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On Wednesday Karl and I grab breakfast and go get some bicycles. I tell the bicycle rental place that I have been there each of the last two years and she says she remembers me from last year. Now they have brand new bicycles, so Karl and I are excited to ride. And the lady gives us a good ride to a mountain. Thus we start and have a great ride. The national highway is, surprisingly, finished with the construction and it is clean and smooth. And we find the turnoffs and get to the top of the (small) mountain and enjoy the view. Up at the top a family of Chinese tourists come up and two of them are from San Diego. So we have a nice little discussion. On the way we home we make a few wrong turns but end up with about 60 kilometers for the day. Later we have dinner with Duke and Chay at a nearby Khmer restaurant.
On Thursday, after an interesting night of Karl thinking he might go back to Vietnam and me receiving a text and Line call from Person Ti_Ca, we get out on the bicycles for a good, if windy, ride. At one point we drop off the main road and find a very quiet road along the river. Every little kid has to come out and greet the foreigners on bicycles as we ride by. These experiences are the ones that people travel for. On the way back to the hotel we stop off at a pharmacy, drop off the bicycles, eat pizza, and pick up our laundry. Near 5 pm I work with Karl on his website and then we go have dinner with Chay, Tra, and Donald. And since yesterday was a wild emotional day, I'm heading for sleep near 11 pm. As I'm packing my things up for travel I realize that the laundry place has only given me half of my clothes. It's 11 pm and I have to leave early - will I have to buy new clothes?
I'm up before 6 am on Friday for a shower and I finish packing and check out of the hotel. I go to the laundry place and talk with three people to explain the situation. And they call a responsible person to come over and look for the other half of my laundry. She eventually finds it and I give her an extra big tip for getting out of bed (from across the street) and coming over early. The trip to Bangkok and then Chiang Mai is uneventfull. When I get to Chiang Mai my baggage is missing (as well as the baggage of another traveler). We get directed to another carousel in another terminal and sure enough we get our stuff. By now we have become "friends" so I help Kay get a taxi to her hotel and give her my number in case she gets into trouble (since its her first time in Thailand and she hears me speaking more or less understandable Thai). My Thai "ear" isn't at full speed yet, but I'll work on it. I work on Karl's website for a bit and then call Person Ta_T (who I met last year). He comes over to my hotel and we hang out a bit and catch up on everything that has happened over the last year.
On Saturday I eat snacks for breakfast and start walking to my bicycle rental place. On the way near the Thapae Gate I see people signing in for the Chiang Mai marathon that starts on Christmas morning at 4 am. They start it early so that most runners beat the heat of the day. But this year there will be some cold starters as the weather has been cool throughout the trip. I get a decent bicycle for rent and spend more time picking out and adjusting the helmet than I do to rent the bicycle. I do the traditional first day ride out to the lake at Huay Tung Tao and run into some other cyclists - though I don't stop and talk with them. After a shower I drop off some laundry for cleaning and then have a slow day until Person Ta_T and I have dinner. He is still not quite over his cold so he goes home after dinner for sleep. I relax at the hotel and then walk out to the two bars that I frequent to say hello to people from last year.
On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday I get into a good pattern of cycling for about three hours, taking pictures during the ride, meeting up with friends, and/or wandering around aimlessly to check out the sights.I do a bit of web, blockchain, and encryption programming during downtime. On Monday night I have dinner with Person Ta_T before he goes to see his family in Chiang Rai. As we are walking after dinner two sets of people decide to ask me directions - one in English and one in Spanish. I'm able to direct both groups to their destinations in their languages. Later on Christmas Monday I meet up with Person Th_T - a new friend. We just go have smoothies at a nearby restaurant and agree to possibly hang out again soon.
On Tuesday I have to return the bicycle by 10:20 am so I just do a loop ride around Chiang Mai with some side trips up deserted streets. The people on these streets wonder what the heck I'm doing here, but I'm just seeing the sights off-the-beaten-path. I return the bicycle and then walk back to my hotel. Near noon I grab lunch and pick up some other supplies. I have a quiet day and don't even call Person Th_T to hang out. I just work on some coding of a blockchain that I'm playing with.
Wednesday is a transit day and it is raining. It's a cold rain for Chiang Mai. I sit next to a Thai man who is taking his first airplane ride and is going to continue studying Japanese in Osaka. I talk him through the airplane ride and give him my email address for future contact. Later in the day I see that the weather in Osaka is +3 C during the day and -1 C at night - I wonder hom my Thai friend, Pim, is going to like that? I get to Bangkok and take the skytrain to a different hotel. They tell me 10 minutes for the room. An hour later they tell me 5 more minutes, so I leave my bags and go walking. I walk for two hours and have a nice vegetarian Thai dinner. And finally get my room. It is a big room with a balcony and a kitchen. It's an executive residence that I got cheap because I booked it at the last minute.
On Thursday I take the skytrain to an area in Bangkok and start walking again to see the sights. Eventually I stop in and pick up supplies for lunch and dinner go back at my hotel room. On Thursday night Myo comes over and we have dinner and get some sleep.
Friday starts with a bus ride to Pattaya. I don't like Pattaya at all because of all of the sleazy sex tourists, but Myo has never been there and wants to be near the sea. We get to the hotel and then go walking around the city. Yes - you can see which of the people are sex tourists from a mile away. But I keep my mouth shut and try not to ruin Myo's vacation. We walk along the waterfront for a long time and then go back to the hotel. We just have snacks for dinner and then sleep.
On Saturday we grab a taxi out to the Frost Magical Ice of Siam. At this sight there are many statues made of sand and salt (and painted white) and then you go inside where there are many statues made of ice. Myo has never been in any temperature below about 12 C, so he's shocked at the -10 C temperature. (We do have overcoats and gloves from the place, but he's still cold.) He keeps wanting to leave but I insist that he stay so that he can experience what New York experiences every year (and because he has mentioned wanting to go to New York). My cheeks and ears are a bit cold, but it feels good to be in the cold and I'm the only one wearing shorts in the facility. Eventually we leave and it takes us about 90 minutes and a scalped taxi fare to get back home because Uber claims to be working but nobody ever shows up. At home we relax for a bit and then go for another long walk along the waterfront and mingle with the tourists.
On Sunday morning we grab a bus and go back to Bangkok for new year's eve celebrations. At first we are going to go to the Skybar (featured in the film Hangover 2) but then we decide it is probably crowded with jacked-up prices. So we go to Central World and wander around the mall and then push and shove our way through many, many people who are there to listen to music and ring in the new year. Myo gets tired and so we grab a taxi back home and get to see a few fireworks from our hotel room.