Chiang Dao

We decided to take a bus to Chiang Dao which was about an hour an a half away. The bus doesn’t usually completely stop, it just slows down and people jump on or off so we almost missed our bus stop. This time though, someone had to unload some stuff so we were lucky. At the bus stop there was a sign for Chiang Dao Nest pointing forward, the place that we had made a booking for a bungalow for the night, so we just walked with all of our stuff. About 15 minutes later, there was another sign that pointed left so we turned left and just kept walking. It started drizzling so we stopped to cover our stuff. We had no idea where we were going or exactly how far the place was. It made us uncomfortable that no one else was walking around in the area. We were so use to being hassled by cabs and Tuk Tuk drivers that we just turned the only one that stopped away. It started raining harder and there were no signs of the Nest. I saw a truck driving by and I waved him down. He asked where we were headed to and let us climb in the back of his truck. He drove a few miles and reached his destination. He pointed the direction of the Nest and did not take the money that we offered him. It was our first successful hitchhike. When we finally arrived at the Nest, the lady in charge of the place was named Wica. She asked us how we got there and we said we walked and she laughed and asked why on earth we would do that. She said she had told her husband to list the kilometers of the Nest on the signs but he had said they made the signs look sloppy. The total distance from the bus stop would have been about 8 kms, something we would not have attempted to walk with all our gear, in the rain if we had only known. We went to out bungalows, dried off and went back to the commons area for lunch. They had Western and Italian food out in the middle of Thailand. We were looking for a tour to book but didn’t know if it’d be a good idea to go out trekking with the rain. Wica informed us that two other people had already booked the tour and so we thought why not. We woke up that morning and it was still raining. Wica gave us each a poncho, which looked more like a colored garbage bag, some tasty cookies and water, and told us to put it on. We climbed in the back of a truck and endured a rainy, windy ride up windy mountain. The road was very narrow so the driver had to honk every time he as going around a curve or corner. We had a day pack and a night pack. The night back was brought up to the village where we would be staying the night. It was nice not having to carry all our stuff with us. Peter and Mai-Ling, a couple from Singapore, were the other 2 people on the trip. They were in their 30’s and seemed apparently went trekking all the time. The group seemed to get along fairly well which was nice. We had a guide that didn’t speak much English take us to another tribe which we would be using as a base for the day. He was a Thai man that had married a lady in the village that we would be staying at for the night. When he was walking down the road, he actually slipped and fell, dropping our lunch that he was carrying. Good thing it was in tupper ware which was in a plastic bag. We got to the village and headed off for the caves. Chander, Charles and I had forgotten to bring a flashlight and Peter and Mai Ling only had one that they were sharing. The guide stayed in the front and Peter in the back trying to guide us through the cave crawl. I think we have some pretty cool picture from it. Then we headed for the waterfall. We crossed some of the shadiest bridges I’ve ever seen and just walked through low water crossings. The hills were steep both up and down. It was really one of the most physically challenging things I’ve ever done. I spent a majority of the time just trying the trek trying to follow the exact foot path of the guide and trying not to look down at the distance I would fall if I slipped. The amazing thing is that the guides walked this trip with flip flops and that they were so fast. Peter fell a couple of times and scratched up his legs. We thought we had lost Chander for a moment too when he fell and almost went down the side of the mountain but caught onto some plants. He also fell in the river. His Thai masseuse must have been praying for his safe return. We had lunch and then trekked to the village we were staying at. It was surprising to see that the village had satellites, electricity, a regular toilet and working mobile phones. Other than that, it was very basic with no hot water. We rinsed off our stuff that was covered in mud and attempted to clean ourselves off. I had forgotten to pack another pair of bottoms to change into so I just rinsed the mud from my pants and kept them on- gross, I know. The place did have a pretty sweet view since it was situated on the side of a Clift. We had dinner- something that tasted like Penang curry, baby bok and rice with sweet potatoes. Chander actually said it was his favorite curry that he’s hand on our trip. Who would have thought it would be out in the middle of no where. We played card games and called it a night. The five of us slept on mats on the floor in an otherwise empty room. In the middle of the night, I heard what sounded like a frog coming towards my face. It actually really scared me at first. In the morning, Peter told me that he thought that I was making those sounds in my sleep. We had breakfast which consisted of a mountain of bread, eggs with tomato and onions and guava fruit. Charles pointed out that we had not had a Thai meal without tomatoes. We set out for another cave adventure, one which didn’t require crawling. We stopped by another village where we were served tea by a really old guy in bamboo cups. We noticed that they were drinking out of regular plastic cups. At the village, people would try to sell bracelets. This one had a little sheets of paper with writing on it that told us that the village people would pray for us if we bought the bracelet. Then it said something like “it is proper to buy.” The ink was smeared and the English was poor so it was hard to understand. Either way, no one bought anything. Charles and I decided it was just easier to run up the hills so we would just take off. It was funny because the guide would give us a thumbs up and make faces at the people that were lagging when we stopped to wait. Surprisingly, we all made it through the trip without busting our faces. We got back to the Nest and packed up our things and left back for Chiang Mai.

It was funny because I was evaluating out trip and first and thought that that Jenny would have liked the Bangkok and Chiang Mai portion of the trip since we were in the cities and stayed in nice hotels. Several times during the trekking tour in Chiang Dao, I was glad that Jenny knew better and decided early on that this wasn’t her type of trip. Jenny, you would have killed me if you had gone on this trip.

Chiang Mai #2

The trip back to Chiang Mia wasn’t as pleasant as the first because we had no idea where we were staying for the night or what we were doing. All we knew was that we had a 12:50 PM flight to catch the next day. We finally decided on a hotel which ended up to be pretty shitty. I had thrown away my tennis shoes, the Asics that Hickey and Jenny had bought me about 4 years ago which I loved. Chander didn’t bring any other shoes so walked around with wet shoes for the majority of the day. We went back to the night market and Chander got a pair of flip flops and I order the largest gelato size that they had because that’s all I had been craving during the whole trek.

Kuala Lumpur

We were trying to go elsewhere in Malaysia because Peter and Mai Ling told us that there wasn’t much going on in this city. We almost ended up in Bali but we just didn’t have enough time. We arrived in KL and sat at the airport trying to decide if we were going to catch another flight to Penang, an area known for it’s beaches. After checking the weather, we decided it would be a bad idea since the forecast said 60-80% chance of rain during the days we would be there. We bussed it to the city and took the monorail to Chinatown. We had been looking in the Lonely Planet book for a cheap place to stay. This place called the Red Dragon Inn sounded interesting. It was an old movie theater that had been converted to a hostel. We found the place and asked to see the room. For about $25 US, the three of us could have stayed at what Charles even said was one of the worse accommodations he’d ever seen. We ended up staying at the China Boutique Inn which was decent of $36. I think after see the Red Dragon, I was prepared to settle for anything. The place was making some serious renovations and Chander thought it’d become a decent place once it was done. I ended up getting bitten by possibly bed bugs that night- I had three new non-mosquito bites on my thigh when we left that place. I think my total count for mosquito bites is about 10. In the morning, we went and got breakfast in the streets and then was looking for another place to stay for the night. I have to say that seeing a Starbucks was our beacon of hope for free internet. We booked at the Maytower Hotel which is decent. We dropped off our extremely dirty, wet and smelly clothes from trekking at a laundry service place and set out to get our Vietnam Visa. The enter Vietnam, you have to have your visa before hand. Places that don’t have Vietnam embassies take between 4- 7 days to obtain a Visa. We decided to go to the embassy to see if we cold have it done the same day. When we arrived, the lady at the counter told me she needed documentation for our flights out of Vietnam in order to give us the same day visa. It was already 3 PM by then. I asked her if I could use a computer and print our flight itineraries and she said no. She said to come back by 4:15 or the next day. I told her the next day we had a trip planned and could not do it then. She gave me that ‘it’s not my problem look,’ so we headed out looking for an internet café. The area did not have any internet cafes close by. We just started walking and then tried to flag down a taxi to take us to the closest one. By that time, we had been ripped off by taxi’s so many times that when one stopped, we tried negotiating prices but he wouldn’t have it and drove away. We saw a hotel and went inside. I asked the concierge if I could print something and he said I would need to go to the business center on the 39th floor. We hopped onto the elevator and realized that we needed a key to scan in order to get up there. There was a guy in the elevator and I asked him to scan us in. When he was getting off on his floor, I peaked outside to look for a room number just in case I needed it to access internet. We got to the business center and sure enough, there was a man that asked for our room number. I told him that we had checked out already and that we stayed in room 2106. He asked me that name and I made one up. He looked up the name and said that person checked out on the 7th. I told him that I forgot my room number and that the concierge said that I could come up here and print because I really needed my flight info. Looking hesitant, he allowed me to print for $2. It was awkward when I left and he asked me to fill out a form with my name. I just made something out and we hightailed it outta there. We walked back to the embassy and had our visa done for $80 each. When we left, they shut the doors and we knew we had made it just in time. We then set out to look for what to actually to tomorrow. Peter and Mai Ling weren’t kidding when they said there wasn’t much to do in the city. We made it to the tourism center and decided to hire a taxi for a full day tomorrow for $100 US to take us to the Batu Caves, Temper Park and a place with lots of fireflies. We ate dinner at a Chinese restaurant with Xioa Long Baos and La Mein. When we were walking back, we stopped by a bar with a foosball table. Chander kicked everyone’s ass and then we headed back for the hotel. We went swimming and called it a night.

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is only an hour flight away from Bangkok. It’s the second largest city and is significantly better than Bangkok in our opinion. We checked into out hotel at Le Meridien around 8 AM and went upstairs to drop off our things. Our hotel was 4.5-5 stars and pretty nice. Chiang Mai didn’t have much going on in the morning so we just wandered until lunch time. We went to eat at a place called Whole Earth which was recommended by the hotel. The food was decent but much pricier than the other places we had eaten (it came out to about $35 for the 3 of us.) The atmosphere was really cute and it was the first time I had to take my shoes off at a restaurant. We decided to just walk around the city. We were given a map by our hotel and we decided to go to Buddha Park which was at one corner of our map. There city is near a river and has a moat surrounding part of the city. We leaned very quickly that the map was not drawn to scale. We ended up walking about half of Chiang Mai in one afternoon. We got back to the hotel went the pool, showered and took naps until we had to wake up for the Muey Thai boxing. We had our concierge order ringside tickets and have them delivered to the hotel for about $20/person. Chaing Mai looks so different at night. We jumped in a Tuk Tuk and were on our way to the boxing stadium. When we arrived, it didn’t seem like they were going to accept our tickets at first because there wasn’t the proper information included, like how much we paid and our seat numbers. We spent about 20 minutes standing outside while the man was trying to contact the concierge at our hotel. Finally we got to go inside. There were 10 sets of fighters for the night. The first set was boys probably around 12 years old. One boy looked like he ha da pretty nasty scar that went down his face. Charles tried to make me feel better by saying that he probably had a better life boxing than the alternative. It was actually hard for me to watch a lot of the boxing because I don’t really like the violence and because some of the kids were so young. Each match began with the boxer doing some sort of ritual and then going to all four corners and bowing to the crowd. There was only one bloody match (the guy was cut on the face) and two knock outs. The big fight was a 70kg American guy (he was half African American and Caucasian) and a Thai guy. The American seemed to be a boxer because there wasn’t much Thai style fighting going on. The match was sort but the Thai guy got quite a beating. Charles has it all on video and will probably post it soon. We got home around midnight and went to bed.

The next morning we had breakfast at our hotel which was pretty good. It was buffet style and included with out stay. We got picked up from our hotel and was on our way to our Thai cooking class. The class was from 9 Am until 3 PM. There were a total of 6 of us in our group, and 2 older Germans and one Korean lady. We started off at the market where we learned about different types of typical Thai cooking ingredients. I also picked up some Thai tea mix at the market, one that the cooking instructor recommended.We carried little baskets back to the school and starting cooking. Each person made 6 dishes and there were 3 options. Since there were three of us, we decided to all make different dishes. We ended up with 3 types of stir fry, soups, eggrolls, curry, salads and dessert. We would make a dish, eat it and then sit for a moment before beginning the next dish. We basically ate from 9AM until 3PM. The old German guy was named Walle and had moved to Chiang Mai from Germany. He had gotten in some sort of accident and was using his retirement money to live off of. He said that it wasn’t enough for him to have a comfortable life and so he decided to pack up and move elsewhere. Never did he think he’d end up in Thailand. He said that he’s able to live well and that the country had a strong German network so he was happy. He also gave me a recipe for Goulash, a German dish that Charles really likes. I asked him if he could recommend a massage place because we had been too afraid to go since most of them looked shady. He said he’d been to over 15 of them and that Friendly Massage place was the best. After our cooking class, we went with him and he showed us where it was at. Chander wasn’t particularly excited about the massage but he decided to get one anyway. When we got there, we saw this big Thai lady and I had mumbled that I’d take the big one b/c I didn’t think the guys wanted her. As fate would have it, Chander ended up with her. Charles and I were downstairs on beds next to each other and Chander went upstairs the big lady. For $4 and hour, we all enjoyed out first Thai massage. When we came out of the room, Chander was sitting next to his lady with an ice bag. Charles and I didn’t get offered an ice bag. I thought it was just funny to see the two of them sitting there together so I started laughing. I could hear the lady try to make small talk with Chander and all of a sudden, I heard her say, “You so charming,” and I busted our laughing. I took a picture of the two of them. Then, the lady used her cell phone to get her own picture. It was just really funny. When we were walking back to the hotel, I asked Chander if his lady told him he was charming. He said “What?!? You heard that?” Yes, yes I did and now I will forever make fun of him. He told us that his lady when massaging him kept saying, “Oh, you’re so strong.” Looks like Chander’s getting friendly with the natives. We got back to our hotel and went to the pool, showered and them napped again. We woke up around 7 PM to go to the night market. The city really comes alive when the night markets opens. There are street vendors everywhere selling all sorts of things. The food at the market in this cafeteria area was surprisingly clean. You had to buy coupons in order to buy food there. We had delicious gelato too. Chander got some pretty cute gifts for his family. I wasn’t really in the shopping mood. We went back to the hotel and call it a night.

Bangkok

Hello! Sorry for not blogging sooner but internet access is not as readily available or as I thought it would be…

The flight wasn’t that bad. I did get stuck next to a huge guy on my way from Austin to LA but he was so nice and kept apologizing for crossing over into my seat/personal space. Jonny Knoxville was on my flight too. LA to Taiwan was so long, and of course, there was a screaming baby nearby. Either way, I was so deprived of sleep that was I was able to sleep through it.

Day one in Bangkok was definitely one of a kind… I checked my e-mail from Taipei and Charles had e-mailed me to let me know that his flight had been delayed. I was a bit worried about finding him but it all worked out. Our planes landed 10 minutes apart from each other. We were waiting in separate taxi areas but once I figured that out, I went and found him. His back was turned to me but I could tell instantly by the full head of hair that it was Charles. It helped too that he was bigger than most of the other people. He’s definitely not the pasty Charles we all knew before. He actually has a darker tan that me! We took a taxi to Khao San Road and began what ended up to be another night of no sleep and 12+ hours of walking.

I didn’t see many prostitutes and crazy foreigners like Charles did his first night. The prostitutes I did see were really gross and had blood shot eyes. Serena, I know you wanted a picture of one but trust me, it’s not a pretty site. Hookers, at least the ones I saw, are not in any way attractive like the ones in Pretty Woman. Think more like Cops, Christmas specials of Hoes, Hoes, Hoes, Asian, and usually with some kind of a deformity (one had a ginormous head!) I definitely saw a few lady men and many with questionable genders.

Since Charles and I got into Bangkok around 1:30AM and thought we wouldn’t be tired, we had decided not to booked a hotel that night with the intention to wander. We ended up just eating and talking until 9 AM. We ate some street food- big flat noodles and this tofu with pork dish. When I got up to pay, I saw a roach running around in the containers of food. Damage was already done by then. There were rats, lizards, and stray dogs and cats everywhere. There were so many people up throughout the night, half asleep next to their karts. We stopped at 7-Eleven for from ice cream, then again for some waters. We went to a little diner and had some slushies and toasted cheese sandwiches. We went to Mcdonalds and had some hash browns to kill some time. They have chilisauce instead of mustard next to the ketchup. They also sell pineapple, chocolate and mango pies in addition to the classic apple pie. I realized that people were staring at me and Charles said it was probably because we had wandered out of the really touristy area and I was wearing shorts. I was a little paranoid about wearing shorts at first because I read that some considered it disrespectful but as long as I am covered up in a temple, I don’t feel like I stick out that much, other than the fact that I am taller than most of the people here.

We were in the Khao San raod area because Charles had had a custom suit made from from the last time he was in Bangkok and had to pick it up. The card for the suit store was in Thai and we couldn’t find our way there. Finally we had a Tuk Tuk driver take us. Tuk Tuk driver is basically a motor cycles with a small carriage attached to it and is cheaper than taking a meter taxi. OMG, the second you mention the word, ‘suit,’ all the Tuk Tuk drivers go crazy. I guess the deal is if they take you to a suit place, they somehow get a cut of the profit. They say they get reimbursed fro petrol but they are so pushy that I think it has to be more than just some free gas. Anyway, it was my first time in a Tuk Tuk and the bastard got us lost. He had no idea where he was going and finally just pulled over. I gave him half of what we had agreed to but in retrospect, I shouldn’t have paid him at all. We then decided to take a meter taxi to the place but the guy just laughed and said e didn’t know where it was at. We finally found the place after asking for directions from people who barely spoke English. Even though it got a little frustrating, it was kind of fun being lost half way around the world.

Covered in sweat, Charles tried on his suit and asked me how it looked. I inspected it and ask the guy to fix a few things and steam clean it again. He said that it was fine and that they would drop it off at the hotel. I could tell I was getting on that guys nerves but I didn’t really care. We then bused it to the main city which only cost 30 cents and checked into out hotel. We walked into the hotel drenched in sweat and the front desk had people grab our bags and bring us tea. We were just so happy to be off our feet. It was only about noon then. We took showers and walked around the corner to eat. We didn’t want to go any further than that. There was a nice little Bakery called Pak’s Bakery next to the place we had dinner. We ended up visiting that place twice had red bean buns, taro roll cake, éclairs, this awesome cake that had an Oreo crust with banana’s pudding and whipped cream and taro bread. We went down once again for dinner and then went to the hotel’s pool. We showered again and went to bed.

Chander arrived around 1 AM and I went downstairs to get him. He came up to our rooms and showered and then ended up spending a good chunk of the night in the bathroom reading because me and Charles were sleeping and he was trying not to disturb us. We got up at 4:25 AM and were hauling ass to pack up and go since we had requested a taxi be downstairs to take us to the airport to catch our 6:30 AM flight to Chiang Mai.

Getting ready to leave

Thanks Henry for this awesome blog name! Awake and about to leave for the airport.... Miss you guys!