This morning I left Chiang Mai International Airport bound for Bangkok, and tomorrow morning I will be on the plane again for Hat Yai and headed for the beach.
It was a great stay in Chiang Mai and I will definitely be visiting again in the future. In many ways the last day in town was the best as I got to spend most of the day hanging out with the Dean of the Faculty of Humanities, Rome Chiranukrom, (St Olaf class of 1984). As I travelled around campus and the city these last few days, the thing that always seemed uncomfortable was being a stranger in this still familiar place. When you are visiting without the 20 other people who went with you 25 years ago, there is no one to hail you from across the street or to tell your stories with. But hanging out around campus with Rome and his family and getting all the gossip on Chiang Mai University made a foreigner feel like a local again.
During our visit, Rome helped me to set up some volunteer work for my mother at a place called the New Life Center in Chiang Mai. If all goes well, mom will be spending some time next winter escaping the Minnesota cold and providing some vocational training to hilltribe girls. Will let you know how this works out.
Besides hanging out with Rome yesterday, I also visited the Rajadamnoen Sunday walking street in the old city of Chiang Mai (inside the moat). Actually, my guest house was surrounded by it, so I didn’t have much choice about that visiting stuff, but I managed to do a bit of early Christmas shopping and get rid of some of that excess baht in my pocket. Here’s a short video I took that shows how excited people get about the opportunity to buy lacquerware and t-shirts.
I also took a walk through Wat Chedi Luang across the street from my guesthouse. Nice chedi, but the highlight was their “Monk Chat” service. They have English speaking monks who are provided to answer questions from the tourists wandering through about Buddhism, Thailand or whatever else you would like to ask a monk about. There must be a web 2.0 project in this someplace….
Since I’m done with the cultural part of this vacation, you may see a few less blog posts during the coming days, so I hope you’ve enjoyed this online tour of Chiang Mai.
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