In September, 2006, I (I'm Glenn, in case you just dropped in via a search engine) took a trip to Chiang Mai, up in northern Thailand. I was originally going to take a laptop and attempt to do this whole page during the trip, but instead I just took a notebook to save weight and wrote my impressions in longhand when I had time. I typed it all out when I got back to my home in Japan.

If you're looking for expert commentary in English on the history and back alleys of Chiang Mai, you won't find that here, as I only spent three days in the city. However, if you would like to read the impressions of a casual visitor and see a few pictures of the city and surroundings, you've come to the right place.

 

To make most of the travelogues on this web site, I sifted through the pictures I'd taken, chose the ones I liked, and then wrote something to go with them. This one, however, is text driven. That is, I started with the diary I had written while there, added it to my html page template, then added pictures to illustrate what I had described in the diary. For that reason, I've decided, for the first time, to dispense with my trademark alternation of pictures and text down the page in favor of a more random appearance. Maybe not as aesthetically pleasing in the end, but oh well.

New on this page - All these pictures are clickable if you want to see an expanded copy.

Before I get into the text of the diary, take a look at the Google Earth satellite picture above to help you understand what I'm going to be talking about. Even though I turned the resolution way down on the image, you can clearly see the square in the middle of the city, which is the moat around the ancient walls. Although European walled cities had round walls, Chiang Mai's walls formed almost a perfect square. To the east is the Mae Ping river, and to the west, not visible here, is Mount Suthep. Enough? OK, let's get to the diary.

I taught my classes on Monday, September 25, 2006 in my traveling clothes and with my suitcase ready in the teachers' room. After class, I went out to Narita airport with a co-worker who was flying out to a different destination at about the same time. We were separated at the Northwest ticket area since he already had a boarding pass but all I had was a voucher. Check-in is becoming automated, but the machine I used refused to recognize my World Perks card, so I had to do a manual check-in. The girl asked me if I had any water or gels. I did not. When I went to security, the guy wanted to take my toothpaste, shampoo, mouthwash, suntan lotion, everything. I had to go back to the window and check-in my bag or lose all that. This, plus the fact that I had no embarkation card (then filled in the disembarkation card by mistake) made me late to the gate. I had to get my seat assignment at the gate itself and when I got there I noticed the same girl that had checked me in was now out there behind the counter. I told her that if she changed her language from "water or gels" to "shampoo or toothpaste" she could save her clients a lot of grief. I didn't get the impression she took it to heart, though.

Although Taksin Shinawatra had just been removed from power in a military coup d'etat a few days before, I remained undaunted. I arrived in time to witness the last days of Don Muang Airport in Bangkok before all airline operations were moved to Thailand's new Suvarnabhumi Airport. The last time I'd arrived at Don Muang, I'd written on my website that there was a money exchange booth near the carousels. This time I saw one even before immigration, but stop because I didn't to put myself at the back of the immigration line. This time, down around the baggage carousels were money changer machines - they didn't accept 10,000 yen or $100 bills, though. I checked my wallet and found that I had two $50 bills and put them in. One was accepted, the other refused. Outside after Customs were many more money changers in the lobby - human beings this time. I got 36.57 baht to one U.S. dollar. I remember getting 25 on previous trips. Taxis are just outside the lobby. They add a 30 baht surcharge over the meter price for any taxis leaving the airport. After I got in a cab, I showed the driver the card I had from the KT Guest House with the map and the directions in Thai. As soon as he understood where I was going, we started out and the guy told me 300 baht and didn't turn on the meter. I told him to turn it on. He said there's a surcharge. Okay, but surcharge on top of what? He turned it on. We didn't take the toll road -- no traffic to speak of. He took me to the K.T. Guest House without asking for a second look at the card. When I got to the hotel, the meter said 105 baht. Just for fun, I asked "How much?" He told me 210 baht. I give him 220 box and made him make change. I knew I was getting ripped off, but I couldn't get excited over the cost of a 500ml Coke in Japan after full teaching day and a 5-hour flight.

It was 3:00 AM Tokyo time, and was hungry. I hoped I would be able to sleep on an empty stomach.

September 26, 2006 8:00 AM Don Muang International Airport

I guess that was it for me and the K T Guest House, as it will be far from the airport after Thursday the 28th when they change to Suvarnabhumi. I'll have to find another favorite. The bathrooms at the K. T. Guest House have the towels, toilet paper, and soap out in the room, not in the bathroom, so if you just "jump in the shower," you'll get your room pretty wet when you go out there to retrieve your towel. If I had let them take my shampoo at the airport, I would have washed my hair with soap in the KT because it's not furnished. The bathroom floors have a wide indentation in the floor for the shower. It could only really serve any purpose in the case to drain gets plugged up, however, as of course there is no shower curtain. The water is heated by an electric water heater on the wall that comes on and heats the water just before it comes out the shower head. The shower head was too high on the wall and there was little water pressure, but I don't have so much hair to wash anyway.

The KT Guest House now has wireless Internet available in the rooms and free maps for the subway and Sky Train. I couldn't discern any other changes. Price for the night (it was a double room) was B595. I asked the man at the front desk which way was best for taxis to the airport - left or right out the door. He said right. I had always gone left toward the 7-11 and beauty shop because that's the way the taxis bring you in from the airport. At least I learned the right way on my last stay.

It wasn't raining when I hit the street, so I didn't use my umbrella. I was just trying to get to the Main Street when a taxi stopped to let people out, so I was able to get a cab one minute out the door of the KT.

Taxi to airport

When I told the driver "airport," he countered Suvarnabhumi? Why was he trying to bust my chops? Everyone in Thailand must know Suvarnabhumi airport is opening on Thursday. Was I supposed to say "yes" and then pay for him to take me an hour in the opposite direction, missing my flight in the act? Light traffic, so no toll road again. Made it back out in record time. The meter was B107 and that's what I paid this time. Funny how it's always so much cheaper to get to the airport than it is to get out of it. I was able to walk straight up to the counter of Nok Air and I was checked-in in a minute. It was still 7:35 AM and I was ready to go for a 9:00 flight. I could have been on the 8 :00 flight serviced by Thai Airways. I had played it safe, but this time too safe. Oh well, I had time for Burger King for breakfast. I ordered the omelet breakfast. There were lots of German tourists around me . One was having a Double Whopper for breakfast. Orange juice is B10 extra. Sounded like a deal, but it was one-half ice and maybe 10 percent actual juice. B10 was probably too much for the orange flavored juice drink. Two packets of ketchup - I thought. I realized one was Thai chili sauce after I put it on my tater tots and saw the orange color.

My gate was 65. I had one hour to write this. Buddhist monk in one seat. Everyone on cell phones -- even the Don Muangforeigners. Who are they talking to? The gate TVs here are by LG -- same as everywhere.

September 26, 2006 Chiang Mai

I got into an unusually painted airplane, painted as one big advertisement for TOT Broadband. The advertisements continue on the inside, as all the seatbacks and overhead bins were sporting TOT logos. The attendants were all in yellow, and they gathered at the front of the cabin and gave us a Thai wei when introduced and at other times. (To make a wei, put your hands flat together and draw them back to your chest while pointing them up at your chin) Rather noisy tourists around me -- people who look to be Israelis. When I got into Chiang Mai Airport I didn't find Gordon's friend waiting for me. I Nok Airwalked around the floor for a while and visited the toilet twice. I thought it was better to allow for traffic, etc. to make her late than to panic and make sure I spent the three days alone by giving up and leaving the airport in a taxi. I was to wear my gray "Vietnam" ball cap as an identifying feature, but I didn't really want to wear it long as hats plaster my hair to my head. A couple minutes was OK, but after a while I gave up and took it off. I had just thought that perhaps I had her contact info somewhere, and I sat down, hat in hand, and started to look in my wallet when she came up and said, "Hi, Glenn." We went out to the parking lot, got in her Toyota, and started looking for hotels. I had the names of a few from the Internet, but I let her take me to where she thought would be good. I took the second one we looked at, the Tawan Court, in the Night Bazaar / Riverside area. Tawan Court HotelIt was only like 600 baht, same as the KT in Bangkok. After I checked in, we got back in her car and started driving without knowing where we were going. Rudee seemed to gravitate towards the university, as that's where she lived. We stopped at a rather everyday place for lunch. I ordered Tom Yum soup and Pad Thai. Tom Yum is soup that was so spicy it made me cough. The noodles were sublime. Since I was on vacation, I wanted to order a beer, but they didn't serve it. I couldn't imagine an equivalent restaurant in Japan not serving beer.

The restaurant was almost at the base of the mountain, so she showed me how to go up the mountain to Wat Phra That Doi Suthep temple. We didn't go up, though; she turned around and we went back towards town. We went to Wiang Kum Kam, which is an old capital that was covered by silt from floods, but it was raining and not good for sightseeing. We went instead to a paper parasol factory that she knew about. I bought a couple of hand painted wall hangings and took a bunch of pictures of ladies outside at work. A group of German tourists were there at the time, and many were getting their cut-off jeans hand painted. Would it just wash out? We looked longer at the souvenirs and I considered buying a lantern.
The skies had partially cleared, so we went back to the temples. We took a horse cart tour that was less than spectacular, but it was nice to be on a horse cart. I got some OK pictures, including one of Rudee being Buddhist in a temple, which means on her knees in front of the alter. A kid had taken a picture of us as we were leaving and it had been transformed into an OK commemorative plate when we ended the tour. I kind of wanted to buy it, but I thought a picture of me with a Thai girl could only cause bad feelings so I passed.

I can't write so much about Wiang Kum Kam, because I don't know much about it - nobody does. But the story goes that a great city was built previous to Chiang Mai, unfortunately on a flood plain. Eventually the inevitable happened, and the city dissapeared from sight and later from people's memories. Still, the legend of its existence continued, it was rediscovered, and now it is slowly being excavated. I'm going to include a link to a blog with more pictures, knowing full well that it may be long gone by the time you click the link, dear reader.


We got lost roaming the countryside (and city streets) of Chiang Mai, but Rudee had a cell phone with an ear piece and she kept calling somebody she knew who gave her directions. She called him "my GPS." We finally found our way to "The Good View" restaurant, located on the riverside, where Rudee wanted to take me. We paid 50 baht to park across the street at a gas station, but the money went toward two choices of wash for drinks. I ordered Thai whiskey and chose ice and Coke as our wash to mask the taste. It wasn't whisky. It wasn't bad, but it was closer to wine than whisky.

In many countries, the waiter will pour the first glass for you. In Thailand, they expect to pour every glass for you. Whatever you order to drink stays on a little table at the end of your dining table, and they hover and pour drinks as they see fit. This is in disregard of what you may actually want. After I ordered the cheap Thai whiskey, I wanted to try the first glass on the rocks to see how it actually tasted. Nope, the person in charge of the table grabbed a glass, poured in the amount of whiskey that he deemed fit, and then dumped in Coke. I had to have Rudee tell them again and again, "Don't pour his drinks. He wants to handle it." I'm an American, after all.

Morning glory dinnerWe had morning glory fried vegetables and green chicken curry. Very nice. Good View restaurant bandInteresting cover band. Great English and nice set lists. Lots of farang in the audience. I'm hoping the cheap whisky doesn't wipe me out my tomorrow. I bought water and breakfast (bread and drink yogurt) at a 7-11 and went back to the hotel to write this. I don't know what the day would have turned out to be, especially with the rain, without Rudee.

 

September 27th, 2006 Chiang Mai

The skies were very heavy when I woke up. I thought the day would be a waste. Still, I optimistically went out to rent the motorbike from the store out in front. The day before I had spied a yellow motorbike and had Rudee ask the lady if I could have the same one tomorrow, but she said there was no guarantee. Rudee said she didn't like to deal with people with her attitude and I agreed. Later, I saw the lady working at the laundry next door, so I guessed she was only watching the shop temporarily for the man who worked there. When I got there, the yellow one was available, but it didn't want to idle. I tried several of them. Automatic motorbikes rented for 250 baht, shift ones for 180 baht. The owner proudly showed ma a motorcycle with almost zero kilometers on it, which definitely should have been a selling point. However, shifting a motorcycle is something I enjoy, so I tried the older, manual transmission ones. None seemed to run that well. I went for a walk looking for other shops, but there was nothing better. So I went back and rented the yellow one after all. I took me a while to get used to the "four down" shift pattern instead of the more familiar "one down, three up" pattern, and I had some embarrassing moments due to that when my instincts didn't get overruled buy my conscious. Gas was 26 baht per liter.

CHiang Mai overlook

I immediately headed for the mountain to the east, Doi Suthep. There were some scenic lookouts on the way up, and I stopped and took a "manual panorama" picture of Chiang Mai by clicking three pictures across of the view and hoping I could stitch them together with software later. When I reached the temple, or Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, I kept going past. I passed the king's palace and followed the signs to a Hmong Village that was 100% tourist shops. It made me wonder where the locals actually bought their daily necessities - surely they don't go all the way down to Chiang Mai. Where do they shop? There was a waterfall that they had kind of landscaped around and seemed to hope to make some money off of, as there was an admissions sign. I was prepared to pay, but no one looked at me twice as I rode through. I took a picture of the waterfall and intended to continue on, but the road disintegrated into mud at that point. I rode back through the Hmong village-cum-tourist-trap, stopping once to take a picture back over my shoulder. I backtracked a while until I came back to a junction that had a sign indicating a hill tribe village in either direction and I decided to go see the other one, although it was farther away. The road continued up and up until I was right in a cloud that was sitting on the mountain. The mist, wet streets, trees, altitude, and headwind all made things pretty darn chilly, and I was glad that I had had the foresight to bring my long sleeved shirt even though it had been steamy in town when I left. I went back to the golden chedi of Wat Phra That Doi Suthep. I'd read in the Lonely Planet that there were 309 steps to get up to the top, so I was getting mentally prepared for them.

September 28, 2006 Chiang Mai

The steps had for banisters two great dragons, one on either side, with their heads down at the bottom. At the top, Golden Chedithere was a sign "Foreigner buy ticket 30 baht." I first walked past the temple entrance and walked over to where there is a lookout with a dramatic view of Chiang Mai. Back at the entrance to the temple proper, there is a sign telling you to take off your shoes before entering. Consequently, there was a pile of shoes across the walkway from the flight of steps up into it. Inside were tourists with Thai guides explaining the sights in many languages. I hung around one guide that was speaking Spanish to a couple of ladies for a while. In places there was "astroturf" on the marble floor, but I learned to avoid it with socks on as it held moisture from the rains. A lot of Buddhist faithful, ones who were not there to take pictures, were holding lotus blossoms and walking in a circle around the base of the great golden chedi. I took a picture of myself, making first use of the 6-inch tripod that Gihong had bought me for my birthday, but I found that it certainly wasn't easily framing a shot while on all fours on the floor trying to see the LCD on the camera. Once I felt like I'd seen the temple, I went back outside to get my shoes and found that a guy had just mopped the tiles, leaving them wet. It was tough on people who were wearing socks. Near the bottom of the 309 steps, there was a little girl, maybe three years old, in a hill tribe dress. I didn't see a parent anywhere near her. Was she there for pictures? She sure was cute. At the bottom of the steps on the landing area, there were lots of tourist shops. There was also a sign "Toilets." I went in and looked around the souvenirs, taking a picture at one point, but I never found the toilet. On the last flights of steps down there were ladies selling prints and paintings. Nice artwork, but not something you could stuff into a backpack. Down at street level there was an elephant on a pad of concrete tethered by a short chain on its leg. I noticed that there was an upright tree trunk supplied for it to scratch itself. The elephants reached for me with its trunk and I wasn't sure if I should pet it or not. I couldn't imagine what purpose this horrible cruelty served. Next to the elephant was a guy roasting some nasty looking sausages on the street. God knows what was in them, but huge lumps of fat would be a good first guess. I rode down the mountain, the temperature climbing all the way down, and when I hit the moat I rode along the inside. The traffic inside the moat goes counterclockwise and outside clockwise. I went to a place called the Bier Stube where I had pad Thai (Thai-style fried noodles) and mango lassi (a mango milkshake made with yogurt). Both were great. The radio had a girl talking and talking in a rather sexy voice in Thai. I wondered what she had so much to talk about. She certainly could keep up a monologue.

I took a good look at the map while there. In the Lonely Planet I thought I had read about two places of interest south of Chiang Mai, one 30 minutes south and the other one hour south. Unfortunately I had left the book back in the hotel, and on the tourist map I couldn't figure out what the Lonely Planet was talking about. Doi Inthanon, Thailand's highest peak, was on the map and Rudee had told me it was a good destination, but it was maybe two hours south and it was already afternoon. A started south anyway, the hot sun beating on my neck and arms. The road south was flat as a pancake, and a pretty boring stretch of highway at that with just shops on both sides like a long strip mall. After awhile, I thought what I was doing was crazy, so I turned around and started back. I stopped into a gas station to put 20 baht worth of gas in the bike to get back, but the attendant told me there was a 50 baht limit, so that's what I put in. CountrysideGood thing, too, as when I got to the crossroads were Hang Dong [sic] was to the east I went left to a road that looked like it went around the southern base of the mountain. It did. It was a nice stretch of highway with just enough curves to be interesting - a much better ride than what I had just exited. From the top of the mountain I'd seen some buildings, maybe a town, in the valley to the west and wondered how to get there. Maybe this was the way. I rode the bike about as hard and fast as I could. It was 38 kilometers, I think, to Seong (?) and it gave me a destination. There was very little there when I finally arrived: a school, a restaurant... Still, it was a beautiful ride to it. There were some resorts along the way to it. I really wondered - who stays there and how do these places find customers? Obviously nobody ever just bumbles in off the street in a rental car.

I got back in called Rudee about 5:00. She didn't answer. I called Gordon to make sure I could - I hadn't been able to call him with from Japan with Skype out and I hadn't called him from with Thailand, either. I got Gordon, and he tried calling her, too, but she didn't answer for him, either. I thought I should give Rudee some time, so I went to check my e-mail. When I got back there was a knock on the door and a message from the hotel that she had called. Finally, we connected and she drove over a little later.

Rather than drive somewhere, we just walked to a place called the "Antique Restaurant" or something like that. I hadAntique Restaurant walked past it that morning looking for motorcycles and hadn't even noticed it. It was set back from the street and there were tables both inside and outside. We sat outside and there was a gazebo type of stage with a two-piece traditional band playing. A lady was playing what looks like a gourd with a long, round rod of a neck sticking up. You play it sitting on the floor with it upright on the floor in front of you. It has two strings and you play with a bow like a violin. To change from one string to the other, you rotate the instrument. The other member of the band was a man playing a rhythm or drone instrument that looked like a guitar. I thought they would play all night, but afterward there was Thai guy with long hair back in a ponytail who played the guitar and sang mellow songs, such as James Taylor favorites. He was great.

There was a special - buy two Tiger beers and get one dish free. I got spring rolls. The two tiger beers went down pretty easy, but they gave me a headache the next day. I took a couple of pictures of Rudee in front of the stage before we left.

Since we were only about a block away, we walked over to the Night Bazaar. I'd seen the words "Night Bazaar" all Night Bazaarover the guidebooks, websites, and maps, but I couldn't really imagine what it was. What it comes down to is that every night vendors pull carts up to the curb nose-to-toes on both sides of the street on one of the main drags, so that the sidewalks now have two sides instead of just one. Walking down the sidewalk is like walking down the aisle of a store. You can buy just about everything, but most of the merchandise seems to be clothing and of course there are a lot of handicrafts and souvenir T-shirts. I guess this picture here on the left sums it up about as well as any.Night Bazaar

There were ladies in Hill Tribe dress selling trinkets to the tourists, and one thing that seemed to be putting their hopes on was a carved, 2-headed hollow frog. Along the backbones of each continuing onto the heads is a ridge of knobs, and when you pass a little rod over them it makes a croaking noise. I took a picture of them as people jostled all around, and I didn't know how it would come out because I'm still used to film and how difficult it always was to get a night exposure. In this picture you can see the lady's right hand is a blur as she shakes something to make a sound, but it doesn't look like a carved bullfrog. The Night Bazaar didn't hold too much for me, and it always puts me in a bad mood when touts continually come up and touch my arm, but Rudee was looking for a new purse and I followed her around and approved or disapproved of purses Frog ladieswhen she looked at me for an opinion. There was a short but heavy rain that send us into some of the permanent shops for cover, but when the rains cleared I headed back for the hotel, past the German and British beer bars and live music clubs to the Tawan Court Hotel for the end of day two.

I woke up on September 28 to leaden skies again. I took my motorbike back to the guy across the street. After he returned my damage deposit and made sure I returned the helmet and lock, he gave me a wei as a thank you. There were Chinese bicycles, the ones with the unusual rods in place of brake cables, for rent for 65 baht across from the hotel. I wanted to rent a bicycle, but, remembering my experience with one in Beijing, I passed on them. I walked down towards McDonald's and a Night Bazaar area. I saw hotel and I realized it was the "Downtown" which I had almost booked on the Internet. It was at a reasonable price, and now I know it was in a convenient location for the Night Bazaar and nightlife in general. It was maybe 8:45 in the morning, but McDonald's was still closed. Subway, next to it, looked closed, but there was in a girl in it listening to blaring music and she motioned that it was OK to come in.. I had the girl turn down the loud music and had a tuna sandwich for breakfast. She put WAY too much mustard on it, and when I protested she scooped some off with a pickle.

Tha Phae main gate Since I didn't have a motorbike, I went for walking tour from the Riverside to the east wall which is about 15 minutes. I went through the Tha Phae main gate into the old town area. I saw a bicycle outside a travel agent and asked how much. It wasn't for rent, so I kept walking, reaching all the way to the main temple, Wat Phra Sing. There were some nice pictures to be had there with lots of young, middle school aged monks walking around and dogs sunning themselves on the walkways. I then continued over to the moat on the west. By that time, the clouds had disappeared the sun was strong. Since I was already burned from the motorcycle ride the day before, I really wished I had brought my suntan lotion.

September 29th 2006. 9:55 AM Chiang Mai International Airport

I followed the moat around counterclockwise, reaching the southwest corner, I think. There was a park there that I had noticed the day before on the motorbike, but I had just passed it by. I reminded myself that that was one reason why I was walking, that I wanted to be able to say that I had seen the old Chiang Mai inside the walls and had not just ridden a motorbike around the outskirts. I went into the park and stopped on a bridge over a the pond for awhile. There was a man using hedge clippers on a flower bed on the edge of the pond. In a distance was a pavilion in the center of the pond with people lazing on itWat Phra Sing. I stopped and took a picture of a cart with a pot on it that was there, I suppose as a decoration. Unusual. At the park gates there was a bar at shin level you had to step over to get in or out. I guesses it was to keep out wheeled vehicles. Park inside city walls

I next came upon a market that was obviously for locals, not tourists. I went in to experience the unusual sights and smells but forgot to take any pictures to remember it. There wasn't too much there that I felt I could have eaten without worrying about waking up sick the next day. I turned in toward the center of town at that point and wandered around half looking for Julie's Guesthouse that I'd leaned about on the Lonely Planet Blue Pages. I never did find it. I ended up on the heavily touristed eastern face of the wall and decided to have another mango lassi. The same girl was cooing on the radio. This time, maybe because of the sun, I didn't have anything to eat.

Street SceneJust down from the Bier Stube was a travel agent with a bunch of bicycles, some of them mountain bikes, out at the curb. They rented for 30 baht per day plus 1,000 baht or a passport as a security deposit. As I was flying the next day, I gave the 1,000 baht. I used the bike to go back to the hotel for some sunscreen and started back again out towards the northeast corner to complete my tour around the wall. Ironically, I was just thinking how the weather, though often threatening, was not ruining my vacation when it started to rain. From under a tree, I watched the raindrops on the moat on the right to and the red and yellow Chinese jewelry shop on the left.

After a while, I continue down and rounded the northeast corner. The wall really only exists on the corners and at the gates, which appeared to be recent reconstructions. If you're riding a bicycle on the sidewalks, as I was, it's a good idea to keep to the inside sidewalks for two reasons. For one, the sidewalks disappear at the corners, and the berm Wall in corner from the wall slopes down to the street, leaving no shoulder at all and putting you right in traffic. Second, on the outside sidewalk you continuously come to U-turn opportunities, places where the cars going counter clockwise on the inside can go clockwise on the outside. The problem is partially the steady streams of cars and but mostly the fact that there are high curbs and rain gutters there which are not bicycle friendly.

By the time I rounded the northwest corner, where I thought I would find some electronics stores I had gone past several times in Rudee's car, the rain got really heavy. Earlier, when I had arrived at the wall on foot, I had wanted to get a picture of the moat, but it had a mud bottom and only a stream of water down the middle - not exactly picturesque. However, we were getting such a cloudburst that the moat filled up to the brim. I came to realize that the moat had flood control functions beyond its historical significance. As the rain Moatmade riding the bike crazy, I took shelter under the awning of a store. There were two beauty shops side-by-side. One had the owner sprawled out asleep and the other was just finishing up with a farang customer. The customer was a twenty-something guy whose hair was still long enough to need a haircut although he was just getting out of the chair. I asked how much and he told me 40 baht. He said she was pretty good and he used her several times, so I sat down. The walls were adorned with pictures of people like David Beckham, Ayumi Hamasaki, and other people I'm not hip enough to who they are. She began by showing me pictures of pretty boys to see which when I wanted to look like. I waved her off and showed her with my fingers that I wanted about 1 cm off. Soon she told me I was done but I tugged on the hair on the back of my neck to let her know she wasn't. Unlike Japan, there was no shaving cream and razor, no weird little electric clippers for ear hair. She whipped out the electric clippers and I was done in a flash. I had only one 20 baht bill and one 100 baht bill in my wallet. I gave her the 100 and she returned two 20s. I protested, and mimed that the other guy had been charged 40. She stood pat. Maybe 40 baht was the price of the trim.

RainEven with a haircut behind me, it was still raining to beat the band. There was a clothing shop next door. I noticed the mannequins for pants have the torso cut at an angle across the stomach there, so you have to put his shirts on the angle-cut stomach. The next mannequin was a full body type where the blouse. had a vertical split from the neck line to belly revealing the breast bone. Seemed nearly impossible to wear such a thing and not have some revealing moments. Next there was a wooden casket shop. Most were white with gold Buddhist motifs. I rode down the sidewalk from awning to awning to where a car garage was digging what appeared to be a pit so they service cars from below. A rectangle of asphalt had been removed and the exposed soil was being excavated by hand with a single shovel. Thing was, there was a guy laid out on his back asleep and one of a group of ladies doing the shoveling. She was throwing the dirt toward the sidewalks where I was stopped on the bike, so I decided to move on. The next shop was a 7-11. The only lights on in the store were what looked to be emergency lights on the ceiling, so I wondered the power was out. From the front of the 7-11 I watched people handle the downpour in different ways. Young girls in school uniforms, one driving and two riding sidesaddle behind, were just getting it out, getting drenched. Some people rode motorbikes with umbrellas in there left hands and their right hands on the throttle. Some motorized carts with large umbrellas, carts made to be mobile stands for selling edibles on the sidewalks, had a rope tied to the leading edge of the umbrella to keep it from bending back in the headwind, were rolling along down the road.

As I had lost over an hour and it was late afternoon, I decided to tough it out and head to Pantip. I needed some shopping time before my six o'clock meeting time with Rudee. Although I was wearing a poncho, I body from the waist down was getting soaked. I realized I hadn't eaten, so I went into a restaurant. I was the only customer. I ordered pad Thai and soda water which cost 40 baht and 15 baht respectively. As I was finishing, a couple came in and sat down in a table next to me. They had just met while traveling. She had gotten a TEFL certificate and was looking to set up in Chiang Mai teaching English. He was a lawyer from New York. I warned her that she probably wouldn't make much money, but she said she only needed enough to live. A told her that may change as she got older. She agreed. I thought maybe she should hook up with the lawyer and go to New York.

Me at Kan TokeRudee rang my room and 6:00 and we went out for a Kan Toke dinner. The place was out of town, the kind of place you need to bus the tourists to. I didn't see any tour buses, but we were early. The parking attendant was putting us into a parking space that was a pool of water from the afternoon rains. Rudee graciously told me to get out before she parked. I told her to pull in backwards as most of the water was at the curb. That worked.

As we were early, vendors were setting up their tourist trinkets when we arrived. This was a pretty elaborate place with a lot of atmosphere. We checked our shoes outside and had pretty much our pick of seats, but we got a table near the door, one step down on the dance floor. Bad idea, as the floorboards were not so firm and the footsteps of everyone who came in and stepped down onto the dinner show floor area made my booty bounce. Low, Japanese style tables. My knees were already aching by the time I realized the area under the table was cut out for you to put your legs down in. In the middle of the table was an assortment of dishes. My favorite was the pork in a brown, curry like gravy. There was fried chicken, but it was band-saw cut with no thought given to the natural sections of the chicken, so it was hard to eat. Next came a spicy sauce that tasted of tomatoes. Next was a dish of rice noodles stuck together with the sweetish glaze. More like a desert. Next was a dishKan-Toke-Dancers of floppy, glutinous vegetables, Last was pork rinds, which we ate after dipping them into a jalapeño sauce. We had two kinds of rice. One was long grain Thai rice and the other was sticky rice. Interesting the way they treated it. It was long grain, not short, put inside a cellophane bag, and hidden way in a rattan container. It was really overly sticky and chewy and hard to eat. Speaking of hard to eat, the pork was delicious but they gave you only spoons and forks, no knives. To forks were those super cheapos with the bent tines - like we had in our high school cafeteria - the kind that no one would want to make a souvenir. We were probably the first served, but after everyone had bounced over to their seats the band began to play. The stage had a great and impressive carved backdrop depicting Thai historical scenes. As the band played, the dancers came out one step at a time and in a solemn yet graceful promenade.

The show was a mix of formal and informal dances, predominantly done by women but with some men as well, including one male knife dancer who unfortunately lost his concentration at one point and sent the knives crashing to the dancefloor. Each dance was different. I don't know if there's a set routine or not, but as it was my first Kan Toke I never knew what to expect for the next dance. Kan Toke etertainment
Rudee warned me that it was tradition for the dancers to invite members of the audience to join them at the end, and asked me what I would do if I were asked. I guessed I'd have to give them what they wanted.

Dancing BearWhen the show was over, we went outside to find our shoes and make a stop at the restroom. There were toilet slippers with notches in the toes outside the restroom door. Since I'd put a not about that on my Angkor Wat page, I asked Rudee about that custom. She told me the notches were to make it easy to match pairs. There was a Japanese girl who looked at the slippers and back at me and said, "Put on?" I thought it was pretty strange that a girl from Japan, where they normally have special toilet slippers, should be asking that of a guy from America, where they don't. So I said, "Yes, just like in Japan" to her in Japanese. She told me, predictably, "Your Japanese is very good!" Of course it's impossible to know if it really is or not just from hearing me say Tourist wierdosomething like that, but that's the standard thing for Japanese to say. Anyway, out by the parking lot, as part of an outdoor grande finale that I hadn't anticipated, they were sending up something I'll call "fire kites." There is a fire lit in a cup under a covered cylinder of paper and it becomes a little hot air balloon. You can watch them going up for a long time, like the helium balloons kids sometimes lose at amusement parks. There was a float on the moat that spewed fireworks for a while, and a lot of the dancers were available for pictures. I had Rudee take my picture with some of the girls.

Just next to the place we had dinner was a German microbrewery. There was an old guy watching the cars out on the street, and Rudee gave him a coin. Kind of a weird place with a huge stage, some log cabin style décor, and on the left side of the stage a sign reading "Let's reminding Chiang Mai history." There was a live band, but behind the band was a huge screen showing a soccer game as the band played. The band was an interesting mix of the traditional and the modern, as some of the members of the band played traditional instruments, such as what I would describe as a "suspended bridge marimba" that I'd seen in Japan in Thai restaurants. The band had two female vocalists, and during the break they came down and sat at the tables next to us, but somehow skipped us. The table across the aisle had what looked like a huge plexiglas smokestack with a tap in it at the end of the table. It was draft beer, and the cylinder had graduations on it to tell you how much remained. Interesting. I had a dunkelsbier and Rudee ordered cashew nuts. Seems you're never too far from a cashew nut in Thailand.

Chiang Mai InternationalEven though I was flying out on Friday, September 29, I woke up late that morning. I must have slept through the alarm - rare for me and probably a credit to the dunkelsbier. I hurried to get ready and Rudee called at 8:30, on time. I had bought carrot raisin bread and all fruits drink yoghurt for breakfast, but I had no time to eat it. A took a quick shower using the Japanese water heater in the bathroom. During a song at the brewery the night before, they had showed scenes of old Chiang Mai. There was an old monument that looked interesting, and I asked Rudee where it was. Rudee said it was right in town, so we decided to go see it before heading out to the airport. However, she just took me back to Wat Phra Sing, where I'd already been, so we ended up going to the airport early. I went through the same song and dance of not checking in my suitcase since I was no longer on an American carrier, and then, to my surprise, when I went to show my boarding pass and go through security, I noticed a "no liquids or gels" sign, so I went back to check in my suitcase. Once again, my Nok Air plane was painted in purple with a bird bill on the nose cone.

So, my three days in Chiang Mai had come to an end. I thought that I needed to come back when it wasn't the rainiest month of the year and I could spend more time. Next time I would need to get a little farther north and maybe combine it with a trip to Laos as well. These thoughts were going through my mind as the plane turned to face the south to fly to Bangkok. Out the window I got a last look at Doi Suthep and the temple with its golden chedi on the peak. Although I could see it clearly, it's too small to pick out on this small and low resolution image, so I'll put an arrow pointing to it. You can see it better if you click it to see the larger image. Doi Suthep

Thailand is a wonderfully exotic place that definitely gets under your skin. This was like my fifth or sixth time there, but it won't be my last. I could definitely consider living there for a while after I retire, if it works out that I can actually retire some day. If you've never been there and you happened on this page because you are thinking about it, by all means go. Both the north and the south have their charms.

After Chiang Mai I spent three days in Bangkok with a day trip to the ancient capital of Ayuthaya. If you're interested, give the link below a click.

 

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Wat Phra Sing Wat Phra Sing