First Impressions of Chiang Mai, Thailand.

Dear Wilson,

So we have gotten settled in and accustomed to the amazing city of Chiang Mai. The people here are truly the kindest people in the world. Everyone smiles all the time and each person treats others with so much respect. The mutual respect here is probably unrivaled by anywhere else in the world and definitely so much better than the U.S. from this aspect. You just feel genuine love for people even when they are strangers. 

We went to a restaurant and spoke to an expat that moved here when he was 28 and is currently 60. He still to this day loves this city and his only con is not seeing his parents back in the states very often. Other than that, he was very happy with his decision. I'm not saying I could live here, but it's a pretty awesome place for people that can see themselves living abroad. I see lots of expats here. Literally thousands in this city. 

Last night, Erica and I went out to a bar and met the nicest lady named Wah, who is a local to this area. We talked at the bar for about 3-4 hours with amazing conversation. Everything from culture, religion, beliefs, morals, gay/lesbian, travel talk, tourism, food, etc. Basically, the finer things of life. Not sure how we got into all that but we had a lot of fun. I truly appreciated the genuine conversation and Erica seemed to really enjoy the night as well. We also talked to 2 very nice guys from Belgium as well but it was a more surface conversation about travel, Belgium beer, and differences of driving abroad vs home countries. 

Today, Wah invited us to go to the theater with her and her daughter tomorrow night to see the movie Barbie. We have her contact on Whatsapp to keep in touch. Normally I would pass on such a lame movie but we agreed to go for the sake of adventure and cultural experience. Not saying that Barbie is going to give us some Thai culture lessons. It's more about the people and what we do before or after the movie that could potentially be memorable. So we now have an official contact in Thailand. My dad would be so proud to see Erica and I mingling at a bar with strangers lol.

The massages are amazing. Erica and I have had 2 massages already and for both of us to get a 1 hour massage, including a very generous 30% tip, we paid about $22 USD. That's $11 per hour per person including tip! They have cheaper places that will give massages for about $6 per hour. Seems very unfair for them to be honest. A part of me feels bad for getting a massage but at the same time, they need us to patronize their business. I guess it's just the way it is around here. The massage therapists are also extremely kind and seem to love their work and take their jobs seriously. On another note, you know you are in Thailand getting a massage when the relaxing meditation music is mixed with the constant rumbling of motorcycles passing by. I call it motorcycle meditation music 😀. It's just a subtle… or maybe not so subtle reminder that you are not in America getting this massage. 

So… the food… Well I can't say I like it. It's honestly pretty terrible. I have tried Pad Thai, Khao Soi, curry, various fried foods, noodles, prawn cakes, and even fancy baked potatoes. It's difficult being a food snob coming from arguably the best food area in the world. New Orleans food is simply on another level. I had high hopes for Thai food since it is known for its spiciness. In reality most of their food is not near as spicy as I cook at home. That was kind of shocking to me. Don't get me wrong, they do have some spicy food, but overall it's just not our family's style. We struggle to find good food here, at least in our opinion. Today I tried Khao Soi and curry and I couldn't swallow it. It has a coconut base but also I'm pretty convinced they use a spice called Star Anise which is a sweet licorice tasting spice with a very pungent flavor. Definitely a NO GO for us. To resolve this, I have been cooking at home a lot lately. It's weird, without backspacing my previous sentence, I said "home". It's a weird feeling when you associate an Airbnb as a home. When you sell your personal house there is a strange thing that happens with attachment. Our Airbnb truly feels like home since my brain doesn't have another house to attach to. I just came to this realization as I typed this. Our 1 month Airbnb is literally our home for the time being… So weird to think about and hard to explain in words…

On another totally unrelated topic, our second night at the Airbnb, we walked home after dark. Our front gate was open which made us feel very uncomfortable going up to the house especially without a pistol or some sort of equalizer. The exterior door has not been broken into. However, there was an exterior window that wasn't locked and was slightly opened. I thought the entire scenario of a break in was super unlikely and even more unlikely that someone went through the window. Regardless of this unlikely event of someone being in the house, I had to make sure. This was not a very fun experience to say the least. I opened the front door and turned as many lights on as possible leading to the kitchen. Once in the kitchen I grabbed a large kitchen knife and proceeded to dark rooms to flip lights on and inspect the 2 story house 1 room at a time. In times like this, you can't help but think about how movies are made and what happens in movies. Like what the fuck… I'm searching and clearing a house in a foreign country and an unfamiliar house with a kitchen knife. Haha. Well it wasn't "haha" at that moment but now it's kinda funny. So I guess intimately what happened was the gate somehow became unlatched even though I personally closed it. Maybe some kids were playing with the gate. Who knows. I'm just glad I didn't have to play meat ninja (like the phone game fruit ninja) with a Thai burglar. In the movies the Asians are always more ninja like than the white guy so I was probably fucked in a knife duel. 

That sums up some of our current adventures in our first 5 days here in Chiang Mai.