I sang "hi" in Chiang Mai.

We arrived at 7:30 this morning (today is Sunday) in Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, although as throughout much of the world that term "city" is used more loosely than in the United States. Chiang Mai, at least based on our first impression, is more like an overgrown village.

The overnight train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai was 12 hours long. We bought a second-class ticket for seats in an air-conditioned car; tickets for the sleeper car were already sold out. We had bought the tickets the day before yesterday, so we knew that we had to make it on time for our scheduled 7:20pm departure. Well, at least that was the plan...

As I said in yesterday's post, we got a late start. So our time was limited to just the afternoon. We decided to visit the Grand Palace, which we had missed the day before, and to get there, we decided to take the express boat along the Chao Phraya River, that is very efficient (I really wish Philly could develop this kind of transportation, and in general more development along the Delaware and Schuylkill Rivers). Anyway, we took a boat down to the pier that put us near the Grand Palace. By the time we got there, we only had about half an hour until they closed. And that seemed to typify our luck for the rest of the day. The thing is, we were moving much slower than the first day due to going out late and having several beers the night before.

After the Grand Palace, a huge palatial estate within which were pagoda-like temples gilded with gold, we decided to find a place to find some cold drinks. So we walked to a small place across the street. The ambience of the place gave me the feeling of being in a small biermart in Germany: dark wooden panelling and dim lighting, all in a small area, with small round tables and chairs, the wall onto the sidewalk were sliding and folding wooden doors. Paul and I took our time, I had a pineapple fruit smoothie while he had two glasses of iced tea (hand-made, not commercially pre-made). We had a nice conversation, mostly talking about stuff from our past, but then also talking about our hopes for the future, especially what --and whom -- we look forward to seeing when we return. The whole time we were in the small shop, it was pouring rain outside. The weather in Bangkok has been typically humid during most of the day, the sweat sticking stubbornly to our body, as all the Thai people look as cool as cucumbers; we cannot escape our Americanness after all. Then, both afternoons in Bangkok, the clouds rumble in and the sky opens up to relieve the humidity. Yesterday's rain was more persistent than that of the day before. But Paul and I have already grown to love the rain. At least psychologically it makes us feel cooler, although the bottom of my pants invariably get soaked.

After spending a relaxing hour or so in the shop, we decided to move on. Based on a recommendation, I suggested that we try to go to Jim Thompson's house, the house of a former CIA undercover agent here years ago, and an architecture aficionado, who built his elaborate and unique house without any nails whatsoever. But according to our guide book, we had to get there before 5pm. Well, we walked back to the pier to get another express boat heading south on the river to the final stop, where we could catch the Bangkok Skytrain that would get us very close to JT's house. While we were on the train, of course, 5pm came and past; again our luck with timing didn't seem positive this day. But speaking of the train, it puts the Broad Street subway to shame; its air-conditioned, clean, modern, and even has flat-screen tv's on every car, very nice!

Since we were too late for JT's house, we decided to catch a train back one stop to Siam Square Mall. This mall puts the Gallery to shame (trust me, I still love the city of Philadelphia!), the best way to describe it is that it looks like the type of mall that you would expect to see all the rich, neo-punk/hip-hop kids in Tokyo to go to. The four-floored mall was clean and very modern; the prices reflected this, though, since they were on par with the KOP mall outside of Philly. Paul and I went to the food court on the top floor and each got a bowl of noodle soup with pork in a large, enclosed area called "Food for Fun." When we got to the check-in counter, I asked the kid if they had food there, he said yes, then I asked if it was fun, and he said yes again, that was very reassuring. Of course we had to eat there, sitting on plastic, orange-colored seats, with several groups of teenagers, mostly girls, either doing homework or gossiping as girls of that age tend to do. After that, we realized that our time was getting tight, because we still had to go back to our hotel on Khao San Road (all the way on the other side of this large city) to get our backpacks, and then still go from there to the Hualamphong train station to catch our 7:20 train for Chiang Mai. At that point, it was just past 6pm; uh oh!!!

For whatever reason, perhaps ignorance, perhaps a slight hangover, perhaps being brain-dead, Paul and I were as serene as the Buddha, despite all indications that we had screwed ourselves with our timing. We decided that we had no choice but to catch a taxi from Siam Square Mall back to the hotel, and we realized quickly that traffic was bumper to bumper, probably because it was a Saturday night in Bangkok. Our cab-driver was doing as much as he could to make it through intersections and weave through the traffic, but I realized later that it probably had more to do with his gas-tank being near "E" and less to do with us -- but who knows. He dropped us off at the end of the pedestrian-packed (think South Street on a weekend night in the summer) Khao San road, and we didn't waste a second running like Brian Westbrook, dodging and sprinting through the crowd to get back to the hotel, get our bags, then start running back out to the end of the road. We did all of this in about five minutes; when we got into our next cab, it was 7pm on the dot, we had only 20 minutes, we told our new cabbie our predicament and he told us that it would be 30 minutes to get to the train station. Again, we were resigned to our fate, whatever it would be. Well, the cab somehow pulled up to the train station at 7:22, two minutes late, but we ran directly to platform 10, hoping for the unlikely. There was a train there, we ran up to the train conductor and he said that it was our train, so we sprinted to the first car, jumped on and went to our seats, where we unloaded our bags and then looked at each other in amazement as the train began pulling out at that very instant. If we were even 30 seconds later, we would have been out of our tickets and stuck for who knows how long. We just started laughing and then slapped hands. Finally, our luck turned right when we needed. FAITH, baby, faith, that's what it's all about.

With that, I'll leave you all. Thanks again for checking in! We're now off to book a safari for tonight, to see some lions, tigers, and elephants. Don't worry, we'll take plenty of photos. Peace from the Southeast (of Asia)!!!!!