d9/27/2008 11:15 AM
DATELINE: CHIANGMAI, THAILAND
It’s Saturday morning, and late at that. K Rose woke up about 7 am, and so did I. We went into the living room, and worked on having some breakfast – leftover rolled oats with banana and raisins. She seemed to be very hungry, until she decided that she should be holding the spoon – not Nana, then decided she really didn’t want any breakfast at all. We let Mika sleep for a little while.

Now, I’m sitting on the “lounge” part of our sectional couch – having just watched Mc Cain and Obama duke it out. I’m all for Obama’s charisma – but it looked to me like McCain was the clear winner of the debate, making some of Obama’s actions look foolish. But, I’m afraid of Palin.




It’s hard to believe that we’ve been gone for 12 days already. Unlike my second trip to Thailand, this has not been a sightseeing trip so far – which suits me fine for now. Rather, it has been more of a settling in, finding a routine, doing the regular things which Thais must do every day – and becoming more Thai-

Our new apartment is north of the city’s moat-square, north of the bypass looping around the city, directly behind Boori-Boone market. (I have no clue how that is spelled, I’m going phonetically).

9/28/2008 1:48 AM
DATELINE: CHIANGMAI, THAILAND
So much to catch up on. I’m back on the lounge. It’s easy enough to get around from our apartment using either a tuk-tuk (think three-wheeled motorcycle with an attached, covered back seating three) or a songkow (think a Ford Ranger, covered with padded 1x12 seats lining both sides of the back). I’m never sure if the price is right, because I read one thing on the guide book, and the drivers tell another version.

Yesterday, shortly after my mini-log, K Rose woke up and we all took a trip to Bo San via a Songkow. The guide book alerted us to be careful of those drivers who say they’ll take you to various craft areas, then allow you to look at only one vendor of the various products. That’s the Songkow we hired. She took us to the biggest most expensive silver showroom, then a store specializing in fabric art (think gold, hand embroidered, gemstone encrusted wall hangings), then a silk manufacturing showroom, then an umbrella manufacturer. Again, the choices of which stores to stop at was hers, and hers alone, since she got 50 baht for each of the loads of tourists she brings to these places. I’m more of a “find a great bargain from a little-known craftsman found in the far reaches of a village in a remote part of the ______ (fill in the blank: country, state, county, city).

OK, I did end up buying one nice thing for George and I and three souvenirs for others. But, overall, I resisted the urge.

By the time we got to the umbrella factory, we were hot and sweaty and K Rose was long overdue for some food. Mika fed her at a concrete picnic table next to a small snack vendor. Understand, the umbrella factory was more in line with what I was hoping to see – more craftsmanship – and less “same old same old” product. It was a LOT more primitive than the other swanky places we’d been. We first sat our stuff on top of one table, only to realize at the same time that it was crawling with itty bitty black ants. Moved from that table to another, where we could watch the rivulets of ants follow the trails of those marching before them from the garbage can about five feet away, across the concrete floor to a wooden post where they disappeared somewhere in the roof/canopy above us.

Very tired, we got a songkow back to our apartment.

My back has been aching for some time now, and marching up the four flights of stairs, and down, is very taxing, not to mention painful. There are coin-operated washing machines across the road/alley and others across the creek at Boori Boone market.

The three of us end up making a bit of laundry – given that it’s hot and humid. Since I’m watching K Rose, I can’t just haul the laundry down to the coin washers (btw – these are in the open – sitting for all to use – much as a newspaper rack) unless I also haul her with me. Down those four flights of stairs – and back up.

So … I decided to tackle the job in the bathtub and avoid the impossible. Everything worked out great. I separated into lights and darks, and then did a grape-stomping dance while K Rose took her nap. You wouldn’t believe the sootiness of the water.




Unfortunately, Mika came home shortly after I had finished wringing out the clothes and I hadn’t yet had a chance to get them hanging anywhere (nor a rack upon which to hang them). The unfortunate part is that meant that K Rose’s sheets and blankets were all wet – and we had no way to dry them. So, how do we make K Rose comfortable on a plastic air mattress? Well, necessity being the mother of invention and all, we DID have a dry bath towel – and we found that I’d actually missed getting one of her blankets into the tub in my cleaning rampage, so, she slept with the towel and the blanket.



The clothes are still wet. They’ve been rung out and are sitting on the top base of the tub. They do need to get dry. So, K Rose and I decided to take our first solo flight. We got onto the white songkow headed into town and asked him to take us to the market. Of course, he thought we were talking about the night market – the tourist hang out. “No, not the night market, the big market”. We were off on our adventure. K Rose is all about the tuk-tuk and songkow rides. I fear, however, that this may fade as the adventure wears off and it becomes more mundane, and the sheer toxicity of these modes gets old.

Nonetheless, we headed down the streets of the “market”. We were looking for pots and pans, a drying rack, and some plastics to help organize small things. The sight of the elder white lady walking with a toddler in tow seemed to generate lots of comments. But, since I don’t speak Thai, I have no clue what they said, in general. However, the Thai are a very happy, very loving people and their smiles and SaWadeekaaah’s let me know that they thought K Rose was just too cute.

Hiring a tuk-tuk, we made it back to the apartment with all the items in tow. I’m not sure if it was wise to take K Rose without the stroller or not. Seemed like one more thing to have to haul down and up. I didn’t take the stroller – and the clerk at the stall where I bought the pots and pans lugged them to the tuk-tuk; the driver loaded them in the tuk-tuk, and when we got to the apartment, amazingly to me, the owner’s staff hauled it all up to our apartment – including a microwave he gifted us with.



So … we have achieved cooking.
We have learned about laundering.
We have ventured solo.
We have learned the Guide Book was right.