The Cosmos: Hey Matt, remember that last blog post you wrote, where you said that all the tourists in Chiang Mai, Thailand were a bunch of jerks?
Me: Yes, I remember that.
The Cosmos: Well, guess what? I’m going to fill your vacation with so many friendly, awesome, really cool interesting people from every corner of the globe that you’re going to feel like a big giant stupid jerk for making such a gross generalization.
Me: Well…okay. I guess.
What can I say? I had a wonderful trip. Despite the somewhat melancholy tone of my last post, I had a great time. I met dozens of amazing people; Swedes and Scots and Brits and Poles and Germans and French and Hungarians. I got super drunk and had great conversations. I saw sights. I bathed elephants. It was excellent.
Although breaking into social circles remains something of a mystery to me. I’ve never been very good at it, and it always seems like magic when I manage to crack the ice and a group of strangers actually starts to treat me like a human being, and they go from seeming like standoffish dicks to being really great people. I suppose there’s a trick to it, but damned if I know what it is. It just happens sometimes.
Anyway, I’m not ready to be back. Every time I leave Chiang Mai, it gets a little bit harder. Picture me at the airport, trying not to cry in front of the taxi driver. It’s strange, how a place can get under your skin like this.
Goodbye, Chiang Mai. I’ll be back again.
This place stinks. It smells like trash and durian and fetid tropical dumpsters. It’s too hot. It’s more humid than a sauna. The traffic is insane. It’s filthy. I fantasize about running rampant through the streets with a pressure washer. There are staggering levels of poverty on display. The pavement is uneven. Buildings are thrown together. Everything is falling apart.
There’s something about this crazy, ancient city that keeps me coming back.
And so, even if I’m usually keeping my own company, even if I’m just reading a book and drinking a cappuccino in one of the hundreds of little coffee shops and restaurants in the old city and watching the world move by, like a post in a stream, somehow I just enjoy being a part of it.
Matt Kincade 