Chiang Mai

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The night bus up to chiang Mei was rather uneventful but rather uncomfortable. The AC didn't work on the first bus and I was overheating while trying to sleep because of the humidity. The next bus, we switched 1/2 way through, had powerful AC that made everything too cold and I was freezing. It is odd to think you have to dress warm for the bus so you don't get sick. I met a couple cool people on the bus and have spent a few days with them. Chi from Manchester, Silvano from Austria, and a couple girls from America I met at Chiang Mei and I have been meeting lots of Brits and Israelis here as well.

We were picked up from the bus and taken to a guesthouse. A rather pushy guesthouse pushing their treks on people, asking for deposits, trying to give a free night of accommodation for booking trips. It was 6AM, I hated how they tried to steal business by taking you straight to THEIR guesthouse so I just upped and left with a couple of people to protests from these guys but just left and found a quieter, much nicer guesthouse for cheaper then they were charging. Their treks were minimum 1800 baht for a 2 day, maybe 2200 baht for a 3 day. I am going on a 3 day trek for 900 baht from a private tour company and it is exactly the same one they were offering. Sadly some people got sucked in and some people had troubles trying to get deposits back or other squabbles with these people from what I've heard so I am glad I didn't stay.

Our first day in Chiang Mei I spent with Silvano just walking around the town looking at temples which turned out to be quite amazing. Chiang Mei has almost as many temples as Bangkok does which is over 200 just within the city. I think I saw my favorite temples so far. Even better then Ayutthaya (spelling?). It was Wat chedi luang in the city. It was destroyed by an earthquake in the 1300 or 1500's and still in quite good shape. We sat and chatted with a uni student there trying to improve his English and later at Wat phra Signh with some monks also trying to improve their English so I talked Buddhism with them and we both asked each other plenty of questions. It is a fascinating religion that I would love to do some reading on because all I know is what I learned in high school in my world religions class. That night I just took it easy and went to bed early because I had booked a cooking class for the following day!

The cooking class was ok. The teacher was a crazy old lady with quite good English but I found her brash, full of herself and quite critical of western society saying that everything to do with family and life in Thailand was better. I argued with her a bit but she was quite adamant that no one ever sits around the table with their families and that no one shows they care for one another. I admit some do not but not in my experiences so I argued a bit but gave up because I didn't want to cause problems and she was an odd lady but at least I got some practice and know how in making curry and other wonderful foods. I find Thai cooking every sweet. They seem to have sugar in EVERYTHING! I got to practice some adventure cooking where you can make a dish in less than 3-4 minutes. You fry oil, put in some garlic, throw in veggies with some water and meet then you get a huge 6 foot high flame out of your wok and then you fry it up like crazy and you have a fresh plate of food prepared super fast. I went out for some drink that night with the Americans and the guys from the bus and went to a Thai boxing match. I have never seen so many lady boys as I did that night. They were all working the boxing as servers and said they would be our servers only until they had someone who wanted to take them home. I was quite thankful to be with a group of girls so it was easy to escape from them. We had a few drinks there and watched the fighting but it really was no different than Koh Phi Phi and we went out to a Reggae bar for some drinks and some partying.

The next day we nursed our hangovers and some people got tattoos then we headed up to Doi Suthep. It is a temple on top of a mountain over looking Chiang Mei and is an absolutely beautiful temple with heaps of gold and a beautiful misty view over the city. We spent an hour up there and then headed back for a lazy night because we had a three day trek set up and wanted to rest since we had an 8 AM start.

The first day of the trek was basically full of meeting the 11 other people on the trek including the American girls and the group. There was French, Chilean, Israeli, Canadian, British and our Thai guides on the trip. We stopped first at an orchid and butterfly farm which was far from impressive and then headed off to the long neck village. That was one of the oddest and more uncomfortable feelings of my life. Just being there with those people who basically destroy their bodies for tourism is quite a sad sight. They just sat in their little huts trying to sell you stuff in a voice that was nearly a whisper and showing you how they used to do things the 'traditional way.' They couldn't move much or fast and I don't think I saw anyone smile. It is a cultural practice outlawed where people put rings around their neck, wrists and ankles starting at age 5 and lasting till about 25 or 30 when they just can't put more on without injuring themselves. This practice is said to make the women prettier but means they are dependant on a caregiver and destroys their body. Of course moral dilemmas come out of such an issue but their lives are better in Thailand as tourist attractions than as refugees in Burma which is rather sad. You don't want to support such activity but then they likely would be worse off. I left early just because I found it a little bit difficult to deal with.

We went on a hike up through some beautiful backcountry to a village where we tried the strongest tribal tea ever and bathed in the river. We sat around the camp fire chatting and drinking beers till late into the night and headed to bed. The next day we got up and hiked a bit more until we got to the road, called for a pick up and went to the elephants. That was also a sad site because the Thai's are quite aggressive and many of us weren't happy with the treatment of these animals whether it was striking them with their 'training tool' or having short chains on their feet. We went for a ride on bamboo rafts down the river which was quite relaxing but if someone shifted their weight too much we started to sink which was always a fun experience. We got to bareback on the elephants neck which was fun but rather scary. The elephant’s help you out by tucking their ears back to help hold you in place otherwise you very likely would fall out while walking up or down the hills. They had heaps of blankets on their backs and a seat on their backs which didn't seem to phase them much. They are massive and impressive animals, quite intelligent and beautiful. We got to see a ten day old baby elephant and it would play tug of war with your hands, steal water bottle and try to step on them, run clumsily around and try to stick everything it could into its mouth.

We said goodbye to half our group then walked through a bunch of very sharp bushes which ended up scraping us up good and getting stuck in our clothes and spent two hours hiking in terrible heat and through the dense bush until we arrived at the second village. This one was much bigger but MUCH quieter. It was only us our guide and 2 village people. One was an old man who kept playing this crazy instrument and just sat listening to us all night even though he didn't speak any English and the other a man who boiled us fresh peanuts. There really was nothing to do here and things became more low key because there were only six of us instead of 12 so we played a bit of soccer over a volleyball net meant for a modified version of a hacky sack played by the Thai's and sat around telling ghost stories and playing some cards while people serenaded us with guitars. It seemed like a late night but when the sun sets at 6pm the night seems like it drags on quite long and a late night for everyone was around 9-9:30 pm.

Sleeping in bamboo huts isn't exactly the most enjoyable or comfortable experience. You are hidden by a mosquito net, there is a dull hum of bugs that sounds too large and scary to come out at night and you are under a duvet lying on a bamboo rug to stop the mosquitoes from coming up underneath. You also have a little pillow rather well used. I guess by Thai standards from older days it is rather luxurious but it is an experience I don't know how long I would want to repeat.

We left the huts after breakfast and went white water rafting. It really wasn't too exciting especially since rafting along the Bow River or Kicking Horse is so much more exciting. It was small rapids and lots of lazy paddling. Our guide was terrible at steering because he was too lazy to switch his paddle from side to side so we always got stuck on rocks... stupid man. From there we were carted off to town and dropped off. I hung around reading most of the day and enjoying the sun before heading to the rooftop bar again to meet people form the trek. We had a few drinks up there then traded contact details and left so we could get a good night sleep in some nice beds compared to our hard bamboo beds. I met a German man sitting in the bar alone and he came to join us. His name is Alex and he is changing jobs and moving to America. I got along quite well with him and ended up having a lazy day around town showing him the amazing Indian restaurant we found and showing him around the tow.

I think we got together quite well so maybe I will visit him in San Diego. I took him to the night bazaar before dropping him off at the Thai boxing ring to meet some people then we arranged to meet up with some people from the trek again at the rooftop bar. Again... On my way out I bumped into the British girl, Trudy, I met a couple of days before at the guesthouse and brought her out to the pub.

The next day I had a lazy day hanging around with Trudy, buying books, going on adventures into town to find interesting food and then she left me with a guy I met in my cooking class to check out a flower festival. I randomly bumped into the American girls form a few days before, spent the rest of the day hanging out with them and they convinced me to check out a Tiger Zoo with them. I was very skeptical because I thought the Tigers were drugged but when I got there they were running around in their area, fighting with each other a bit but obviously not drugged or out of it as they were jumping, running, and like I said play fighting with each other. They were well behaved and when a trainer called one it came and lay down for some photos with it. They were beautiful cats and quite large. They were all named after celebrities. Michael Jackson, Paula Abdul and I cannot remember the last but it may come to me later! We left to go home and then waited for the bus back to Bangkok.

This bus was more enjoyable than the last because there was controls on the AC, movies playing and heaps more room with blankets and everything! I almost missed my stop because they never announced anything and if I stayed on the bus my bag would have been left in the middle of the road... that would have been shit. Found a guesthouse and crashed. I can't sleep on these buses or on planes very well so I was quite tired.

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