Cooking, treking and massages

Trip Start Jan 09, 2005

Trip End ??? ??, 2007

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Flag of Thailand Chiang Mai, Thailand
Wednesday, July 8, 2009

Chang Mai (11/6- 19/6)

We continued our ridiculous transportation adventures and rushed up to Change Mai to get in some trekking before the rainy season hit the north. Overall it took us 36 hours (whew!) to get all the way there. Much like our experience over on the west coast of southern Thailand, the locals have a total monopoly on the transportation services.

It's basically impossible to catch the ferry that the locals use to get back to the main land. You are forced to buy a more expensive ferry boat ticket that is usually paired up with a bus/train trip up to Bangkok. Since we had no other option, we joined the mass of foreigners and taxied to the ferry and rode the 2.5 hour ferry ride. The ride was supposed to be 4 hours and was supposed to take you to Surat Thani but instead stopped short and put everyone on buses The frustrating part with this (besides being lied to about what transportation services you have paid for and ultimately receive) is that there aren't enough buses for all the passengers on the ferry.

There were about 4 buses waiting for us at the dock to take us to Surat Thani and once those filled there were STILL several bus loads of us waiting around. No one tells you what is going on so you just bunker down and play cards or read a book and wait, assuming that a bus is eventually coming to get you. After waiting for several hours (and freaking out that we were going to miss our connecting bus up to Bangkok), more buses finally showed up and took us to another station to wait yet again for the next bus.

We were well aware of the racket the locals had going on so we only booked our ticket as far as Bangkok thinking we'd save money and get the bus/train ticket on our own. We actually did save a bunch of money buying the train ticket on our own but it turns out the bus would have been even cheaper (fyi). We had to wait several hours at the train station for our train (since just as the last time we took a bus from the south up to Bangkok, we arrived at 3:30am) and at around 8 am the national anthem came on and everyone stood up to pay respects. We made sure we stood too lest we offend anyone. It always takes me aback a little to see all the poster boards of the King and Queen all throughout Thailand and to hear the national anthem played at 8am at all the public transportation terminals.

Our first few days in Chang Mai we just walked around and chilled out. After all the rushing around and staying out late for the past week or so we needed some recoup time and Chang Mai fit the bill. The old town is built inside a moat and is great for just walking around and checking out the many pretty temples that seem to be on every block. The town is really laid back and it's easy to spend several days just taking it all in.

We ended up staying just outside the moat on a street that had two Mexican restaurants which was a nice treat. While I knew the food can't really compare to some of my favorite spots back home in Cali, it was a nice treat to have. I highly recommend the one next to the burger joint; it has real corn chips with yummy salsa, awesome quesadillas and yummy limeaide. Don't bother with Miguel's, it's overpriced and not nearly as good.

Many people come to Chang Mai to check out the trekking and the cooking classes so we made sure we tried them both. We were really happy with all of the activities we ended up doing, including the ones we hadn't planned on doing like the monastery Chang Mai seems to have it all for anyone looking to get a good overview of the north with tons of activities to keep you busy. There is even a great used bookstore started by a SF guy named Gecko Books that I highly recommend. I would like to come back some day with more time to just hang out and enjoy the town a bit more.

Things we checked out:

Trek- I had been wanting to go on a trek before we even started this trip so once we realized that Chang Mai was a huge trekking spot we knew we were going to check it out. We happened to take a tuk tuk that recommended a cheap place to stay (chang mai inn) and ended up booking both our trek and our cooking class through them. During our walk around town we saw treks and all kinds of classes and tours being offered from piratically every shop so it was hard to know who to go with.

Since it was obvious that most places just sold the tickets and didn't actually provide the tours, we decided to hear what our place had to say. There were two types of treks being offered, the touristy one and the non-touristic one. From just looking at brochures and chalk boards around town, we knew that all tours offered trekking, visiting tribal villages, elephant ride and a ride on a bamboo raft. Our guide pushed the non-touristic option boasting that the villages are further out and never see foreigners and that the elephants weren't used in an elephant camp like the other tours (meaning treated better I guess).

The non-touristic tour was literally 4 times the price of the other one but since we were promised that we wouldn't see other tourists (like you do in the other one) and that this would be more of a "real" experience, we felt it was worth it. We were given a backpack and sleeping bag to carry and had to carry the water bottles that they bought for us or buy them out of pocket along the way. Since we refused to waste more plastic and wanted to make sure we had water during our treks in between village stops, we lugged 6 liters of water each (which I do NOT recommend).hehe

We started off early and drove several hours out to a village to eat some lunch and learn a little about the Hmong living in the village. Only a few of the villagers were dressed up in their traditional garb while most just wore modern day clothing (bummer). We learned a little about their weaving techniques and how they make rugs to earn money for their community. We got to see inside a home and it was like looking in a doll house made of mud; all the furniture was super miniature for their shorter bodies. By furniture I mean a round table and some chairs- no tv or sofa and the bed was more of a cot. There was an area in the corner for a fire to burn to cook meals but other than that, the room was quite sparse.

We trekked for several hours through gorgeous rainforest up and down some pretty steep hills. Since we are now in the rainy season there was all kinds of mud everywhere and everyone's shoes were covered by the end of the day. At one point we stopped our trek and rode an elephant for about an hour through the jungle.

It was a little scary getting up on the tall elephant and the whole ride we were precariously perched on our "seat" holding on during the downhill parts. Greg and I shared a seat on our elephant and were given a bag of cubed sugar cane to give the elephant as a treat during our ride. Basically the elephant would place his trunk on his head up by us to ask for the treat and we would drop it in his nostrils. Once he ate the treat with his mouth he pretty much asked for a new treat so we went through our bag pretty quickly. :) It was definitely a cool experience being atop an elephant though we've decided it's one of those things that sounds more cool than it really is since we were pretty uncomfortable the whole time.

After our elephant ride we walked through some rice patties in the rain before we got to our final destination, three wooden homes built out in the middle of rice patties just for people on the tour. There is a family that lives on the plot of land that takes care of the other wooden houses for the guests and grow the rice. We didn't have much interaction with the family since it was raining a lot and cold.

We were served a fabulous 5 course meal with tons of yummy Thai food (curries, coconut milk sauces and tons of veggies!). After gorging ourselves our guide brought out the guitar and sang a bunch of Thai songs as well as some popular English songs. We had a great time just hanging out with burning candles wrapped up with wool blankets to keep warm.

We started early the next morning after a quick breakfast and continued our arduous trek. I couldn't believe all the beautiful variation of fungi that seemed to be everywhere in the forest. There were all kinds of butterflies and cool insects as well though the newest animal to me was the leech. There were 6 of us on the tour and 3 people in particular seemed to be plagued by the annoying things. They look like an inch worm the way they inch towards you but are slimy and have suckers. You have to be careful how you take them off because if you just pull them off while they are sucking their teeth might get left in you and get infected. Make sure you bring a lighter with you to burn them off, it comes in handy.

While neither Greg nor I had to burn any leeches off, we definitively spent a lot of time scraping them off our shoes before they got to us and picking them off our socks. After yet another tiring day we finally arrived at a Karen tribal village. There is a small subgroup of the Karen's that are famous for wearing the brass rings around their neck but these villagers just wore heavy earings which stretched out their earlobes.

I was super disappointed with the village interaction and had thought the guide would have some sort of activities or something with the villagers so we could learn more from them. Instead there was this awkward divide of foreigners in our hut and the villagers all sitting on a wooden staircase on one of the homes just staring at us. I did my best to try and interact with the locals by walking around the 5 home village and shooting my best friendly smile their way. I tried to communicate with them, like asking a woman if the baby was hers, but it was super challenging and despite their best efforts, we gave up.

We had been told to bring sweets for the kids which is something I have always been told NOT to do since it just encourages the kids to eat bad food and ask for hand outs. Instead we brought a clay set and finally got a little interaction with the kids and their moms as I tried to show how to use the set with the rolling pin and cookie cutters. There was one kid that liked to wave and smile at us but other than him, the whole visit was really weird to me and not at all what I had expected.

After yet another fabulous 5 course meal our guide sang some more songs and played a few new instruments. It always amazes me how something like a guitar or violin can really be made out of something totally cheap like bamboo or a drum can work perfectly fine as an empty plastic container. Our guide had all kinds of creative ways of using bamboo; to make us all cups to take home, knives, etc. We all also got to play with slingshots that he brought along for us. We had tons of fun trying to hit water bottles and random objects along our trek.

Before it was time for bed our guide made a hot air balloon from scratch. We all signed the balloon (rice paper I think) which was sealed on all sides but the bottom. He used a flexible rounded stick to make the bottom rounded and to give it some weight by using plain old Elmer's glue around the tip. After gluing the stick on, he placed four wires equa-distant from each other wrapped around the stick. He then attached a half roll of toilet paper dipped in wax to the four wires so that it hung in the middle of the balloon. After attaching a string of fireworks around the bottom of the balloon on the stick, he was ready to set it off.

I have never seen such a creative way of making a hot air balloon and it was really one of the highlights of our trek. As the balloon rose higher and higher the fireworks would set off every few seconds which would set of a ton of barking from the dogs below. The balloon went really far, both up and distance-wise and captivated us and the villagers for a good half hour or so.

The next morning we trekked some more and eventually ended up at another village where we took a truck to a river. We rode on bamboo rafts which were made of 5 long bamboo poles roped together. We had a guide at the front that pushed us along with his bamboo pole gondola style and we all stood up spread out and helped with our poles as well. Basically the whole ride was a war of who could push who off more on the two rafts (mine won, of course). It was a fun way to wind down the day but definitely not hard core rapids.

After a quick lunch we drove some more to a huge, several tiered waterfall and went swimming for a bit. I would have liked to have had more time at the waterfall but we needed to get back to town so we took off. We had the opportunity to talk with a few other people who took the more touristic trek and it seemed to be full of tourists and lots of waiting in lines to do the activities which we didn't have. Before we had left on our trip Greg's mom (Bonnie) was nice enough to give us a donation for our travels and we decided this awesome trip was a great present from her. Thanks so much!

PHOTOS:

Chang Mai, Cooking class and Jungle Trek

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggoodman/sets/72157620628874260/

Crossing the Thailand/Laos border

http://www.flickr.com/photos/greggoodman/sets/72157620987413316/

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VIDEOS

Monks chanting in the rain at Wat Umong, the Forest Monastery in Chang Mai,

Thailand

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jAfp8yozfiA

Chang Mai Jungle Trek Carrie does a Tarzan

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UxufkFVkG3Y