Chillin in Chiang Mai

Oooohhh... Someone just set off fireworks right outside the window. They've got these strange ones that just seem to hang in the sky forever. I'm not just exaggerating either -the little sparks have been up there barely moving for the whole time I've been writing so far. Still glowing and hanging there after more than a minute. Anyway, you don't care about that.
We've been in Chiang Mai for a few days now and it's been an odd mix. The first day we just set out thinking we'd hit the big main Wats. It turns out there's like three wats per capita; wats have wats for neighbors and you have to wonder how they support them all. They're worse than Starbucks. (Glowing sparks still in the sky.) We got our fill after about a dozen and took in a cool art museum and then the night market.
The second day started out awesome with a cooking course through our guesthouse. They took us to the market to buy all the ingredients and then taught us to make all sorts of good stuff. We basically spent all day just cooking and eating. After the course, Zoo and I hopped a taxi (which here means pickup with bench seats in back) to a famous Wat to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, but I was starting to feel a little queasy. Things went downhill from there. Without going into the gorey details, let's just say that the whole night was a total loss. (Sparky things are still there!). Basically, so was the next day. Guess my cooking may not be so great after all. I'm feeling much better now though so it's all okay.
Today we hopped a bus to a town called Lampang for an elephant conservation center. It was a long ride and we didn't really go about it the most logical way but we got there eventually and it was pretty cool. We got to see the elephants have their baths in the river and they put on a little show. They even have a couple of the elephants doing paintings which was incredible to watch. Without being prompted by the trainers, we watched one do a crude but easily identifiable picture of some flowers. They had a few baby elephants and I got to play with one a little and feed it. The little bugger got a little excited though and whacked me with his trunk trying to get at the sugarcane. You wouldn't think a baby would be strong but if you imagine that his trunk is about as big as my thigh and solid muscle, it makes sense.
Well that's it so far. We couldn't get a flight to Laos until the 26th so we'll be spending Christmas here at our guesthouse. It actually sounds like it might be fun. They apparently stop taking new guests and have a party with special food and secret Santas. It'll be totally different from home, but it should be an experience.
Update on the mystery glowy things: Zoot found out they're lights in balloons. Odd since they seemed to come from the fireworks but whatever. It makes more sense than my UFO theory.