Wednesday, February 1, 2023

A notable highlight of my winter in Chiang Mai

Before I get to traveling home and my reflections on this longer visit to Chiang Mai, there is one highlight to share. When I returned from Thailand a year ago, I went back to my routine of walking in the morning, cycling most days (about 120-140 miles per week), and practicing yoga at home. But I had some recurring lower back problems. This revealed an imbalance in my fitness. After more than 45 years during which my primary exercise was cycling – a great deal of cycling, my quadriceps and calves were very strong, but my hamstrings, glutes, and upper body were very weak in comparison. So, working with a trainer twice a week for several months doing strength training, those imbalances diminished, and I now feel as if my whole body is working together, maybe better than ever. Knowing that stopping all training for two months would not be good for me, my friend John (husband of Rose, the owner of Wild Rose Yoga) showed me a few public gyms, and I selected the one he uses, the O2 Gym on Kamphaengdin Road, about 1.7 kilometers from my accommodations. This is the highlight – I was able to keep my strength training going and at the same time, expanded my circle of friends in Chiang Mai. From the brochures on the bulletin board at the O2 Gym, I contacted Ning, the “Smart Personal Trainer,” and then worked with her two or three times per week. Ning has been a trainer for ten years. I posted earlier that I was invited to Ning and Patrick’s Christmas Eve party with about 30 or more people. I’ll definitely keep in touch with Ning, and work with her on my next visit to Chiang Mai. Here is a picture of Ning, the personal trainer taken after our last session on Monday, January 30:

And then a selfie of the two of us after that last workout.

Traveling home

After my last dinner at La Fontana, I returned to See You soon to wait for the airport taxi. It arrived at 8:00 PM and the long journey home began. From 8:00 PM Wednesday Thai time it had been 31 hours when I arrived at my home in San Diego.

The first part of the journey is checking in with Korean Air at the Chiang Mai International Airport. This is relatively uneventful, although a fairly slow process. Many more people are traveling than a year ago. The first flight is from Chiang Mai to Incheon, the airport for Seoul, S. Korea. A year ago, international flights from Chiang Mai had not started, so I had to first fly to Bangkok and then onward. This year, the flights from Chiang Mai to Incheon are back on the schedule, so after check in, waiting for boarding, boarding, Korean Air flight KE668 is 5 hours on an Airbus A330-300.

I was not able to sleep on the flight, and we arrived at Incheon on time at 6:15 AM, Korean time. I have eight hours until my next flight. so after going through International Transfer Security, I went to the transit hotel in the airport to see if they had rooms available. In the past, my layovers have been longer, and being in a room I could sleep and then get a shower before the second, longer flight. In previous years, the single rooms were about $60 for six or maybe eight hours. This time, they only had a double room available for about $100, and I took it – I need to get some sleep. And I did sleep about 4 hours. Got a shower, checked out, and went to find Gate 232 for the flight to Los Angeles.

This flight was scheduled to be on a Boeing 777-300ER, but when I looked out the window, the plane is an Airbus A380. Apparently, there was enough demand to justify using a larger aircraft.

Most airlines are phasing out the 4-engine aircraft (i.e. Airbus A380, Boeing 747) because of the high operating and maintenance expense, instead using two-engine aircraft, i.e. Boeing 777, Boeing 787, Airbus A330, Airbus A350, etc. And this airplane was full. Korean Air flight KE017 is scheduled for 11 hours exactly. Traveling west, Los Angeles to Incheon is 13-1/2 hours, and a day is lost crossing the international date line. Traveling east, Incheon to Los Angeles, the plan left Incheon at 2:30 PM Thursday, February 2, and we arrived on time in Los Angeles at 8:30 AM Thursday, February 2 – six hours before we left.

After landing, going through immigration and customs (very fast today), I got the Avis shuttle and picked up a car for the drive home. I have not driven for two months, so I stayed on surface streets and made my way a few miles to a Starbucks, got a coffee and then got on the San Diego Freeway (Interstate 405 and Interstate 5) for the 105-mile drive to my house. I arrived home at just about 12:00 noon on Thursday, 31 hours after I left See You Soon in Chiang Mai. I am home. What a great trip!

Reflections on my Winter in Chiang Mai 2023

I have made yoga-focused, month-long or longer visits to Chiang Mai ten times. I stay at the same places (The 3-Sis, See You Soon), practice yoga at the same place (Wild Rose Yoga) with many of the same teachers, eat at many of the same places (Blue Diamond, La Fontana, Street Pizza, Miguel’s, etc.), see many of the same temples and sights, and make the hikes up the mountain to Wat Phalad and beyond. And while there is much similarity, every of the ten visits has been distinct. Every visit is different and none better than another. I cherish my visits to Chiang Mai – experiencing life in a different culture, even as a visitor, is refreshing and energizing. The city changes over time, and being different myself, I see things differently.

When I am planning my visit to Chiang Mai, and even on reflection, it seems as if I would have much free time. However, when I am there, I seem to be busy every day and all day: breakfast while updating my journal, yoga practice or workout at the O2 Gym, lunch at a place like Blue Diamond or a snack at Khun Kae’s Juice after yoga, catching up on my blog in my room or at a coffee shop, exploring the city, learning about the history, then dinner, an after-dinner walk, and more blog catch-up ending the day. The days are full, interesting, uplifting, and energizing.

The end of my two-month-long stay in Chiang Mai was quite anti-climatic. After ten long visits to Chiang Mai, I am comfortable here – comfortable with the food, the people, and the culture. It is all a journey, this time a longer journey to Bangkok then to Chiang Mai; a journey seeing and learning more about Chiang Mai food, culture, and history; and a daily journey practicing yoga, seeing friends, enjoying sights and meals. And I enjoy that journey – there is no particular destination other than Chiang Mai itself. I have used this quote, a favorite of mine, about the journey before, and I’ll post it here again, because it is so apropos, the last sentence in the book “Up Country” by Nelson DeMille:

The journey home is never a direct route; it is, in fact, always circuitous, and somewhere along the way, we discover that the journey is more significant than the destination, and that the people we meet along the way will be the traveling companions of our memories forever.

Nelson Demille, “Up Country”

It has been said many times: “The journey is more significant than the destination…” Absolutely! And as I have said before, what a great journey I have been on! I am so grateful for the journey, and the people I have met all along the way.

I am looking forward to returning to Chiang Mai later this year, hopefully for a longer visit.