February 3, 2025
Days T15-16: Chiang Mai Recovery and a Flake
It was a beautiful crisp morning in Pai, not too cold but the locals were still in their jackets. A private driver was ordered the night before to come directly to the resort, pick me up along with the Montague and head back to Chiang Mai. This was a good idea as it took two solid days of biking and I wasn't keen to repeat the reverse trip. It is entirely possible to bike from Pai to Chiang Mai in a day on the main road. I've done it before. Just today I wasn't feeling it.
Jen had the idea to grab some last minute breakfast at the Monday market so off she went on her scooter and the driver followed. We had a delicious meal of Khao Soi and it only cost 30 baht each. For some reason we thought the vendor said '130' but it was actually 'one - 30', so the honesty was much appreciated. This was one of those beautiful touches of Thailand, along with the overall flavor of the market and the smiles.
We then parted company and I wondered when we would see each other again. Jen mentions a mass exodus from Pai during the start of the smoke season or the burning season, and she is already in the process of packing up her stuff and saying goodbye to all her friends. At any rate it was a great time to catch up. We were technically both in Shanghai during the pandemic but never got a chance to meet up due to the isolation.
It was sick ride as far as these go. With countless curves in a vehicle, I wished I was on the bike. At the right time I asked him to stop and he found this nice little spot with a coffee and a view. I then bought the driver a coffee while I had a capuccino to try and wake up.
It wasn't long until arriving in Chiang Mai then I found a nice hotel near the center of town and crashed. The Pai trip had left me feeling shattered. It is both ironic and sad that where you're supposed to go to 'chill out' in Thailand for a retreat leaves you feeling exhausted and going full throttle. Pai is no doubt beautiful but to really appreciate it you need the right state of mind and certainly to stay there longer than a weekend.
Chiang was then more of the recovery and downtime to try and make sense of everything. I did manage a few walks around town and trading on the rooftops of several bars and restaurants.
All the while I tried to get in touch with the potential buyer of the bike. He said a whole bunch of excuses and stories about how he was waiting for payments from the UK and how someone had stolen his phone, etc.. While I believe him, I said, "If you're serious about the bike I need you to at least put down a deposit. I need money to make this sale happen, otherwise I'm taking the bike back to Bangkok"
He didn't reply to that, and so that was that, the bike was going back to Bangkok.
Leaving for the airport was madness. It is a very small airport near the city which is amazing in terms of convenience. You can literally fly in and just take a short bike ride to or from the city. Also they have shrink wrap machines and do a marvelous job wrapping the bike before taking it on board.
The downside is that the airport is far over capacity. It has gotten so busy that they can't handle the passenger volume. It's only a matter of time (if they haven't planned it already) where a new and bigger airport needs to be built far away from the city center like in the majority of places in the world. When (not if) this happens it will be a huge inconvenience as it means taking taxis with the bike to and from. The would be no longer this luxury of simply being able to ride a few kilometers to the airport.
The flight, as you can expect in this season, was packed. It took nearly an hour to check in, then of course they wanted more money because this was Air Asia and the bike was 'sports equipment'. I tried to explain that the booking app I used didn't have the option to select sports equipment, but in the end it still cost another 1100 baht. Sometimes you just have to eat it.
While waiting in the queue I realized this flight would land at Don Muang which was a drag since I was hoping for one last hurrah in Pattaya. But this old airport was on the opposite side of town and it meant that it wasn't likely to happen. Plus I realized I had left some laundry there but in the end said fuck it, not worth the effort to go back.
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