Day 102: Chiang Mai

This morning, part of our group separated. The three Australians and the young French couple were only doing one night of our two night trek and headed back down to the mountain. The rest of the group got time to rest before we continued on our journey.

As we set off on our trek, we stopped by the local school to see the kids. The school was half of a big shed with just kids there. Our guide told us that the teacher was preparing the kids lunches at the moment; this is also where he went to school as a kid. The kids were all excited to see us and most of them were just playing around, waiting for the teacher to get back. One little girl was even climbing in a tree.

Before we got into the thick of the jungle, we stopped for a break in a Chinese village. I am not sure why there is a Chinese village in the jungles of Thailand and our guide's broken English couldn't understand or answer the question. Aside from those working, the village was a ghost town, but it was nice to catch some shade and cool off.

As we continued on, we started to head down the other side of the mountain. The walk was really beautiful as we were walking through a more 'jungle' atmosphere now; massive trees and banana trees surrounded us. We came to a waterfall were we all stopped for lunch. Our guide had prepared us noodles with veggies that morning and wrapped each meal in a banana leaf and then heated them up over the fire while he cut us chopsticks out of bamboo. With the cold water of the waterfall cooling us off and a warm meal to follow, we took a break for a nap before we continued on.

After our short rest, we continued our decent. The walk became very difficult for the French family because the young boy would not slow down. He was constantly jumping and running, which caused him to fall all the time. It was getting rather annoying because the family was constantly arguing and fighting. Our guide ended up having to carry the young boy to help speed up the trek.

Eventually we made it to our next resting place by an even bigger waterfall. At our stop, we came across more trekkers who were all staying at different homestays in the area. We didn't have time to speak with them because it began to rain and they all parted to their various homestays. We stayed under the shelter at the waterfall and waited out the short storm.

After the rain receded, we made a short walk to our homestay. It was great to finally get to the homestay and relax; unfortunately, there were no Thai ladies waiting for us to massage us to sleep again. Since our group had dwindled down, the rest of the afternoon was lonely. The American couple kept to themselves, I guess trying to make it as romantic as they could, and the German and I were left to ourselves as the French family remained speaking in French and argued amongst themselves. The stream that ran by our homestay created a perfect small pool where I could rinse off. It was great to cool off again in the cold running water.

That night we all gathered for dinner and the Americans, the German and I stayed up and talked the night away, sharing our perspectives on one another's county, "so does everyone in Germany drive a Mercedes, BMW, or Audi?"

During the middle of the night, another storm woke me up. The rain was coming down so hard that it was making its way through the bamboo wall, splashing on my face. I had to sleep at the foot of my bed to keep from getting soaked. Welcome to the jungles of Thailand.

Day 101: Chiang Mai

My trek started at 8:30 in the morning. I was told that I would be with a group of 14 other people but I got into a car with only 3 other people. Also, those three people were Frech. Since I have been traveling, I have noticed that, generally, French people dont take kindly to people who are not French. Even though they spoke English, it was a chore to pull more than 2 words out of them.

We first arrived at a a village that was similar to the mountainside village that I saw yesterday. Nothing special to see, an upsetting start to the trek.

After the village, I was shuttled over to meet with the rest of my group in a market. Unbenounced to me, that village was the village of the long neck people. These people are the ladies that wear the rings around their neck to elongate it to seem more appealing to men. While I did pay extra to see this, the driver did not tell me this was the village. When I asked him what this village was, he replied "you meet with group next." I later learned that the long neck people were in the way back of the village. My new tour guide assured me that he would take me back to the village after the full trek.

While I was in the market, I took the time to stock up on supplies for the next couple days. I also saw some interesting bugs that this old lady was selling. I have always wanted to try some weird bugs in a market. Someone must think they are good if they are for sale. The only bug I could identify was a cricket, the other two, I was unsure of. I can assure you that they were terrible! I bought some mango sticky rice to help get the terrible taste out of my mouth. Mango sticky rice is a type of dessert in Thailand. It is sticky rice with slices of mango on top of it doused in coconut sugar milk; very delicious and the perfect chaser to the bugs I just ate.

It was good getting to know the new group. There was a group of three Australians, two girls and one guy; a German guy; an American couple just out of med school; a young French couple; and a French family with three young kids.

Before we started off on the actual trek, we went to an elephant camp and got to ride some of them. We went on a twenty minute ride around the area. This is the first time that I have ever been on an elephant and I had had this on my list of things that I must do while I am out seeing the world. While on the elephants we went into a river and the elephants were a bathing themselves and playing in the water. It was so cool to be riding on such a large animal, witnessing their true strength as they rip small trees out of the ground for a snack like it was a small weed. Unfortunately, the elephant guides were quick to get us on and off the elephants, so I was unable to get a photo of me riding the elephant. After our ride, we all gathered for lunch, which consisted of a small plate of rice and veggies. Our guide asks, "big meal. Are you full?" This is what I would eat before my appetizer...

We took our truck to the starting point of our trek. When I purchased a three day trek I, nor anyone else in our group, had any idea half the day would be spent in the back of a truck. We started with the ascent up the mountain to our homestay. The hike was gruesome, making our Sapa trek in Vietnam look like a walk up an escalator. The paths were very hard and the French family struggled a lot. The young kid and the mother had to hire a car to take them to the campsite. Throughout the hike, we were constantly waiting on the father, who was carrying all the family's gear. I felt bad for him but was proud of him at the same time that he didn't give up.

Midway through our trek, we stopped off at a waterfall. When we actually got to the waterfall, some of us began to laugh; it looked like more water could come out of a firehose. Regardless, the water was cold and allowed us to instantly cool off. There was a tree hanging over the small pool of water that the waterfall created. No one wanted to jump off the tree, so I climbed up there to start it off. When I got up there, it was a little nerve wrecking. I gazed down upon a small hole, no bigger than a hot tub, with visible underwater rocks surrounding it. A deep gasp of breath and a second to gain my confidence later I found myself mid air falling into the pool of ice cold water. Once I made it successfully, others began to follow my lead and the rest just dipped in to cool off. We all cooled off and relaxed in preparation of the next leg of the trek.

After spending the next couple hours trekking up the mountain and getting to know the other young people, we finally arrived at the mountain village. There, we were able to take a break and grab some cold water to cool us off. On the walk over to our homestay, I got a piece of sand stuck in my eye. Usually, this would not bother me, but it was large and it wouldn't come out. The French girl poured my remaining water into my eye in an attempt to flush out the dirt with no success. The two med students told me to just wait until we got to the homestay and they would take a closer look at it. I had to keep my hand over my eye because every time I blinked it caused me much pain. I never thought a grain of dirt could bring a man to his knees.

Once we got to the homestay, I had the girl med student peel back my eyelash and look for the problem. She found a large piece of dirt stuck to my eye lid. After trying time and time again to flush it out, she got a pair of plastic tweezers, sanitized them, and had to scrape out the piece of dirt. Finally, I could see again. The high costs of med school in the US is worth it!

Once we got settled in, an army of Thai ladies came to give us all massages. The massage felt soo good; the best way to cap off a long trek!

That night, we all gathered for dinner. Like I said, this trek is way different than the one in Sapa. In Sapa, there was a TV, shower, somewhat of a bed, wifi, and a bar down the road. Here, there is nothing. We are sleeping on a bamboo floor in a bamboo shack on the side of the mountain with no electricity and a dribble of running water. However, this is what I wanted, leaving all the comforts of backpacking, what little there are, at the hostel, completely cut off from the world our in the wilderness.

After dinner, we all listened while one of the guides played the guitar. I threw out a couple songs to try to play, he didnt know any of them; all he wanted to play was Hotel California.

Once we finished a couple songs, we packed it in for an early start tomorrow.

Day 100: Chiang Mai

Damn.... Its been 100 days since I left home.

When I woke up, I went downstairs and spoke with the girls behind the desk to see what would be a good fit for me while I was in Chiang Mai. I found a great three day two night trek that would allow me to see a lot of Chiang Mai's countryside. At the desk, I met a newcomer to the hostel, a guy named Fab from Holland.

After he got settled in, we headed out to see the Tiger Kingdom, a place where you can play with tigers of all sizes. I was skeptical at first because I thought that the tigers were drugged. I had asked people earlier in my travels if they were and I had heard that they weren't, I even looked online and only saw that they were drugged in Bangkok. We waved down a tuk tuk and headed off to the Kingdom. The driver was really nice and when I told him that I had driven mopeds all over Asia, from India to Thailand, he asked me if I wanted to drive his 550cc tuk tuk. Definitely didn't pass up this opportunity. It was hard at first because the numbers on the stick shift were opposite of the actual gears; so first gear on the stick was actually fourth gear. Once I figured this out, we were cruising.

When we arrived at the Kingdom, Fab and I bought tickets for the biggest tigers they had. The younger tigers were all running around and playing in the shaded pens and the bigger tigers were either lying in the shade of playing in the pools. I will admit, it was a little nerve wrecking at first. This is an animal that is near the top of the food chain and would use my bones as a toothpick once he ate me. We had a guide with us to protect us incase if anything bad happened (meatshield) and made sure we didnt do anything that would upset the tigers. I got to take pictures with multiple tigers, saving the biggest and best for last. He was massive, and was throwing around this stump like it was a soccer ball.

Once we got done taking photos with the tigers, we had our driver take us to the Chiang Mai University, the starting point for tours up the mountain to everything from waterfalls to the Chiang Mai Zoo. When we got there, we figured out that there were set prices on different day tours based on what you wanted to see. We decided to go see three things: the Bhubing Palace, the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Temple, and the mountainside village. They were trying to make us pay up front... No way, thats how many scams start. Agreeing to our terms, we started off for the Palace, which was built for the royal family when they made their state visits to northern Thailand. The area was really beautiful but, unfortunately, the building was under construction, so we only got to see the surrounding property. Even though Fab, a Chinese girl, and I had the driver to ourselves, he was really pushing us on time. We made our way back to the truck and headed off to the mountainside village.

I was not really impressed by the village; you can tell that the village was just for tourists. At every turn there was a shop filled with the same handmade clothing, pocketbooks, and bracelets. It was cool seeing all the women making all of the things but that is about the only interesting thing there.

We then made our way to the Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Temple. Doi Suthep is a popular temple outside of Chiang Mai that brings both tourists and worshipers. To get to the temple, we had to walk up, what seemed like, an endless amount of stairs, but it was worth it. The temple was really beautiful and reminded me of what the Grand Palace in Bangkok looked like with its large golden sphere in the center. We eventually had to leave because it was starting to thunder and we didn't want to get stuck on the mountain in a rainstorm.

When we got to the bottom, we began to look for our driver; he was nowhere to be found. We then waited for a while where he said he was going to meet us and he never showed, so I waved down a taxi and got us a cheap ride down to the bottom of the mountain. I felt kinda bad that we just got the whole tour for less that a fifth of the price, but its his loss. We scammed him today and he'll probably be scamming someone else tomorrow, welcome to Thailand.

That night, I got ready for the early three day trek ahead of me.

Day 99: Chiang Mai

This morning, I woke up and decided for a change of scenery and booked a flight to Chiang Mai, a city in the northern part of Thailand. I waved my new friends goodbye; Sarah is off to Koh Pha-ngan and George is headed to Koh Tao.

I arrived in Chiang Mai rather late and forgot to book a hostel... I got a taxi into the center of town and popped into what I thought was a bar to get wifi and search for a hostel. It turns out that I walked into a hostel. The entrance was nice but was filled with mosquitoes and the internet didn't even work, not a good start. The guy asked if I was looking for a place to stay, telling me that they had a 30 bedroom dorm with two other people in it. There is probably a reason for that. I made up an excuse that I was trying to get into my email because I was meeting up with some friends and I needed to find out where they were staying. Slugged down my beer and got out of there as quick as possible. I then walked into a great reggae bar where I was able to find a good place to stay. The only problem was no one knew where the hostel was. I walked the streets of Chiang Mai, chasing random peoples directions until I finally came across a massage school run by a nice old couple. The man called the hostel and figured out exactly where it was and gave me a ride on his moped. He was so nice and he would even accept any money for the ride.

Since I got checked in late, I asked the two Thai girls working the desk what there was to do around here at night that would be fun. Luckily, the good looking one invited me to come join them a the Jazz pub that plays live music every Tuesday night (it is Tuesday). I quickly changed, showered, and met them downstairs. Before we even got to the pub, I could hear the amazing music playing down the street; the pub was overflowing into the street. As we walked up, I began to feel like one of those westerners that I always criticize or laugh at for having a Thai girl with them, thinking that they are a prostitute; I wanted shout out and tell everyone that theses girls work at my hostel, "I dont know them." Regardless, the night went on. I was able to meet some of their friends and I became good friends with the guy who owns the hostel. He is a great guy from Hong Kong, so the hostel caters to people from China, Korea, and Japan; I was the only westerner in the hostel. Eventually the police came and almost shut down the bar because the crowd was completely blocking the only two lanes of the road.

Knowing that I wanted to book a good trek in the jungles of Chiang Mai tomorrow, I headed in before I joined them in closing the bar down.