A day off

#6: 13/09/15
I open my eyes and stretch my entire body, the legs ache a bit but feel great, when I relieve the tension. Yawning I look at the display of my smartphone: Sunday, 11:30 a.m. It is the day off from training at Team Quest Chiang Mai. The sky is overcast, the temperature is pleasant and a light breeze blows from the open balcony door. Before standing up I think about if there is anything I should worry about. Maybe I have to do something? After a short while I decide that there is absolutely nothing and start the day.

While having a shower I consider where to have my breakfast and much more important: What to have for breakfast? First I could grab an Ice Coffee right in front of my flat and have a slow walk down the street. Behind the bend many options are offered: Deep-fried chickenbreasts, -feet, and wings or pork patties and smoked fish are sold on both sides of the street. Maybe something like this as an appetizer?

Right next to the chicken stand there is a small eating house well known for a wide range of different, delicious soups. But I am not in the mood for soup today. A few meters up the street the whole variety of the Thai cuisine is offered: I could have anything from Pad Thai to fried sea food, rice with pork in onion sauce or noodles with some fresh vegetables fried in a wok. And in addition, an ice-cold dragon fruit shake?

But my culinary start into the day has to wait for the rainy season turns my plans upside down. So I use the time to sew a strap of my backpack. Since I know I have been productive this morning, I go outside and my choice of food is sweet-spicy noodles with crispy duck. I have not even finished them, when there another idea comes to my mind, to make my ideal Sunday complete. My aching trapezius muscle discovered something: The Thai massage place on the other side of the street.

Again I come to the conclusion that it is simply awesome to live in a real Thai-quarter, not in the tourist center as done last year. It is easier to get in touch with the Thai people, have nice chats, everything is cheaper and somehow “more” Thai – and like the massage – also a lot better sometimes.

At the massage while I am lost in thoughts, I listen to relaxed music and the voice of the birds. My muscles, sore from the hard week of training, get warmed up with ethereal oils and then massaged thoroughly. My joints get cracked, stretched and circled. The muscle ache goes away and a feeling of deep relaxation comes over my body.

Before leaving I drink an awesome spice tea and have a nice conversation with the owner – I promise to come back soon.

My efforts to speak at least a bit Thai are greatly appreciated and nearly everyone tries to enlarge my vocabulary. With some Dragon-fruit chips and dried, sweetened bananas I walk back home – not without buying some stir-fried chicken and an ice coffee. I am already excited for the coming week when I start to train twice a day.

Here are some impressions from the quarter I live in. Among others you see some of the food stands I described and the view from my balcony during the shower of rain this morning.