How To Mime "Take Away"

We got back late the other night and decided we were still a little hungry. I went downstairs to our guest house but the kitchen was closed, so I went a few doors up to try and order some take away food from them.

The lady who met me didn't speak english very well and of course, I don't speak Thai at all. I didn't have the phrase book with me either. I got a menu and asked if I could "Take away?" which was met with a blank stare. Finally she went "Ahh! Taxi?". I said no and tried a few arm movements and saying "Take away" really slowly. She thought I wanted a tuk-tuk. I tried doing a mine of someone eating and walking. This was met with a look of what-the-hell-is-this-guys-problem so I tried again. This time I did a really good mime of sitting down, getting a bowl of food then walking off with the bowl of food. Finally the light came on "Ahhhh, we have, we have!" The food was really nice and yes, it arrived in takeaway containers.

We had a real down day yesterday, Sarah wasn't feeling well so we spent a good portion of the day just at our guest house. I got bored about 1pm and went for a walk down to the post office. Walking around in Chiang Mai is interesting, as with many places in Thailand footpaths are a real luxury. Walking down to the local postoffice actually seems to become something of an army assult mission. You have to wade through the mud, slide along fences to avoid the cars and especially the bikes flying past, avoid the flea bitten mutts and try not to get harrassed by tuk-tuk drivers. Traffic lights to cross do exist, but they're a guide only and just running across the road seems to work better, traffic mostly stops for pedestrians with that "Arrrrghhh!!!" look in their eye.

We headed back into the night bazaar area last night because a few days ago we were lucky enough to stumble on a place that sells sleeping mats. We need them for the truck trip and we thought they should be fairly easy to pick up here but that's not been the case at all. We don't need them just yet, but we bought them while we could, I don't fancy sleeping out on the rocks with no mat.

Tonight we're doing a cooking class, we wanted to do one during the day but it's all booked out. We're going to be super Thai expert chefs by the end of the day, we learn all about the various herbs and spices that go into meals. There's also lots of food, so we'll probably come back bulging as well!
This morning we've come into town are going to go and look at a few wats (temples), as well as post off a few things we've got for people.

Tim