My Last Night at PT Residence

Tonight is my last night at PT Residence and my last night in Chiang Mai. Tomorrow, at this time, I will be packed away on a bus heading toward Laos. Although I intellectually know that I will be leaving tomorrow, taking all of my belongings out of this place, and heading off into the great unknown once again (although this time I will have some compatriots on my travels, whereas on my way here, I was alone), it has not quite connected fully and I can’t quite wrap my head around the concept. I’m sure that by tomorrow at 5 pm, when the panic sets in about leaving, I will fully believe it is happening, but at this moment it all seems surreal.

Today was an excellent, relaxing day. I awoke early, although based on the recent standards created by those pesky Wildflower fowls – damn the roosters – it was late, at 6:30 am. I spent some time writing postcards and letters to people while in bed, but finally got up for my day when Zenia awoke too around 7:30 am. I decided to head over to Zane’s, an internet café across the street from the Res, for some morning lemonade and some quality internet. Quite a few e-mails had piled up during my stay at Wildflower and I managed to get a lot done, including some class picking for my next year at school (registration is tomorrow), before it was time to head off to meet some other BABSEAers for brunch. We ate brunch at 11:00 am at a cute little Western breakfast place off Nemmanhemin, called Bake and Bite. It was wonderful to get a plate full of hash browns, bacon, and toast with a glass of orange juice on the side. Yum! The experience of eating a non-rice breakfast was similar to the nirvana experienced yesterday during our Mexican food lunch, pure joy at the prospect of real food with rich flavors. Bobby and I sat at a table alone as there was no table large enough to accommodate our entire party and neither of us mind being apart from the larger group. This turned out to be wonderful as Bobby is a quiet kind of guy and was pretty cool when I snatched a paper he was looking at out of his hands and began doing the crossword during breakfast before he had a chance to object. I hadn’t seen a crossword in quite a while and the deprivation might have made me a little insane. Luckily, Bobby has gotten used to me during the last three weeks and took it in stride, calmly reaching back to grab another paper. The breakfast was delicious and just the thing to get the last remnants of the horrible Wildflower food out of my mind. However, lingering effects of our terrible food experience continue to haunt our group of four. We have compared notes over the last couple days and all agree that we feel a little sick after each meal, as if our stomachs are not used to such rich, flavorful food and need time to adjust. In addition, we are all eating substantially less than we did before our stay at Wildflower as we feel full from a much smaller quantity of food. While I don’t mind eating less, I do not like feeling sick after eating, particularly when it tastes good initially. Hopefully, I will get over that affliction in the next few days.

After brunch, our group split up, some going to the mall, some to see a movie, and some (me and Bobby) back to the internet café to finish some work online. Most of our group ended up going to see a movie in the afternoon, but I decided that I didn’t want to waste my last full day in Chiang Mai in a movie theater (particularly seeing Sex and the City 2, a movie I would not even waste my time in America going to see in theater), and Bobby agreed, so the two of us headed off for the pool after we finished our computer business for one last soak under the Thai sun. The water was glorious. It felt as if another layer of Wildflower baby smell and weed grime was washed away. The water (particularly water smelling of chlorine *sigh* so good) is my happy place; just a quick dip improves my mood immensely and staying in the water for an entire hour as I did could not help but rejuvenate my entire being. I now feel ready for my impending journey.

Walking home from the pool, we stopped to grab our laundry from the small shop we had dropped it off at yesterday. We finally found a reasonable place to do our laundry (2-3 Baht per item), which was a relief because those Wildflower clothes needed a serious washing. In Thailand it is very common to take your laundry to a service to have it cleaned (although not your underwear or other under garments, those you do yourself at home). To differentiate your clothes from others (they are all washed together it seems), a small piece of yarn is threaded through an interior seam (very unobtrusively and without damaging the garment). The yarn is color coded to your laundry, so when it is finished drying (everyone dries the clothes by air here) they can sort your laundry out from the rest based on the color coding system. We were able to witness this phenomenon of laundry organization firsthand as they had not collected our clothes from the drying racks yet and we were obliged to wait a few minutes while our clothes were collected and folded.

Our laundry retrieved, we headed back to the apartments to await the return of our friends for our night excursion. As this is the last Sunday I and others will spend in Chiang Mai (I will be leaving before Sunday during my last week back in Thailand) we decided to head down to the Sunday Night Walking Market for one last visit. This time we were ready to bargain and walked with a purpose, no pointless wandering for us, thank you! We stopped about halfway down for dinner at a small restaurant where I actually ordered Thai food, but just a noodle dish (no rice!). The food was quite tasty, but clouded with similar results as yesterday and breakfast this morning, although the nauseous reaction afterward was not as strong, which gives me hope for tomorrow. During our dinner, a band set up in the courtyard where we were eating and began to play. They were excellent. It was such fun to hear a Thai band play music, a strange mix of jazz, rock, and Thai. It was fun and we resumed our walk through the market with a refreshed step.

We cruised quickly down the market as a whole, not stopping at any one stall for too long, simply getting our bearings and scoping out where we really wanted to stop to shop and where the best deals could be found. When walking through Thai markets it is important to remember a few key tips: 1) do not get stuck walking behind the sightseeing farangs (foreigners), especially the fat ones as they take forever and do not seem to understand that most of us are on a mission, 2) follow the rules of the road, you walk up the street on the left and back down on the right (to do anything else is certain suicide, even without the hazard of Thai motorbikes – the people will simply walk over you), 3) never show true interest in what you actually want to buy, you must act semi-interested and force them to convince you to buy (otherwise they are going to price gauge you and won’t be as willing to deal), 4) take a bottle of water because you will get thirsty, and 5) buy what you want the first time you see it (meaning don’t wait for another night to buy it) because booths change position and you might never find the same seller again. With these simple tips, some common sense, and feet of steel, you will survive your adventure in a Thai tourist market (nothing can help you with the Thai day markets, just run in the opposite direction of those). On our return trip down the length of the market, I stopped at a few booths to make purchases, most of which turned out to be art. During our last excursion to the Sunday Night Walking Market, I had noticed a few paintings and prints I loved and wanted to buy. My original plan was to wait until my return to Chiang Mai after my time in Laos, but I realized there would be no opportunity later. I decided to buy the art I liked now and leave it in Chiang Mai at the BABSEA house while I am away this summer. I bought a couple fun pieces (and yes, Jana, there might even be something for you in there) and a couple of prints that I fell in love with, created by a local artist who goes to art school in Chiang Mai.

We managed our time at the market very well on this visit, which made the whole thing easier. Zenia and I were on missions to find certain items, while Bobby was simply along for the ride. Whenever Zenia would stop at a stall to shop and haggle, Bobby and I would wander off to look at other stalls and vice versa. It was an excellent policy as it maximized our time and efficiency in the market, allowing us to complete our business there within only a couple hours. Bobby and I spent a great deal of time sitting in front of the man selling the prints and the more we studied the two I loved, the more Bobby loved them too. By the time the artist was available to talk to us (he also paints mini portraits of people sitting there for 80 Baht, which takes about 15 minutes), I was ready to purchase my two paintings and Bobby was ready to buy four. We got the prints for an incredibly good price and I am very excited to hand them up at home, although I have no idea yet where they will go.

I felt a great deal of residual exhaustion today, but the excitement of making my purchases at the market largely eclipsed that feeling. Unfortunately, the high of buying my art quickly collapsed after the purchasing fun was over and by the time we walked the final 100 feet to the end of the market I was done for the night. We quickly caught a red truck home and after a quick run to 7-11 for some beverages, I got back to my room and am now ready for a good night’s sleep. Tomorrow will be a very busy day of packing and final preparations for our upcoming trip (snacks and toilet paper are a must have for the road).

I can’t believe my time in Chiang Mai and Thailand is now at an end and that I have already been here for three weeks. As Zenia noted, this summer is flying by quickly and I am loving every minute of it (well, maybe not every minute…those poopy baby minutes were not very fun, but you get the idea). I plan to write one final post before I leave on the bus tomorrow at 8:30, but if I don’t get a chance just follow the advice on the back of your Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Don’t Panic. I will return and our adventures will continue. Until that time, goodnight.