7/2 - Chiang Mai

After dinner with Nong Wednesday night, I was tired.  I was acting tired - sleepy eyes, yawning, etc., but after getting to bed around 9pm, and falling asleep happily, I woke up. 

This happens - falling asleep, waking up - but the problem was that when I woke up, it was about 11:00pm.  Hmm...  I tried again, because I knew I was tired.  And I woke up again, this time at 11:30pm. Booooo!!!!  I tried to keep myself busy doing boring things that I thought would put me to sleep, and nothing worked! At around 6am I realized I was almost late for my daily 7-11 trip. 

So I opened the curtains, decided sleep wasn't going to happen and I may as well make use of the beautiful, non-rainy, day.

I met up with my friend Zoe for lunch at Sailom Joy, a previous favorite lunch spot.  The family who works there remembered me, which was nice.  I ate my favorite pad thai gai and drank an iced coffee.  (While working at AUA, I had a daily ritual of getting to work, doing my prep work for class and celebrating with walk to and an iced coffe from Sailom Joy.)  It was heaven.

By talking with Zoe, a freelance writer in Chiang Mai, I realized, again, how connected Mae Sot, New York and Chiang Mai are.   Zoe has started working on an oral history project on Burma where they will be talking to people from Burma living in Thailand, Malaysia, Bangladesh, America and maybe more.  And it turns out that of the 6-person team, I know half of them - Zoe, who I know from Chiang Mai and two people I met in the States through the US Campaign for Burma.  In addition to them, during our conversation, we probably realized we know 3 or 4 other people I know through New York who she knows through Mae Sot and Chiang Mai. 

 

I met up with another friend and then went for a Thai massage.

I forgot how amazing Thai massages are.  Afterward, you have this awesome loose, elongated, relaxed feeling, just like after a yoga class, but you have an old fat lady doing all the work for you, while you just lay down and let her climb all over you pulling and pushing whatever she deems necessary.  And it's so cheap!  Full body, one hour Thai massage for 120 baht, which works out to $3.52 (2.50 Euros, 28.69 Quetzals) according to the currency exchange widget on my computer.

When I finish this I'm going and getting another one.  Maybe a body scrub too.  I don't think there are any spas in Mae Sot, so I think it's okay to go for a little pampering before I head up there.  

The next exiting adventure of the day was renting a motorbike.  I had been feeling weird since getting to Chiang Mai, feeling like it wasn't my town anymore, I didn't know anything, I couldn't do anything.  Once I got sat on the bike I realized why - I needed a bike.  As soon as I got on the bike, I felt a huge weight lifted off my shoulders, like Chiang Mai was telling me, via my motorbike, "Hey Beth, great to see you again!"  Ahh...  

I used my bike to head over to the mall and sing some amazing karaoke with my friend Nong and Liz Peckenham, of all people!  How cool! She studied abroad in Chiang Mai during college and moved back here just as I was leaving.  We ended up talking about people we know in common.  People know her, from when she was here the first time and this time and they know me from the in between time, but would never guess that we know each other from home.   Karaoke was a lot of fun.  Even though I kind of lost my ability to speak Thai, I definitely didn't lose my ability to sing Thai pop songs.  We had a lot of fun and by 11:00 I was tired and ready to go to sleep!

This was very exciting, considering the fact that I hadn't slept the whole day (with the possible exception of the Thai massage, but it's hard to tell.)

I got home, fell asleep and slept a beautiful, peaceful 8 hours.  Woo hoo!  Jet lag - consider yourself defeated!