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Published: March 14th 2008
Alright, I have no idea what to name my blogs but it is required, so I’m just going to start putting whatever comes into my head for titles. Sorry if they are nonsensical, but I think you can deal...
D and I made a quick run through Bangkok getting our Western fixes satisfied (we ate tacos for two meals and the other at Burger King) before we caught our night train to Chang Mai. Chang Mai is about 1.2 million people and a cultural center in Thailand. For example, it is a fifth the size of Bangkok but it has roughly the same number of temples. The old city, which is surrounded by a moat and wall built about 700 years ago, has a temple on nearly every block. It is a very laid-back feel for a city of this size. The temples have nice courtyards with trees and shade, monks studying various topics at picnic tables, and, of course, tourists snapping photos of everything. We got in around the middle of the morning and were able to check out a few of the temples in the old city that day. We were about to call it quits when we
decided to check out one more temple. As we were walking in the monk watching over the temple that day started chatting us up. He was studying English poetry and asked if we could help him; an opportunity like that doesn’t come around very often so we decided to sit down and discuss similes, metaphors, and other poetic devices with a monk in Thailand. Why not? We left two and a half hours later remembering why we hated Emily Dickenson and Robert Frost, but it was definitely a worthwhile experience.
The next day we began a three-day trek. What it lacked in remoteness, rusticness, and authentic hill tribe experiences, it made up for with fun, good laughs, and comforts. We did do a lot of hiking (about a total of ten hours) but the hill tribe village we stayed at the first night was rather humorous. Many houses had solar panels for electricity, and a few had televisions with antennas inside. There were a few cars and a dozen or so motorbikes. We had farm animals running around our camp and cold beers waiting for us (at an additional price of course). This is quite different from the village
John and I
This is the monk we discussed poetry with...in Cambodia which had just seen a whitie for the first time in 2004; it was even more than many of the Khamer Cambodians we met. The second day we set out around eleven and after a few hours we walked out of the forest into a deserted soccer field. I don’t know if there was a village nearby, but we set up teams of the Thais, an Irishman, and an Englishman against the Swedes, an Italian, an Austrian, a Canadian and me. The North Americans were a bit pathetic comparatively, but our team still won. We finally made it to our destination of a beautiful waterfall with bungalows surrounding a natural pool at the bottom just before sunset. The power shower was a welcomed refreshment and we ended up having a bit of a party with the Canadians and the Irish that night. The next morning was a relaxed hike out to a road where we caught a bus to the elephant sanctuary. D and I went for our first elephant ride, and it may be our last. I swear I was about to fall off at least a dozen times, and our “driver”, if you will, kept taking
Spidy
We ran into this guy on the hike. the less traveled path. At one point our elephant was pretty much standing straight up climbing this hill; and by that point we had run out of bananas to give him as treats, so I don’t think he was happy with us either. We got back onto solid ground only for a short bit as we next jumped on some bamboo rafts to go down the river a little ways. This was absolutely hilarious. The guide who was steering the front had me steering in the rear of the boat with D and the Canadians in the middle. Darren was laughing, as I was able to pick water fights with the other Thai raft guides, the Swedes, the Irish, the Thais sitting on the shores… He claims that I’m able to pick a fight with anyone, regardless of language barrier (Darren’s edit: Anyone who knows Kyle knows how true this is.). Everyone else just thought, "Leave it to the Americans to start a fight." The Irish noticed these fruit in the water that were spherical and really soggy (so they blew up on impact making an ugly red mush), and they began throwing “cannon balls” at our ship. I got
My elephant and I
Good view of the stachio as well... one in the back of the head and it was declaration of war. I threw one at the Swede and he ducked his head so it nailed him right on the forehead. Our guide had the most impressive throw I have ever seen; he heaved one about 50 meters and it came down perfectly on the top of the Swede’s head. It was a one in a million shot and everyone, including the Swede, was absolutely amazed. I was completely soaked and my stomach hurt from laughing by the time we got of the raft.
D decided to stay around the hotel the next day to get some Hindi and CPA studying done (which he wasn’t very successful at doing) while I set off with the Czechs and the Canadians to see a temple out in the countryside (Darren’s edit: I did get a Thai guy to spell my name for me in the Thai script, though.). The prices we were quoted at the guesthouse were too much, so we decided to try and haggle with the local tuk-tuks to get a better price. Just after we got out of our guesthouse we found our man. Eddie has about
six teeth left on the top row and a few of them are black. He speaks very little English but has a high short choppy laugh (Hee, Hee, Heeeeee), which he uses constantly and frequently without reason. Several times he just busted out laughing without anything prompting it, causing me to crack up, then he would laugh at me. Through our conversations he told me he used to fight Muoy Thai (Thai kickboxing) and he showed me his arm, which had obviously been broken at some point and was never set properly. He also told me he had “boom boom” with a white woman 20 years back and ended up with two kids. He was one of the best characters on the trip so far. He took us to a few markets, where he obviously got a commission for bringing us, and then finally to the temple we wanted to go to. Doi Suthep is at the top of a huge hill (it was high enough that my ears were popping) on the outside of town and provides an amazing view of Change Mai. It is one of the holiest places in northern Thailand and the temple had a very
revered feel to it. It is surrounded by some beautiful tall pines and has a few beautiful gardens. I thought it was one of the better temples I have seen.
That night we went to the night market, which Chang Mai is known for. We had a great meal in the open-air food court with Thai music and dancing going on behind us. We were with the Czechs, Swedes, and Canadians from our trekking group and had a great time, even though one of the Canadians got lost and missed the entire meal. A few of us ended up going to a nightclub and partying that night (Darren’s edit: You can probably figure out which of the two of us went.). It was kind of interesting as everyone in the group was extremely different, but we got along very well. We definitely had a barrier to get through being Americans and people having preconceived notions of us. One of the Czechs ended up calling me “the big exception” by the end of the night, because he vehemently held to his claim that he did not like Americans, but he liked hanging out with us.
The following day we
took a cooking class. This was one of the best things we have done on the trip thus far. I absolutely loved it and can’t wait to cook up some of the dishes when we get home. We learned how to make some great noodle dishes, steamed fish, bananas in coconut milk, a delicious yellow curry, and, Darren’s favorite, chicken with cashew nuts. We finished early, hung out by the pool at the guesthouse, and just chilled that day.
Today is another lazy day (as I type this I’m sunning myself by the pool listening to Prince’s “Purple Rain”) and our only goal is to find a ride to the border for tomorrow. The bus station is outside of town and we don’t feel like going all the way out there to buy a ticket, so instead we are going to tourist agencies and they keep trying to sell us tickets all the way to Luang Prabang. They don’t understand why we would want to just go to the border, which is where we will be going to the Gibbon Experience. It should be an amazing time; it was one of the things I looked forward to the most when starting the trip. You hike out into the jungle and stay in tree houses at the top of the canopy where the gibbon monkeys live. You zip line between trees, hang out at waterfalls, and learn about the local culture from guides from the hill tribes. It should be one of the more amazing experiences of the trip.
A few other side notes… I shaved. I no longer have a neck beard. That is what it was, as I can’t seem to grow any facial hair on my cheeks. So I gave up on the beard. Shaving it was a huge pain, but I think my inability to grow a decent beard makes the weekly maintenance a necessary evil. However, have no fear my friends, I didn’t give up on the stache or soul patch (Darren’s edit: It is even more appalling now.)(Kyle's edit to Darren's: I think it is an improvement, but a few minutes ago the woman serving us coffee pointed and laughed at it, that hurt the pride). Oh, and I continue to sweat profusely. (Attractive? Glad I’m telling you this? And putting it on the Internet for random people too?) Yeah, it is unreal, I need to shower constantly and there is always a stench of sweat on me. It is disgusting, but one of the joys of traveling.
Anyway, enough of my disgusting traveler’s hygienic issues. The road is treating us well and I’m really excited as my friend from college, Ben Lawless, is buying his plane tickets to meet us for three months of India and Tanzania tonight. (Darren’s edit: A friend of mine, Julie Aho, is going to join us for a camel safari in India as well. Any other takers?) I’m making slow progress in trying to convince others to join me in my grass roots rebellion, but hopefully I’ll find a taker for South American and elsewhere! Hope you are well and talk to you soon!
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Carissa
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Poorly shaven with a molester stache and sweating profusely.... back here in the states you'd be a star on Cops! Thailand sounds amazing, but after your sneak preview I am really excited to hear how the Gibbon Experience goes!