This is where you find the hospitality: maybe too much of it?

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Chiang Mai's Wall

Just a 12 hour comfortable bus ride from Bangkok, Chiang Mai may as well be a different country. The differences are that large. The people are nice, the touts are nonexistent (2 offers for a taxi during my entire stay), and the climate is even cooler. Gotta love the place. Orientation is even possible, due to the walls of the old city and the presence of street signs.

The first experience I had was getting in on the bus at 5am and then taking the 'free' pickup truck ride by the agency that runs the bus to listen to their pitch of a trek into the hills (the 'to do activity of Chiang Mai). I got a free cup of coffee out of it, and then ended up heading over to the guesthouse where I had a dorm room reservation and settling in. I thought about doing a trek, but the popularity of them has driven the price past $40 for the cheapest, and that just seemed like a whole lot of money to plop down for a short elephant ride, some walking in the hills, a few meals and a night sleeping with a minority tribe that was so commercially exploited that the whole thing becomes somewhat of a joke. Either way, I only had a few days to spend in the city, and I enjoyed spending them 'in the city.

I had read in the guidebook that the cheapest place to eat in the city was the vegetarian centre of Chiang Mai, which is heavily subsidized by the Asoke foundation? Either way, it is a great 4 dish meal for half a dollar, and I enjoyed several meals there. The Thai people really know how to do some tasty vegetarian food. If the cooks in the States could do stuff like this, I may consider cutting meat from my diet. Maybe. Although, the meat on a stick stuff at the markets is really really good. I used my savings at the veg centre to get some good meat as a street snack. One of the other things that I truly loved about his city is how close the airport is. Guesthouse door to airport check-in counter is 1.5 miles max. The city has well over 1 million people in it, but I could walk from the guesthouse to the airport with my backpack in twenty minutes. I was so amazed when I saw that in the guidebook that I walked it the day before just to make sure it was not a type o. I passed a large mall on the way over, and ended up picking up a much needed mosquito net/hammock combo for the equivalent of about $22.50. I have really had it with bugs feasting on me during the night, even when I paid to sleep somewhere, so now I have the net that I can put on the bed, or use the hammock as a hammock, sleep outside, and still keep bugs off. I only need to land a few guesthouses willing to let me do that and I will have a money saving purchase in this item.

My first day was uneventful, until I finished dinner at a restaurant, and ran into a local hotel owner. Turned out to be one of the more random things of this whole trip. The 79 year old owner of a boutique hotel asked me to join him while he finished, and he mentioned that he had been to the states, told me which ones etc. We struck up a conversation, and then he gave

me a tour of his hotel, and then asked me to go to see his condo. I kind of had that gut feeling that this was odd (duh, I know), but he seemed to be very legit about being the hotel owner, as everybody gave him lots of respect and when he showed me one of his demo rooms, he got the key from the counter just like he owned the place. So I thought, well, why not, it will make for an interesting blog entry either way. I was thinking, maybe to meet his wife, see some pics of his trip, who knows? Right on that one. Once we got to his condo, it turned out to to a one room studio with a huge bed and a TV. Great. As soon as we get in, he triple locks the door. Always a good sign there! I tell him I only have a few minutes, so he says that he wants to show me a 'Japanese video cd he has'. Yep, about 30 seconds into it, it is obvious that it is going to be turning pornographic within the next 30, so I told him I was Christian and didn't watch that, and asked him to turn it off. Surprisingly, he did without contest, and then we wrapped things up and he walked me out. BTW: Going in, I made a point of looking straight into the security camera, just so you don't think I was really dumb in this. I was thinking that I could just leave if it got really bad, but then noticed on the way out that he had to use his key card to unlock the door from the inside. Fire escape? Anyway, I didn't know what to make of it. I don't think he was gay (he had kids) but then I don't think he wanted to watch his video from his corner of the large bed while I sat on the other corner either. Funny times. No doubt that he was very hospitable, but then, betting back to the title...

and, as it turns out, the very next night, an Australian guy staying in the dorm room decided to bring a local Thai girl back from a bar, and they started going at it at 4 am. So, it wasn't like they were being really quiet either. About 10 minutes later,

I guess they had managed to wake everybody else in the room up, and the Canadian staying 'sleeping' in the bunk below mine told then off, after which they went out onto the balcony and we all got some sleep. The guy was embarrassed (not really sure if he was too drunk to consider noise factors), but the girl seemed to take it in stride. So, other than these two cases of the locals being a little too hospitable, the general population was very nice, smiling, wishing me a good morning, all without trying to sell me something. Wouldn't mind coming back here at all.

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Photos

25 Baht Meal
50 cents via the Veg Centre of Chiang Mai