Hi from my cute little apartment in Chiang Mai! Here's a video if you'd like a tour. It’s only been a week but it feels like it’s been a month! I’m not going to lie, the first night I was lonely and a little freaked out. I’ve been on my own for years, and I always travel solo, so the only thing I can think of to explain it is that in my mind, I thought this is it. This is the beginning of My New Life in an apartment, not a resort. Here I am, all alone in the city. I lay in bed, listening to the city sounds, people talking, dogs barking, cars, airplanes passing overhead. Will I be able to fit in with these people? Will these sounds become normal to my ears?
View from my window
I made it through my first night and wondered what I was going to do for breakfast. They offer a “breakfast” here at the apartment, but it leaves much to be desired. By Thai standards it is expensive and all they had was some tired, grey looking chicken soup, orange “juice” (not from real oranges I think) and white bread next to a toaster. I ate that and went back to my room. A few hours later I was still hungry so I set out to see what I could find on the street. There is very little English on the signs here; this is not a big tourist area. I walked down the street to my left and looked for signs of food. At first I didn’t see much, and what I saw I didn’t know how to eat, so I kept walking. Finally I saw something that looked like an eating place, it was a shack with tables and there were people eating, so I walked up and said “restaurant?” They smiled and handed me a menu all in Thai. I looked at them with a confused look on my face and fortunately one of the guys walked to me and said “Rice? Chicken?” I nodded and they motioned me to sit down inside. He went over to the front, pulled some chicken out of a cooler and threw it into a huge wok. I thought to myself, at least it will be freshly cooked. A woman put some rice on a plate from a big rice cooker, he put the chicken on the plate, and she brought it over to me. About that time another "foreign" lady walked up to them and said “Rice?” She was alone so I stood up and waved to her and asked her if she would like to join me. She said yes and sat down. She received the same food that I did and we both ate and chatted and found out we were staying at the same place! So we walked back together and became fast friends. Her name is Vicki.
This is how they package food, some call it Thai tupperware. You'll see hundreds of these in food stalls on the street. It's pretty ingenious, actually.
For the next couple of days, I did almost everything with Vicki. She showed me what she knew of the city, having been here a month already. She suggested we go to a local organic farm that offers cooking classes. It turned out to be a fabulous idea! The cooking school picked us up in a van with all the other students (maybe ten) and took us to a market to show us where to buy the ingredients. Then they took us to the farm where we made curry paste from scratch with a mortar and pestle, coconut soup (my favorite), chicken stir fry, spring rolls, and a dessert called banana in coconut milk. I have never cooked like that in my life with all fresh ingredients and it tasted amazing! It makes me feel like maybe I can learn this cooking stuff after all.
Wrapping spring rolls at the Thai Farm Cooking School
Pounding curry!
I have been slowly branching out, looking at maps to figure out where the heck I am and taking longer and longer trips away from my apartment, being very careful that I can find my way back. The people here are very polite, everyone greets you and if you smile, they smile back. If you bow, they return the gesture with a smile. I am slowly picking up phrases, mostly hello (sa-wat-dee) and thank you (kob-khun). I say those two phrases many times a day. Yesterday I started working on my numbers, thinking that it would come in handy for shopping. I have roughly memorized the first ten, but this is a tonal language so I won’t really get the nuances until later. But it is a start.
Fish on the grill. You buy it just like that, they stick it in a plastic bag, and you eat it. I actually did eat one of these, It was delicious!
This was also for sale at a street vendor. I did not buy this, just took the picture.
I am optimistic about Chiang Mai. I like the people and I am learning my way around. Slowly, one by one, things become less mysterious. I didn’t know it when I booked this apartment, but it is in a fairly remote location away from a lot of the things I would like access to and transportation is tricky. So I am going to start looking into places closer to where I want to be. But in the meantime, it is a darling apartment and I love it so I am enjoying my time here.
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