The Great Hunt!

(for used books)

Okay, my big news is that I’m leaving tonight for Japan! My 3 month visa runs out on Monday, and for some complicated reasons I’m not going to get my year visa yet. So I have to leave the country to get a new 3 month visa. It would have been easier to go to one of the neighboring countries, but if I have a chance to go somewhere I’ve always wanted to visit, why not?

While planning my Japan trip I decided to go to Tha Pae Gate, a part of Chiang Mai with lots of used book stores. I wanted to find a Japan Guidebook. Spoilers, I didn’t end up getting a guidebook, but I did have an adventure!

Used book stores are probably in the top ten list of my absolute favorite things in the world. Each time I turned a corner and saw a new one, I made an ecstatic little grin. I was one step away from clapping my hands with joy. I felt a little silly getting that excited about something I could do anywhere in the US, but there’s something about walking down rows of books reaching high over my head that makes me feel so at peace. It’s like getting a giant hug from literature.

I’ve talked a lot about songtows, the main mode of public transportation here. So far I’ve only taken them as far as the mall next to the airport, but they go all the way up to the moat that marks out the main part of the city. From the point where the songtow stops, I walked east and then north to Tha Pae gate. It was really great to be able to just walk and see everything. I love walking next to the old wall and the moat. I also wandered a little more inside the city away from the main streets and it was so peaceful! It’s crazy how you get barely half a block back from the noisy street and suddenly it’s like a different city. I saw a lot of hostels and pubs aimed at backpackers. It’s funny because I feel different from them, actually living here, but I still feel like a tourist. I guess because I don’t get into the city that much.

I went to three used bookstores before I bought anything. I bought two books, a novel about Japan in the tenth century and a book that’s part of a series I’ve been reading. But I knew there was a big used book store near the gate, so I kept looking until I found that one, Geeko Books. When I bought the two books they didn’t give me a bag or a receipt or anything, so I was afraid to go into this store lest they think I was stealing, or want me to pay for them there. I stood outside the store for a little bit wondering what to do (these are the kinds of things that really worry me) and then sort of hid the books under a jeep outside that looked like it hadn’t moved in awhile. But then I was nervous the whole time I was in there so I didn’t stay long. Anyway, I couldn’t find any travel books about Japan.

Getting home was a lot harder than getting there. I walked back to where the songtow had dropped me off, but I wasn’t certain it was the same place. It was around 5:30 and suddently there were a bunch of carts selling food. I stood around until I saw a yellow songtow stopped that was taking on passengers. I asked the driver if she went to Hang Dong Rd, but she didn’t know what I meant, so I said the airport and she said yes, and I went on. Then she said something to all the passengers and everyone got off except one woman, and then she was motioning for me to get off too. I stood around a little bit more and just got on the next yellow songtow and prayed that it was going the right way. And it was! I’m going to be here for awhile, so I know I’ll get another chance to go up there and find more used book stores.

Tha Pae Gate

The Water Bill Adventure

Today Kelly took me to pay my water bill. When my roommate left for Christmas I asked her if there was anything I could do while she was gone. After thinking about it a couple seconds, she asked if I could go pay the water bill, which was due in two days. I agreed, happy to be useful. (Living in a foreign country tends to make one feel like a child who is constantly depending on others.)

In Thailand there are a few ways to pay bills. The easiest way is to take them down to the closest 7-11 or grocery store, have a clerk scan the bar code on the bill, and give them the amount due plus a 5 baht (20 cents) service charge. This convenience is turned on its head, however, if you don’t pay on time. In that case you must take the bill to the public water authority office to pay.

I rode my (roommate’s) bike to 7-11 – just far enough to work up a healthy glow – and looked around the aisles for a minute before presenting the water bill to the clerk with an air of accomplishment. But when he scanned the bill, something was wrong! He took a look at the slip of paper (written COMPLETELY in Thai except for the address of their website, also completely in Thai) and explained that it was late. The bill wasn’t due on the 20^th as my roommate had said, but on the 14^th.

I rode my bike back, annoyed at the wasted trip. The next time I saw Ryan and Kelly I let them know I had to go to the water authority office at some point to pay the bill. When they first moved here they didn’t see their water bill and had to run to their neighbors when the water was shut off before their Sunday morning shower. So at least they knew where to take me to pay my bill! It was the week before Christmas, so I knew we’d be driving around a lot, and I wasn’t worried about the water being shut off any day soon.

Flash forward two weeks. With the excitement of Christmas and New Years, and then Ryan having to leave for a convention in Ghana, the bill was put on the back burner. But the Friday before my roommate returned, I started to get concerned. I was just sure the water would get cut off the day she got back. And then my greatest fear would be realized…I would look irresponsible! (I took a personality assessment for work a year ago and this was part of my two pages of results. Of everything it said I think this is the one thing that was the most true and I never understood about myself.)

There is a slowly growing section of the city that I am learning to navigate using my bike and public transportation. The water authority office is about ten miles beyond this area. So much for self-sufficiency. Of course I had to start thinking about this on the Friday afternoon before New Years, when it was too late to do anything until Tuesday. Kelly said she could take me on Tuesday or Thursday, but when Tuesday came she said she couldn’t until Thursday. I almost had an anxiety attack!

In Thailand we have huge water tanks from which the water supply for our house is pumped. The Shaws said that when their water was shut off, they probably didn’t know for awhile because they had to go through all the water saved up in the tank first. Our tank wasn’t quite as big, and I imagined that the water could already be off and every time I used water it was getting lower. I had taken a shower that morning pretty much because I felt safe that my roommate had already gotten her shower and I was going to pay the bill that afternoon. But could it hold out until Thursday?!?!

At that point I made myself stop and think rationally about my options. I had already done my best to figure out how to get to the water office by public transportation if I had to, but I could barely figure out where it was with the dang Thai website. First of all I had to let Kelly KNOW that I was this worried about it. This was hard because not only did I once again have to ask for help, but I was feeling stupid about letting the bill go for so long. Second, I decided I would ask my Thai teacher, who I’d see in a couple hours, if she could take me (bonus, no Thai lesson if she did!) or else if she could tell me how to get there myself. But when I talked to Kelly, of course she worked out that she could take me on Wednesday morning while Noah was in school and have a friend pick him up if we were late. I also asked my Thai teacher about it and she said they most likely would not shut off the water until it’d been a month and they had issued a second bill.

So that was my adventure for today! We drove to the water office, which was NOT as far as I imagined, I hopped out of the van while Kelly waited with Emma, walked in and went to the office on the left (the office on the right could just as well have been the right way and they looked exactly the same to me) and got that bill paid! They don’t even charge a late fee. On the way home Kelly joked that if you let it be late every month, you could just go to the office and pay it, and you wouldn’t even have to pay the 5 baht service fee that 7-11 charges! No thanks, I think I’m okay with paying the fee, to be able to shower without fear!