Woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb across my head.... That's the beginning of the interlude for the Beatles tune 'A Day in the Life', which has to be about the best thing they ever did. (a perfect Lennon McCartney collaboration that ends with that crazy, tripped out crescendo and finally settles on that lowest note of the piano as final punctuation). Ah the 60's.
Not a bad metaphor for the greatest outdoor market experience I've ever seen, which is Chiang Mai's weekly bazaar on the 'Sunday Walking Street'. They close off a major throughfare to traffic, and then hundreds if not thousands of vendors show up for a daylong and deep into the night free-for all. It goes for about a mile, with throngs of people filling the street, shopping, shmoozing, eating and listening to some amazing street music.
I was there with my friend M, and that was nice too, as normally I'm on my own in those scenes, so it was a treat to have someone to hold hands with, have some food with, laugh with. We went to the market after spending a few hours at the clinic to see about her abdominal pain. There is a clinic that treats everybody, locals, foreigners, young, old, so you show up, get on the list and wait to be called.
Before she went in, there was a really funny scene in the waiting room. There was a cute little boy, maybe 4 years old who was nervous about having to get a needle. At one point he was crying, but then he mellowed out..... until they called his name. He starts flipping out, throwing himself on the floor, turning into a dead weight so his grandmother couldn't lift him up. The nurse is trying to entice him to get on the scale, that's all, no big deal, but he's not having it. Grandma tries to pick him up, and he shouts that he wants to walk, so she puts him down. But he wants to walk out the door and the whole waiting room is cracking up cause the kid is funny apparently. I didn't understand a word of it, obviously, but I was laughing too...
So M finally gets called, (90 minute wait) she goes in and the doctor (who she likes) decides it's a kidney problem. They take an Xray of her kidney, and also of her stomach, also a urinalysis, and she comes back to the waiting room to await the results. Then she's back in there for an injection (Owww, a real big one obviously), and then they fill the prescription for her antibiotics and pain meds. The whole thing super efficient and professional. total cost for the visit, the xrays, injection, prescriptions came to 480 Baht. Sixteen bucks, people. Let's hear again how the US health care is the best in the world.... Yeah right...
She can't drink alcohol for a week, and realizes it's a good thing. I think she was in a groove where you slip into the drinking thing, which means more smoking cigarettes and it's a downer for your system. So looks like 'clean up time', and I'm glad to see her heading in that direction. I've had maybe three or four beers since I've been in the country, and it's totally nice to be clean and smokeless, even amidst the tons of expats who are just hitting it hard every day. (mornings aren't pretty when you see some of those debauched faces). Tobacco is way cheaper than in the states, so my guess is that a lot of people are smoking more here than they would elsewhere. Sad...
After the clinic, we went to the Walking Street, and I was immediately blown away by the quality, the variety, the food, the setting and the music. First thing I saw, or rather heard and then saw, was a group of 4 blind men, sitting on the street as if in a canoe, one behind the other, as the crowds streamed by on either side. Guy in front had a little percussion kit with a couple of cymbals, a muted snare drum and other clickey clacks. Guy number 2 was playing guitar and singing, number three the same, guy in back had some tamborines and other jangly stuff. They all sang, kind of like if the Gypsy Kings were from India instead of the Pyrenees. Super cool music, falsetto harmonies, syncopated rhythm, they were a gold mine; people were filling up their coffers, and quickly.
There was another group of 5 older guys playing traditional instruments, strange (to a western eye) lutes, one guy playing a bowed thing in the back, a soft drum, a woman playing finger cymbals on the offbeats, it was traditional buddhist devotional music, totally relaxed and beautiful and so evocative. They were amplified and it was a perfect soundtrack to a dinner of curried noodles, some tiny omelets cooked in banana leaves, some shrimp and fish sausages and a balmy night in the big city.
The celebration goes on for about a mile: I couldn't believe what I was seeing. Then we got to the end of the street, and it kept going in three other directions. Longest celebration I've ever seen, and if I were the type who enjoyed shopping, man, it would have been heaven. One of the food areas was in the shadow of a famous Golden temple, which only added to the magic of the evening. All kinds of great food to be had, and folks sitting by the temple, enjoying the evening. Unreal!
Today I'm going to buy a ticket for a ride up to Pai, three hours to the north. It sounds like a chill place, in a valley surrounded by mountains. I've got it in my mind to rent one of the little motorcycles that everyone uses and see how I fare. There are tons of these 125cc automatic bikes which are quite easy to maneuver, super cheap to rent, but I want to get my feet wet in a place much quieter and safer than Chiang Mai, where there are 1.6 million people living and streaming down the roads. We shall see how it goes. I can do it, right? yeah... Tomorrow off to the hills...
