Made it to
the airport for the 2nd time in two days and the flight
went off with only a 90 minute delay. I was fortunate to have the
seat next to me empty, so it made sleeping possible, along with
creative stretching postures for the legs. The flight lasted 15 hours
and 30 minutes, and we touched down in Taipei. Found out that instead
of flying direct to Chiang Mai, I had to first fly to Bangkok, which
was going to be a 3 hour and 30 minute flight. When I am forced to
sit for more than 6 hours without much of a break my stomach starts
to feel tight and uncomfortable, so I was relieved to have made the
first long segment of the flight without much discomfort. However,
when the Bangkok flight started my stomach got tight and I dreaded
the next 3 hours. I decided to focus my mind on prayer instead of
pain, and so began a mantra of 2 prayers, and miraculously within 15
minutes my stomach pain disappeared and did not return. On the
Bangkok flight I noticed a number of people seated next to me from
the Chicago/Taiwan flight, mostly younger people who looked to be on
travel adventures.
Upon arrival in
Bangkok I had flashbacks to my 2012 visit where I landed at 1:00am
and could not figure out how to properly fill in the
arrival/departure card needed for immigration, but this time I looked
the card over carefully and breezed through immigration. One bit of
luck about having to transfer to the Chiang Mai flight is that I got
to bypass the long lines at the normal immigration check point and
instead got my visa stamped at the empty transfer desk. Once my visa
was approved I was told to go to gate A5, and noticed the same faces
which had been following me since Chicago. A few of us got to A5 and
noticed the area was empty. A bearded hipster who had been
continually one step ahead of me since the long lines in Chicago was
again just ahead of me and I asked him if he was going to Chiang Mai,
and if so, were we in the right place. He seemed a bit frazzled and
said we had less than 5 minutes to catch our flight and there was no
plane at the gate, so we had to be in the wrong place. He and his
girlfriend started to walk back towards immigration, and I followed,
realizing that it may still be a long ways to Chiang Mai if we missed
the flight. His girlfriend then told us to head back to A5, because
there was a change in time zones from Taipei and we had an hour
before the plane was to leave, so we headed back to A5 and within 30
minutes the gang from Chicago was hanging around, brushing teeth in a
water fountain, reading books, and taking cell phone selfies. I was
surprised that these people were not heading into Bangkok, but
instead heading north with me to Chiang Mai. When we were seated on
the plane I was sitting next to a woman in her 20’s who I had seen
in Chicago and I congratulated her for making it through the ordeal
we had been through. She (Morgan) laughed and we ended up having a
nice conversation to make the 1 hour flight seem shorter.
Arriving in Chiang
Mai I watched Morgan move away through the dusty airport corridor,
realizing I would not see her again, along with the rest of the
Chicago explorers. We were now following our own paths to who knows
where. I was supposed to be picked up by my AirBnB hosts but I could
not get an open internet connection, and not carrying a phone with
me, I decided to try to find transport into town. I walked out into
the Chiang Mai morning, the taxi stand crowded, and I was hit with
the unique smell which I had forgotten about – a mix of food,
sewage, exotic trees, and a hot and smutty smog, which triggered
forlorn memories of my misadventures in 2012. I recalled a passage
from a novel about Bombay, the author having fallen in love with the
city because of the way it smelled, and it seemed to me that the same
had happened to me, one of the reasons I loved this Thai place was
because of its distinctive odor. As I wandered about aimlessly a tuk
tuk appeared next to me, and the driver locked eyes with me and told
me what I needed to hear - “tuk tuk ride into town!” So I hopped
in and just like the first time, I greeted the Chiang Mai streets
from an open door tuk tuk, which made me smile naturally as the
morning heat beat down heavily on my weariness.
I was dropped off at
Central Mall and I wandered two blocks to the condo building where I
was to be staying for the next month. Not having a phone, I had to
decide how to signal to the owners, who lived in the building, that I
was waiting for them in the lobby. I saw a guard, but talking to him
produced nothing significant because he did not understand English,
and so I took a seat at a nearby table and tried to calm my thoughts
which were tired and overburdened with new stimuli. I thought of
chess and I saw that I was in one of those positions which could be
called a “critical moment”, and one thing I have learned is that
one has to remain focused and under control if one wants to get out
of that moment unscathed. I saw an older white fellow amble by and I
asked him for help. He told me the front desk receptionist would be
able to help and I thanked him and spontaneously thought of offering
her 20 baht if she would call the number of my host for me. That idea
was a saving one, because a few minutes later I was settling into bed
in my new home, dropping into a deep 12 hour sleep, well earned.
Learning From Chess, Learning From Life