Today is my second to last full day in Chiang Mai, which is still hard to believe. Almost a month has gone since I left San Diego. Today is also the beginning of a new quarter in 2018, and it’s also the last quarter of the year. That’s still three months before 2019. It’s a lot of time to make 2018 even better.
Sleep has been an on and off battle. I think one of the reasons for the bad rest I’ve been having these past weeks or so at this new place is the bed! I didn’t realize it, but it’s as stiff as a board. I also noticed mosquitos bites in the morning on my leg which is why I was scratching all of last night.
Regardless, I’m glad I’ve been able to go to sleep earlier and get up earlier. Since I’ll be heading to Bangkok this Wednesday, I decided to get a haircut. It’s been a full month since my last one. I guess the great thing about being in another country and not knowing people is you don’t care so much about what you look like. For most of the time I’ve been here, I haven’t done my hair, and most of my clothes are pretty much the same outfit. I’m working my inner Steve Jobs over here.
I looked up a barber that seemed to get a lot of traffic from foreigners, and it had a pretty novel looking set up. It brought together the feel of what “manliness” would be. The store featured animal taxonomy, guns, cigars, old school bikes, and it had a whiskey bar in the adjacent building. I thought it had a great feel to it. It made you feel like you went back into time but you got stuck halfway between cowboys and Indians and Grease. The haircut was halfway decent, but most barbers don’t get it right the first time anyways. I could live with it.
The barbershop was in Old City Chiang Mai, in a part I wasn’t familiar with so I decided to get lunch while I was out there. I looked on maps and found a highly rated vegan place. I’m not particularly looking for vegan places, but this place seemed to have a good selection of appealing food. And they had coffee which always makes things better.
Once I got to the place, I almost double backed at least twice when I saw the store set up. It didn’t even look like a restaurant. It almost seemed too New Age-y to me. I couldn’t find anything that sounded better, so I just decided to stay and eat there. I was hoping my expectations didn’t meet reality, but it did.
Food was decent, but one strangely comforting thing about the place had to take your shoes off, in my case sandals, before you came in. I don’t think I’ve been to too many places where I’ve done that. It was oddly satisfying and comforting; if you asked me why I wouldn’t be able to answer. Maybe it felt like home? Or being at a close relatives house where you feel comfortable. Overall, unique experience. Would I eat there again? Possibly. I wouldn’t get the vegan lasagna though. The cheese had this odd soft texture to it. Almost too gooey to be good cheese.
After finishing up lunch, I took a Grab (like Uber) back to the place. I thought about checking more of Old City out but it was hot, and it didn’t seem like the time of day where it was exciting to be exploring.
Once I got back, I finished up laundry and went to work typing up a blog post for Network & Market. After finishing, I started course 3 of the SEO specialization. I’m on track for completing a course every week. This should get me to finish 3 specializations in marketing by the time I come back to the States.
After SEO, I just finished up analyzing Bitcoin. We’re at an exciting point in the bear market for cryptocurrencies. We’ve been in a bear market ever since December 2017. The next couple of days will be a determining factor if we accelerate further down or we see prices break away from lower highs and lower lows. The next couple of days should be spellbinding.
Tomorrow is my last full day in Chiang Mai. I think I’ll check out some of my favorite places before I leave here. I plan to finish up my post, but it’ll be less of a work day. I’d like to enjoy it one last time before the next leg of my trip. Bangkok here I come.
That’s it or today. It’s about 11:27 pm and I plan to stick to going to sleep earlier.