Brand Recognition

As we travel throughout Chiang Mai, we are amazed at how well some companies have marketed their products. As consumers, we have been trained to instantly recognize logos; even when written in a language which we cannot read.

Can you recognize the logos below?
(Answers are at the bottom of this entry.)

1.

2.

3.


4.


5.





1. Coca-Cola
2. Harley-Davidson
3. Red Bull (energy drink)
4. Pepsi
5. McDonalds

Clothes Shopping

One of the striking things about living in South Asia is that you are surrounded by a myriad of vibrant colors and designs. Womens clothing is especially striking and colorful. Two years ago when we came to South Asia to visit, we met Mickey and Suresh whose family owns many textile shops. These shops sell clothing (men and womens), blankets, sheets, shawls and just about anything else that is made of fabric. The name of Mickey's shop is Kala Creation. The word "kala" means "art" in Hindi.

The outside of Kala Creation.

The inside of Kala Creation. As you can see the shelves are covered with materials of every imaginable color and pattern. Just the experience of walking inside is overwhelming!

Suresh holding a comforter which is hand embroidered with intricate stitching
and mirrors. Shopping for clothing is a totally different experience here. There's
nothing hanging up and you can't just go and pick out what you want. Here you have to tell them the color and material you're wanting and they pull out everything they have that matches your criteria. Usually when we go shopping here, we leave behind very large piles of material that we've gone through.

Aaron, Melanie and our "brother" Mickey. Mickey has been a great friend and has become like a member of our family. Our time settling in and becoming accustomed to life in this culture was greatly aided by our friendship with him. If you come to visit us, you will not return home without meeting our sweet "brother".

And this has nothing to do with shopping, but Baby G is 16 weeks today! Here's a picture that we took today of Mel's ever expanding belly.

Shopping!!

Shopping here is an adventure. Unfortunately, WalMart has not found their way to S. Asia yet! No WalMart = No One Stop Shopping
So, here are my favorite places to shop. I go to these places at least every other day.

This is by far my very favorite store...Shopper's Paradise! They have a really good selection of imported food that we can't find other places. This is where I buy my Ragu spaghetti sauce, apple juice and tator tots. And yes, when I go in to buy tator tots I always say "gimme your tots!"


Here is the milk man stand. We buy milk, eggs, bread and yogurt here. The milk is really, really good - the best I've ever had! And the best thing is that it only costs 36 cents for 1 liter.


This is where we buy our fresh veggies. We can find pretty much anything you can think of and it's CHEAP. I go see this guy everyday. We can't eat anything raw unless we peel it, but we cook most of the veggies anyway.


We buy from two different fruit vendors. This one doesn't have as much selection as the other one. I'm actually able to get Washington apples from the other one! Fruit is not as cheap as vegetables, but it's still cheap compared to the US.


We saved the best for last...the ice cream shop. This shop is directly across the street from our apartment, so we visit it often! We buy ice cream, coke and snickers here.