4/3 Settling in Chiang Mai

4/3/2013: I moved into my new apartment yesterday - the easiest move-in ever. I had a large backpack, and a small backpack, and a large jug of drinking water. It required one trip. My apartment is a small studio, with a basic little table with two stools, a little couch, a sort-of desk with another stool, a TV (with cable and a decent number of English channels), and a king-size bed. It's hard to take pictures of the place since it is so small, so here's the link to the building's website: http://www.lifeintownchiangmai.com/accommodation/deluxe-room.html. It's good for now. I have it for a month, so when Ariel arrives, we might restart our search for a bigger place. Hopefully by then I'll have a better feel for the city and know where to find cheaper, bigger apartments that don't have inflated prices for foreigners.

Not much new to report, I'm still spending a lot of time working and then just wandering around outside in the evenings. Last night I walked along the southern wall of the old city and happened upon Talat Ton Phayom, which according to Lonely Planet is a local market and souvenir area for Thais visiting from other provinces. There was still a decent number of foreigners, but not nearly as many as in the Thapae area, where my hotel was. I had a pork noodle dish and then grabbed some mango sticky rice ($2.30 or so for the whole meal). I went into a Tesco afterwards (like Walgreens) and stocked up on some basic things for the apartment.

I was reading up on the Thai language last night, and it seems like a hopeless endeavor to try to learn much of it. So far I can count to a thousand (once you know how to get to 10, you just need to know the words for "hundred" and "thousand"), however I think I'm only getting it half right because, like Chinese, Thai is a tonal language. The tones are different though. Chinese has four tones (I think)...upward inflection, downward inflection, flat, and down-and-then-up. There's probably a better way to say that, but that's the gist of what I've learned from Wei, Rosy, and Chris. Thai has five tones. Three of them are flat, but at different pitches (low, medium, high). And then a downward tone (like if you're yelling "hey!" at someone from far away) and an upward tone (like how we ask questions). It seems very difficult. I've tried my numbers on some vendors and they seem to understand, but probably only because they've said the number to me in English already. I also can say hello and thank you. That's all. I'll work on more phrases. I think "sorry" is the next most important one.

I guess that's all for now...