Chiang Mai - Part One

Chiang Mai.

Well, this is the second biggest city in Thailand, after Bangkok, and even though we're staying about 20 minutes by motorbike outside of the downtown moated Old City, the city's energy is all around, in the rush of things, in the intensity, in the air. Fortunately we're staying in a sort of suburb where it's pretty quiet. The sounds we hear are some traffic noises, but nothing like in the city proper, an occasional airplane (the airport isn't all that far away), roosters crowing at any time – I believe the idea that roosters crow only at the break of dawn is entirely inaccurate, certainly in Pa Daet Village, Thailand – and neighbor noises of various kinds.

Here's what we know already, and not surprisingly: we wouldn't stay in, or even near, Chiang Mai proper for any appreciable time in the future. It's the city/country theme that has re-appeared for us in Thailand a number of times now. Apparently one has to go to Chiang Mai at least once so as to definitively eliminate it from consideration as a place to live for a while.

The Happy House Hotel, where we are staying for the month, is a very nice, new, clean, friendly and simple place run by wife/husband team Kwan, who is Thai, and Alex, who is a French expat. Kwan and I have talked about spending an hour a day together so that she can help me learn some Thai, and I can help her improve her English pronunciation. She speaks English quite well in fact, but because she says she wants to get her license to run tours, she also wants to be able to articulate her English words more precisely (“paper”; “pepper”; “purple”). We tried this once, and ended up spending maybe two hours, eventually with other people involved, and didn't really teach each other anything much, except that I learned more about her life. Subsequently, it's been entirely informal conversation with no particular emphsis on learning anything. She also led the way for Nancy and I one evening as we motorbiked to one of the moving local nightly markets to buy food for dinner. We even found some home made raisin bread and some banana bread desert sticks. Yum.

Speaking of motorbiking, this is the way one gets around here, for the most part, or by car. We're renting a bike for the month from Alex and Kwan, and I've become more proficient at its use, including, necessarily, riding into the city center, or along the highways to go shopping or just to get gas (not a frequent need!). Nancy is entirely unenthusiastic about this mode of transport, but really there is nothing in the way of practical, ie., economic on a repeated or routine basis, regular alternatives. We rode into heavy traffic a couple of days ago because she wanted to shop for a pair of shoes at one of the huge mega stores a la Walmart Superstore, called Tesco Lotus, and this experience pretty much scared the shite out of her. We've also ridden into the city center along a relatively quieter route, and this was somewhat less traumatizing for her, but still difficult. While I can't say I enjoy these rides, I am able - in both a “get the job done” sort of way, and because, being from New York, I can easily elicit my aggressive and determined inner, and outer, driver - to do what needs doing without freaking out about it. Nancy does mantra all the way, and I begin each trip with a “By Your grace, my Lord”.