I wake up on Sunday just before my alarm goes off. I can't sleep past 6am even though I try. I wake up and read the news and go eat breakfast. When I go oback to the room, the electricity will not come on. O go to the front desk and tell them. The lady says the maintenance people are off on Sunday and cannot fix it for 24 hours. And she just stares at me. Am I supposed to go without elecctricity for 24 hours? I didn't know this was a camping trip. Finally she says I can switch rooms because there will probably be more problems with that room. I keep staring at her. I just unpacked everything and she wants me to pack it all back up and move to another room and unpack? Yes, this is what happens. I get the exact same room one floor higher. But at least the Internet and electricity work. I walk to my bicycle store and the owner is happy to see me and we talk for a few minutes. He has one daughter at a university in Japan and another daughter at a university in China. We get me fitted with a bicycle and I go out to Huay Tueng Thao reservoir. Though I cannot do laps around the lake as I used to do because they fixed the hole in the fence that I used to sneak through, I can do laps of the adjacent area with a dedicated running/cycling path. This is usally my first ride each time I come to CHiang Mai because it helps me get my legs back in the heat but strenuous enough with u and down rolling paths to get in a good workout. After the ride I have a warm, holt, and cold shower (because the water temperature keeps chaning at random), meditate, eat some salty chips and Coke, and watch some Netflix during the heat of the day. Near 6pm I walk over to the Thapae Gate for the Sunday night walking street/market and just mingle with the local Thai people and the foreigners. And finally I walk back to my hotel and get ready for sleep.
I sleep very well on Sunday night into Monday morning - only waking up briefly once and then being surprised to see it was 6am with the alarm going off. After breakfast I relax a bit and then go for the traditional second ride from Chiang Mai out to Lamphun and back for about 70 kilometers. After a shower I meditate, walk to a nearby 7-11 for snacks, and then watch the title-deciding F1 race from Abu Dhabi. It's not the results that I wanted, but a good race nonetheless. I book more of my trip with some delayed pricing so that the bill will not show up until the January credit card statement instead of December (not that it really matters). Later I go have spicy Thai curry and then I walk around a bit. And stop off at a grocery store for some supplies as I'm craving bread and cheese.
On Monday night into Tuesday morning I wake up near midnight as I hear water running. It turns out the room above me is starting a bath and the sounds comes through some vents or something. The water stops flowing and somebody gets into the tub and starts moving around as if they are swimming. There's a lot of motion. And I note that my room does not have a tub - just a shower. This goes on for a while and I put in my foam earplugs and turn the air conditioning back (which is quite loud on its own). I'm out of bed at 6:05 and read the news, grab breakfast, do a couple of coding tasks, and get out for a decent bicycle ride north along the Ping river. I don't go long today since I'm recovering from yesterday's long ride. On the way back home I stop in at the Taphae gate again and see that there was or is going to be a running event as there are vendor tables for food and stuff and many people wearing the same running shirt. After a shower at home I meditate and eat cheese and bread and watch some Netflix. Later I go out walking and see some grilled vegetables that look promising. And they are good, but somewhat bland. And then have a quiet evening at home with some more coding.
With my foam ear plugs in, I have great sleep on Tuesday into Wednesday morning. I read some news and markets and then grab breakfast. I read more news and then get out for a bicycle ride. I intend to ride on the west side of the Ping river going south - a route I discovered last year and enjoyed because you get out of Chiang Mai quickly and can ride on small quiet narrow roads. But I get lost and somehow end up on the east side of the Ping river. This goes to Lamphun as I rode on Monday. It's okay, but I need to find that western side route again. At home I grab a shower and go to the coin laundromat down the street and in an hour I have my clothes washed and dried. Back at the hotel I eat some bread and cheese and watch Netflix and finally turn on the television at this hotel. Later I go wandering around Chiang Mai a bit and stop off at the grocery store for some dark chocolate that I have a craving for.
On Thursday I hit snooze twice and get out of bed aat 6:20 am. I read the news and go eat breakfast. After breakfast I read more of the news and markets, then get dressed to go cycling. Except that I have a detour today where I stop in at the bus station and buy a ticket to Chiang Rai for Tuesday. The transaction is entirely in Thai but I don't get the weird reaction from people around me that I usually do. I have the ticket and start riding east for about 90 minutes and turn around and come back. Between the heat and diesel exhaust and the high particulate level of pollution, my nose is running a bit and my sinuses are starting to hurt a bit (even though I wear a bandana across my nose and mouth to filter stuff out). I notice that this road is newly paved since last year for a kilometer or two and it feels nice and smooth. I hope this is how my street will be when I get home because they were ripping my street up and redoing all of the curbs and outer portion of the driveway in advance of re-doing the street. At home I take a shower, meditate, and walk to a vegan restaurant where I have vegan falafel. In the afternoon I wanted to do some coding, but I need some rest and just watch some television. Later I walk to the grocery store for supplies and do a bit of coding. Hopefully I can finish off this effort on the weekend and get it out the door.
I've had a bad night sleeping on Thursday night into Friday morning since my sinuses don't like the heat and diesel exhaust and particulate pollution. I took an Aleve in the middle of the night and don't feel bad when I wake up. I read the news, grab breakfast, and then check out some more news before getting on bicycle to go ride. I find a bit more of the western side of the Ping river ride though I get lost a number of times and have to backtrack. But the part of the ride on a narrow road with very little traffic surrounded by farmland is worth it. After a shower I mediatte and walk around to find some good Thai food. And then I go back home and put F1 and MotoGP races into my calendar for 2026, relax with television and Netflix, and do a little coding. The sinuses act up a bit in the afternoon, but not as bad as yesterday.
I have good sleep into Saturday and continue with my routine of reading the news and markets, grabbing brakfast, more reading of news and barkets, and a good bicycle ride. After a shower and meditation, I go walking towards Thapae Gate and get some azithromycin for my sinus infection. (Amoxicillin is preferred for sinus infections but I am allergic to it individually and I get hives. And azithromycin is a shorter course of treatment.) And then I stop in at Burger King since I'm craving western food and I can take two of my azithromycin immediately. I walk back to the hotel in a roundabout way with a stop at the grocery store for some supplies. At home I do some good coding and finish the neural network and k-means clustering simulations and now I just have to finish the writeup and send it off to my friend. I also watch some Netflix and other random youtube videos and wonder if the rain will finally come tomorrow.
I sleep very very deep on Saturday night into Sunday morning - waking up only once for a few minutes and sleeping past my alarm. I wake up at 7am, grab breakfast, read the news, do a quick download of code and data for a better k-nearest neighbor algorithm, and go for my last ride in Chiang Mai on this trip. I get out for my favorite ride south along the west side of the Ping river. I see farmlands and cows and dogs along a quiet two lane road that parallels the Ping river. I ride a bit short to be able to return the bicycle to the shop and beat the expected rain coming in this afternoon. After a shower I return the bicycle to the owner and tell him "See you next care. If I'm able" He and his wife are happy to hear that and give me big smiles. I walk to the vegetarian/vegan restaurant and have a veggie burger. During my time there I overhear a conversation where one of the patrons says he is from Long Beach. I wait until I am finished eating and have paid the bill and I say to him in passing, "I live near Atlantic and 45th". He's a bit caught off guard that halfway around the world one of his fellow Long Beach citizens has bumped into him. He lives near Second street and I tell him we ride bicycle there all of the time. And then I walk home to relax and finish off the neural network and k-means clustering algorithm. I send it off to my friend and tell him I rushed it so I can fix the grammar if some of it is unclear or awkward. I spend time watching some television and Netflix before going for a walk around Chiang Mai. I consider getting dressed up and going out to a club. Instead I just walk around a bit and then go back to some extended nearest neighbor clustering coding.
I start Monday at 6am and get dressed to go run and wait for 10-15 minutes for some light to start up. I don't want to run in the dark with the uneven pavement, crubs, and surprises. Chiang Mai is not the most run-friendly city and now less so as I will discover that a park that I would run in is temporarily closed. But I get out and run the perimeter of the moat - the first time I've done so - and end up with a decent 11 kilometer run. After a shower I grab breakfast and then pack up the laundry. I walk to the coin laundromat a short distance away and again have my clothes washed and dried in one hour. When I get back to the hotel my room has been made up so I do some web surfing and organizing for the next leg of the trip. And I try and poke around a bit and decide which project to tackle next.
I get out for another moat perimeter run and say goodbye to Chaing Mai for this trip. I grab a shower, eat breakfast, and finish packing before getting a Grab taxi to the bus station for the almost four hour ride to Chiang Rai. The bus ride goes smoothly - it is an electric bus and we get in to CHiang Rai early despite the continued construction. I walk around a bit and there is nobody here. I'm happy Vhiang Rai is maintaining its small town charm. Later I go to the night bazaar and eat spicy Thai curry. I make a note that the Chiang Mai hotel was dark, somewhat falling apart, but in a convenient location. This hotel, which I've stayed at before, has a big room, fairly bright lights, is convenient to everything, and has suitable WiFi speed. I also note that my previous yellow snot has turned to clear snot - indicating that the sinus infection is gone.