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.