Surveys and Saltines

Lia and Reid here with another blog update.

Today, we had our 5th day of surveys. It was a decently busy day at Mae Tang, with lots of tour buses filled with tourists. Over the past few days, we have all learned some good strategies for getting a high percentage of people to agree to the take the survey. For example, Daniela says that she likes to wait for people to sit down with a coffee or smoothie in the cafe before she approaches them so that they are already settled. This increases the likelihood of the tourist filling out the survey in a effective and thorough manner. Daniela actually got the most amount of surveys today and broke Lia's record for most surveys in a day. SHE GOT 17 SURVEYS! She was on fire! Her flame still burned bright despite the torrential downpour that almost flooded the facility during our last hour of surveying.

When we got back from another productive grind sesh at Mae Tang, we walked over to the Maya mall to relax with some foot massages or manicures. While all really really appreciated the opportunity to experience an authentic Thai body massage, none of us wanted to go through that again so we opted for less intense choices. The foot massages that four of us chose to receive, were quite painful at times. Not as painful as the Thai body massage, but painful nonetheless. Garrett's masseuse used an interesting wooden tool on certain pressure points on his feet that he said made his ears ring. The girls who got manicures got some crazy color combinations on their nails and had a great time.

After our massages and a quick pretzel stop, we headed back to the hotel to get ready for dinner. For dinner, we were supposed to go to a burger joint but the torrential downpour, mentioned above, prevented us from eating there. So, we decided to go back to the Burmese restaurant, The Swan, that we ate at the first week. We ate some more noodles and meatballs which really filled up our bellies. But what filled our hearts even more was when we discovered that we all enjoy the same magical, delectable snack that is the saltine cracker. No matter what happens, saltines will always be the glue that holds us together. At the restaurant, we saw a man who eerily resembled our very own Garrett Croley.

Tomorrow is another survey day and the last one for this week. We are dead tired from the long day and can't wait to recharge to have another awesome day at Mae Tang in the morning!

Signing off,
Lia and Reid.