Tuesday, 20th September

Tuesday

Although I only arrived in Chiang Mai yesterday, I already have a plan. With two hours of yoga booked for 10am and a massage afterwards, all I had to figure out was where to have breakfast.

Chiang Mai has so many cafes of all different kinds. I resist the European types - one even had a sign saying ‘Fareng Food Served’. Everywhere I’ve been has been good with the service standing out in each place. Coffee is a big deal in Chiang Mai and while my avo toast (with random hummus) was ok, the coffee was outstanding. I had planned to ease up on coffee prior to the meditation retreat next week, but I think I’ll practise living in the moment on that one.

Two hours of fantastic yoga - a perfect balance of challenging and do-able. I haven’t done yoga for over a year so it is great to get back on the mat and starting to rebuild my practise again.

A friend had recommended a temple nearby that offers massage. I had booked an upmarket spa, but when I easily found the temple after yoga, I quickly cancelled the spa. There was a battered homeless man on the steps of the temple who said, ‘Massage - very good.’ He didn’t look like a good advert for anything, but I found it reassuring nonetheless. Two hours of Mai’s mix of torture and bliss on a foam mattress in a hall of about 12 other people and I knew the man was right! Mai used a number of different techniques on my ‘velly bad shoulder’ - a wooden chisel thing, a ball of herbs, and just sheer thumb, elbow and foot force to dislodge the knots. Foam mats on the floor and basicness aside, I floated out of there tingling with Tiger Balm, change from $20, and ready for some very late lunch.

I found an art and culture space called Kalm which was seriously elegant. I bumped into an American woman who said ‘I’ve lived here for 19 years and never seen anything like this in Chiang Mai.’ I sat alone in the restaurant and pondered that it still waiting to be - very justifiably - discovered.

Walking back through the Old City I went into Wat Chedi Luang. You can’t walk past a temple like that without being drawn in. There are temples everywhere but this is huge and right in the middle of the Old City. I loved the golden reclining Buddha and the elephant shrines too.

There is something about traveling alone which makes everything very easy. There are no decisions to be negotiated; everything is just a response to whatever pops up. It’s very good for my attempts to ‘live in the present moment.’

If all my pictures make it look all spiritual, there is plenty of the profane too with tour shops, restaurants, hotels, tattoo parlors (no, not yet), weed shops and any and everything that may appeal to the varied tourists who fill the streets. Chiang Mai has a friendly, amiable vibe though, and life is taken at a much less frantic pace than Bangkok.

I keep meaning to go to the night bazaar, but the storm that has been building all day has hit with tropical force and spectacular lightning. Maybe tomorrow.