I arrived without much trouble on the 13th of February with one tiny hickup: I only got a 14-day visa for Thailand while I was going to stay for almost a month - I should have applied for a visa in Laos... Oh well.
The Old Medicine Hospital, where I was going to learn thai massage and stay for the coming week or so was a 5 minute drive from the airport, about half an hour away from the old city - I was not thrilled with the concept of having to tuk-tuk everywhere or walk for hours. The accomodation the school was providing was, though entirely free, very basic: a matrass and a curtain for privacy among 10 ladies; from various age-groups and coutnries around the world: American, Colombian, German, Spanish, Italian, Thai, from 24 till 60-years of age.. such an interesting bunch!
After checking in I headed downtown to get some food; not having any sense of directions I asked a white man where to go - he was kind enough to ditch his bicycle and show me how the system of yellow and red pickup trucks worked and took me to Chiang Mai gate. After walking for 5 minutes I was ready to get out of the place I was expecting to be something it simply wasnt; full of old German men and their young Thai girls, schnitzel and drought beer everywhere. I ate at a slightly overpriced vegetarian restaurant called Aum - the food was really good though so I didnt mind paying 3 times as much as I was used to at Mama's.. The Sunday night market was on full blast - I had to make a rather huge effort not to spend all the money I had on me and so, ran away with a cup full of strawberries pretty quickly.
On the way "home" I decided against my common sense and bought a pack of cigaretts - and thats when I met Derek who was going to start the massage course too the following day, we sat down and talked for hours, smoked a few cigs and threw the rest of the pack away. :)
Derek was going to find a muay thai gym on Phuket - and eventually ended up with us in Tiger 2 weeks later - but let me give you the highlights of the Ching Mai stay first..
The class on Monday morning started with a prayer at 9am, followed by a short orientation session; we got our books and introduced ourselves; 24 people from all over the world was going to spend the following week together. During the Mon-Tue-Wed sessions we were going to learn all the poses with a few hours of practice each day, then practice on Thursday all day and do a full-day exam on Friday - it was going to be a busy week, no doubt. Fai and Lida, our teachers were great, there is one thing I am: greatful for their help and competence! My dear practice partner for most of the post-class sessions was Florian, it felt like he was my brother by the end of the week. During the first lunchbreak we figured there was a huge mall within 10 minute walk and an organic food supermarket on the corner - and so 2 weeks later I left the place with 3 more kilos than what I arrived with. Pffff..
Monday evening me, Flo, Derek, Christian and Sonja headed to Miguel's, more for the burritos than for the Couch Surfing meeting where I was going to meet a Ariel with a spare phone she had for me - we had a nice eve with good food and later a long chat on the Reggae bar terrace; nackered by 9pm on Valentine's-night, off to our lonely but noisy beds at the school's dorm.
Most of the days were pretty had work in the end; taking notes and doing the practice the whole day. I guess if it wasnt for the coffees at the supermarket, I am not sure I would have survived the week. In the evenings we went for some food to Chinaman's or to the mall; did post-class sessions until stupid-o-clock every night - but regardless of the exhaustion, I was so very happy to be there! This Thai massage is a great invention, not only for the receiver but for the one who gives the massage too; it is close, touchy, personal, easy, nice, a great excercise, yoga, reiki and meditation at the same time.... by day 2 I decided to stay an extra week and do another course before heading back to Phuket, and also, Dave decided to leave Laos and join too - I was really happy to see him again over the weekend.
Friday after the exam (which, we all passed, needless to say) we were all ready to go out and have a few drinks and a good time - and guess what, it was Buddha day.... this only meant that they were not serving alcohol in most of the pubs/supermarkets - I was personally going mental that I couldnt have the beer I so much deserved.... No beer meant 3 meals for dinner and 2 portions of mango sticky rice - no wonder I put so much weight on during those two weeks in Chiang Mai... After walking around for hours we found a bar with a csocso-table that served alcohol - I was on the long island ice teas beating everyone in fussball in no time. :) It was great, and, Dave was going to arrive at 7am the following morning so, everything was perfect anyway. :)
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