April 2008 – Page 3

Hill Tribe

I have a backlog of pictures to upload, but the internet is just too slow to get them all up.

We were the first of the group picked up. Our tour guide, Good, told us that there were going to be 12 in the back of the songthaew, but we figured/hoped he was joking.

He wasn’t. The twelve for the trek were myself, Pennie, Wiki, Amy (England), Freyja(England), Mr. Kim (Korea), Shane(USA), Shawn (USA,but pretty much a full time traveller) who are brothers with very original parents, it seems, Volker (Austria, living in Spain), Lucy (England), Moon (Vietnam), and Bill (USA). Good’s assistant, Ecky was also along. Good warned us that we’d get a little wet, as the Songkran Festival starts a little earlier in the countryside.

Songkran is the Thai New Year, and they used to shower the Buddha statues with water, but now they shower everyone with water. As we were driving to the trek area, kids on the street with buckets of water threw them at the truck. I got a little wet, but my position was such that I managed to avoid most of the onslaught.

Our first stop on the trek was an elephant ride. First time on an elephant, and probably my last. I don’t think they really get treated well. I was on a baby elephant with Mr. Kim. For a baby, it was huge, but also (and this is never good when dealing with elephants) a little reckless. He tended to do what he wanted, which more often than not entailed getting as close to the cliff edge as he could so I could peer down at certain doom.

After the elephant ride, we started off our hike. Not too bad at first, then Good told us that we’d only experienced a warm up thus far and that the next bit was tough. He was difficult to read, so once again I thought he was joking, and once again I was quite wrong. Rest of the trek was mostly up hill, and pretty tough. I managed okay, but a few people looked pretty beat by the time we reached the hill tribe village.

The “hotel” was a bamboo cabin that was pretty decent. Blankets as a bed, and a mosquito net. We all showered, and rehydrated. There was a girl from the village trying to sell some jewellery. When we told her we weren’t interested, she started at us blankly. I asked her what her name was and she said she’d tell me if I bought something. Later, Good would tell us that they buy the jewellery from the city, so it wasn’t even authentic hill tribe handicrafts. The view from the village was decent, but they slash and burn the jungle, so the sky was a little smoky.

Later, after dinner, some elderly woman came and asked if we were interested in a massage. We all said no, and once again we got the stare down. Quite an interesting selling tactic. During the night we sat around by candlelight while Good played guitar. There were dogs in the village that barked madly whenever someone moved from one building to the next. At one point I took a picture, with flash, of the darkness and there was someone standing watching us. Creepy.

Night Market

It was supposed to be an early breakfast, but Pennie and Wiki slept in, so we got started a tad later. I did some reading while I waited. Had some breakfast next to the guesthouse, then went to explore the city some more.

I had checked out a couple of the local wats the day before, and we headed back to what I thought was the best one. It’s got two rooms with monks encased in glass. One looked pretty real, the other not so much, but I was still fairly sure they were real. There was a a “Monk Chat” where you can sit and chat with a monk and ask any questions you want, so I asked if they were real, and it turns out their wax. A shame. Apparently one of the guys whose image is in use is still alive in the jungles of Thailand somewhere – so he’s probably happy it’s just wax.

We looked into some treks for the following day so, after waiting for Pennie and Wiki to get some of their Vietnam Tour details sorted, we booked the trip. It’s a private company so it should be good, we hope. Wiki says she’s pretty sure it’s the company she had recommended. It’s two days, so we get to sleep in a hill tribe village tomorrow night.

We hired a songthaew to take us to a few wats that were a little outside of town. Doi Suthep was the furthest, and sat atop a mountain in the National Park. Visibility was poor, so we couldn’t see much of Chiang Mai, but it is definitely bigger than it feels. It started to rain for the last two wats, so we ran about pretty quickly. The final wat was all white, which was pretty nice.

Thankfully the rain didn’t last long, and we were able to head to the night market. I made it through without buying anything other than a strawberry shake, which I thought was pretty good.

Chiang Mai

Not much sleep on the bus, as it was a bumpy ride, and not very roomy. A little tired, we were dropped off outside the city and transferred to songthaews, and taken closer to the city centre. Basically, they drop you off at a guesthouse where they try and get you to stay, and use their tours. A bit of a hindrance, but I imagine it works sometimes. I checked the map to see where I was, and used my handy compass to figure out where west was, and headed west and north till I reached my guesthouse. Easier to find than I thought it might be with my small hand drawn map on a post-it note.

Had a walk around to look into rock climbing and trekking and that sort of thing. A little more expensive than I’d like to pay, but I’m keeping my options open. Lack of sleep, plus the heat was making me tired, so I headed to the guesthouse and had a long nap followed by a shower.

Checked out some bookstores and killed some time by sipping on a banana shake before my yoga class at 5pm. The fact that I haven’t been to yoga in a few weeks was abundantly clear. I managed okay, but it was a pretty advanced class to begin with.Â The heat didn’t help much either.

Had another much needed shower after yoga, then went and grabbed some food at the bar down the street. I hopped on the internet a little later, and ran into Pennie and Wiki who were checking into their room. They seem to be following me, which makes for some good company, so I shan’t complain.

Wat is the Wat

Wat hopping day. Got up early, and hopped on my bike to head to Wat Ratchaburana. On the way I stopped at the market and grabbed some breakfast, and two new shirts.

After that I headed over to Wat Phra Si Sonphet, and the Ancient Palace. Spent a bit of time there, wandering around, and grabbed a cold beverage. Getting around on the bike is fairly easy to do – and it seems that it’s something only the tourists do. Didn’t see many Thais on bikes.

A Tuk Tuk driver balked when I told him I was going to bike to Wat Yai Chai Mongkhon next (he said I was better off going with him), but the ride wasn’t too bad. A lot more cars once you get off the Ayutthaya island, but I managed to make it alive.

The Wat was huge, with one of the highlights being the reclining Buddha. Unlike the sacked temples in the middle of the city, this one was in pretty good shape.

Headed back to the hostel and checked my email. Met two Canadian’s who’d just come in to town, then said goodbye and grabbed some lunch. The Canadians ended up going to the same place (small town), so I joined them for a little while.

I had time to kill before my bus to Chiang Mai, so I headed to the guesthouse I was catching the bus from, and hung out there. Watched a movie (Four Brothers – selection was lousy), did some reading, had a shower, and before I knew it, it was time to get on the bus.

Air conditioning was blowing in my ear for the first hour, and there was no way to turn it off (just a big hole). Thankfully I happened to have some tape in my bag, so I taped up the hole, and it was clear sailing from there on in. The girls next to me were impressed, and asked if they could borrow some tape to do the same. They ended up lending be a blanket on trade, so it worked out to be a pretty worthwhile deal. No movie on the bus, so I read, but it wasn’t long before they turned off all the lights.

Motorcycles and Frogs

Free breakfast in the morning, then some food. Talked with a girl named Tash, who is pretty much travelling in reverse of me, so we exchanged emails so we can send each other some reviews. Was planning on trading in my book, but decided I’d just leave it at the guesthouse, as I currently have two books plus my Thailand guidebook – which is just too much to carry. I’m better off with just one book, and the guidebook.

Checked out of the hotel, and headed to the Eastern bus station, where I was told I could catch a bus to Ayutthaya. Got there only to discover that I had to go to the Northern bus station. Thankfully both stations were fairly close to the skytrain, so it wasn’t a complete misstep. Got back on the skytrain and headed to Mo Chit station to get to the Northern bus terminal. Grabbed a motorcycle taxi, which was a bit challenging with my backpack, but not too bad. First time on a motorcycle for me. Exhilarating.

Got my ticket, and the bus was departing in 4 minutes, so I found the gate and hopped aboard. Bus made a lot of stops along the way, and I was a little worried I’d miss my stop, but I ended up finding it okay. Last one on the line, as far as I could tell. Took a Tuk Tuk to an area with a bunch of guesthouses. Opted for pretty much the first one I saw, which is really cheap (120 baht = $4), but located above a bar, so I may not sleep much.

Headed to another guesthouse to book a bus seat to Chiang Mai for the following night. While I was there, I enquired about the night Wat tour – since some of the Wats are illuminated at night. Turns out they weren’t running it on account of lack of interest. They don’t run it if there are less than 3 people. They were doing a river boat tour, so I took that instead.

Hired a bicycle (more my speed) for the day, and took it to see some of the Wats in the centre of the town. They’re actually ruins, as Ayutthaya is the old capital of Thailand. After many tries, it was eventually sacked by the Burmese. The ruins were pretty cool – the majority of the Buddhist statues were beheaded, and had no hands – which the Burmese believed took away their power.

Headed back to the guesthouse, and parked my bike for the night, then grabbed some lunch at the guesthouse that was running the tour. Headed off on the tour with a Canadian, Shawn and his Japanese girlfriend, Norita. There was another Japanese guy on the tour, but I couldn’t really get his name. He didn’t speak much English, which must be a bit of a challenge, since he didn’t speak Thai either.

The tour started with a songthaew to the pier, where a female boat driver (first female boat driver I’ve seen) took us in a loop around Ayutthaya island, with some stops at the Wats. The best Wat was one of the ancient ruined ones. The newer Wats are a little underwhelming. The river itself was nice, with people fishing, and bathing, and playing in the water.

We were dropped off at the night market, by the pier, and the four of us wandered around for a bit, then grabbed some dinner. The bugs were terrible, but we managed okay. I had frog for the first time, but it wasn’t really my favourite thing. Very fried, and the sauce was not really my thing. I’ll leave it to the French henceforth.

We made our way back to the guesthouse, and I headed up to my room after checking (for free, no less) my email (none!). As predicted, the music from the bar is pretty loud, but thankfully pretty good. Actually almost fell asleep without breaking out the earplugs, but forced myself awake. Headed out to get some water, then finally decided to get to bed.

Lines That I Couldn’t Trace

Woke up and had some breakfast in the guesthouse. I’d heard many good things about Chatuchak, the Bangkok weekend market, so I figured I’d check that out.

The market, which the locals call JJ, is accessible by skytrain, which is super handy from the guesthouse. I hopped on that, delighted that it was pretty empty at this hour. The market has over 8000 stalls, and sells nearly everything. I wandered through for about 5 hours, and am still not sure I saw everything. Aisles intersect at odd angles, so it’s really hard to just go up one aisle and down the next.

I don’t think there is much they don’t sell. Birds, dogs, lizards, crocodiles, food, fruit, art, antiques, t-shirts, souvenirs, and much much more. Lots of interesting t-shirt designs, but I think I’m inclined more toward getting some more short sleeve buttoned shirts, as the t-shirts I have now aren’t really Thai heat friendly. Then again, the shirts are relatively cheap, so buying a bunch and sending them home crossed my mind.

Had I been a bit closer to my departure date, I might have bought some stuff, but I’m holding off for now – hoping to find a cheap market in Laos or Vietnam. China’s prices seemed pretty comparable to here in Thailand, so if I wait until I’m back in that giant of a country I’m sure I’ll be okay with that too.

Finished my book in the evening, and went to bed fairly early. The heat makes me sleepy. Once again I planned on going to see some Muay Thai, but the prices were outrageous (by Thai standards – quite reasonable, otherwise), so I skipped it. Maybe somewhere else.

The House That Jim Built

Got up and had some (free!) breakfast. Talked with Pennie and Wiki for a bit, then headed to the Skytrain and over to the Jim Thompson House.

Jim Thompson was an American who started a Thai Silk Trading company and fell in love with Thailand. He was also an architect, and his house was of traditional Thai design, with a few modern touches. He had a number of interesting Thai relics, that were nice to see as well. It was the guide’s first day, and she did a great job, considering. That said, she was clearly going from a memorized script, so a hand held audioguide would have done the trick as well.

Wandered around the city for a bit, after that – then bought some dvds and envelopes, to burn some pictures to. Grabbed my pictures, then had the dvds burned.

I had planned on going to the Muay Thai match, but my interest faded as it got closer to the time. Hung out in the guesthouse, watched some of the Office with some Canadian girls who’d bought the bootleg dvds of season 3, then ran into Wiki and Pennie in the common room and chatted with them for a bit.

Hot Day In Bangkok

A hot day in Bangkok. I got up and had some of the free breakfast in the hostel. Nothing fancy, but free, so it’ll do.

Made my way next to the Vietnam embassy. Stopped a couple of times by taxi drivers, who tried to sway me to use their visa agencies, rather than endure the long lines at the embassy. I decided not to listen to them, and check out the embassy first, and was in and out in about three minutes. My visa will be ready tomorrow afternoon.

Being hounded by taxi drivers seemed to be the theme of the day. I got to the Wat Ratchanatda and was told by someone claiming to be a history teacher at the nearby school that it was a Buddhist holiday and that all the temples were closed. It’s a scam I’d read about in advance, but I played a long for a bit to see what he had in mind. Mostly it involved driving me around and having me waste much more time than I’d like in souvenir shops. He seemed pretty upset when I told him I’d prefer to go on foot, and surprise surprise, everything was open.

I walked down to the Grand Palace next, and was put off by the number of tour buses parked outside. I figured I’d check it out later, and headed off in the direction of Khaosan Rd. Khaosan is the backpacker mecca of Bangkok, and filled with tons of small shops, and guesthouses. Didn’t linger too long, but passed through and headed to Wat Intharawihan, which isn’t where I was headed, but something I stumbled upon. 32 metre high Buddha.

Visited the marble temple next, which was quite nice. On my way out I solicited the services of a taxi driver to take me to the Grand Palace, since it was quite a hike, and quite hot. It was fortunate that I got the ride, as it was just about to close when I got there. I grabbed a ticket before the gates closed, and had a look through. Lots of shiny shiny buildings. The Emerald Buddha was nice, but not overly impressive – but then again it was only 66cm in height and sitting atop a 3 metre structure. Sorry, no pictures allowed.

The Grand Palace itself was nice, but much of it was closed off as the King’s sister has died, and the Palace was in lying in state mode.

Took the bus back to the guesthouse, and chilled for a bit. The Dane is gone, but Jimmy the Dutch is still there. He’s asked my name and where I am from three times so far – which could have to do with the fact that he spends most of his time drinking. Nice guy though. He lives in a tent in Holland.

Checked my email after that, and did some reading. A day in the sun can really wear you out. Travelling can be a small world, though. As I was heading to my room to grab some water I ran into Wiki, who, along with Pennie, seems to be following me around Thailand. They’d actually recommended the guesthouse to me, so it’s not a huge coincidence that I’d run into them there, but they hadn’t intended on coming to Bangkok at all, but changed their plans. Not 100% sure what I’ll do tomorrow, but hopefully it involves air conditioning.

Bangkok

Slept better on the bus than I was expecting, but we arrived later than I was expecting, due to all the delays. Not that it really made a difference to me. Eveline was meeting her friend from Switzerland, who is now a monk in Thailand. We fought off taxi drivers, and I was told to hop on bus 53 to get to the MBK Skytrain station. I hopped on, and pointed to the MBK skytrain on the map for the ticket collector (buses in Asia seem to have a driver and a separate ticket collector – I guess labour is cheap enough to do so). She nodded, and nodded again when I asked her to tell me when we were there.

After about an hour I was starting to wonder just how long and winding the bus was, and when I saw the same place I’d gotten on the bus, I asked her again – and she was a little less reluctant to admit she had no idea what I was talking about. I got off the bus and asked another transit operator, and found out I wanted bus 16 which was across one of the canals. I crossed over, but couldn’t find the stop for 16, so I asked another driver, and he pointed me further north. I headed that way and finally managed to find a stop.

Hopped on there, and managed to get to the MBK station pretty easily after that. Took the skytrain to the stop nearest the guesthouse I was hoping to stay at, and was quite happy that it wasn’t far from the station at all, and then happier still to find out that there was a dorm bed available.

Spent the day walking along the main road near my hostel. Reached Siam Square and the MBK Centre, and had a look through there. Tons and tons of shops, selling everything, but mostly cellphones. So many cellphones stores in fact, that I’m not sure how they all stay in business. Wandered back through the multitude of malls on the north side of Sukhumvit, not because I wanted to shop, but because I wanted to avoid the heat. Nothing too special, although one of the floors had a number of exotic car manufacturers. Fact of the matter is, that even the streets are lined with vendors, so it’s pretty much impossible to avoid someone trying to sell you something.

Here’s a short list of some of the things I’ve seen for sale: a guy walking around with a basket full of knives for sale; a woman holding about 20 disco balls of various sizes; Viagra; bootleg dvds, music, software, video games; souvenirs; and of course, sex. Some of the prostitutes look disturbingly young, and I’ve seen more than a handful of older western men with young Thai girls. Hard to get very far without someone trying to sell you a massage by a scantily clad girl.

Met two people in my room: Jasper from Helsingor, Denmark who has been travelling for 6 months, and leaves for home tomorrow. He says I’m the first person he’s met on his travels who knew where Helsingor was; and Jimmy, an older guy who has been travelling for four years, and realized today that he’s out of money, so he’ll be heading back to Holland in ten days. He played us a little tune on his harmonica, then headed out for the night.

Mangroves

The Swiss couple that Eveline and I met a couple of nights ago recommended a tour of the mangroves. It was something that wasn’t mentioned in any of the guidebooks, and the Swiss guy claimed it really let you ‘feel the spirit of the place’. Before we undertook that, we met Robin and Jolina for breakfast, and tried to convince them to tag along, since the trip price was for the boat, not per person. They agreed and headed to their guesthouse to check out. As Eveline and I were heading down to the Krabi pier to find a boatman, we ran into the Swiss guy who told us about the plan originally, and he hooked us up with his boatman.

We waited about ten minutes for Robin and Jolina to arrive, then hopped on the longtail. We started by passing near the mangrove trees on the opposite side of the pier, and spotted two large lizards (over a metre each) swimming in the water and climbing ashore, plus a few monkeys in the trees that were interested in what we were up to.

After that we headed ashore, and got to explore a big cave that was completely devoid of tourists (save for us). We explored another, smaller cave, too. The smaller cave was used by some monks for praying, but it was deserted now. There was a small monkey outside the cave watching us curiously, but escaped before I could take a photo.

After the second cave we headed back to the boat and and went through some really shallow and narrow waterways. We were surrounded by mangroves, but didn’t see much wildlife. I thought for sure we’d end up getting grounded, but the longboat driver was an expert and got us through. He cheered when he succeeded, and we all applauded.

Back in deeper water, we passed a few small houses, and fishing stations, then came to an area with quite a few houses on stilts, and docked at a house where a woman was shelling mussels. It was a fish farm, and we spent a bit of time watching the young teen boy there grab fish and display them for us. There were a few puffer fish, which were fun to watch expand and contract when under a little stress. He seemed quite happy to show them off.

We headed back to the pier after that and each paid our 100 baht, which amounted to a little over $3 Canadian each. Not bad for a private 1 and a half hour tour.

We explored Krabi after that, splitting up on occasion, but always finding each other again. We headed to the market for one last banana milk shake, then Eveline and I said goodbye to Robin and Jolina. The four of us were all going to Bangkok on a night train, but Robin and Jolina were going through another company.

The bus picked Eveline and I up at the guesthouse just after 3:30 (finally a guesthouse pickup that was more or less on time, and actually showed up) and we headed to the Krabi bus terminal and had to wait about an hour to get on the big bus to Bangkok.

The bus was not as nice as I was hoping for, and the roof leaked when it rained. When we got to Surat Thani (at least I think that’s where we were), we all got off the bus, and had to wait about two hours for yet another bus.

We got on that bus, which was much nicer, and started to watch Borat on the bus tv screen. We drove about 5 minutes down the road, and the bus stopped, and someone came on and told us we were switching buses. Very odd, but we followed along, and waited as they moved our luggage to the next bus.

The next bus was even better, though. Eveline and I ended up with two seats apiece, which made sleep a little roomier. One of the passengers implored the driver to make sure he played Borat on the new bus, and he was happy to comply. I ended up falling asleep before it was over, but woke up a few times to catch a part or two.