I have now been in Chiang Mai for almost a week. It is the second biggest city in Thailand. I completed lucked out on my choice of accommodation. I am staying quite a ways out of the city in an area called Seraphi. The lovely Dreamcatchers B&B. This is an exceptional place. I have thoroughly enjoyed my time here and will come back for a couple days before joining up with my YTT group at Tao Garden. This house is simply amazing and A is a great B&B host. She is French Canadian but has lived abroad for 20 years, most of them in India.
My time here has been most relaxing with a wonderful location for my morning practice by the infinity pool listening to the birds and chirping geckos. Little known to me prior to my arrival, Chiang Mai is VERY HOT!!! So much hotter than KL. A few folks in KL told me, ah, you'll love Chiang Mai, nice and cool there. They must have come in the winter. Chiang Mai has seasons and it is currently summer. It has only rained once since I've been here and the skies are mostly clear and sunny. In general, it is still quite humid, but slightly less so than KL.
I spent one evening wandering around the night market. I took a video and will post sometime when I get a connection that will allow uploading. This is the great thing about being here during the low season, 50% discount on rooms and the markets are not crowded. I was told that the night market is packed during high season and you can't even walk through all the people. It was great when I was out the other night, lots of room to move.
Chiang Mai is quite an eclectic city with lots of expats wandering around and what I understand to be a large retirement community from Europe. There is also an AMAZING number of mature white men with young Thai women, many toting babies or multiple children. Pretty interesting stuff. Another difference about Thailand since leaving Bangkok, most of the locals don't speak English. The Thai language has LOTS of tones and almost all phrases and sentences end with a masculine or feminine tone. The written language is quite unique looking and it helped me to realize that Bahasa was much easier as it is written in roman letters instead of symbols. I've been staring at the language for a week now and haven't learned a thing. It is quite pretty to look at but difficult to decipher anything it says.
A funny story in regards to language as I have had it pretty easy here thanks to the excellent assistance and guidance of my B&B host. I decided to go to the movies to get a nice break from the heat in the big mall near the airport. After the movie I decided to go to Tha Nam, a traditional Thai restaurant on the riverfront (Mae Ping river). Seemed like a simple idea and I even had a map. The taxis don't have meters and so prices have to be agreed in advance. Many of the taxis are small pickup trucks with 2 bench seats in the back. Great if you have a big group and are headed out of the city for some sightseeing but not so good if you are on your own and really want the air con. I finally found a taxi and happily showed him my map, which was in English. I kept pointing to the location of the restaurant and he just stared at it. He kept turning the map around and around and finally pointed to one of the temples on the map. I smiled and said "yes, temple" and proceeded to point to the location of the restaurant. Finally I said "Tha Nam" and he got a big smile on his face and responded with lots of tones and the words...Tha Nam...dinner. I was thrilled and he knew exactly where it was located. I realized the map doesn't do any good if you don't read or understand English words. What an interesting concept and a good lesson to learn. Trying to say the words even if you are not sure about the pronunciation could be all that's needed. Getting back to the B&B later was not so easy.
I am disappointed I didn't have my camera as this restaurant was very special. A huge old teak house right on the Mae Ping river. They had a group of local young men playing traditional Thai music. It was really beautiful! It was a foursome playing the La Sor, Saw Duang, Seung, and Ta Phon, or I think that is what there were. Traditional Thai stringed instruments and one drum almost like a bongo drum. What a lovely way to enjoy my delicious prawns, green curry, and sticky rice. The prawn starter was almost like a ceviche and quite spicy with lots of lime juice and fried shallots. The green curry was some of the best I've had with three kinds of aubergine in it and not too thick with coconut milk. YUM!!!
Yesterday I rode a bike to Wiang Kum Kam, some ruins near Chiang Mai with buildings going back to 2527 B.C. It is was a nice ride and the ruins are quite impressive. Most of the site has not been dug up yet as it covers quite an area and much of it floods in the spring time.
I figured out how to solve my Thai visa situation, by leaving the country and coming back via air travel I will get an automatic 30 days visa which will last me through my YTT.
Later today I am off to Luang Prabang, Laos. The ancient capital of Laos and on the mighty Mekong River.
Intuition is really a sudden immersion of the soul into the universal current of life, where the histories of all people are connected, and we are able to know everything, because it's all written there.__excerpt from The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
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