Spent a quick day in Bangkok touring the city on a tuk-tuk (gems? perhaps a tailor-made outfit? special deal for you!) and absorbing the dirty, energized chaos that is the capital city.
Grabbed a bus, complete with pink frilly curtains and teddy bear blankets, north 10 hours to Chiang Mai and immediately left for three days on a guided jungle trek. Actually there wasn't much trekking but that was OK because its pretty hot (90's F) and very humid. The activities which included bamboo rafting and riding elephants were touristy but fun nonetheless. The northern landscape was a beautiful montage of waterfalls, bamboo bridges, elephants, water buffalo, and rice fields. However the air was quite hazy due to the slash-and-burn techniques used in the rice fields. The misquitos haven't been as bad as I feared, but deet is still a dear friend of mine. I've decided not to use the malaria pills until I get to more remote regions. 
I love this picture of the "remote" Thai village we stayed at on the trek...complete with motorbike and solar panel. The solar panels are curtousy of His Majesty King Bhumibol Adulyadej, the current king of Thailand who has been in power for over 60 years! He is very popular for his public works projects, which include financial incentives for the farmers to replace their opium production with other crops. There are billboard-size pictures of the king and queen posted in every town. If you criticize the royal family you can go to jail for up to fifteen years. After the trek I returned to Chiang Mai and participated in the water world that is the Songkran Festival, otherwise known as New Year's 2551 (after Buddha).
For three days the Thais celebrate New Years by throwing massive amounts of water on anyone and everyone. Pickup trucks loaded with families cruise the streets armed with buckets and water guns. The square moat around the city is lined with people diping buckets and filling up water pistols. Its IMPOSSIBLE to stay dry and is incredible fun - everyone is screaming, smiling and laughing. The only downside is that a lot of the water smells like toilet water or worse. After being doused in it over and over I'm just thankful I got that Typhoid shot!
Chaing Mai is a charming, walkable city full of amazing Wats and friendly people. One of the highlights of my trip so far was spending an afternoon talking with a Buddhist monk. The monks hold "office hours" to practice their English and westerners are free to ask questions about Buddhism, Thai culture, monk life, and anything else really. The monk I spoke with was in love with literature and just received a scholarship to study in Philadelphia. He was really funny and insightful and professed that KFC is his favorite food!
I love the way the monk's brilliant saffron robes brighten the cityscape.
Ahhh... foot massage with my Canadian friends. The Thais seem to treat massages as a necessary item to maintain a healthy lifestyle, rather than a special treat to pamper oneself. At 3 USD/hour for a massage I'm not going to argue with them.
The Canadian girls were incredible - they had both worked in Kenya and had wonderful and horrible stories. The corruption that exists there in all forms of power (even, or maybe especially, in the foreign funded NGOs) was eye-opening. One of the girls was there during the civil war following the December elections and was stranded for a month in the middle of the bloodshed. Truely some of the most chilling stories I have ever heard. Yet it was obvious that they both had fallen in love with Kenya, the land and people, and Africa in general. They have been following the latest news about Mugabe and Zimbabwe with the hope that the election results won't trigger the violence that happened in Kenya. Being abroad I hear a lot more world news than I do at home.
I'm enjoying Thailand immensely but still a little bit on sensory overload. Still haven't quite found my groove here. I've discoverd I can live a very comforatable Western lifestyle here for very little money, which is great and a welcome change from AUS and NZ.
Good Thai food from street vendors costs as little as 1 USD and I'm living it up in guesthouses with my own room and air con for about 12USD/night. The markets are incredible, such as the night market here in Chiang Mai. (I've fallen in love with the loose fitting Thai pants which are great for the hot weather and feel like I'm wearing PJ's all day.) However, living a western lifestyle is not the point of traveling and not very fulfulling. Hopefully I will get more immersed as the days progress. I'm trying to learn some Thai - if any Thai person wants to have a conversation that involves saying hello, good-bye, thank-you, counting to ten, mentioning bananas or cocoa plants, and calling something beautiful then I'm set.
1 comment:
Sounds like you're having a wonderful time! I'd be jealous, but I'm sure I'd be miserable there, so it's good that you're there, not me.
Take your malaria pills! A friend of mine lived in Chiang Mai for a year and ended up with malaria. You really don't want malaria. You don't ever get rid of it...
Don't all conversations involve bananas at some metaphysical level?
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