In Pursuit of Mysteries

Chiangmai

R and I are up north in Chiangmai right now. The area has flooded because of typhoon rains in the hills. Since much of the forest of Thailand has been cut down, the water doesn’t stay up in the hills but, instead, goes down into the river, which flows through town. Out of three or four bridges across the river, only one is still in service. The train station is currently under about a meter of water, as is the night market area.

Much of the rest of the town is relatively dry but it is taking longer to get places because traffic is being rerouted and congested. We came in on a truck yesterday from the family villa that we had been staying at with some locals who run “Siam Adventures”, another tour company. Because of the flooding, three people from our party decided not to stay the last day in Chiangmai and took the $34 (!) flight to Bangkok last night. The rest of us are taking an overnight, sleeping, train back to Bangkok tonight. We should be there at the China Princess tomorrow morning. For the last week, R and I are staying in a four star hotel (which still cost less than $50 a night) since we wanted the last part of the trip to be low-key and we’ve been staying in clean but basic cabins and such by rice paddies with only a fan for A/C.

The weather here has actually not been bad at all. We’ve only gotten rained on once even though it is the end of the rainy season here. As we’ve moved North, the temperature has gone down. Half the time it is only in the high 70’s or lower 80’s (with something like 100% hunmidity). We sweat a lot but it is tolerable as long as you aren’t walking in the sun.

Yesterday, our group rode bicycles around the town that we were staying in and visited a primary school. We got to meet a bunch of the local children and visit another wat. Last night, R and I splurged and went to a nice dinner out where they had a show of traditional Thai dancing. It also turns out that Chiangmai, as a tourist destination, is a used book mecca and I picked up an out of print short story collection by Michael Marshall Smith for about $3 that you can’t buy for less than $100 normally.

It is morning (11:00 am) and R is off at Thai cooking school for a half day class. I’m just wandering about and taking it easy. This has been our first unplanned day all week.