#3156: Saturday, December 16, 2023: Chiang Mai, first week

Post 3156

- 12 years and 350 days since I started this blog -

Journal
(written December 16, 2023)

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 13 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've been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for a week.

I have never had such an easy arrival. My flight (from Taipei) landed early, and I disembarked with my bass and carry-on, went through customs, hit the ATM at the airport, got a cab to the guest house, checked in (3 hours early, but no problem), and was unpacking, within half an hour! 

A personal record for my arrival anywhere.

A half hour later, I was having brunch with David and Oo, my best friends here, and Chiang Mai's best rhythm section.

In the seven nights since, I have gotten to play five times. My nights have been full.

The days, not so much. It's hot, very hot here for this time of year. Upper 80s, and humid. Tropical heat. Of my five trips here, it's the first time I've experienced anything warmer than 75º, and cooler at night. I know it isn't extreme, but walking around in it really saps my energy.

So, I have been limiting my daytime activities to meeting friends for brunch. Then back to the guest house to smoke weed and have a nice siesta, then get up, eat, and hit one of the bars for music.

Not too different from my life back home, an idea I find humorous, but reasonable. That's kind of the way I roll on these Winter trips.

I don't really think of these journeys as vacations. I'm retired. My life is a vacation these days. I live a pretty drama-free, stress-free life.

When I travel, I don't feel like I'm on a tour. I'm just taking my life to another location for a while. I don't sight-see. I don't have a list of activities. I don't really have an agenda, nothing I'm buying or selling.

I'm just here, and curious and open to see what being here brings, how things happen. The primary rule is, roll with it.

This being my fifth trip here - I will have spent about 6 months here since my first trip in January, 2018 by the time I leave. I've got established friendships, places I go where I am known. It still feels exotic, yet now there is a good deal of familiarity, and it is welcome.

I haven't done anything really new this trip, so there aren't many pictures, sorry. I've only had one meal at a restaurant I haven't eaten at before - a Japanese meal that was quite extraordinary. 

I've already had a few memorable outings. 

I had a great night at the North Gate Jazz Coop jam session. Got to lead a song, back some R&B, then play some blues, with some great players, and we ended up blowing the roof off. I was asked back, always flattering.

I have had the pleasure of a return to Boy Blues Bar, struggling to recover from Boy's passing earlier this year (RIP, my friend). I had feared it might be gone, but it is still going. I got to play a show backing up some friends I've known from my first visit to Chiang Mai. And on a different visit there, I got to see more old friends, but I think the thing I liked most was seeing how much some of the younger Thai musicians I've met over the years have improved. The general level of their playing is much higher.

Just last night, I caught the Sativa Boy Band, an eclectic trio, at Troubadour, where I have had a chance to play a few times. It will be a regular stop. It's worth mentioning the show I saw, because it was outstanding, and would have impressed me in any setting, anywhere - but to hear them close up in the small music bar my friend opened up this past year - what a special treat!

Few pictures so far, but here is the Chiang Mai photo dump:

David, bassist and my dearest friend in Chiang Mai, and I at what has become our default brunch. Oo, another great friend, and, with David, one of the best rhythm sections around, is behind the lens.

Just another Wot shot.

The guest house I'm staying at is just off the street that is closed off from end to end every Sunday for the Sunday Night Walking Street Market. One end is at the Tha Phae Gate. If you go through the gate (which I do fairly often), you get to Tha Phae Road, and see this. More of the same, later.

When you walk through the Tha Phae Gate to Tha Phae Road, and look back, this is what you see. Or did, because they took down the lights (Thai Father's Day/Week decorations) the next day.

In the Fred MacMurray Room of the internationally famous Butter Is Better Delicatessen - Bakery, brunching with the Legendary Taco Bells: My pals Oo, David and head honcho Willie. Good times, great food, fabuolous company.

Random street shot.

The Legendary Taco Bells in concert, L-R: special guest Roddy Lorimar, Willie, Oo, David. It was a great show. I love these guys.

The stage at Boy Blues Bar, where it all began for me in Chiang Mai.

'Backstage' looking behind the backboard at Boy's, at a small part of the Kalari Night Market.

Random street shots.

At Chiang Mai Breakfast World, there are a number of carefully laid out photo op spots. But only one I had a clear shot of from the breakfast table.

I thought you might like to see my favorite weed store. There's one of these about every 75 yards as you walk around Chiang Mai these days. The pot's still expensive (the only thing in Chiang Mai I know of that's more expensive than in the US) but very, very good. Very, very. Did I say that twice? I'm hungry.

I leave you with a couple more shots of Tha Phae Road.

Food Comment

My favorite Thai dish (when I'm in Chiang Mai), is khao soi - a yellow curry with noodles and a variety of proteins. This is what it looks like, after I've eaten everything solid. If I remember, I'll post a before picture at a later date. From Nun's Restaurant, which has the dual virtues of making my favorite khao soi and being thirty yards from my guest house.

From Hummus Chiang Mai  comes  a delicious shakshuka - eggs poached in tomatoes, peppers, onions, and, in this case, chick peas, with cheese. I make a version of this myself, but this used different spices and was really, really good, a new offering at a restaurant I already liked. 

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