Happy Chinese New Year!

I am injecting bile into my TripAdvisor review of the depressing hostel Le Merde. But then my original destination, Eurana Boutique Hotel, comes through with an upgraded room overlooking the (so-so) pool, still at my Lian-arranged discount price.  Yea!  All is forgiven.

My window view, where I enjoy watching the two old folks.

I manage a few tortured hours of sleep in the afternoon -- tortured because my video script for Intel is due today and I've barely started it, because I have childish work habits.  Luckily, my Monday is 15 hours ahead of my client's Monday.  So there's still lots of time!

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In the evening we amble over to Chiang Mai's Chinatown, an easy 10-minute walk from the Eurana tourist zone, and are swallowed into the crush of Chinese New Year celebrants. Permanently scarred by my pickpocketing near-tragedy of two years ago, I press forward with one hand on my zippered wallet pocket, alert for crafty fingers.

Chinese New Year in Chiang Mai Chinatown

On the community stage, a procession of young ladies in traditional Chinese attire warble through one folk song after another.  Street food vendors are stirring cauldrons of steaming soups and stews, and hawking whole grilled ducks and chickens.  Every so often fireworks shoot into the sky with a tiny pop-pop-pop.  Delirious!

We graze among the vendors for our takeaway meal: a good-size grilled fish that I hope did not come out of the Mae Ping River, warm sticky rice, a salad of Romaine lettuce and Thai basil, and a double dose of searing nam jim dipping sauce that keeps me up, and distressed, for most of the night.

Local scarf dancers, meh. I prefer Balinese.

The upside is, the nam jim pyroclastic flow keeps me alert and focused long enough to complete the video script for client review by mid-afternoon, west coast time.  Once again I manage to cheat the devil, damn me.