Eeek, officially in my late-twenties, I believe.
We arrived in Chiang Mai the day before my birthday, and met up with Terence that night (yay!). Since we were also back in the land of 7-Elevens, I stocked up on birthday treats for myself. If I could, I would’ve imported a coconut cake from Joma Bakery in Luang Prabang, but familiar Asian snacks did the trick.
On my actual birthday, the first thing we did was move hotels. Despite the great reputation our first hostel received on HostelWorld, it had a really weird quirk in that the “en-suite” bathrooms were actually outside of the room, joined by a balcony. Really weird, and very susceptible to bugs. After we got settled into a much more normal place, we spent the day wandering around Chiang Mai, booking trips for the following few days we were going to spend in the city. As it got hotter and hotter, we went back to hide out in the hotel for a little while before going for massages, and then hopping into our shuttle to go for a dinner river cruise on the Ping river.
The cruise itself wasn’t that special, what with the darkness around us and the “scenery” being mostly very well decorated hotel and restaurant patios. The company was great, though, and the food was plenty. We stuffed ourselves silly before wandering through the night market on the way back to the hotel.
We ended the evening at a restaurant nearby that had a full menu of mango desserts. I ordered the mango shortcake. Ten minutes later a folded, but plain looking crepe arrived in front of me. I told the waiter that I wanted the shortcake. He took the crepe away, and five minutes later came back with the same crepe, but with mangoes and ice cream on top. I shook my head and asked again, but not before I took a bite because I was almost resigned to the fact that I was having a crepe no matter what. The manager finally came out and understood the mistake right away, fixed it, and another ten minutes later, I finally got my cake.
It wasn’t that great, this cake…but the company and the location made my birthday memorable this year :)
