Good god, has it been three months since my last post? Chiang Mai has been very busy for me, to the point where I didn't have the time or mental capacity to sit down and write about it. It's a story with two very different chapters, so here goes wrapping up the last 90 days.
After the magazine internship ended, several of my FFA friends were still in town, so the rest of the year was filled with various fun activities and not much work (yet). From what I can remember and from what I have in my photo albums, that time included strolling around old city with my camera, a few Christmas parties, watching Chiang Mai FC play in the league's final (seriously the most polite and non-violent sporting event I've ever gone to), a Christmas day hike up Doi Suthep to the temple, a couple of Muay Thai fights, and more revelry at Playhouse, the infamous beer pong bar.
Some photos from the hike:
And of the revelry (photos taken by my friend and fellow magazine intern Lindsey):
One of the funniest memories from that time is playing Santa Claus on Christmas morning, walking around town and giving out wine or chocolates to a few of my favorite Thais. All of them were very thankful and surprised; reactions included photo taking, lots of smiles, and some serious giggling. That evening, a few friends and I ended up at a local pub for an impromptu and very pleasant Thai-European Christmas dinner, complete with meat and potatoes, curry, wine, and string lights.
For New Years, my friend (and coworker at the magazine) Neung took me to Chiang Rai (his home) for a few days. I met a lot of his family and friends and people recognized him on the street whenever we were walking somewhere. I had dinner and lunch at his family's home and his mom cooked up some very delicious veggie Thai food. In fact, she was eating a vegetarian diet at the time - due to it being full moon - and was appreciative of the fact that I ate like that all the time. (It's common for Buddhists to go veggie for holidays and full moon.) We visited the usual Chiang Rai tourist sites, the White Temple and the Black House, which were interesting, but way too crowded. Actual New Years was spent mostly at a house party outside of town with an eclectic mix of expats, lots of food and drink, and the usual fireworks and khom loi one expects at a celebration in Thailand. Midnight was pretty magical, as the sky of the countryside all around us was dotted with floating lanterns and the thunder of fireworks echoed in every direction.
After New Years, most of my remaining Western friends left the city for home and so I started what would become an ever-lengthening "employment" residency in Chiang Mai. One previous weekend, soon after I had started working at the magazine, I had visited Bamboo Bee, a small vegetarian restaurant consistently ranked in the top ten on TripAdvisor (no small feat considering there are over 1,200 restaurants listed). I started spending more time there and got to know the owner Bebee over meals and drinks and a few nights out. Bebee eventually mentioned that she wanted to make a cookbook and I offered my help. Little did I know what I was signing up for.
After I started compiling photos of her dishes, I realized I might as well make a new menu for her too, as her existing one was a bit disorganized and had several duplicate entries and unflattering pictures. After I started working on that too, Bebee asked me if I could make a t-shirt design. And an apron design. And a certificate for her cooking class. And a brochure for her cooking class. And new business cards. And help her program her new LED sign. Bamboo Bee's web presence also left a lot to be desired: duplicate TripAdvisor accounts, duplicate TripAdvisor pages, duplicate Facebook pages, out-of-date, missing, or incorrect business information in multiple places, a blog that didn't really serve a purpose, and no website.
In a few weeks' time, I transitioned from customer to employee; I was Bamboo Bee's new photographer, graphic designer, web designer/developer, tech support, and general consultant. In exchange for my various services, Bebee has been paying me in delicious veggie Thai food and Thai beer. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with this arrangement, especially considering that she makes some of the best food (Thai or otherwise) I've ever had.
As of this writing, the new menu is done and "deployed" (to use software lingo) and has already had positive effects. A cleanly-designed menu with clear, bright, colorful photos has led to more sales for her and I feel better knowing that at least some of my food-based compensation has been justified. The cookbook is about 90% complete and I'll be finishing it up this month. The new website has also been finished for a couple weeks now and I know that will give the restaurant a lot of credibility. In fact, while fighting with TripAdvisor to update her business details (a battle that is still raging over email), I learned that TripAdvisor treats a company website basically as the word of God. Without a legit website, all my of submissions to TripAdvisor were falling on deaf ears.
When I come back to Chiang Mai in April, I'll be finishing up my work for Bebee, including (but probably not limited to) a drinkbook, new business cards, and a brochure for her cooking class.
While working for Bebee, I had also kept in touch with my contacts at the magazine in case I wanted to submit some photos as freelance work. During my frequent wanderings through old city, I had taken some photos of a few lesser-known-but-interesting businesses, which all happened to be "green" in one way or another (purely a coincidence). I floated the idea of a photo spread of "green hidden gems" to one of the editors. After adding a couple more green - but not hidden - places, we had enough content for an article, so I assembled and developed all my photos and wrote a bit about each place, along with an intro. The finished product was published in the next issue, both in print and on the website.
Here's a link to a PDF version of the article: It's Easy Being Green
You'll also notice that yours truly appears in the photo for the article, along with Nicolas, the current Citylife intern from Friends For Asia, and a waitress who works at Fern Forest Cafe (the location for the photo shoot). Being asked to occasionally model for photos is one of the perks of the job at Citylife, mostly because it's a solid money-saver. And as with Christmas, I played Santa Claus once the magazine was printed, walking around town and distributing copies to the businesses I had written about. The waitress at the cafe was particularly delighted to see herself in a magazine, exhibiting a reaction that I'd describe as "adorable bashfulness".
In the interest of a "behind the scenes" look at the article and to try to prove that I've actually been working these last few months, here are some extra photos that didn't make it to print.
Alternate article photo:
Ban Phor Liang Meun's Terracotta Arts:
Fern Forest Cafe:
Nong Buak Hard Public Park:
Bamboo Bee:
To accommodate my newfound responsibilities, my stay in Chiang Mai was comically extended multiple times. What was originally going to be just a week or so (of pure holiday) turned into a month once I got the magazine internship, which was then extended a couple weeks to account for New Years, which was then extended to include January so I could work for Bebee, which was then extended again to include February - which required a border run to Myanmar because I had exhausted my 90-day tourist visa - when I realized I wouldn't have enough time to finish all my work. The only reason I'm leaving Chiang Mai and (annoyingly) putting my work on hold is that the longer I wait to go to Cambodia, the more hot and miserable I'm going to be there, so I need to bite the bullet and go there now.
Contrary to the future tense used in that last sentence, I'm actually writing this post from Cambodia, where I've already been for over a week. But my suspicions were indeed well-founded, as this place is extremely hot and humid. April will be worse, but I'll be gone before then. In any case, that's a story for another day. My posts from Cambodia should be much more timely.
Full photo albums:
After the magazine internship ended, several of my FFA friends were still in town, so the rest of the year was filled with various fun activities and not much work (yet). From what I can remember and from what I have in my photo albums, that time included strolling around old city with my camera, a few Christmas parties, watching Chiang Mai FC play in the league's final (seriously the most polite and non-violent sporting event I've ever gone to), a Christmas day hike up Doi Suthep to the temple, a couple of Muay Thai fights, and more revelry at Playhouse, the infamous beer pong bar.
Some photos from the hike:
And of the revelry (photos taken by my friend and fellow magazine intern Lindsey):
One of the funniest memories from that time is playing Santa Claus on Christmas morning, walking around town and giving out wine or chocolates to a few of my favorite Thais. All of them were very thankful and surprised; reactions included photo taking, lots of smiles, and some serious giggling. That evening, a few friends and I ended up at a local pub for an impromptu and very pleasant Thai-European Christmas dinner, complete with meat and potatoes, curry, wine, and string lights.
For New Years, my friend (and coworker at the magazine) Neung took me to Chiang Rai (his home) for a few days. I met a lot of his family and friends and people recognized him on the street whenever we were walking somewhere. I had dinner and lunch at his family's home and his mom cooked up some very delicious veggie Thai food. In fact, she was eating a vegetarian diet at the time - due to it being full moon - and was appreciative of the fact that I ate like that all the time. (It's common for Buddhists to go veggie for holidays and full moon.) We visited the usual Chiang Rai tourist sites, the White Temple and the Black House, which were interesting, but way too crowded. Actual New Years was spent mostly at a house party outside of town with an eclectic mix of expats, lots of food and drink, and the usual fireworks and khom loi one expects at a celebration in Thailand. Midnight was pretty magical, as the sky of the countryside all around us was dotted with floating lanterns and the thunder of fireworks echoed in every direction.
After New Years, most of my remaining Western friends left the city for home and so I started what would become an ever-lengthening "employment" residency in Chiang Mai. One previous weekend, soon after I had started working at the magazine, I had visited Bamboo Bee, a small vegetarian restaurant consistently ranked in the top ten on TripAdvisor (no small feat considering there are over 1,200 restaurants listed). I started spending more time there and got to know the owner Bebee over meals and drinks and a few nights out. Bebee eventually mentioned that she wanted to make a cookbook and I offered my help. Little did I know what I was signing up for.
After I started compiling photos of her dishes, I realized I might as well make a new menu for her too, as her existing one was a bit disorganized and had several duplicate entries and unflattering pictures. After I started working on that too, Bebee asked me if I could make a t-shirt design. And an apron design. And a certificate for her cooking class. And a brochure for her cooking class. And new business cards. And help her program her new LED sign. Bamboo Bee's web presence also left a lot to be desired: duplicate TripAdvisor accounts, duplicate TripAdvisor pages, duplicate Facebook pages, out-of-date, missing, or incorrect business information in multiple places, a blog that didn't really serve a purpose, and no website.
In a few weeks' time, I transitioned from customer to employee; I was Bamboo Bee's new photographer, graphic designer, web designer/developer, tech support, and general consultant. In exchange for my various services, Bebee has been paying me in delicious veggie Thai food and Thai beer. Needless to say, I'm quite happy with this arrangement, especially considering that she makes some of the best food (Thai or otherwise) I've ever had.
As of this writing, the new menu is done and "deployed" (to use software lingo) and has already had positive effects. A cleanly-designed menu with clear, bright, colorful photos has led to more sales for her and I feel better knowing that at least some of my food-based compensation has been justified. The cookbook is about 90% complete and I'll be finishing it up this month. The new website has also been finished for a couple weeks now and I know that will give the restaurant a lot of credibility. In fact, while fighting with TripAdvisor to update her business details (a battle that is still raging over email), I learned that TripAdvisor treats a company website basically as the word of God. Without a legit website, all my of submissions to TripAdvisor were falling on deaf ears.
When I come back to Chiang Mai in April, I'll be finishing up my work for Bebee, including (but probably not limited to) a drinkbook, new business cards, and a brochure for her cooking class.
While working for Bebee, I had also kept in touch with my contacts at the magazine in case I wanted to submit some photos as freelance work. During my frequent wanderings through old city, I had taken some photos of a few lesser-known-but-interesting businesses, which all happened to be "green" in one way or another (purely a coincidence). I floated the idea of a photo spread of "green hidden gems" to one of the editors. After adding a couple more green - but not hidden - places, we had enough content for an article, so I assembled and developed all my photos and wrote a bit about each place, along with an intro. The finished product was published in the next issue, both in print and on the website.
Here's a link to a PDF version of the article: It's Easy Being Green
You'll also notice that yours truly appears in the photo for the article, along with Nicolas, the current Citylife intern from Friends For Asia, and a waitress who works at Fern Forest Cafe (the location for the photo shoot). Being asked to occasionally model for photos is one of the perks of the job at Citylife, mostly because it's a solid money-saver. And as with Christmas, I played Santa Claus once the magazine was printed, walking around town and distributing copies to the businesses I had written about. The waitress at the cafe was particularly delighted to see herself in a magazine, exhibiting a reaction that I'd describe as "adorable bashfulness".
In the interest of a "behind the scenes" look at the article and to try to prove that I've actually been working these last few months, here are some extra photos that didn't make it to print.
Alternate article photo:
Ban Phor Liang Meun's Terracotta Arts:
Fern Forest Cafe:
Nong Buak Hard Public Park:
Bamboo Bee:
To accommodate my newfound responsibilities, my stay in Chiang Mai was comically extended multiple times. What was originally going to be just a week or so (of pure holiday) turned into a month once I got the magazine internship, which was then extended a couple weeks to account for New Years, which was then extended to include January so I could work for Bebee, which was then extended again to include February - which required a border run to Myanmar because I had exhausted my 90-day tourist visa - when I realized I wouldn't have enough time to finish all my work. The only reason I'm leaving Chiang Mai and (annoyingly) putting my work on hold is that the longer I wait to go to Cambodia, the more hot and miserable I'm going to be there, so I need to bite the bullet and go there now.
Contrary to the future tense used in that last sentence, I'm actually writing this post from Cambodia, where I've already been for over a week. But my suspicions were indeed well-founded, as this place is extremely hot and humid. April will be worse, but I'll be gone before then. In any case, that's a story for another day. My posts from Cambodia should be much more timely.
Full photo albums:
