#2792. December 14, 2022: Lovin' me some Chiang Mai

Post 2972

- 12 years and 348 days since I started this blog -

December 5, 2022, Los Angeles

Journal

(written Dec 10-12, 2022)

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 12 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 food shots when I've eaten something interesting or pretty. And that's where we find ourselves now.

I got to Chiang Mai, Thailand, the hard way this year. I had booked the best flight ever, in terms of duration and stopover minimization, but it was not to be. A few days before I was scheduled to depart LA for Chiang Mai, the airline called and said my flight from Taipei to Chiang Mai (the second leg of the one-stop flight from LAX) was canceled. They were going to have to reroute me through Bangkok to get me to Chiang Mai the same day I was to have arrived.

Almost exactly what happened on my way to LA, but this time they knew before we were in the air.

So it goes.

I got here. That's what's important, right? That the flight from Bangkok to Thailand was on a new shoestring airline and was very uncomfortable stopped being an issue the minute I was on terra firma in Chiang Mai. 

To be replaced by my being unable to find my lodgings. 

I walked up and down the street, past my guest house, four times (while overdressed in a long-sleeved shirt and sports jacket, in 84 degree heat, with a fifty pound backpack), and when I finally found it (thank you, friendly Thai lady), they were waiting for me. Check-in was wonderfully quick, my room  was clean and ready. And air-conditioned. Sigh. 

I was last here in January of 2020, right before the pandemic lock-down. Almost three years. Initially, I didn't notice much of a change. Then I did. A big change.

Last  June, Thailand legalized weed. Not only did they legalize it, they gave farmers plants and seeds. Immediately, weed stores started opening up at a high rate. Right now, Thailand is the most liberal place on the planet in regards to cannabis.

And it is everywhere.

I'm smiling (and stoned) as I write those words. Now, I've never had any difficulty getting weed anywhere. Ever.

First night in, I met up with my friend Dave, who was one of the first musicians I met in Thailand, a very good bass player. His friendship has gone a long way toward helping me make my way here, and I'm grateful. He has introduced me to more Thai musicians than anybody else, including Thai musicians, lol.

Tonight he was playing a gig with another friend, Oo, who is my best Thai friend, and one of the best drummers I know, and Willie Salomon, who is the trio's leader, a delta blues-style guitarist and singer, and a first-rate performer. It was great to reconnect. 

After completing my 26-hour trip, I overslept my 6:30 pm alarm and didn't catch up with them until the end. 

All smiles, we went for my first Thai weed bar experience. While we were smoking, another friend texted  me to come play bass at a favorite hangout. I got to reconnect with some more friends, a welcome/familiar hangout, and play a few songs before I ran out of energy. I'd slept about six hours from the time I left LA, thirty-six hours and nine time zones earlier. Also, stoned. Have I mentioned that?

The room I got through AirBnB is in a guest house in a different neighborhood than on my previous visits, and it looks pretty interesting. There's a lot more going on, but my guest house is on a quiet street that happens to jut out from one of the biggest streets, the one they close off every Sunday for the famous Sunday Night Walking Street, a big, no huge, street market that exists for 6 hours every Sunday. It is a major tourist attraction, but one that is also enjoyed by Thai locals. 

I have posted a lot about it before, and barring something new and interesting, probably won't be posting about it again, but I do enjoy going and it's amazing that it's twenty yards away, but my street is so quiet you wouldn't know. 

This is the Rendezvous Old Town Guest House, at 3/1 soi 5, as you can plainly see by the sign over the entrance between the Old Town Barber Shop and the garage. What, you don't see any sign or address there? Right. Me, neither.

The patio at UN Irish Pub, where I've been having breakfast most of the time since I arrived. My chosen spot.

A little eye-candy from the Sunday Night Walking Street. I know, I said I probably wouldn't post anything but this just caught my eye and, you know, made me look. Now I've made you look.

Next day, Oo was at a motorcycle rally in the mountains that surround Chiang Mai, and he invited David and I to come with.

It was a beautiful ride, and when we got there, it was, well, huge. Huge and with a lot of campers. I'm not sure whether the promoter picked the theme or it was the name of the sponsoring group, but it was a 70's (Peace symbol here) Motorcycle rally. Or something. There was also a big stage, with lights and a sound system to match, as I found out during a jaw-dropping sound check.

A little mountain scenery just outside the concert/camp grounds.

There's my friend Dave, taking it all in. There was a lot to see in every direction.

I was fascinated by this Bizarro-world chopper. Every bit of it but the engine was totally rusted, and the engine was worn, too. Yet, someone had ridden it to the Meet. Bravo.

The stage was big, about seventy feet across. The sound system was big. The lights were big. In fact, huge, and there were a lot of them. A lot!

This is a fairly far-away shot of the stage just after sundown. Remember what I said about the lights? Another thing. I'd estimate somewhere in the neighborhood of 4-5,000 attendees, only two of which weren't Thai. David and I really stuck out in this crowd. Children pointed and laughed. As usual, I was stoned, oblivious, care-free.

What better way to open the show than a fire dance? Actually, I have hundreds of good answers to that question. Maybe you just had to be there. But if you were, it was pretty cool.

I'm going to leave you with these shots of the band. The sound was spectacular, the lights, too - they even laser-lit the surrounding mountains! Oo was incredible, and the rest of the band really put on a great show. I'd previously met everyone but the bass player. These are all excellent musicians. 

Food Comment

The Bodhi Tree Cafe is a little vegetarian restaurant/yoga center right near my guest house. You're seeing the end of my breakfast there, with a raw chocolate/cheesecake with mangos. It was good, although it isn't going to take first place from Goodsouls Kitchen's raw brownie, my favorite dessert since I first had it. Goodsouls has conveniently opened up a new location a short walk away from where I am staying, too. 

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