fedification.com

Chiang Mai, Thailand – If Bangkok is my Thai New York, an energetic metropolis, at times inconvenient, but full of life and endless possibility, then Chiang Mai is my San Francisco, a little smaller, a little slower, a little less hip, but friendly to both hippies and hipsters with expansive coffeehouses, chilled out bars, and its own thing going.  Just as San Francisco residents refer to it as SF (San Fran is an outsider term), my Chiang Mai friends call their home CM.  And, now in the cool season, the weather up north reflects San Francisco as well – cool, sometimes cold, in the mornings and evenings, but pretty hot during the day.  In the morning, I get up put a dress on and shiver on my motorbike ride over to my friends’ cafe.  By noon it’s blazing hot and we have to shift umbrellas around for lunch, an order from northern Thai restaurant Huen Phen across the street on Ratchamakka – chili dipping sauce, fried chicken, pork ear and bamboo salad.  We eat and relax as the day passes by.