monkeycrap's Diaryland Diary

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

chiang mai, thailand: 05/03/2006 - 08/03/2006

Overall, a great trip. Can be said for any pocket of time that allows you to take a brief respite from the impotence of everyday life, any stretch of time that allows for the topping up of much needed horizon-broadening fuel.

05/03/2006

A small tiger airways jet served as the bridge between me and the land of smiles. Suspension bridge, if the landing was anything to go by. Anyway, first time on budget airline. Really interesting. I thought it was a japanese airline for a moment, because the stewardesses had geisha-white faces that ziyi zhang would be proud of, thanks to the layers of make-up they slather on them. I don't understand. What is it with stewardessess and copious amounts of face powder? Maybe security measure la, scare terrorists away. Also, being the one seated next to the emergency exit, had to give my consent to Hatsumomo-san that i'd help her evacuate passengers in case of emergency. I got so startled by the make-up that i wanted to jump out of the exit there and then.

Touched down, checked in, dinner. Made our way to the Riverside restaurant. It's this dimly-lit, cosy, uber-romantic live music lounge cum restaurant by the river. Splendid ambience. Amazing food. Great music. Pina colada + eric clapton = bliss.

After dinner, proceeded for a body massage at one of the many massage places. Yes, they're respectable. No, they aren't sleazy. But the massage itself, well it was slightly, erm, violatory. They start out with your feet, which was shiok, but then they start working their way up. Really up. I was, like,"Whoa, ok, you may stop there now. That's it right? No, no more upper! Sheesh! Oh the humanity!" Didn't help that the person doing it was called porn. Then they start wrapping themselves around you and wrapping you around themselves to stretch and contort and crack every sore spot of your upper body. I know, it's as weird as it sounds, but they were professional about it la. They really know their way around your body. Up and down, inside out. Heh.

These massage operators work shifts, and by the time we left the place, it was near midnight. Now it's amazing how they can be so jovial about having to exert tremendous amounts of energy to knead people's bodies at 11.30pm. All without any customer service campaign. And it's not because we're tourists or anything, it's really not. It's just the lovely, natural, happy-go-lucky attitude that they have, and it's really one that I love and can only dream of having, being one who resides in a perpetual envelope of never-happy-ness and life-could-be-better-ness.

06/03/2006

Spent most of the morning at the best and most glorious tourist attraction in Chiang Mai. It's called the shopping arcade. Walked around, bargained, bought some stuff. Street stalls, mainly pasar malam fashion. Bargaining via calculator button pressing is very fun and addictive. Wanted to square root every number they key in, but was afraid that i'd get smacked on the head by a wooden elephant carving.

Afternoon was a short handicraft factories/luxury item factories tour. Got kashmir carpets la, silk la, lacquerware la, paper la, crystal jade la, umbrella la. Tour guide was a nice, simple, honest chap. 5 minutes into our conversation and already he told me about his previous relationships and plans for his future. Asked me if i'm attached, to which i replied,"no, Not YET", in that order of intensity. Asked me if i thought there were more good looking girls in Thailand, to which i replied yes, for 2 reasons. Firstly, to strengthen bilateral ties and enhance diplomatic south east asian relations. Secondly, cause, erm, i think so.

Speaking of good lookers, Chiang Mai had plenty of tourist attractions. As in attractive tourists. Brad Pitt took honeydew slices from the same buffet tray as me, and i thought i saw Ashlee Simpson in a minivan.

Dinner was at this touristy seafood stop, which was an impulse decision and thus we had to pay the price, literally as well as in terms of taste. Was also amazed at the number of tourists with social escorts by their sides. At first, thought it rather sad to have to have to fork out cash to pay for someone to pretend to be interested in their singha beer-filled boastings, to have to pay for non-substantial temp relief of loneliness. But you know, everything we do, it's in the hope of wanting to be more loved and understood, however you choose to define 'loved and understood', and i guess, yeah, it's your call.

07/03/2006

This was a great day. Elephant riding in the morning, and I don't mean the 3 rounds kind you find in the zoo. This one's the real deal, down valleys, into rivers, around chiang mai mountain and through brokeback mountain. After that went mountain biking, which was exhausting, to say the very least. The guide said '9km', but he didn't mention 'rocky dirt road' and 'uphill'. Biked to the upper course of a river, and whitewater rafted the rapids down. Fantastic. The guides were brilliant, once again displaying that Thai attitude that i've so grown to love in such a short span of time. They treated every group of rafters as if it was their first group they were in charge of. They were so enthusiastic, shouting, making noise, splashed water at all of us, even capsized the raft on purpose at the shallower ends of the river.

Through an unusual stroke of luck, found our way to the local night market, as in the market for the locals, and had pig's blood soup for dinner at a drainside stall for 20 cents. Quite tasty. Bought a container of deep fried mealworms as well, just for the sake of trying some. Not quite tasty. Still got half a container left, feel like selling it on ebay.

08/03/2006

Went to this shopping centre just to walk around. Strolled in their equivalent of popular bookshop. Really cool. They had a science practical apparatus section, where they sold retard stands, pendulums, beakers, prisms, laminas, test tubes, pipette fillers etc. AND. They sell chemicals. How cool is that? It would be great if we were allowed to buy our own chemicals. There're a few people in school who deserve a few drops of HCl and a few dashes of CuSO4 in their noodle soup during lunch breaks.

After shopping, took a tuktuk to the airport before proceeding home. Sawadeekrap.

hotel lounge.

hotel breakfast area.

Riverside restaurant.

Dumbo. And the elephant.

Asking my date for a dance.

Starting point.

En route.

Ending point.

Me and worms.

Up close and personal.

Lunch.

In-house DJ in the shopping centre.

Fish frenching stone, aquarium in shopping centre

Very inspirational sign spotted outside one of the buildings along the main road.

Not so inspirational sign in the elephant camp.

12:53 a.m. - 2006-03-18

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

previous - next