Amazing Graces

Off to the most amazing start, finding this guesthouse and, today, meeting with Topsi, the Servas host here. She’s amazing and well-connected throughout Thailand. Was the action coordinator for Greenpeace in the early 2000s, flying a hot air balloon and unfurling banners over a coal plant that was a major polluter in Northern Thailand, and leading a flotilla to confront the first Argentinian ship bringing GMO soya into Thailand. Then coordinator for “Ecoversify” in Thailand, and now a director of “Pilgrimage Asia.”

Tomorrow she’s introducing me to a monk-friend at the famed Wat Saker (Golden Mount Temple) here, and connecting me with her Chiang Mai friends, in particular the founders of Pun Pun Organic. Not bad for my first 48 hours.

We lunched long with a Japanese woman-friend on the banks of the Chao Phraya river — a place a tourist would never discover on their own, called Chaopraya Antique Cafe. Amazingly, you walk a plank since the lower floor (kitchen and living room) has a foot of water sloshing about and eventually to the 2nd floor deck that is the restaurant. A popular place with extraordinary food, the Panang leaf (Piper Sarmentosum) ice cream to top it all off. Amazing grace.

My room is above

Miang Kham leaf-wrapped salad at the river cafe

On the other hand, I left my iPhone cord in the airplane, but I was prepared! I had another one. Unfortunately, it didn’t last long, wouldn’t charge from my backup battery, but I was able to order a taxi with 4% remaining. Just as I arrived at my hotel, it died. Sunday, and I was bummed, took a nap.  But, lo and behold, they had a drawer full at reception, and I’m back up and running. 

Also, I’m not one to wear hats, but my doctor insisted, so I brought one along. First time wearing it (today), I left it behind 😞. 

All-in-all, I think I’m finding my groove.

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