Went for another run yesterday. Got smarter this time and ran early in the morning while it was still mostly cloudy and not nearly as hot as in the afternoon, though it was still really warm. I had planned out a good loop around the Chiang Mai University, but when I got to the road I wanted to run down, it turned out to be a large 4 lane road with no sidewalk so I had to improvise aka run down a bunch of dead ends on my way to the university. The area near the university is much different than the old city. The buildings are newer and taller (3-4 stories instead of 1-2) and nicer and there are more flashy lights and signs. The hostel we stayed in was in a gated community (strange?) filled with lots of nice houses with yards and garages: things I haven't really seen since getting to Thailand.
Running down the main streets to the university was difficult as te sidewalks are narrow and the awnings are low. Everywhere we go I have to duck a lot - guess westerners are taller than asians. While running down one of the alleys, I realized that often in Thailand the shift from nice neighborhoods to not nice ones is abrupt. There was a large new apartment building on one side of the street and a rundown shack surrounded by a rusty fence and an unused field on the other side.
After longer than I had hoped and more dead ends than expected I finally found the main gate to the university. The gate had multiple security guard booths but no security guards. Interesting. Anyway, as I ran into the campus I saw a few soccer fields with a mixture of weeds and dirt where the grass should be and a large hedge trimmed in the shape of an elephant. Jumbos are everywhere here! I love it. The only thing more prevalent than elephants are pictures of the king. He's on overpasses, in rotary circles, on billboards, wall murals, everywhere.
Past the elephant hedge was a temple, which I hadn't planned on approaching for fear that I would offend somebody by my sweat and clothing but then I realized there was a bank tent for people to take out money to donate to the temple. So I did a lap around the temple and then found the center of campus. It appears that the campus is it's own little community complete with banks, shops, food vendors and parking lots. There was less English on the signs than in the rest of the city which I thought was interesting. The students were wearing uniforms: males in shirts and loosely tied ties; females in collared shirts and skirts. The campus buildings were mostly nice 2 story buildings and I only noticed one dorm-looking building so I'm assuming most students commute (although that building did have a sign with a 6 on it so maybe there were more...). Then I returned to the hostel via mainroads because I didn't feel like getting lost, though inhaling the exhaust the whole way was unpleasant. With my watch dead (the light button got stuck and drained the battery) I have no idea how long I ran for, but I'd guess about 4.5 miles.
I'm about to run out of computer time but a final highlight from Chiang Mai was piling 6 people plus the driver in 1 tuk-tuk on the way back from the bar last night. That was impressive. In Bangkok now, had an amazing dinner that will have to wait for the next post. Headed to Ko Tao island for scuba diving tomorrow night via overnight bus and catamaran. So long farmer's tan!
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