Thursday, January 1, 2015 The New Year Begins in Chiang Mai

I awoke feeling good — it is the new year, and I am in Chiang Mai. It will be a good day!

Started the day as usual, with a meditation at the foot of the large chedi at Wat Chedi Luang. While I have said this previously, I love this chedi. There may not be a much better way to start the day than meditating next to this chedi. 

Today was to be a day catching up on work-related projects. I started a walk around the northern half of the old city, starting from Tha Phae Gate, the gate in the wall on the eastern side of the wall, walking up along the moat to Siphum Corner. The five gates have names, as well as the corners. Si Phum Corner is where the construction of the wall around the city started, and is thus the location of several annual rituals related to the protection of the city.

Finally I made it to Wat Lok Molee. I’ll get more pictures another day. The viharn (worship hall) inside is this deep brown, richly colored teak. This is one of my few favorite temples, from the sentries at the entrance, to the elephants inside the entrance, to the teak viharn, and finally to the large chedi — all are beautiful. Even the peripheral buildings are unique and interesting.

Walked down to Good Morning Chiang Mai (GMCM), a coffee shop and guest house not far from Wild Rose Yoga. At GMCM, they have free internet, and are not opposed to letting people sit and work for a while. I went to GMCM to test the internet, and found that the problems were indeed unique to 3-Sis. I am not having the same problems, just as I did not at the InterContinental in Bangkok. I’ll pursue contacting the internet provider with the 3-Sis staff to see whether the problems can be reduced.

For dinner, I was hoping to have a meal at Boutique della Pasta, an Italian restaurant run by an Italian man who makes his pasta fresh daily. Boutique della Pasta is just a little further down the soi (alley) from Kanjana, my favorite Thai restaurant. However, Boutique della Pasta is no longer there…another Italian restaurant is in the location, and perusing the menu left me not wanting to try them. It may be good, but I had my heart set on Boutique della Pasta. So I went to Kanjana, and had pineapple fried rice with chicken and an order of roasted pumpkin. Delicious! Shared a table with a Greek lady who is traveling around SE Asia for six months. she has been coming to Chiang Mai for over 20 years almost every winter.

Next: A lost day, under the weather