I'm out of bed and dressing for running at 6:05am on Thursday. Except that it is still dark out so I wait a bit before running - I know the streets are in terrible condition and I don't want to risk a trip and fall. After a short wait, I get in a good 69 minute run/walk where I am extra careful due to the bad pavement. But it's fun to run around the moat at CHiang Mai. After a shower and breakfast I get a Grab Taxi to the bus terminal and the Green Bus to Chiang Rai. The bus ride goes smoothly except that the road is still under construction and only one backhoe working. I wonder if it will ever get finished. My hotel is way out of the city center. It was a triple backup hotel because evrything else was booked. It seems like mostly Thai people staying here and they give me the very last, farthest room from reception. It's probably a 300 meter walk and there is no elevator so I have to lug my bag up the stairs to the second floor - the top floor. Later I walk to the city center and have spicy Thai curry and then walk back to my hotel to set everything out.
I'm awake at 7:05am on Friday the 13th morning and grabbing breakfast at 8:00am. The breakfast isn't very good, but I have some bread and jelly and orange juice. I put on my cycling clothes and walk 40 minutes to my Chiang Rai bicycle shop. They guy working there doesn't remember me from two years ago, but we get my hyrbid bicycle put together the way I want and I ride back to the hotel to put on the rest of my cycling clothes. I head in an easterly direction and I don't quite get the directions right so this is a new ride. But I like this ride because I get out of the ciy quickly and its a wide, smooth road with little traffic. I go out about 25 kilometers and turn back and head for home - stopping off at the 7-11 for some afternoon supplies. I watch some Netflix (Thai movies) while having some chips and Coke and then I do a bit more wbe programming. One more session of web programming (probably) and I'll be done with it and out of work (except for the month end changeover at the end of December). I ride the bicycle as it starts to get dark to go have a veggie burger. This place has good veggie burgers as I remember from two years ago. I hear a discussion about Phillipino presidents and corruption and, as I'm leaving, I have to but in with, "Have you seen the Phillipino movie Amo on Netflix?" Of course they have not but the Phillipina looks it up and the two men with her suggest other titles for me to watch as we have a short five minute conversation about the drug wars. Later I go home and watch part of a Betflix documentary that one of the gentlemen suggested. I may have seen it before but I'll watch more and see. And even later Shalee, who I have not seen for nine years, comes to visit and we have a short visit before he goes home.
I have breakfast on Saturday morning and note there is a 20% chance of scattered showers and there is cloud cover. With the slight cooling, now is the time to climb to the Khun Korn waterfalls and hope it isn't slippery coming down. Thus I head south from CHiang Rai and go past the White Temple and then to the base of the waterfalls. I start the 11 kilometer climb enthusiasticly. I ride within myself and when I get to the last turn before the top, I think that this was easier than I remember. I turn around and push a big gear coming home for a good 60 kilometer ride with a decent climb. I have snacks for lunch and relax in my room to the finish of Cartel Land. (I guess I have not seen it before.) For dinner I have a nice thai curry and then I walk around the Saturday night walking market to see the offerings. And then cycle home in the dark.
Sunday morning starts with a light rain, so no cycling. After breakfast I go back and my key will not work. I alert the staff, who I have become friends with, and they try and then they alert the maintenance man and he tries. He gives up and says the door lock needs a new battery. I'm back in my room as the maintenance man goes to look for a new battery. He comes back with new batteries and installs them and the door still does not open. He plays with it a bit and finally gives up. He gives me the backup unlocking key and says the door handle unit will have to be replaced. Since it is raining I work on the backend for the Long Beach Human Trafficking Task Force website. Just trying to make the resource provision process easier to read and view - nothing fancy. I get to a convenient stopping point just after the maintenance man leaves and it is not raining, so I get out for a 70 minute run/walk and get to the 7-11 in my running clothes to pick up some supplies. After a shower I relax with lunch and a Netflix series on spy operations (which I've seen before but is worth watching again). Late in the afternoon it starts raining. Shalee and I were going to meet for dinner, but seeing that Shalee rides a motorbike I postpone the dinner for a day. I keep looking for a break in the rain to grab some dinner but the break isn't coming. So no dinner and watching some Netflix (including watching a Thai movie that I heard about but couldn't find before).
The rain has ended though it is a very couldy and cool day. After breakfast I head north and turn left to parallel the Kok river (which had nasty flooding a couple months ago) on my bicycle. I have a good ride for about 50 kilometers. I stop in at the blue temple on the way home just to people watch for a few minutes. And pick up supplies on the way home. After a shower I have lunch and finish off a Netflix documentary CyberBunker (which I've also seen before). After a dinner of Thai curry Shalee comes to visit for a few minutes on his way home.
After breakfast I pay some bills and plan out the rest of my trip. Near 9am I get out cycling with a stop at the bus station to figure out transportation from Chiang Rai to Nan (a city I've never visited before). It's going to be a long, arduous bus ride. I get all the way out to Mae Chan today and turn around for a 60 kilometer out and back ride. I catch the maintenance guy and pull him to my room where he can install a new door handle so that I can go back to using just the card key. After a shower I grab lunch and continue watching the weird Thai series on Netflix. Just the first episode has so many plot twists! Later I ride the bicycle to the night market and grab some Thai food and people watch before returning to home.
On I grab breakfast and ride my bicycle to the new hotel. Then I walk back the 2.5 kilometers to my old hotel in order to check out. (The preferred hotel nearer the city center was already booked so I had to rely on this backup hotel.) I get a Grab taxi with my luggage to the new hotel which isn't ready to accept my check-in. Thus I take my luggage into the bathroom, change into my cycling gear, give the luggage to reception to hold, and take off on a good bicycle ride. I ride along the Kok river and find a path that I haven't been on in ten years. It's a good rollercoaster ride. When I finish the room is still not ready, so I grab some bread and cheese and Coke and sit in the deserted night market and have lunch. FInally my room is ready and I get a shower, gather my dirty clothes, and go to a coin laundry to clean clothes. Afterward I ride around a bit exploring but eventually go back to my room and have the rest of the bread and cheese and Coke for dinner. And finish off the wild, plot-twisty Thai Netflix four episode series "Tomorrow and I".
Late on Wednesday and early into Thursday I wake up and feel as if I am coming down with something. I don't think it is anything serious, but a note to be taken nonetheless. I wake up a shade late on Thursday and get dressed to go cycling. I skip the breakfast that I paid for and have a decent out and back ride for almost 50 kilometers. This is a road with some traffic but it is wide and it has some hills to give me a decent ride. On the way home I stop in at the bicycle store and ask them for three more days of riding until Sunday, stop in at the ATM for more Thai Baht, and cruise past a store to see if it is open yet. At the hotel I grab a nice, warming shower and start off walking. I grab some chocolate and some bread and cheese and Coke and then stop in at a wine store. I have to describe what a corkscrew is and the woman attending the store has to do a google translate on it and show me a picture to make sure she understands. She down not have one. Seeing that I don't have one and she does not have one and she does not know where to buy one, I am restricted to a wine with a twist-off cap. I grab some wine and pay for it and the woman in charge says, "Are you a teacher?". I respond in Thai that I am a tourist. And she asks, "How can you speak Thai?". I get this a lot. I just respond in Thai that I can speak a little Thai but I cannot read or write Thai. And, as usual, this is not an acceptable answer and there are more questions coming at me. I just deflect the questions because I don't have the vocabulary to explain why I can speak Thai. THe deflection is along the lines of speaking Thai is difficult and I am from America. This opens up another line of questioning that I respond to and we both finally smile at each other warmly as I take leave and head for home.
I spend the rest of Thursday sipping (or gulping) the wine, reviewing what software is installed on this laptop as I get ready to buy a new one when I return home, updating some finances, and just have a good slow day to recover from anything that I might be coming over me. (With the threat of buying a new laptop, this laptop decides to start behaving better and not have it's slow moments. But it's too late. This laptop is five years old and will be recycled when I find a responsible non-profit that cleans the laptop before they deploy it to an underprivelaged person or child.) Tonight at the Chiang Rai night market it seems like every foreigner wants me to help them find a table or chairs. It's okay, I respond with "pohm dai" (Thai for "I can") and I find them a table and chairs. I even offer to take pictures of the foreigners with their food since their selfies do not capture the entire picture. I only speak in Thai, leaving the foreigners puzzled, but I help them and put smiles on their faces. And I finally feel useful for once.
I wake up on Friday and feel good. I finally grab the breakfast at ths hotel and realize that I have paid for it at this hotel in the past. I take a short break to let breakfast settle and then I set out on my favorite ride - the ride past the White Temple and then up the 11 kilometer climb to the top of the Khun Korn waterfalls. Today I feel strong and keep a good cadence up and it seems that this ride gets easier each time that I do it. I pass a rider on the way up and blow past him and later, when I am on my way down, encourage hime on the way up with, "You're almost there". As I ride home I note that the the 1 kilometer that was under constructionlast week is now paved over with beatilfull, smooth blacktop and I rush on through the area. I finish at 60 kilometers and note that there is a lot of road dust/mud on my cycling clothes that I wash and wring out as I take a shower. There's some wine left over from yesterday and I drink it today as I work on an object-oriented approach to database reading that could be beneficial in the future. Late in the day I walk around and enjoy the Thai smiles. (And I keep on teasing the doormen at the hotel, as is my usual practice, by sneaking up on them, hiding, and making a break for the hotel doors so that I get there before they can open the doors for me. The doormen get a kick out of this and I'm happy that I can spread some cheer and silliness and make their jobs a bit more fun.)
I start Saturday a bit late and grab breakfast and read the news before going out cycling. Today I want to find that small, two lane road that goes under the trees. I think I've found it but I do not. But I still find a road that I don't think I've ever been on before and its wide with little traffic. So it's a good out and back ride of more than 50 kilometers. Though I get a bit lost on the way back into the city and ride around until relying on Google maps to get me home = picking up some supplies on the way there. The remainder of the day is slow as I work on some coding and watch some Netflix and just relax. Except that late at night Beam comes to visit and we walk to a pub for beer (Beam) and Sprite (me). After one drink Beam drives me to a club near the Sun club and Par club that I've been to before. It seems like a lot of clubs have popped up in that area. He drinks beer and I drink Sprite while we catch up and listen to the music. On Sunday Beam will go to Chiang Rai to have an eye infection treated and on Monday I'll take a bus to Nan (a city or village that I've never been to before).
THough Beam kept me out late on Saturday night, I'm awake at 6:05am to grab breakfast. Afterwards I get out for the final CHiang Rai of about two hours. I grab a shower, do the laundry and at the coin laundromat, and take the bicycle back to the rental place. On the way home I stop for some supplies. At home I get a message from someone saying that they just saw me at the bicycle shop. Oh well...whatever. In the afternoon I think I've lost my Chime debit card. It is the one I usually carry at home for cycling and I think I packed it but I cannot find it. It's really a tertiary emergency card, so not a big deal if I lost it. Maybe I decided not to pack it. I'll only know when I get home. Except that later as I'm watching some Netflix I realize that I got the Chime card to carry with me when I go cycling, so it's probably in the little saddlebag that I have. Sure enough it's there. Later I go walking for about an hour and catch the 7pm chiming and light display at the Chiang Rai clocktower.