Chiang Mai Blues
Trip Start
Feb 25, 2006
1
131
148
Trip End
Jun 24, 2009
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
I've finally gotten the Bossa N' Marley CD and am listening to it now. Although it is almost devoid of any Reggae beat, I still think Bob is laying comfortably in his grave chillin' out to the soothing sounds that his music has become. It's possible that he'd be a bit disturbed if he walked into an elevator in Brazil and heard the cover of I shot the Sheriff (not to mention the other people in the elevator). The other music that I can't seem to get out of my head thanks to Erica is Pink Martini. They are a band out of Portland that has a big sound also with smooth Jazz vocals from their lead singer China. Seems almost fitting that I picked up the music in Beijing.
Que Sera, Sera
The one song that particulary sticks out in my mind is their particularly haunting version of Que Sera, Sera that you can listen to here, but pause it until it gets a chance to load the buffer unless you have a very fast internet connection.I've never really been one to believe in fate per say, but I do believe that there is a true path that one is supposed to follow. I've been looking longer and harder than I ever have before, but there seem to be a lot of pitfalls here on the paths in Asia. I'm not talking about the modern metaphysical usage of the word pitfall, but the real etymological root of the word. i.e. From Pit and Fall. Ever since I fell over 6 feet into the engine room of a dive boat and miraculously didn't break anything, I've been much more observant of the path at my feet. I have noticed that there is a preponderance of holes in the ground around here. Just walking down the sidewalks and streets around Asia is an adventure in and of itself. There are more giant gaping holes in the ground than you could possibly imagine. Some are completely unmarked, but others at least have a stick protruding from the hole to warn passersby that something may be amiss... like the ground. Maybe lawyers are a good thing to have around. I'm not sure where I'm going with this, I thought there was a point, but now I'm not so sure anymore. I've been a bit ill lately and been suffering from some unknown most likely tropical disease. As with almost all tropical diseases, the symptoms invariably seem to include headaches, fever, diarrhea, various body pains and loss of appetite. So I'll blame the incoherence of this post on that.
Additional thoughts after the fever and pain have broken.
I really hate hospitals and doctors, but after the longest train ride in my life with a burning fever and freezing cold chills, I finally went to my hospital in Bangkok. On the 13 hour train ride from Chiang Mai, I felt horrible with bone crushing pains and alternating fever and chills. I decided that I best get myself checked out when I got to BKK. The blood tests came back with inconclusive results, but the doctor suspected Dengue Fever based on my WBC count and low platelets. Armed with this knowledge, I decided to cover up and try to avoid getting bitten by any more mosquitoes. I felt like Typhoid Mary in that I could start an outbreak of Dengue in Bangkok since mosquitoes love me so much. The thought of mosquitoes being portable flying syringes has always scared the hell out of me. So even in the sweltering heat, I wore long sleeve shirts and long pants when I went out of my room, but mostly just stayed in bed the whole time I was in Bangkok aside from the hospital visits. I did manage to go back to my old neighborhood on my way to the hospital to get some of my favorite Bha mee bhet nam though so at least it wasn't a completely wasted trip to Bangkok.
