It's the home stretch! Wait, what have I not eaten yet???

5/21/15

Got to my new digs- the Sir Pat Guest House, right in the north-east corner inside Old City (I had been staying west of Old City). I’ve walked through many of these streets already but it’s nice to be closer. There are also a bunch of produce stands around so I can get fruit to carry with me again. And smoothies- they are big on smoothies here. I keep looking for the peanut butter-banana one I got earlier in the trip. 

So I got here Tuesday (the 19th) and had a hard time mobilizing because, again, I was sleep deprived. I walked around. I had told myself ‘no more massages’ but then I got sucked into a place with a 90minute foot/hand/head massages. So I did that. 

I walked past the roads with the food vendors (I really have to try to street food before I go) and I finally made it to the Writer’s Bar and Wine Club. I took this picture of my bowl of curry, beer and my journal. I was even going to post it in Facebook with some pretentious caption about how cool I am that I have a bowl of curry and a journal. But then I’d be one of those writers. I had sticky rice for dessert.

Yesterday (the 20th) I walked east, past the Mae Ping River. There is a very good restaurant out there as well as the Night Bazaar. I am not sure if I feel like putting up the effort to walk so far at night. Yes I could take cabs (getting around is very cheap), but I like walking (or at least I did before I noticed the huge blister I now have on my right ring-finger-toe.) But I was able to get the very last of my souvenirs (yes Chris is going to get an actual Thailand shot-glass).

However before all this, the reason I walked east at all was to see Wat Buppram. I didn’t go in because I was not properly dressed… and that’s fine with me. I like to just see the pretty buildings. 

I got a bakery nearby to make me the peanut butter-banana shake. It was almost as good. 

I am also trying to hit all the good restaurants before I go (I discovered there is another Salad Concept across the canal from my guesthouse. Oh No!). There is another health food place I will try out today for breakfast. There is a good Thai place I walked into the other night but the set-up confused me. There is the nice place by the river. There’s all that street food! 

And there is a dress I might wanna buy- I should have tried it on yesterday. The long and the short of it is that I've been a good tourist and I've seen a lot of what one is supposed to see. Now I just want to do what I feel like doing

Today I was planning to walk along the west side of Old City. There is a pretty park on the south west side. All this with this blister on my toe. And probable rain.  Bummer!  

Which gets us back to yesterday. I went back to the hotel to take a dip in the pool… which really was just a dip. I mostly just sat poolside reading a book, drinking coffee, which is really quite pleasant. And then it rained. A lot. It eventually stopped but between that and the fact that my tummy was bothering me, I decided not to go far for dinner. Down the road from my guest house is a pizza place that got 5 stars on Tripadvisor. I went there. It was not 5 stars. It was maybe 4 with enough olive oil and salt on it. After that I want to John’s Place, a bar/restaurant, and I ordered dessert (and by dessert I mean a drink called the Chiang Mai Paradise which was kahlua, baileys, cointreau and milk.) I sat on the third floor terrace, drank, wrote and got bit my insects. By then my tummy was ok. 

And I got my laundry done. I was washing stuff in the sink but I went outside and I realized you can’t spit without hitting a laundry place. That fancy hotel wanted almost as much to clean one of my underwear as this place wanted to clean 2.5 kilos of clothing. It was done in a few hours. Now I’m considerably less crusty.

So things I want to get done:

dress/pants shopping

eat at the health food restaurant

eat at the nice Thai place

eat street food

maybe eat at the place along side the river that was recommended to me

maybe go to the night bazaar

Oh, and I think we are going to get more rain. And when I walk, I step on the blister on my toe. 

Last night I used the Ativan again and got 8 hours of sleep. Yay!

As I write this, I am sitting at a cafe table, in front of my guest house, looking out onto the street, drinking coffee. It’s a good way to live.

Oh! and this it the last thing! I want to find a massage place the incorporates wine. Or a wine bar that incorporates massage (I’m not picky). I’m not talking about getting shitfaced and then lying on your stomach and having some masseur do that thing where they put you in a half-nelson and twist your torso around. But a foot massage and a glass of wine…. c’mon, that needs to happen.