Street Food, Cold Dogs & Signs

Greetings from Chiang Mai! We are enjoying it here so much, we just extended with our hotel for a month.  One of our best meals of recent days was at this street vendor - our first street food! 2 carts set up in a small indent in the street with 6 tables & 4 more on the sidewalk. They are very popular & nearly always full - we ran into our hotel friend Don & joined him for a great meal, about 85c each ... and - Yum!

It's winter here in northern Thailand - even tho the temperature usually gets up to 85°F in the heat of the day. Here's our favorite article from a local newspaper article:

"COLD SNAP RESULTS IN GOVERNMENT RELIEF

During last week's cold snap lasting several days, the Governor of Chiang Mai designated all districts in the province as a temporary disaster zone, as mean temperatures had fallen below the recommended level for a period of 3 days. ... high pressure from mainland China had resulted in temperatures being recorded as between 11.5C and 14.6C."

So,

11.5°C = 52.7°F

14.6°C = 58.2°F

...yeah.

Well, disaster zone it may be, but we still find it pretty hysterical that nearly all the dogs we see are wearing coats! In Alaska, you rarely see a dog wear a coat, even in winter ... but apparently Asian dogs are chilly (or, their people think they are!) 

This dapper dude was making his rounds:

A happy pair out for an evening stroll.

This old gal is just looking for a sunny place to spend the day!

Feeling a little humiliated, perhaps?

Full body Spiderman coat.

This guy is my favorite - he walked around with us for a while.

This guy was hanging out in his preferred domain.

Sometimes, you just have to give it up, admit it's hot & have a nap on a breezy street corner.

There are lots of intriguing signs around.

The perfect place to park your pretty posterior.

Check out the time-frame for this happy hour. (10am - 4pm, yikes!)

Can you see the Sarah Palin sign inside this optical shop?

The Triple E - I guess it's a language learning center. 

Extremely Excellent English!

Ahh, sounds better every day!!

But, this is our hands down favorite - got to check it out when it's open!

By the way did you see this? Check it out - the sky smiles on Asia:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/12/081202-venus-jupiter-photo.html?source=rss

Sorry about the small pics in previous posts, I hope these are better! 

Cheers!