What we did: Slept in, dinner with Brian and Claire, drinks with Brian, Landon, Alan, and Mike
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 2055B/$69
Due to our excessively late night last night, we didn't leave our room until around 1pm today. Went to the Corner Restaurant and ordered ourselves a nice breakfast. It was here we realized that we probably wouldn't be doing any of the cool tours we had originally planned to do in Chiang Mai, like Tiger Kingdom where you can get nice and cuddly with a grown tiger, or ride elephants. To be honest, though, I really don't have any regrets about Chiang Mai. It has been wonderful, and we are both genuinely sad that tonight will be our last night in this interesting city.
When we got back to our guesthouse, we Facebooked everyone from last night to make sure everyone had made it home OK, especially Brian who had never taken an auto-rickshaw home from the touristy part of town before. Thankfully, everyone was fine. Jon sent us a really nice message and Brian let us know he'd swing by for dinner. We had also gotten in touch with Landon and made plans to meet him around 9pm.
Later in the afternoon, Claire invited us to dinner. She was going to make pasta and fruit salad for Hugo, the guesthouse's owner, because he had had a bad night last night, and she invited us to join them. Suffice it to say that Hugo's girlfriend had acted in an unfaithful manner and he was obviously out of sorts over it. A home made meal sounded fantastic, so we asked Claire if it would be OK for Brian to join us as well. She said that would be OK, so we were good!
Brian showed up just after 7pm and we chatted while we waited for Hugo, who was having what must have been a very interesting chat with his (possibly) ex-girlfriend. Claire looked a little flustered because we had no idea whether to eat or to wait, so they sent me up to the room to knock on the door to ask whether he'd like to come to dinner. I felt a little awkward knocking on the door, but it wasn't so bad in the end. He basically said to start without him, so after a little bit of contemplating, we did.
Claire had prepared a very nice pasta with homemade sauce and we ate and chatted. Brian is such a sweet kid. It's easy to tell that he is really loving life. It's very nice to see. He's got so much energy and is so enthusiastic. It's nice to have him around with us old fogies!
Then, Claire brought out a fruit salad for dessert. It was wonderful!
9pm rolled around just as we finished eating. We helped clear the table, and showed Brian the newborn cats sleeping in another room close by. We called Landon and made plans to meet at a Mexican restaurant in his neck of the woods for a change. All the fighters live in this area actually. Brian will be staying there for the next month and over the past couple days he's gotten to know the area so he knew the way to the restaurant, luckily.
We caught a tuk tuk to the area of town and Landon and Mike were already there, and then Alan showed up just as we were entering the restaurant. We immediately asked about their fights at the festival the night before and we're happy to hear both Mike and Alan won their fights. Mike told us he had a tougher fight than Alan and got kicked in the balls several times which of course is not allowed. They told us it got rowdy after this and Long swore at the refs. Apparently his opponent was upset that at the last minute Alan and Mike switched opponents.
Mike is from New Zealand and this was the first time we had really sat down to talk to him. Our first impression of him wasn't the greatest though. Our first night out with everyone, he pretended he didn't speak English and ignored us. It wasn't until a couple days later that we found this out. Patty made a sarcastic comment to him at the gym about it one day and he took it pretty well. He is a really nice guy and gave us good advice about our visit to New Zealand. Perhaps we will meet up with him in Wellington, where he lives.
I ended up getting an apple dessert to eat and really enjoyed it!
Brian asked about whether he would be ready for a fight after only a month of training. Mike and Alan both said he would get a fight. As to whether he would be able to compete, it was a different story. Brian asked if anyone had ever competed after only a month. They all said that it had been done before. Then Brian asked if they performed well, and Alan paused and said “...no.” We had a good laugh.
Brian reminds us so much of our friend Chuck. It actually kinda feels like we have Chuck around, but of course Brian could never take his place!
Mike asked if we were going out partying after that. We responded with a hell no. Everyone seemed tired so we called it a night. Landon called for a tuk tuk for us and all of us hung out outside the restaurant until our tuk tuk arrived. We hugged them all and that was that.
Leaving Chiang Mai felt official at that point, but I think by this time we both felt ready to move on, knowing that one day we'll make it back to Chiang Mai.
We got back to the guesthouse and just went to bed.
Budget: 1800B/$60; Spent: 2055B/$69
Due to our excessively late night last night, we didn't leave our room until around 1pm today. Went to the Corner Restaurant and ordered ourselves a nice breakfast. It was here we realized that we probably wouldn't be doing any of the cool tours we had originally planned to do in Chiang Mai, like Tiger Kingdom where you can get nice and cuddly with a grown tiger, or ride elephants. To be honest, though, I really don't have any regrets about Chiang Mai. It has been wonderful, and we are both genuinely sad that tonight will be our last night in this interesting city.
When we got back to our guesthouse, we Facebooked everyone from last night to make sure everyone had made it home OK, especially Brian who had never taken an auto-rickshaw home from the touristy part of town before. Thankfully, everyone was fine. Jon sent us a really nice message and Brian let us know he'd swing by for dinner. We had also gotten in touch with Landon and made plans to meet him around 9pm.
Later in the afternoon, Claire invited us to dinner. She was going to make pasta and fruit salad for Hugo, the guesthouse's owner, because he had had a bad night last night, and she invited us to join them. Suffice it to say that Hugo's girlfriend had acted in an unfaithful manner and he was obviously out of sorts over it. A home made meal sounded fantastic, so we asked Claire if it would be OK for Brian to join us as well. She said that would be OK, so we were good!
Brian showed up just after 7pm and we chatted while we waited for Hugo, who was having what must have been a very interesting chat with his (possibly) ex-girlfriend. Claire looked a little flustered because we had no idea whether to eat or to wait, so they sent me up to the room to knock on the door to ask whether he'd like to come to dinner. I felt a little awkward knocking on the door, but it wasn't so bad in the end. He basically said to start without him, so after a little bit of contemplating, we did.
Claire had prepared a very nice pasta with homemade sauce and we ate and chatted. Brian is such a sweet kid. It's easy to tell that he is really loving life. It's very nice to see. He's got so much energy and is so enthusiastic. It's nice to have him around with us old fogies!
Then, Claire brought out a fruit salad for dessert. It was wonderful!
9pm rolled around just as we finished eating. We helped clear the table, and showed Brian the newborn cats sleeping in another room close by. We called Landon and made plans to meet at a Mexican restaurant in his neck of the woods for a change. All the fighters live in this area actually. Brian will be staying there for the next month and over the past couple days he's gotten to know the area so he knew the way to the restaurant, luckily.
We caught a tuk tuk to the area of town and Landon and Mike were already there, and then Alan showed up just as we were entering the restaurant. We immediately asked about their fights at the festival the night before and we're happy to hear both Mike and Alan won their fights. Mike told us he had a tougher fight than Alan and got kicked in the balls several times which of course is not allowed. They told us it got rowdy after this and Long swore at the refs. Apparently his opponent was upset that at the last minute Alan and Mike switched opponents.
Mike is from New Zealand and this was the first time we had really sat down to talk to him. Our first impression of him wasn't the greatest though. Our first night out with everyone, he pretended he didn't speak English and ignored us. It wasn't until a couple days later that we found this out. Patty made a sarcastic comment to him at the gym about it one day and he took it pretty well. He is a really nice guy and gave us good advice about our visit to New Zealand. Perhaps we will meet up with him in Wellington, where he lives.
I ended up getting an apple dessert to eat and really enjoyed it!
Brian asked about whether he would be ready for a fight after only a month of training. Mike and Alan both said he would get a fight. As to whether he would be able to compete, it was a different story. Brian asked if anyone had ever competed after only a month. They all said that it had been done before. Then Brian asked if they performed well, and Alan paused and said “...no.” We had a good laugh.
Brian reminds us so much of our friend Chuck. It actually kinda feels like we have Chuck around, but of course Brian could never take his place!
Mike asked if we were going out partying after that. We responded with a hell no. Everyone seemed tired so we called it a night. Landon called for a tuk tuk for us and all of us hung out outside the restaurant until our tuk tuk arrived. We hugged them all and that was that.
Leaving Chiang Mai felt official at that point, but I think by this time we both felt ready to move on, knowing that one day we'll make it back to Chiang Mai.
We got back to the guesthouse and just went to bed.
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