Martin F. Krafft: "What goes up must come down"
After three days of intensive city soaking, it was little surprise that
Saturday and Sunday nights brought cats and dogs down from the sky, almost as
if St. Peter up there also wanted to play along at the Songkhran festival, but
came late.
Preceeded by strong winds, the rain on Saturday caused everyone to hurredly
pack up their booths, leaving the wonderful markets deserted that night.
Fortunately, Sunday's rain wasn't so strong, and the famous Sunday night
market in Chiang Mai did take place after all -- when the first showers had
settled, almost all merchants came back out onto the road and the shopping
could continue.
I witnessed a funny moment on the market in the afternoon: the speakers, which
are installed on almost all lamp post and sometimes blast horrid music onto
the streets, started playing the national anthem. In response, everyone stood
up and still for its duration, almost as if time had been frozen. When the
last chord stroke, the the people continued at what they were doing and the
familiar buzz was quickly restored.
We spent yesterday in cooking school, the same one I had been to a year
before: the "Thai Chocolate Cookery Centre", which I can recommend to anyone.
I chose this place again because I did not want to run the risk of ending up
at one of the tourist ripoff places, but next time I shall try a different
one; apparently there's a cooking school outside the city on a farm, where yuo
get to harvest all herbs and fruits yourself prior to the cooking, instead of
the market tour commonly done in the beginning of the day.
On our way home, stuffed after 8 dishes of Thai food spread throughout the
whole day, we stoped by our guesthouse from last year: the "Chiang Mai Garden
Guesthouse", to say hello to the owner, Pissamorn. I was happy to find her
remembering me, and all the more happy when she honestly advised us not to try
"just any bamboo rafting" -- I had been spoiled by the trek she organised for
us last year, which involved a morning of bamboo rafting down a river from the
middle of the jungle, which you cannot reach by car. I have no problem
believing her that the other travel agencies which organise rafting trips dump
you just somewhere along a road on slower rivers with a far less beautiful
scenery. Unfortunately, neither time nor the heat really allow us to go on the
three day trip through the jungle, so we postponed the rafting to our next
trip.
Nevertheless, I feel very good about having Pissamorn as a reliable contact in
Chiang Mai, for future trips, and in case of any problems! She also referred
us to a Thai silk factory and told the owner to treat us with respect, so
today (Monday), we let them pick us up and placed an order for a bunch of
comfy trousers, and some silk button-down shirts; Aline got herself a nice
blouse and a wonderful dress.
We now have two and a half days left in Chiang Mai and have no real plans.
A 1-2 day trip to Pai still seems like an option, but it's supposed to be
unbearably hot up there. We'll see.
A keep having recurring thoughts about my dream to move to Southeast Asia
(Hanoi, to be exact) to start a computer school, and even though there are no
concrete plans yet, I feel like my motivation to finish the Ph.D. rather
sooner than later is on a steep incline. I could imagine tearing down my
"tents" in Switzerland and to go to Vietnam for half a year or a year of
language school, then see whether I manage to meet the right people to allow
me to set up an existence. Alongside the computer school, my dream includes
visions of a nice and comfy guesthouse where you get what you pay for,
concentrating on quality rather than quantity, which by the way is what the
Chiang Mai Garden Guesthouse seems to be doing. For me, that's the only way to
go about anything if you want success and satisfaction, be it consulting,
teaching, or a guesthouse in Asia.
Again, thanks for reading along.
