Hi – More change is afoot! This week, we're breaking up the travel stories and photos from the travel tips. In a couple of days, we'll post the tips from the same places. We'd love to know what you think of this change in a comment (in the mighty battle against spam, all comments are held for moderation, so yours won't go up right away). Thanks!

Buddha in a field of columns | Photo by Lauren Girardin

I was curious about the literal translation of tom yum goong, which I understood simply as Thai spicy prawn soup based on what was in my bowl. Goong was easy: "prawn," which our friend Crissy, the marine biologist, and other authorities will tell you to avoid eating in Asia, because of industry-related environmental horrors. Tom, was a little harder to unearth, but near enough means "boiled" or "soup." So far, my understanding seems spot on.

Yum, however, proved more mysterious, defying a succinct one-word-for-another translation into English when soup is concerned. The most tantalizing meaning of yum is the balanced mix of the four Thai flavors - sweet, salty, sour, and spicy.

Yum, a balancing act. How many of my travel experiences can be metaphored by this bowl of soup? Even my eating of the soup is itself an example of a balancing act. Because of eco-guilt, I don't normally eat prawns, but over such a long time in Asia, one inevitably, occasionally fails miserably at ethical commitments, especially involving food. My behavior (and misbehavior) is a balance of desire, logic, willpower, and circumstance.

Is looking for meaning in a bowl of soup a clue that I've been traveling too long? Next thing you know I'll compose haiku about the symbolic beauty of rice, or to be even more travel blog cliché about it, I'll write a post titled, "The Top Ten Asian Food Metaphors."

Soup aside, the southbound road awaits.

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Hi – We're trying something new in this post – larger images! We'd love to hear what you think of this change so drop us a comment (in the mighty battle against spam, all comments are held for moderation, so yours won't go up right away). Of course, you can still check out all our Chiang Mai photos in our slide show. And now the story...

Webbigail's a Buddha groupie | Photo by Lauren Girardin

There is an overriding theme to our week in Chiang Mai, Thailand. Usually you'll hear platitudes like beautiful, historic, cultural, or fascinating used to describe this Thai metropolis. Chiang Mai is all of those things. Like any major city, at times it's also touristy, skeezy, and polluted. But, but most of all, Chiang Mai is just plain weird.

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