I called my parents yesterday, and given how long it's been (meditation; busyness; timezones; the fact I'm a bad son) we talked at length about the big things & not a lot of time on the smaller stuff. Here's the smaller stuff, specifically the 9 hours that have passed today. I would only read if you were *extremely* bored, or *extremely* curious about Chiang Mai. *coffee* Chiang Mai is well known for their cafe scene (something about the agriculture here? or digital nomad count? maybe a mix?). Given the amount of time I spent in cafes while in [[dar es salaam, tanzania|Dar]], I decided each morning would be spent trying various coffees and messing around on my laptop. Call it slow travel but with caffeine jitters. Chiang Mai has a few "powerhouse" cafes, who are high-end enough to use vintage Spirit machines & source "single-origin beans" & allow customers to select their own roasts. I literally have no knowledge of coffee, and therefore the significance is lost on me, but Reddit seemed to speak of these things with respect. The only problem is that three of these cafes are all located in this one area that I probably wouldn't visit otherwise (if you're ever in Chiang Mai: Graph, Roast8ry and Ristr8to are the ones I'm thinking of). So, from 9am-noon today, I had three coffees, at these three cafes. 1. I started at Graph, who seemed to specialise in mixing every single possible combination of ingredients with coffee. Overwhelmed at 9am — and knowing just ordering my usual espresso might not allow this cafe's uniqueness to shine — I left my order in the hands of the barista ("what's your favourite drink?"). I was served something with caramel, grass jelly, whipped cream, chocolate shavings, and *honeycomb*. There was coffee in there somewhere too. Unbelievably delicious. I booked some flights to Malaysia in this time. 2. Then I moved to Roast8ry, best known for having "world champion baristas" who can draw you detailed latte art of unicorns in forests & dragons breathing fire. They also had the most confusing coffee menu I've ever seen. The pages went, in order: a list of a bunch of ways to theoretically serve coffee; four types of beans; hot drinks; cocktails that used coffee; more hot drinks; cold drinks; an explainer of how to read the menu. Overwhelmed at 11am, I just asked for an espresso, then asked for "special beans" (to let this cafe's uniqueness shine). Soon, my $6.5 USD espresso arrived. I don't know how else to say it — this espresso was legitimately the best cup of coffee I've ever had. The beans were sourced from a farm around Chiang Mai, they won some assorted coffee awards, and had hints of "merlot, passionfruit, and berries". I just thought it tasted really good. 3. Hands shaking from caffeine, I happily trotted over to Ristr8to. Similar to most Thai cafes, these guys specialised in making drinks I had never heard of. Unlike most Thai cafes, they didn't do this by mixing fruit juice/syrup with their coffee (so good; better than it sounds) but instead, they used milk to its greatest potentials. I ordered their signature, which promised a "smooth, cold, uniform sip throughout the drink", achieved by carefully layering temperature-controlled milk throughout. The drink was delicious — smooth, cold, AND uniform throughout. *the gym* Given I consume ~80000 calories of absurdly addictive Thai food each day, I've tried to keep an exercise regime. Tried. Running in the Thai traffic is, well, [stressful](https://www.dangerousroads.org/around-the-world/our-lists/6069-the-world-s-most-dangerous-countries-to-drive.html) Weightlifting is more interesting — in Bangkok, there are small outdoor gyms everywhere, where everything is rusting, equipment usually involved a tire or a heavy tree, and some old 5'7" shirtless guy is benching 250 with his knees up. I worked out in these gyms (often affectionately called prison gyms) a lot, mainly because a day pass in Bangkok is a few hundred baht (or, like, two espressos at Roast8ry), and these gyms are just so much cooler. While drinking my third coffee, I realised there was an indoor gym nearby — a treat in these times (times referring to 2pm, when it gets to 36℃). I met the daily British expat here in the owner Cameron,[^1] who went from powerlifting to bodybuilding to Muay Thai, and is therefore built like a tank. After watching me struggle on the treadmill for a while (I was just watching Succession) he recommended I eat this local Korean fried chicken spot for "recovery". Naturally, I hit my 80000 daily calories. *yogurt* Waddling around afterwards, I stumbled upon a tiny cafe, which was completely unlisted from the web, specialising in "fruitarian desserts". The owner recommended I order their "strawberry yogurt", promising it was "cold, refreshing, fresh". I assumed this meant it was frozen yogurt, or some cool Thai-adapted yogurt that was infused with strawberries, or something. Instead, I was just given a bowl of yogurt with strawberries on top. I gave my instinctive disappointment no mind — there's that [[living a monk lifestyle for ten days|meditation]] for you — and instead took my first bite, my first bite of easily the best yogurt I've ever tasted. It wasn't anything fancy, and I was eating it on the side of the road, but I devoured every last drop of my second smooth, cold, uniform item that day. *epilogue* After some slightly slower waddling, I sat down at a cafe in order to write. These guys specialise in Chiang Mai chocolate and served me something called an "iced dark chocolate". As of late, I haven't written much, and I read even less. I used to consider this proof I really do "nothing" all day, something I felt guilty about given I've been in Chiang Mai so long.[^2] Reading back this post — something I was suddenly inspired to write at an intersection fourteen minutes ago — I'm fairly confident that if this is what a life of "nothing" is, I'm all for it. In spurts. Not sure if my body can handle a prolongation of these caffeine habits. [^1]: There are SO many British expats here, all with similar reasons for moving (either coldness of the weather or coldness of the people) and all with the same amazing vibes. [^2]: I need to learn to ride a motorbike, the only way to learn is to wait a few weeks. Figured I'd wait in a place with nice cafes.