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Published: December 31st 2006
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Doi Suthep
This is very popular temple on the mountain, about 20km away from Chiang Mai. For anyone who's been backpacking before, you tend to meet a lot of people while on the road. Usually, you have a few beers together, talk about things in your respective countries, maybe exchange e-mail addresses, and then go your separate ways. But every once in a while you meet someone who's as fucked in the head as you are, and you just... bond. These are the type of people who usually become friends for life, and this is what happened to me and Rob at the Green Tulip.
The Green Tulip is a guesthouse located almost in the middle of old Chiang Mai. It's only been open for about two months now, but it will be in
Lonely Planet's list of recommended places to stay, I guarantee it. The building is bright green, newly renovated, has a beautiful rooftop garden, free internet, great staff, fair prices, and is so clean that it practically glows in the dark.
Rob and I stumbled across the Green Tulip during our first visit to Chiang Mai, while searching for some good eats. We came across this big green building and decided to check it out. The place looked great, and seeing how
we were going to come back to Chiang Mai once we got our passports re-stamped in Burma, we figured this could be a great place to stay for Christmas. Hell, they even had a Christmas tree set up for the big day! When we asked the lady at the counter to show us a room, she jumped up like a fire-cracker and tore up and down the stairs, showing us around and joking with us the whole time. This lady was Stella.
A little background on Stella. She is the manager and head cook of the Green Tulip, is 50 years old but looks like she's 35, and has more energy than any woman I've ever met - of any age. She's done a fair bit of travelling herself, having been to Europe four times, and is one of the coolest, most fun people I have ever met in my life! She's also durn-fool crazy, which explains why she, Rob, and I hit it off something fierce!
I didn't really do a whole lot in Chiang Mai this week, partly because I wanted to take it easy for Christmas, and partly because I got sick with tonsillitis and
Doi Suthep
Just a neat shot, so here you go! food poisoning a couple of days apart. Yay! Still, I managed to check out Doi Suthep (a temple up on the mountain, on the outskirts of town), most of old Chiang Mai, and went on a one day trek. The trek was really cool: we went to a small tribe town, took an elephant ride, hiked two hours to a waterfall, went white-water rafting for about an hour, then finished it off with a short bamboo raft ride (or bamboo submarine, as our guide called it - the raft sinks about six inches into the water once people start sitting on it).
The only bad thing about the trekking tour was that it was where I got the food poisoning, probably from a piece of watermelon or pineapple. Man, I wish that poisoning had kicked in an hour or two earlier than it did: I ate a bowl of Stella's fireball red curry for dinner, and that is not the kind of dish you want to be throwing up, unless you like firing chili peppers out of your nose while you spew. GAAAH!!! PAIN!!!
Thankfully, the Green Tulip is a pretty good place to be, even if you're
Rob & Stella
Watch out man! sick. Stella took good care of me, feeding me rice porridge and bread for the next few days, and the staff organized a great little Christmas shindig/gift exchange. We spent a lot of evenings hanging out there with Stella and Doug (her co-manager and a very cool guy) at night. We also hung out with a lot of the guests, going out to the markets or for a beer together, then heading back to the 'Tulip to watch a flick. On our last day, Stella took us on a little tour of Chiang Mai, then out for drinks later in the evening. That kind of stuff turns a bad week into a good one pretty quickly.
Unfortunately, all good things must come to an end, and Rob and I had scheduled a three day, two night slowboat trip to Luang Prabang, Laos, so we had to say goodbye. I have to say though, saying goodbye to Stella was one of the hardest things I've ever had to do. As the old saying goes, good friends are hard to find. Whether you are backpacking across the globe or putting down roots, it's rare that you actually find someone that's just
like you; who
gets who you are and what you stand for. Rarer still when they feel the same about you. That was the case between the three of us. When you find friendship like that, you gotta hold onto it, because it only comes around so often. So Stella, if you're reading this, I want you to know that you are a true friend, and you'll always have a special place both our hearts!
As for the slowboat trip to Luang Prabang, well, it was an interesting experience. It's a great way to see some terrific mountain scenery while slowly cutting through Laos on the Mekong River, but the boats are really crowded and there's always an asshole or two kicking around. I really enjoyed it, but I wouldn't do it again - mostly because the seats are solid plywood and the boat ride is two days, taking about 7 hours a day. If I didn't have my frilly pink totally-not-gay teddybear pillow, I'd still be picking splinters outta my ass!
Anyway, we've just arrived in Luang Prabang and it looks like it's gonna be a great place to stay. We came here with the Thompson's (Russ,
Feed Me!
Back off, get your own sandwich! Audrey, Bronwin, and Reese), a Canuck family from Victoria who was also staying at the 'Tulip, and Mike, an Aussie we met on the way to the boat. It's a little army of seven and we're all staying together for the time being, so it should be fun.
Anyway, Goulet had too many cherry pop tarts - I'M OUT! Happy New Year, everyone!
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Jeff Neeser
non-member comment
Happy New Year
Hi Tom I Don't know it your getting this. But my old gf is one evil that I will never go back to. That chick was hot that you met. I'm going to teach English over seas. any advice?