It's hard to explain about Thailand to someone who's never been there, or near there. I mean, what do you say, beyond "It's way beyond my frame of reference in just about every way you could mention," or maybe, "it was beautiful, intrusive, absurd...traffic was scary, the food was amazing, I drank beer with ice in it..." None of it gives anybody any idea what it's like there, and people who have been there just nod because they've seen it too, and they can't explain it any better than I can. Seeing it is pretty much just what it takes, so I took 1000 pictures over two 10-day trips to Chiang Mai, and these are the good ones. There aren't any words in there, just the best explanation I can offer of what Thailand is all about.