I wish that I could fly
Into the sky
So very high
Just like a dragonfly

I’d fly above the trees
Over the seas in all degrees
To anywhere I please

Oh I want to get away. I want to fly away. Yeah yeah yeah.

I hate Lenny Kravitz, but the man and I share similar desires. In his famous song “Fly Away”, Kravitz sings about the joy of booting up a flight simulator on his homemade gaming rig. He draws his custom-configured flight yolk close to his heart, calibrates his rudder pedals, and gets ready to “fly away” into the virtual sky.

While the rocker is a millionaire who can afford multiple screens and high-grade Thrustmaster accessories, I’m stuck taking to the air in my three year old 12″ PowerBook. Joystickless.

Luckily, the demo of X-Plane by Austin Myer still runs decently if I decrease all the settings. It still looks okay, but it’s not the photo-real and smooth experience as it would be on a better machine.

X-Plane is an amazing program. Not only is there an FAA certified version, but the full version contains the geography of the entire world, complete with cities and accurately modeled airports. The scenery alone takes up 60GB. The demo features a limited patch of terrain and a variety of real aircraft from general aviation and heavy metal to jets and spacecraft. Unlike Microsoft’s Flight Simulator series, X-Plane actually simulates all the physics of flight on the structure of the airplane model. This means that if the airfoils are accurate, the planes in the simulator behave as they would in reality. Every real world detail can be configured in a myriad of complicated menus: weather and environmental variables, fuel and cargo loads, flight paths, equipment failures, airplane livery. It’s mind boggling.

Even more mind boggling are the recreated cockpits of the planes. Every gauge and toggle of the actual planes are recreated. Many of the planes have 3-d rendered cockpits in order to see all the functional controls.

I know nothing about flying planes, but I’m learning. I’ve gotten pretty good at the takeoff procedures but still suck at smooth landings. I can see why they have you buckle your seat-belts at these times: the maneuvers are hard!

Keeping it simple with a turbo prop Piper. Some of the cockpit on the left. Plane getting ready for takeoff on the right.

After a successful flight, I pulled the plane into the terminal.

3-d cockpit view of a fancier private jet. It was faster than the Piper and harder to control.

Looking back after takeoff.

After getting better at the basic planes, I loaded a United 747 to test. After some successful takeoffs, I decided to go an early morning flight…in a rain storm.

Waiting for clearance from the tower.

The 747 cockpit in the early morning.

I was getting scared in the morning rain, so I bumped the time forward a bit. Here’s the bird after takeoff. The landing gear are retracting.

The plane in the morning fog after a successful, but bumpy, landing. The plane as seen from above.

Trying out the high tech avionics of an Airbus passenger jet.

I’m surprised by how much joy I feel when the plane finally takes off after a roaring ride down the runway. It is fun to flip the seat-belt warning button to get that distinctive chime. And the retracting flaps and landing gear sound eerily realistic. It feels horrible to crash in this game, but so good to clear the clouds and see the vastness of virtual world.

Fun times.

In the past few days, there have been many new people in J. and I’s sheltered Thai life. In order of no importance: an adventurous Swiss couple, two Americans girls who share the same first name, and an old Thai friend who came back from studying in the States. If only these people had been around earlier to help balance out our reclusive life.

At least I know that J. and I can spend every waking moment together, often in the same small room, and not rip each other’s heads off. It has been a good, bloodless test.

Some photos from the past few days:

On Sunday, we met four people at the walking street market and walked around, snacked, and talked. One of the temples had the last remains of The Loy Krathong Festival. Along one fence were numerous, evenly spaced candles. It was outer space on the ground.

Me and the Swiss couple at the waterfall. They were only in town for a short time before continuing their epic budget trip around the world. The next day we went to the reservoir for lunch. These two were much more adventurous than J. and I; they hitch-hiked in Mongolia, stayed in Indian backwaters, slept in tents in the middle of nowhere. Inspiring and terrifying.

Me, strutting through the woods.

We got a donut and coffee at an enormous old Dunkin’ Donuts on Huay Kaew and the Canal Road. It’s an air-conditioned teen hangout.

Testing out a new mustache. I would have fit in in India. Thailand: not so much.

Banana split for $1.25 at good old Milk Zone on Huay Kaew.

Yesterday, we drove to the train station to book tickets to Bangkok for Saturday. They were sold out of every seat on every train. Dang tourist season. On the way home, we drove by what I hoped was a Willy Wonka style tuk tuk factory, but it looked more like a service station and there weren’t even any tuk tuks to be seen. The Nancy Chandler Map has once again created a misleading impression of awesomeness. We booked bus tickets instead.

I wasn’t in a driving mood, but J. convinced me to go to a umbrella village called Bo Sang about 10km outside of town. I begrudgingly obliged, considering she had been wanting to check it out for some time and we were on the right side of town.

The drive was pleasant. The road leading to Bo Sang was lined with large fragrant trees growing out of the pavement. The “village” was basically a small town like any other, but with more handicrafts. While J. looked around, I got some papaya salad, water, and a bean bun and hid in the shade out of view of the pale tourists arriving by colorful busses. There were life size cutouts of Thai women holding umbrellas. The ladies were missing faces. I saw many people sticking their own faces through the holes and getting pictures taken. They seemed overjoyed to pretend to be a 2-d umbrella-holding Thai woman. I wonder what Freud would think.

The closest Chiang Mai comes to a highway. This road is called the Superhighway, and it loops around half the town.

Huge billboard, colorful empty planters.

Decorative gate.

Tree-lined road to Bo Sang.

The ivy doesn’t want the lot to be sold.

Unsecured gazebo getting transported by trailer.

Enormous warehouse getting build along the road home.

Pipes and cow.

A gradual bridge over the Ping River.

For dinner, we met my Thai friend at an enormous open air hot pot buffet near our apartment. This place had seating for hundreds and food to match. In the background was karaoke and WWF wrestling. For 130Bht($4) a person, each table got a clay pot of broth boiling over wood coals and a grill over another batch of coals. There were endless tables of any kind of meat you can imagine: beef, pork, chicken, mussels, prawns, guts, fish, fish balls and slabs, etc. We piled as much as we wanted onto metal trays and brought them back to the table for boiling and grilling (though there is a large grilling station too). To the broth, my friend added all sorts of greens, two eggs, and the meat. The broth was a delicious combination of chicken stock and lemon grass. On the side, we had hearty portions of fried rice, fried chicken, and papaya salad. I grilled 8 HUGE prawns (many of which had eggs on their bellies) and some chicken. For desert, they had platters of tropical fruit, ice cream, and a shaved ice machine with all sorts of exotic Thai toppings. Wonderful.

W. dishes out the first batch of soup as J. looks on stoically.

Grilling some huge prawns.

Trays of meat.

The numerous topping for iced cream or shaved ice. My two favorite toppings were grass jelly (the smokey black jelly on the top right corner) and candied pumpkin (lower left).

It was fun to eat a large meal we made ourselves. Most of our Thai meals have been short affairs; this was drawn out and relaxed. My friend obviously misses living in Thailand. I think it’s mostly because of the food.

One week left before leaving Thailand for the foreseeable future. I’m excited about China, but sad to see the lazy life go. Since my time here is so limited, I feel compelled to do some of the most exciting things Thailand has to offer:

• Watch Youtube clips of video-games I can’t play.
• Work on fixing some basic PHP code on my blog and Facebook app.
• Eat rice.

Obviously post card moments abound, especially with the rice.

Here are a few things I’ve seen while I haven’t been elbow deep in programming:

Dog sleeping on a table as seen from our balcony.

Electrical boxes and wires outside an electronics store of all places.

An amazing sandwich from a restaurant called Amazing Sandwich on Huay Kaew Road near Kad Suan Kaew Mall.

This photo is from a few days ago when nothing good was on TV. Haha, do you see what I did there? I made you think that I didn’t want Osama to win. What? Haha, you see what I did there? But in all seriousness, it was good news.

I’ve been meaning to get a picture of nam plah prik, the common table condiment in Thailand. It’s mostly fish sauce and sliced fresh chilies.

Today after lunch, J. and went for a little drive in the neighborhood between Doi Suthep and the canal road. It’s a wonderful area full of huge old mansions, overgrown jungle, vacant lots, fruit orchards, cows, stray dogs, dirt roads, flowers and hills. A lot of the streets feel untraveled and forgotten except for the loner that lives at the end. Our goal was to find a small waterfall I went to a few times three years ago. SPOILER ALERT: We found it.

Bamboo fence.

The dirt road between bamboo.

Road.

The waterfall seen from the lonely road.

Flower.

River plants.

Bee on a flower by the falls.

Moss clumps.

J. and the falls.

The waterfall had more water falling than I remembered. That made it better than I remembered too. The plants along the banks were overgrown, and the whole place felt quieter and secludeder than in 2005. The area must have been a micro-climate, as there many types of plants I haven’t seen elsewhere in town. I wonder how many other little waterfalls are nearby and waiting to be discovered.

While we might not find them, slowly but surely we are mapping more of this town to our memories.