Post 2412
- 9 years and 10 days since I started this blog -
(written Jan 8-10, 2020)
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 9 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.
In both previous visits, I was here checking (and re-checking) Chiang Mai as a future residence. I have been planning to move overseas for decades, and have done as much research as I could on places that seemed (on paper) suitable. For the majority of the last twenty-five years I've been keeping a list of the five best places, Chiang Mai was in first or second place. It is one of two cities (the list is city-specific, not a list of countries).
However, a month after I left Chiang Mai last February, the government made policy changes to the already very tough and bureaucratically daunting visa regulations for permanent residency. To me, the changes were so odious (I don't want to get involved with the Thai banking system, and there's no way around it now), that Chiang Mai is no longer a candidate, late alone in the top spot, where it was before March of last year.
So this year is a kind of bittersweet (maybe) 'final' visit. If my current plan holds, it will probably be at least two years before I can return here. It's a shame, because in every particular in my evaluation, Chiang Mai was the place. But now it isn't, and the next place on the list, Cuenca, Ecuador, looks enticing.
Cuenca has alternated with Chiang Mai in the top two spots on my retirement places list for the last couple of decades.
When I get there, you'll be treated to the kind of photo essays and collections you saw the last two visits to Chiang Mai. If I decide to move there permanently at the end of the year, I will only be able to travel for ninety days total out of the next two years. A visit to Chiang Mai might be difficult until after I have permanent residence, with multi-reentry ease.
But this trip to Thailand, I'm really just doing what I do, playing and eating and getting stoned and hanging out. Like in Syracuse, but with better and cheaper food. That's why you aren't seeing the kind of photos and stories as in the past. There's a lot of replay going on.
Not that there's nothing new.
I am meeting new musicians. I am making new friends. There are always new places and people. But I also have a long list of favored places I want to revisit - all of them, it seems, restaurants.
Wednesday night saw me returning to an area of Chiang Mai that I've spent a lot of time in during my previous visits. David had a gig backing up a musician he wanted me to hear and meet.
Pretty much the whole 'gang' of expats - almost all my friends - hang out in this little side street collection of open-to-the-street bars.
What I hear at the Lost Hut is a wonderful performer, Willie Salomon, who sings and plays 'country blues' - and does it well. And David is absolutely killing it backing him up on bass. The duet sounds great, every aspect of the music is balanced. The setting is very intimate - the Lost Hut only seats about two dozen people, but people stand outside to hear what's going down there. Since the weather is so nice (no rain, mid-seventies for temperature), it is common for people to do that, listen to the music in Chiang Mai's small clubs from the street. I've done it.
My friend Roddie (Clapton touring band member) is there, as are some other musicians I've jammed with in the past but not seen so far. Sitting next to me in front of Willie and David, he picks up his muted trumpet and joins in on a few songs. I feel blessed to be in the audience, sitting among these fabulous musicians. I want to play, but I'm entranced, and happy to just enjoy this excellent music from its midst.
A stellar night. I do eventually get to play a couple of songs, and, if that wasn't enough, someone comes up with a joint of what may be the best weed I've ever smoked. It's paradisiacal.
Thursday brings me to a new jam at a new club, the Why Not? House of Music. It's slightly out of town (actually, in the same area as Tikky Café's new location), but when I get there, I see a good-sized stage, and a familiar bass player in the house band.
The club owner comes to greet me in good English and I take a table that is shaped (and painted like) a Fender Stratocaster headstock. I get a Chang (Thai beer).
David's brought a guitar (he's a good guitarist, besides being a very good bass player), I have a bass. Pretty soon we're up, and I'm cranking out my 'standards', the songs I play at open mics at home in Syracuse: 'We Gotta Get Outta This Place', 'No Expectations', 'Wicked Games', 'All Over Now', 'Who Is He'.
I get a free beer for my participation. I'm introduced to another farang, who rewards me with a couple of cannabis-infused cookies. Life is good. The last half of the night sees another band on stage, Tuk (pronounced took) is a guitarist I've seen before. He's brought his band, which includes my favorite Thai drummer, who I've jammed with before, and they just take over, and everybody's happy about that. Tuk doesn't know me, but David is asked to come up and play, and it sounds great. Real jammy, but no noodling: Everything seems in place, arranged, even with long solos and exchanges.
When I leave, I've had a good time. I''ve played with some old and new friends, gotten to lead quite a few songs, and heard some good music, all for the price of, well, they bought me a beer! Tuk tells me, "Next time", and the owner asks me to please come back next week. Which, of course, I will.
Friday I return to Butter Is Better, Chiang Mai's amazing Jewish deli. I'm joined by my friends Harry and Ollie, and later David and drummer Oo, from Tuk's band and previous jams join us. The conversation is great - these are interesting, worldly, smart people. And we all share a good sense of humor, so there are a lot of laughs. I go for the pastrami and eggs, because, to be honest, outside of making my own, I don't know anywhere in the world to get better.
There's another jam tonight. The difference between my life in Syracuse and my life in Chiang Mai comes down to the difference in feeding styles. Eat, sleep, play. The eating involves no cooking here, which is very different than at home. But the quality of the food is so high, and the cost so low, that it doesn't make sense to cook. A room with a kitchen would cost more than all the restaurant-prepared food I'd eat, and then I would have to wash dishes. No go.
For the Friday night jam, which takes place at the Hopf Café where we had our little jam on Tuesday, I'll split house bass duties with David, because, well, gruff old Dave is actually a softie and generous with me. I hope he doesn't read that.
The jam is excellent. There are some challenges, like when I'm asked to back up a singer/guitarist songwriter doing original songs with very, uh, distinctive rhythm patterns. But I seriously enjoy that sort of thing, and don't think my participation makes anything worse.
The jam provided a double-treat when Willie showed up and played a nice short set with Dave. Later, we talked a little bit and discussed some songs we might do together, if the opportunity presents itself. Then there were a couple of old friends John and Phil, who are extraordinary vocalists. I hadn't heard John sing since last year. He is so very good, and has excellent timing, range and pitch, and good taste in songs.
I first met John around the corner from the Lost Hut, at Marlboro House. MH is a backpacker hangout, and where I scored my first Thai pot (which wasn't all that good). But the jukebox is next-level. David introduced us. We chatted a bit, then, when Steely Dan's song Kid Charlemagne started up, John stood up and sang along.
It was perfect. Every note hit, every phrase turned. And that is a difficult song to sing. I was very, very impressed.
Most of John's set, David was on bass, which gave me a chance to appreciate everybody playing. I'm telling you, it was good. I got a chance to get back up. My friend from Why Not? (I'll refer to him as 'Cookie Monster' I think) was there with some more. Par-tay!
That's a wrap on the first (of three) weeks in Chiang Mai. I have settled in, easily. I've seen most of my friends in town now (some aren't, temporarily or permanently). I've played five out of the last seven nights. I've had a bunch of really good meals. I've taken few photos (which I really hadn't given any thought to until I started this blog post. Next post, I'll have more. But it may not be very new, if you were following along last year, or the year before.
I'm just grateful to be able to live my life - with an appreciation for the random nature of that privilege.
Food Comment
No, I have no food pics for you. I didn't eat anything that I haven't already taken a photo of in the past. At least not anything worth photographing. That may well change.
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