Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai stands among my favorite cities on this journey. There's a chance it owes its lofty status to directly following the chaos of Bangkok, but it definitely had charm on it's own.

Spent the first day seeing just about every temple in the city. This was mainly so I only grudgingly had to wear pants this one day. As an aside, at orientation to the theoretical afterlife, first question I'm going to ask God/Allah/Buddha: "Pants vs shorts? You don't give a shit, do ya? I tried to tell them." And it's the hottest countries: Thailand, Panama, Middle East, that prefer the slacks. Anyway....

Pretty sure Atreu rode that guy.

Having walked and sweat sooo much, subsisting on all Thai food/portions, often off street carts, I was beginning to feel a little gaunt. Time to hit up The Duke's. I was hoping for John Wayne nostalgia on the walls, but at least the food delivered. I filled my entire table with my order: shrimp kabobs which came w/ a salad, delicious bread, chicken fried chicken with its accompanying salad, steamed vegetables and mashed potatoes, and 5 lemonades (once I shockingly was offered free refills for the first time abroad). At $16, the meal cost more than my 3 nights accommodation. What a country!

And my accommodation was dope! Thailandwow, run by the delightful brother/sister combo of Kai and Noyna, was strange but amazing. Kai was always quick to greet with a "HALL-ohhh" and Gollum-y smile. He slept curled on the floor in the hallway. Hard to describe, but he's a legend of Hostelworld reviews. Mainly though, the place was great  because of a lucky stream of fun people passing through at the time.

I talked two of them, Vicki and Justine, into meeting me one night for some Muay Thai boxing. I had dinner at the Chiang Mai Saloon, feigning interest in the Man U./Chelsea match, then wandered down the ultra-seedy lane of bars towards the ring. I sat at one for a beer as I waited for my new friends. A child with a Connect Four board appeared out of nowhere and quickly smoked me, disappearing just as fast. It was then I thought, maybe they're at the other boxing pavilion, a few blocks away. Sure enough I found the girls there. A bit disappointed since this venue was 400% less shady, we stayed anyway and enjoyed a royal rumble and then a disputed title bout (my guy got robbed!). Ton of fun and definitely something new!

Yes, those are chicken tenders Nick. Sue me.

Something else new? Climbing in a cage with a freaking tiger! Took a share truck with hostel people and went out to Tiger Kingdom. After soliciting some clutch advice from the Marchelyas (thanks again!), I settled on choosing the "smallest/biggest" tiger package. Stop one was with the 3-month-olds! Sleepy at first, one little guy eventually made a bee-line straight for me. My lap looked comfortable! We then got in with the big dudes. Tiger Kingdom claims not to drug them. Jury's still out on the truth of that. They are born there, around people, and naturally sleepy, being cats and all. Very cool either way, once you put the qualms about their exploitation out of your mind.

The truck then took a few of us to two more temples before depositing us back home. That night Tom, Brea, Lauren, Vicki, Justine, and the crazy Spanish guy whose name I forget all strolled the night market and then had a nice dinner to celebrate our last night in Chiang Mai. Three peas in a pod, the Canadians and I stayed out for a bit longer.

The next morning a silver van picked me up for the journey to the Laos border. I awoke to find us stopped at the White Temple. "I'll check it out, one more temple. Okay, I don't think that demon is part of the Buddhist canon. Could be wrong. Heads in trees, hmmm. Okay." Then we stepped in the temple and viewed the wall mural. "Alllllright that's Neo. That'd be Mount Doom exploding near a Mayan temple. There's Michael Jackson, Jabba the Hutt, Jigsaw from Saw." I left about the time I saw Cthulu near the burning twin towers. Tragic that no photography was allowed inside.

Still never learned the story of that place, and I prefer to keep it that way. Served as a perfect end to my time in magical Thailand (though I'm returning to the beaches next week!).

Saw them setting up for this concert. By the time I circled back that night, heard a familiar tune being sung in Thai. Gospel tune.  Strange after visiting a dozen Buddhist temples that day.