How Aoife Got Her Groove Back
I am well on the way to fully entertaining my hippy tendencies.
We arrived in Chiang Mai around the middle of October (time means nothing and in fact I may have already written about Chiang Mai but because I am now fully “chilled out” I don`t care and am going to continue writing), and it`s been the most relaxing week of the trip so far. Well. Apart from spending 2 separate days hunting for affordable accomodation that is. A bitch to find a nice place in Chiang Mai that I can afford, but whatever. It`s only a bed.
I went to night market after night market after day market after mid-morning market and spent a total fortune on a pile of hippy trousers and presents for everyone at home. I rolled out of bed whenever I wanted and drank fancy coffees at swanky coffee bars. I ate Western food and felt guilty so immediately bought a banana pancake to make up for it. I read and walked and got lost and found myself again and got sunburned while I was lost but didn`t care because I spotted some cows during my walk and it was totally worth it. Cows are waaay skinnier here but have nice little bumps on their heads which makes up for it I think.
I got drunk on Thai beer and got chatted up by a dirty Dutch guy who couldn`t say it without spraying it. After getting rid of him, I found myself in a “club” AKA Spicy (read girly bar) which changes from girly to clubby after twelve. My arse. Plenty of girlies available for all. But still fun. But when a shiny faced tuk tuk driver offered to walk me to my hostel I decided it was the right time to make a hasy exit. Girly and tuk tuk driver-less of course.
Holy shit, Ronan Keating is being played in the bar I`m in!
*nostalgic sigh*
A few kilometers from Chiang Mai there`s a little village called Bo Sang that operates an umbrella, um, factory, I guess you could call it. About 20 or so Thai people sit around putting together bits of the umbrella, dying the paper, painting on the designs, waterproofing the whole thing. A shop next door sells all the produce, and I felt like a total criminal walking around the place. Everywhere I walked, somebody followed me. Skinny Lady was first, with School Girl taking over from her at the wooden frog section. We decided to play them at their own game and split up. I headed for the elephant purses, Lorraine for the parasols and Ken just kinda wandered aimlessly. I could see the confusion registering on their faces. But they soon recruited Little Old Lady to form a solid triangle of sales advice. And of course I bought 2 umbrellas. Bastids.
And then there was Pai. Oh Pai. Pai in the sky. A little town in the mountains that revels in it`s own intimacy and happy vibes. I`m sitting in an outdoor bar surrounded by fairylights and pure distilled chilled out ness. Honestly if the place was anymore relaxed, everyone would walk backwards.
There`s a huge expat community there. After millions of hours trying to find somewhere to stay, we were sorted out by an expat Irish guy who figured everything out for us, even driving us around in his huge fuck off dump truck thing to check places out. Later that night, after floating from a cocktail stand to Jan`s birthday party (no idea who Jan is but there were balloons and a guy playing some kind of flute thing), the same Irish guy yelled to us “Jump into the back! Party at Bebops!”
Um. Ok. Why not I guess.
So we were ferried from bebop bar to bamboo bar all night, stopping off at intervals to pick up randomers we met on the road. I cannot emphasise enough how weirdly fun the whole night was.
My hangover only lasted 24 hours. Unfortunately the memories are already long gone from my gin soaked brain cells. But I KNOW I had fun, so that`s good enough for me.
Speaking of fun…….I drove a scooter for the first time and by Jesus it`s the most fun you can have with you clothes on. And I didn`t die. Great success!
Tags: Thailand, Travel
aoifka
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