So..... shopping

5/17/15

I’m not quite sure what I did yesterday. After my last post, I booked my next place, this time in Old City. This hotel has been lovely but it’s full of couples and there is some convention going on. The neighborhood is like Bell Blvd on a Saturday night… but longer (for all you Queens folks reading this). I feel old here. I want to go to a bar for a drink and then I read in my guide book that is caters to college students (makes sense since the university is right here). I was cautioned against staying in Old City because it’s touristy but it’s also where most of the temples are and I will appreciate being in a smaller hotel and being closer to everything. And it has a pool so that’s nice.

Yesterday I was tired so hung out in the room for a bit. I’d wanted to take it easy because I’d be walking a lot. There was a massage somewhere in there. I got a back/neck/shoulder massage but it was really an all-over massage. I went in the pool but just for a bit. I had lunch. Then I walked to Saturday Walking Streets (not to be confused with Sunday Walking Streets) which opens at 4pm. It took about an hour to get there. I’ve become pretty shameless about pulling out my map in the middle of the sidewalk but this time I wrote down my directions so I wouldn’t have to do that (it’s a big unwieldy map). I ended up taking it out anyway, not because I got the directions wrong, but because it’s really hard to locate street signs in English here and I needed to orient myself with landmarks. (I got a Nancy Chandler map, also recommended to me by Tim’s friend. It has been my lifesaver this whole trip). 

So the Walking Streets is just what it sounds like; they close down the street and sell tons and tons of stuff. I got a lot of souvenir shopping done. I actually decided to pace myself since I am going to the other Walking Streets later today. And there is also a Night Bazaar which I hear is not as good but happens every day and I’ll be close to it at the new place. And apparently there is good shopping at the Chiang Mai airport mall, which is good, because I'll be getting there hours before my flight on Saturday.

Anyway, there are a ton of vendors, lots of street food. Thailand is known for its street food. I have not been partaking (more because I want to keep things relatively healthy than anything else), but yesterday I got a pork bun and custard pun. They were not good. Oh well.

Also, I had noticed that I have not seen homeless people here or anyone asking for money, (except for the two little kids who were trying to sell something to the patrons of that Italian restaurant I went to.) At the market, they have blind people singing for money (some of them are pretty good) and some people who are badly disabled asking for money. But they position themselves in the middle of the road and mostly stay there. 

And needless to say, it’s full of tourists. 

I got back to my hotel after being there 3 hours and got a take-out salad. By time I got done eating it was 10pm. I ended up staying up too late knitting and watching ’30 Days of Night.’ Does anyone know if the vampires are speaking a real language, and if so, which one? I tried to look it up on IMDB. My hotel has two movie channels and form some reason the other one keeps showing Mad Max movies. 

So right now I’m on about 5 hours sleep. I Facetimed with Mom and Dad this morning which was awesome. I am exactly 12 hours ahead of New York, so the math is easy. Now I just finished stuffing my face at the breakfast buffet. I forgot to take my malaria medication, which I have to start taking today because tomorrow I take that tour to Chiang Rai and they got malaria up there. I think I see a foot massage in my future. With all this walking, it’s pretty much a medical necessity. And more pool time. 
For today I act like one of those people, who gets massages and sits by the pool. 
Tomorrow I'm on a van to go see a very beautiful temple, and go stand in Laos for 30 minutes.