7NNT25: Day 12 – Chiang Mai

Soundtrack: “Nikita”, Elton John

I’ll probably keep throwing occasional remembrances from Uzbekistan into these entries as they pop up in my thoughts and as I start to process the similarities and differences to other places. One that I completely missed mentioning is that Elton John’s “Nikita” possibly plays constantly on a loop in the background of Uzbekistan Airways flights. I first heard it when we boarded the flight from Urgench, and thought it neat: the story of someone going through a soviet checkpoint and deciding they love the guard (pretty sure Nikita is generally a male name, but the film clip had a female playing the part, as Sir Elton seemed to spend a bunch of the 80s playing down the camp, wacky days indeed). Then after we landed, “Nikita” again. Amusing it was, and then thought nothing more until I boarded my flight in Tashkent to Bangkok, and it’s Sir Elton’s “Nikita” once more. At this point I’m almost giggling, there are so many ironic interpretations of this (including Uzbekistan being a country well behind in recognising LGBTQIA+ rights). Then I settled into my seat, put my head into a book, and forgot once more.

The frequent reader of this blog (all 5 of you) may remember that tomato juice is one of my travel signs. Sadly this trip doesn’t involve kicking off in the SIA lounge (or is likely to feature a SIA lounge at any point), so my first tomato juice was from the Uzbekistan Airlines trolley on the TAS – BKK flight. Weirdly, the other person in my row must also be in this tribe, as they were very excited to see tomato juice, and we had a toast.

Other observations from the flight:

• the gent who looked like a Saudi prince or sheik, in full headwear and accoutrements, possibly with an entourage, but with a seat in economy (maybe global finances are in trouble)

• shout out to the Uzbekistan Airways flight crew: like many things in Uzbekistan, the safety demonstration is done in three languages: Uzbek, Russian, English, and these folks have to go through all the actions for each language

Landed in Bangkok after an uneventful if tiring flight, and deplaned to the soundtrack of, you guessed it, “Nikita” by Sir Elton John.

This time around Bangkok airport was an easy experience (last time on the way to Stockholm all I remember is having to walk and walk and walk and walk between my flights). Made it through customs fine, even the code switch from Uzbek to Thai (though I kept trying to put my right hand on my chest rather than to the two handed wai). My case arrived and survived, and then it wasn’t far to walk to check-in for my ft to Chiang Mai. Through security (they didn’t question my torch) and time to find an ATM and some food.

I had congee. Maybe in a little tip of the hat to my Singapore trip, where I made a point of trying several types and concluded that, while I didn’t totally love it, I was okay with it. It felt like an appropriate breakfast easing in to south east asian food. This congee was again ok, was served with the deep fried doughnut bread which was good, and a helping of crispy roast pork, also a welcome reacquaintance (from here on in pork will likely play a role in dietary decisions). I did resort to adding a bit of soy sauce, as it needed some extra saltiness which also offset the quite strong dried ginger slivers. Overall was pretty solid way to start things. (It was also garnished in those crispy white noodles asian restaurants often use, but it was definitely a garnish so I’m not counting it towards my noodle quest.)

Flight to Chiang Mai was three things: smooth; uneventful; and absent of Sir Reginald Dwight. The snack was a chicken teriyaki sandwich, but the sandwich was round, crusts removed, and almost pie shaped. File under interesting things people do with food.

Chiang Mai, the biggest city in the north west of Thailand. Full of history, wats/temples, big buddhas, and home of khao soi. It’s also start of the hot season, so you can add bunches of sweaty white tourists to that. I hadn’t arranged an airport pickup, figuring I could just use Grab, but in my time at Bangkok airport read about the airport taxi system that you can do on arrival, and for 150 baht (THB to AUD is about 21, so $7.50) they’ll take you to pretty much any hotel in/around CHiang Mai centre. Some travellers had reported these can involve a bit of queuing, but I didn’t find that. Just walked to the airport kiosk, told them my hotel name, got a slip of paper, took it outside door 1, met a person who looked at the paper and then wrote a number on it, and then just waited maybe 3 minutes for someone to call out the number. Then it was a fairly short ride to the hotel.

It was too early to check in, so I did what anyone with the right priorities does: took out my bag of dirty clothes; dropped the rest of the bags at the hotel; and went and found a laundry and a foot massage. Laundry was a little expensive at 100 THB/kilo (seemed reasonable at the time but I’ve since seen places charging 40) but the foot massage for 250 THB/60 minutes was wonderful. My calves enjoyed it a lot (though my little leg scrape didn’t appreciate the tiger balm so much). I also did a quick stroll around to remind myself of the area (am staying close to the night market, and near where we stayed a few years ago) and buy some water.

Time successfully wasted, and then checked in (this place is around 3 stars so no one to carry my bags for me, oh well). Room is quite large, quite high, and the aircon works well. Folks who know me well might be surprised when I say the aircon works a little too well: there’s no really low fan speed, and even a day later I’m still trying to work out if I can set it to a single comfortable point, rather than jump around the settings when it gets either too cold or too warm. I’d planned to nap, having had little sleep on the overnight flight from Tashkent, but only managed some sporadic rest as the temperature jumped around. It’s also making my throat a little uncomfortably, there’s a little dry tickle happening at the moment.

Noodle 5.0: Pad Thai (Chiang Mai night markets)

Eventually my stomach called so it was time to get some food. While I’m here for the khao soi, i felt the pull of having seafood (as a double-landlocked country Uzbekistan doesn’t have a lot of local seafood) so when I saw pad thai with squid I couldn’t walk away, especially for 80 THB. Got a bottle of Chang beer (maybe 70 THB) and I was all set. The pad thai was wonderful, full of noodles, the sauce that’s a little sweet and a little savoury, some chilli on the side (am easing into the spicy so didn’t go too hard) and lime juice squeezed over the top. Rice noodles how god intended them, with for a different texture, all the goodness in a plate, washed down with Chang, while not my favourite beer, was quite refreshing in the heat.

I figured I’d be a little less sweaty after a shave — while I wasn’t quite at the level I had in Kosovo (where one of the only English phrases I heard was “Grizzly Adams”) I’d still avoided shaving in Uzbekistan. Having only a small number of thai words at my disposal, I thought I’d indicated to the barber that I wanted to keep both goatee and sideburns through hand gestures. I figured if she knew enough English to understand shave, my pointing might have been up to the task. It started promising, she avoided the goatee, but then in an instant one of my sideburns was gone. With that, there was nothing doing other than to say goodbye to the other one for now, and expose a bit of skin to the elements for the first time in I don’t know how many years. At least I can still hide my chin.

Wandered around the night markets, not really interested in buying but just checking the merchandise available, Thailand is certainly more geared up for tourists: if an item can be branded and sold, it’s for sale here. The plan was to check out one of the drag shows, but I had enough time to get a decent serve of coconut mango rice. It’s almost impossible to go wrong with it, lots of fresh mango, sticky white rice, coconut milk, and little crunchy things that I think are made of rice.

Last time we were here, we had the time of our lives at the 6ixcret (pronounced “secret”) drag show, just off the main night bazaar street. Our first night we were just about the only people there (another couple came in maybe half way) and we were impressed by both the quality of the show and their willingness to put it on for just 2 people. We went back another night and there were maybe another 10-15 people there, and it was an awesome show again. This time, the place was packed. I wandered in just before the start time (drag shows always start late) and I managed to squeeze into the last table down the back. Lots of tourists, all ready for a big night. From what I could see the show was still awesome, lip syncing, dancing, wonderful costumes, and while I missed the up close and personal experience of last time, I’m overjoyed that so many people were there to see some talented performers werk it.

Feeling a little old and tired, I skipped out at the interval and headed back to the hotel, where I fought with the aircon for a while trying to sleep. I think it’s going to be an ongoing challenge, but it’s still a welcome relief from the high 30s outside.