My Beloved La Rambla

---

Life in Chiang Mai is pretty much all that I expected it to be, long nights out drinking with friends and listening to music, and days spent learning how to one day become a successful ESL teacher. Though it is the real purpose I am here, I don’t really feel like writing too much about my day to day classes and I highly doubt anyone else cares to read about that either.
A few days back, Barnabus (hes given me clearance to use his real name Prince Nathan, but I just think Barnabus flows much better so Ill just keep up that reference), picked me up in a Song Tau (truck with benches in the back) and we took a few friends up to Doi Suthep. It is a massive Buddhist Temple on a mountain which overlooks Chiang Mai. The views from the top were breathtaking as I was able to peer down at my new home base. It was a lot of fun and I snapped off a few well timed pictures while visiting. The pictures are quite good, they kind of remind me of Picaso’s “blue period.”
I had the sense to go off and purchase a motorbike to ride around Chiang Mai as well. While it appeared to be a fantastic idea at the time, I truly underestimated what rush hour in Chiang Mai really is like. It makes Boston rush hour traffic look like an abandoned logging road in the country. This traffic is nuts. I frequently receive shouts, yelps, and high pitched Thai screaming while maneuvering in between the cars trying to avoid becoming an Asian pancake on the side of the road. I try hard to be smooth and act like all is well, but half the time I am literally crapping my pants when driving. It is terrifying but have no fear, I will survive. This brings me to my next little debacle here in Thailand. The other night I was following Barnabus around on my motorbike (which I have just now decided to name La Rambla) and I discovered an interesting fact about the rules (or lack there of rules) of the road in Chiang Mai. When the light turns red, in most cultures at least, you slowly come to a halt. However, the Thais refuse to adhere to this basic transportation concept and instead speed up when coming to red lights. Not knowing this, I was forced to come to a brisk halt while following Barnabus like a bat out of hell through the winding streets. Incidentally, I hit my breaks a little too hard forgetting that I was on a freeking scooter and not in my Camry, and ate it.. hard. La Rambla slipped though my grip like a lost lover on a cold fall day, and skidded off the road onto a sidewalk, nearly taking out a kindly old woman trying to purchase a new pair of sandals. Without a bike to hold me up, I flew through the air and tumbled harshly across the street, scrapping my elbow and knees along the way. In my head, only one phrase came to mind… “Mother of God I am a dead man.” I skidded to a stop at the feet of a Thai girl who gazed at me with horror as if to say, “this kid just got f**** up!” Luckily, no serious damage was done (to me at least, La Rambla is in need of some major plastic surgery around her facial area) and I live to tell the tale.
Besides the bike crash incident of 2010, I have been keeping out of trouble. Well, kind of anyways. There have been more that a fair share of nights spent out drinking until 4am with early morning class at 9am. I am pretty sure my trainer doesn’t much appreciate it but thankfully some of my classmates has as bad a drinking problem as I do, so it makes me just look normal. For example, last night we were out at midnight at a bar and my British counterpart Julio thought he had a great sense of reasoning stating, “we are already out late. Why not just push through until morning?” The reasoning was far from sound as we stayed up until 6am drinking our infamous “beers on the balcony” and then paid for it with a massive hangover in class today. Ive never felt worse, except of course when skidding across streets after a motorbike accident.
The music here in Chiang Mai is incredible. Each night so far we have gone to a different bar, all of which have live music. The best music so far is close to my apartment and called “Chai Blues House.” The owner is one of the most famous blues guitarists in Thailand, and it shows. He is incredible rocking out songs and singeing along to Bob Marley. A real cool guy too, after his show he talked to Barnabus, my friend Jake, and I for a bit about his bar. It was a fun night out. To accompany our musical journeys, last night Barnabus melodically sang all of us into a drunken stupor while rocking out at a bar called “Nine Lives” in northern Chiang Mai. That Barnabus, hes full of tricks up his sleeve.
My most interesting adventure to date was an attempt to visit Barnabus at his school with a group of my friends. The plan was to go off and play soccer with his students for the afternoon, a plan that failed miserably. I attempted to tell a Song Tau driver the name of the village that Barnabus worked in. However, since I suck at speaking Thai, we ended up 30 miles outside of town in rural, third world, Thailand with no idea where we were. How do I always get myself into these jams? Luckily, the scenery was beautiful and my friends are all very “mai pen rai” so it was an adventure all the same. Needless to say, after 3 hours of driving around lost as hell, we did not get to play our soccer game. We will just need to try again.
So, as I have stated, I am loving Chiang Mai so far. The beautiful natural scenery, rambunctious nightlife, and awesome friends makes it an experience that I take in fully at every turn. I only hope my next few weeks will be as amazing as my first. Carpe Vita!

---

Comments

[Dave]

photos
I am glad you decided to repeat the photos three times in case I missed one

[Mom]

I thought this was supposed to be the begining of a great career! Clean up your potty-mouth!!!!!

[MaryBeth]

hi
You do know you're going to give your Mother a heart attack reading your blog BUT it certainly sounds like you are having a ball and seeing the world!!! I loved reading it and will be waiting for more!!