Chiang Mai: no money and an impromptu Karaoke party

Funny, when we made the phone reservations I swear the lady said it was a 2:20 departure. So we head out to start our day right at our breakfast joint, grab a quick foot massage and stop in the internet cafe to catch up on emails. Good thing she sent me an email confirmation showing the right departure time. 2:20 is our arrival time, departure is 12:50.

Well, now we have to hustle! I don't know why we didn't jump in our standby Tuk-Tuk which would have gotten us back in minutes. Instead we walk the one-third mile (or so) to the train, wait for the next train and walk the one-third mile (or so) to the condo in about half an hour.

But it only takes us minutes to pack a bag and head out again to flag a taxi. We are a bit concerned that we might not find one quickly that will agree to go to the airport. We are sort of in the middle of town, but not in a high traffic area. But this turns out to not be a problem and the Doorman quickly hails us an airport bound ride.

Arriving in Chiang Mai we find ourselves in that strange position of finding out what to do next. Always stop at the bar or cafe for a coffee, there can be no rush...Check the scene out! A hastily made decision at this point is going to cost you money. We look around a bit for a bus stand into town, none is evident. We see lots of tour operators and a hotel reservation desk. For some reason, we don't want the services of these professionals. We finally eye the taxi stand and head in that direction.

Where you go?
To the old city
What hotel?
Just to the old city
Where?
(Hmmm, now we are stuck!)
Oh, anywhere is okay, we just want to walk around
(We must sound like idiots)
Taxi that way.
She points around the corner.

There are no metered taxi's just the cars that folks use. Generally a rip off. But we have already lost most of our confidence and need to get out of the airport and decide to go for it. We have a repeat of the same conversation with the English speaking fellow who says okay, we can get a ride for 120 Baht, (about $3.50 USD) This is only double what I had read that the price should be and we nod and get in. I am not the minister of negotiation, but Victor points out that this transaction clearly falls under the Ministries of transportation and finance and that I am indeed the negotiator. We laugh.

We find Chiang Mai to have more English speaking folks as a percentage of those you come across in your day to day events than anywhere else we have been this whole trip. We are blessed with an English speaking driver. We talk about the festival that is going on, actually tomorrow is the last day of the festival. He notes that the town is full so folks who had procrastinated from all over Thailand are visiting for the show. Hmmmmm.

We ask about lodging and what he might recommend. Oh, nothing madam, town is full. Ugh! Why didn't we make reservations? Actually, I tried to but everything I contacted WAS full! Oh dear!

So our friendly driver takes us to Old Town which is across the moat. You can still see many remnants of the old wall. He kindly drops us off at the one of the entrances that has every other building as a guest house. If we don't need anything special, he thinks we might find accommodation here.

Eye Candy! The street is more of a one lane alley way that twists and turns for the first 2 blocks then straightens out. Building are very close, no green space. Every other building is a guest houses and they all include a travel agency, restaurant, bar, laundry service, internet cafe and motorcycle rentals. We are a little bit dizzied by the visions and walk bit into the old city.

I think we should find lodging first. So as is usually the case with us, we inquire, look at the room and take it no matter what the conditions. This time it was okay, queen bedded room, private bath and a tiny little balcony for all of $9 USD, breakfast not included. We drop our bag (really just a purse with not much more than underwear and toothbrushes) and head out to look for a late lunch and to exchange some of our USD to Baht.

My experience with Old Towns, like San Diego, is that they are also small towns. Not the case here! We follow along some even more narrow alleys and finally find a main street. But this old town is really only about guest houses and the services they provide, stand alone restaurants, internet cafes, massage parlors an occasional motorcycle repair shop....Not much on banking!

We walk until I am more than a little concerned. We don't have many Baht left and have seen nowhere that takes credit cards and are scheduled to be here for two days. I am imagining thirst and hunger! We ask a fellow how far to an exchange place and are told it is just up the road, maybe a kilometer....Hmmmmm not really! It is quite a bit up the road, maybe a mile and a half. You actually have to leave the moated sanctuary and cross two BUSY streets and then continue walking forever until you find the first bank...which does not exchange money, but maybe someone else does up the road....Okay, now I am starting to feel the pains of starvation in advance of the reality.

We continue down the road and slip into a small bank that has an exchange sign and the nice fellow locks the door right after us, it is 3:30 pm. We are instructed to take a number and are #517. They are on #212. I can see why they close early. There are only a few people waiting, not the hundreds that the numbering system would indicate. They call all of the waiting numbers except ours. The tellers are closing up and we keep sitting. This is silly! Will they serve us dinner if we keep waiting? My stomach hopes so!

We are finally called. Apparently only one of the tellers can do exchanges and she was otherwise engaged. I am always so grateful when a perfectly acceptable answer to my having to wait has not been preceded by me fussing at someone about the system not meeting my expectations.

We get the money and run!

Having successfully recrossed the busy streets and moat we take a different street towards home and in the second block find a pub called the Queen Vic and with a credit card emblem on their window. This bodes well and we stop in. Cute Cute Cute! We have what started out in the plans as being lunch, but ended up as a very early supper. We meet the owner and enjoy his story. We share a brochure with him and tell him all about Yosemite and the Hotel Charlotte in Groveland.

We leave and it is still very daylight. We start walking back to our guest house and realize that we have no clue how to get there. Hmmmmm. Good thing the Transportation Minister took a business card with map on it from the hotel's front desk before we left. I don't think either of us knew the name of the place or the street we were on. We quickly negotiated a high price from a Tuk-Tuk driver and were soon back on our street. I started thinking it might have been funny to only be two blocks from the hotel and not know it...

Being too early to bed down, we walk over to one of the massage parlors and get a nice traditional Thai Massage. I will tell you about these in another post....Glorious! We wonder to the gals if we are close enough to walk to the night market. It being just across the BUSY street and moat they think we should walk. Off we go on our now revived feet to walk another mile or so...But the market was lovely, the people friendly and out going and we quickly found several exchange places. Turns out the exit we used in the afternoon isn't a tourist street and provided no real touristy services like money exchanges. Hmmm, and only minutes from our hotel there are half a dozen exchanges.

We finish our evening with a stop at the bar next to our hotel and have a beer and plan to go to bed as we are exhausted by todays (mis-) adventures. Our plans quickly changed when we hear John Lennon and the Beatles belting out their greatest hits and decide to find out what all the good music is about.

Just a block away is a tiny little restaurant seating no more that 12 people and they are having a Karaoke party. To expand the operation they have put a few tables on the other side of the street. Half off the pavement, half on. This takes up only a portion of the tiny alleyway and the smallest of cars can still get through.

We are invited to join John Lennon's table (he is really named Colin) and enjoy several hours of merry making, karaoke, a free buffet and good conversation. This is the funnest night of our trip. Victor "sings" three songs and we dance in the street.

Every half hour or so another person loaded with wares brings their merchandise to the table and gives us the pitch. I love this kind of shopping. Our new found friends help with the negotiations and we thoroughly enjoy watching the art of the deal handled by professionals on both sides of the negotiation. I feel good that we got a fair deal on the few items we buy.

We go to bed with our day completely redeemed!