Chiang Mai

So as you might have seem, I'm in Chiang Mai... it's nice to be out of Bangkok and especially to be in such an unusual place... it has the weird feeling of a little town... there's a city wall and a mote... I'll use the word quaint (a hell of a word)! ... It was a bit of a treck to get here... 12 hours from 6pm to 6am on a bus... I was sat next to some sort of sea-cow of a man... like someone had taken the mass of three of me and put it into a skin coloured lycra suit and roughly bashed it into the shape of a man... I'm being unfair because I'm grumpy because he deprived me of sleep and comfort (and also, he'll never read this anyway!)... ... ... Do you ever get that moment when your on a bus or something and someone nods off next to you and slowly their heads descends until it's on your shoulder with a small trail of dribble working its way down your sleeve like a viscous river? ... I once had it on the bus home from Glastonbury, I sat down and a beautiful girl sat next to me, I fell asleep only to wake up with her sleeping heavily with her head in my lap... needless to say she was embarrased when I woke her up... and somewhere in my neurotic, adolescent mind I though, "Maybe she fancies me?"... (Jesus, why did I write that! (I meant that retorically, hence the absence of a question mark))... anyway, last night I woke with a 19 stone sea mammel on my shoulder... I could suddenly empathise with clostraphobics... also, he refused to wake up... I periodically had to edge him over to his side which sighing and looking out of the window whistfully (I'm not totally sure that's the right word)...

... ... The biggest surprise has been the people really... maybe you could sense that I was feeling a bit touchy about being badgered all the time by people selling stuff etc... making new friends until the moment it was clear I wasn't going to spend money... well in Chiang Mai people (locals) have come up to me... they have started innocous conversations ("Where are from?", "How long have been in Thailand?")... the kind of questions which usually lead to a sales pitch which often contains the statement, "Only one stop." (Which makes you furiously say (Semi shout... like those walking people in the olympics... they do that funny walk but it's not quite a run), "No stops!"... which seems weird, to tell a taxi driver no to stop and also to insist that he goes on the meter rather then a fixed price... seems a dangerous recipie)... anyway, where was I... Ah yes, so innocuous questions lead to advice from the local about where to visit... 'Ah here we go, here's the sales pitch' I smugly thought with psudo-wisdom... but it didn't come to that... we just had a friendly conversation and they gave me advice about places to visit... it was a miraculous and beautiful moment where I could just relax and not tense up whenever a local started to talk to me:)

I met an English guy in the hostel and we walked around the city today... in a temple they has this garden with loads of buddist sayings hung on the trees... they were really interesting nuggest like, 'There is no saturating the fire with fuel' (still haven't worked that one out) and 'Constant dripping wears away the stone' (slightly easier to understand) ........ They even have a monk-chat thing (makes me imagine like a sex-line advert with monks pouting while on the phone) where you can sit and chat with the monks and ask them about their life and about buddist teachings etc... really interesting and I might have a proper sit-down with one some day before I leave (I did chat to one today but this was before I'd lost my tension about locals trying to tell me stuff so I sat with him feeling very uncomfortable and wondering what a monk might try to sell me... but they seem genuine and helpful and all so I might have a chat... also, in the temple, some lads were kicking around like a large hacky-sack kind of thing soing keepie uppies and it rolled to me and kicked it back... christ I wanted to play... it was like giving a coke addict a sniff... damn you, I'd love a kick-a-bout right now! :)

... Tonight we'll explore the night market and then maybe tomorrow my Italian friends Ullrika and Martina will pop over here and I can catch up with them (although me and the English lad have agreed to watch the football... what ever bloody game is on:)... also it's a festival here this weekend, everything looks like it's proper gearing up... I'm not really sure what happens but I've heard talk of those flying paper latern thingies... well when I see it I'll be able to divulge more and even post a couple of snaps... until then I'll go... probably for a nap:) (Oh how I love my new life as a cat... just sleeping and eating:)

Keep well all...

P.S. Congrats to Dave and Maz for winning the Twix and Milky Way respectivly for commenting on my blog:)