THAILAND - Chiang Mai - Part 4

The next morning we woke up leisurely and had breakfast at the buffet, stealing as much fruit and food for later on in the day. Back in the room we packed our bags and cleaned up so we could check out at 11. We made reservations for a hostel inside the city walls called Dive Guesthouse, not too party, but something with an atmosphere. We took an Uber to the place and checked in. Our rooms wrest ready until like 1ish so we had to wait a while. The lady running the whole joint was crazy! HELLO! WHERE YOU FROM!? HOW LONG YOU STAY?! We couldn’t even get an answer in before the next question was asked. She wanted to know everything and every move we were making from the exact time we are leaving and how we are leaving Chiang Mai. It was little overwhelming and we had no current answers so she was a little frustrated with us. We waited longer than she said that our rooms would take so we asked and she hurried to finish getting us settled in. Once we checked into the dorm room we headed down the street to check out the rock climbing company. I was so excited to do it! At the place we checked out their gear and programs and decided we would head out for a full day tomorrow to climb Crazy Horse Buttress outside of Chiang Mai. With all our “appointments” and important stuff taken care of we walked across the city to get to our massage! It was fun just walking and looking around, finally spending time together again after our days apart. It was hot but we walked alongside the river with sprinklers misting us occasionally.  We got little lost at the other side of the city in the small streets, but we found the massage place and they told us they were busy right now and to come back at 6 that night. Well we walked so far just to find this out so we were really bummed and didn’t want to waste our time walking back or money to get a taxi back. So we called Moni’s friend and she said we could go hang out in her apartment until it was time. It was so nice of her since it was so hot and there was AC in her room and TV. We got lost again in the streets but finally found our way and got into the place. But first we went across the street to get a mango shake which was so fucking good. So refreshing after that long walk. Up in the room we laid down on the bed and used the internet to catch up on some things. Then Moni wanted to practice massage on me so I let her, which was awesome, free massage. After the massage I told her what felt good and what felt meh. So it was a win win situation I guess. We then found Taro cards and read out each 3 cards for each other. Its weird how sometimes they match exactly what you are going through in life. Got to get me some Taro cards… We were getting a little bored so we had an idea to go get steamed buns at this special steamed bun shop. I have not had any yet but they always look so delicious on the street vendors cart. And Moni was obsessing over them too. So I looked up directions to the shop which was about 20 minutes walking from the apartment. This was enough time to walk there, get some buns, then take a uber back to make it to our massage. We were so excited to walk there for the buns, we told ourselves to just get like 1 or 2 buns, but when we got there we were overwhelmed… So many buns… so many varieties… so much goodness… we must indulge… I started out getting an egg custard bun, taro bun, and black sesame bun. Moni got mushroom bun, whole wheat bun, and peanut butter bun. After we finished these we went back for more… and more… and more… The old lady running the shop was a little weirded out since we kept going back to buy more and more. There were so many different flavors it was amazing! If I lived here I could try one everyday for a whole year, but sad thing is we only had this short time frame to get all the buns we could. My favorite was the green tea flavor and egg custard and the plain bun. We basically ruined our appetite for dinner, but oh well, so worth it. I think we were getting high off how good these buns were. Okay, no more bun talk, it was time to head back for our massage. We called the uber and got a few more buns for the road. We had to hurry at this points, since our precious bun time took too long. But we got dropped off at the apartment and power walked to the massage shop. At the door we met a new person that told us the teacher was not even in town. So we couldn’t get our massage till next week and that was well after we would be gone. Disappointed and sad we turned back to go meet Moni’s friend at the apartment. In the room we told her what happened and she felt bad so she wanted to treat us to dinner at the Night Bazaar. We took a taxi there and went shopping a little. Moni’s friend told us there was a separate market that night where all the locals go to eat and is much better than the Bazaar. As she was describing it though, it sounded like the Sunday market, but it was Tuesday. So I think she was confused and I tried telling her I didn’t think that was right but she insisted. So we walked across the city 20 minutes just to find out that I was right. We were very tired of walking, and very hungry. I looked over at Moni and she looked delirious. So Moni’s friend apologized and offered to pay for a taxi BACK to the night market. We arrived once again and and I showed them the way to the food plaza, and then the lady had a relization that this WAS indeed the place she was talking about. Ugh. Oh well we got some grub and had a good rest of the night. We watch drunken karaoke as we ate our dinner. We went shopping a little more and I got all my hill tribe stuff finally and found an awesome purse. I also got a lot of cheap patches and stickers, a little collection I have back home… Moni and I had planned to get piercings that night but we were so beat from walking everywhere we gave up and would try again tomorrow. As we waited for our uber car to talk us back to the hostel I bought some earring at this vendor shack. I bargained it down to less than 1/4 of the price. It is considered lucky to be either the first or last customer of the night, and that is when you get the best deals. We took the uber back home and finally got to talk in the car ride alone with the lady there. Dang. We maybe walked like 30 miles that day.