Golden Triangle
Trip Start
Mar 08, 2008
1
16
58
Trip End
Oct 02, 2008
Chiang Rai,
Thailand
Monday, May 5, 2008
after the Chiang Mai mountain adventures, which included trekking throught king cobra, black widow and venom-spitting cobra territory (and surprisingly close to tiger and elephant land too, just a couple of mountains away), under diluvial rains, sleeping in a village somewhere in those mountains, drinking countless cans of beer to help support the villagers (anything for a good cause), water-rafting in a 5 meter long boat made of bamboo canes strapped together and the inevitable and always heartbreaking elephant ride, we were aching for more...... yes, mere temple visiting and monk chatting wasn't doing the cut for us anymore....... - but this time without the fucking elephant ride, please mister.......
the mountains around Chiang Rai sounded just like what we were looking for: further away, more wild, different mountain-tribe peoples to visit, more waterfalls........ but as we got there, a deadly and devastating cyclone attacks Burma bringing over to Thailand never ending downpour...... the rain added to the fun in the Chiang Mai trekking, but walking for hours in slippery ground, wet as a river rat is not something you want every time you step into a mountain.......
instead we sat in the guesthouse bar, drank beer and a couple of shots of that horrible drink with a cobra and a scorpion in it (not too strong, but it tastes like arse), chatted with a bunch of old european men that have been travelling all their life, had mysterious food wrapped in banana leaves as the hang-over breakfast next morning, visited the White Temple, a very strange and hillarious Wat designed and built by a Thai architect (it has Keanu Reeves as Neo from the Matrix in one of the walls), ate a lot of curry and finally got a VIP night bus down to Bangkok, where it's hot and dry......
last night went to Muay Thai, but it just isn't like the movies: no blood, cuts or spilled guts, no flying kicks, no boxing gloves laced with bits of broken glass, no Van Damme anywhere in sight.......
