Capital of the North

Normally, my blogging happens on the weekends.  You'd think, therefore, that having two 3-day weekends in a row would mean an overwhelming number of posts.  Instead, I've been busy working on memories to write about.

It's taken 2 months, but I've finally made it to the capital of the north, otherwise known as "the whole reason some people go to Thailand," or what you'll find on the map- Chiang Mai.  In the past 2 weeks, I've spent a total of 6 days there and that adds up to about a million and three moments where I had to stop and think, "You're in Thailand, girlfriend."

Even the bus ride from Phrae to Chiang Mai (a windy 4 hour trip) is like a person tour of a national park.  I felt like we were disrupting a rainforest, everywhere I looked was green, green and more green.  I think my jaw went a bit slack at times and I certainly couldn't look away for most of the entire trip.

When you get to Chiang Mai, the beauty continues but what you see more in the Old City is the human-made variety.  I honestly felt like you could havae given a monkey a go pro and sent her out to haphazardly take random pictures of the city and more than 80% of those pictures would be Time magazine worthy.  There is something to be said about putting down the iPhone and letting the sites surround you, taking it all in and I know that even those pictures carefully framed and shot aren't as good as the real thing, but I had to make it a point at times because I was so driven towards the documentation aspect.

The first weekend that I headed up, I was mostly on my own.  I did meet up with some friends on the last night but the first 2 days were spent with me, myself and I.  Something that I've been able to realize about myself here in Thailand is that I can be independent when need be.  I feel like a growth curve of my life (age on the x-axis and personal strength on the y) would show an insane leap in these past few months and most of that has to do with this forced solitude.  When you are not in a group of people all the time and bound by the whims of the majority, you see your own desires and personality pretty clearly in a way that you didn't even realize you were missing out on.  There is definitely a stigmatism to it- when is the last time you went out to eat at a restaurant by yourself?  To the movies?  But, god, when you get over that, there is certainly something liberating about it too!

What did Jesi decide to do with Jesi that first weekend?  Well, a lot of temples and coffee houses were visited.  But, when you are in Chiang Mai, there are a lot of temples and coffee houses to check out so the pressure to see and try them all is pretty real.

I love temples for many reasons.  Maybe you'll recall in a previous blog the cameo of the words "I love cathedrals," and a lot of the principles to both statements are the same, but if possible I love Buddhist temples even more.  How can you not love a place where you are obligated to remove your shoes to enter?  In all seriousness, I've always been comforted by traditions and I like to learn about Buddhism in general.  Every time I go to a new temple, I feel like I learn something new.  Ever realize there are 7 forms of the Buddha?  Those are for the seven days of the week.  Ever realize that people always donate food?  That food is not for the Buddha, or the King, or dead ancestors (my mind always went to Día de muertos), it is for the person donating said food to eat in the afterlife.

This canal wraps all the way around the Old City of Chiang Mai which, for geographically oriented people like myself is thankfully shaped in a perfect square.

Rest in Peace.

Did I said I did Chiang Mai all alone?  Maybe I had company for a lunch or two.  This is Noodle, named for floppiness.

This is a picture of a scene inside of my favorite temple compound, Wat Lok Molee.  How does one pick a favorite temple? you may ask.  I think it's safe to say that you just know because when I walked into to this temple I just did.

The other thing I made a point to do on my weekend alone was hit up all of the famous night markets.  On Saturday, that was the Night Bazaar.  We're talking entire streets of stands and then giant market buildings along the side which are also filled with everything from painted elephant keychains to the flowiest, most colorful pants you can imagine.  What do both of those things have in common?  They have great smile inducing properties for your humble blogger.  What else did the Saturday Night Bazaar have to offer?  Food.  More food than you could ever imagine.  Now you don't come 24 hours on a plane hating the food of the place you're going and I love Thai food as much as, if possibly even more than, the next guy, but when you eat nothing else for 2 months, guess what?  Mexican food sounds really good.  As luck would have it, at the end of the street of shops, I stumbled upon the most beautiful beer garden.  I happily overpaid for a beer and a Mexican burrito bowl (nowhere near the caliber of Chipotle, I'm afraid, but still tasty) and sat on the hay bales that had been laid around to be used as benches.  Because the world is a beautiful little ball of happy coincidences and terrific moments, the DJ made sure to play song after song after song in Spanish.  Tears were imminent and part of being alone meant that I honestly didn't care if anyone looked at me sideways for my excessive smile and over the top joy because I was already the only weirdo without a buddy.  Let them wonder what they were missing out on.

As much of a success as the Nigh Bazaar was, I didn't buy much and although I was impressed, I was completely floored by what Sunday night had to offer.  I thought I'd seen it all, you see.  Sometimes you get cocky when you travel.  A night market?  Sure, I'm always down, but please don't expect to blow my mind or anything.  Oh man, was I wrong.   To be honest, there is no way to describe it so I won't even try.  All that I can say is that at the end of the day there is a reason Chiang Mai is on the map for one of the biggest tourist destinations in the world and I think any travel blog will tell you that one of the main reasons for that is this Sunday night market.  Forget about it if you struggle with decisions, like I do, but even that and the crowds (my kryptonite) could deter me from spending hours there trying to see every booth; a task I soon learned was impossible.

This event was so big that when the time came to make plans for the second weekend, I convinced myself that I needed to leave Monday morning instead of Sunday night.

Now, even I will say that no matter how much I loved Chiang Mai the first time, it was very unlike me to show up a second weekend in a row.  However, when some of my friends from training who are teaching in Krabi (a Thai city in the south an hour from the beach where it, apparently, never stops raining) told me that they would be there since they had the week off school, I couldn't resist the opportunity to meet up with them.  We had a total blast!

Saturday morning, we shared a delicious breakfast at a Mexican restaurant that had huevos rancheros on the menu- cue the "homesicknessy" tears that come with the universe aligning to give you a small little hug to let you know that its got your back.  Afterwards we went to the Grand Canyon.  That's right, folks, we popped onto a plane headed for Arizona and 24 hours later got to see the deepest pit in the world just in time to catch another day-long flight back.  That's not really true, of course, but I bet you didn't know that there is a Thai version of the Grand Canyon and can be found in none other than Chiang Mai.

Although they made the Human Lifejacket (I'm still just not totally satisfied with my superhero name, but this will do for now) wear a lifejacket, I still had a wonderful time swimming in this beautiful pit that wasn't quite as big as the one in the US.  There was even a spot for some cliff diving but I respectfully declined the opportunity.

My Krabi buddies had to leave after breakfast on Sunday, but me and my fellow Piriyalai English-teacher, decided that we wanted to take full advantage of being in a big city and do things that one can't do in Phrae.  We went to the movies and saw Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them in English!  The traffic was horrible and we arrived "late" but there are definitely more commercials in Thailand than I've ever seen, not to mention there is a King's song where all in the theater are compelled to stand to show fealty.  It was the first time I'd seen the new official "King photo" of the new King and I have to admit I was a little confused initially.  I never did make it to the movies when Bumihbol's face was on the big screen and I'm a little sad about that to be honest.

Of course I hit up the Sunday market again and made it home in time on Monday to get some work done.  Not to beat a dead horse (and also, not to merely repeat anything you'll ever find on tourist websites about Thailand) but if you do make it to Southeast Asia anytime soon, CM needs to be on your list.  Amazing!