t cut any yet. Durian, if you don’t know, is a tropical fruit with […]