Same Same, But Different
Trip Start
Sep 03, 2004
1
35
44
Trip End
Dec 22, 2004
Chiang Mai,
Thailand
Sunday, November 28, 2004
We arrived at about 9 in the morning after a relatively comfortable night's sleep on our 13 hour night train from Bangkok. We'd been recommended a guest house and found it easily enough by tuk tuk, but it wasn't quite as nice as the brochure had shown, but still suited us fine. From the guest house we booked our trek, deciding only on the 2 day, 1 night option, still pained by the Inca Trail! Rather than the most common tour, south of Chiang Mai, we wanted to go to the North, right on the Myanmar (Burma) border because it was a less trodden trail, we'd be the only tourist group and we'd see more hilltribes, 5 to be exact.
The City
We'd 2 days free before we started the trek, so we explored the Old City of Chiang Mai with its hundreds of temples and the old walls. It was a lovely city with so many impressive Buddhist temples, and our wee tuk tuk tour made it all the more surreal. You see, for those of you who haven't been to Thailand, it's a bit of a mix wherever you go. For example, you may be fooled for a minute that you're in the Western world with all the cool Thais in modern clothes, the shopping malls, the fast food restaurants, then all of a sudden a monk in a safron robe and shaven head will walk past
2nd Elephant Trek
. Tourists will be as normal, until you notice the Thai girls walking arm and arm with older white men, and you remember where you are. It's a bit of a culture shock, but you strangely get used to the madness. We also had a few drinks with two German men we'd met in Kanchanaburi - they were great craic and Jillian was able to speak German again! They forced us to drink a strong Thai drink called Sam Song, and provided us with some good laughs, and a joke Andy has added to his collection and will surely tell you all when we gets home!Night Markets
In Chiang Mai we also experienced the crazy night markets, on both the nights we were there - we're addicted to the bartering! You start off "How much?" They maybe say "700 Baht". "What?", you say, "No, no, too dear" and wait. "600 Baht", "Na", "Ok, 500 Baht." "No, I've just seen it down the street for 300!" They'll look at you suspiciously, shaking their head, "NO, not possible" so you begin to walk back up the street, slowly, because you know next will come: "Ok, ok, ok, I give it you 300 Baht" By this time you start to look disinterested and just say "Well, I can just go up the street and get it for the same price". They look worried and drop the price again "280 Baht, ok you take, you take" and reach for a plastic bag. Then, you just shrug your shoulders and say "Uch, no I've changed my mind" at this stage they'll come running after you with a calculator "How much you pay???" "200 Baht", you'll chance you arm, then you'll both go up and down 10 Baht until you've finally agreed on a price! It's such a rush
A poor pig with what we think must be cancer :-/
. We've never paid more than half of what anyone's asked for and we'd read in a guidebook that if you're lucky, you can get up to 30% off what they originally ask. The funniest thing was we decided we'd start doing it everywhere for a laugh, and when we were at the check-out of a shop, the total amount being 330 Baht, Andy replied, "I"ll give you 250" we all started laughing and we think they even saw the funny side! Another funny instance at the Night Markets was that a Thai market trader stared at Andy and started pulling his t-shirt, shouting "Ladyboy, ladyboy" after him... hm, Jillian was starting to worry!The Trek
So, our third day in Chiang Mai was the beginning of our 2 day trek. Ten of us squeezed into the back of a Songthaew (as the guidebooks call them), it's really a pick up truck with seats and a roof in the back. Our first stop on the tour was at a beautiful waterfall, Buong we remember as the name. It was limestone and therefore non-slippery, so after a bit of apprehension, we climbed right up it and it was a lovely experience. The water was quite warm and it was so refreshing. Next we stopped off for lunch just about 3 miles from the Myanmar (Burma) border in a village where there were two different hilltribes, the Aka, who wear silver head dresses and the Lisu. As we ate our lunch, more and more women crowded round us with their wares, obviously told not to start until we'd finished lunch. It was like a scene out of Alfred Hitchcock's "The Birds", they'd doubled everytime we looked up! Their teeth were absolutely disgusting, all rotten away, and even the guide, who was from the Karen tribe was so disgusted with them
Beautiful Scenery
. The children, though, were the most adorbale we'd met so far, who seemed to take a liking to Andy and chased after him, shouting hello and laughing. They were so intrigued by us and just wanted to play. Obviously used to tourists, they loved all our digital cameras and asked us to take photos so they could see themselves. Jillian decided to do it on the camcorder, but they didn't really understand at first, so she told them to jump up and shout, which they happily did, then when they watched themselves being played back on the camcorder, they were so amazed!When we got away, it was a 2 1/2 hour trek in the sweltering heat of the jungle to our night's accommodation. We'd to carry our bags too, so it made it even worse - sweaty backs wouldn't be in it! It was pretty steep at some stages, but really enjoyable, and it sort of cured our fear of trekking after the Inca Trail - it was nice to get a bit of exercise again! The scenery on the way was idyllic, so different to the rest of Thailand that we'd sen so far, lush and green with dark mountains in the background, clouded over at the top. The fields were endless and there were as many different shades of green as you could imagine. We stopped for a few rests and to take in the beauty, then arrived late afternoon at the village where we'd spend the night. It was part of the Daran tribe, refugees that had to flee Burma for protection. The Thai government allowed them to stay and they basically live off donations
Big Buddha at oldest Chiang Mai Wat
. For people who were refugees and had relatively nothing, they were as happy as any other people - what is it about the world? the village also had 2 families from another hilltribe. Again, it was the children who were the most welcoming, and the 4 or 5 little puppies running about loved us too :-). We played with the kids, oogled over the puppies and all got to know each other a bit better - 3 lovely American girls, an American couple, an Italian who owned an ice-cream shop, a German from Frankfurt, a French-Canadian and the pair of us - another great mix! After a delicious dinner cooked by our guide, there was a show put on by the children. They all dressed in traditional clothing and stood in a line around the fire singing and dancing. They were from about 5 to 18 and smiled the whole way through it. When they'd finished, they asked for a song from us, so after a buit of coaxing, Andy got up, stood by the fire, with his hand on his chest (only slightly tipsy) and sang the national anthem for them - good on him!Next day, after not a very good night's sleep (frogs, cockerels, motorbikes, elephants, dogs!!!) we enjoyed a nice breakfast and a not-so-pressurized look at this tribes wares, though we did feel obliged to buy a few bits and bobs - we're going home at Christmas, can't come home empty handed! First activity of the day was elephant trekking, again - we were so excited, but the trail they walked was ten times worse than what we'd done before - vertically up and down hill! After about 10 minutes, the guide from our elephant jumped off and we were left on the world's largest land animal alone! It was scary, because it started to wander a bit! Then the cheeky Nellie squirted us with its trunk a couple of times, and even peeed us a river as we were getting off ;-). Was great fun! Another 1 1/2 hour trek took us to lunch, then after lunch was bamboo river rafting - nice and relaxing before heading back on our 2 hour trip in the back of a pick up truck to Chiang Mai, to begin another long overnight journey - a 9 hour bus trip back to Bangkok.
We'll be in touch soon, because Angkor Wat is next on the agenda, one of the 7 wonders of the ancient world, no less!
A&J x
