Chiang Mai — I'm a local now

After the Yi Peng and the Loy Krathong festival finished everyone started gradually leaving Chiang Mai to continue their travels. I, on the other hand, moved to a nice hostel called Loyy that had a nice coworking space.

I spent one week there, I slowed down, took care of emails and software updates and planned a few more things related to my trip.

Chiang Mai being the biggest urban centre in the region, other travelers would come and go from the neighbouring regions. I met Valentina after she returned from Chiang Rai, she joined me for some yoga and we later had a nice evening watching some Muay Thai fighting. That same day we also had Rita Oliveira and her Czech friend join us for lunch. Yohanna also passed by coming from Pai, we had lunch at a nice vegan restaurant and spent some time petting cats at the cat cafe. Later, Rohan, also coming from Pai, joined me for a great evening at the jazz bar by the north gate of the city.

In general I tried to do some yoga in the morning and often would meet with whoever was in town. It didn't end up being a very productive time.

I later found that Rita and her friend had joined a Buddhist monastery for a vipassana meditation training. This monastery looked stunning, located in the middle of the mountains close to the border with Myanmar. I decided it would be better use of my time to go there, and that's what I did!Read more