Chiang Mai days
I haven’t been posting as much lately because life has taken on a rhythm. Not in the negative ‘wake up, go to the office’ way but in a reassuring, comfortable way. Here’s my day:
6am – Come bolt awake and apparently in the middle of a long thought process. I lay quietly for a couple of hours letting my mind do its work.
8am – Get up and put myself together.
8:30am – Go downstairs for breakfast. Every morning I have a big bowl of muesli with yogurt and fruit and two cups of coffee. Over the coffees, I write for a couple of hours. I am still deeply in the process of developing a very roughly sketched novella into a fully realized framework for a novel. The plot needs work, the characters need work, the themes need work…even though I feel like I’m moving very fast with it, it’s still slow – if that makes sense.
11am – Walk to Internet cafe & check email for an hour or so.
12pm – Go back to my room and do the previous day’s laundry. I prefer to do my own handwashing because otherwise my clothes won’t last a month with the harsh treatment they get when you send your laundry out. In between doing the washing, I spend time thinking, writing or reading. I’m currently reading The Elementary Particles by Michel Houellebecq. It’s so fantastic that I’ve found myself wanting to do nothing else but I’m trying to drag it out as long as possible.
1pm – Lunch! I usually have a sandwich and a glass of juice (best orange juice ever).
1:30pm – After lunch, I take a walk and run any errands that need doing, like going to the ATM or visiting a bookshop. I try to wrap this up by 3 or 4pm so I don’t get stuck in the afternoon rain shower.
4pm – A quick stop by the Internet cafe if I have a blog entry in mind to write, then back to the hotel for more think/write/read action.
6pm – Dinner, during which I usually try a new Thai dish. I didn’t like Thai food at home and I’m still not a convert, but I am slowly putting together a small repertoire of dishes that I enjoy well enough.
7pm – Shower & watch the news on CNN or BBC. Not that I care tremendously for world events but this is the only social time I get during the day.
8pm – Read for as long as I can stay awake.
12:30am – Get woken up by unbelievably repetitive crap techno music coming from the next room over (this has only been happening since the Eurotrash Disco Dude moved in & I desperately hope he’ll be leaving soon).
You’ll notice that not once during this routine (and my days are pretty much following this exact pattern) do I speak to another person except to pay for a meal. This could become a problem. I hope I find another foreigner to talk to soon because it’s now been over a week and a half since I’ve been able to speak at a normal pace without using some degree of charades. There are not so many foriengers around and the ones who are tend to be closed off couple types. Keep your fingers crossed that I find someone to talk to before I go mad. The end. Bye!
Tags: Chiang Mai, Thailand
sandra_101
Leave a Reply