Siam Chronicles 2 - Goodbye, Chiang Mai

Under no circumstance should I have drunken that herculean quantity of malt liquor. The rain, a tease of chiffon cloud for so long, finally broke the heat over Chang Mai last night. Euphoric we dashed through the drenching waves in search of conversation and drink. In retrospect the phrase "unthinkably stupid" is apt, but at the time it was natural to huddle conspiratorially over the great brown bottles of Chang brew piled high like some archaic hecatomb descanting politics, semiotic philosophy, and the punk movement in America with a motley medley of fellow farangs amidst the anodyne hum of torrential rain.
So it was that this morning found me in a whirl of regret and whizzing through yet another novel, while Alex pounded the pavement in search of gainful employment. A pity, I like Chiang Mai, an expansive corrugated shanty town fringed by jungle in full flower set at the base of a great green mountain. Innumerable orchids grow everywhere, I recognize a few varieties that I had shamefully killed with care in San Francisco flourishing untended in tin cans in the gutters. I've spent the majority of the last few days dripping my way through the endless wats - more crumbling and less ostentatious in general then those in Bangkok, they exude a quiet simplicity that is most alluring.The city seems mainly to be a hub for "trekking," wherein tourists are firmly strapped to the top of an elephant and banished into the jungle to gawk at the hill tribes. This is reputed to be quite enjoyable, though I should warn any Victorian poets peering at this through frilled sleeves that, as an Aussie mournfully disclosed last night (with tangible regret), they no longer dispense mandatory opium infusions at the pit stops.
We're headed to Luang Prabang on what is ominously deemed "the slow boat" tomorrow, which will appropriately take a number of days. We're restless to get there and settled in, although there is some thought that perhaps we'll chuck it all and head down south to Phukket where there are plenty of teaching gigs to be had and also a beach to recommend it. Our power converter mysteriously self-destructed, taking the surge protector to hell with it in spite, so it may be a while before I can get pictures posted...