Chiang Mai Chillatizing

We arrived in Chiang Mai the night before last after some annoyance. Tried to take the local bus from Pai at noon, it was full (of course nobody informed us of this possibility) and so we had to wait till 2:30 for a stupid minivan. Everybody with tickets rushed to get on, trying to get good seats, but neglected the very front! Suckers, we snatched those up. The drive was just under 4 hours, would have been less but the traffic getting into Chiang Mai was terrrrrrrible. The later arrival was good in a way, a weather way. It was getting dark and we had to carry very heavy backpacks back and front, the sun would have destroyed me. The walk into town was about 2-3 miles, I was proud of myself for hauling so much shit that far. Australia forced us into having way more shit than we would normally take backpacking. Sigh!

We went out for grubs at the bar we'd always frequented when we were here last time. It was Thursday, Thanksgiving, and boy did we celebrate...not. I had a french dip and Anton had nachos. Very traditional.

Yesterday we awoke and set out to wander. Stopped at a little Thai restaurant and got down on some Tom Yam. So good, Anton's favorite soup. They vary but this one had shrimp, onion, tomato, mushrooms, and noodles in a spicy soury lemongrassy broth.


Afterwards we used the internet for about an hour, I sharted myself (welcome to Asia!) and while wandering back to the hotel we saw people with BOBA! We found the stand and excitedly got two. The woman just has cups with the little Boba balls at the bottom and you pick your flavor.


Green tea, in the house.


Got cleaned up and got Kebabs.


We had a date at 7:00 with Jon, an American living here that we met last trip. I didn't even get a picture of him! Failure!


Wait! Here is one from last trip. (I was wearing a sweater last night, weather is a bit different from May, eh?)


Also, these girls remembered us. They work at the bar we frequented.


Anyways, he was awesome and treated us to some chicken fingers and mixed drinks! Vodka Sodas, it had been far too long. Anton went with Vodka Redbull, probably consumed like 7. Freakish. It was great to chat with Jon and catch up on happenings, he showed us some pictures from the flood that looked nasty. His girlfriend's house had flooded up to chest level! Wtf! Glad that we missed that.

In one of the bar bathrooms. Has anybody actually admitted they vomited in the sink? I think I'd just shamefully make a break for it. 500 Baht is like $16!


Jon left and we had a couple more beers.


Hating me, as per usual.


Wandered over to this super loud sandy bar area. Hella bars all blasting different kinds of music. Watched some fire dancers.












Then it was home and sleeps. Today we grabbed kebabs, used (using) the internets, and are buying our tickets for Koh Chang. After that we're heading to a walking street market that starts at 5. The journey to Koh Chang commences at 6pm tomorrow, and is due to arrive at 2pm. It'll be a long journey! We were originally thinking of flying between Chiang Mai and Bangkok, but it's expensive and if we take a night bus we're not really losing much time and also saving money on a night of hotel. We didn't realize that there were buses that got you all the way to Koh Chang, way less of a headache.

Well, that's that.