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Week 43 - Y2 (Dec 24th to Dec 30th) |
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Sunday, Dec. 24:
It's Christmas Eve day! Doesn't feel like it at all .
. .
Today we got all covered up appropriately to visit the
Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha. Again, it was
similar to Wat Po-- beautiful, but kind of gaudy and
very glittery/shiny-- I prefer Korean and Japanese
architecture so far! Anyway, it was good for a look
around, but we didn't stay too long. The Emerald
Buddha was pretty impressive-- it was discovered in
the 15th century inside of a plaster Buddha-- it had
been hidden away for God knows how long!
For the rest of the afternoon, we did some solo
shopping, as we had agreed to buy Christmas presents
for each other, to help it feel a little more like
Christmas. Coincidentally, Ryan and Lindsey ran into
Morgan and Nicole, a couple that they had gone to
school with in Canada, and then also coincidentally
ran into in Daegu-- isn't it weird to run into someone
you know in a country on the other side of the world .
. . twice??!! After dinner, we met up with them at
their hostel to hang out for awhile and catch up.
None of us really wanted a night out, so we went
around to a few different hostel lounges, as most of
them show movies in the evening. Nothing good was
playing, so we tried to watch a DVD that Morgan had
bought of "The Departed" at our hostel, but it was too
loud, and I couldn't concentrate, so I just went up to
bed.
Bangkok is alright, but I'm ready to move on! We're
running out of things to do here, but we don't want to
travel on Christmas Day, so we're going to stay until
the 26th.
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Monday Dec. 25:
It's Christmas! I can hardly believe it, it doesn't
feel like it all. It's any old regular day on Khao
San Road in Bangkok.
Lindsey woke Ryan and I up by dangling plastic bags
filled with newspaper wrapped things in our faces--
our improvised Christmas stockings! Including such
cheap essentials as Kleenex, chocolate, soap . . .
Then we exchanged our real presents, all things that
we had found in Bangkok. Lindsey gave me a fabric
handbag, and Ryan gave me this ball lights that I had
been looking at for the past couple of days.
We splurged a little on a nice breakfast (when I say
splurge, I mean that we spent like, 5 extra cents.
Thailand is so ridiculously cheap!). Since there
wasn't really anything else that we wanted to see in
Bangkok, we just found a guesthouse lounge with cheap
drinks and played cards for a couple of hours-- Mai
Tai cocktails sitting on a patio under palm trees on
Christmas Day! That's a first.
Ryan's cousin Jeff backpacked all over Southeast Asia
when he was younger, and ended up marrying a Thai
girl, Lek. Since they had made plans to be in
Thailand for Christmas, we arranged to meet up with
them (I'm starting to go through cell-phone
withdrawal-- this would have been much easier to plan
with a phone!) Anyway, finally Jeff and Lek found us
and we picked up Morgan and Nicole and went for an
awesome dinner. Jeff and Lek took us to this
beautiful restaurant on the riverfront, right by the
new bridge that had beautiful lights and a nice little
guitar trio playing-- it was gorgeous! We pretty much
let Jeff and Lek do the ordering, and the food was
delicious-- grilled snapper, papaya salad, glass
noodles, sweet and spicy soup, giant prawns . . . it
certainly pays to be in Bangkok with someone who knows
Thailand! Unfortunately though, the food did make me
feel a little sick. I knew it was coming eventually--
I have a sensitive stomach, and I knew that travelling
meant I would be eating some things that me feel sick.
So I was a little nauseated, btu I hung in there!
After dinner, Jeff and Lek wanted to take us to a
specific bar, but our taxi drivers could not figure
out where it was, so we ended up driving around for
awhile. The whole time I was kind of like, Damn, we
just really splurged on our meal (the equivalent of
$15, which is a lot in Thailand), and now the taxi
meter's running up . . . But Jeff took care of the
taxi, since we didn't actually reach our destination.
We did finally find the bar on foot, however. It
looked like a hole in the wall from the outside, but
actually had a ton of character. There was a rooftop
patio with an awesome view of a golden temple. I was
still feeling pretty sick, so I wasn't drinking, but
the cocktails looked pretty yummy . . .
When that bar closed at last-call, we went back to the
lounge at Morgan and Nicole's hostel for some cheap
drinks (Khao San is the only neighbourhood in Bangkok
that doesn't have last call). Funnily enough, we met
two Korean guys from Daegu! They didn't speak much
English, but it was fun to use our limited Korean too.
Crazy-- first we run into Morgan and Nicole, then two
guys from Daegu . . small world!
Anyway, it was great having Jeff and Lek there to show
us a less touristy side of Bangkok-- we were all
craving it! Khao San road is driving me crazy-- total
touristy meat market, and the vendors are so
aggressive, and always trying to scam you out of more
money and . . . well I'm really ready to get out
Bangkok!
Merry Christmas everyone!
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Tuesday Dec. 26:
Another slow start today-- Ry and Linz a little
hungover, and me still a little nauseated, and all
three of us really wanting to move on from Bangkok.
We didn't have anything to do in the afternoon, so
again, we just ended hanging out at a patio bar
playing cards, and counting down the hours til our
very long bus ride. At 6 pm, we went to our travel
agency to board an overnight bus to Chiang Mai-- 11
hours! Good god! They're supposed to be VIP buses,
which means aircon and a movie, but that doesn't
change how bloody uncomfortable sleeping on a bus is.
Anyway, Morgan and Nicole wanted to get on the same
bus, but because it was last minute, and the travel
agent knew she could get away with it, she charged
them more than she charged us! I hate Khao San . . .
Then we had to walk up the street with all our stuff
to collect more travellers, then walk a little farther
to the bus stop, all the while my back is killing me
because my backpack is cheap as hell and doesn't have
enough back support. Anyway, we finally got to the
bus-- it was a double decker bus, which I thought was
kind of funny. It was a long, uncomfortable ride,
punctuated by the movie "Catwoman", which could
possibly be the worst movie ever made . . .
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Wed, Dec. 27:
7 am-- our arrival in Chiang Mai. It's way colder up
here, and I didn't sleep at all on the bus. Strangely
enough, the bus dropped us off outside of the city
centre, and then there were truck taxi things to take
us into town-- basically trucks with long benchs in
the pickup part, covered with canvas and some steel
framing. Here's the part that was kind of sketchy--
they were offering everyone free rides, but each
"samlaw" (truck taxi) was sponsered by a different
guest house, so I was suspicious that this was a ruse
to force into staying at a specific guest house.
Warily, we took one, and it actually turned out
alright; we weren't forced into anything at all
(although the hostel guy gave a pretty hard sell). So
we took off, not really knowing where we were going,
in search of a better deal on a hostel. We did find
one, but it took us a long time, and my backpack was
killing my back (next time I'm going to splurge on a
good backpack-- well worth the investment) We ended
up at Banana Guesthouse, which has a great reputation,
and is in the Lonely Planet book-- so far so good!
We all crashed out for a couple of hours, and when we
got up, we went on the hunt for overnight treks-- this
is what most travellers do in Chiang Mai. There's
tons of hiking, water rafting, elephant trekking,
camping, hill tribe overnight stays, so on. It turned
out that the best deal was actually from our own
guesthouse, so we signed up for an overnight trek to
the Karen hill tribe village. Since I'm pretty much a
city girl through and through, I was actually pretty
nervous about this. I can walk all over Seoul in high
heels, but hiking through the jungle? I wasn't too
sure about it . . .
After we got that all sorted out, we walked for about
a half an hour to a beautiful temple. The temple
architecture is a lot different up north, much more of
a Burmese influence--less glitter and more beauty! At
this particular temple, there was a program called
"Monk Chat", where foreigners can sit and talk with
the Buddhist monks. It gives the monks a chance to
practise their English. So we sat down with a 24 year
old monk, originally from Laos, and learned all about
his life, Buddhism, philosophy . . . it was really
cool. The thing that I loved the most was that he
didn't try to push Buddhism on us-- Buddhism is about
being a good person, religious or not. It's pretty
hard to believe that this monk is younger than I am,
and his life is so, so different from mine . . .
We took a samlaw back to our neighbourhood, and found
a guesthouse that was showing "Borat" so we had a nice
relaxed movie night-- early morning tomorrow, we need
to get lots of sleep!
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Thurs., Dec. 28, Fri., Dec. 29:
We got up bright and early this morning for our trek.
It turned out that 2 Japanese guys wanted to go too,
so we had 7 people plus our guide. First we drove to
a market to get some supplies (flashlights, snacks,
bug spray), and then we drove about 2 hours out of the
city to the national park Doi Inthanon (which is the
highest mountain in the region) It was a long bumpy
ride, especially considering that the roads are not in
particularly good condition. We stopped in a tribe
village for lunch, and then we were off into the
woods. At first, I was terrified-- I don't really
have hiking shoes, and my Pumas were sliding all over
the place, especially on the downhill portions. But
our guide made me a walking stick to help give me some
extra balance. We hiked through some relatively
challenging terrain (lots of steep climbing) for aobut
3 hours until we reached the top-- the view was
beautiful! We were right at the top overlooking this
lush green valley and more mountains in the distance.
There are so many shades of green here, it's
incredible. We walked for another hour or so to get
to a waterfall that was also incredibly beautiful.
Getting down to the waterfall was terrifying though--
it was a very steep climb down on damp soil. At one
point we actually had to grab onto vines for support.
Unfortunately for me, my poor shoes meant that I
slipped a little while crossing the river, and got
slightly damp on one side! Fortunately no injuries
though, not even a bruise.
We hiked for another 2 hours on easier ground to get
to the Karen hill-tribe village where we would be
sleeping that night. 6 hours of hiking! I didn't
think I was capable . . .
The village was very remote, and quite small, with
stilt houses that had banana leaf roofs. There was
running water, but no electricity. All seven of us
were to stay in a long bamboo hut that had raised
bamboo platforms for sleeping. The village people
were great to us. Right away, they set us up in front
of the campfire, and gave us beer to celebrate our
first succesful day of hiking. I was worried before
the trek that the village was going to be touristy,
but the village that we stayed in rarely has visitors,
and our guide is actually from that tribe-- his uncle
was our host for the night!
The tribeswomen cooked us quite the elaborate meal--
vegetable soup, chicken stir fry, pork and red curry--
there was so much food, we didn't know what to do with
all of it! And it was delicious, definitely one of
the best meals I've ever had. After dinner, we all
sat around the campfire and hung out, drinking a
little bit of beer, asking questions about the
village. The Karen tribe is the largest hill tribe
in Thailand, and actually quite a few of them are
refugees from Burma (Myanmar). Historically, their
main produce has been vegetables, corn and opium.
(The whole northern region of Thailand is known as the
Golden Triangle for the area of land where the Thai,
Burmese and Laotian border meet-- infamous for opium
production!) However, in recent years, Thailand has
cleaned up its image a lot, and the police have really
been cracking down on opium production and use. The
women, in addition to their regular chores, also
produce a lot of handicrafts, in particular, woven
scarfs and cloths.
When we settled in for the night, we were given
sleeping bags and blankets-- it's a whole lot colder
in the north part of Thailand! And actually, even
with 2 blankets and a sleeping bag, I was still cold.
The roosters woke us up early in the morning, and we
had a leisurely breakfast around the campfire. Then
the Karen women laid out all of their crafts for us to
look at and purchase. They were just beautiful.
Apparently each cloth takes about 2 weeks to complete,
and they sell them for $4.50! I wanted to buy a lot,
not only because of the high quality, but because I
wanted to support the tribe. Part of the money from
our trek goes towards building an elementary school
for the Karen children.
After we said our goodbyes and thank yous (in Karen,
it's "dabut"), we were off for another day of hiking.
The hike started nice and easy, and actually the whole
day was a lot easier stamina-wise, but the terrain was
really scary at parts! For most of the hike, we were
walking along a really narrow path on the side of a
cliff. There were also some really steep climbs down,
which were especially difficult with my shoes, and
some difficult river crossings. To make things a
little more challenging, Ryan had a slight knee injury
that was making it difficult for him to walk without
pain. We finished the 3 and a half hours succesfully
though! I was really proud of myself for completing
my first long trek . . .
From the end of our hike, we were picked up by the
driver and taken to the elephant camp. We had opted
out of the elephant ride (Ry and Linz want to do it in
Laos), but the two Japanese guys wanted to go, so we
just hung around and played with the elephants.
Elephants are cool! They're huge, but very friendly
and sweet. My favourite was this little guy who kept
on swaying and kind of dancing.
After the elephants, we went on a bamboo raft down the
river-- very peaceful and relaxing (although we did
almost tip a few times, and by this time it was late
afternoon and the water was cold)-- a good way to end
our trek! Then finally, it was the long 2 hour drive
back to our guesthouse in Chiang Mai. I'm really glad
that I did this-- it's not the kind of thing that I
would have done on my own, but it was a really
valuable experience, and gave me the best idea of what
Thailand is really all about.
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Sat., Dec. 30:
We left our hostel in the late morning to try to get a
bus to Pai. Pai is a small town even farther north in
Thailand, quite close to the Burmese border. It's
renowned for being kind of a "hippie" town, and
attracts a lot of long-term expats. However, it's
quite difficult to get to-- there's only two options.
First, you can take the overpriced and overcrowded
minibuses that leave from all the hostels. Or you can
take this rattly death trap of a bus that doesn't
leave a whole lot of breathing room. We opted for the
second choice. Unfortunately for us, half of the
foreigners in Chiang Mai apparently did too. We
didn't get on the 10:30 bus, but by some stroke of
luck, we managed to get the last seats on the 12:30
bus (Morgan and Nicole are still with us, so we're a
pack of 5 at the moment). They weren't kidding about
the bus: I took one look at it and wasn't convinced
that it was going to make it out of the parking lot!
The bus was crammed full, and all five of us were
jammed into the tiny back row. The road to Pai is
kind of crazy-- 4 hours of twisty-turny steep mountain
roads-- not reccomended on a full stomach. However,
it also provided some of the most beautiful mountain
scenery that I've ever witnessed with my own eyes.
When we got to Pai, it turned out to be a really
chilled out small town. Problem is, everyone wanted
to be there for New Year's, and finding somewhere to
sleep was a huge, huge problem. After about an hour
of all five of us looking around, Nicole and I sat
down at a cafe with the bags while Ryan and Lindsey
and Morgan looked for a guesthouse with ANY
availability at all. Nicole and I waited for almost 2
hours . . . During this time, we were surprised at
how much kinder and mellower people are up here. We
got so many nice offers when people heard about our
predicament. One guy offered to put all 5 of us up in
his tiny tent. Another guy told us that his brother
could come pick us up and take us to his place in the
mountains. Here's where we ended up sleeping-- in a
conference room in the government tourist office!
Apparently there were about 15 other people who
couldn't find beds either, so the tourist office
provided us with blankets and let us sleep there for
free! Not what we were expecting, but definitly
worked out in our favour!
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