If you’ve followed along previous posts closely, you’ll recall the mentioning of setting intentions for each new place visited. As the Thai island’s chapter closes and the Chiang Mai chapter begins, I set my intention on rhythm and balance. Following Chiang Mai, for the first time in my life, I will be solo traveling through Laos, Vietnam, and Cambodia. In Chiang Mai, my intention is to get into a travel rhythm that I can sustain thereafter when soloing. To expand, I want to find my rhythm with knowing where I want to go next, how I’m going to get there, things to do when I’m there, etc. but balanced with preserving flexibility, adaptability, and openness to spontaneity. I know I will meet people and get recommendations of new places and activities I don’t even know about, and I don’t want to let those opportunities pass.
Speaking of getting into rhythm, by now I’ve developed the ability to wake up, pack up, and get a move on promptly. After a quick rise-and-shine pack, we cabbed to the Samui airport. After checking in and making our way through security, we arrived at our gate. The Koh Samui airport is a very quant and petite place that had a feel of a local outdoor strip mall. Bangkok Airlines was our airline arriving to Koh Samui, and when taking us away from Koh Samui, yet another hot meal was provided. While it was bittersweet leaving Samui and Phangan after having such an incredible time and making some great new friends, excitement for a change of scenery in Chiang Mai was rising.
Under two hours later, upon landing in Chiang Mai, I quickly admired the observable mountains surrounding the city. To kill time before we could check in to our next Air BnB, we went to the Chiang Mai Trekking office to review details and make payment for an upcoming 2 day hike for which we made reservations. Afterwards, we headed to Nimmanhaemin, an area Northeast of “old Chiang Mai,” to our Air BnB. The Air BnB checked all the boxes, but was nothing super fancy. It’s in a good location, next to a large shopping center, smaller night markets, and many other small businesses.
I made my way to the nearby Maya mall after dropping off my bags to run a few errands, and to grab a pretzel. No mall visit is worthwhile if you don’t treat yourself, and for 99baht (~$3USD) salted pretzel sticks, a cinnamon pretzel, and lemonade to wash it all down was too good to pass up. After my very healthy snack and finishing my errands, I returned to our Air BnB and worked until dinner time.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it always, good music can make any environment better, so what better place to eat dinner than where live music is accompanying? We went to “The Sax Music House” and enjoyed multiple sets of live performances while eating some upscale and delicious Thai food. Morgan and Joseph had to run back to the Air BnB for a work meeting shortly after dinner, so I stuck around and enjoyed more live music that was a pleasant change of pace from all the DJ performances so far in my travels. Eventually I left The Sax and wandered around the local night market.