Other than my first night in town, which devolved into a sweaty, Jager-soaked, bar-hopping hot mess with a South African expat, my stay was perfectly pleasant and exactly what I was looking for. I worked my usual hours during the day and then met up with friends – old and new – in the evenings. Chiang Mai felt almost exactly the same as last year, with the usual closing or relocation of familiar places and opening of new ones. Most notably, THC Bar moved out of the no-way-this-passes-fire-inspection death trap of a building and found a new home down the street. I still have no idea how that place stayed open for that long.

Once my friend Laurie had arrived in town, I met up with her in the evenings. I’d suggest a different restaurant and nightlife option each evening and she would tell me about whatever excursion or tourist activity she had done that day.

Throughout the week, we visited an artists’ village just outside of town, met up with my friend Pim (of Citylife) to go to her friends’ anniversary/Christmas party, wandered the Sunday night walking street, listened to live music at North Gate Jazz and Boy Blues Bar, watched Muay Thai at Thapae Stadium, enjoyed the full sensory experience that is Zoe’s, ate late-night crepes on the street, drank beers by the river at Bus Bar, and treated ourselves to peaceful foot massages at Wat Mahawan, one of my favorite temples in the city.

And as usual, I hit up all my favorite spots in town and discovered some new ones too. Get ready for lots of photos of food.

Peppermint for Thai food:

Fresh & Wraps for breakfast:

Italics & Rise at Akyra Manor for fancy Italian food:

Cat House for breakfast:

Kanjana for khao soi:

The Swan for Burmese food:

Lert Ros for grilled fish:

Farm Story House for Thai, Isan, and Burmese food:

Cooking Love for Thai food:

And a different place every morning for my requisite Thai omelette:

Just like last year, the last day of work was incredibly satisfying. My project was in excellent shape and I had reached a natural milestone; the next task on the list was fairly big in scope, so it made sense to defer that until 2018. I finished working at a cafe on Saturday morning and closed my laptop for the day, the week, the month, and the year. Free!

That night – my last night in town – I met up with my friend May, who I’ve known since my first month in Chiang Mai, way back in 2013. She had recently bought a bar south of old city, so I got an Uber and stopped by in the evening to catch up over beers and spicy food.

Much to my immense disappointment, I had heard through the grapevine that the entire Zoe’s complex was going to be demolished in a few months because the land had been sold. Supposedly they’ll be relocating the bars to a new location somewhere, but we all know it’s not going to be the same. I insisted that May and I go there one last time, so I hopped on the back of her motorcycle and we went.

We sat and drank Thai beer with ice in it and chatted with all the random friends that appeared out of nowhere. We watched the dancing backpackers in their elephant pants and the ladyboys in their tight dresses and the children hustling to sell flowers and trinkets. We reminisced about past party nights and talked about her boyfriend and her new business. And as if on cue, about ten feet away from us, a severely inebriated backpacker with a massive head of curly hair stood up, took one step, and executed the most beautiful, perfect faceplant I’ve ever seen. Peter Griffin would be so proud.

Don’t ever change, Zoe’s.

As the two friends of the sentient rag doll tried to help him up, the bars started closing, so I finished my beer and said goodbye to everyone. I walked home down empty streets, passing the occasional stray dog, listening to the far-off sounds of motorbikes, and admiring the full moon.

Don’t let the above photo fool you; December 8th was not a fun travel day. To begin with, I had a very full day at home: working, packing, cleaning, preparing my apartment for my Airbnb guest, and trying to fight off a cold. After going to a friend’s company’s holiday party in the evening, I went home to grab my bags and start my 30-hour travel day: a few hours at SFO, a 14-hour flight to Taipei, a few hours in the airport there, a 4-hour flight to Bangkok, a couple more hours in an airport, and finally a 2-hour bus ride to Pattaya. Uuuggghhh.

The entire travel day actually went very smoothly since I had planned out all my transportation in advance and nothing was delayed. However, I’m unable to sleep on planes – even with chemical assistance – and I’m 6’3″ on a good day, so long flights are a real test of patience and pain endurance. Everything ended up being fine in the end, but my tolerance for long, uncomfortable journeys has definitely gone down. Needless to say, I was incredibly relieved upon finally reaching my hotel in Pattaya.

I should probably take this opportunity to explain why I went to Pattaya, a city infamous – even for Thailand! – for its red light districts and sex tourism. My only reason for going was logistics: Pattaya is the closest seaside getaway from Bangkok. I knew that after such a brutal travel day I would want sun, sand, and Singha; Pattaya has all those things within a 2-hour drive of the capital. The local airport also has a direct flight to Chiang Mai, my subsequent destination. And I had never been to Pattaya before, so in the interest of going somewhere new, it made sense. Plus I could be witness to a spectacle of unadulterated humanity and vice, which is always entertaining.

Allow me to try to summarize Pattaya.

For those of you who have been to Thailand, Pattaya is Khaosan Road in Bangkok multiplied by Soi Bangla on Phuket. There are multiple red light districts with literally hundreds of bars, dance clubs, girlie bars, massage parlors, and go-go bars (strip clubs). Pretty Thai women (and ladyboys) in tight mini-dresses and stilettos catcall everyone within shouting distance. Groups of Thai women, gay boys, or ladyboys sit outside the massage parlors, calling out “Meestah you want massage?!” while trying to grab the arms of potential patrons walking by. Wide-eyed Chinese tourists slowly drift around in massive groups, sometimes wearing identical outfits, but always wearing their backpacks facing frontwards, clutching them tightly as if Thailand was populated exclusively by purse-snatchers who could strike at any moment.

And then there are the farang: a few gap-year backpackers, a few honeymooning couples, some young parents with babies in strollers, a few trashy Russians on holiday, and a small clique of pretty, 20-something Russian girls who work there. But the real demographic of Western visitors is the fraternity of bald, fat, or ugly – pick any two, maybe all three – older white men who bankroll this town. Such men are often accompanied by a Thai woman twenty, thirty, or even forty years his junior.

Even with all the crazy shit I’ve seen on my travels, the one thing that still creeps me out every time, without fail, is seeing young white women working in the sex industry in Thailand. I have so many questions! Why can’t you do this in your home country? Why would you travel so far to earn third-world money? What men are traveling to Thailand to pay for a night with a white chick? I’m not sure I’ll ever understand.

Also, who the fuck is bringing their babies and children to Pattaya?! And then taking them for walks around town at night?! There were multiple nominees for “Parent of the Year” during my 48-hour stay. No eight-year-old kid needs to be bombarded with the screams of dozens of scantily-clad prostitutes and the sleazy salesmanship tactics of drug dealers and touts for ping pong shows.

With that colorful backdrop, I spent my weekend eating, sleeping, getting massages, reading my book by the rooftop pool at my hotel, and in the evenings, sitting at bars and watching the free entertainment with some new friends.

On a lighter note, apparently the new thing in tourist Thailand is VR! On Walking Street, the most popular strip of nightlife in town, there were multiple stations where tourists could strap on VR goggles and go on a virtual roller coaster ride while everyone else watched the video on TVs. Truth be told, the VR was good enough that people would flip out and fall over if they weren’t being physically restrained by those running the show.

And even though Pattaya certainly isn’t known for its food, the first meal I had – a random assortment of fried snacks – was spicier than anything I’ve eaten in months in America. It was good to be back.

On Sunday, I flew from the small, ex-military airport south of town up to Chiang Mai for a week of working remotely and seeing some old friends. My manager – who enjoys traveling and Thai food just as much as I do – graciously agreed to my proposal of working remotely when I talked to him about vacation plans a few months ago. In an effort to prove that it was a good decision, I decided to spend that week in a place that I’m familiar with and can be very productive in, rather than a new place where I might struggle to get work done.

Much to my chagrin, my first day in Chiang Mai was not productive at all, at least with respect to work. Because I slept late in an effort to correct my body’s sleep schedule, it didn’t make sense to pay for a full day at my usual coworking space, so I played a round of let’s-try-cafe-wifi-networks-today. And lost. On top of spotty WiFi, my company’s IT department had upgraded their VPN infrastructure that weekend and I continued to have problems (shocker) for the next 24-48 hours.

Sensing the workday was going to be washed out, I salvaged things personally by getting a haircut, wash, and head massage ($9 total) at my usual spot in town, followed by a $4 foot massage in the late afternoon at Wat Mahawan, which has always been a first-day Chiang Mai tradition for me. As usual, the temple was a wonderfully peaceful respite from the city’s traffic and noise and I spent the hour watching the monks tend to their gardening duties around the temple grounds.

Starting the next day, the week ended up being incredibly productive work-wise. In fact, I’m pretty certain I was more productive that week than I normally am back home, mainly due to zero distractions. Because my work schedule hardly overlapped with anyone else on my team, I wasn’t distracted by emails, Slack notifications, or people coming over to my desk. Once I worked through the backlog of messages every morning, which didn’t take long at all, the rest of the day was completely mine. And unlike my usual commute through the dirty, crazy jungle of Mid-Market in San Francisco, the walk through old city every morning was quite pleasant.

It took a couple days before I really settled into the flow there, but I can remember the exact moment it happened. I was walking home one evening, feeling a tiny bit hungry, when I came upon a street vendor selling mango sticky rice. I sat down on a cheap plastic stool at a cheap plastic table and ate with a cheap plastic spoon out of a cheap foam container. A Jason Mraz concert DVD played on a portable TV and I hummed along while cockroaches scurried among the bags of trash on the ground. As I ate some of the best mango sticky rice I’ve ever had, I glanced up at the dark sky, punctuated by the clear white light of a bright full moon. It was every Thai cliche at once and it was perfect.

My non-work time that week was spent catching up with friends and going to all my favorite spots in old city. A couple of my personal favorites had closed but the staples were all still there. I made sure to savor two of my favorite things about Chiang Mai: khao soi and the subtle joy of walking the old city’s tiny, quiet sois late at night.

After a week that went by way too quickly, I had a farewell dinner with my friends Jay and Mel before packing and getting ready for the next adventure. I could stay in Chiang Mai for months on end (and I have), but new lands await. Onward to Laos!

Thailand

Ayu and I flew from Hanoi to Bangkok, picked up the blue duffel bag of souvenirs and gifts we had left in the airport, killed time for the rest of the day, and flew to Chiang Mai in the evening. We had really wanted to take the bus or train for the experience, but everything was sold out since Songkran was just around the corner. We spent two fun weeks in Chiang Mai, enjoying the four days of water fights of Songkran and lots of cheap Thai food and massages. As with last year, I didn’t dare take my camera out for fear of it getting water-damaged, but if you search YouTube, you’ll get a pretty good idea of what we were up to.

During our stay in Chiang Mai, we also went to Pai, a “chill, counter-culture, hippie mountain town”, to paraphrase the common sentiment echoed among Southeast Asia backpackers. My advice: don’t go to Pai. It’s overrun with the same types of people you’d find on Khao San Road in Bangkok, the tourist sites aren’t that great, and it’s a long, quasi-nauseous minivan ride to get there from Chiang Mai. Our 48-hour trip was, at best, completely forgettable; at worst, we wasted two days of our lives.

After Chiang Mai, we flew to Phuket, met up with another friend from America, and took a boat to Koh Phi-Phi, where we had four days of cloudy, but still awesome, beach and island time. I came down with tummy issues for the first time in about fifteen months, so I gave myself a small pat on the back for that. For about a day, I stayed within sprinting distance of the toilet and popped Pepto pills, activated charcoal, and antibiotics like candy.

We took a boat back to Phuket and spent three days on Surin Beach, a quiet beach far from the rowdiness of Patong, to savor our last few days in Thailand. There was lots of Thai food, sunsets, and bittersweet nostalgia (especially for me) before moving on to Indonesia.

Bali

We flew from Phuket to Bali by way of Singapore and once we landed, I left for Ubud for a few days while the girls went to Canggu. I thought Ubud would be a great place for me to be productive with a number of laptop tasks I had, but it turned out to be the straw that broke the camel’s back. I’ll explain.

It wasn’t anything in particular, but rather the classic “death by a thousand cuts”. I had to walk around town in the heat for an hour to find a new power adapter because mine didn’t fit in those stupid circular outlets. Every WiFi connection I tried was unreliable. My guesthouse room had one of those stupid one-handed showers and daily power outages. The local coworking space was full at 10:00 in the morning and charging $20 a day, as if this was San Francisco. The streets were a constant stream of motorbikes and noise, as usual, and the road construction in front of my guesthouse caused more congestion and air pollution than normal. The sidewalks were full of slow-moving, day-tripping tourists. About once a minute, a tout somewhere asked me if I needed a ride. And those little fucking ants that you find everywhere in Bali got into my Toblerone bar.

Seriously, I lost my shit after that. Those little fuckers.

I suddenly felt homesick and tired. Very tired. Really, really tired of everything and everyone around me. Tired of dealing with third-world bullshit. Tired of constantly dealing with logistics. Tired of packing and unpacking my stuff. Dare I say it, but I became very tired of traveling.

Before arriving in Ubud, I was hoping that it would be a familiar home away from home, like Chiang Mai. And while it did feel familiar, it also felt weird and distant, like I was in a place that I should have left in my past and not returned to. On my first full day there, I called Ayu after I ordered lunch and all I could tell her on the phone was: “I’m tired and I want to go home. I’m thinking of leaving tomorrow.” We talked for a bit and after we hung up, I sat by myself in the restaurant, ate my food, and cried.

I remember talking to a friend last summer about his Southeast Asia backpacking adventure and he told me about how and when and where he hit his breaking point. For him, it was Cambodia; he had a bad day, flipped a (metaphorical) table, and bought a plane ticket home. For me, it was Ubud that broke my spirit. I realize that it isn’t fair to Ubud or Indonesia to say that since it could have happened anywhere, but that’s where it happened to me. I’m convinced every long-term traveler will reach his or her breaking point eventually and that happened to me after 638 days on the road.

After a lazy, unproductive day (to minimize the chances of something else annoying me) and another night of sleep, I was able to shake off most of my freak-out. No, I didn’t go home the next day as I threatened, but I did feel very checked out. I started to let others make most of the travel arrangements and my camera rarely left its home in my daypack. The only photo I took during my time in Ubud was of my (admittedly phenomenal) view of the neighboring rice paddy. Sadly, that view was the only thing keeping me sane; I especially enjoyed it when a thunderstorm rolled through and I could watch the rain and lightning from the comfort of my patio.

I left Ubud a few days later and met up with the girls on Nusa Lembongan, a small island to the east of Bali, appropriately described by some as how Bali was decades ago. We had six really lovely, relaxed days on the island: two snorkeling trips, lots of swimming in our hotel’s excellent pool, multiple movie nights at the open-air cinema/restaurant down the road, multiple meals of the biggest and best nasi campur I’ve ever had in my life, and lots of sunsets and sundowners.

Nusa Lembongan single-handedly restored my faith in Bali, especially considering my disillusionment with the popular parts of Bali that are overcrowded and overdeveloped. I owe Ayu a million thanks for taking us there.

And speaking of said overdeveloped parts, I spent my last few days on the island in Seminyak, enjoying Indonesian food, some shopping, and a three-hour treatment at a local spa. For better or worse, that’s how I wrapped up my time in Southeast Asia. (For now.)

Hopefully I’ll feel refreshed and energized enough in the coming weeks to write a separate blog post that summarizes the last year of my travels. This post feels too informative (and a bit too depressing) to serve as the final chapter, so I’ll make an effort to write that chapter separately in the near future.

Since I spent all my time catching up on tasks and staring at a computer screen, I didn’t really do anything very interesting or photo-worthy, so this post will be short and boring. Really this is a glorified diary entry so I can remember what I did this month.

Accomplished:

• Lots of HTML and CSS updates to my blog to make it more attractive and mobile-friendly
• Added links to relevant photo albums to my old blog posts to make them more useful
• Caught up on blogging (I was 2+ months behind)
• Caught up on photo and video editing
• Extended my visa for Thailand and got a 30-day tourist visa for India
• Researched India and made a few bookings for the upcoming trip
• Performed some maintenance and made content updates to Bebee’s website
• Updated Bebee’s cookbook with nearly 20 new recipes and some other minor updates (lots of transcribing, writing, editing, photo editing, graphic design, emailing, and e-commerce work)
• Hacked together some VBScript to scrape metadata from music websites and store it in my music library, partially for the usefulness of the data and partially as a programming exercise for myself
• Promptly purged VBScript from my brain
• Submitted photos and text to my friend at Citylife for inclusion in an article in next month’s issue
• Furnished my best travel advice to three friends who are planning Southeast Asia trips this year
• Built a sabbatical map that links the places I’ve been to with the relevant blog posts (see below)
• Read a JavaScript book Becca left for me and started clearing out some mental cobwebs
• Had a few days of software development time and added five new gadgets to the blog
• Made routine doctor and dentist visits
• Took 8 hours of massage courses

Reading list:

• Me Talk Pretty One Day by David Sedaris
• Against Football: One Fan’s Reluctant Manifesto by Steve Almond (which resulted in a blog post)
• South India & Kerala by Lonely Planet

After Australia, I flew to Chiang Mai so I could attend the lantern festivals again this year and to await the arrival of Becca and her brother Michael. You may remember Becca from our fun adventures through Chile last year. Becca had allotted five (completely unplanned) weeks for traveling in Southeast Asia and Michael would be around for about half that time. I happily volunteered my tour guide services when I heard they might be coming to Asia. (Another San Francisco friend, Erik, would be arriving later in the month for about a week and a half.) At my suggestion, Becca timed her trip so she could also catch the lantern festivals.

The weather in Chiang Mai was beautiful upon my return and I spent the few days before Becca’s arrival editing photos, visiting friends and people around town, reading, doing some travel research, and going to the gym. As usual, Tha Pae Gate was abuzz with activity.

I had also timed my return to Chiang Mai to include Halloween. Thais don’t celebrate Halloween per se, but they are openly delighted and amused by all the farang who do celebrate it. This year, Citylife – the magazine I interned for last year – sponsored a zombie-themed pub crawl in old city that went from Loco Elvis to Zoe’s. For those of you that don’t know Chiang Mai, that’s all of one block, possibly making this pub crawl the shortest (distance-wise) I’ve ever been a part of. That said, that one block has at least half a dozen places to get a drink.

That afternoon, I took a pair of scissors to a free t-shirt I had received in Phuket Town during the vegetarian festival to construct some semblance of a costume. I bought some red and black paint from an art supply store – coincidentally located on the same block as the pub crawl – and mixed up a batch of fake blood, applying it sloppily to my ripped-up shirt during a messy arts and crafts session in my guesthouse room. After drying the paint for a couple hours in the November heat, I threw the shirt on and made my way to Loco Elvis, where makeup was provided by Citylife. A new friend used my face as a canvas and the rest of the evening was spent socializing, bar hopping, and choking down sugary Halloween drink specials with friends, new and old. I received a lot of smiles and cheers from random Thais as I walked around town in my zombie getup. A couple teenagers even “catcalled” me from a passing motorbike. You’re welcome, boys.

A few days later, I went to the airport to greet a bleary-eyed Becca, who had spent the previous umpteen hours on planes and in airports while traveling from San Francisco to Chiang Mai. As per a personal tradition of mine for any first day in Chiang Mai, I took her to Wat Mahawan for a foot massage at the temple in the late afternoon. Even though she was exhausted from traveling, she managed to stay up late enough to maximize her chances of staving off jet lag. Before going to bed, I took her to one of the many fish spas in town and the ensuing fifteen minutes was filled with a lot of squirming and shrieking.

The week and a half with Becca (and later Michael) in Chiang Mai is something of a blur. I have photos from some of our excursions and events, but I’m really not sure how we filled up the rest of the time. Actually, never mind, I take that back. I’m pretty sure I know what we did: eat, drink, sleep, get massages, have laptop time at cafes (Becca was finishing up a freelancing project), catch up about friends and family and work, people watch at bars, go to a Muay Thai fight or two, and wander the city on foot.

It was really fun and satisfying to take Becca to all of my favorite places around town. For food, I made sure to take her to Bamboo Bee, Peppermint (where she fell in love with the khao soi), Dada, Cat House, Mike’s Burgers (never before 2:00 in the morning), The Swan, and street food wherever we found it. In the evenings, I took her to Zoe’s (of course), Upper Deck (probably my favorite bar in town), Bus Bar, THC Bar, Boy Blues Bar, North Gate Jazz, Playhouse (for beer pong shitshowiness on Loi Kroh), and Mixology (for a taste of San Franciscan hipsterdom).

We also signed up for a two-hour Muay Thai class at Tha Pae stadium, something I had always wanted to do but never got around to. We dutifully showed up bright and early the next morning and were very happy to see we were the only students in the class. That elation quickly faded when our trainer started the class by instructing us to do ten minutes of jump rope as a warm-up. I knew then we were in for a hell of a workout.

Two hours and two dripping, sweat-soaked shirts later, we finished sparring (with our trainers) in the ring and collapsed on the mat, happy to instead focus our energy on hydrating and chatting with our new Thai friends. I could have easily soaked through half a dozen shirts during that session, had I brought enough of my wardrobe with me. Becca and I were quite satisfied with the session – both from a workout perspective and an educational perspective – and very happy we did it. The icing on the cake was that the shorts they gave me for the training led to a new nickname, Wolfcock. See below.

During Loi Krathong and Yi Peng, we were out and about a lot and so enjoyed the sights of floating lanterns and the sounds of fireworks in the evenings. On the last day, we spent the afternoon wandering old city and temple hopping. One of the temples, Wat Chedlin, was particularly interesting and photo-worthy as it has a monk dormitory; walking around the temple grounds revealed some humorous tidbits of monk life. Becca noted that, as with any building housing a large number of males, there were bags of dirty laundry, a makeshift gym, and a random couch in the yard. Monks… they’re just like us!

After Wad Chedlin, I took Becca to one of my favorite “secret” spots in the city, the terracotta garden by the south gate. I’ve been plenty of times before, but I was more than happy to go again and get some more shots, especially since a few things had changed since I was there last.

Our last stop of the afternoon was Wat Lok Moli, which is along Sri Poom Road in the north-west part of old city. It’s another temple with large grounds and beautiful architecture and colors, but far less tourists and more monks.

That night was the final and most important night of Loi Krathong, so we linked up with Jay and Mel, a couple I had met during the zombie pub crawl, and explored the festivities. We walked with the parade down Tha Pae Road towards the river, bought some khom loi and a street food dinner, and released the lanterns from the Nawarat Bridge, which was closed to vehicles and absolutely mobbed with people and lanterns and fireworks. It was the epicenter of Loi Krathong, for sure.

After releasing our misfortune and bad luck and bad emotions to the heavens, we wandered down to the Iron Bridge, which was crawling with packs of smiling, screaming, highly energetic Thai teenagers. Unlike American teenagers, they weren’t drunk or even drinking, but they were armed to the teeth with explosives, as per Thai custom for pretty much any holiday. Fireworks flew back and forth between the bridge and the shores and the water and everywhere in between. We dodged the artillery and ducked into a bar for a beer and, more importantly, a respite from being on our feet all day.

While sipping our beers, I received a call from my friend Jinny, who had just gotten off work and was, completely coincidentally, only a couple minutes away. Becca and I grabbed our beers and walked over to Bus Bar to meet her. While sitting at a table enjoying ice cold Leo and the war-like atmosphere around us, some fireworks hit a power transformer next to the bar, which caused a small explosion and an immediate power outage. We looked at each other and simultaneously decided that was a sign to leave, so we grabbed our beers, walked back to the Nawarat Bridge, bought some more khom loi, and released those too. Though our feet hurt like hell by the end of the day, it was a spectacular evening.

Soon after the festival concluded, Michael arrived in Chiang Mai, humorously still wearing his work clothes from the previous workday. The rest of our time in town was spent similarly to the time Becca and I had together: eating, drinking, massages, Muay Thai, a cooking class, and the like. We went to Wat Chedi Luang for “monkchat” – which is exactly what it sounds like – one afternoon, which is another Chiang Mai activity I had always meant to do but could never find the time for. The conversation with our monk mostly concerned a monk’s daily activities and responsibilities, but occasionally we dipped into fundamentals of Buddhism or comparisons with life in America. I really enjoyed it and would like to go back some more while I have the opportunity.

The three of us made the obligatory before-sunrise trip to Doi Suthep, which is always a beautiful and peaceful experience, as I’ve written about before.

And I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention the ladyboy cabaret at the Night Bazaar, another required stop on the Chiang Mai tourist trail. Lip syncing, lavish costumes, dance numbers, and silicone for days.

After getting sucked into Chiang Mai for probably too long (which is par for the course there), the three of us hopped on a flight to Bangkok. We very much tried to enjoy our leisurely time up north as much as possible since we knew we’d be moving pretty quickly through the rest of our itinerary, as Michael didn’t have nearly as much time as me or Becca.

Up next: Bangkok, Cambodia, and the islands.

Before returning to Chiang Mai to finish my work for Bebee, I decided to take a quick holiday in southern Thailand, namely Krabi and Koh Lanta. Krabi is a smaller, fairly authentic Thai city that largely serves as a gateway for tourists to some of the southern islands. Due to the timing of my flights and the ferry schedule, I had to stay a night on the mainland before heading out to the island of Koh Lanta.

Krabi was entirely pleasant, though it’s not much of a tourist destination by itself since it doesn’t have a beach. I walked around a bit in the evening after my flight landed and had a pretty typical dinner-bars-massage night. The food stalls by the water were a pretty good deal; for the same cost as a Subway sandwich and a bottle of water in the airport (my only real lunch option earlier that day in a sea of Thai-less fast food), I treated myself to huge portions of rice and veggies and about five beers.

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Without realizing it (mainly because my book-reading rate had dropped off in recent months), I had fallen into a pattern of reading books that in some way mirrored my travel life. I read Asimov’s Nightfall – a short story (and later, book) whose plot revolves around the absence of sunlight – over the course of many starry nights on my balcony in Bali. I read The Lunatic Express – a travel writer’s account of intentionally taking the world’s most dangerous conveyances – during the time I was taking planes, ferries, motorbikes, and even a powered parachute in a part of the world not known for its safety record. And on my last full day in Cambodia, I was approached by a street person while I was eating lunch outside. He had only stubs for arms – clearly the victim of a landmine – and was selling illegal photocopies of books so he could make some money for himself. After I told him I was backpacking and didn’t have room for paper books, he grabbed one with his stubs, set it on the table next to me, and said “Well this one is pretty small.” After having a good laugh, I bought the book (First They Killed My Father, one of the most well-known pieces about the Cambodian genocide) and finished it within 24 hours, unable to put it down.

In keeping with this tradition, I read The Beach while traveling to Krabi and the islands. Yeah yeah, I know it’s incredibly cliche, you don’t have to tell me. I had seen the movie many years ago but was really impressed with how good the book was (and how dark it was in places). Traveling internationally for a little while, especially in Thailand, gave me a new appreciation for the story and I can definitely say that it’s the best work of fiction I’ve read in a long time. After I finished, I downloaded the movie and tried to watch it, but I had to shut it off after about 30 minutes because it was such an awful, Hollywood-esque interpretation. Do yourself a favor and read the book the next time you want a really great literary escape.

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With the fantastical story and setting of The Beach in mind, I very much enjoyed my voyage to and short holiday on Koh Lanta. In some ways, it was the best Thai island I’ve been to, though I’ve still yet to find that perfect postcard-worthy beach. That said, the sand was nice (though a bit rocky in places), the water was blue and warm, and the evenings on the sunset side of the island were perfect. A lot of the beach bars light bonfires on the beach every night, attracting tourists (and farang locals) who lazily make their way to hammocks and lounge chairs and enjoy some drinks or some greenery (if you know what I mean), both of which are available for purchase from the bar. As the sun sets, the air stays warm and the most pressing thoughts of the evening are about stargazing or dinner.

Chiang Mai

Before long though, I had to snap out of my island reverie and make my way back north to Chiang Mai to finish my work. As I landed at the airport and got a ride from a friend into town, I was greeted by a smoky haze covering the city and a fireball sun in the sky, consequences of the fires set by farmers as they burn their fields every March. Luckily I missed the worst of it and after a few rainstorms, the air felt clean(er).

Once I settled back into my same guesthouse and reconnected with my friends in town, I was back to finishing up all my work for Bebee. With only a day to spare before my passport stamp expired, I delivered two PDF cookbooks, a simple online store, and various improvements to the website, TripAdvisor page, and Facebook page. Overall I feel really good about all my IT work, mainly because I could help my friend in a significant way, but also because it helped me stay sharp mentally and learn some new skills that I feel proud enough to put on my resume.

Somewhere in the middle of my work schedule, my friend Roseanne, who I met though Friends For Asia, came back to Chiang Mai after some travel so she could spend a week at a Burmese Buddhist temple. During her time there, she invited me to come to the temple to witness a shinbyu, a traditional ceremony celebrating the boys that are about to start their Buddhist education. The boys – always under the age of 20, but often much younger – wear traditional outfits and makeup (making them look more like little girls) and ride on the shoulders of Burmese men who make music and dance and thrash around. One of the men convinced me to try some kwun-ya, a popular chewing habit among Burmese (both men and women) consisting mainly of betel leaf, areca nut, and tobacco. I wasn’t too crazy about it though. I like my teeth white!

A major reason I went back to Chiang Mai was for Songkran (Thai New Years). There are parades and traditional outfits and music and visits to the temples to pray for good luck in the coming year, but the main reason to celebrate Songkran is for the massive water fight that rages over four days all over the country. Throwing water on others symbolizes washing away all the bad away in preparation for the new year. In more practical terms, it’s one of the most fun things I’ve ever done in my life. For four days, farang and Thais alike roam the streets, either on foot or in the backs of pickup trucks, armed with massive water guns, backpacks of water, or even just buckets (my personal favorite). It’s also very common to load huge ice blocks into 55-gallon drums of water, creating a supply of freezing ammunition. When you see a bucket of water flying at your face, you hope that it’s warm, but deep down inside, you know you’re about to get hit with ice water. On the plus side, you don’t notice the 90+ degree temperature outside!

I met up with different groups of friends on the different days; when I wasn’t with them, I was happy to wander down to the moat, join up with some Thais, and throw water on whoever was driving by. It’s funny that Songkran is a purification ceremony and yet many people in Chiang Mai use water from the moat, which is pretty filthy. I had heard stories of people getting eye infections; sure enough, a day or two after Songkran was over, I developed an ear infection. Apparently the cure (in adults) is to just let it heal itself, which it finally did after several semi-painful days. Still totally worth it.

Clearly I didn’t bring my camera out for any of these festivities, as I’ve noticed that electronics work their best when they’re not sopping wet. But this montage sums up the holiday pretty well:

With Songkran over and my work for Bebee finished, I sadly packed up my things, said goodbye to my friends, and boarded a flight for Hong Kong. I was re-entering the first world; this would be the beginning of the end of my travels, but I had learned a few days before that I wouldn’t be finishing this trip alone…

After the magazine internship ended, several of my FFA friends were still in town, so the rest of the year was filled with various fun activities and not much work (yet). From what I can remember and from what I have in my photo albums, that time included strolling around old city with my camera, a few Christmas parties, watching Chiang Mai FC play in the league’s final (seriously the most polite and non-violent sporting event I’ve ever gone to), a Christmas day hike up Doi Suthep to the temple, a couple of Muay Thai fights, and more revelry at Playhouse, the infamous beer pong bar.

Some photos from the hike:

And of the revelry (photos taken by my friend and fellow magazine intern Lindsey):

One of the funniest memories from that time is playing Santa Claus on Christmas morning, walking around town and giving out wine or chocolates to a few of my favorite Thais. All of them were very thankful and surprised; reactions included photo taking, lots of smiles, and some serious giggling. That evening, a few friends and I ended up at a local pub for an impromptu and very pleasant Thai-European Christmas dinner, complete with meat and potatoes, curry, wine, and string lights.

For New Years, my friend (and coworker at the magazine) Neung took me to Chiang Rai (his home) for a few days. I met a lot of his family and friends and people recognized him on the street whenever we were walking somewhere. I had dinner and lunch at his family’s home and his mom cooked up some very delicious veggie Thai food. In fact, she was eating a vegetarian diet at the time – due to it being full moon – and was appreciative of the fact that I ate like that all the time. (It’s common for Buddhists to go veggie for holidays and full moon.) We visited the usual Chiang Rai tourist sites, the White Temple and the Black House, which were interesting, but way too crowded. Actual New Years was spent mostly at a house party outside of town with an eclectic mix of expats, lots of food and drink, and the usual fireworks and khom loi one expects at a celebration in Thailand. Midnight was pretty magical, as the sky of the countryside all around us was dotted with floating lanterns and the thunder of fireworks echoed in every direction.

After New Years, most of my remaining Western friends left the city for home and so I started what would become an ever-lengthening “employment” residency in Chiang Mai. One previous weekend, soon after I had started working at the magazine, I had visited Bamboo Bee, a small vegetarian restaurant consistently ranked in the top ten on TripAdvisor (no small feat considering there are over 1,200 restaurants listed). I started spending more time there and got to know the owner Bebee over meals and drinks and a few nights out. Bebee eventually mentioned that she wanted to make a cookbook and I offered my help. Little did I know what I was signing up for.

After I started compiling photos of her dishes, I realized I might as well make a new menu for her too, as her existing one was a bit disorganized and had several duplicate entries and unflattering pictures. After I started working on that too, Bebee asked me if I could make a t-shirt design. And an apron design. And a certificate for her cooking class. And a brochure for her cooking class. And new business cards. And help her program her new LED sign. Bamboo Bee’s web presence also left a lot to be desired: duplicate TripAdvisor accounts, duplicate TripAdvisor pages, duplicate Facebook pages, out-of-date, missing, or incorrect business information in multiple places, a blog that didn’t really serve a purpose, and no website.

In a few weeks’ time, I transitioned from customer to employee; I was Bamboo Bee’s new photographer, graphic designer, web designer/developer, tech support, and general consultant. In exchange for my various services, Bebee has been paying me in delicious veggie Thai food and Thai beer. Needless to say, I’m quite happy with this arrangement, especially considering that she makes some of the best food (Thai or otherwise) I’ve ever had.

As of this writing, the new menu is done and “deployed” (to use software lingo) and has already had positive effects. A cleanly-designed menu with clear, bright, colorful photos has led to more sales for her and I feel better knowing that at least some of my food-based compensation has been justified. The cookbook is about 90% complete and I’ll be finishing it up this month. The new website has also been finished for a couple weeks now and I know that will give the restaurant a lot of credibility. In fact, while fighting with TripAdvisor to update her business details (a battle that is still raging over email), I learned that TripAdvisor treats a company website basically as the word of God. Without a legit website, all my of submissions to TripAdvisor were falling on deaf ears.

When I come back to Chiang Mai in April, I’ll be finishing up my work for Bebee, including (but probably not limited to) a drinkbook, new business cards, and a brochure for her cooking class.

While working for Bebee, I had also kept in touch with my contacts at the magazine in case I wanted to submit some photos as freelance work. During my frequent wanderings through old city, I had taken some photos of a few lesser-known-but-interesting businesses, which all happened to be “green” in one way or another (purely a coincidence). I floated the idea of a photo spread of “green hidden gems” to one of the editors. After adding a couple more green – but not hidden – places, we had enough content for an article, so I assembled and developed all my photos and wrote a bit about each place, along with an intro. The finished product was published in the next issue, both in print and on the website.

Here’s a link to a PDF version of the article: It’s Easy Being Green

You’ll also notice that yours truly appears in the photo for the article, along with Nicolas, the current Citylife intern from Friends For Asia, and a waitress who works at Fern Forest Cafe (the location for the photo shoot). Being asked to occasionally model for photos is one of the perks of the job at Citylife, mostly because it’s a solid money-saver. And as with Christmas, I played Santa Claus once the magazine was printed, walking around town and distributing copies to the businesses I had written about. The waitress at the cafe was particularly delighted to see herself in a magazine, exhibiting a reaction that I’d describe as “adorable bashfulness”.

In the interest of a “behind the scenes” look at the article and to try to prove that I’ve actually been working these last few months, here are some extra photos that didn’t make it to print.

Alternate article photo:

Ban Phor Liang Meun’s Terracotta Arts:

Fern Forest Cafe:

Nong Buak Hard Public Park:

Bamboo Bee:

To accommodate my newfound responsibilities, my stay in Chiang Mai was comically extended multiple times. What was originally going to be just a week or so (of pure holiday) turned into a month once I got the magazine internship, which was then extended a couple weeks to account for New Years, which was then extended to include January so I could work for Bebee, which was then extended again to include February – which required a border run to Myanmar because I had exhausted my 90-day tourist visa – when I realized I wouldn’t have enough time to finish all my work. The only reason I’m leaving Chiang Mai and (annoyingly) putting my work on hold is that the longer I wait to go to Cambodia, the more hot and miserable I’m going to be there, so I need to bite the bullet and go there now.

Contrary to the future tense used in that last sentence, I’m actually writing this post from Cambodia, where I’ve already been for over a week. But my suspicions were indeed well-founded, as this place is extremely hot and humid. April will be worse, but I’ll be gone before then. In any case, that’s a story for another day. My posts from Cambodia should be much more timely.

Let’s backtrack to three Mondays ago, when Lindsey, my fellow magazine intern, and I went to the night safari outside of town to do some preliminary investigation on a possible story. The story didn’t happen as there were other higher priority things to be done, so it really was just a trip to see some exotic animals at night. I felt bad that these animals were in confined places (relative to the amount of space they would have in the wild), but was kind of delighted by the sight of giraffes, especially when they walked over to the tram and stuck their heads in. Not surprisingly, the animals are completely domesticated and associate the night safari tram with food. I would post some photos, except my camera totally sucks in low-light conditions and all my shots were blurry. This entire trip has been great for exposing the weaknesses in my camera setup. When I get back to the States, I need to upgrade my body (possibly to the new Canon 70D) and my lens (to something with a longer zoom).

The following day, there were festivities in town for the king’s upcoming birthday, which is a major deal in Thailand. All the Thais I’ve talked to really revere him; he’s been the face of the nation while it has grown and become more developed and successful in recent decades. Honestly, I don’t know much about the man or his politics, but he has a nice grandfatherly look, so, sure, I like him too. Plus, on the 1000-baht bill, there’s a sketch of him with a camera around his neck, so clearly he’s a good guy.

The parade had Thais from all walks of life, lots of traditional dress, lots of colors, and, oh yeah, a couple elephants in downtown Chiang Mai. No big deal. After the parade was the national anthem (also a very big deal here) and then a few hours of music and dance performances.

The next day was the sixth annual Smile Party, a late-night party by the lake that I’d describe as “Diet Full Moon”. Some local bands played on the main stage, DJs spun for a crowded dance area, people lounged on the ground and smoked shisha, and, like any good outdoor farang party in Thailand, there was the requisite fire poi and neon face/body painting. Unlike the real Full Moon, no one got overly drunk or too shitty to the point of pissing in the lake or passing out on the ground. Maybe white people in Thailand are capable of partying responsibly!

The following day was the actual king’s birthday, a national holiday in Thailand, so we all had off from work. After sleeping off the previous night and watching some of the birthday ceremonies on TV with the FFA staff, I grabbed my camera and wandered the city for a while. Normally, when I go to a new place, this is one of the first things I do so I can get my bearings and get a feel for the place, but with everything that was going on, I just didn’t have time. During my afternoon ambling, I came across a unique place that a friend had told me about a week or two prior: the Chiang Mai Women’s Correctional Institution. They have a cafe, shop, and massage center that is staffed by female ex-prisoners who are trying to re-enter society. The massage portion is so busy that you have to make a reservation, which is unheard of in Thailand. I was able to get the last spot of the day and treated myself to a very nice foot massage, made even better than usual with all the lights turned down low and a warm, fuzzy blanket thrown across me. The man next to me passed out two-thirds of the way through and started snoring; a woman behind me legitimately yelped (twice!) during the more active parts of her Thai massage, causing all two dozen people (employees and clients) to burst out laughing. On a serious note, it’s a great place and a really worthy cause and I can’t recommend it enough. Go early in the day though; I went over there yesterday around 2:00 and they were already full for the rest of the afternoon.

One last interesting note about the king’s birthday: alcohol sales are prohibited for the day, so bars and restaurants can get in trouble if the “boys in brown” decide to pay a visit, unless the place pays off the police (don’t forget, this is Thailand!). This whole situation is really funny to me. Aren’t birthdays the days where you consume the most alcohol?! I was able to get a couple drinks at a cute guesthouse pub in old city because I was there around happy hour, but the bartender had to stop serving at 6:00 out of fear of the police.

After the usual Friday night activities, including some very aggressive fun at a bar on Loi Kroh that has beer pong (The Playhouse), I spent a good deal of my Saturday afternoon at CNXP, a tech/music/photo conference that will hopefully become an annual event in Chiang Mai. It was portrayed as a much smaller (and obviously much more Thai) version of SXSW and though I’ve never been to SXSW, I’d say that the description is probably apt. Highlights included seeing a homemade 3D printer in action and a filmmaker’s drone that can produce some really stunning Hollywood-worthy HD footage. That night, I wandered back to the aforementioned cute guesthouse pub and spent about six hours with some new friends, eating, drinking, smoking shisha, listening to music, and talking about life while sitting on a patio under the stars. It’s funny how often little experiences like that will happen here.

The next day I wandered the city some more before heading off to a Thai vegetarian cooking class. I’ve never had any interest in taking a cooking class because I wouldn’t be able to eat most of the food, but once I stumbled upon May Kaidee’s class on TripAdvisor I didn’t have any more excuses, so I signed up. I know reading about food is not that exciting, so I’ll keep it brief: I was the only student, we made 14 dishes in 3 1/2 hours, everything was incredibly delicious, and my appreciation for Thai food has increased immensely now that I see how simple and easy it is to prepare it. Given that I was the only student, there were leftovers for days. Also: pumpkin fucking hummus. I’m really excited about cooking lots of Thai food once I settle back down in the States.

The next several days were filled with going-away festivities for those volunteers who were leaving Chiang Mai, a very entertaining trip to a fish spa, another birthday celebration, more wandering around old city, going to the hospital to visit a couple friends who had some bad food poisoning, and another day off from work due to another holiday (Constitution Day).

One of the more interesting stories of the week was numerous sightings of a Hollywood movie shoot that has been going strong in Chiang Mai for a few weeks now. The film is called The Coup and stars Owen Wilson and Pierce Brosnan, both of whom have been seen around town at various places (Owen more so). On Tuesday and Thursday night of last week, the production built a set and shot various action sequences on the streets around my FFA guesthouse. Some of the Tuesday night shots were directly in front of the guesthouse, so my roommates and I grabbed beers and watched from our balcony for a while as the cast and crew worked right below us.

(Editor’s note: the film was later renamed to “No Escape”, probably to avoid controversy since a real military coup happened in the country about five months after this blog post was originally published.)

The Thursday night shoot was a bit down the street from the guesthouse and more action-oriented. When I came back from the bars around 1:30, I was greeted by multiple takes of Owen’s stunt double running down the street and out of sight with his on-screen family, followed by half a minute of muffled noises, followed by a gunshot, followed by a man yelling in pain. Around 2:00 I went to bed, but was kept awake by gunshots and the sounds of Pierce Brosnan’s screams. If I had a dime, amirite? I finally dozed off, but a little while later, maybe around 4:00, both my roommate and I were awoken by a spectacular noise that sounded like an explosion, which I later learned was a car crash scene. Let me tell you, that’s one hell of a sound to jolt you out of sleep. After that, the workers tore down the set while listening to loud Thai rock music, which kept me up even longer. It was definitely one of the more interesting ways I’ve lost sleep in my life, but I’ll allow it this one time.

The weekend was filled with many more going-away trips to bars and restaurants and even a flag football game at CMU (this CMU, not that CMU). My one-month internship completed, I handed over the keys to the FFA guesthouse and moved into a new place by myself. Even though I had spent the first 3 1/2 months of the trip traveling by myself, it felt weird to be alone again after spending four weeks in a setting that felt a lot like freshman year of college. It might be a little while before I’m fully used to this style of traveling again.

Overall, the internship was everything I wanted it to be and I’m immensely happy I did it. I was able to contribute as a photographer (and work on my photo editing skills a bit) and also as a website consultant, though not really as a web developer. My responsibilities as a member of the web team ended up being more research-oriented and my biggest contribution there was researching various aspects of WordPress that Citylife will need to understand before overhauling their web presence. Though the internship is officially done, I will hopefully continue to contribute to the magazine and the website in a freelance capacity by submitting photos and/or stories as my creativity allows.

While reflecting upon my brief time working in Thailand, I realized that I had learned two things:

1. I don’t like doing photography as a job. I had already suspected this, but I wanted to test the theory and this internship was a perfect way to do that. I enjoy photography only when it’s on my terms and I will keep it as just a hobby.
2. I really enjoyed working for a magazine that has a significant “current events” flavor. I’m always interested in new places, events, and stories; with my friends back home and my new friends here, I often take the lead on finding new places to go or things to do. Working for a magazine that keeps its finger on the pulse of a city was a very nice match. I don’t know if or how this will play into my future career plans, but it’s definitely given me something to think about.

On a more personal note, it was really great to work in a foreign country to observe what was the same and what was different. Normally mundane details like commuting and communicating with coworkers were sometimes more difficult, but the daily culture exchange made it worthwhile. I will definitely be staying in touch with several of the Citylife folks for the rest of my time here.

And with that, the next chapter of Chiang Mai begins. I’ve got plans for some fun things to do here, but I’m also looking forward to having some free time for myself. I’ve been terrible about exercising and reading these last couple months and I’d like to get back to a point where I’m doing both regularly. I have lots of other things up my sleeves as well, so stay tuned!

The real treat of the weekend though was the lantern festival, or should I say festivals (plural). It can get a bit confusing because both festivals are celebrated at the same time and involve similar activities – fireworks and the release of lanterns with candles inside – but are actually separate events. Yi Peng is associated with releasing the lanterns that float away into the sky (khom loi), whereas Loi Krathong involves sending decorated candles (krathong) floating down the river.

These festivals have been on my radar since August, so I had been planning on going to Chiang Mai in mid-November for many months now. When I applied to Friends For Asia, I picked my start date such that I would arrive in town on the same weekend as the festivals. Not surprisingly, the volunteers were able to easily convince the FFA staff to forego the orientation activities previously planned for Saturday night and turn us loose to enjoy Yi Peng instead. The biggest and most popular release of khom loi occurs at Mae Jo University, where thousands of people arrive to send their bad luck and misfortunes floating away into the inky black sky.

Truth be told, the festivities at Mae Jo are a logistical nightmare. The traffic to and from the campus is terrible and the massive crowds are constantly forcing their way through various chokepoints and narrow walkways that were never intended for that many people. The actual release is over in a minute or two, but the overhead of being there in person is many, many hours and lots of shuffling through throngs of people.

That said, it is completely and undoubtedly worth it. As an adult, I feel like I’ve seen so much in my life that there couldn’t possibly be anything left that could legitimately fill me with amazement or wonder. For the first time in many years, possibly decades, I witnessed and felt absolute magic. The sight of the sky lighting up with softly lit and slowly rising khom loi was nothing less than awe-inspiring. As short of a moment as it was, it truly was magical. Even after the initial release was over and the lanterns drifted away, the sky was filled with a gently moving mass of light, like a river of stars flowing dreamily through the night.

The following day we had some more orientation and another language lesson, then it was off to the Sunday market to taste lots of small Thai bites, including fried bugs. I opted to remain an observer and photographer.

That night was one of the nights of Loi Krathong, so a few of us loaded up on street food and walked down to the Ping River to watch the festivities. There wasn’t a singular fantastical moment like Yi Peng, but rather a sustained release of awesomeness that lasted for hours. There were khom loi, krathong, lights, fireworks, lots of street food and vendors, and a parade. All the lights and the immense amount of fireworks made the river feel like a warzone. New Year’s here is going to be flat-out ridiculous.

The following day (Monday) I started my internship at Citylife magazine, but I’ll talk more about that below.

The week was filled with a decent amount of work and a whole hell of a lot of evening fun. Chiang Mai is a place where several forces combine to create a really amazing city. The main force is the constant influx of travelers, which means the city always has people from all parts of the world who are always looking to let loose. The city parties every night. And I really mean every night. It has taken a lot of restraint on my part to keep the partying to less than seven days a week. The Friends For Asia guesthouse is in a very active part of the city and the city feels so alive after the sun goes down.

Consequently, there are a lot of businesses that cater to the tourists and expats, which means the city is filled with restaurants, bars, clubs, massage places, hotels, shops, night (and day) markets, and live music. Some places are frequented by mainly farang (Westerners a.k.a. white people), some by mainly Thais, and some by a mixture of both. On top of all this, some very traditional components of Thai culture exist; the city is dotted with old temples, Buddha statues, and incense, and it’s not unusual at all to see monks in orange robes walking around town. Like other places in Thailand, some of the most interesting visuals are when the ancient and modern worlds collide, such as seeing an ancient temple directly next door to a chic restaurant. No big deal.

The uniqueness and undeniable cool factor of Chiang Mai hit me within a few hours of arriving. As I walked around, getting my bearings and the lay of the land, I came upon a temple that offered foot massages (one hour for $4). I sat in a chair as a super-smiley, happy grandfather gave me a foot massage as monks walked around behind him, sweeping up leaves that had fallen in front of the golden temple that was looming over me. I think that was the moment I knew I’d be spending quite a lot of time here.

Fast-forward to the weekend. After a delightful and very long Friday night that included unlimited wine tasting with Omar and some incredible Burmese food courtesy of The Swan, a bunch of the volunteers went to an elephant park the next day. Besides riding elephants, we also rode bamboo rafts down the river, went on a zipline (yes, singular), trekked through the woods a bit, swam in a stream next to a few small waterfalls, and visited a market of some of the hilltribe people. The entire operation was manufactured and well-run (read: super touristy) and the non-elephant attractions felt a little forced, but overall it was a good day. An elephant’s hide feels exactly like how I expected it to, so I kicked my sandals off and gave myself a little foot massage on his back as we rode around. Feeding our elephant bananas and sugar cane was super cool, though he was a fussy eater, so when we tried to feed him a banana, he would throw it on the ground and demand sugar cane instead.

Sunday was a lovely lazy day, perfect for catching up on sleep, which was desperately needed; I think I woke up at 2:00 pm, which I haven’t done since probably college. In the evening, a few of us went to a Christian pep rally life festival in the Chiang Mai soccer stadium that featured a keynote by Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham. I was there with my fellow magazine intern Lindsey doing a story for CityNews (a sister site to Citylife); as she interviewed Thais about being Christian instead of Buddhist, I walked around and snapped photos.

The following morning, partially out of logistics and partially because it was my birthday, a few other volunteers and I set off before sunrise to visit Wat Phra That Doi Suthep, a mountain temple just a little bit outside of town. We had decided the day before to go at sunrise because the temple is a massively popular tourist attraction. Sure enough, as we were leaving the temple around 8:00, the minivans and coaches full of tourists started showing up and whatever tranquility we had was dashed.

The temple is very beautiful, filled with gold, Buddha statues, bells of all sizes, and monks. It was really pleasant to enjoy the relative peace and quiet in the early morning while the number of monks still outnumbered the number of tourists. Speaking of the monks, one of the funniest things about them was their use of cell phones, both for taking pictures (for those who were visiting the temple) and for talking.

That night, a good number of the volunteers came out to celebrate my birthday via the usual Chiang Mai shenanigans: dinner at one of my favorite local cafes (The Cat House), followed by live music at a jazz bar, then barhopping until the early morning. Dinner was quite memorable because the restaurant blew a fuse while cooking dinner, leaving us mostly in the dark. However, since the kitchen appliances were gas and not electric, the staff was able to continue cooking by candlelight and slowly brought out everyone’s (very delicious) dinner. I think “Happy Birthday” was sung three times and Jacky (the incredibly sweet and adorable owner) even brought out a pancake with ice cream and candles in it. She totally won me over that evening and I’ve been back to Cat House almost every day since, usually for her awesome (and cheap!) breakfasts and smoothies.

The rest of the birthday evening included lots of free drinks and shots courtesy of FFA friends, so let’s just say that everything after 1:00 in the morning is a little fuzzy. When I pulled an Irish exit at the last club we went to, I had no idea where I was in the city, so I haggled with a tuk-tuk driver until I got (what I thought was) a reasonable price considering I was about to fall over. It was literally a thirty-second ride; I was basically around the corner from the guesthouse. I begrudgingly paid the man, cursed under my breath, and then faceplanted in my bed.

The phenomenal hangover the next day went until about 2:00 in the afternoon, when I could finally eat solid food again. I consider it a point of pride though that I made it into work right on time, even if I was a pretty worthless employee for half the day. Part of being an adult is living with the consequences of your partying. On a sincere note, it was a really great birthday and I feel blessed to be surrounded by a lot of wonderful people.

A few days later, about twenty of us had Thanksgiving dinner at Art Cafe, a local restaurant that caters to tourists. Their coverage of the customary Thanksgiving fare was pretty good: turkey, gravy, mashed potatoes, stuffing, (canned) cranberry, bread and butter, and carrots with dressing and raisins. Actually, I left out the best part: the pumpkin pie, of which I ate two and a half slices. The food was good (not great, but I’m not complaining), but I think I derived as much pleasure from the food as I did from introducing some non-Americans to our traditions. Dinner was followed by the usual nightlife follies, cut a bit short so I could head home and Skype with my family during their Thanksgiving (2:00 am in Chiang Mai = 2:00 pm on the east coast).

Saturday ended up being pretty lazy, which was very much needed after all the week’s events. In between breakfast, lunch, and working for a bit in the afternoon (Citylife has a monthly deadline crunch), I wandered around old city until I found a place to get a much-needed haircut. I ended up stumbling upon a fantastic spot (Joy’s Salon) and Joy gave me one of the best haircuts I’ve ever had, plus a wash before and after, plus about ten minutes of head massage, all for $9. I gave the man working the register a 100 baht (about $3) tip and he emitted an audible gasp (tipping is a bit rare in Thailand), which brought me a little bit of extra joy (pun intended).

Sunday morning, while fighting through the haze of a solid hangover, my roommate and I were picked up at about 9:30 for our day’s ziplining adventure, courtesy of Dragon Flight. Half an hour later, we were driving up the side of a mountain on a winding jungle road, windows down so we could all breathe in the cool air. After joining up with a group of the most stereotypical-looking gap-year Southeast Asia travelers (Chang and Red Bull tank tops and lots of cigarettes), we spent the next few hours ziplining, trekking, and “abseiling” through the cool, serene jungle. I put “abseiling” in quotes because we didn’t rappel down a vertical surface, but instead were hooked up to a pulley system and just flat-out dropped about 40 feet. Think of it as a watered-down version of bungee jumping. Throughout the day, I had the humorous thought that the local villagers must be amused (or annoyed) that the serenity of their mountain home is interrupted every morning by the far-off screams of adventure-seeking Westerners.

Not surprisingly, the staff (rural, blue-collar Thai men) were incredibly friendly and fun and really made the experience. After the ziplining was over, we sat down to a massive, delicious Thai feast prepared by some of the local women. When I say feast, I mean it; I’m pretty sure everyone had enough food for two or even three people: an entire plate of pad thai, an entire plate of rice, a bowl of steamed veggies, a bowl of coconut curry veggies, a plate of fruit, a bowl of soup, water, and coffee. We gorged ourselves at outdoor tables next to a peaceful stream that runs through the jungle. Oh, and did I mention the puppy that was running around and trying to play with the big dogs? The excursion was incredibly fun and a perfect way to treat a hangover; it’s hard to be lethargic or tired or lazy when you’re flying through the jungle with quasi-crazy Thais cracking inappropriate jokes and laughing maniacally.

Well, I think that brings me up to the present in terms of social stuff. This is making me realize I need to not go so long between posts, but that’s easier said than done, as I have had zero free time between working, sightseeing, and going out on the town with my new friends.

Speaking of working, here’s a quick summary of what I’ve been up to at Citylife:

• I’ve gone out a few times to take photos for stories that will appear in Citylife or on CityNews. Being a published photographer is a really cool feeling and I was all smiles at my desk on Thanksgiving, the day the Abundant Life Festival article was posted on the website.
• Citylife is looking to overhaul their ancient website by migrating everything to WordPress. As a part of that process, I’ve been asked to provide some guidance on their Google Analytics stats, choosing a new hosting provider, and making improvements to website in general. I’ve found that tech knowledge I consider routine could be potentially revolutionary in this kind of setting. Let’s be real: a local magazine for a mid-sized city in Thailand is very far removed from the bleeding edge technology I was used to hearing about on a daily basis in Silicon Valley. I am very much enjoying the opportunity to pass some of this knowledge on to the good folks at Citylife.
• I’ve made a couple very small fixes to the CityNow website where I had noticed some functionality was completely broken. It doesn’t make sense to make any significant changes since the site will be completely redone anyway.
• Most recently, I experienced the crunch of the monthly deadline as I helped out with taking the articles that appear in the print magazine and adopting them for the website. The two mediums are different enough that this process can’t be automated; an actual human being has to go through each article, adjusting the layout, pictures, text, and hyperlinks so that the article can be appropriately displayed in a web browser. This required some extra hours over this past weekend, which I actually enjoyed in some sick and perverted way. It felt nice to be working on something important (and fun! and local!) where my contributions were legitimately needed.

So that wraps up my first two weeks in Chiang Mai! Other than battling travelers’ tummy issues again (this is the fifth time now), everything is amazing. Even dealing with my most recent health issues was pretty easy, as anyone can buy antibiotics over the counter in Thailand without a prescription. Yesterday I left work a little early, popped into a pharmacy, told the pharmacist the name of the drug I had been taking, and $12 later I walked out with my medicine. Much cheaper and infinitely easier than American health care. Later in the evening, I treated myself to two hours of full-body massages (in the name of nursing myself back to health, of course), which cost me $15.

I love this country.

Kuala Lumpur

I flew from Langkawi back to KL for a few days to take care of some errands, the most important of which was getting a 60-day tourist visa for Thailand. I slightly fouled up the application process my first time at the Thai embassy – I didn’t have a photocopy of my passport – and the embassy was closed the following day because of a national holiday, so I stayed in Malaysia for a couple days longer than I had intended. I ended up doing a little shopping and enjoying the nightlife a bit more to fill the time, including a pretty fun rap and hip-hop party called “Ghetto Heaven” that happens every Tuesday night at Zouk. Tough life, I know.

I thought I needed a second Japanese Encephalitis shot, since that’s what I was told when I received the first shot a month ago. However, after some confusion, paper rustling, and a phone call to who knows, the doctor at the clinic informed me that the shot I had already received was of the 1-shot variety, not the 2-shot variety, so I didn’t need a second shot. I’m still a bit concerned that there was so much uncertainty regarding what shot I had actually received. On the outside, I was nodding and listening, but on the inside, I was wondering: “What the hell did you inject me with lady?!”

Also, given that I had some free time and access to an extremely fast and stable Internet connection (a rarity in these parts), I overhauled my online photo portfolio. I pruned the collection a bit, added the online-worthy photos that I’ve taken on this Asia trip, re-edited some of the older photos now that my Lightroom skills are a bit better, and, most importantly, migrated everything to a proper 500px account. I feel like a real photographer now!

Here’s the link: 500px.com/kylegetz

Phuket

Upon flying to Phuket, I met up with Omar, a friend from San Francisco, who is on holiday in Southeast Asia. We spent the weekend in Patong, mostly to enjoy the city’s world-famous (read: infamous) nightlife. I’m not going to transcribe anything that happened that weekend; you’ll just have to use your imagination.

After the weekend in Patong, we took a boat to Koh Yao, a pair of small islands about halfway between Phuket and Krabi that are known for being very quiet and peaceful. It’s a good thing this was the plan all along because I came down with some kind of illness and spent the next three days almost entirely in bed with a high fever. Koh Yao is a great place to do nothing though, so while I’m bummed that I didn’t get to go cycling or kayaking or see James Bond Island, I’m grateful I had the time to rest before Chiang Mai. I may try to make it back to Koh Yao at some point for a do-over.

Chiang Mai

Some backstory is necessary for the Chiang Mai trip. For some time now, I’ve been planning to go to Chiang Mai in November to experience the two lantern festivals, so I also started researching volunteer opportunities there (of which there are many). I settled on a volunteer organization called Friends For Asia, which runs volunteer projects in several countries, including Thailand. They have a lot of great projects and I applied to a few, eventually getting accepted to be an intern at Citylife, the premiere English-language magazine of northern Thailand. My job responsibilities may include web design, graphic design, photography, layout, and writing.

Seeking out an unpaid internship in the middle of a holiday may seem borderline crazy, but I have my reasons:

• After a few months of very free-form, unscheduled living, I was craving some structure/routine.
• Some of the job responsibilities (i.e. web development) match up with my professional experience and some (i.e. photography) match up with my personal interests.
• This is a perfect opportunity to try a different and more creative career without actually committing to it. I can extend the internship on a week-by-week basis if I want; otherwise, it’s over after one month, which is enough time to develop an opinion on whether this kind of work could pan out long-term.
• This is also a perfect chance to get some insights and exposure to a foreign culture that wouldn’t normally be available to a tourist. I will have a commute, coworkers, a boss, meetings, business lunches, happy hours, and all the other normal things that working folks around the world have. I’m really interested in the prospect of having those things in a foreign culture.

I’m actually writing all of this at my desk on my first day here since there isn’t much for me to do yet, which goes to show that first days everywhere are sort of the same. I’m heading out tomorrow to take photos of a new art gallery and a new shopping mall for a couple spreads in the next issue of the magazine, so I think that things will be ramping up very quickly.

The orientation activities for all the new volunteers this past weekend included a tour of a couple temples in the city, so in the interest of not having a picture-less post, I’ll include some photos:

More on the lantern festivals later.