Sunday, a Five Star Day

A fun group of the students who are close often rank their days. They will come to class and say they are having a one-star day. Well, Sunday after the hill tribe excursion, Tom and I had a five star day. Because I was giving my midterm the next day, I didn’t have any prep to do, a wonderful thing. It was the first day since coming to Chiang Mai that Tom and I had free time for ourselves. We set out at 1pm to eat lunch, visit  the city’s largest Wat, get a Thai massage, and visit a travel agent to make a plan for our free time.  Wat Phra Singh is famous for its Buddha, chedi, and lovely gardens where the monks sit and play chess. 

The trees have many signs with truisms posted on them. 

Before I left SLO for our trip, my brother Bill told me about Sasi, a travel agent he used about 5 or 6 years ago and recommended in Chiang Mai. When we located her closet-size agency downtown, she was seated behind the single desk. She didn’t recognize Bill’s name, but when we showed her his picture on our ipad, she immediately recognized the crazy American, although I am sure that he is not the only one she has met.  She set us up with a driver to take us to Pai, a serene village not too far from Myanmar.  We both want a break from Uniserve, the hostel, and this is the only time when I don’t have direct student responsibilities. They will be doing a Home Stay at a village north of here, and Proworld will be responsible for them for five days. Yeah! I will cross my fingers that there will be no emergencies to call us back.

Ahhhh, the Thai massage, our first of the trip, and we went to a nice place, beautifully decorated with lovely hostesses. I was relieved when my massage therapist was a bit on the chunky side for a Thai woman. And she was strong! She got up on the table with me, straddled me, and began her work. She also used hot compresses and lots of oil. After the hill tribe trek, elephant and raft riding, I needed a good muscle pounding. At one point I had to ask her to cut back her pressure a bit. After two hours, Tom and I greeted one another in the lobby and drank tea. 

 We caught a red taxi for a delicious dinner at the Riverside restaurant along the water.

This dinner was the first in the city and not in the university area. Afterwards we took a tuk-tuk back to Uniserve on the other side of the city. We had a perfect day and a happy ending.