Coincidences; A Travel Partner; Leaving Chiang Mai

Sometimes quite a few circumstances conspire in strange ways.

When I originally got to Chiang Mai on Friday afternoon, I was thinking about leaving that day, but ended up staying on for the evening to do errands. I figured I would leave for Pai early Saturday morning. I stayed at the Smile House again, and ended up grabbing dinner with the person in the room next to me, a Puerto Rican girl named Mari Jose. Originally we were planning on going to a place she goes to regularly but then we ended up changing our minds and going to Aroon Rai, my favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai. While eating there, I saw the British girl I met in Nan passing by. It turned out that it was her birthday and she wanted to get some people together. Mari Jose suggested a bar called Roots Rock Reggae.

Back at the guesthouse, I invited a couple of other friends; a couple from Virginia and a photographer named Ryan who I met my first time around in Chiang Mai. So by the end of the evening, we had a lively crowd, and I ended up drinking one too many 50 baht mojitos. There was a Thai reggae band playing and the place was packed. The lead singer had a pile of dreadlocks on his head and they all had the Thai Rasta thing going.

I ended up staying out until three in the morning, and as a result I didn't go to Pai early like I'd planned. I woke up at 10:30 and found a note slipped under my door. Zander, who I met in Portland just before leaving town, had left the note at 10 and wanted to go to Pai together. He was staying at the guesthouse just across the street.

We met up and at the moment we're in Pai (I'll save this for the next post). We have plans to go towards Mae Hong Son, go up to Keungtong in Myanmar, and then to head onto Laos together.

So, if it hadn't been for this whole string of events, I would have been halfway to Pai by the time he stopped by. We would have ended up meeting up eventually, but I like this string of causality.

Chiang Mai has also really grown on me. It doesn't take long at all to meet a lot of people and get to know the town. Still, Zander and I were both excited to leave town on Sunday morning.