One girl’s birthday

My birthday today, 31 years young. And here I am in Chiang Mai, which, believe it or not, is exactly where I was for my birthday last year. Couldn’t have planned it this way if I tried, but it’s just the way it worked out. Actually I didn’t want to be in the same place 2 years in a row, because somehow symbolically I felt that meant I haven’t grown as a person if I’m back to the same point again, but then again Chiang Mai is a great city and it’s full of good food and lots of stuff to do so why not spend another birthday here. At least I can get a real chocolate bar here, which is exactly what I did when I arrived.

First though I had to get out of Lao this morning, crossing the Mekong River by long-tail boat and entering Thailand again. Now I’ve got 2 stamps in the passport with my birthday date, cool.

I was on the Thai side at 8:15am and had to wait 2 hours for the minibus to leave for Chiang Mai. No problem in a Thai guesthouse with good food, internet, and BBC! How exciting! That’s a birthday present in and of itself.

Finally the minibus arrived and it was a 5-hour ride to Chiang Mai, in, get this, an air-con minibus on PAVED roads!! Brilliant! That’s going a full 5-starts from the pick-ups/dirt roads of yesterday. Another gift. What a comfortable ride.

Arrived in Chiang Mai mid-afternoon after driving through Chiang Rai and then heading south into Chiang Mai. It was nice to get to a place where I already knew my way around. Found my way to the same guesthouse I stayed last year; luckily they were still there and had a room.

Dropped off my bags and the first thing I did was buy a Lindt chocolate bar. Mmmm. Immediatly after that I went for a 1.5-hour traditional Thai massage. Then, a pedicure. Hey, at $4 for the massage and $1.50 for the pedicure, I’m worth it.

Birthday dinner was falafel, hummus, salad, and a pita. Can’t get that kind of cuisine in Lao. Now I’m off to the internet to catch up on emails, which was really nice to see by the way, how many people dropped a line over the last 2 weeks I’ve been away from email. Thanks for that everyone, it means a lot. Ok then, off to cyber world…

Add comment October 29th, 2002