I have arrived in Chiang Mai and I'm impressed with how clean and beautiful it is. The old town is surrounded by a moat that's 1 mile square. Millions of fish in the moat provide plenty of sport fishing for the Thais...they put them in there for this reason. The Ping River runs through Chiang Mai, about 2 miles east of the old town. Whatever you do...don't go swimming (gross). I'm working at a private Thai school in a small town called Saraphi and teach around 700 kids/week. That equals 700 names that I cannot pronounce. It's really challenging not speaking the language well......or not at all (who am I kidding). I arrived at the beginning of the Loy Krathong festival, one of Chiang Mai's biggest and craziest...I can detest. I have tons of pictures of that..all in good time.