Chiang Chiang Chiang...

 

Chiang of Mai

For five long days

I thought you were my city

But I found out

I’m just a tourist within your walls

 

Now if only I could stop singing Chain Chain Chain by Janis Joplin every time I mention Chiang Mai.

 

Chiang Mai was filled with activities. We started off by exploring the city and stumbled across the Insect and Amazing Science Museum. It was run by a little, old women who was one of the nicest people in the city. She took photos of every visitor and would email the photos to the visitor. We learned all about butterflies, beetles, mosquitoes, and malaria. Later that night, we perused the night market. It was like going to a county fair! We started with some street food, and soon found ourselves getting our feet sucked on by fish! Yes, these were little fish that eat the dead skin off your feet. It tickled more than anything else I’ve ever felt. The fish would try to get in between your toes. When you pulled your feet out of the water, one or two stuck on for a couple seconds until they realize water is more important than gross, dead skin. We did a little shopping and finished our night with ice cream.

To be blatantly honest, I may overindulge in massages. So, I know a good massage from a bad massage from an amazing massage. Throughout all of Thailand I must say the best massage was at the women’s prison in Chiang Mai. The cost is going rate, just over $5/hour. You start off by changing into the provided cloths and a women washes your feet. During the massage you’re trying to ignore your curiosity of why your masseuse is in the slammer. At the end of the massage, you relax in the garden with a cup of tea. The only thing I would change about the whole experience is the Women Prison’s sign. I was lost for half an hour and asked for directions at least three times. After passing the prison and searching again in the opposite direction, I finally found it. I guess it’s fairly normal not to advertise the location of a prison. It’s also abnormal to have inmates give massages. I have no idea who was the brains of this little fundraising idea, but I tip my hat off to them!

Before leaving Chiang Mai, we HAD to watch a Mauy Thai fight. This was very entertaining. On the first three fights I won three hundred baht. Quit while you’re ahead, so I pocketed the money and was done betting for the night. There was one fight with older kids, but the rest was mostly 10-14 years old. At one point, all the younger kids got in the ring and were blindfolded. When the ref blew his whistle all the boys stated charging one another blindly! Ha! You only see this stuff on YouTube! The ref even got socked a few times. It was a great time, and by the end of the fights I only somewhat knew how Mauy Thai was scored.

The next day we set off for our trek! The first few stops were touristy, as per usual. We hit the butterfly and orchid farm, then the market. Finally, it was elephant time! This is what I had been waiting for!! We arrived at the camp, and in five minutes and with no instruction, I was on the elephant’s neck while Suzie was in the chair. Let me tell you, elephant rides are not nearly as smooth as you’d expect. Here we were, in the middle of nowhere, on a dirt road, riding the largest elephant at the camp with no instruction. I would be lying if I said wasn’t a little nervous, so I moved up to the seat with Suzie. We bought bananas for the elephant, and before we knew it, the ride was over. I couldn’t help but think, was that it?! I guess so... We continued on by hiking to a waterfall with a natural, rock slide! Weeeeee! Of course Suzie and I had to try it. Another two and a half hours later we were at the village. Sadly, I saw more westerners than locals.

Day two on the trek we saw another waterfall, tubed some terrifying class I rapids, and bamboo rafted down the river. By sunset we were back in Chiang Mai. That night we laid low because the next day we were motobiking to Pai!!!! J

 

Homesick

No matter how long you travel or how far away from home you travel, there will always be a point when you get homesick. Yes, I have constantly missed the obvious things such as my boyfriend, friends, pets, and family, but there are heavier waves of homesickness that come and go. I miss all kinds of foods such as Mexican food. We’ve had one burrito since we’ve been here and somehow there were hints of coconut and peanuts in the flavor. I miss the simple things like always having toilet paper or more so, flushing the toilet paper down the toilet. I miss not showering in sandals. I miss drinking tap water and refilling your water bottle. I miss being treated like the average person instead of being cheated whenever possible and haggling for everything. I miss cooking my own food.

There are sacrifices you have to make to travel, and traveling is not convenient or comfortable. But hey, I’d do the one-two-shake instead of having toilet paper any day to have the opportunity to travel. I’m learning life lessons that I’ll bring back into my normal life. And when I find those life lessons, I’ll let you know ; )

Luang Prabang

Imagine a small little French town nestled between two rivers. This is Luang Prabang. There’s a gorgeous waterfall about 40 km outside of town. We spent an afternoon here climbing to the top and swimming in the ice cold current.

The night market had shops that stretched forever and if you know how to barter, the deals were endless. We made it to the top of Mount Phousi which towered over the city. The view was incredible!

In our tuk tuk to the waterfall, we met Shana and Oliver. They were a nice couple from Australia and Scotland with endless travel guide advice. For the next few days, this was the gang: Shana, Oliver, Milly, Siobhan, Suzie, and myself. We swam at a local pool, caught numerous happy hours, chilled at a bar smoking hookah, and played cards and dice until the wee hours of the night.

To get to Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang you can take a 13 hour bus, fly, or take a boat. Since we’ve heard of all the accidents with the speed boats, we sacrificed two days and took the slow boat. The ride wasn’t too bad, it kind of reminded me of traveling in the RV to Kentucky. You have two days to catch up on sleep, blogging, reading, and eating. Similar to the RV, there’s the occasional rock and bump, but instead of having to worry about the silverware drawer falling out, you must be careful of a splash or two. The boat is outfitted with van seats. Two by two, some with headrests and most without. We thankfully had a table to play cards and dice. Though, rookie mistake, we sat near the back and all you can here is the motor, Oops!

 

It would have been a painful journey if it weren’t for Milly and Siobhan, our Aussi travel buddies. In total, we will have traveled with these girls for about a week. They are corky, goofy and, intentionally or not, they always make you laugh! I’m sad we’re splitting ways in Hauy Xai. It’s made our travels much more adventuresome and exciting. Suzie and I will continue the cards and dice game, but it won’t be the same without them. Until next time, happy travels!

Touristy, Tubing Sensation!

Vang Vieng is known for its crazy, drunken tubing. Just over a year ago, 14 bars were set up along the river for this whole day excursion. Alcohol and water aren’t a great mix, and so with pressure from other countries’ governments, especially Australia, the bars were cut down to 4. Now, it’s a soothing trip and a great way to meet people. Yes there is still drinking, but everyone takes care of each other so we all make it down safely.

So, of course Suzie and I had to join in on the fun!

 

 We first started our day biking to the Blue Lagoon. We’re pretty cheap so we got the road cruiser bikes with baskets. With one look at the road, we turned around to pay a little extra for mountain bikes. A little girl approached us and kept showing she wanted a photo. Well, I guess it won’t hurt anything if we take a photo right..? Sure enough, after the photo she’s asking for money. Suzie and I packed lunch so with a quarter loaf of bread she was skipping off with a smile.

 

Ok, so on the road to the Blue Lagoon image biking on a driving range that NEVER picks up the golf balls. About half an hour in and countless complaints from me, we decided to screw the blue lagoon and go to the closest cave. Suzie, our new Swedish friend, and myself we the brave enough to stumble into a cave and trust a local to show us around. For about $1.25 we were trekking through fields with a guide and headlamps. The cave started out fairly small, but after every turn there was a latter, bridge, or walkway! Is this thing ever going to end?!? That was, hands down, the furthest I’ve ever been in a cave. Wow, did we trust someone we’d never met before and spoke as much English as I spoke Thai? Without a second thought, yep, we were in the cave! Thankfully, we made it out safely and had the opportunity to swim in the little fresh water spring. Suzie was only mid-thigh deep in the deepest spot. Here I come, hot and wild. With a graceful slip on a rock, in no time I was drenched from head to toe. At least we had the bike ride from hell to dry my clothes off.

 

 

Back into town, all we wanted to do was relax and drift down the stream on a tube. It was about 1:00 when we hopped on tubes to start the adventure. We had heaps of fun bouncing from bar to bar, meeting locals and tourists, and floating down in groups of 10 or 15. We had to get the tubes back by 6pm to get our full deposit back, so in a frantic rush at the end, we jumped out of the river, hailed a tuk tuk, and got the tubes back with three minutes to spare! On the river we met Millie and Siobhan, our new traveling buddies : ) We went from 1:00 until midnight enjoying ourselves. Bright and early at 9 am the next day we climbed into a minivan for a 6 hour, twisty mountain pass drive to Luang Prabang.

 

 

A Whole New Bed

A whole new bed,

A new fantastic point of view,

No one to tell me where to sleep,

Or say I’m only dreaming.

 

Well shit… here I am on a night train from Bangkok to Laos in someone else’s sleeper bunk with nothing but my tablet, wallet, and passport. Clearly I missed the memo that they lock the door between cars during the night. It all started out with a beer at the bar and meeting some Aussies. The bar car closed so we headed back to the groups’ car to chat. We were somewhat warned but with the language barrier, I thought it was just a noise complaint. As soon as I decided to be responsible and get in bed by midnight, I found out that the doors were locked. Thankfully my new friends gave me a bed and a bottle of water so I’m off to sleep.

Traveling lesson: make the best out of the situation.

Made new friends... check

Still sleeping in a bed… check

Got travel advice on a better/cheaper/easier way to get to Vang Vieng… check

Found time to blog since I don’t have my book on me… check

 

Good night!!!

Bangkok, round II

Bangkok, here we come!!!

Suzie and I took the ferry from Koh Phangan to Surat Thani, and then hopped on a night train to Bangkok. We arrive at our couchsurfer’s house by trekking through a park filled with tents from the protests. We got out of there quick! Our host was an entrepreneurial business man who traveled as he wished and was staying in the Marriot Executive Apartments. Wow, what a change from our last living sitch! We chatted with our host Ryan and his friend Tom for a bit, and then, surprise, two more couchsurfers showed up! Two girls from the Ukraine. We had actually seen these girls on the ferry from Koh Phangan to Surat Thani. What a small world! So the four of us took off to explore the reclining Buddha.

Later we made tacos for our host and starts playing some drinking games. Around 10 pm 3 more girl couchsurfers walked in! They we’re from Vietnam going to school in Singapore. I’ve never been with so many cuchsurfers on one couch! We hit a club and crawled into bed around 3 only to wake up at 7:30 the next day!

Today was TIGER TEMPLE! We started off thinking about renting a car. That quickly changed to grabbing ham and cheese toasties at 7 Eleven and hopping in a cab heading towards the Southern Bus Station. From there we bussed to Kanchanaburi and hopped on a local bus for the 40 min ride to Tiger Temple. It was 2 o’clock by now and the Tiger Temple closed at 3 (really 3:30, but the taxi driver told us 3 in attempt to convince us we HAD to go with him). I was praying we’d make it on time, especially after the hour taxi and 2.5 hour bus ride.

There are no bus stops for the local bus. All you do is stand on the side of the street and when the bus sees you, it’ll honk. If you start waving your arms, “poof!” you’re standing at a bus stop. To get off the bus you hop up, run to the front, and, for us, yell “Tiger Temple! Tiger Temple!” We were let off on the road and still had 2 km down a dirt road. We lucky hitchhiked with a minibus and arrived at the temple gates with ten minutes to spare. All is good : ) The tigers were soooooo cool! We were lead around to pet about eight different tigers. I may or may not have gone twice ; )

 

 

When walking the tigers back to their cages, the one in front of us made a weird noise, put up its tail, and sprayed Suzie! Now, I guess she is his territory. We were told it was good luck. So hopefully we'd make it back to Bangkok by sunset!

Our travels back weren’t nearly as chaotic. We haggled with a mini bus driver for a ride to Bangkok. Our starting price was 300 each. The language barrier was to our advantage because he would take nothing less than a whopping 500 for both!  That night we explore Kohsand Road and saw fried scorpions! No way Jose was I trying that!

For our last night, we swapped couches and stayed with a lovely guy from New York. We celebrated his birthday by seeing Robocop (much better than I expected), and grabbed drinks at a roof top bar.  Tomorrow we’re exploring the largest market in Bangkok and then it’s a night train to Laos.

Koh Phangan

If islands were parties, Koh Phangan would be the end-of-the-year, 5 keggar celebration.

We were surprised at the size of the island. This was no Koh Tao. So, when in Rome, we rented another motorbike!

We started our adventures by exploring the infamous Amsterdam Bar/Mushroom Mountain. It was a brilliant place to watch the sunset. We met our roommate, Bobby (Rob officially), a 18 year old, wide-eyed, kid from England. Suzie and I adopted him as our little brother.

During the day, we all explored the island in a hunt for the perfect beach. That night started off slow by playing some pool, but a few beers later, a 10 minute boat ride, and some good music we found ourselves on Eden, a secret beach, watching the sun rise over the ocean. It was an unforgettable night filled with many new friends.

Beginning of the night...

End of the night...

Note: Ignore the nose patch, minor scuba accident which is now mostly healed.

Today was a good day to be tired. Suzie and I slept the whole boat ride and most of the bus ride to the Surat Thani train station. I was a little worried at one point when our bus turned onto a dirt road. This is about the moment when I read "Get off ASAP, they robbed me for everything I had except this pen". Normally I would think this was just a silly joke, but as we're approaching what looks like abandon warehouses I started getting a little worried. On arrival, the bus driver announced a 20 minute break for toilets and food. I still wasn't convinced I would survive the day until another bus showed up. Needless to say, we made it to the train station. Boy, got to love the Thai way! Now, we're on a night train to Bangkok.

 

Note to self: do not drop anything in the toilet, it will forever sit on the train tracks with all the rest of the passengers’ disposable waste.