Moving Home

I have moved house from the S.E corner of Chiang Mai to the N.E. corner. I am now living in room B3 of Kham Kaew House at 29 Moon muang Soi 9, and the psychological difference is profound already.

My old house was a dirty little room with a horrible bed, a dirty floor, shared bathrooms and squat toilets with no squirt guns. My feet would get black walking from the shower to my room. My new house has a beautiful wooden double bed (which looks to have been reinforced in some suspect areas, much boom-boom methinks), a chair (it’s wonderful to be able to sit in a chair while on my laptop), a locking cabinet, a bathroom nearly as big as my old room with a mirror, a sink (with plug no less!!!), a toilet and squirt gun, and lovely shower with hot water :-D. The matronly lady who runs it is such a dear and the place just feels like home, it’s quiet, and in a less red-light part of town. It’s costing me 200B per night ($6.75) as opposed to 120B, but it is SO worth it, and hopefully one of the 150B rooms here will open up soon.

I feel so much happier about being here now that I’m happy with my living arrangements, before this I was feeling quite transitory.

I’ve been having a pretty lazy time here in Chiang Mai. I’ve been hanging out with people I’ve met randomly, but apart from that not a lot (as it should be). I saw Lenore again last night (the beautiful girl from Bangkok who happens to be in Chaing Mai too). We were both pretty flat; I think the heat combined with shitty sleeping at my old place was starting to get to me. But we hung out in the only park we could find in Chiang Mai and watched the locals play insanely skilled games with little bamboo balls, and talked about life and stuff and things. She’s one of those cool people who is enough like me that I want to listen to her, but has enough of her own different experiences to be able to challenge me. The best kind of person.

Chiang Mai is under the pallor of smoke at the moment. On top of the usual smog from the dirty vehicles they drive here, they’re also apparently “slashing and burning” their fields which is contributing greatly to the pollution. The sun was invisible for most of yesterday, and it was an orange disk when you could see it, so dim that you could look straight at it without squinting. And the surrounding mountains were lost in the haze. Going for much of a walk during the day is liable to give you smokers cough.

I believe I have discovered coffee. Once again, the food here blows me away. I had a little plunger full of what they called “hill tribe” coffee, and Oh My God!! Still very bitter, but so smooth and tasty!!! Like the difference in taste between a VB and a hand crafted beer, I forewent the sugar in spite of the fact that I often have 2, and I’m not feeling jittery after 2 cups!!! I shall have to be careful of this fabulous liquid. I’ve had coffee before which people tell me is great and I’ve certainly noticed “good” and “bad” coffee in Melbourne, but this stuff is in a whole different league. I just hope "hill tribe" isn't code for "abused and under paid children". The concept of fair trade does seem to be fairly widely understood in this city though I think. I should investigate.