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Published: June 19th 2006
After I came back from the Trek I spent a few more nights in Chaing Mai resting up and trying to get over a bit of a cold I had picked up. For my last night in Chaing Mai I met up with my two dutch friends from the Trek and their Thai friend Phang (whom I am convince is a lady boy). Phang took us out to a true Thai disco club called Warm Up, and the Dutch and I where pretty much the only none Thia people in the whole place. It was actually a lot more fun then most of the other pubs or bars I have been to. The Thai at this club had this obsession with giving each other a cheers and clanging glasses. Honestly it's ridiculous I think I probably cheered each person in that bar 100 times each. At first I thought it was some kind of joke but when you look around the bar everyone was cheersing everyone else all the time. Sometimes there would two cheers in a row without even a drink in between, it was very odd to say the least. All the big bars in Thailand close down at 12:30 ish, so after Warm Up closed down Phang took us to another small bar close to our guest houses, and this one was full of blatantly obvious lady boys. I have heard from so many people that it's extremely hard to tell, this bar must have been full of all the rejects because it was blandly obvious that each of of these "girls" where boys at heart. So after tens minutes at that bar I had enough and went home to bed.
The next day I took a trip of to a small village called Pai. The trip up here took around 4 hours in a mini buss, and honestly this highway puts Canada sea to sky highway to shame. It's pretty much 4 hours up hill on a twisty road, but there was lots of neat things too look at during the drive. Pai is a hippie town situated in a small flat area between two mountain tops. It has beautiful scenery in pretty much every direction that you look. The thing about Pai is there really isn't anything to do here, and that's the beauty of it. There are two small main strips with restaurants and guest houses, and that's about it. Yesterday I rented a scooter and went swimming in a waterfall with some Israeli girls I met in Chaing Mai, today it's almost 4:00 and I really haven't done a thing, and my big event of the day is at 4:30 when I am going for my hour long foot massage. I have talked to people who said they have gotten stuck up here for weeks, but I really don't see how you could, because there is really nothing to do. I am leaving in the morning and have a few days of travelling ahead and should be hitting the Laos border on the 21st of June, stopping back in Chaing Mai and Chaing Rai on the way.
Since this entry is pretty short I thought I would write about a few random things I am surprised I haven't' written about already.
Asia Toilets: I am not sure if anyone has had the pleasure, and I do mean pleasure of seeing one or even using an asia toilet before. But if you haven't I will describe one for you, more or less it's a toilet bowl that has been sunken into the ground so that the lip of the bowl is at ground level. Then there are two distinctly marked spots right on top sides of the bowl where you are suppose to put your feet. At a first glance I wasn't exactly sure what to do, so I went with my first instinct and hovered over top with my feet on the feet pads. After a few near misses or close calls I soon realised that hoovering wasn't the way to go about it. So after a few conversations with fellow travellers I was told that the key is to squat, the lower the better. What a difference that made, once you get down there everything just seems to line up geometrically and everything just seems natural and quite enjoyable. I really think they should have instructions on how to properly use them posted on the wall. I now think that I might even miss Asia toilets when return back to Canada.
Wild Dogs: Thailand is full of wild dogs, no matter what city I have been you can't look into the street without seeing some sort of wild dog or cat walking around. They are extremely territorial and as you walk down a street at night you always see some kind of dog fighting over who owns which land. The islands were especially bad at night the beach's would be covered with all different dogs running around fighting each other and trying to find scraps of food.
Ok well it's almost time for my foot massage so I should sign out. I won't be on the computer for probably 5 or 6 days. When I get to Laos I am trying to get a spot in something called the gibbons experience. Which is a three day trek in northern Laos where they try to show you how the gibbon Monkey lives. I have heard great things from many people about it, it's a little expensive but from what I hear it's well worth it.
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Joep Diening
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Gibbons ...Here You Come!
Lieve Jos, Thanks for your continued travelblog- everyone finds it really interesting. You certainly have experienced a range of experiences so far and you are only one month into it. I think that by the time you come back, you will have a somewhat different outlook on the world. Enjoy the Gibbon Experience and hang on to your stuff while out there. We look forward to hearing from you on this next part of your walkabout. HVL, Mom and Dad