21st September

Wednesday

I’d heard about a totally vegan hotel nearby so I went there for breakfast. It was not what I expected with marble floors and white on white throughout. The breakfast was great - real Thai food minus the fish sauce. I won’t be back but interesting to see so many vegan places popping up everywhere; its becoming more mainstream.

Dropped my laundry off at a hole in the wall where they charge 50 baht per kilo which is just over a quid.

Yoga class at Wild Rose as usual. Rose is lovely - so invested in everyone and the class. She is quite detail oriented which is probably why the studio runs so well. I struggled today - it was a hard class and my enthusiasm of day 1 and 2 is clearly waning by day 3. I cancelled the afternoon slot, feeling I needed a break. I went for coffee with a guy from the class - Michael - who has given up teaching to train as a yoga teacher and move from Chicago to live in Thailand. We had a great iced coffee next to the terracotta hotel you’ll see in the pictures. The monks in red were just passing and were so friendly. I wanted to photograph them just walking but they wanted to chat and talk although they spoke no English. English is not widely spoken here - a few words here and there - but communication is not easy. I am getting by with pigeon English and if all else fails a few improvised gestures and signs.

Time for my temple torture with Mai. Two hours of pain as she tried all efforts and techniques to shift the knots in my back. More of the wooden hammer and chisel (tok sen- see below). More heat. More tiger balm. More pressure. She says it will shift but who knows when. I left feeling quite washed out but decided to walk the perimeter of the city.

Chiang Mai Old City (some call it Old Town) is 1.5 square kilometers and has a moat running all around it. Some of the old walls are still intact and the large gates still stand. I found that not much of the perimeter has a pavement but it was interesting to see different aspects of the city other than the touristy stuff.

My dinner date got shifted to Thursday so with clear sky’s and nothing planned I headed off to the night bazaar. I wished I wasn’t traveling with just hand luggage so I could splurge but I bought a few small things for my retreat next week and soaked up the atmos. I got a tuk-tuk back home - the first proper rip off I am aware of so far - 50 baht for a 5 minute tuk-tuk ride - probably a good 50p over the odds.