Travelman Northern Thailand: Food and Jazz in Chiang Mi and a Funny Thing Happened on the Way to Pai.

I stayed in Chiang Mi an extra night in hopes of getting to eat bugs. If I would have stayed two more nights (til Sunday) it would've been a sure thing because the internet says the bug guy is always at the Sunday Market. I was hoping to find the other bug guy, at a different market (maybe he was the same guy and he moved around.) I walked up and down the streets of Chiang Mi half the night looking for the bug guy. I went to three markets. I asked people, I mimed eating a bug (...I felt even sillier than when I was asking people where the rollercoaster in the mall was!) "Excuse me, Do you know where I can go to eat bugs?"

I was told by a travel agent I could find the bug guy at the local market. Yes, I went to a travel agent. She wasn't doing anything anyway. She said the bug guy was usually around, going up and down the street, but she hadn't seen him. She told me to try the local market, there's a bug guy there. (She was either saying that or "Loco market" but since I was in Thailand and not South America, she probably wasn't saying the Spanish word for crazy- Unless their prices were so low, they must be loco! Cuz they're practically giving it away!)

I found the local market. It was quite a walk. Especially after having wandered around a couple miles already that evening. As I approached I became excited at the thought of fulfilling a dream held by the thirteen year old boy inside me. I was going to get to eat real, creepy, crawly spiders, crickets, and scorpions! Then the adult in me became nervous and disappointed that I found the market. Now I was going to have to eat a bug.

I looked around. Lots of food, clothes, and Motorcycles...

Durian anyone?...

How about an egg kabob? I think they may have been pickled because green was poking out...

Maybe sushi...

Perhaps a slightly out of focus assortment of food is more to your liking?...

But no bug guy! ...You just can't find a reliable bug guy these days, never around when you need one.

So I went to watch some Jazz at the North Gate Jazz Co-op.

I went to the bar and got a drink. Mixed drinks were big there, but I opted for a Chang for 70 Baht.

That bartender right there in the pic, his name is Sam Malone. He used to be a pro baseball player, but his career ended because he couldn't control his drinking. Now he owns a bar but doesn't drink. The waitress next to him is named Carla, and the guy on the other side of the bar, his name is Norm. He was an account. His wife Vera was around somewhere but I never saw her. (Those of you who were never fans of the show Cheers will have no idea what I'm talking about.)

I sat down on the last empty stool at the edge of the joint. The patrons were overflowing into the street...

This was the view from my stool. The guy at the mic in the white t-shirt was the jazz flute player. He would have made Ron Burgandy jealous.

The band was gearing up to start their set. They were the headliners. From the table in front of me, amongst the din of the crowd, I heard the words, "He was into bullfighting and hunting."

I tried to listen for more, but I couldn't hear anything so I went ahead and took a gamble that they were talking about who I thought they were talking about. I leaned toward the table and asked, "I just heard bullfighting and hunting. Are you guys talking about Hemingway?"

"Yeah, I was telling him about Spain and Franco and For Whom the Bell Tolls-" A long haired, bearded guy from Britain said.

"For Whom the Bell Tolls is one of my favorite books!" I said in all honesty.

The guy motioned to pull my chair up to the table. My life had just become a fantastic cliché. I was traveling the world, wandered into a jazz bar, and got into a conversation with a Brit about Hemingway. We talked a bit more about Hemingway. I mentioned that I thought the first paragraph of A Farewell To Arms is the best opening paragraph to a book ever written, but I couldn't remember the name of the book and it stalled the conversation. The Hemingway fan from Britain was named Max. You can see his bearded face to the right of the bald guy and above the shoulder of the guitarist...

The band was tight. They had a bit of Afro-funk rhythm to them. They opened with their rendition of Take Five by Dave Brubeck. About a minute into the song, I told the guy sitting to my right that it was Take Five by Dave Brubeck. A couple minutes later, Max asked what the song was and the guy to my right told him, stealing my jazz knowledge thunder. Everyone at the table nodded and pointed at him, 'good call.' It's not the first time in my life I've said something quietly only to have someone else praised by the group for repeating it loudly.

...........................................

After awhile, I'd had my fill, and I headed home, not home, but to my bed in my hotel.

@amyf requested that I post more pictures of the food I'm eating, so...

This was some kind of brown rice with chicken and vegetables dish. I'm not a foodie. What I remember is that it was great, cheap but not food cart cheap, and it had the word fiber in the description...

This was soup and a banana milkshake I had for lunch at a very nice family owned restaurant (their three year old was running around and the Grandma served me.) The soup was peppery and very good. I ordered white rice and dropped it in the bowl. I think the whole thing came to around under four dollars. Notice the sign about alcohol sales. In Chiang Mi, they have this weird law that you can't sell alcohol between 2pm and 5pm. I'd like to know what's behind that...

Here's a stand where I bought dinner...

I bought the green vegetable, mushroom dish with a side of rice. It cost me about two dollars. It was surprisingly bland, but still very tasty...

Here's the woman that sold it to me. She spoke as much English as I spoke Thai. That's her "smiling" and posing for the picture I asked to take... she was busy... yeah.

Finally, here's some odds and ends from Chiang Mi I want to share.

A traveling broom salesman...

I saw these guys from across the street and thought, "what's up with those guys?"...

I got closer...

I still don't know what was up with those guys, but they were selling tiger print pelts and bead necklaces. I turned around and saw tourists arguing with a cop...

Cops were set up at this point and pulling over tourists on Motor scooters...

They were ticketing them for not having licenses. The tickets were 300 baht (around ten dollars). The tourists here were arguing that they'd specifically checked with a cop about their licenses and he'd said they were ok. I found it funny that everyone who paid their ticket at the table the cops had set up was allowed to get back on their scooter and drive away. That's not a shakedown at all, perfectly on the up and up.

And shouldn't this cop be on the set of a Batman movie somewhere, geez...

Last but not least, a funny thing happened on the way to Pai (pronounced like Pie). I got picked up by the mini-van to Pai in the morning. I was the first one on. We drove a bit before stopping at a hotel to pick someone up. It was the guy in the picture.

Here's the funny thing. Other than the driver, I was the only person in the van. There were thirteen (Thirteen!) empty seats. I was sitting in the first row behind the driver. I was tired, it was early. I had my bag by the window, I was leaning on it as a makeshift pillow, and kind of spread out across the three seats. The door opened for the guy to get on. Surely, he would pick any of the other empty seats, like a normal person. NO!

"You mind if I sit right here?" He asked.

In a state of mild shock that he asked to sit directly next to me instead of one of the other ten seats- coulda had an entire row to himself- I nodded and sat up a bit.

He sat uncomfortably and very awkwardly, right next to me in the empty bus. I thought I was going to be stuck next to him for the next three hours. And he was close, the seats are not roomy, but you usually don't have to squeeze in next to someone. I figured he wanted to be able to see everything, but there are a lot of windows in those vans. Luckily, we switched vans in twenty minutes at the main bus depot.

Doesn't he look like a G-man, or Men in Black, bad guy from the Matrix, who was never happy with his career, nobody at the Bureau ever really understood him, and after fourty years of service he is finally taking that vacation he always dreamed of taking, and he's going all out, wearing his grey t-shirt with a puppy dog on it. And darn it! He's going to sit in the part of the Mini-van where he can see everything because they never let him sit by the window on black ops missions and he never said anything because he was too polite. Well, not anymore! This is the NEW Agent Smith, dammint!

I purposely cut off part of his face because I didn't talk to him and I don't' feel good about making fun of him then putting him on the internet...

As I was checking into my cheap hotel in Pai, guess who showed up behind me? I thought he was going to ask if I minded him sleeping in the bed next to me.

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As always thanks for stopping by. We hope you enjoyed the show. And as a reminder, because of the holiday, Taco Tuesday will be on Wednesday this week. Meatloaf will be served on Tuesday instead of Monday, but Meatloaf Monday is cancelled and Tuesday will just be Tuesday. If anyone is confused or has questions regarding this matter, please contact the Travelman Employee Help Line avialable 24 hrs a day.

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!steemitworldmap 18.79952 lat 98.9870 long food and jazz but not bug eating in Chiang Mi d3sc