Yep, that's the overwhelming feeling I had about returning to this place after a fifteen day sojourn through Laos and Vietnam. Coming back to Chiang Mai feels like coming home. Hmmmmm interesting. And I was struck by the different feeling I had as compared to the first time. Then I was a bit nervous, curious, wondering what the hell I'd find. This time it was a total breeze, especially as compared with the hustle of Vietnam, more on that later. But now I knew right where to go, right where to get my laundry done, right where to make music, see my friends, have a laugh, see the lovely M, all in all a wonderful return to this place. And it's so friendly here.
The end of the Vietnam leg had a bit of drama attached. I had arranged a cab ride for 6:30am, and got a great deal of $9 to the airport, which is about a 45 minute ride. The guy shows up on time, and I hop in, and offer to share the cab with an Aussie woman whose cab didn't show and she was nervous about making it in time for her flight. The cabbie says something like $15 for the trip and I tell him, no, I arranged this over the phone and it's $9. This is before we even left.
We drive two blocks, he makes a left onto a street, sees something and then starts backing up in traffic, as if he were going the wrong way on a one way street... which he wasn't. 'What the hell is this?', I'm thinking. Then a cop in an SUV pulls up, cuts him off, gets out of his vehicle and gives him a disdainful backhand wave that indicates 'get out of the car, asshole'. The cabbie gets out, opens the trunk, and I am watching through the rear window, with a view under the lifted trunk. The cabbie's hands are shaking badly as he reaches for his cabbie credential as well as a handful of money... which he folds into the license and then hands to the cop. Looked like a total shakedown, organized crime, Hanoi edition. The cop takes the credential and cash and pulls up to a different location on the side of the road. Cabbie follows him, gets his license back, sans cash, of course and seems shaken.
When we leave, he says something like 'Police say fifty dollars to the airport'. I raise my voice, 'STOP THE CAR' I yell, not wanting to be part of the next shakedown. He backs off, OK OK, he says, and we're not three blocks from where the trip began. The Aussie starts to say something, but this is my scene, and I ask her to keep quiet, with a hand signal. I felt bad for the young guy who was driving. It sucks to be victimized like that, to be helpless and at the mercy of uniformed strong arm guys, but it wasn't my problem, and I wasn't going to let it be my problem. We got there without further incident, me knowing that he needed our fare, at the very least, and playing out the possibilities of would he try to keep our bags or something, basically not knowing exactly what was up. I gave him $10 for the trip and that was that, but it left a bit of a bad taste.
That's the thing that a lot of travelers find in the big cities of Vietnam. There is a vibe of sticking it to the westerners, quoting a high price, and then, 'OK OK, how much you pay?' It's a hustle, not surprising, but not the most pleasant thing to deal with. It's fairly aggressive there and you definitely have to watch your dong, so to speak. By far the best part of the Vietnam trip was Tet in a small town. No hustle, just nice and unforgettable.
Last night I played music for several hours and the local watering hole, had a blast with my friends, especially this one dude Harry who is my humor doppelganger. We just fire jokes back and forth at eachother, as he's one of those funny jewish guys you meet sometimes, smart, great sense of humor, very musical, writes funny songs, who does that remind me of? I started sharing some of my new stuff, and people really like it. I did manage to write 6 complete compositions in the two weeks I was gone, which has to be a record for production. Psyched about that and I hope the wave continues...
Didn't sleep enough last night. M worked til 2;30 then need food so we had some soup and didn't make it back to my place til 3:30 or so. But I can nap later. She's up sleeping now, while I write. Very happy to be back home... in Thailand
rich
