Trekking and Chiang Mai

Advice for anyone going to Thailand: spend no more than 2 days in Bangkok. Do what you need to do there, then get the hell out. I don't care where you go from there, go South, sit on a beach, go North, go trekking and see hill tribes, but get out of Bangkok.

That said, I'm so glad I got out when I did. I spent 4 days there and it was far too much. I ended up in Chiang Mai, a smaller city in the far North of Thailand. Trekking was awesome. I spent 3 days and 2 nights walking through the jungle, reveling in the beautiful scenery and hanging out with the hill tribes, specifically the Karon, at night. Along with my two guides there were 10 other trekkers. I was the only Canadian. One thing I've noted is that I seem hard pressed to find any other Canadians travelling. It's quite odd actually. On my trek were two Americans, two aussies (awesome people by the way), a german, danish, two scottish girls, a dutch and a Russian. Another notable occurrence is how EVERYONE I've come across speaks remarkably good English. It really shouldn't be that surprising, but it's just interesting to me for some reason.

Anyways, our guide was Mr. Dong hehe (funny only to those who live in Korea). He was awesome. Very funny and good English as well. Some random quotes that I find funny however you probably had to be there for are...

"look out for the she-males. the ones with the be-u-ta-ful co-co-nuts and the hanging ba-na-nas" - Christa...you can add that one to your fruit/body part quote collection, I thought of you instantly!

"I no push the bum anymore"

The first day we walked for probably a total of 4 hours. It's called trekking, but really it's not that strenuous. We were however, pretty sweaty and dirty. We stayed our first night with the Karon tribe on top of this mountain. It had such a beautiful view. No pollution, so far away from everything. I saw more stars in the sky than I'd seen in over a year. It was so refreshing. I love the mountains, I don't regret choosing Northern Thailand over the South at all. I'll sit on a beach in Vietnam and hit Kho Pha Ngan another year...next year perhaps ;)

The food was so good, I ate better than I had in a long time. We were actually turning food away, there was too much of it!! That night we hung out with the tribe around the fire, drank good beer, told funny stories, sang a bit - "elephant, elephant, elephant...it is very big..." and generally chilled out. Most of us slept in the next morning. We said good bye to our two Scottish and two American friends as they were heading out earlier than us, only staying int he jungle for the one night. One girl, Laura, is also travelling to Canada, she'll be in Van the beginning of April...small world, we're gonna meet up again.

We got up, ate too much breakfast, and headed back out into the jungle. We stopped in at a random hill tribe village school, played soccer with some kids and continued on to our waterfall camp. The second night we didn't stay in a village, but on the outskirts at the base of this waterfall. So pretty. Again, ate too much, drank a bit, more songs, more star gazing and a lot of total darkness when the fire died.

Third day - not so much alone in the wilderness and a whole lot of touristy goodness. We made our way back into some sort of civilization and rode some elephants with a million other people. We then continued on to ride a bamboo raft down a river for a bit. Still really cool and fun, but a change from being so secluded.

Back to total civilization. We headed back to our respective hotels, got cleaned up, put our laundry in to be washed and headed out to the Chiang Mai Night Market, a variable plethora of things to buy. It's astounding. I like to shop, it was dangerous. I met Philip (german), Bianca and Ben (Australian) from my trek for dinner and drinks. We had a lot of fun, drank Thai beer and ate, went and got well deserved Thai Massages, and headed back to bed early, utterly exhausted.

So, now it's today. I took a Thai cooking class all day, ate too much again, went back to the hotel, took a nap, and am now wandering around the night market again before heading back to the guest house. I leave for the border tomorrow, spend the night at the border, then sit on a boat for two days as I head into Laos. it's SUCH a short distance on a map, but travel isn't exactly stellar.

That's about all. I wish I could put pics on here. I'm thinking of burning some of my pics onto a CD so I can do just that, but then I'd have to cart the CD around with me and really, that's a lot more hassle than it's worth.

I'll be MIA for a few days. That's all for now. If you ever come to Thailand, don't forget the North. It's awesome up here.