Pug at the Poolside
Let’s just be honest, I was sold on the Pai Chan Cottages because this adorable goofball was lounging by the pool.
Life in Pai
I’m in Pai. It’s a little mountain hippie hangout nestled up close to Burma. To get here let’s just say there were about 720 winding turns. So 720 chances I was going to lose my lunch riding in the backseat of a bus. This is a photo of my guest house view. It’s comfortable, I slept under a mosquito net for the first time in my life. I had dinner with some people from Scotland, then wound up talking to a woman who runs a bikini business in Goa. Meandering back late to my guesthouse I was invited to a party in the bungalow next to mine. They fed me and gave me drinks. I ate some strange things in shells, I don’t even know how to describe the taste.
Evening to Dusk in Chiang Mai
The rain falls
Inside beauty parlor walls, pistachio green.
Large mirrors reflect three women preening
Talking in hushed whispers, chuckling over a joke.
Curling their sleek black hair in pastel rollers
Like my mother did when I was a girl.
But the young girl her hair is faded,
bubblegum pink
Her face smooth.
Her dark eyes watch the narrow street
The Farongs with their rented motorbikes go by
A man with tired shoulders pushes a cart of fried fish
A mango falls off a passing truck bed.
While I continue to sit here,
within pistachio green walls.
A small baby sleeps soundly on the massage table.
While the television screen flickers images,
of women in bright tight clothing
Thick ghostly white makeup. Fuchsia pink lips
Dancing before a golden Buddha wrapped in colored ribbons.
A laughing old woman appears
The actors feign being scared.
Then they laugh too.
The rain is slower now.
Overcast, the sky more brown then gray
As if the mountains are closing in,
The fog choosing to stay.
I’m too lost in this afternoon reverie.
I’ve gone too quiet. Unaccustomed to more,
then my own breathing.
Thinking slow and thinking fast
Only wandering down city streets
Gazing at the murky moat waters that cast no reflections of the palm fronds above.
Walking back now,
narrowly missing the puddles.
A tall man with sunglasses reads the paper at the French café
A scrawny orange cat darts under a table.
The hotelkeeper smiles when I pass the desk,
Sa-wat-dee kaa.
I lie on my bed listening to Latin and reggae
The fan moves stagnant air around
around and around and around.
It’s circular these patterns I make.
The night turns the hue of a ripened plum.
Chinese lanterns cast dim shadows over the pool water.
And the orange cat reappears,
I wonder if there is anything left of tonight.
Someone Who Shares My Excitement Over Morning Java
Things I’ve Learned Lately.
What I’ve learned lately.
- I am a very large person. At least their shoes fit.
- Hello Kitty and Angry Birds is thriving among the little tykes.
- Spicy Tuna Salads are an unavoidable part of the day.
- There is an air-conditioned 7-Eleven on almost every block. Use it as a brief escape from the heat.
- Sit in a café. Watch the people go by. Repeat again and again throughout the day.
- Rent a bike for 50 Baht. Ride around the city square in circles. The sights are new each time.
- Nap. Nap. Nap again.
- Don’t touch the monks robes.
- The air smells kind of fishy.
- Get a foot massage everyday. Your feet will love you.
Fruit stand in Chiang Mai.
These are everywhere in the old city, I wish I have a picture of the weird pink fruit I had for breakfast.
Wat Arun
Took a ferry for 3 baht to the Wat Arun temple in Thonburi, across the river from Bangkok.
Wat Pho- Temple of the Reclining Buddha
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