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Published: July 12th 2008
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A Face in the Tree
An image of Buddha in an overgrown ruin in Ayuthaya. April 29, 2008 - May 16, 2008
I guess everything is relative. Your perception of a place can be changed so dramatically by what you have to compare it with. Our first blog entry about Bangkok back in January had a distinctly negative tone ... we may have even used words like dirty or chaotic. I guess that is because we were coming from little old Victoria. Flying back into Bangkok on April 29, after two months in India and Nepal, left us with a very different impression of the city - Amazing, Clean, Quiet, Ordered ... I could go on, but I think I made my point.
We spent the whole first day cleaning the grime out of all of our stuff (and off ourselves), sipping on fruit shakes and eating meat for the first time in two months. We stayed at great hotel called the Lamphu House which was luxurious compared to what we were used to ... and it cost less that $20 per night! We were even able to spend an afternoon at the British Club of Bangkok lounging next to the pool with my mom's cousin, who has lived here for the last 15
My leg Infection....Gross
It got even worse than this years. It was a great reintroduction to South East Asia.
There was only one small drawback ... I had to be admitted to hospital for intravenous antibiotics. Over the course of about 24 hours a mosquito bite became a massive spreading infection on my leg. After the IV and a few days on antibiotics I was left with nothing more than scar and a medical bill. Sweet.
We struck out north, seeing the ruins of the ancient capital of Ayutthaya and then moving on to Chiang Mai. Once in Chiang Mai we started crossing off all of the Thailand must-dos: we took a cooking class, saw some Muay Thai kickboxing and, of course, started getting Thai massages. After months of anticipation my first Thai massage wasn't exactly what I pictured - instead of a beautiful young woman, I was massaged by a funny-looking, bald and eyebrowless man who touched me in places I thought no man would ever touch. Other than that small hiccup our time in Chiang Mai was great. We would spend long leisurely mornings eating spicy green papaya salads and working on crosswords and sudokus. Later we might go for a stroll around the city,
followed by a relaxing massage. Our hotel even had a pool so Chiang Mai felt like a little piece of heaven!
From Chiang Mai we caught a local bus up to Pai, a small town in the northern hills filled with aging hippies and free spirited Thais. A truly unique mix of characters. We took yoga lessons from Mama, an aging Thai beauty queen who insisted that she was Indian. We also spent a couple of afternoons eating real cheeseburgers at a burger joint owned by a retired US air force pilot from Alaska, who was very careful that everything was just right ... including having real French's Mustard. We spent a lot of time cruising the countryside on our motorbike, exploring the local villages, swimming/sliding in the waterfalls, wandering through caves and drinking amazing ice coffees at roadside cafes. During these journeys we would often be approached by a sweet old village woman, who would hobble up and croak "You like smoke opium?", an offer we would always very politely decline. We decided to give the massage one more go and this time is was fantastic (I was massaged by a nice older
woman). We liked it so
much that by the end of our time in Pai we were going for 2 hours a day.
While in Pai we met a very helpful Swedish couple who had tonnes of great tips about places to eat and things to do. We have to admit that before long we had essentially stolen their identity, eating at all their (now our) favourite restaurants, hitting their (now our) favourite sites ... we even stole their favourite masseuses. The Swedes' best tip was letting us know about a festival in a tiny village about half an hour outside Pai. Apparently, the villages in this area take turns throwing parties to raise money for their wats (Buddhist temples). We hopped on our bike and made our way out to the village through the dark, bumpy and insect filled night. The fair was great fun and one of our first tastes of real Thai life. There were basic carnival games and the local talent showed their singing and dancing skills on a stage. The main event of the evening was a muay thai kickboxing tournament involving fighters from all the surrounding villages, starting with 9 year old kids (these kids were TOUGH). Each
village would pool its money and bet on their best fighters, and the winnings would be donated to the wat. We stood right next to the ring, so close that we would occasionally be spattered with the fighters sweat ... and possibly blood. What a night!
While in Pai we made an important discovery - "The Mangosteen". For those of you who haven't tried it, the mangosteen is nearly the perfect fruit. Inside a purplish red peel is a sweet white fruit that tastes like a citrusy peach (sort of). At under a buck a kilo, we spent a lot of time snacking on these little beauties.
We should also admit that while in Pai, we indulged in a shameful pleasure ... reading Dan Brown's 'The Davinci Code'. We know, its the literary equivilent of MacDonald's - you know its wrong, but its strangely addictive. We sat on our porch reading it aloud, eating mangosteens punctuating the end of each cliff-hanger chapter with "Dun dan Daaaaa!!"
After about a week, we reluctantly packed up and left our life in Pai, heading for Chiang Rai on our way to the Laos border. Our next great adventure was the
The Village Kickboxing Tournament
Everyman from all the surrounding villages was here betting on these fights. Gibbon Experience! You'll learn all about it in the next blog.
We should apologize for the boring pictures in this blog. We seem to have lost most of our pictures from this time, but there is some hope that we will have them on a DVD in Bangkok.
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UNDERWAY
Jim & Ann Blanchard
BKK and on to the North
Hey you guy's, You are in for a treat in Laos. In Luang Probang, go to the Elephant restraunt. There is one on the main street and another called the Two or Three Elephants on a side street. GREAT LAO FOOD. WWe were there in June and we loved Laos. Be sure to hit the night market in town also. We stayed at a place called the Grand Hotel, about 5 miles out of town and a cheep kip tuk tuk ride. See our travel blog re Laos and enjoy your time there. Are you going there by slow boat? recomended !!! Have a great time. Jim and Ann from Mukilteo, s. of Victoria. mytb.org/underway