Today I mostly spend taking it easy and recovering from my overnight train ride on which I did not sleep to well. A hint to my German travelers out there, if everyone else is sleeping don’t read mumble to yourself and pop open a bag of crunchy chips. It keeps others awake. I am staying in the old walled city in the center of Chiang Mai and there is plenty to do and see. I walked around the old district and found a few really beautiful temples to wander in. I also saw the central temple in the district which has both new and old wats dating back to the founding of the city.

But mostly what I really did was ate a lot. Pork with pork noodles, spicy minced meat with egg and basil, fatty meat on stick, bitter matcha tea, roti with thin egg and condensed milk, and a delicious falafel. Of course this was not all at one sitting. It took me a few hours.

Just a short one today because I have to get up early and take the morning train. Not to work the nine-to-five, but to ride up to Lopburi where monkeys rule the earth.

I got up early in hopes of visiting Dursit Park and the old European style Royal Palace. Unfortunately, as I found out upon arrival, this giant complex is always closed on Mondays. Not to be deterred, I managed to at least visit the Wat Benchamabophit which is a sort of “modern” European inspired wat that mixed in French marble floors, stain glass windows, and other European architectural nuance into its design.

In the afternoon and evening I met with my Trude and my wise, benevolent, and beloved teacher ajarn Janpanit who treated us to a delicious dinner of fish and other goodies. It was very delicious. Then just a quick Skytrain and taxi home.

Now to the sleeping.

Today, I decided it would be a good idea to go and check out Chatuchak Market. This giant outdoor market that many regard as one of the biggest in the world is composed of 26 overlapping sections that crisscross back and forth to create a giant crescent-shaped mall of sorts. Each individual lane maybe as long as a mile! Most of the time it is hard to remember that you are outside as partial roves and a million products surround you at all times. I bought a new pair of pants and a shirt, but refrained from purchasing furniture, pets, giant statues, or any of the other million things on sale.

While in this giant market, and throughout the day, I really pushed my luck with food-borne illness. All the pamphlets and medical advice will tell you that you should avoid food stalls because they are less hygienic, but that is no way to live. You will miss out on so much fun and flavor. In the heart of the market I found a curry shop. My favorite trick is that when you order curry and rice, you can add a scoop of another curry for only a few baht. This particular stand was great. However, my luck quickly changed when I was handed a free sample of “pink drink” by marketers sampling a new dried vitamin powder. I took a few sips and it tasted a little funny, then I looked over to see that they were filling their main water jug with tap water from a hose. There comes a time in every man’s life when he realizes that dirty, metallic taste in his water maybe about to cause serious gastronomical distress. So naturally I ditched the pink drink and strait away picked up a savory lemonade. After all, it is never too early to replenish electrolytes should the worst happen. I decided I would take it easy on my stomach after that, but my love for street foods beat out over m reason and limited knowledge of microbiology. Just around the corner I found a mom selling a sort of semi-raw egg and coconut custard in pastry shells. It was delicious. I figured I would was that down with a banana slow-smoked into a sort of pudding and some hand squeezed orange juice. So far my strong constitution has fended of any unwanted microbes, but we will have to wait and see what tomorrow brings.

Also, to round the day out I took the obligatory walk down Khao San road, a sort of landing strip for backpackers, drunk Europeans, and entrepreneurial Thai venders. It was pretty much the same as before, but I first hotel I ever stayed in Thailand, almost ten years ago now, has been transformed by a new Indian family that took ownership last year. Thus the new Ganesh statue in their lobby.

Rainy morning, awesome day. After taking in too much sun and experiencing the sweaty results yesterday, I was happy to wake up to thunderous rainstorms that brought the temperature down to a chilly 88 or 89 degrees. I even had hot tea in the morning!

After eating a leisurely breakfast and talking to Laurel on Skype, I made my way down to Siam Square to meet my friend Trude who I took Thai classes with last summer in Wisconsin. When she told me we would eat our way across town I thought she was joking, but that is pretty much how the day went down. We meet in one of the many hyper-modern excellently air-conditioned mega malls down town. These malls are a very strange sort of space for me. They look and feel like any other semi-elite urban conglomeration of brand name slinging stores in the US, but with little reminders that you are not in New York or LA. My favorite little nuance are the bathroom signs that mix “cute” and sexual imagery with the traditional toilet room markers.

After taking it to the mall, today, Tude and I ate a bowl of noodles and then went to the house of silk magnate and former OSS/CIA operative Jim Thompson. He was one of the first Americans to capitalize on the US power relations in postwar Thailand and built up a king’s ransom by selling/branding Thai silk to the world. Unfortunately they do not let you take pictures in the house, but believe me when I tell you there was some cool and expensive stuff in there (also, our tour guide made it clear that it was cool that Thompson had acquired and displayed thousands of years of Buddhist heritage artwork because he was a collector and not some dirty black marketer… who might sell to a collector).

After of time in Thompson’s house, khun Trude and I hit the bricks and walked around a Middle Eastern neighborhood filled with hukka shops, Lebanese food, and people trying to get us to by imitation, not to mention unhygienic, sex toys. We stopped off at a Lebanese restaurant to eat some hummus and pickled vegetables, hang out for a bit, and cool down.

After that it was back to another megamall, Terminal 21, based on the theme of air travel to various locations. You are greeted to the mall by a flight attendant and each floor represents another airport location such as London, Tokyo, or Istanbul. Then we ate some donuts at Minster Donut. It was actually pretty cool. And it was great to spend time with Trude. Since I have been here I really haven’t talked to people except in short bursts of Thai or broken English.  Not that I can complain. Plus I am really getting into things here as you can clearly see by adaptation to local culture.

Today I got up early and managed to get in a bit more action. I went to breakfast and got the pad thai because the vender told me it was the thing to do.

After that I hit the Streets and saw a bunch of cool street art and graffiti on my way towards a large outdoor market that specilizes in selling Thai amulets. I bought a Buddha amulet that will hopefully help me do well in my studies and research here over the next few months.

After hanging out in the markets for a while I took a ferry across the river into Thonburi where I spent time walking the streets looking for food and feeling good. I saw some fun stuff like an old wat (temple) and this turtle playing with a toy gun. After hanging out in Thonburi in the morining, I hopped back across the river and hung out at Tommasat University where I spent a little time looking around and trying really really hard to figure out where Iibrary is located. Here is a hint: it’s underground, so you will not see it.

After that fun time I took a taxi for a bit so that I could climb up a big hill with a temple on top know as the golden mount. It was a sweaty experience climbing up this thing in the heat, but the view was really good. After wandering around this area of town for a long time, I decided to head home get dinner and take it easy.

Today I was mostly recovering from the flight. But I did get out a bit.

I got rad na, my favorite noodle dish early in the day and then set out to try and take in some of the sites. I was thinking that because of the jet lag and all, I should do something low key, so I decided to go the National History Museum that happened to be near where I am staying.

So I spent most of the day inside looking at cool stuff like this mural. It was still pretty hot as these building don’t have air conditioning. You would think that after all this time in Hawaii the heat wouldn’t be that bad, but that extra ten-fifteen degrees goes a long way.