{"id":5803,"date":"2024-12-20T05:24:01","date_gmt":"2024-12-20T05:24:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=5803"},"modified":"2024-12-20T05:24:46","modified_gmt":"2024-12-20T05:24:46","slug":"regretting-the-night-move","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/?p=5803","title":{"rendered":"Regretting The Night Move?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>Yeah, that one was weak.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">My review of the night bus to Chiang Mai is &#8220;probably don&#8217;t&#8221;. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>I got some sleep, but I think not a huge amount; Probably slept better on the train in Vietnam<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The &#8220;being told stuff with no warning&#8221; thing continued right up to Chiang Mai. It was blind luck that I woke up to see a sign for the bus station go by &amp; realised that we were there. Some folks were woken up by the shout of &#8220;Chiang Mai&#8221; &amp; the bus stopping <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>A fair amount of lurching as we drove along, but I&#8217;m not sure whether that was because of the road, the bus, or the driving style <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Got into CM even earlier than I expected, at 5:30 or so, and ran into the problem that almost nothing, including the hostel reception, would be open for hours. So I did the sensible thing &amp; sat there reading &#8220;Beware Of Chicken&#8221; on my phone until a more sensible time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>I did look to see whether there were any coffee shops or anything open around the bus station, but no joy. Plus, the whole area felt a bit sketchy, so I stayed in the bit with lights, people, and a bathroom where most of the urinals were broken &amp; blocked off with plastic trash bags.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I had a bit of trouble figuring out where the Grab ride-hail app thought I was, so I wandered around a bit, got even <strong>more<\/strong> confused by the overall structure of the bus station, and eventually hailed a car from outside the Ganesha Shrine Arcade on the grounds that I was absolutely sure I was in the right place. <em>And having found the arcade, it did explain the name of the Sweets For Gods Cafe<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Grab #1 took the booking, then messaged me to let me know that his car wouldn&#8217;t start &amp; asked me to cancel &amp; rebook <\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Driver #2 had to drop someone else off first (the app tells you this, which is both useful in expectation management &amp; deeply creepy), but then turned up in a working car &amp; took me to my hostel<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Mambo #5 was forged in secret by Lou Bega<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I already feel a bit calmer in Chiang Mai. Granted, it was a Friday morning, but the traffic seemed less frantic, and even the bus station taxi touts were pretty chill about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><em>There was someone doing what I&#8217;d call performative Tai Chi &amp; Meditation in the early morning of the bus station. Right in the middle of a thoroughfare, where everyone would have to move around him &amp; where he could be seen by everyone.<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Got to my hostel for the next three nights vastly too early, as I expected, but they let me stash my bag &amp; hang out until my bed is ready. Then I&#8217;m going to take a shower &amp; a nap.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Yeah, that one was weak. My review of the night bus to Chiang Mai is &#8220;probably don&#8217;t&#8221;. Got into CM even earlier than I expected, at 5:30 or so, and ran into the problem that almost nothing, including the hostel reception, would be open for hours. So I did the sensible thing &amp; sat there [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[94],"tags":[137],"class_list":["post-5803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sabbatical","tag-chiang-mai"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3O6N9-1vB","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5803"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5804,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5803\/revisions\/5804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hoarde.net\/craigblog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}