Mae Sai – Typical Day? 03-30-2010

As I sit in candlelight typing, I am trying to answer the question: “What is a typical day in Mae Sai, Chiang Rai Thailand?” This is a question that several people have asked.

Mae Sai is a small, 25,000 to 30,000 people, border town on the Myanmar (Burma) border. The temperature is 10-15 degrees cooler than Bangkok as it is higher in elevation that most of Thailand.

Mae Sai is as far north as you can go in Thailand and is in the area known as the “Golden Triangle”. The three countries that come together to make this triangle are Laos, Thailand and Myanmar (Burma). At one time it was the largest producer of Opium in the world. It has slipped to number two as Afghanistan has the number one spot now.

The typical things we do here are very much like the things we do in California or any place we are at. We wake up, have normal body functions, shower, brush our teeth, get dressed and eat. I guess those parts of our lives here are typical.

Daeng and I try to walk a few miles every morning to get our exercise and keep the increasing arthritis pain in my lower joints to a minimum.

This morning I woke up about 4:10 AM and called my Mother in California. There is a 14 hour time difference. Thailand is 14 hours ahead of Pacific Daylight Saving Time. I use my new notebook which is hooked up with the free wireless Internet connection here at the Yeesum Guest House where we live.

I then hook up our Magic Jack and we have telephone service to the USA and Canada. Mom was doing pretty good but was complaining about her joints hurting, too. It was around 4:00 PM on the 29th there.

After talking to Mom I answered some of our emails. This technology is amazing to me as I was born before broadcast television. Now, I can talk to folks on the other side of the world with no wires hooked to my communication device.

Daeng woke up a little after 6:00 AM. We had coffee and toast and talked about the day ahead of us as the electricity to all of this area will be off from 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM today. This time down will allow them to replace some of the high voltage wires to increase the potential of the electrical grid in this area.

Sure enough at 8:00 AM the electricity went off so we went for a walk. Daeng and I turned right when we walked out of the guest house and traveled up the street along the river that seperates Thailand from Myanmar. When we got to the end of the street we walked up the hill past the little house that I like.

The house is unique because it is built into the side of the hill. Last week we called the owner to ask if he wanted to sell it. He told Daeng he would have to talk with his daughter who is presently living there. We haven’t heard back so the answer is probably no. We’ll call him again after Thai New Year celebration, called Songkran, is over.

We then walked down the hill and turned right so we could go the morning market to have breakfast. We had to walk around the huge construction site of the hotel and townhouse condominiums that the Piyaporn Family is building.

The building of this new hotel complex is driving the prices of property up as everyone thinks this complex will bring lots of business to the area. The prices of property are already double that of other areas, even Chiang Rai or Chiang Mai and Chiang Mai is the second largest city in Thailand.

We had breakfast in the center of the morning market. I had fried pork and a cup of steamed rice with some “Akha” toppings that Daeng had bought from a lady as we were entering the market.

Daeng had fried vegetables, rice and this “Akha” specialty that was made with pork entails and fermented cabbage. It was very tasty but we would not recommend it to the weaker stomached folks.

We then walked up the main street to J@J Internet Cafe as I told the owner, Cola, I would make a call to the United States National Visa Center for him.

We stopped to buy an umbrella on the way as it looked like it would rain, again. It rained last night. That was a good thing because it cleared the smoke from the jungle fires and put them out.

As we got to J@J Internet it started raining again. Cola’s wife, Monn, said that Cola stayed home to do anything without electricity. We told Monn to tell Cola we would see him tomorrow.

Just about that time our Australian friend, Peter, called as he was in Mae Sai going to the bank. He met us under the bridge that leads across the little river to Myanmar. It was raining hard so we had coffee in the little open air café next to the bridge.

We talked about his rice land that he leases out and his apartments that he had built. He was in the process of putting bathrooms in two more of his apartment.

He was going to see another friend so we said good-bye and walked toward home. It was a good think I had bought the umbrella.

On the way home we bought a small water melon, a barbecued chicken and a “Som-Tom” papaya salad. We ate most of it when we got to our place.

I was pretty tired for some reason so I laid down for a little nap. Daeng went to visit here brother and sister-in law, Tun & Hlong.

My cellular phone woke me us at about 5:30 am. The lights were back on and it was Daeng telling me she was going with Hlong to visit someone and did not want me to worry. I told her to have fun and be careful.

I ate the rest of the barbecued chicken and watched some English television. At around 7:00 PM it started to hail and rain hard. The lights went out, too.

I called Daeng to make sure she was okay. She said it was raining very hard where she was, about 10 miles south of town, and not electricity.

This was a good test of my new ACER notebook that I bought in America. The six battery, battery pack lasts between 5-6 hours on a full charge. The keyboard is small for my fat fingers (86% keyboard) but if I am careful it works great. I want to thank Jay Scelsi for helping me pick this notebook. It works well in candlelight.

Was today a typical day in Mae Sai? I’ll try to blog each day and you can to the judge.

Daeng got home at around 9:30. She was pretty wet but safe and the lights came back on.

Good-night.