October 31, 2025
Portals and Pain
Chiang Mai 3
Portals and pain
Dear little friends,
Sleep patterns are slowly drifting toward normal. They ain’t there yet. So if we seem remarkably sluggish in our activity level you wouldn’t be wrong. But keep in mind that our travel has always been in mosey mode. We like seeing where we are. We like not having an itinerary and a timetable and a schedule of planned activities. We’ve seen most of the major sights there are to see around here, and some of them are worth seeing over and over but there is no compunction to see them again if we’re tired, it’s raining, or we’d rather go to a market and sit with our noodles or coffee and watch what’s going on.
My phone situation had been an irritant. I paid a higher-than-necessary amount to get a Thai eSIM onto my phone before we left home so we could hail a Grab at the airport at midnight. Well, that didn’t work because the eSIM didn’t work even though it showed up with bars and everything. So we brought our bikes down the two flights of stairs, did the shakedown cruise down the soi (we assembled them perfectly!) and cruised on out to the AIS store. But first, jok.
Jok is the Thai word for congee, rice porridge. Ours came with spidery strands of dried ginger laced across the top, lovely. A table of elderly Thai women sat nearby and caught up on the doin’s with great cheer. All wore black. The jok staff wore black, even to their aprons. I was wearing orange because that was what I packed. And you know, Halloween. Orange and black, it works.
At the AIS store, we waited for the designated English speaking staff to come out (everybody wearing black). He looked at my email receipt and kind of whistled under his breath, “ooh, you paid a lot”. Grrr. Yes, I paid three times normal to have it work on arrival! But live and learn. He did something mysterious and took another photo of me and my passport and by golly it worked. Yay! Bruce got his installed, and now we can go out into the wilderness and have service.
We needed to check out of our place by noon, and had two hours to kill before the next place so we took a ride around Chiang Mai and found a temple for me to chill in and watch the trees and Bruce to walk around and look at. Nearly all the other temples seem to be gearing up for Loy Krathong and are bustling and not the vibe I wanted.
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After doing the first fully loaded ride (wobble wobble) to our new hotel, we tied up the steeds to a bench and picnic table thing and hauled our bags to the elevator. This hotel couldn’t be more different from the down-home funky guesthouse we had just left. Sleek, spotless, huge rooms. But not much character. Sometimes after a rough stretch of travel we adore these bleak modern spaces but it’s a little early in the trip for that. But it’s nearing Loy Krathong and rooms are as scarce as hen’s teeth so we’re happy we are housed.
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One of the things I deal with is a back that is not my friend. Out of the 8 of the Brown siblings I may be the only one who hasn’t had surgery so it’s not outrageous that I’m in pain when I walk or stand. It hinders a lot of fun in life. But I’m perfectly comfortable on a bicycle seat so there’s that.
Anyway, we left Sleek House on a determined mission to have khao soi number 2 and stumbled onto a Burmese restaurant and it was an immediate “yes” to that. You see, it’s best sometimes to ignore the mission and embrace the yes. The food was amazing. Things we dare not eat in Burma itself because of improper hygienic conditions but love. It was an amazing feast and the waiter was a wonderful person with good English so we could talk with him about Myanmar. The world has right forgotten about the hell that is going on there still. It’s heartbreaking, but this fellow affirmed what we believe about the Burmese people. Kind, intelligent, with their hearts on their sleeves and always with a kernel of optimism in the face of monstrous obstacles.
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2 months ago
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After rolling out of the door we immediately stepped into a narrow, jam-packed shop full of dusty antique figures and this and that. We looked at all the things that Bruce wanted and even a few things I wanted (no shopping at the beginning of a trip! We can’t mail things home anymore!) a sparkly lady popped out of nowhere wielding sweaty bottles of water at us. “Free water! And here is a toilet! There is an organic garden in the back, come look!”
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2 months ago
My granddaughters have collected fairy garden miniatures and they recreate their fairy gardens in their magna-tile and lego structures. They are going trick-or-treating today as garden fairies with fluffy dresses and wings that light up and move. I’m far away and don’t get to see that but here was a real live garden fairy hovering right in front of me!
Do you know how often I’d like to have a garden fairy surrounded by ancient artifacts give me a cold bottle of water and access to a toilet? Like, every single day!
I don’t have time in this life or this journal to describe what all we saw in that shop (which mysteriously kept expanding like something from Alice in Wonderland) and the amazing garden. Gorgeous towering plants. A giant rice mill/silo that had historic designation. And stacks of antique stuff everywhere. Steps away outside the portal of this magical place of dark and light, artifacts and life, traffic roared and honked oblivious of this entryway to paradise.
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But here’s the rub. I’m standing around, gazing at it all. And I’m in pain. And it’s making this magical moment a lot less magical. I started edging toward the door. Sparkle Lady wanted us to choose an amulet and she would tell us what it meant. Her husband sat nearby with a beatifically loving gaze trained on her. Then his phone lit up with a warning that her blood sugar was at a dangerous level, he pointed at the device on her arm and dashed out the front door. She tossed that all off and continued the amulet discussion as she put our chosen ones into tiny ziplock bags.
Husband returned as we were stopped at the sidewalk entrance. He had run next door to the Burmese restaurant (which also served Thai and Indian) and ordered food for his diabetic darling. They stood there at the front of their shop, gazing at each other with pure adoration. Behind them dusty symbols of faith, love, compassion, community. My back hurt. My heart was full. I get tears just thinking about it.
Today's ride: 8 miles (13 km)
Total: 8 miles (13 km)
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2 months ago
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2 months ago
I appreciate how you blend the use of Burma and Myanmar in your writing. The people and food and history honored while still using the current name. Makes me mindful of the Saigon/Ho Chi Minh thing.
2 months ago
2 months ago