I’ve been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for the past month or so. One of the reasons I came here was to get outside into nature and enjoy the tropical climate. The condo I rented however, is in the city, and not very close to any parks. As much as I love the condo and the part of town that it’s in, I decided to take a short vacation from my vacation, and stay at a hotel about 20 minutes outside of the city by taxi so I could enjoy the jungle.

Upon arriving, the very first thing I did was accidentally step in a busy line of big, red, fire ants. Two of them bit me right away, and I knew I had indeed arrived in the wilderness.

The hotel grounds were beautiful, with trees and grass everywhere, as well as some tropical flowers, and sounds of birds and other animals I’d never heard before. The air was much cleaner and smelled a lot nicer than the city air I had been breathing. I didn’t smell the slightest hint of exhaust, cigarette smoke, or even cooking meat.

Once in my room, I found a lovely little private patio with a table and chairs. I wanted to keep the door open to let all of that wonderful fresh air in, but unfortunately there was no screen. The hotel had opted for a solution much cheaper than putting screens in all of the rooms; a sticker on the patio door advised guests to keep the door closed in order to keep insects out. By this point, I had noticed that there were definitely a lot more insects out here than there had been in the city, so I reluctantly heeded the sticker’s advice.

There were actually so many insects that I did not feel safe putting my feet in the grass for too long. I was bitten by mosquitoes about ten times over the course of my two night stay, but luckily did not contract malaria that I am aware of. I noticed a gecko in my room on the first night. He probably helped to keep the indoor bug population down a bit. Who knows how many times I would have been bitten without him around.

At night there were several different animals making sounds that I had never heard before, and I honestly couldn’t begin to imagine what these animals looked like. One of the animals made a sound like someone was tapping on my patio door, which was a little disconcerting until I realized that it was an animal, and not an actual person tapping on my patio door.

This hotel had the most gorgeous, epically huge salt water pool ever. It was the best pool I have ever been in. I think salt water pools are the standard in Thailand, which is great. I really think more people in the US should have them. I don’t understand the idea of swimming in chlorine… why would you want to do that?

There is a beautiful, little park in Chiang Mai, in the bottom left corner of the square. I would love to visit it every day, but due to its distance from my condo, I haven’t made it over there more than once during the entire month I have been here.

The park has lovely bodies of water with fountains, many trees, and a lot of grass to relax on and read a book or catch some sun. Toward the North side of the park, there is a man with bamboo mats that you can rent while you are there. I normally wouldn’t want anything between me and the grass, but I did sit directly on this grass and for some reason it left faint little brown spots on my clothing. I’m not sure what that is about, but you probably want to rent a bamboo mat so the same doesn’t happen to your clothing.

I sat in the park for long enough to devour a package of durian, and sew up some holes that needed repairing on my purse. My feet were planted very happily in the grass the entire time.

All of the grass I have seen in Chiang Mai has been huge compared to the grass I am used to seeing in Los Angeles. Each blade is very wide. I wonder if this has more to do with the awesome tropical weather, or just the variety of the grass. If you have any insight about this, please leave a comment.

Or maybe I should say, the public restrooms that make you pay are always the worst.

I visited a park today here in Chiang Mai. When I arrived, I stopped into a cafe to use their restroom. It was a very nice, normal restroom experience. Clean, western toilet, nothing out of the ordinary. They even had their own toilet paper! I couldn’t find a light switch, but it wasn’t that dark inside so I didn’t really mind. I spent some time at the park and decided to use the restroom again before leaving. I didn’t buy anything at the cafe, so I felt strange about using their restroom again.

I decided to see if there was an official park public restroom. There was, and the man outside informed me that it would be 3 baht to use the toilet, and that I would have to take off my shoes. “Ooh, must be fancy,” I thought. I paid my 3 baht, took off my shoes, and walked over to the restroom.

To my horror, there was water (or something) all over the floor, as well as a hundred or so ants feasting on a much larger insect in one corner. I recoiled, backed up, and decided I didn’t need to go that badly. I must have been making a face, because the man outside made a very unpleasant face at me. He then pointed to a pile of sandals. I didn’t understand. He grabbed a pair, chucked them onto the floor in front of me, and motioned for me to put them on. His facial expression was still very unpleasant. He was obviously very unhappy with me, or maybe just with his life in general. I don’t imagine that toilet attendant is the most rewarding occupation in the world. I put the sandals on, went in and did my business as quickly as possible, and got out, never looking at the guy again.

The first public restroom I paid for in Chiang Mai was pretty frightening, but the park restroom experience really takes the cake.

I guess if I visit that park again, I could always just buy something from the cafe if I want to use the restroom. I bet they wouldn’t mind me just sneaking in again though.

Thanks for sitting though that uncomfortable story. I’ll post a bunch of recent pics soon to make up for it. You can always see my photos a lot sooner if you follow me on instagram. (username anamanae)