Well, the train arrived at 12:30PM and the sun was rather hot. As soon as I left the station, I got swamped by the tuk tuk drivers each thinking he will convince me to go with him and his recommended (yeh) hotel or merchant. Being frugal (even in Thailand) and wanting to figure out where I was going and how to get there, I just smiled at them and showed my two fingers walking, so one by one, they left me alone. Not to worry, they had plenty of suckers customers to taxi.
I determined the hotel the Kaderli's were staying at was about 2km (1.2 m). Since I was loaded down with 25 lbs of luggage, I decided take one of the cheap songtaews (pickup truck taxis) for what I thought would be 10 baht (Lonely Planet 25c). One stopped and wanted 20b, I said 10b. He wasn't interested. Well, he wasn't getting "rich" with my 10b (25c). With my daypack and carry-on over my shoulder, I merrily took my afternoon exercise walk through my temporary new home CM, thoroughly enjoying my walk. The walk felt longer than I thought so I later recheck the map, and it turned out to be more like 4km (2.4m), oh well. I finally get to the ancient gated wall of the old city. I made a left and started looking for signs for the Top North guesthouse. I pass by this attractive woman who looked familiar. I turned around and softly called out '"Akisha" no response, maybe I mispronounced her name, so one more time "Akaisha", still no response. I guess I was wrong, certainly looked like her. I found the hotel and got registered. At $7.50, not as cheap as I wanted but Billy and Akaisha were there so I figured it would be a good starting point. I wanted to explore my surroundings so I walked out of the hotel and passed the same woman, so one more time a called out the name twice, she finally turned around and said "Maurice?" Although strangers, we were happy to greet each other. Glad Billy wasn't there to see the enthusiasm . When I told her I called her the 1st time after she passed me, she thought I looked a bit strange carrying what appeared to be a large boombox over my right shoulder. We all got together later for the famous Kaderli Happy Hour. We had some great conversations. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 1st day in CM.
MJ
I determined the hotel the Kaderli's were staying at was about 2km (1.2 m). Since I was loaded down with 25 lbs of luggage, I decided take one of the cheap songtaews (pickup truck taxis) for what I thought would be 10 baht (Lonely Planet 25c). One stopped and wanted 20b, I said 10b. He wasn't interested. Well, he wasn't getting "rich" with my 10b (25c). With my daypack and carry-on over my shoulder, I merrily took my afternoon exercise walk through my temporary new home CM, thoroughly enjoying my walk. The walk felt longer than I thought so I later recheck the map, and it turned out to be more like 4km (2.4m), oh well. I finally get to the ancient gated wall of the old city. I made a left and started looking for signs for the Top North guesthouse. I pass by this attractive woman who looked familiar. I turned around and softly called out '"Akisha" no response, maybe I mispronounced her name, so one more time "Akaisha", still no response. I guess I was wrong, certainly looked like her. I found the hotel and got registered. At $7.50, not as cheap as I wanted but Billy and Akaisha were there so I figured it would be a good starting point. I wanted to explore my surroundings so I walked out of the hotel and passed the same woman, so one more time a called out the name twice, she finally turned around and said "Maurice?" Although strangers, we were happy to greet each other. Glad Billy wasn't there to see the enthusiasm . When I told her I called her the 1st time after she passed me, she thought I looked a bit strange carrying what appeared to be a large boombox over my right shoulder. We all got together later for the famous Kaderli Happy Hour. We had some great conversations. It was a thoroughly enjoyable 1st day in CM.
MJ