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Published: October 21st 2005
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Don't mess with the King of Thailand.. or any of the royal family, so says the guide books to Thailand. They are right, everyone is crazy obsessed with them in Bangkok. Huge pictures (we're talking 30 feet tall) abound around the city.
Speaking of Bangkok, it is a hugely chaotic place...Everyone's out to scam you, trying to sell you suits, tuk-tuk rides, and various other forms of...ahem..entertainment. We would walk to a temple and be pestered with people along the way, "oh the temple? closed, i show you some place else.." NO! we yell, and go on to the temple, which of course, is open. This cycle repeated itself over and over.
We met in New World Lodge, a place that was mediocre, but better than anything we would have stayed in elsewise. Met the group, who were comprised of a really cool Canadian couple, (Danny had a very thick Canadian/Minnesotan accent, which was hilarious), a hip older lady from England Pam, a Scottish 28 year old lass Eliadh, Greg (or as we call him, H.D. for hairdryer, because he spends copious amounts of time on his hair, and also has concealer in his tolietry bag..), Josh- was shy
at first, and then all the sudden, a burst of hilarity...Adam the smellier version of me, Jan the Man, Jordana my Jewish sarcastic befreckled twin, Me, the guide Tommy (who had this annoying habit of saying, "we'll meet in 19 minute 59 seconds, rather than just saying 20 minutes), another lady from england and Preeda.
Preeda...sigh. Preeda would shriek loudly at anything. After lunch on our hike, we decided to count how many times she'd shriek before dinner. I bet 238 shrieks, Jordana 150ish, and Adam like 200. Jordana won..but we all lost, if you know what I mean. Anyway, at least Preeda was really selfish.. Haha, I joke. Well, no she was, but everyone else was cooler than sliced bread.
Anyway, we walked around for dinner and all enjoyed the street vendor food. I had a corn on the cob, a pineapple, spring rolls, and a flat-pancake type thing with chocolate, all for about $2 US. The night markets sell knock-off everything...lucky i dont like to shop, otherwise, i think we all would have been in trouble.
The boys went to Thai boxing, which I hear is quite a spectacle.
The temples in Bangkok are
all very grand; gold and jewels and paintings abound...It was such a neat experience to actually be there, in the temples I've read about. Unfortunately, at most temples (except for the local, out of the way ones we managed to get to) commercialism is everywhere.
Tommy took us on a boat trip, and we stopped at an orchid farm, and Adam and I saw a water monitor lizard, which, of course, I was very excited about. We also fed the really big, huge, crazy catfish that inhabit the river...The gross river, full of trash, which people bathe and swim in, and also throw trash into and then eat the fish out of.. Yikes.. anyway, the fish are just getting bigger and nastier, i think, due to breeding- you gotta be nasty to get the bread that the Farangs (white people) toss out..
Sabai-dee, chok dee, lao long...(hello, good luck, so long) There is my thai.
Let's see.. Then we boarded the overnight train to Chiang Mai. I shared a compartment with Adam. A compartment, its actually pretty brilliantly engineered, is closet-sized, and has two chairs and an optional table. The chairs fold into the bottom bed, and
then the second bed flips down from the ceiling. Jan, Adam, Jor and I all had fun cramming into the chairs and trying to play cards.. We ended up just drinking some beer and then going to the "Disco" car where we talked to the other members of our trip.. A fun night, but then I had to sleep in the top bunk, which got extremely cold (it was right next to the AC) and also the curtains didn't cover the light from the hall way, so it was completely light!
So no sleep for the Caro-meister. Then, on the way back, I shared a compartment with Jan, and also got stuck with the top.. No sleep either.
ANYWAY- I tell you that story just to relate the experience of an overnight train in Thailand.. sort of sleazy, don't eat the food (its highway robbery for crap food) and make sure you get the bottom bunk.
In Chiang Mai, we went to our hotel, and then went on a tour to see the Paper factory, where the government is paying people to make traditional paper out of bark to try to keep Thai traditions going, 2 jewelry factories
(where the salesladies wouldn't leave me alone, and then tried to hound Adam to buy something for his "girlfriend", when we both protested, they came on even harder... As a girl who don't wear jewelry, it was very annoying. Then we went to the silk factory which was really interesting.. The silk worms make a cocoon- its this that the silk comes from.. The worms die in the process, but nobody seemed to mind. Weaving the silk is a very complicated process that requires a lot of athletic ability, as the whole body is used in working the loom. At each stop, of course, there was a place to purchase items. 😊. For us, we always were told we would get a special price..
Bargaining was something to get used to- Adam hated it at first and then he became very adept. Jordana probably takes the cake on the best bargaining- a combo of being Jewish, someone who don't take nothing from nobody, and being used to Asia already, as she's studying abroad in Singapore.
To keep this entry from being pages and pages long, this will be part 1.
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