Foot massage

Day 44 – Chiang Mai, Thailand

Today is a full day. This morning I went to the post office to send a parcel home; I choose sea shipping, so it should arrive in 3 months. I am in no rush. The post office staff was very helpful, choosing the right box, helping me fill it, checking that I wasn’t sending forbidden items (weapons, religious or antique artefacts, and so on).

Since the trouble surrounding the reception of the last parcel I sent from Vietnam, I found a parcel service that will receive and keep my parcels until I choose to get them back. Dear parents, I won’t impose on you further after the tribulations of the last parcel!

That filled my morning.

After checking out of my hostel and leaving them my (considerably lighter) backpack, I went to a nearby establishment that offers massage of all kinds, staffed from women who got trained after having been to prison. I chose a one-hour foot massage, for 250 bahts, around 6.5 euros. Life can be so hard…!

News from my backpack: I’m still travelling with my 45L backpack. When I tie my shoes on the outside, thanks to the extra straps, I get plenty of space inside for my stuff. I did a great rearranging of things when leaving Luang Prabang, and I stuffed quite a lot of things inside. Now that these same things are gone, I put my shoes (and various extra things) back inside in preparation for taking a plane tonight.

I have an extra shoulder bag in which I put a few things for tonight: since I’ll arrive around 1:30 AM to my hostel, if I don’t have to open and rummage in my backpack right away in the middle of a dorm, It may be better for my potential dorm-mates. I usually also stuff my extra water and granola bars, as well as small things that lighten my handbag. In a pinch, I can empty that shoulder bag into my other bags, and fold it tight into my backpack.

A huge thank you to the ones that gifted me with my inflatable neck pillow for my 30th birthday: it folds tight and is a huge comfort in any kind of travel. I’ve used it on the plane, on the train, on the bus, and on the boat this trip alone.

When I see fellow travellers with huge backpacks and their extra pillow tied on the outside, I can’t help but be smug about my arrangements.

So yes I have to wash my clothes more often than most, but it is quite easy. I have to plan a bit to be sure to be somewhere where I have the time to do laundry before going out of clean clothes, but I manage.

Creepy-crawlies

So I was asked about the local fauna.

Mosquitoes: I have seen several kind of biting thingies. Regular mosquitoes, tiny things that remind one of midges, and striped mosquitoes that my of may not be tiger mosquitoes, but I think they were. The bite is impressive also. The most fun is when they are quietly waiting in the shower, hot and humid, and you without protective layers.

I have quite a few bites, but I also suspect spiders to enjoy biting my legs during the night.

Lizards: difficult to avoid seeing them everywhere, especially after nightfall on the wall of the houses. I even saw a big one that might have been a gecko. I’m not sure, it was impersonating a beam ornament in the dusk.

Frogs: I saw one crossing the street this morning.

Cats and dogs: they are everywhere, some belonging to the houses where they live, some just stray animals. They are usually small and thin, and can be aggressive at night.

Elephants: we saw two on the opposite bank of the Mekong river when we were having breakfast in Pakbeng, in the middle of the two-day boat journey.

Snakes: none, fortunately.

Butterflies: quite often, strangely enough, flitting around the boat on the river.

Snails: I saw one in the shower one time, I can see what would attract one.

Sea hawks: we saw quite a few in Cat Ba Island, fishing.

The unknown chainsaw-bird: there is a bird (or a lizard, or a gecko, or a frog, or another creepy-crawly living in trees) that makes the same sound as a chainsaw. I heard in while trekking on Cat Ba Island, I heard it again in the botanical garden, and I heard it in Pakbeng.

Panda: one, today: