Programming, markets, and longs necks

Well, it’s been a while since I last wrote. So here I am. I’m still in the same little room as before in Chiang Mai, and for the most part I’ve done absolutely nothing touristy whatsoever. After a little while I started realising that there’s absolutely nothing I have to do, no parties I simply must be at, no dinners I can’t miss without offending someone, nobody depending on me for anything, nothing at all. It was a wonderful realisation! So then I spent about 5 days straight programming for 12 hours a day. Living here is perfect for being productive, you walk out your front door and eat something super tasty when you’re hungry, you sleep when you’re tired, and you can do it all for under $10 a day. I went a bit crazy though and started shifting my sleeping patterns into crazy hours so I’ve had a few days break now which was good. And I think that was actually really good for me. Being a hermit for a while makes me much more conscious of how I am when I’m around people, and makes me really look forward to being social again. It’s seems a bit strange, but makes sense in my mind. And I keep reminding myself that I’m here for so long that I don’t have to go and do every touristy thing that other people do. So long as I’m enjoying myself it just doesn’t matter.

The other night I went out and got outrageously drunk, and I’m not sure why. I hadn’t meant to do that anymore. I had a great night, drank 7 long necks I think, and I’m still dealing with the results 36 hours later. The people I went with were lots of fun, a Pome boy and girl, a French girl, and a Scandinavian girl. We went and tore up the dance floor at this reggae club, and later at this horrible trashy normal club. A debaucherous night to be sure, and one I don’t intend to repeat. I’m really not sure what came over me, 1314 Baht down my diary tells me, that’s about 3-4 days of normal living.

We had some storms here about a week ago and they were beautiful. They’re different to home, we rarely get that bright purple, almost red lightning in Melbourne, but here it’s the norm. I was hanging out with some people upstairs in their hotel when a bolt hit so close that the whole room lit up bright red and shook like we were having an earth quake. It was amazing. The rain we had cleared the air a whole lot and we can now see the mountains around the city and the sun is more than just a pale red disk.

I wonder about the physical and hormonal changes that happen when you travel. I’ve only really been to S.E. Asia, so maybe people who have been elsewhere can help me out here. But I notice things all the time. Like my finger nails grow insanely fast over here, several times faster than normal at least and other people here have noticed it also. I think I’ve got more testosterone in my body based on changes in my smell, although I seem to smell much less over here, and I generally feel pretty fantastic. I’ve known other guys say that they also feel really healthy over here, but I’ve known girls who say they feel much less healthy so I wonder whether there’s something I’m getting over here that’s good for boys but lacking in western diet. But then the girls who have felt less healthy are generally vegetarian or vegan back home so maybe they’re just healthier than me on average and less so over here due to lack of control of their diet, or maybe the diet over here is much more designed to be complimented by meat. But then it’s difficult to find a restaurant here in Chiang Mai without at least an entire page devoted to vegetarian meals, many are completely vegetarian, probably a much higher proportion than Melbourne, so I’m not sure about that. One thing I do know is that chilli is a gift from the gods!! I can’t get enough of it here, I must have doubled my tolerance since landing and I wasn’t shy of hot food before. I always end up buying red curries, or loading anything else up with spoonfuls of the fresh chilli’s in oil they have everywhere here. I’m surprised that I want it so much in this heat, but my body just continually craves it.

Well, anyway, that seems pretty long already so I’ll sign off there and try and do more regular updates. I hope you’re all well.

Frankie.

P.S. Here are some photos:

This first one is a spirit house in a restaurant here. The Thai’s have a mix of Buddhism and ancestor or spirit worship. They believe that the spirits of their ancestors live with them, so they build these tiny little ornate houses to encourage their ancestors to live apart from the family. As can be seen there are often offerings of food, incense and drink to make them happy. Even in the biggest cities you’ll find these things taking up real estate. They’re very cute.

This next one is a photo of the Moat around the old city. It’s quite nice, although you wouldn’t want to swim in the water, I’m not sure how the fish manage.

SPIRAL CHIP!!! Made out of one whole potato!!! This one had so much MSG that I got a headache from it. Over here MSG is a natural product, not bad for you at all, it comes from potatoes. No amount of arguing can convince them otherwise.

Still at the Sunday market, you can eat BUGS!!! Lots and lots of bugs!!! I haven’t yet, seems crazy to me. I need somebody to egg me on.

Here is an example of their handiwork. The colours they make over here are out of this world. These vests were so amazing that I had to take a photo of them.

Same shop, such amazing clothes. Though I wear predominantly girls clothes already, I unfortunately haven’t made the jump to skirts yet. But these ones are cool!!

Some more market with a temple behind. The statues are Singha lions I believe, I’m not sure what they signify. Northern Thailand is actually culturally very different from the south in culture, food, architecture, and even language. Well, they’re all still Thai’s I guess, but the north has had much more influence from the surrounding countries over the ages.

I’m not sure why I included this one. One of the few photos I have of myself and it happened to be the one night I drink an outrageous amount of beer at a reggae bar. I have no idea who that black guy is, but he was probably a really great guy.

And in stark contrast, a particularly photogenic flower I found pushing out through the bars of a fence.