220 Bhat Bus

My mum has this new theory about scraped knees. If a child falls down and scrapes its knee and the mother rushes over to help, the child assumes that the worst possible thing has happened and doesn't ever learn to cope. So when I write home from Bangkok saying "this place is insane I can't get around without being hasseled to get in a taxi but if I got in a taxi I could wind up who the hell knows where! Ahhhh!" She says "It's all good."
And then walking around the alley by the Muay Thai boxing ring to the backstreet market for dinner before getting on a 12 hour bus--- carrying my pack, a small bag and a bottle of water-- what do I do?
I fall and scrape my knee.
But what do you do? You laugh and pick up the scattered things, including yourself and go back to life.
Yesterday was actually pretty awesome. I got a thai massage. Oh what a thing of bliss, an hour for 180 bhat-- about 6 dollars. And I wandered into a series of indoor thai supermarkets and department stores. I only saw one other "farang" there and he and I eyed each other with a look of "this place is unreal! I'm not sure we're allowed to be here."
And there, in the grocery store I finally met my new rival.... the asian-style toliet. Never has a hole in the ground produced the fear of god in me.
The bus ride was pretty much exactly what I anticipated. Very uncomfortable seats, not all of which reclined, we stopped a few times at really dingy little rest stops with food markets set up, the toliet was inaccessiable during the 13 hour drive. We were dropped off outside of town at a gas station and then transferred into a bunch of red pickup taxis which took us to a very specific guest house. We said "no no that's okay, we don't want to see a room." and walked into down town. Since its low season I'm staying in a 2 person room at a teak guest house owned by a french woman for less than a 1 person room.
Chiang mai's forests are gorgeous and the city itself is MUCH calmer than BKK and the old city part where I am is nice. There is one very noticable difference from BKK as well. "Mozzies!" Mosquitos are in full force here and at the temple I know I'm not allowed to kill any living creature.
And yea, I've realized that I've been on the internet every single day but here's the math.
100 degrees outside+Mosquitos+humidity+being hasseled by tuk-tuk drivers and vendors OR 20 bhat (approx. 66 cents) for an hour of a/c?!?!