#3505: Saturday, December 6, 2025: Chiang Mai, again

Post 3505

- 14 years and 341 days since I started this blog -

Travel Journal

(written December 5, 2025)

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: Almost 15 years ago I started this blog as a food journal. I had a Type-2 Diabetes diagnosis, and needed to lose weight. Initially, that's all I did here: Journal my food intake and my weight. It contributed to a loss of 20+% of my body weight in 6 months, and continuing has kept me on track since. I started adding commentary after a while, but recently it has been a food journal only. Except when I travel (every Winter).

While I'm traveling, I let go of the weight-tracking and food journaling (except for food photos when I've eaten something interesting or pretty). I write about my experiences, and use it as a photo dump. And that's where we find ourselves now.

- - - - - - - 

What a journey! I finally got to bed in my AirBnB room in Chiang Mai about half past midnight. I had left my apartment at 4am Saturday morning (4pm Saturday here in Thailand), I am a math major, so I know that I was in the air for twenty-one hours, Ten hours spent on layovers in Detroit and Seoul. And an hour-and-a-half to clear customs, change money, and wait - a long wait - for the cab that efficiently took me directly to the gate.. 

I have arrived exhausted, and upside-down jet-lagged, as crossing the International Dateline (on the Detroit-Seoul leg of the journey) has put me twelve hours ahead of Eastern Standard time, where I started. Day is night, night is day.

At least, until I recover, usually a day or two.

So, I have fewer new pictures to share. 

This visit is a little different. For one thing, it is the shortest visit I have ever made: thirty days. My first trip here, the shortest previous trip, was a full five weeks, and I have stayed for six-or seven weeks my previous four visits.

It's freaking me out a little bit. There isn't enough time.

Another difference is that my old friend from Syracuse, Patrick, has once again decided to visit me while I'm on my winter travels. Last year he met me in Cuenca. He's here with me now.

If that wasn't already enough to make this trip a little different, much of my time here has been spent at familiar and beloved places, especially with regards to dining. There's a famous meme I saw years ago that is titled 'The Thai Clock' that shows a clock face with all the numbers replace with either 'Eating' or 'Thinking about Food'.

I'm living that.

I've gotten to play a bit, and that has been wonderful, as always. Music and eating are the two most important parts of my travel. Yes, more important than location, because I it's the same wherever I am.

A few clubs I used to go to are gone, but there are a few new ones. There's a good open mic at Soi Dog Blues Bar ('Soi' is Thai for 'Alley'). And I always get a good response at North Gate Jazz Coop, the only place that has stayed on my play-at list from my first visit.

But I've been to fewer new places, eaten fewer new dishes, and met fewer new people this trip. That means I've taken fewer photos.

That being said...

On to the photos:

People Pics

From the 'Smoking Deck'. Beautiful, serene, and, except on laundry day, I am its only user.

My first grandchild, Leonardo James Kellerman, was born a week-and-a-half before I flew to Chiang Mai. I sent him this picture to celebrate him. FWIW, Thai beer is my favorite, and just about the only place I drink beer. I confess, this bottle wasn't mine - I snatched up an empty for this photo. All my friends drink Singha.

Patrick and I in front of a neighborhood wat.

The Dee Band, one of my favorites in the world. This version has three of my best friends in Chiang Mai in it. Taken at the Troubadour, my main hangout in Chiang Mai.

The Troubadour Band (special edition). This was taken at an old closed resort just outside of the old city. I thought it was a temple. Gorgeous. From left to right, Mark, Jason, Sebastian, Oo, David. These are some of the finest musicians I know. David and Oo are among my best, longest-term friends here. Sebastian was a guitarist I jammed with early on, years before he opened the Troubadour.

The Fabulous Taco Bells: Oo, Willie and David. I am a fan of this band, and all the people in it.

My friend Rychy: Jazz singer, sculptor, actor and more. Here he is being accompanied by excellent guitarist (and introvert) Sativa Boy. Good sounds!

Rychy, Patrick, me, doing what we do best. Or well, at least. On the Thai clock, it's eat o'clock.

Wandering

In Thailand, Buddhist temples are called Wots. Above, wot shots, some with Patrick, one with me.

David invited me to a special show by a special version of the Troubadour Band. It was held at a now-shuttered resort just outside the city. Because this place has been closed for years, I don't have a name for it - none appears on google maps (which handles all my GPS needs here in Chiang Mai). But it was gorgeous, and the stage was a truly psychedelic scene, with ever-changing lights on the shrine behind the stage. The show was excellent. 

Since my last trip, a new government regime reversed the previous administration's weed policy, re-criminalizing recreational weed. In response, all of Chiang Mai's 800 weed shops declared themselves medicinal dispensaries. So, nothing actually changed, although you need to be a little more discreet smoking in 'public'. The prototype weed store for 'BC Growers' grows weed in the shop's window. I find the window display quite attractive.

Chiang Mai's Old City is surrounded by a 1-mile square moat. It used to be surrounded by a wall, but 600 years later, only some sections of the wall, usually near one of six gates, are still intact. But, to me, every inch is beautiful.

I had to visit Boy Blues Bar, which was where I first connected to Chiang Mai's music scene. It is still going two years after Boy's passing, but most of the surrounding Kahare Night Market has been demolished, and the club itself, while unchanged in appearance and decor, is a shadow of its former self. I didn't recognize a single person there. Bitterseet.

In Thailand, the King's birthday determines when Father's Day is. This year, it was December 4. They built a huge, beautiful stage - right in front of, and obscuring the Tha Phae Gate - the biggest and most famous of the sstill-intact gates - for a Father's Day/Birthday pageant, then moved it. Where? No idea. But two days after this photo, there was no trace of it.

The Tha Phae Gate hosts a large square in front. I liken it to Chiang Mai's equivalent to New York's Times Square. It attracts tourists from all over Thailand. It is a big deal to get a picture of yourself at the gate.

Food

Various breakfast fruit-bowls with different bases: oatmeal, yogurt, chia gel.

Smoked salmon and avocado open omelette from Nice Kitchen, an old favorite breakfast place, now only for breakfast/brunch.

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