Reverend Ken's Blog: #2215: Saturday, January 19: Good start in Chiang Mai

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Post 2215
- 8 years and 19 days since I started this blog -

Just arrived in Chiang Mai. Beautiful room, and good thing - I need a nap.

Journal
(written 1/19/19)

Read this once (it won't change for the rest of the trip(s): I'll be linking this post to Facebook. If that's how you got here, here's some background: About 8 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a medical situation and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to helping me lose 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since then. I started adding commentary after a while, but lately it has become infrequent.

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling, except for the occasional food shot when I've eaten something interesting. And that's where we find ourselves now.

It took a total of thirty-one hours to get to Chiang Mai from Syracuse. Ten hours of that was time spent waiting in airports (three flights, all with waiting time in front of and between them). That's a long haul, but worth it, to me, anyway.

I arrived in Chiang Mai and cleared Immigration/Customs, discovered Uber had quit the scene, downloaded the GrabTaxi app and was dropped off at my AirBnB by one in the afternoon, Thursday (January 17 - I get confused about dates and days of the week when traveling, too).

This was a one-night stay, thanks to a booking error on my part, and the lack of availability in the AirBnB I'd selected based on price and location for the rest of my stay.

I really liked this place. It was very attractively appointed, with the absolute best bathroom I'd ever seen in Chiang Mai. Nice. I knew my next place wouldn't measure up, but it was cheaper, and I liked the location much better.

Once I'd checked in, I got online (WiFi and a private bathroom are my minimum requirements for an AirBnB), and sent an arrival message to all my FaceBook friends in Chiang Mai; then, feeling kind of wasted, but ambitious, I went for a walk. After encountering my first lotus blossom of the ttip, nothing else in the vicinity was very interesting, and as tired as I was, I did something I can never do at home: I took a nap.

When I woke up, I had messages inviting me to an open mic at Siam Tulip, a place I'd never been. It looked like almost all my friends were going to be there, and, of course, I said I'd show up. My friend David said he'd be playing bass, so I'd get to play.

I got there and found the place to be one I had passed many times, it being on a street chock-a-block with restaurants, massage parlors and bars, down the block from the Rasta Café - the only place on this particular block I had ever visited. It felt auspicious, since the Rasta had been visited at the beginning of my very first ramble in Chiang Mai, ever (last year)!

Things were already going. I knew the hosts from last year. All my old friends recognized me, and I was impressed that a couple of friends who weren't on Facebook recognized me and remembered my name!

I was told that there was a hot-shot guitarist just arrived from Hong Kong who would be playing. New arrivals always cause a buzz on the scene, because the locals - Thais and expats - always saw the same people at these kinds of things, and someone new, changing things up a little, is very welcome. That's something I took advantage of last year.

I was given a place in the order of things, to lead a few songs. I recruited some of my old friends to play with me, teaching them the songs I was going to do while we wait. I went to the bar, ordered a beer, and instead of handing me a menu, I was pointed to a small buffet with an assortment of Thai food that satisfied my need for dinner - for free!

Before my turn to play, my friends David and Daniel, Who last year had a gypsy jazz trio (now defunct, sad to say) were up playing with the new guy. When they started, my jaw dropped. This guy was a star! Daniel had impressed me with his playing last year, but teamed up with someone who could play in the genre so spectacularly, he was playing with real enthusiasm, and hurdled the raised bar.

I have always loved this style of music. This is the stuff that made guitar a jazz instrument. Django Reinhardt had done for jazz guitar what Jimi Hendrix did for rock guitar - simply showed possibilities other players hadn't dreamed of. Back in the nineteen-seventies and early eighties, I was lucky enough to get to say a lot of Stephane Grappelli in concert. He was Django's band-mate. That was as close as I ever got to this style of music live - until my first night in Chiang Mai, 2019.

I can't tell you how thrilled I was to be in this place, at this time, enjoying this music. As good as it was when they first started, as the guys got warmed up, and became more comfortable with each other, things got even better! They would be called back to play after every act, which became okay because nobody wanted to follow them, so, democratically, everybody had to follow them.

I took my turn, got to play four tunes singing and on guitar, and then got my turn on bass. I played some more, including a tune with the 'stars' this night.

What a great introduction (re-introduction?) to town.

Next morning I was awake early. As luck would have it, I had an item on my calendar for the morning: The Chiang Mai Expats Club's bi-weekly Friday breakfast buffet, something I consider the best breakfast in the world. One that takes place at the River Market Restaurant, right on the Ping River, with some of the nicest surroundings and views a diner could wish for.

A year ago, this was the event that led me to a solution to a vexing phone problem and, more importantly, gave me pointers that led me to Boy Blues Bar, and my introduction to the Chiang Mai music community that literally made my trip - and was paying me dividends a year later.

The breakfast was great, although I made no connections and got no new insight this time out. No matter, this is a fantastic way to start the day.

I got back to my room, packed up, got in touch with my new hosts to make sure I could check in early (no problem), and caught a cab to my new digs.

Which were fine, although compared to the previous place, well, there was no comparison. This was sparse, utilitarian, very clean, and perfect for my needs for the next month-plus.

I unpacked a little, and took another nap. I'm sensing a theme here, but mostly, I'm attempting to quell my jet-lag, to adjust to local time.

Info from David about a new playing opportunity this night, and I woke up just in time to make it over to a restaurant that I had wanted to visit last year and didn't get around to. It was walking distance from the club where I'd be meeting David and Daniel.

Dash! is a well-known restaurant, in part because it is a large restaurant surrounded by a bunch of tiny restaurants and bars. It is also known for its good food and crowds (one of the things that kept me from visiting a year ago).

There was live music - a Thai duo playing the best rock of the sixties and seventies. This is the most popular farang music in Chiang Mai, as I'd noted last year. And the Thais, in my experience, do a bang-up job of it.

When a woman comes up, is handed a guitar, and sings a few tunes I don't recognize, yet have a familiar quality, I am emboldened to ask if anybody is welcome to take a turn at the mic. "You?" I'm asked. Yes, I reply. "We'll sing a few songs after her, then you". Well, all right.

I'm called up after starters but before my main. That's alright, I won't squander an unexpected opportunity to play.

I do four songs, feel good about it, people are taking photos as if I'm someone memorable, and I hurry back to dinner, still warm, although not hot. Dinner was great, and it costs about eighteen bucks, all in (four dishes and a large beer). That's the most money I have ever spent on a meal in Chiang Mai. I'm getting a sense things are a little more expensive this year - but still a great value for what you get. I leave, satisfied in every respect.

It's a five minute walk to the Music Corner, my bar for the night.

Daniel and David are waiting at an outside table when I arrive. It is a weird playing situation: A small stage, facing the street-corner, behind a glass window. The sound from the PA is pumped out into the street and the other customers. The Music Corner is a perfect description for this live-music-oriented bar - it is at the corner of the old city, on a busy intersection. Somehow, it seems like a very cool and hip place to me.

There's some confusion about who is playing, when. I get up, then sit down without playing. I quickly make a video of my impression of the club (very positive) and post it on Instagram. Then, abruptly, I'm called back up, and jamming on some surf-sounding tunes with Daniel, Then, Cissy Strut in a weird key. It is good, all good.

After me, there's a four-piece band, aka the show, who play excellent, accurate versions of hits from the sixties and seventies (I told you...). When it turns midnight, my crew walks across the street, takes a seat on a well-placed stone bench, and shares a joint. With that, my day is over.

Next morning, which is this morning, I take my first shower in a Thai-style bathroom (the shower is open, things get wet) and start my 2-minute walk to the Tikky Cafe, my favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai. On the way, I encounter a seamstress in a street-side shed, and get the zipper fixed on my computer case, something I've wanted to do since it broke on the long leg of my trip from JFK. She does an excellent job, I pay her about $3.25, and she is grateful.

I arrive at the Tikky Cafe. It is closed, reopening next week. Time to explore new options. The first one that comes up is a coffee shop, Coffee Addict, I passed on my way to Tikky. It is very nice, I have a good breakfast, and I'm there until I finish writing this post.

While that is happening, I see one of my Chiang Mai friends is having a birthday party tonight. Excellent. Another happening.

This is how I roll: Going along with things as they come. And, as always, grateful.

Food Comment