In the later part of this travel week, we got back into tourist mode in Chiang Mai. We visited a temple to talk to some monks on day 223, and then we visited NARIT planetarium on day 224. At the end of the week we walked through the Sunday night market (day 226).

In the early part of the week we worked on some big behind the scenes stuff. We booked our next leg after Sri Lanka, which was a major undertaking. We really struggled with what to do after discovering that we could save a few thousand dollars by skipping South Africa and going to either north Africa (Morocco) or Turkey. More on that in day 220 immediately below.

Travel Log: Day 220 (2/2), Thailand

Today we did our usual school routine with a gym trip for me in the middle. After I got back from the gym we saw our neighbor friends leaving and went out to say goodbye to them. I’m actually going to miss them a bit even though we just met them. Something seemed off with them, almost like they were concerned about or distracted by something. Could just be the stress of packing up and switching Airbnbs with a little kid along.

During the rest of the morning I worked on the January budget blog post.

In the afternoon JC and I went to the grocery store. We decided to walk back with our groceries since Grab was sort of a hassle last time, and arguably took longer overall.

Travel Booking Extravaganza

The rest of the afternoon and evening JC and I did a booking extravaganza for South Africa. We booked the Airbnb, and then settled on taking a chance on the cheaper self-transfer flight. That involved separate bookings for two separate tickets. If it works out it’s going to save us five hours of travel and hundreds in flight costs. The down side is we could miss our connection in Johannesburg, but we would just get a hotel and book another flight to George South Africa.

We also booked hotel rooms for the day we arrive in Sri Lanka, and the day we leave. The hotel sounds pretty great, almost like a bed and breakfast. It was only about $100 total for the two nights. The host has already been in contact about the shuttle.

After that we booked a private car to and from our Airbnb. This was the craziest list of bookings we’ve ever done in one setting.

The kids and I finished the episode of Stranger Things we never wrapped up.

Travel Log: Day 221 (2/3), Thailand

School and gym in the morning. At the gym there was an interesting chick there who seemed to be annoyed that anyone else was at the gym. I saw her look sideways at just about everyone who got near her bubble. Including me when I motioned to her that I was going to use the other side of the cable machine. She was very fit, but her face looked like it was getting wrecked from years of frowning and making disgusted faces at people.

For lunch we had our favorite restaurant again, this is the third time. I had a mango curry, just working my way through the menu. I didn’t think I would like it because I don’t love mango, but it might be my new favorite meal.

We did some family walking on the way back, and then JC and I went for a longer walk later. The rest of the day I got back to tax and budget tasks. I paid our property taxes, moved money for that, adjusted our automatic savings for the new lower amount, got the kids earning tab for February set up, and also invested their newly deposited invest money. After that I spent the whole day writing a Vietnam recap post.

Travel Log: Day 222 (2/4), Thailand

After school and gym today I fell asleep briefly before lunch. We ate stuff around the house, and then I spent the bulk of the day learning more about search engine indexing for this blog. I don’t really care about this site getting traffic, but find the topic really interesting. I guess I can’t peel myself entirely away from tech stuff. After tweaking several posts I resubmitted them for indexing in google site kit.

For dinner we went to Boat and I had the yellow curry again. It’s good, but just not the same quality as Srifaa’s little restaurant.

In the evening JC and I watched 11.22.63 while the kids used screen time they earned.

Travel Log: Day 223 (2/5), Thailand

We just had a typical morning, and we ate all three meals at home. In the afternoon we made an outing back to the temple Wat Chedi Luang Varaviharn which we visited on the bike tour. They have “monk talk” there from 9am-4pm where anyone can walk up and chat with the monks. BC is writing a paper about monks for school, so we went to get answers to some questions. The monks were all high school kids in the 16-17 age range. Their english was pretty limited but we got some answers and some additional back and forth with google translate.

Travel Log: Day 224 (2/6), Thailand

I went to the gym early, getting there around 7am so that we could leave for field trip Friday by 8:45am. We went to the planetarium here in Chiang Mai, which is called National Astronomical Research Institute of Thailand (NARIT). Going there on a Friday worked out great because it’s the only time during the week that they have an english version of the planetarium show.

Admission to the museum was free, and the tickets for the planetarium show cost 170 THB total for all four of us. After getting those tickets we viewed all the exhibits on the third floor where we already were. We then made our way through the second floor and most of the first floor, but couldn’t finish that before we had to go to the planetarium.

The planetarium was one of the nicer ones I’ve been in, but that’s not very many. The dome screen was large and the video was crisp and interesting. It was about alien life. The seats were comfortable as well but possible too reclined.

We went back down the first floor after the show and went through the last exhibit. It was hard to focus on any of it because there were kids of all ages rushing through the tight area making noise.

Getting a Grab back to our condo was initially giving me flashbacks to Manila. Two drivers declined our ride before I upgraded to the priority car option and got a ride.

In the afternoon I started working on the Vietnam expat cost of living breakdown. JC and I went for a walk a little later, and got 7-Eleven stuff for dinner and FAC. It was JC’s movie pick – A League of Their Own.

Travel Log: Day 225 (2/7), Thailand

After JC and I had coffee, we both went to run separately. JC went and ran around the rugby field and reservoir. I went to the gym and ran on a treadmill. My fitness is on such an upward trajectory that I’m starting to think the protein and creatine may contain steroids. Not really, but I really am gaining strength and endurance faster and for longer than usual.

We had breakfast at home, and then went to Srifaa’s for lunch. Since I got a 90 sleep score last night we stopped at 7-Eleven and got ice cream. We also got the kids some things to eat for dinner with the intention of going on a date night. That didn’t actually happen, and we instead went back to 7-Eleven and got some drinks to have on our patio.

After drinks we went walking around looking for food. We wandered through some parts of Chiang Mai University back behind 7-Eleven. It almost felt like we weren’t supposed to be there. Eventually we ended up back at the local food market where we got some food. I got meat sticks that were gross, and JC got some things that were equally gross. We aren’t going back there anymore.

JC and I finished the night watching 11.22.63.

Travel Log: Day 226 (2/8), Thailand

I felt like shit all day today because I had alcohol last night. Unfortunately the days of being able to drink and enjoy it are gone, and I’m kind of sad about it. Something I noticed through my life is that for most people, alcohol consumption tails off around middle age, and I think this must be why. It’s hard to justify sacrificing the entire next day for a few hours of fun. Those few hours of fun aren’t as fun when you know what’s coming.

If you could measure it, alcohol is probably a perfect form happiness debt. Whatever joy and happiness you would have had over the next day, it borrows that and packs it into the time you’re drinking. The thing I can’t figure out is if it was always like this for me, even when I was in my 20’s. Maybe it was, and I just thought I hated Mondays which kept me from putting two and two together.

JC and I went to the grocery store today and got a large haul of groceries. In the evening we went to the Sunday night market which was pretty cool. We watched a bit of a 3 on 3 basketball tournament, walked around various vendor stalls, and ate over in a food area. BC and I had burgers which were good but really greasy. JC and AC had some loaded potatoes.

We talked to a guy from Israel and I went back to telling our full story. Trying to tell a fragment of the story was just confusing everyone we talked to, and it made it sound like we were hiding something. For the most part he was nice and thought what we were doing was cool, but instead of the rich insult he implied we are crazy for staying in one place. That’s the second most common insult we get. He said something like “there’s so much to see in Thailand and you’re staying here”? I thought about asking “how do you see anything moving so fast”? But I’m not a jerk.