Week 7 and 8 Thailand

Continued from before… I've been saving this up for a while so this post is really long.

Some of the sites in Bangkok where a little less impressive such as Thai Boxing and Wats (Buddhist Temples). I went to Thai Boxing on a Saturday night. They had pricing for locals (200baht) and foreigners (1000 baht). The place was empty, but the boxing was pretty good. There were a number of knock outs. Wats in Bangkok out number churches in Calgary. Wats are very similar to each other and often feature large gold Buddha's and many small Buddha's (they are everywhere). It's amazing how much money is spent on donations to Buddha. It is common to see plates of food and drinks in front of a Buddha statue.

After Bangkok I headed off to Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya was the capital of Thailand many years ago until Burma sacked it. The temples or ruins of Ayutthaya are hundreds of years old. I spent a whole day touring them and by the end of it I was pretty tired of temples. The temples are mostly brick and are often characterized by one large Buddha several (in some cases hundreds) of small Buddha's then a few large towers. Most of the temples cost 30 baht, but with that you basically can see and do anything (like climb up large towers).

From Ayutthaya I took a 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai (sleeper train with fan). I'm getting use to trains now and I had a pretty good rest. I had booked my hotel and a trek in Bangkok so upon Arrival in Chiang Mai I was picked up at the airport and sent to a fairly nice hotel (nicest one since the Philippines). This hotel cost around 15 dollars a night it had AC, TV (one channel had English) and hot water. That night I went for supper at this tourist show. Everything at the show was very expensive (like every tourist area I've been). I've decided that I enjoy street stand food better then any restaurant food I've had so have now decided that that's the only way I'm going to eat in Thailand. My favorite food is noodle soup, partly because it's the easiest thing to order and also the cheapest but also because it's been one of my favorite meals. On the street all you have to do is point out the noodle you want. The soup comes with rice noodles, some meat and vegetables and a few sauces you can put on it. It costs 20 baht (roughly 70 cents).

The next day I started a three day trek by Chiang Mai (It was all pre arranged and I'm not even sure what park it was). I started out with two girls, one was a photographer from Japan who was traveling by her self the other was from Finland and was traveling with her boyfriend. The girl from Finland had gotten food poisoning the day before so her boyfriend had gone on the trek ahead of her, because of this we were setting out the opposite way from usual so that they could meet up that night. The first part of the trip was a bamboo ride down a river. It was pretty fun. I was giving a bamboo pull to try to steer the rear of the raft and I sorta got the hang of it. I knew I was suppose to do something when our guide who had a poll in the front of the boat looked back and gave me a look.

After rafting we started on our trek. I have been walking most of this trip so the trekking was pretty easy. Still the pace and terrain was a good challenge and I enjoyed the walk. It was nice traveling in such a small group as it gave good opportunity to get to know everyone including the two Thai trekkers. The first night we stayed in a Village. It was pretty authentic, lots of pigs, chickens, cows, dogs and kids. The villagers lived off the land and made money from selling food at markets and selling drinks to the foreigners who came by about twice a week. The next day the two girls I was with headed back (they were only doing a two day hike) and I continued with the two guides. It was great to go hiking alone with the guides and I enjoyed talking with them. It was a pretty short hike especially considering we were able to go a little faster with just the three of us then the day before. We picked mushrooms on the way to eat for dinner.

When we go to camp we relaxed for most of the afternoon until another group of hikers came in. This group was about 10 people. I got a different perspective of farang (white rich people in Thai, has a negative connotation) then I had before because I was with the Thai guides. When the group came in all the white people talked with each other and all the Thai people talked with each other. I was with the Thai's. They talked about the farang (mostly about the girls who they pointed out to me. I enjoyed some mushroom soup then sat down with the other white people to enjoy supper. There were a couple lesbians from Holland, 4 UK guys, 1 Canadian from Vancouver, an older New Zealand lady and a couple (who I didn't find out where they were from). Like I said in a previous post you meet and experience a lot more when traveling alone. With this group the travelers who were in groups had there own conversations and didn't join in or attempt to bring in anyone else into their conversations. I on the other hand had a lengthy conversation with the two girls from New Zealand and Canada who were also traveling alone. It seems like all the lone travelers are either young women or old men. I've met very few young men traveling alone.

The next day we hiked out, went for lunch, then rode elephants. Riding elephants would have been a lot of fun, but they didn't look like they were treated very well and the whole time I rode on it I felt sorry for the poor elephant. After elephant riding we went back to the hotel where I enjoyed one of the nicest showers on my trip. After the shower and a short nap, the girl from Canada (who was staying at a different hotel) came by and we went out for dinner and some drinks.

Following the trek I booked a 1 day cooking class. In the morning we went to the market decided what we were going to cook (we each choose 7 dishes) and watched as our teacher bought some things for cooking. Cooking was really fun. We got to cook all 7 dishes from scratch then eat them. I could only eat about a quarter of everything I cooked. We got recipe books and I plan on doing a lot more Asian cooking when I get back to Calgary. Thai food has definitely been the best food in Asia. It's unfortunate that I won't be going to Vietnam on this trip because I'd love to follow up this cooking class with a Vietnamese cooking class.

The following day I headed to Chiang Rai where I planned to rent a motor bike. Chiang Rai was a very nice city with very few Farang. The white people that were there were older men (probably looking for Thai women). I didn't really fit in with the white people in Chiang Rai and frequently got bad looks from these old white Americans. They were probably worried that I was going after their 20 year old Thai women. The next day I rented a motorbike.

In Chiang Rai I witnessed the start of the monsoons that usually hit Thailand in June. While motor biking north of Chiang Rai I marked the event by looking down at my gas meter to find it was pointed at empty. I had earlier decided to rent a motorbike after getting advice from a friend (Andrew Essex) who had done this trip a year before. He had mentioned that it was the best part of his trip and after talking to several other travelers that agreed that renting a motorbike is a lot of fun I decided on doing it. I hadn't ridden a motorbike before but that didn't trouble the rental company. At first it was a little awkward making turns but I got the hang of it amazingly fast and was soon on my way to the golden triangle (where Myanmar, Thailand and Laos meet).

It was fun to drive instead of being driven for a change and I had no trouble getting use to traffic in northern Thailand. Having been use to seeing cars drive on the other side of the road I didn't make any turning into oncoming traffic mistakes. I was pretty unimpressed with the golden triangle and opted to get some lunch (my usual noodle soap) and head off for some more driving which I was enjoying. I decided to slowly head back to Chiang Mai taking a longer route back. The terrain North West of Chiang Rai had a lot more hills then directly North East of Chiang Rai (where the golden triangle is). I enjoyed riding my bike and made few stops (it was a fairly long way back). I filled up once as I went (50 baht to fill the tank, 1.70 Canadian). It rained a little as I went but I got passed the clouds and continued to ride until about 2:30pm when I noticed that clouds were closing in all around me. I had passed my last gas station and city about 25 km's back and still have 40 to go until the next city. The terrain at this point was large hills (nearly mountains). It was at this unfortunate point that I realized my fuel gauge was pointed at empty and that I had potentially 40 kms to go to the next gas station. It soon started to pour, but I didn't take much notice to how wet I was because all I could think of was my bike stalling as I approached a hill. Few things come to mind when its pouring rain and you are on a motor bike in the middle of no where with the nearest English speaking Thai is 40 kms away, and night is just 4 hours away. First I noticed the pillars that were every km and marked how far to the next major city. I read somewhere that it takes the average person 1 hour to walk 4 km and so soon I was figuring out how many hours it would take to walk to the next city and back to my motor bike. Realizing that at this point that that was 20 hours of walking the next thing I did was pray that I was going to make it to the next city. Next I thought about what I would do if my bike stalled. I figured that I'd park it on the side and walk trying to wave down someone that could take me to the next city. Realizing how difficult that could be the next thing I did was pray that my bike would make it to the next city. About 15 kms later while passing by a few houses I saw a hut with a few women in it. I decided to stop and ask them where the next gas station was. First I told them in English then pointed to my bike and showed them a sign of a gauge pointed down. After a long puzzled look she held up four fingers and pointed ahead. hmm I thought, only four kms to the next gas station. 6 kms later I realized she might have meant 40 kms or maybe that it cost four baht to buy whatever she was selling or maybe she was telling me it was 4:00. I focused my attention back to the sign posts and realized with amazement that I was only a 5 hour walk from the next city. The next 10 to 40 minutes where a little hazy, partly because it was raining so hard I could hardly see and partly because I was able to calm myself and enjoy the moment. It just wouldn't have been the same bike ride if everything went fine. Amazed and relieved I reached a gas station 40 km and about an hour an a half after it had started to rain.

It was still raining when I got to Chaing Rai. I figured I knew how to get back to my guest house but it was 7:00 dark and wet. Nothing looked like it did that morning. Worse then being completely soaked was that my bike would stall when I stopped and it was getting harder to start the thing (even with gas in the tank). My maps were useless now because they were completely soaked. After about an hour of wondering around the city trying to keep the motorbike running I finally found something I recognized and managed to get to my guest house. I took a shower then had something to eat and went to bed.

The next day as I sifted through my still wet belongings I re-read the contract and realized that it specified a 100km maximum daily usage. I didn't bring that up when I gave the keys back to the guest house and checked out. I took the bus back to Chaing Mai. On the way we stopped at a police check point. I had seen several as I was biking but they had never stopped me. I think the check points are because of ongoing tensions with Myanmar. I guess in 2002 there was a minor conflict but I'm not sure why there were so many check points now because everything I saw seemed very safe and there was no news reports on the subject. Anyways this was the second time I had to show my passport at a police check point (the first being in Malaysia).

I've spent the last two days in Chiang Mai. I haven't had a lot to do and because its low season and it's been raining fairly frequently there hasn't been a lot of activity on the streets. Today I plan on taking a train to Bangkok then heading to the closest Island I could find on my map (Ko Samet) for a 3 day break from city life. I need to be in Bangkok on the 29th to pick up plane tickets and get a suit fitting. I don't have much time, but I rather go to an island then spend another week in a city that I've already been to.

I hear Calgary has had a lot of rain. It's interesting that in Asia if the temperature drops below 5 all the schools close and in Canada if it rains for a week like it rains in Asia for a couple months the rivers flood and people are evacuated.