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Bye Bye Pie...Hello Chiang Mai Thai...Massage

What a week!!!!

One week ago right now, I was doing Tai Chi next to my bamboo bungalow at sunset in the valley of some gorgeous mountains.  Yes, I have found a little piece of paradise and if you'd like to see it, get there quick, because the developers have already gotten a jump on you.

Pie (pronounced with an elongated byyyyyyye) is one of the chillest places I've ever been to in my life.  Which makes it more hilarious that I spent some of my time with a couple of Spaniards who only had one full day there.  Instead of renting bicycles, we got motorbikes...instead of relaxing at the hot springs, we saw them and moved on to the canyon...instead of hiking the canyons, we saw it and moved on to the waterfalls....and so on and so on.  But mai bpen rai (rememeber?), I was having fun watching the speed at which this guy operated.  And his girlfriend had no desire to try and argue with him either.  They're good people and I taught them a classic favorite - the game of dice.  So I now have three languages going on in my head.  We'd play one round in Spanish, one in English and one in Thai.  I've discovered that my Thai is pretty good for only having been working on it for a few months.  All of the newcomers tell me so...I'm old hat, right?  I've been here since November.

But...back to Pie.  Getting there is an issue.  Unless you have your own wheels, you have to take a bus or minivan, and a good portion of the road is an hour and a half swerve thru the mountains.  I'm not lying, I sat next to a Thai woman that was puking into a plastic bag.  Then I looked at her daughter across the aisle and she was puking into a plastic bag.  I think you can guess I wanted to puke....but I didn't have a plastic bag.  Luckily we made it to the halfway point and took a pee and drink break.  The rest of the trip I spent chatting with this nice guy from Vancouver who is working on the set of some movies in Chiang Mai.  He was into American sports, so that made the time go by.

Okay...back to Pie.  Man, I wish I could go back to Pie.  After the day of running around, I gave myself a treat.  Permission to do nothing at all.  I found a bungalow operation called Paddy Fields and for about 35 hours I didn't stir from the campsite.  Just read and ate AMAZING curry and relaxed.  The mornings there were amazing.  You couldn't even see the mountains that were only 1/4 mile away because of all the fog.  Then the sun would peak out over the top of the fog and all of a sudden, poof, it would be gone (yikes! ambiguous pronoun - the fog, silly!).  The final night of only 4 very short nights in paradise, the entire crew from Paddy Fields went to 'the' party.  Art opening, fire show, live music and a campfire...many hippies and many nationalities.  Italians, Germans, Spaniards, Americans and Canadians, Aussies and Kiwis, Brits and French, Israelis and of course, Thais.  Everyone having a great time even though the music sucked.

Speaking of music, I played my first ever open-mic night in Pie.  Hard to believe that I've never done that, but it's true.  My Spanish friends pushed me to do it and it was a lot of fun.  Everyone else was just playing Beattles and I came in with my folk humor and after I butchered a Martin Sexton tune they still wanted more and I played them one of my own.  Nice feeling to be entertaining again...it's been a little while.

Well, there was a very good reason I had to leave Pie after only 4 nights (otherwise, I might still be there).  I had already paid for a massage class that started this past Monday the 30th of January.  All week, I rose and biked about 15 minutes to the massage school (called ITM - International Thai Massage...or something).  I learned some amazing things and have begun my career in body work.  I learned an abdomen massage, an arm, face and shoulder massage and of course, the crazy leg work...they call it, "Yoga for lazy people".  Please ask me to contort your body into some wild position - it feels great!.  First one's free, after that we'll talk.  I enjoyed it so much, that I am taking the foot massage course at a different school this weekend.  After only 12 hours of class, I will be able to give a one hour foot massage - including a gentle wash in warm water to begin.

Well, I'm keeping it short this time, so that I can upload some pictures and go to sleep.  More studying in the morning and then I'm meeting a Thai woman at the Sunday market to walk and shop and flirt and...??.  Hope to see you all outside of cyberland real soon.  Good luck to Jerome Bettis, I think he deserves a ring!

Oh yeah, I have another festival to share about - the 30th annual Flower Festival of Chiang Mai.  That makes 4!  Plus, a blog about my trek thru the mountainous regions of northern Thailand.  All in the click of a button (or another month).  Sawadeeeeeeeeee!

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