Weed Scene | Travels with You Qinlan - Chiang Mai Diary

2025.02.18

You and I completed the only day's work tasks. Although the work content was not difficult to complete, I still felt like a burden was lifted after finishing it.

During a work shoot, the photographer I was working with asked You, "What style do you shoot in?"

You replied: "Well, it's not the style that is available on the market, and I don't know what style it is. We probably just took pictures randomly."

Indeed, during the filming process, You encouraged me to shoot according to my own ideas, so, I just shot blindly.

But it was still funny to hear her say it to someone else. It was said that the other person was a photography blogger with some fame on Xiaohongshu.

2025.02.21

Spent the night in the countryside last night.

In the morning, I rode my motorcycle out for a stroll and stopped when I came across an entrance to the woods. I had no specific purpose, and neither did You. During the days we spent together, because we often had in-depth conversations, You and I had already gotten to know each other quite well.

You said she rarely quarreled with others, and I believed her. If I were to compare myself to Tom Yum Goong, then You would be the grapefruit and wood pork rib soup. Of course, there is no such dish as grapefruit and wood pork rib soup, I made it up. But the fragrance of grapefruit and the calmness of wood are very suitable for You. If you add a few pieces of pork ribs, it would be more like her, because she doesn't only eat vegetarian food.

I asked You, "If you were to compare yourself to a Thai dish, what would it be?"

You: "It's the lightest bowl of noodles that you didn't eat this morning."

Well, if you must look for it in Thai cuisine, it is.

Soon, we found a suitable entrance to the woods. We walked slowly into the woods. Our focus was not on hiking, so we walked as slowly as ants. Yu picked up her leaves and I picked up mine. When I found something very beautiful, I would approach her and show it off. When she found a treasure, she would just walk over and say "Look". ​

I found the fruit of a rubber tree among the leaves, and looked up to find that the whole forest was mostly planted with rubber trees. I had seen this fruit before when I was playing in Mengding, but I didn't recognize it at that time. Li Zhenhao picked it up, and we observed it for a long time in our hands. I thought it looked like a snake egg, and I was a little scared. I liked it, so I asked, "Can you lend it to me to play with for a few days?" She agreed.

This time, I picked up a lot, about 10 or so. Although there is a whole forest, most of the fruits have rotted. The day before yesterday, after seeing the cloth sewn with wild coix seeds collected by Prawade at Woods chill house, we also went to the cloth market to buy a big bag of cloth. In addition, I also bought three natural-colored cotton balls, and the boss gave me a needle. This morning, I bought a sewing kit at 7-11 because I was worried that the needle was too thick and couldn’t thread the small fruit. Although this will make the luggage even less space, the desire to start DIY today is too strong.

I have to do what I want to do, like Tom Yum Goong. It is a mixture of various spices and it is spicy.

"I found something new, a seed with a ceramic texture," You was talking in the distance.

I approached her and squatted to observe together. The white grains like rice grains seemed to be grass seeds growing from the grass. If you look closely, it looks like a small bottle. The color and texture are very similar to the reed rice and wild coix seeds (named from Feibi's nature notes group) sewn on the cloth we saw. There is a hole in the middle, you can thread a needle, which is a bit surprising.

We squatted on the ground and searched like we were looking for lice. I didn't see any handicrafts made from these seeds on the market. I guess it's because it's too difficult to collect them.

The sun was overhead, and my back and shoulders were burning. You seemed to be insensitive to the sun, and just kept looking down to look for lice without saying a word. She didn't stop until I said, "Let's go?"

You and I who picked up "rice grains"

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When I got home, I spread out all the materials I had collected on the bamboo mat in the courtyard. I was going to sew them onto the shoulder bag I found in Prawade.

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I first tried to use a needle to pierce the rubber tree fruit. When I was picking them up, I found that some of the fruits had small holes drilled by insects on one end. However, it was still difficult to drill a hole on the other end with a sewing needle alone. Fortunately, I had a material package bought at 7-11. It contained a harder and sturdier needle, which I used to drill holes in three fruits smoothly. This reminded me of when I was a child, I picked up stones that I liked in the stream, and then lay on the desk every day to grind the stones with a compass, and finally grind out small holes, put on a rope, and made a necklace. ​

While sewing these, You used the leaves she picked up to string together a door curtain and hung it on the wooden door. She also picked out a piece to make a necklace and hung it around her neck.

There is a lot of tacit understanding between You and I. The most important thing is that we respect each other and remain ourselves. ​

2025.02.22

In the morning, I was woken up by You's watch alarm. "Cuckoo, cluck, cluck..." It was an alarm that imitated the call of a pigeon. At first I thought there was an annoying bird on the roof. When it called for the third time, I turned to the bed next to me and said to You, who also had his eyes wide open: "Why is this bird so annoying! It's like an alarm clock." Only then did You realize that it was her watch alarm that was ringing.

I used to like to stay in bed, but recently I have adapted to getting up early.

Just like yesterday, after getting up and packing, we rode our motorcycles to a noodle shop near 711 to eat noodles. Every table and chair in the noodle shop was cut into watermelon patterns. There were yellow and red watermelons. Yesterday, we sat on a rectangular yellow watermelon, but today we changed to a square yellow watermelon. When You chose this watermelon, he muttered, "I like square ones."

The noodles in this noodle shop taste good but are surprisingly cheap for some reason, 20 zhi for a bowl, equivalent to 5 yuan. The joy of rural life has increased.

After breakfast, I bought some drinks and water at 711. I wanted to take a completely different route today than yesterday. We unanimously decided to ride in the direction of the mountain. You has a better sense of direction than me. When she rides, my mind is usually empty. Occasionally, she will make a wrong judgment. However, I don't care and I think it's cute. ​

Not long after riding, I was attracted by the roadside poinciana trees. I jumped up, grabbed a branch, and picked one. The fruit of the poinciana tree is a large pod, and it feels like old wood.

While squatting on the ground, we found some mini beans with patterns falling out of the pods. We thought they were beautiful, so we started squatting on the ground and picking them up.

Me: “If only I could do these things every day.”

You: "Yeah, just like when I was a kid, I spent the whole summer picking up cicada shells."

After picking up the pieces for half an hour, it was only after I asked him to stop that You finally stood up. ​

I used maps.me to find a road leading to the mountain. The motorcycle stopped by the reservoir in the mountains, and we began to repeat the search work as yesterday. There was a white boat parked at the shore of the reservoir. I guess the boat was only big enough for one person to sit on it, which was a bit cute.

I found a vine plant with pointed fruits. The vines are very strong. I said I wanted to use these vines to weave a basket, and he came over to help me pull down the vines. I wanted to take it home and weave it, but it always felt cumbersome to pull it in my hands. It would be better to weave it now so that I can use it to hold other fruits. So I started to sit under the banana tree and weave the basket. ​​

I had never woven a basket before, I had only seen it in a wilderness documentary called "Sparrow Scum". But it seemed feasible. I wove and wove until I actually wove the base of the basket. But there were too few vines to continue. When I showed the base of the basket to You, I found that it had turned into a dream catcher. However, You said it looked like a hat, and when I put it on my head, she said it fit me perfectly.

I asked You, "Do you think it would look better if weaving in all the vines sticking out from the sides, or just leaving them sticking out like this?"

You: "It looks more lively when it is stretched out. As expected, if it is too round, it lacks liveliness. Some angles make it look smarter."

"Yes."

We went down the mountain and had dinner at a noodle shop. I put the fruits I picked up in a hat basket and placed them on the table. The uncle from the noodle shop came over and helped us identify the fruits one by one in Thai. But how could we understand him?

After a while, he brought an empty bag and put my basket and fruits into the bag. He tied the two long old bean pods we picked up with rubber bands at both ends.

Cute.

Back to the residence, the two girls who lived in the single-family wooden house have moved out. We want to renew the house they have checked out tomorrow night. We went to talk to Prawade. Unexpectedly, he asked us to move in this afternoon and said that he would prepare a northern-style dinner for us at 5 pm tomorrow because he thought we were his "great guests". We were so happy to get such a reward. However, two days ago, he was willing to let us buy his favorite cloth and bags (without making any profit from the difference), which was already a reward for us.

The wooden house we live in now is located in a village one hour away from Chiang Mai by bike. It was the first house built by Prawade 11 years ago. Prawade also sent a photo of him standing by the current pavilion before the house was built. At that time, he had short hair and a youthful smile. I always thought he was no more than 40 years old at that time, but now, because his hair is less and whiter, he has always been called "grandfather" by You. One day I couldn't help it and asked You: "How old is your mother now?" She replied: "Almost 60..." Me: "Guess how old Prawade is now." You: "Hahaha".

Prawade is a lovely man who wears beautiful earrings and pink socks. He usually runs a quaint homestay called Woods chill house, located in downtown Chiang Mai. Coincidentally, Youdu and I stayed there a year ago and liked it.

The painting I gave to Prawade was of the small animals he collected in his house.

The temperature was very high in the afternoon, and I wanted to quickly move into the stilt house and have a good sleep.

The room in the stilt house is still decorated in a simple style. Below the long glass with a crabapple pattern, there is a piece of light blue cloth hanging. The curtain on the right is a piece of light peacock blue cloth. When the fan blows, the two pieces of cloth rise and fall. The wooden floor is covered with yellow, green and blue cushions, which are just wide enough for one person to lie down. Opposite the door is a wooden corridor where you can enjoy the cool air. A few nights ago, I often saw the two girls who checked out sitting here to enjoy the cool air and chat. Tonight, it was finally my turn to sit here with You.

Most of the walls of the bathroom are made of iron sheets, with some small holes covered with yellow tape. The tape is light-transmissive, so the small holes become the yellow eyes of the elves.

I closed my eyes and lay flat on the wooden board for a nap. The sound of the fan was amplified in my half-awake state. After I woke up, You showed me a photo of me taking a nap. My body was straight, and my hands were placed flat on my belly button. I looked like I was dead. I sent this photo to Fei Bi, and she said, "Someone did say that sleep is a small death."

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2025.02.23

In my dream, I heard the sound of "da da da da". It was raining.

Someone once told me that if the roof is covered with asbestos tiles, it will be very noisy when it rains. I was ignorant at that time, and I thought asbestos tiles were not a good material. Now I understand what he meant by "very noisy", and I actually like it.

I crawled out of the mosquito net and pushed the window behind the bed. This way, it was like sleeping in a pavilion, and the bed was very close to the outside air. Raindrops hit the dry leaves that had not been watered for a long time, evaporating a strong grass fragrance. After the air outside the window came in, the temperature became lower, and I put my hands and shoulders into the quilt. The white yarn mosquito net above my head was like a dream catcher, and sometimes it was blown by the wind. The thunder outside the window was very close, but I was not afraid.

When she woke up in the morning, it was still raining. She was very happy because Prawade told her yesterday that "a rainy day in the wooden house is like heaven", and that was not the first day she saw "heaven" after moving in, haha.

After the rain, the tamarind trees and fields in front of the house.

After the rain stopped, we went out. In the distance, people were mowing the grass. It was quite far away, but the fragrance of the grass cut by the sickle still drifted to me. If a person wants to collect natural fragrance, it is a good choice after the rain.

Last night, when we were taking a walk, we saw a sign for a cafe at the intersection near our home, so we decided to walk over to take a look. It was a small path that stretched into the woods. We thought the cafe was the stilt house with lights on last night, but when we walked into the yard and asked, it turned out not to be the one. The owner said there were massages and something else, maybe some kind of health-preserving words, but we didn't understand. The yard didn't look like a store open to the public, but more like a place to live, with chickens. When we walked out of the yard and continued walking along the path, the smell of boiling Chinese medicine wafted out of the yard.

Me: “I forgot to wear underwear”.

You subconsciously looked down at her chest: "Ah, I forgot too."

Traveling is great, you can do anything, even not wearing underwear. But is it because there are no familiar people around that we feel relaxed? Why are we afraid of familiar people?

We continued walking and saw a newly built white building on the left, which was probably the cafe written on the road sign. I didn't want to go in, so I asked You, "Can we not go in?" You said, "Okay."

We continued walking along the path and a real forest appeared.

The ground was covered with fallen leaves, most of which were wider than the palm of your hand.

You: "Look, this leaf looks like denim, but it feels like corduroy."

You handed the leaf to me and asked me to touch it too.

Me: "It feels like I'm in another world. When I touch your skin, it feels like very thin velvet."

I picked up a leaf from the ground, put it in my hand, and tried to dance with it. It turned out that the feeling in the other world was remembered and had been integrated with my real body, but not all of it, only part of it.

"Coo, coo, coo, coo, coo ... " We are imitating the call of a bird.

He swam behind me and said, "You look like the little creature that picked up human clothes and put them on."

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Me: " Can we imagine that we are in another world today?"

You: “I don’t think I can do it.”

Me: “Hehehe, is it because your other world is too heavy?”

On the way back.

You: “ Although I won’t remember all the details, every time I travel, I feel like a new me grows up unconsciously.”

I understand. I should say this: the me when I travel grows faster. The me at ordinary times grows slower.

That's great. Indeed, all the senses are amplified when traveling.

In the afternoon, we continued to go to the mountains we visited yesterday. It was obvious that when we left yesterday, You was reluctant to leave.

On the way, I found a big tree with round fruits like green apples. We stopped the car and took a closer look. The tree was planted in someone else's yard, and the gate was open. There were two fruits neatly placed on a stone slab.

"Is this a gift for us? There are exactly two of them."

I used WeChat to scan and found out that it is called "Star Apple". It really is an "apple". The leaves of the star apple are special, olive-colored on the front and matte golden brown on the back. It is called star apple because the cut surface is in the shape of a star when cut. We were curious and couldn't help but take one away.

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Today we parked at the reservoir again. The cattail tree that was out of reach yesterday was now within reach. Although it is called cattail tree, it looks like a fox's tail. It feels like wool felt and is very soft. You sighed: "How can such a thing grow on a tree?"

Finally we reached four cattails. Three short ones and one long one. For the long one, You and I flipped a coin and guessed the heads and tails to decide who would get it. This time we finally didn't play rock-paper-scissors. This game was too brain-intensive for me. A few days ago, when we played rock-paper-scissors for the first time, You played rock and I played scissors. At that time, You told me that she would play rock every time. Later, there was another time when we needed to guess rock-paper-scissors. I thought to myself, since she said she would play rock every time, I should stick to playing scissors. This is fairer. If she cheats me, then I win. So, twice, she played rock and I played scissors.

Fortunately, it was a coin toss this time, and I won the game ✌️

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After returning home in the afternoon, we sorted out the seeds we had picked up in the past few days. ​

In the evening, Prawade said he would prepare a northern-style dinner for us.

At 17:00, I went downstairs and looked around. I didn't see Prawade, nor did I see any food. I imagined that Prawade would come from the city to have dinner with us. In fact, five minutes later, a lady came over with a large bamboo tray. She placed the tray on the long table in the pavilion and began to set it up. It seemed that Prawade would not show up.

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While she was still setting up the place, I walked towards the rice field outside the pavilion. The rain from last night had accumulated in the field. I squatted down, picked up some green algae with my fingers and put it close to my nose to smell it.

"What's that smell?" You asked while sitting in the pavilion.

" It's the smell of planting rice in the paddy fields when I was a kid," I answered. Maybe it's not a specific smell, but more like a specific moment.

When the food on the tray was ready, the lady took out her phone and took a photo, probably to send to Prawade.

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The vegetables in the cucumber plate looked like pickled vegetables, but they were actually boiled vegetables with a light sweet taste. The fried food on the left looked like it was made of pig skin. I ate half of the boiled egg and gave the rest to You. The bowl to the right of the boiled egg was the famous Da Pao Pork, with fresh green leaves on it. I picked these leaves by the field and asked the lady if they were edible. She pointed to the bowl of Da Pao Pork and found out that it was basil. It was a little different from the basil I usually eat. The stems of this one were purple. Seeing that we liked it, the lady picked one, rinsed it and gave it to us. I folded it into the dish. I don't know the name of the last dish next to Da Pao Pork. It was very special, but it was hard to describe. I only knew that it was filled with tomatoes and coriander.

You tasted it carefully and she said the rice was delicious. I eat quickly and I can only judge whether the rice is delicious by how hard it is cooked. I just know that I don't like it too soft.

Today is the last night we stay here. After dinner, we went out for a walk and went to see the music venue opposite. Last night, the music opposite the field was very loud, sometimes rock and sometimes electronic music. At 11 o'clock in the evening, she suggested to go and have a look, but I said I would not go, mainly because she was not in the real world at that time, and I felt unsafe.

We walked along the cement path in the rice field and found the place where the music was played. It was actually in the playground of an elementary school. There was a small stage next to the sound system. Two girls were dancing on it, imitating basketball shots. There were several loyal audience members sitting on the lawn below the stage. They were a few girls, a little boy about 5 years old, and a little girl about 5 years old. The little girl would touch the boy's head from time to time.

After the walk, I went home and sat on the floor of my room, while I sat in the living room, each quietly writing in my own diary. There was a wooden wall between us, which was just the right distance.

Just like that, it was 12 o'clock. You wanted to go out for a walk again, which I thought was a good idea.

I remember a few days ago, I asked You: "Have you ever been reluctant to leave a place?" You replied: "No". Now I asked her: "Are you reluctant to leave?" "Yes" she replied.

You: "Maybe it's because I didn't have such a good time before, but I will have it in the future."

Today, for some reason, the housekeeper and the lady who prepared dinner were gone. We walked on the road and saw no lights in many houses. Only the puppies were there. The puppy "Dark Eyes" saw us walking and ran out to play, following us. The other puppies could not come out and could only bark at us in their own yards.

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There were two papaya fruits left on the roadside green papaya tree, one big and one small, and we wanted to pick one to take home and try the taste of green papaya. Although I came up with this idea, I was standing under the papaya tree and hesitated to do it, so You stretched out his hand and said, "Let me do it."

We took the papaya and the star apples we brought back in the afternoon and prepared to cut them in the pavilion. The star apples did not look star-shaped when cut, and I guessed it was because they were not ripe yet.

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After I cut the green papaya in half, white pearl-like seeds fell out, which were very beautiful. We collected them. Then I cut a small circle from the half of the green papaya and put it in my mouth to take a small bite. Wow, it was not the sour taste we imagined. Except for a little bit of astringency, the rest was green.

I finally understood that the green smell I always smelled on the way to Qing Road was actually the smell of green papaya!