Today is Super Bowl Sunday! Or in my case, Super Bowl Monday (morning)! Against all odds, following an exhaustive weekend full of trekking and rafting, and without quality sleep, I honored my 5:30AM alarm to head across town to catch 6:30AM kickoff at a sports bar called Rumours. I later deduced Rumours is normally a gay bar due to the name paired with the winking face logo, and by the 80 baht uncharge on all drinks for women. On this morning though, it was full of North Americans, including typical rowdy Eagles fans and a few Chiefs fans. I watched the game sharing company with a friendly Canadian named Dash from Toronto. It felt weird not drinking beer and eating typical tailgate type party snacks with friends, but the single gin/lime/soda paired with the pad thai breakfast surrounded by strangers was still a unique experience.
After the game, I roamed the area aimlessly in a wondrous wander. I visited Wat Lot Kroh, a local temple to make a donation and pay my respects to the monks and Buddha. My wandering continued until I saw a working spot that called to me. I spent the next few hours sipping Thai tea at J. Ju coffee, a quaint small cafe on the main floor of the owner’s house. Here, I spent some time writing, and finalized my trek plans to summit Yala Peak in Nepal in mid-March. I’m very excited for the challenge, views, and experience that will come with summiting a Himalayan mountain at 5,500 meters (18k feet). After my appetite kicked in, I grabbed a cab to a new coffee shop, Lot of Taste, where Morgan and Joseph were working for lunch and a few more hours of work.
By mid-afternoon my body told me it was tired of sitting all day watching TV and working, so I treated it to another day pass at Maxx Professional Fitness where I had a good weight lifting workout, followed by 30 minutes on the treadmill at max incline. Booking Yala Peak certainly motivates me to prepare for the multiple days of rigorous uphill trekking at high altitude. Once finished, I met Morgan and Joseph at Chiang Mai Holistic for an evening yoga class to unify mind, body, spirit and work out the tension from the workout and weekend’s hiking. This was my first yoga class in Asia, and our instructor Nim was phenomenal. Similar to comparing spice levels in America to Thailand, the “basic/simple” vinyasa flow in Thailand was more difficult than any flow I’ve ever done in America. In my opinion, the greater the challenge, the greater the reward for completion.
After treating my body with exercise and yoga, we went to a Japanese restaurant called Cook With Love Cafe, where I got my sushi and ramen fix in for the first time since Japan.