Lazy Life in Chiang Mai

While sitting in the Rod Siang Beer Garden, where you can find me every afternoon around 3PM with a tall bottle of beer and an empty plate in front of me, I realized that I have a routine. I get up in the morning, go to breakfast around 8AM at the hotel buffet (fried rice, a chicken dish, a poached egg, toast with butter and jelly, pineapple juice and orange drink mixed together and coffee to finish it off) and head into town walking past a couple miles of shops along the way (most of which I have no idea what they sell because all the signs are in Thai).

On today's trip, my mission was to find an internet cafe. This is how I've come to notice that many businesses do not keep regular hours. I found an open one next door to a massage parlor that offered a 60 minute body scrub for 300 baht or $10. Although it was tempting, I opted to just purchase a tub of salt scrub and moisturizer from the pharmacy and do it myself.

Another realization I had today was that, no matter how unfamiliar the surroundings, I cannot possibly be stimulated all the time. I have to get bored; it's inevitable. I've been writing more and more and reading Alex's book ("Eat, Pray, Love" if I hadn't mentioned it before).

Ice cream is also part of my daily routine. I usually wait until dusk to go down to the 7-Eleven and get some, but today I figured why wait. The ice cream here is not as sweet as at home, but just as satisfying. I'm too full to eat it right now, but I can skip the extra trip to go get it later.

I switched rooms today, and my new view is much more interesting. It faces the side of town that isn't on the tourist maps. The mystery of it is going to change tomorrow's routine. I think I'll wander off in that direction tomorrow. There's a bunch of buildings and gas stations that way, so something has to be over there. There's also a white building with an ornamental red roof that may be something I can take a photo of. We'll see.

Did I mention that the best and cheapest Thai massages are given by the students at the School for the Blind? Yeah, it's kinda creepy at first but you get over it quickly.
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