Saturday, November 17, 2007
Thursday, 10.25: Chiang Mai
We didn’t have any reservations in Chiang Mai, but we had a few places in mind where we wanted to stay, including Julie’s Guesthouse, a popular backpacker hangout. However, we had no idea what was the best way to get into town from train station, so when we spotted the Julie’s tout outside the station, we went with him. We shared the Julie’s songthaew (pick-up taxi) with a girl from Germany who had been traveling for six weeks. This was the first time we experienced a pang of envy at the luxurious amount of vacation time given to non-Americans, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Anyway, we arrived at Julie’s, where they had a double room available, but we’d have to wait about an hour before we could get in. So we killed some time at the Internet café down the alley, then had another breakfast at Julie’s, before we checked into the room and took much-needed showers.
After spending the night on the train, we decided that getting a massage should be the first order of business. We dropped off our laundry with the lady down the alley (who only charged 10 baht per kilo to wash and dry, which is the best deal we came across our entire time in Thailand), then headed to a massage place around the corner from Julie’s. For just 140 baht (around $4), we got our feet washed, had a delicious cup of iced tea, and then were poked, prodded and pulverized for the next hour until we could do little more than murmur contentedly.
Once we’d returned to a more lucid state, we set out to do a little shopping. Only it turned out that the shopping street that had sounded really awesome was actually sort of a dud. (Or it was once we found it, at least. We got a little lost on the way, thanks to two streets having similar names, and there being a Gecko Books on both of them.) Anyway, we decided to stop to have a bite to eat at what turned out to be a great little restaurant (now known to us as “Myrna’s,” because that’s what Bri mistakenly called it when we returned to Chiang Mai). We were just finishing up our meal (yummy pumpkin curry and a Thai iced tea for me) when we spotted this guy across the street wearing white Jerry Seinfeld sneakers and toting a Lonely Planet. Bri guessed that he might be Italian, but when he came into the restaurant and sat down near us, it was apparent that he was a fellow American. He struck up a conversation with us, during which it became obvious that his Lonely Planet was only for decoration, since he clearly hadn’t read any of it before setting out. Or maybe he just had really bad luck—either way, everything he described about his trip thus far was followed with a, “But I wouldn’t recommend it,” to the point where I joked that perhaps he should write a guidebook about where not to go in Thailand. (Later when we were rehashing the conversation, I mentioned to Bri that I thought he’d said he was on a business trip. She corrected me by responding, “No, what he’s on is a poorly researched vacation!”, which still cracks me up when I remember it. Because seriously, you guys, this dude was clueless. Hopefully he figured things out and his trip got better after we parted ways.)
Back at Julie’s, we decided to relax for a while before heading out to the night market. We remembered that, in addition to the restaurant/hang-out area on the ground floor, there was supposed to be a rooftop terrace with hammocks, so after having a beer, I decided to check it out while Bri napped in the room. Something about the combination of the beer, the hammock and the playlist I was listening to on my iPod finally lulled me to sleep. Unfortunately, though, it was one of those poorly timed evening naps where it just seems easier to go ahead and keep sleeping than to get up for a few hours—and Bri was having one, too. But we eventually dragged our tired, grumpy selves out of the guesthouse because we knew this would be our only chance to visit the night bazaar, and we didn’t want to miss it. Once we got there, though, I was suddenly ravenously hungry, so before we could do any shopping, we found a restaurant, where I ordered way too much food (pad thai and spicy coconut chicken soup—the latter was way better than the former).
After eating (the nap-induced grumpiness had subsided by this time), we headed back out to the market with our best bargaining game faces on. Fortunately, the first stall we stopped at—so I could look at a pair of green drawstring pants with Chinese characters on them—was being manned by quite a jokester. When he saw that we were looking at the pants, he came up and quoted us the price, saying grandly, “One billion baht!” We both laughed, and Bri pretended to reach into her purse, saying, “Oh, sure, let me just get that out!” He was quite fun to bargain with—every time I’d give him a lower price, he’d pretend to be wounded, and I’d do the same when he quoted me a higher price. We finally agreed on a price, and I bought the pants (which, in fact, I am wearing as I type this). We walked around a lot, but we didn’t buy all that much since we knew we’d be heading to the supposedly better Saturday night market upon our return to Chiang Mai. Once things started to shut down, we caught a taxi back to Julie’s and went to bed.
Continue to Day 5, Chiang Dao
We didn’t have any reservations in Chiang Mai, but we had a few places in mind where we wanted to stay, including Julie’s Guesthouse, a popular backpacker hangout. However, we had no idea what was the best way to get into town from train station, so when we spotted the Julie’s tout outside the station, we went with him. We shared the Julie’s songthaew (pick-up taxi) with a girl from Germany who had been traveling for six weeks. This was the first time we experienced a pang of envy at the luxurious amount of vacation time given to non-Americans, but it certainly wouldn’t be the last. Anyway, we arrived at Julie’s, where they had a double room available, but we’d have to wait about an hour before we could get in. So we killed some time at the Internet café down the alley, then had another breakfast at Julie’s, before we checked into the room and took much-needed showers.
After spending the night on the train, we decided that getting a massage should be the first order of business. We dropped off our laundry with the lady down the alley (who only charged 10 baht per kilo to wash and dry, which is the best deal we came across our entire time in Thailand), then headed to a massage place around the corner from Julie’s. For just 140 baht (around $4), we got our feet washed, had a delicious cup of iced tea, and then were poked, prodded and pulverized for the next hour until we could do little more than murmur contentedly.
Once we’d returned to a more lucid state, we set out to do a little shopping. Only it turned out that the shopping street that had sounded really awesome was actually sort of a dud. (Or it was once we found it, at least. We got a little lost on the way, thanks to two streets having similar names, and there being a Gecko Books on both of them.) Anyway, we decided to stop to have a bite to eat at what turned out to be a great little restaurant (now known to us as “Myrna’s,” because that’s what Bri mistakenly called it when we returned to Chiang Mai). We were just finishing up our meal (yummy pumpkin curry and a Thai iced tea for me) when we spotted this guy across the street wearing white Jerry Seinfeld sneakers and toting a Lonely Planet. Bri guessed that he might be Italian, but when he came into the restaurant and sat down near us, it was apparent that he was a fellow American. He struck up a conversation with us, during which it became obvious that his Lonely Planet was only for decoration, since he clearly hadn’t read any of it before setting out. Or maybe he just had really bad luck—either way, everything he described about his trip thus far was followed with a, “But I wouldn’t recommend it,” to the point where I joked that perhaps he should write a guidebook about where not to go in Thailand. (Later when we were rehashing the conversation, I mentioned to Bri that I thought he’d said he was on a business trip. She corrected me by responding, “No, what he’s on is a poorly researched vacation!”, which still cracks me up when I remember it. Because seriously, you guys, this dude was clueless. Hopefully he figured things out and his trip got better after we parted ways.)
Back at Julie’s, we decided to relax for a while before heading out to the night market. We remembered that, in addition to the restaurant/hang-out area on the ground floor, there was supposed to be a rooftop terrace with hammocks, so after having a beer, I decided to check it out while Bri napped in the room. Something about the combination of the beer, the hammock and the playlist I was listening to on my iPod finally lulled me to sleep. Unfortunately, though, it was one of those poorly timed evening naps where it just seems easier to go ahead and keep sleeping than to get up for a few hours—and Bri was having one, too. But we eventually dragged our tired, grumpy selves out of the guesthouse because we knew this would be our only chance to visit the night bazaar, and we didn’t want to miss it. Once we got there, though, I was suddenly ravenously hungry, so before we could do any shopping, we found a restaurant, where I ordered way too much food (pad thai and spicy coconut chicken soup—the latter was way better than the former).
After eating (the nap-induced grumpiness had subsided by this time), we headed back out to the market with our best bargaining game faces on. Fortunately, the first stall we stopped at—so I could look at a pair of green drawstring pants with Chinese characters on them—was being manned by quite a jokester. When he saw that we were looking at the pants, he came up and quoted us the price, saying grandly, “One billion baht!” We both laughed, and Bri pretended to reach into her purse, saying, “Oh, sure, let me just get that out!” He was quite fun to bargain with—every time I’d give him a lower price, he’d pretend to be wounded, and I’d do the same when he quoted me a higher price. We finally agreed on a price, and I bought the pants (which, in fact, I am wearing as I type this). We walked around a lot, but we didn’t buy all that much since we knew we’d be heading to the supposedly better Saturday night market upon our return to Chiang Mai. Once things started to shut down, we caught a taxi back to Julie’s and went to bed.
Continue to Day 5, Chiang Dao
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