Pad thai with an elephant

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Sitting in my Emergency Exit Oman Airways (£470 return to Bangkok) flight, on the second leg of a journey taking me from the recently Autumnised “She Bush” to the heat and humidity of Bangkok, the lady in the seat next me and I started a conversation.

I recall it was over the breakfast served after we hit 42,000feet in the skies above Muscat and at about 5am UK time. She was travelling from Berlin to Thailand with her partner – a 6:5ft giant hulk of a German who had every right to be in the Emergency Exit aisle as I don’t think he could have physically fitted anywhere else (not sure how I scored such a win). 10 days for them down on the Thai peninsula…. The question came: “So, how long are you in Thailand for?”.I explained that I was at the beginning of a 3 month adventure around SE Asia.

Then the inevitable next question “And you are alone?”. “Yes”, I replied, with a sigh, “I am travelling alone, with no plan or itinerary just a vague idea of the countries I wish to go to and the knowledge that I will undoubtedly meet people on the way. Everyone I kow who has travelled to SE Asia says it is very straightforward so I am not worried. I have travelled alone now a lot”.

“But, do you not get lonely?” she enquired, with a sympathetic look on her face.

“Ask me in 3 months” I responded.

Waking up the following morning at 4am in my Bangkok Guesthouse in my own room with no sound apart from the tail end of the monsoon battering down on the banana plants in the garden outside and the fan whirring madly circulating the limited air, I couldn’t have felt more alone.

In fact I would add I felt daunted, overwhelmed and terrified. People often say to me when I describe my adventures of the past few years “gosh, you are so brave…so courageous”. I dismiss this with a flit of the hand. “Of course it’s not brave” I say.

At first, my sabbatical in 2009 and 2010 was under the auspices of organised over-landing tours and I was way too lacking in confidence to even go to Buenos Aires alone. Gradually, confidence grew in me and I started little forays alone – be it in Kenya, Chile, Brazil, Uruguay or Ecuador. However, these were for days, weeks at a time not months and I always had a point of reference or friends to return to. Here in bawdy Bangkok, I was totally alone with not a soul to lean on, no friends to return home to and the prospect of 3 months ahead of me.

Three cheers for netbooks and Skype is all I can say and my buddy Fiona who got me through what was quite simply a fairly unpleasant evening where I worked myself up into an anxious panic. Remember your first day at school or the start of a new job where you know no one and nothing and it’s all just startlingly intimidating…well, welcome to Bangkok baby!

3 days later I am sitting in the peaceful garden of the Mohito Guesthouse in Chiang Mai – some 750kms north of Bangkok and feeling much calmer, adjusted and looking forward to the adventure ahead of me. I have met a lovely German girl (my Eva Breuer of SE Asia!) called Sandy who also is travelling alone for 6 months and we have flown North together because tomorrow we start a week’s volunteering in the Elephant Nature Park, some 60kms north of the town (http://www.elephantnaturepark.org/volunteer/chiangmaivolunteer.htm) where our daily 7am wake up call will see us assisting with the conservation work of the foundation. We will be bathing, feeding and giving basic health care to rescued or orphaned elephants. Eeek! The volunteering doesn’t come cheap….it’s a way for the organisation to raise money for their project so I am paying some £250 (12000 baht) for the privilege of sleeping in the mosquito ridden wet jungle, hanging out and helping to rehabilitate the endangered Elephas maximus indicus!

Such is the joy of not having a plan or an itinerary. Sandy and I got chatting on a sticky Bangkok morning where 5 mins after you have had a cold shower, the sweat is already dripping down your calves and the hair on the nape of your neck is damp. In my dazed and confused state (be it jetlag or solo travelling angst) I latched on to her and her to me and so far, so good. We are now sharing a room at the Mohito paying a mere £2 (100 baht) each a night for a charming wooden cabin complete with sheets, towels, soap and even a fan. For another £2 we could have gone for the luxury of air conditioning but both of us want to acclimatise as quickly as possible. Going from a falsely cool room into the truly deadening heat of the day is not going to make it easy to adjust to the jungle.

Chiang Mai is a world away from the pollution, crowds and hecticness of Bangkok which totally threw me. I will be returning there at least 2 more times on this trip and have no doubt I will see the sights but for now, the big, bustling capital city with its crazy tuk-tuk drivers, lady boys and ping-pong girls can wait.
Today, we ambled through the back streets of the town stumbling across glistening gold wats (temples) filled with praying ocre robed monks, intricate carved buildings with Thai children playing traditional instruments and then I stepped into my own little place of heaven…. A massage studio. For 150 baht (c£3), I lay back under the breeze of a solitary fan whilst a Thai lady worked miracles on my feet. 1 hr of pedi attention…oh yeah baby followed by a glass of freshly squeezed passion fruit juice.

The elephant volunteer program may be a bit of a dent on the budget but the cost of living here is unbelievably cheap. Accommodation – I have already alluded too. Whilst the food? Plates of steaming hot fresh Pad Thai for 30 baht from street hawkers. Street food is the only way to do it here…fresh, sizzling with aromas curling into the night sky like the smoke from a slow burning mosquito coil…the kaffir lime leaves, the lemongrass, the galangal all mix to create a heady scent in the air. Washed down with bottles of Chang, Singha or Leo Thai lager (the former is my favourite though just discovered its 6.4%) for 50 baht a pop.

Tonight the Sunday Walking market started from 4pm and as the sun set over the temples the streets near to us filled with vendors selling a range of goods – from fresh sushi stalls with fish so fresh it could have jumped into your mouth to crunchy fried dumplings. From tourist tat to beautiful handcrafted silks and carvings. I’m not a shopper, materialism isn’t my thing but when I get into a market abroad I want to buy cushion covers, drapes, sculptures etc! I restrained myself. I’m a mere 5 days in to this trip and I have to be realistic about what I can carry through Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia but once back in Bangkok, I’ll be whipped into a shopping frenzy with the best of them!

So, from feeling like I want to run away from the unknown to feeling like I want to embrace it and lap it up….it is looking good.
I don’t know what kind of wifi access Ill have over the next week so for now, “Gui lah hui mi a de Akha” as they say in these parts.

Han xx

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