Arrived in Pai, a town four hours north of Chiang Mai that is relaxed and welcoming with jazz music drifting through its streets from open air bars. It rained ealier and afterward there was a rainbow and the air turned cool and fragrant as dusk settled in.
I stayed under a thatched hut and read my book until it was too dark to read. I think I'm going to enjoy relaxing here for the next week. The only problem with the town, a problem that seems to be endemic to Thailand, is that there are also lots of "travelers" in uniform here.
The uniform of the male traveler consists of a dirty t-shirt or Chang/Lao/Singha beer tank top, fisherman's pants (pants made of rayon that tie at the waist with a crotch that falls between knees and mid-thighs, although I've seen crotches down about the shins on some of these guys), a man bag (a sling bad made of hemp or hemp-like material worn over the shoulder or across the chest) and old, worn sandals that make you think Jesus of Nazarath, Gandhi.
The female traveler is a little bit harder to distinguish as she sometimes blends into her environment a little better. She wears the same beer tank top but with a much tighter fit, but could also substitute the tank top with a loose cotton blouse or patterned tribal wear. The female traveler also sports the fisherman's pants but leaves some stomach showing between tight tank top and waist of pants. The distinguising feature is that the female traveler will usually tie up her hair in a nest like creation and wrap a patterned scarf around it so that the hair sticks out in several places and screams "wash me, comb me." Same sandals as her male counterpart. You can usually spot these people sitting at the guest house where they stay from breakfast through dinner or at bus stations booking the non-airconditioned city bus and bragging about saving a $1 at the guesthouse later on.
In case you're wondering, I have not yet donned the flowy clothes. I have procured a Laos Alphabet tank top that is a little snug and is one of my favorite things to wear these days. But I do not let the belly show and wear the same skirt and flip flops that I do at home. Then again, there's still Nepal... I could get off the plane in NY with flowy clothes and a man bag yet...
