Day 65: Transit to Chiang Mai
Today was another transit day. I got up early so I could have breakfast when the hotel's restaurant opened. When it came down to it, I wasn't in the mood for cheese, so I got a baguette with butter and jam, and a thing of yogurt. The bread was less impressive without the cheese, but still tasty. I then headed off to the bus station to catch the 8:30 bus to Chiang Mai. Once again, I was without a book and not in the mood to work on my journal, so I spent most of the time looking out the window and watching the in-bus “entertainment”. It started out with some G-rated music videos. I don't know if it was a representative sample of Thai music, or if it was just a bus-appropriate selection, but everyone was fully clad, and there was a lot of weeping over people that the weeper was clearly better off without. (Hint: if you find out that your boyfriend is married when you see him and his wife on the street one day, taking their daughter to school, he is *not* a keeper. Weep if you must, but do not keep calling him, and do not show up at his office expecting him to leave his wife for you.) Then there was some wretched Thai (?) movie that involved some sort of ghost and a guy who was pretending to be psychic. Or something. We got into Chiang Mai at about two, and I got a shared-taxi to the hotel I'd picked out from my guidebook. It's a little off the beaten track, but it's convenient walking distance from everything, and it turned out to be far less expensive than I had expected. I paid 350B/night (=$10.60) in Sukothai for a room with a fan, but this is 250B/night (=$7.50) for A/C. I was expecting at least 400B/night, which is what one of the places down the street is charging, but the room seems fine. I get the sense, though, that tourism is down, so they might be desperate. It's hard to tell, since this is supposed to be the low season, anyway, but like in Vietnam, there seems to be way more supply than demand. I spoke to a South African woman on Ko Samet who has been going there every year for almost a decade, and she said it was totally dead compared to the usual. It's probably a combination of the recession, swine flu and recent political events. The most striking thing for me is how few Americans there are. The tourists I do meet are mostly Dutch and French speakers, as well as some Brits and Germans, but next to no Americans (or Canadians), here or in Cambodia or in Vietnam. I'm not quite sure what's up with that, and whether it's normal or a function of this year's meltdown.
Once I'd gotten settled in my room, it was almost three and I was pretty hungry, so I headed down the street to a vegetarian restaurant that was listed in my guidebook. I always get a bit giddy when I go into a vegetarian restaurant and realize I can get anything on the menu. Today, though, I didn't choose very well. Hoping to get something small, I ordered spring rolls, but they were not small and there were three of them. Tomorrow I'll have something with more vegetables. The restaurant was also a used bookstore, which I browsed before settling on a Fanny Flagg novel. I have vague memories of liking “Fried Green Tomatoes”, so I figured it was worth $3. Then I headed off to try and find a craft store that was mentioned both in my guidebook and on a web site I've been using. I was not successful, primarily because it isn't there anymore, but there were enough other craft shops in the area to give me a sense of what's on offer. I then found another used bookstore where I picked up a couple other books, effectively spending what I'd “saved” on my hotel room. It had started to rain by that point, so I ducked into an internet cafe for a while, before hitting the night market, which convinced me that I really don't need to buy any more crap. Which is good. Because it's going to be expensive enough mailing the crap I've already got.
Once I'd gotten settled in my room, it was almost three and I was pretty hungry, so I headed down the street to a vegetarian restaurant that was listed in my guidebook. I always get a bit giddy when I go into a vegetarian restaurant and realize I can get anything on the menu. Today, though, I didn't choose very well. Hoping to get something small, I ordered spring rolls, but they were not small and there were three of them. Tomorrow I'll have something with more vegetables. The restaurant was also a used bookstore, which I browsed before settling on a Fanny Flagg novel. I have vague memories of liking “Fried Green Tomatoes”, so I figured it was worth $3. Then I headed off to try and find a craft store that was mentioned both in my guidebook and on a web site I've been using. I was not successful, primarily because it isn't there anymore, but there were enough other craft shops in the area to give me a sense of what's on offer. I then found another used bookstore where I picked up a couple other books, effectively spending what I'd “saved” on my hotel room. It had started to rain by that point, so I ducked into an internet cafe for a while, before hitting the night market, which convinced me that I really don't need to buy any more crap. Which is good. Because it's going to be expensive enough mailing the crap I've already got.