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I’m staying at the ‘Garden Guesthouse’ in Chiang Mai which is essentially just three bedrooms upstairs from a bar and cafe.  Their street sign is so sun-faded that I can’t read it (I just look for the blank sign when walking up the street) so I doubt they have a lot of walk-in customers.

The have poor street advertising, but very good internet advertising.  One of the owners, Tim, is an expat whose main work is in web-design and search engine optimization.  His tiny 3-room operation comes up on the 1st page (3rd link!) in a google search for ‘Chiang Mai Guesthouse’.

The place is really nice, although I suspect that Tim keeps it running mainly as a test-bed for web design and as a venue for his band which is currently rehearsing a Fleetwood Mac song outside my window.

These are photos from an afternoon trip from Chiang Mai to Samoeng and back again — the loop goes around and behind the mountain that Doi Suthep is on.  My little 110cc Honda Click could only barely get me up the hills, but outside of town the roads are mostly empty and drivers are friendly.

Noisy cicadas!

This photo isn’t very interesting, but when the gardener hosed down this fence it made a great marimba noise.

Back end of a cendol cart

Exhibit caption from Siam Ocean World, an aquarium with nearly as many snack bars as exhibits.

Yep, they provide glass-bottom boat tours in one of the fish tanks.

Also in Ocean World, a spa tub full of gara providing the creepiest pedicure ever.  When I paid my admission I did not opt for this extra, but they gave me a ticket anyway.

Me in a canal boat, scowling because…

…this dude is supposed to be hoisting the plastic gunwale to prevent dysentery- and ameoba-infected water from splashing in my face, but he’s spacing out and not doing his job.

There was no context to tell me if the penny-farthing trishaw was a joke or an actual historical artifact. 

One of many great pedestrian-only walkways and skyways that crisscross Bangkok.

This intersection featured all kinds of numerological graffiti. 

Doi Suthep is one of the landmarks of Chiang Mai.  In theory I should be able to see it from town, but it’s way too smoky for that right now.  (I’m not clear why the jungle is on fire, but I’m told it’s an annual, intentional thing and no cause for alarm.)

I arrived to find much of the temple to be under construction.  There was still an abundance of shiny gold stuff, though, as well as some excellent enormous nagas.  I also like that they chose the location of the temple by asking an elephant.

Those are the continuing bodies of the nagas pictured above.  300 step’s worth — a whole lotta naga.

I resisted the impulse to rush around ringing all the bells.  A few other visiters succumbed, despite discouraging signs. 

I’m on the train to Chiang Mai.  It’s a 12-hour trip but it’s been fairly pleasant — nice meal service, whole row of seats to myself, etc.

I’m a bit nervous about arrival.  Last night I would’ve read a bit about my destination, booked a hotel room, etc, but the internet service was out at my hotel in Bangkok.  The hotel staff predicted that the internet would be back on this morning, but it wasn’t, and I ended up catching my train with no plans at all.

I don’t think the thing about having no hotel room will be a big deal, but I really don’t know anything about the city I’m arriving in.  The landscape out the train window got increasingly brown as we move north, and there were quite a few burned patches and some actual fires burning.  I don’t see any flames out the um… OK, as I was typing that, I looked out the window again and I did see a small patch of flames.  There’s a fair amount of smoke in the air.  In any case, there seems to be some sort of ecological catastrophe going on and I can’t help but think that if I’d been able to do my homework last night I would have more of an idea about whether or not there are any remaining standing buildings in Chiang Mai.

*Update:  I am now at a hotel in Chiang Mai, and it is not on fire!

Yesterday I took the ferry from Penang back to Butterworth and had a quick lunch with a guy named ‘So’ who I met on the ferry.  We took a taxi to a dim sum place that was highly rated on ‘wikitravel’ but not especially good.  On the one hand I realize that it’s a wiki, so restaurants can rate themselves.  This didn’t strike me as a very tech-savvy operation though.

After lunch, a 24-hour train ride to Bangkok.  I was a bit worried that I wouldn’t get a window seat, but it turns out that in 2nd class they’re all window seats.  Part of my space was occupied by another traveler’s baggage, but there was still plenty of room.

There were a lot more great shanties in the last bit of Malaysia.

My sleeping berth was a bit cozy.  I guess it pays to reserve early and get a lower, wider bed.

By morning we were well into Thailand.  There were lots of rice paddies,  lots of shorebirds wading around in the paddies, and lots of things that were on fire (not pictured).

The day before yesterday I hired a car to drive me out to “Kellie’s Castle“, the ruins of a hundred-year-old colonial estate.

It was both more modest, and less ruined than I expected.  Even though it was built in the 1920’s and intended as a residence, the construction is like a medieval fortress.  It’s going to be here for a long time.

The whole place is deeply paranoid.  In addition to having those crazy walls and a tower with arrow slits (which could all be about historic charm) there are also countless escape routes, including a tunnel to a neighboring temple.

There’s probably some sort of lesson about colonial guilt/fear going on here.  But, hey Kellie, maybe if you wouldn’t make people haul a castle’s worth of bricks and imported marble all the way from Penang they wouldn’t be in such a hurry to string you up.