Advertisement
Published: August 10th 2006
New Found Friend
I think this poor little guy had a problem. He just walked back and forth chained out front. I think that problem was captivity.Sunday Night Jan and I took the night bus from Udon Tani to Chiang Mai. We had to first take an hour bus ride to Udan Tani from Nong Khai. We waited there for a few hours and had dinner. To our surprise we found this little crazy monkey that was the pet of the ticket seller. He enjoyed using our limbs as branches and jumping on our backpacks as though they were trampolines. "Ok." I thought, "SO maybe it is cute the first 20 times it uses you as a tree branch, but after it pisses on you and ravishes your hair and bites your stomach, maybe its cuteness begins to fade."
I was glad to be rid of the vermin when we got on the bus at 7:00. On our journeys we decided that traveling at night was the smartest thing to do. We would be saving daylight time and freeing ourselves of having to pay more money for a guesthouse. The First bus trip was 12 hours long and we arrived in Chiang Mai at 8:00am, just in time to stand for the playing of the national anthem. Needless to say we were still tired, so we
A.D.D. Chimp Face
Ok. SO maybe it is cute the first 20 times it uses you as a tree branch, but after it pisses on you and raveshes your hair and bites your stomach, maybe its cuteness begins to fade. decided to go to a guesthouse and drop out stuff, then relax before we went out adventuring.
We had a cab take us to a guesthouse that looked rather decent from the lonely planet. It was one of the only ones that was not full. It turned out to be in a rather live part of town with Internet cafes, restaurants, bars, laundry facilities and Thai Massage places. After we dropped our stuff, we rested for a while and then hit the streets for some food. We ate at a bar/restaurant that was open to the street. It had wooden tables and benches and was decorated with the eye catching, exotic adventures that Chiang Mai holds.
For those who do not know, Chiang Mai is located in the northern part of Thailand. It is the Jungle area where most people go hiking, trekking and in search of vegetation covered temples and structures. There are of course a number of important temples and other sights to see in this area.
After Jan and I ate, we went to a Internet Café to make sure that everything was still in place for the up coming days. We also looked
around for the best deals for one day Treks, hoping to do one in the morning. Altogether Jan and I only had 9 days to see all of Thailand, so we could not afford to stay longer time-wise.
That evening Jan wanted to treat me to Traditional Thai Massage. We went down to a place that looked pretty quaint and signed in. They escorted us to soft, red, cushiony chairs with a silver sink at our feet filled with water and red rose peddles and sat there with the Thai women washing our feet while we looked out of the large wooden framed window to our left. We were then escorted to a dim-lighted, private room that smelled of Aromatherapy and had two mattresses on the floor. They handed us each a set of light pajamas and then closed the bamboo sliding doors for us to change. I didn't know what to expect, but it wasn't something like this!
When the ladies came back, they began our one-hour massage. They started with the feet and moved up the legs. As they massage they pull your feet to your shoulder and bend your legs in ways you KNOW they
do not normally move. The ripping pain in your muscles tell you this as the little Thai woman sitting on your back goes on as if you are as flexible as a tiny, bendable little toy. After stretching your muscles, the Thai woman moves on to using her hand to "loosen your muscles" by pounding on them with her fist. At on point it hurt so bad I had to laugh in pain, just to let her know I was in some sort of discomfort. Plus I didn't want to be the one to groan in pain with Jan sitting right next to me going through the same thing.
She finally moved up to my back and shoulders, which was really nice after carrying my backpack for the few days before. When they were done hey told us to change and come out when we were ready. When we went in the lobby dressed they had a nice hot teach waiting for us and a cookie snack.
After all of this we walked around the night market for a few hours and then found a travel agency that had a nice Trekking package. We purchased one for the
Thai Massage
Painful at times, but relaxing all the same. following day at 7:30 am. At the time it was already 11:00pm. Still exhausted we headed back to the guesthouse to crash for the evening and to be prepared for the next day.
We got up bright and early for the mini-bus (mini van) to pick us up. The first thing on our agenda was Bamboo Rafting. They put 4 people on a flat raft made of long bamboo planks tied together and send you downstream with a guide. Our "benches" were also a simple piece of Bamboo tied on to the raft. Sitting in the rapids going down stream, our entire bottoms were soaked. The couple in front of us would stand up as we encountered the white rapids, but they still managed to be as wet as us in the end. Half way down stream we saw a group of trekkers crossing the river via elephant. It was incredible to see these beasts wading the water with three people on top of them.
Going further down stream I wondered how they got these long rafts back up stream. "Maybe they just keep floating people further and further down" I thought carelessly. When we got to the
end of the trip, we saw them tearing apart the rafts and loading the planks onto small pick-up trucks. After they carry them back up stream, they reassemble them for the next use.
Next we arrived at a jungle-like area where we took an elephant trek through rough terrain and lush green scenery overlooked by mountains and large viney trees. They put two people on an elephant, each with a guide. Unfortunately we got stuck with the stubborn elephant that wanted to stop and eat. When this happened our guide, who sits on the Elephant’s head, would stab the poor little (well, big) guy in the ear with this huge rusty hook and pull really hard until the elephant moved where he wanted it too. SO needless to say I wanted off in the first 5 minutes after seeing such abuse. I don't agree at all with the "lifestyle" of these animals after seeing how they live simply to trek around tourists.
AS we walked on there were several stands 20 feet in the air where you could buy the elephants snacks. The first was bamboo which he ripped from our hands and ate ferverishly. We walked on
Bamboo Rafting 2
Getting them Back up stream then posed later for a picture they would try and sell us when we were done. Then we came to the Banana Stand and fed him more bananas. Looking over I saw that the two girls behind us had decided to treat themselves to a snack of bananas; maybe they were not to keen on the Bamboo.
Further down the trail, our guide jumped off and disappeared. This was right before the elephant took us down a steep muddy slope as the others filed down a greener, level surface. He seemed to know what he was doing though and I guess it was now up to him which way to go, so if he wanted to make it harder for himself (and scarier for us) then I guess that was perfectly fine with me.
When the trek was over I met up with the small little guy out front. He was chained to the ground and paced oddly back and forth. I specifically saved a banana for him, just so I could go up and give him a pet. He was quite hot tempered, but I would be too if I could only stand there chained up all
Possers
Elephant Trekking day. I was glad to leave, though I left feeling more dismal than thrilled.
We headed on to the Meo and Karen Tribe villages. These where villages that had people who migrated in to Thailand years back. One was actually a Korean Village where the women weaved silk, but the lifestyle of course held only the resemblance of their Thai adaptation.
After the villages we took a walk to a huge waterfall. Here we were told we could swim, but it was more relaxing to sit and feel the mist of the falling water drench your cloths, rather then jumping in with the old men who were slipping around.
When it was time we headed back to Chiang Mai. We actually arrived at around 5:00 so we went looking for a ticket to Bangkok. We wanted to take the night train because they offer sleeping cabins and it would be a great way to ensure a good night’s sleep and save time, but we found out that because of the heavy flooding from the days before, the rail was closed until the 3rd. We ended up having to take the most uncomfortable bus back that same night
at 7:00pm. We grabbed some fried rice to eat on the bus and found ourselves stuck in the back. Here our feet hung one foot above the floor, sitting in Thai size seats for 14hrs with barely a chance of sleep. At one point the guy next to us moved on to lie in the isle. Here I was able to stretch my feet for a while and get one hour of sleep. But that was the only sleep I got.
The bus dropped us off at the well know Khao San Road where we had a difficult time finding a vacant guest house at 7:00am. We wanted to rest for just half of the day and then move on to the next destination with out having to stay in Bangkok for the night. After we slept till 2:00 in a guesthouse we found down a quiet alley, we went in search of a train or air ticket. We were not ready to get on another bus. It turned out that all we could find after hours of looking was a bus ticket and not until the next morning. We were disappointed to have to spend the following day
on a 14-hour bus trip, since we did not have to many days altogether.
That night we had dinner at Sawasdee Guesthouse bar and then went to bed.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.054s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 13; qc: 22; dbt: 0.028s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.1mb
gp
non-member comment
Ok, you not only are having the time of your life, but you are having the time of my life as well :) Bekah, I love, love, love reading your entries! You are such a great writer, not to mention that you are fulfilling things that are on my "To do before I keel over" list (riding an elephant). Your white water ride looks like a cheap theme park gone horribly wrong--how'd you stay on?!?! Jesus girl, you're amazing. I love you and love that you're having such a great time, but I'm still counting down the days until I get to see you.