Ants go marching

Jackfruit is delicious. Granted, the first one into which I bit was a bit of a surprise. I didn't know that there was a pit so I bit right through it. (It's a pretty soft pit yet sour-tasting, all the same.) This wasn't the most pleasurable experience as I decided to just keep on chewing. I immediately realized what had happened and augmented my tactics for the next time. And sans pit, I love jackfruit. But so do that ants in the guesthouse. I'm diligent about emptying my trash right away when it contains remnants of anything sweet but they know. They just know. The Thai ants have a good way of getting what they want. And the ants go marching. I have to change rooms tomorrow because there's a plumbing issue with my bathroom sink. Hopefully my new room will have less of an ant parade.

The ants are quite good at marching single-file, in a straight line. It's funny that the ants can be so good at organized lines yet, the electrical infrastructure of the city is quite the opposite. Check out the photo. That's pretty much the way that all power lines are configured in this city. There are literally power lines hanging loose and touching the pavement. And imagine if there was a problem and an engineer had to determine which line was which. That is one huge knot to untangle. Do you think that Chiang Mai would come anywhere close to being up to code with the electrical regulations in The States? I think not. But somehow it works. Thai people excel at creating order out of otherwise seemingly chaotic conditions.

There's no better example of Thailand Chaos than a cross-section of any street, anywhere in this city. Drivers of all sorts of vehicles — cars, busses, motorbikes, tuk-tuk, sawngthaew, mobile ice cream vendors, homemade side-cars carrying elderly women — contribute to the mass-pandemoneum of the city streets. There's no use in attempting to stay within the lines. The benefit however, is that nobody screams profanities if you make a jack-ass move in order to more quickly get to where you're going. Nobody has the right to get upset because everyone disobeys traffic laws. It's sort of brilliant because road-rage seems to be completely nonexistent. So different than in NYC. I think I've heard a car horn perhaps twice in the past week. Though I have not been staying in the lines on the road, I have been staying within the lines as I color the diagrams in my massage text book. These coloring assignments seem a bit mundane and a bit too far on the busy-work end of the spectrum so I find myself frustrated. But then I ponder why I'm frustrated. Kids, for example, love to color. They'll color for hours. Why can't I flip the situation and find the meditative playful pleasure that my three nieces covet in this particular activity? I've been getting better at it.

Just like the ants, Thai people have a good way of getting what they want and making it work. Last night, I saw a young driver attempting to parallel park his car. After determining that the spot was too small, I watched as he braced himself against the asphalt with a nice wide, grounded stance and leaned all of his bodyweight against the front bumper of the car. I have no idea if he was successful, as I decided not to stick around but I'm willing to bet that he managed a way to get that square peg into that round hole.

Though the Thai people know how to make things work, they definitely do not know how to make a Bloody Mary. I wouldn't generally order a Bloody Mary outside of brunch hours but when I attempted to order a Vodka-Cranberry last night, the server looked at me as if I had lost my third eye. (Ha ha ha.) Based on his reaction, I assumed that cranberry juice was not something particularly prevalent in Thailand. Instead, I ordered directly from the menu and the Bloody Mary seemed like the best option. But at the next bar, I had no problem ordering one of their specialty drinks: peach schnapps, blue curaçao, & cranberry juice. OK. So I like my Jolly Rancher candy drinks; it's true. The point is that they do in fact, have cranberry juice in Thailand and that the server at Tiger Kingdom was just giving me a hard time. In conclusion, the Thai bartenders are terrible at making Bloody Mary's but they're absolute experts at Vodka-Pineapple. Yum.

This morning was all about exploring temples in the city. Tonight I'm heading West to Klorng Chonprathan for the famous Nite Safari. I have a new treat to try for the ride out there. It's some sort of snack made from dried mung beans. I'm tempted to break it open but I hope that I can manage to keep it sealed until it's time to board the bus.