#2006, Tuesday, January 9: Random thoughts

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Post 2006
- 8 years and 9 days since I started this blog -

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Random impressions today:

• I found a lovely restaurant, and will be going back often. Tikky Cafe is pretty, comfortable, has a large Thai menu, makes fresh fruit smoothies, has a complete coffee bar, and is inexpensive. I had a cappuccino, pad thai pork, omelet over brown rice (a side dish that turns out to be pretty common) and a mango shake, for less than five bucks American, and every single thing was delicious.


• Something about the weather here - it has been in the high 70s to mid-80s the entire trip, with varying humidity - which is on the warm side of comfortable, and where the lightest clothes I have are too much - has transformed me into a beer drinker. Since I got here, I've spent more on beer than food (at least partly because the food is relatively cheaper, but mostly because I drink more often than I eat). Popular local brew Singha is my choice.
  
  In nearly all situations where I'm not tired and there's no precipitation, I'm a walker. This is nothing new for me. But on this trip, it at least partly fulfills my desire for holistic tourism - walking aimlessly, getting lost, taking in my surroundings without expectations or time pressure. Smelling the roses, if you will. Here in Chiang Mai, there are so many surprising details and scenes you'd miss otherwise.


• I was walking along a wide boulevard with heavy traffic for a while tonight. There were quite a few large office buildings, of varying architecture and modernity, but not of scale, these were all big buildings. In front of some clustered together buildings I heard a sound I couldn't identify. It was louder than the traffic, including the ubiquitous noisy cycles and scooters. I quickly realized it was the sounds of thousands of birds chirping. Interestingly, it sounded just like my tinnitus, but a thousand times louder.


• You're not getting the whole story in these posts - I need to save some things for face-to-face story-telling. And some things as a matter of discretion. The better you know me, the less need you have for the missing details. You also know that you'll hear about them at length (excruciating length) if you show any interest. Possibly even if you don't.


• I have always said, some of the best things that have ever happened to me (and nearly everything since I got to Syracuse) have happened directly or indirectly because of open mics and jam sessions I go to. It's obviously one reason I'm the bass whore I am. Nothing's changed on this trip. The open mic that I went to last night at Boy Blues Bar has opened some doors, with new friends. In particular, tonight, one of them reached out and created another playing opportunity, but more than that, he gave me the best orientation/introduction to Chiang Mai I could ask for. Of course, he's a bass player (and a damn good one). He's an American expat, been here for years, and this man, who was unknown to me a day ago, feels like someone I've known forever. We swapped stories, philosophies all night, and he imparted an abundance of info and advice in the course of the evening. All with good humor.
  
  The best part may have been when we were talking about music. Time after time, I heard him express an opinion much like my thoughts on a thing. Where there were differences, they amounted to stylistic, not substantive ones. I came away thinking of him as a kindred soul, a member of my tribe.


• I had another great massage at the beginning of the day.


• My new friend had invited me to meet him at a bar, an expat hangout. There were some acoustic guitars, a mandolin, and a bass hanging on the wall, and a small PA there and microphone on a table stand. People have jams that are kind of like front-porch sessions, someone picking a song, two or three others playing along. Skill level is all over the map, but what you get is the friendliness, the social part of people making music together, and some musicians don't play, but go for the social scene. That's the part I liked.
  
  However, in the middle of my evening, there was a transformation. Apparently there's a Thai musician who comes by who takes over the informal session, and, songbooks out, he runs the show from then on. And from that point on, things largely turned to shit, with soul-less versions of crowd favorites. But really, what's left of 'Got My Mojo Working' when you subtract the feeling, the grit, the soul of it? Nothing I ever want to hear again.


• Sometimes, when the word 'Jam' is used on the ad, it's not a description of the activity in the bar, it's part of the band's name. That's what I found out at the Rasta Cafe last night. I didn't stay to hear the band, because of the previously mentioned invitation to meet a friend elsewhere. But, soon come.


• I will never be a driver of anything in Chiang Mai. The roads and cars are English-style - steering wheel on the right side, driving on the left. And the traffic patterns are insane - New Jersey looks positively driver-friendly by comparison, and New Jersey was always my standard for the least driver-friendly state. And the common driving style seems the opposite of the typical Thai personality: Very aggressive. I have seen drivers on scooters pass on the wrong side by driving on sidewalks, and I have seen drivers move through traffic barely missing another car moving through traffic barely missing another car... It's crazy out there - too much for me. One of my check-list things for my post-retirement life (and one of the reasons at some point I'll be leaving Syracuse) is to not have to drive. Ever. Chiang Mai? Check!


• Speaking of which, I got a real sense of achievement today when I was able to cross a busy street on my own, without tagging behind a Thai person to block for me.

What a day! So much fun, so much delight. I'm still a stranger in a strange land, but ever so grateful that the Universe is taking care of me, letting me concentrate on the what instead of worrying about the how.

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