Chian Mai: Season's End

Everyone is gone. If I go to my favorite restaurants, no one I know is there.

Tourist season is pretty much over, except for the mini-season around the Thai New Year, Songkron. Not only will my last thirty day entry stamp expire long before then, but I really don't want to be around. Chiang Mai is supposed to be the best place to be for Songkron, but it doesn't sound good to me. People tell me, "Oh, you'll love it. It's great! Everybody is drunk and they walk around with those giant water pistols and you are soaking wet all the time. And in Chiang Mai it lasts a whole week instead of just three days!"

Now, I don't know why people think this will make me want to be here for the festival.











I'm out of here any way, since I must cross the border on the 22nd, and this time I would have to get a new tourist visa to come back. So I plan to go to Penang, then on to Lake Toba, in Sumatra. It feels strange to be leaving, especially since in all this time I have done very little in the way of tourist activities.