Said the guy who picked me up for cooking school today. I have to agree with him. Sois are small roads off is the real roads (alleys) and because of them I think most tourists in Chiang Mai are perpetually at least a little turned around if not totally lost. They make the city a relatively unmarked entity and thus a maze. It is, however, a nice kind of lost where you continue to discover wonderful things. I believe that the Sois are the reason that most companies you book things with come to get you.
Today began with a tempo run that turned into a mountain climb to Doi Suthep. It was a beautiful 11 miles that included watching the monks receive offerings. 
After running by them for a half of a mile or so I stopped and purchased a meal and gave it to a young monk under the instruction of the lady I bought it from and then received a blessing.
Because of unexpected sight seeing and the fact that I as a habit overestimate the amount of time I have, I quickly grabbed a frozen mango slushy (the fresh fruit ice blends here are out of this world tasty) and then hurried to cooking school. I was in a class with two other women who were both from China. One of them didn't really cook, she just took a lot of selfies and had the intructor Pri repeatedly take pictures of her. She also did this amazing dance when we were waiting for things (the pot to boil, etc) that I plan on using in social situations that need to be livened up. The other one brought a friend who took all of her pictures and handed her stuff. 
We headed to the market first. Thai ginger and palm sugar are two of the ingredients in almost everything here. 
After a trip to the market we learned to make hot and sour soup, pad thai, massaman curry and mango sticky rice.
The instructor told me 3 peppers for western tourists and 7 for Asians. I followed his suggestion and picked three small peppers and My soup was cough and make your nose run hot. I couldn't tell if it was also make me sweat hot because we were cooking in open air and sweating is the name of the game. It was really fun and all of the food was delicious and underscored that I definitely need a mortar and pestle.
After the class I walked around the old city and went in several temples.
In Thailand every man is supposed to spend some time as a monk especially before he gets married. The amount of time depends. It can be anywhere from a week on. Women do not need to be nuns. It depends on their families.
Today there were lots of different Buddhas with different stories. There was also this guy Tan Pra M. K.
He was so good looking he was mistaken for Buddha. And so good looking that another guy wished Tan Pra was a woman so he could marry him. this was a terrible sin so that guy changed instantly into a woman. Tan Pra decided that he didn't want to cause trouble to others and that he didn't want people to be attached to his outward appearance so he became fat and ugly.
It turns out that I was long overdue for a thai massage therefore I went to Lila's. Lila's is a place where formerly imprisoned women give massages and other beauty treatments. It was created decades ago to help these women after their release find employment and avoid returning to crime. It was perfect from the start, foot washing and hot tea, to the end.
In the evening I attempted to go to a monk chat where sadly there ended up being no monks to chat with. Right outside this temple there was another night market this time with street food and all kinds of amazing things to eat.
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