Maybe it is a sign of how relaxed I am, or perhaps that we no longer feel like ‘tourists’ in Chiang Mai but I find myself in the spot where I have almost nothing to report…

We arrived here on Saturday afternoon and were pleasantly surprised to see our friends Ian and Tee waiting to meet us at the airport! Normally we grab our bags and then try to search out a taxi to our hotel, but the face of friends in the crowd made for a great start to the day.

After dropping our bags off at the hotel we all went back to Ginny Cafe to sit and have some food and drink and start to catch up – even thought we have been away for a year things just pick up like we were never away!

All we have done for the last few days is unwind and relax.  We have gotten in a few trips for a massage, and just been walking around the city, sitting by the pool, and hanging out with our friends.  I would love to be able to report that we did something really exciting, but I can’t.. and to be honest I don’t feel bad about that 😉

I think I shall keep on with this pace 🙂

I am not at all embarrassed to admit that we have not done a whole lot the last few days. Our hotel has a great little pool and a nice sitting area, so we have been taking full advantage of that along with spending some time visiting with our local friends.

We have managed to find a nice little massage place close to our new hotel and in addition to being able to get a good massage, the owners are really friendly and we have had a nice time chatting with them while getting our daily relaxation!

We know that our time here in northern Thailand is approaching an end, so we are trying to get out with our friends here as much as possible. We have had a few good nights out with Tee, Ian, Richie and Landon, and we also had the chance to meet Richie’s girlfriend Vanna,  and Landon’s girlfriend Tiew.

We also managed to have an nice night out with Ian and Tee at The River Market restaurant – a bit of an upscale place featuring a sort of Thai-Western fusion type menu. The restaurant is situated along the bank of the Ping River and it was very nice to just sit and relax and enjoy the great food with our friends. Tee always does so much to help us out and take care of us, so it was nice to see her relax for an evening as well!

After dinner we walked up towards the old city, and stopped for a couple of drinks at the Interbar. They have been a fixture in Chiang Mai for a very long time and feature live music. It was very interesting to hear Thai musicians perform American music, and we got a chuckle from time to time from their rendition of the lyrics, but overall a great night out.

Our last day/night in Chiang Mai was a little busy.  Trying to get some goodbye time in with all of our friends along with getting the laundry sorted and all packed up kept us fairly well occupied. We had lunch with Landon and Tee, and then dinner with a couple we met at our new favorite massage shop, an Aussie fellow and his Thai girlfriend. Then it was back to Ginny Cafe for me to say a last goodbye to Ian and Tee for another year.

Our time in Chiang Mai was great as always, and we are sad to be moving on, but take some comfort in knowing that we will be back again soon and have developed some great friendships here.  Phop gun mai na krap!

We have been back in Chiang Mai now for a couple of days. Full credit to Mrs. Columbus being on her A game in finding us a place to stay – after looking at some of the places we have stayed before and brushing them off because they were not available, or had some ‘bug issues’ we decided to try a new area just outside the old city near the Saturday street market.

We have been holed up in our room at the Baan Ratchiangsaen completely taking it easy. The hotel is brand new, and very well run. The rooms are a good size, there is a pool, and some nice outside sitting areas – along with the low price of about $30/night it ticks all the boxes!!

After returning the rental car we have taken in a few massages, some street food, and just been hanging out by the pool and catching up on things back home. I blame the weather for the lack of activity 😉 as it has been a bit overcast and some rain on a couple of the days, so that has encouraged me to not venture out too far.

Bruce and Jackie have returned from their home stay adventure and after hearing about their experience we have added something else to our to-do list for a future vacation. They are returning to Australia today so while we are sad to see them go, it was great that we were able to schedule things to allow us a short vacation together – maybe next time we will see them in Australia as they have offered to host us there anytime!

We need to start working on our plan for the next part of our trip and are still trying to decide on Vietnam or Cambodia or ……..? It is all very stressful and I may have to think about it over a massage and maybe a beer.

We have been out walking around the old city a bit and for the most part things are the same as last year here in Chiang Mai.  A few of the shops have changed – a restaurant or two have new names, a massage shop has closed and two new ones have opened, but pretty typical of what would go on from year to year.  There is not much sign of anything different as a result of the change in political power aside from the occasional sighting of an army officer and more frequent patrols from the local police (who are now reporting through to the military government).

Other changes are more noticeable to us – our friends Tee and Ian will be moving out to their place in Mae Rim at some point, and as we found out some people change jobs.  Our friend Riam who we have used as a driver / tour guide ever since we first came to Chiang Mai with the kids, and who we have recommended to a number of people, had a bit of a surprise for us this year when we called her.

Being in the tourism industry can be difficult anywhere, but in Thailand the typical feast (high season) and famine (low season) cycle adds it is own challenges, and then when you couple that with political instability some people just stop coming.  The result is that for some the ability to make enough cash during the high season is just not enough to last out the low season.  Almost every year that we have been here Riam has been telling us that low season in particular has been getting more and more difficult to get any reasonable amount of customers, and this year has been the worst – she told us she had not had a customer since Laurie’s sister was here at the end of February! A few months ago she decided to put her tourism job on the back burner and took all her savings to start a small brick factory on her land out in Mae Rim.  Which leads us to today’s adventure…

When we called Riam to schedule a day trip she told us she does not do that anymore, that she was working in her factory.  She still wanted to get together and offered to take us around on the weekend, so when she arrived and we talked about where we wanted to go, I of course wanted to see the factory.

Most of the people here work very hard, often 6-7 days a week with little or no vacation time, but some are really trying to get above the base working class and create some opportunity for themselves.  Riam is one of those people. Some time ago when things were going very well they bought a small piece of land outside the city to have some fruit trees and just some extra space – I would say it is probably an acre or 1.5 acres.  When the tourism went into it’s big dip her and her husband decided to get a small business loan and buy some equipment to manufacture bricks.  They have a small staff of Burmese workers who work along side them as they produce about 1500 bricks per day that they sell to local suppliers.  After some initial startup bugs, they have a pretty good system going now and are currently selling their bricks almost as fast as they make them. They still work 6 days a week, but if they continue to ramp up production and get the process refined they hope to be able to be able to let the staff take over more, and Riam says she would maybe be able to return to the tour business if things start to recover there.

It was interesting to see the ‘factory’ – which is really mostly manual labor with a bit of machinery for pressing the actual bricks – and to see what they have done with the land since the last time we were there.  Hopefully their hard work will pay off!

After visiting the brick-works we decided to go for a small hike at the Mae Sa waterfall.  It turns out that their land is about a 5 minute walk from the river and the base of the falls so rather than driving back out we are able to just walk over and then spend the next hour or so walking up to a few of the 12 tiers of falls that are there.

To round out the day we head down to Baan Tawai, an area south of the city where there are lots of markets for wooden goods – furniture, carvings, artwork. etc. Unfortunately it is Sunday so none of the actual woodcarvers are working as it would have been interesting to see that.  Some of the work that they produce is incredibly intricate, and they have a ton of talent.

Tomorrow will likely be a bit of a slow, hang about day. We need to get some arrangements made for our next adventure which will be a trip to the north west corner of Thailand on the Mae Hong Son loop.

Today was a big day for us, we got to go out to Mae Rim where our friends are building a new home and restaurant.  We met Tee and Ian several years ago at their business in the city – a small guest house and a restaurant that we have been returning to for breakfast / lunch / dinner about once a day while we are in Chiang Mai.  In the last couple of years they have started in on a new project about 30 minutes north of the city near the village where Tee’s family lives.

The project when finished will be a new house for them, a restaurant for tourists and the locals in the surrounding area, and a few small bungalows for rentals.  So far the main house is about 3/4 complete, and the restaurant and kitchen was recently finished.  The local monk told them that Friday morning would be a good time to ‘open’ the business and so a blessing ceremony was held, and we were invited out to the ‘soft opening’ in the afternoon to try out some of the menu items, hang out with friends, and get a chance to see how the construction has progressed over the last year.

It was great to see the work that is being done first hand – I have had the chance to see it evolve via pictures, but being able to stand there is so much better!  The main house was just some string lines and stakes in the ground last year, and now the main construction is basically complete, and they are diligently working on the finishing work – installing windows and doors, tiling, painting etc.  It gives me a great chance to see up close the Thai construction methods as almost everything here is done with bricks and concrete, but they are masters at what they can do with those materials.  The patience that they have in being able to makes things from concrete and finish surfaces with great detail is quite impressive, and while I can build a fair number of things back home, I could never master the masonry techniques used here.

Of course the highlight of the day was the opening of the restaurant, and after we had a chance to tour the new house and bungalow it was time to sit down to some serious eating.  The day was mostly a soft opening and a chance for the kitchen to get it’s rhythm and test out some of the dishes.  This is all good news for us as we get to sit around for the afternoon in the tranquil surroundings and nibble away at a fairly constant stream of food from the kitchen over some cold refreshments.

For us it is always a privilege to have the chance to be part of these sorts of events because they don’t happen often, and are typically for close friends and family, so a special treat for us to be part of the ‘in’ crowd. A warm thank you to our hosts Tee and Ian for another great day in paradise!  We look forward to returning again many times in the future.