Tonight, I woke up with a shock. Across my chest an arm had landed all of a sudden and I felt a tiny, sleeping body come closer to me. I pushed Jennifer away again, silently laughing about this being her second attempt to second-base me in her sleep, and soon went back to dreaming.
Next time I woke up it was quarter past eight and my girls were eager to get to the breakfast restaurant.
"Big day today!" Jennifer shouted from the bathroom. "Wakey wakey! Doi Suthep before noon, remember?"
I did, even though my body had no intention of co-operating today.
I had been up until 2.30 that night, chatting with the friends back at home. The time difference really sucked at times. When it was pitch black night for me, Claudia and Simon were off celebrating our weekly tradition of The Sunday Pizza, and I missed them like crazy. They were the biggest part of the routines I do actually miss, the everyday fikas and the long, long, long, neverending, talks.
But outside sun was shining Thai-style; a warm, glowy light that made all of my Instagram pictures look temperature-enhanced, and breakfast was waiting for no one after 10 am.
We filled our plates with fruit and gorged up on coffee and french toast and hurried vacay-style, meaning: not so much.
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We had met Jennifer in the lobby of Maninarakorn two days ago. Me and Julia had spent a couple of hours there already, since our night bus arrived at 7 am. and check-in time wasn't until 2 pm, there was a big gap of time we had to fill.
Although tired, life was surely good.
Chiang Mai has a calmness, yet an undercover buzz about it. It's not stressful at all but there is still always something to do, whether it be strolling the streetmarkets or going on daytrips to the nearest piece of ímpressive nature.
Or just staying in the closeness of wifi and coffee...
"No biggy", Jennifer shrudded her shoulders and then the meeting was over. There was still so much to see in Chiang Mai, we started to see we've been a little overachieving by thinking we would make it to all of it in seven days - especially when there was soo much cheap coffee to taste from the city's many hipster-vibed coffee shops.
We checked in, left our bags at the room and after a quick shower, we headed to the nearest night market.
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The easiest thing would be to say we had a great time, but frankly, I was quite anxiety-filled. The stalls were the same as last time. I could see our ghosts sit down to eat dinner at the Indian place alongside the wall. I remember us holding hands, or was that a creation of my imagination? Surely we were happy then. Weren't we?
We sat down to eat, me and Julia and Jennifer, and the atmosphere was chilled. Not having spent time together before, of course there were worries about all of us not getting along, but both of them were calm, laughed a lot, supportive to my occasional breakdowns while seaching the market for every tiny item that would make our traveling easier, so soon enough I left those thoughts in the trash.
Oh, how I wanted to leave all of Jonathan in the trash too. Eternal-sunshine him and give me Thailand back.
Returning to the hotel later that night, talking to Patrik, he helped me realize that was exactly what I was doing by being here. I was taking Thailand back, hell, I was taking all of Asia back!
Rippinf off the old sticker and replace it with a new, shinier one.
The next day was easier.
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The first whole day we had in Chiang Mai was spent, a lot of it, by the pool. Being an extremly ill-pigmented person, tanning has never been my thing before. Add to that my tendency to be fidget and you get a person who rather sits in the shade and reads a book or walks down the street photographing, than laying flat on her back in gazing sun.
But that was before Asia 3.0. Now, this time it was my turn to get tanning lines and show off a golden-coloured face at home.
It fit perfectly with my goal to Zen Up My Life - be more Right Here, Right Now, the secret way to happiness, at least if you'll believe Buddha. And I just think you have to know something for people to start a religion about you.
Julia and I went to the gym in the afternoon. It went well.
In the evening, we went to MAYA shopping mall and ate korean bbq-styled soup, something Jennifer had been eager to try ever since she'd been here with her fuzzy-eater ex boyfriend three years ago. It was marvelous. The sushi was magic. We ate until we thought we'd die, and then we attacked the dessert-table.
I spent the night talking to people via messenger for waay too long, as already said, and woke up in the early morning by the sneak-attempt to boobie-grab me.
And that leads us back to today.
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After breakfast, we went out in the street to try and find some kind of transportation to the golden temple at the top of Doi Suthep. The traveling agent I scouted with the previous day had told me about 1000 baht, which all of us felt like we could find cheaper elsewhere. We stopped one of the red buses, if that is really what they are, and asked for a price. The smiling man from the driver's seat would give us 300 per way and wait for us while we went to the temple, and with that sealed, we jumped in the back.
Buses in Chiang Mai, well.. It's more of a combo of tuktuk, pickup truck and taxi. It has no real doors or windows and the driver goes whereever you tell him, as long as he knows the way. Also, the driver's may try and take out a high price than the 30 baht it says on the side of the car, saying the distance is too long or that it regular price, so we stopped asked for prices very quick if we were just going short distances and just gave the driver 30 baht upon arrival instead. You can't still be tricked with basic tourist scams third time around.
We arrived in the Doi Suthep area half an hour later and began climbing the stairs.
Finally up, we had to put our scarf around our shoulders (since we were visiting a temple after all), and paid 30 baht to enter.
Being one of the most famous thai temples, it was still a temple. When knowing very little of the religion practised around it, it's a photosession to a nice background than a spiritual experience, but we enjoyed it. Up on the height the air was colder, more chilly than the hot, sweltering heat arriving after noon in the city.
We tried some instagram-trending yoga poses in hopes of becoming famous virtualy one day/to have silly pictures of each other for future blackmailing and we didn't die, but didn't felt that Zen either. 3/5 toasters.
After fueling up with strawberries on the way down, we found our bus/taxi driver waving from the parking lot and we began the bumpy road down.
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Driving another way than earlier, our eyes caught sight of something amazing: Catmosphere, a café where you could hang out with fuzzy furrballs. We asked our driver to drop us off there instead and in we went.
I've known Jennifer since we were both 16. I've seen her first-time-drunk and wide-eyed-in-love and after-exams-excited and graduation-high-on-life, but I still don't think I've ever seen her as happy as I did today, surrounded by bili-s (bengali for cat) crawing for her attention.
Being allergic, the Axelsson sisters let their cat-whisperer friend solve the cuddle-part of the visit while they dug in to Strawberry cheesecake and life was amazing.
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"You know,
I feel calmer now. Than last time."
The landscape changed before our eyes outside the window apertures of the bus. The road was winding, every bend almost a u-turn. They both looked at me, listening.
"I don't remember being this calm last time in Thailand, and definitely not the first time around.
I don't know... I feel like... Like, like I'm where I am supposed to be, right now, for this period of my life."
They both smiled warm heartedly at me, granted myself this moment on cloud nine, where life actually made sense and was beautiful. At least for I while, I stayed there.
Inhaling deeply.
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The plans are the same for tomorrow - going to a cafe, sunbathing, eating, drinking coffee, taking life one hour at the time.
Thailand has a way of slowing down your heartbeat and make you sway with the waves.
A LOTS
AND LOTS
AND LOTS OF KISSES
FELICIA
27 dagar kvar BABY
SvaraRadera