Mai, Pai, Rai

My journey through northern Thailand is nearing its end, for now. It's a beautiful part of the country, well worth more visits in the future. At the very least, I'm curious how the country changes as the cities continue growing. There's a lot of cool stuff here.

Chiang Mai is awesome. It attracts tons of tourists and harbors much traffic which generates lots of air pollution. I mean this relatively, since the air is drier and cleaner than that of Bangkok, by far. Most appealing to me is the music scene. True to my word, I visited the North Gate Jazz Co-Op every single night I stayed in this city. The joint is really inspirational. In addition, I checked out the Roots reggae bar, Good View, and Nabe, all establishments with fine live music by local talent. Walking through sois, I even spotted some solo acts entertaining tourists with the familiar western songbook. That's nice, I guess, but if it's not jazz or Thai or the myna's birdsongs, I'm not too interested.

Loi Krathong, the Thai lantern festival, attracts many tourists to Chiang Mai. It was a bit difficult finding housing during the three-day event. Lucky for me, I found a newly opened hostel close to the East Gate, where much of the festivities took place. Nevertheless, I underestimated the draw of tourists to the city for this festival. Like a salmon running up cascades in Alaskan rivers, I fought my way through currents of people. The crowds were insane, not to mention hot. Countless sky lanterns streamed from designated release points, lighting the sky with streams of luminescence. Meanwhile, candles adorned the Meping River with a similar spectacle as people released krathongs--banana leaf boats. Streets flooded with vendors and tourists, who often stopped to examine wares and sample fares. I found it quite frustrating, and for a moment I regretted my decision to choose Chiang Mai over Ventiane for the festival. Loi Krathong in Chiang Mai is not something I'd necessarily see twice, especially given how uncomfortable I felt in these mobs. Good Lanna dance and music, though. It's a good place to be, all things considered.

After the festival, I considered sticking around for the next open mic at the jazz bar. Already feeling bored with daytime in the blazing hot city, I decided to take a short trip to Pai. This "village" is in the middle of nowhere, a 3-hour bus ride from Chiang Mai through winding mountain roads. What I found on arrival was not just a lively night market, but also a raging bar scene. Shocking, I saw so many hippies. Innumerable hippies seemed to outnumber the local Thai people. Often sporting dreadlocks and elephant-patterned pants, these people come from all over the world. Many settle in Pai, where they enjoy an intimate, artistic local community, affordable and good quality living, clean air and nature. I can see myself putting roots there, myself. Not that I would anytime soon. I do wonder about how this place, especially, will change. It already seems so different from the quiet place my sister visited years ago. The music scene in Pai is surprisingly developed, complete with rock and reggae and EDM and jazz. My favorite spot on this short visit was Mojo's Cafe, a cozy jazz and blues bar with connections to my spoy in Chiang Mai. The next time I visit Pai, I plan to stay longer. A week, maybe more!

My return to Chiang Mai was chill and relaxing, albeit somewhat dull. I mean, I'd already explored most of the city's offerings from the tourist-trodden Old City to the ritzy malls of the New City. I killed a lot of time at the hostel, meditating and meeting travelers. I also managed to check off a bucketlist item: meet elephants.

The elephant sanctuary I visited in Doi Inthanon National Park filled me with mixed emotions. Here I was, face to face with charismatic megafauna, specifically the matriarch of the small herd (if I can call it a herd). Large, majestic, noble, intelligent, gentle. And yet, she's always eating. Okay, maybe not so gentle, as she didn't seem to care for anyone without food. Elephants are so large, they must eat a lot of food. This underscores the challenge the animals face: finding enough food to survive. Even the two-month old baby elephant is massive, consuming mother's milk and tourists' bananas. Maybe some of the confusion I felt came from how much of a spectacle the elephants are to tourists, my group consisting of white Europeans. It made me wonder, aside from the local Karen people who feed and care for the animals out of tradition and economic opportunity, elephants must think we are strange apes. I also got the sense that they, or at least the grandmother elephant, do not like smartphones. Maybe their senses are attuned to the EMF signatures of the devices. Overall a pleasant excursion, I decided that the sanctuary offers a reasonable compromise between keeping the elephants safe and happy while offering tourists the chance to interact with them safely. To my delight, I did not feel sick the next day after I had eaten jungle curry and bathed in mud (with elephant shit) and a river.

And on my return to Chiang Mai, I played with many amazing musicians at a particularly lively Tuesday-night jam at the jazz bar.

My stay in Chiang Mai ran an extra day after a hilarious incident. Ready to leave for Chiang Rai, I noticed my backpack went missing. The hostel staff checked security footage and found my bag in the possession of a German boy, whose bag remained at the front desk. Oddly, his bag was black and large, while mine was blue and relatively small. How he made the mistake baffles me, especially since he never realized his error. Only at the airport xray machine did he find his bag missing, and he assumed someone had stolen it at the airport. Thanks to quick action by the hostel staff, I retrieved my bag. I still missed my bus, but that gave me one more night at the jazz bar. I learned that Wednesday night is also a fun one, there, with the final set featuring covers of western pop hits including Pharrell Williams, Beyonce, and Bruno Mars. The crowd, at that point mostly tourists, reveled and danced to familiar songs performed by local talent. All things considered, I had a great time in Chiang Mai.

When I finally arrived in Chiang Rai, I found a starkly different city with a similar name.

Narrow streets, comparatively low traffic, cleaner air, generally older crowds of foreigners, not much nightlife. The city offers much beauty, especially in terms of nature and temples. The Buddhist temples here are some of the most beautiful. Guided by two locals, I visited the white temple, the blue temple, the large Guan Yin, and the black house in one afternoon. That's pretty much all there is for me to do here, given my apathy for night market shopping and the associated crowds. The local people are chill. I lucked out in that my hostel features locals performing pop music on Friday and Saturday evenings. Almost exclusively downtempo ballads, they have talent. Also they were kind enough to let me join for a few songs. None of the music seemed to be in original keys, however, so I had to use my ear to find the right notes. It was a bit of a struggle, but fun nonetheless. A quiet city replete with opportunities to relax and chill out, Chiang Rai deserves additional visits if only to interact with friendly locals.

This concludes my journey through northern Thailand, for now. Soon, I board a bus to Luang Prabang in Laos. It will be only my second country visited on this trip, so far. I don't know what to expect. I just hope, and from what I've heard, it's another beautiful and relaxing city.