Part 9: Thailand (part 3) - days 54-60
This is a long one....lots to say!!!
DAY 54: this was our last day down south, but it was pouring rain when we got up, so we couldn't have one final beach day. So instead we went and checked out neighboring Ao Nang for the day. Despite the fact that it's only a 15 minute boat ride away, it's completely different than Railay. Ao Nang had roads and cars and stores and a variety of restaurants. Very different compared to carless Railay. I wish we had spent a night or two there, as it would have been a nice change.
Anyway, it was raining so we went for a massage. Craig was massaged by a man and was super uncomfortable. LOL. By the time the massage was over, the rain had stopped and we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and such.
We once again had a quiet night in Railay.
DAY 55: this day was a travel day to Chiang Mai. We flew out of Krabi airport and had a stop over in Bangkok. All went smoothly and we arrived in Chiang Mai around 5pm. The day was filled with a variety of modes of transportation. Railay has no dock and is only accessible by boat but the tide was way in in the morning when we were leaving. So we were put on a large tractor and taken out to a long tail. We then took a long tail to Krabi town where we were put in a van and driven to the airport. After landing in BKK we had to take a bus to the terminal and upon arrival in Chiang Mai, we took a taxi to out hotel.
Our hotel was in an excellent location. It was basic, but clean and only about $20 a night so it was good. We spent the evening exploring the night market. Once again, it was nice to be out doing something, after the sleepy days in Railay.
Chaing Mai is interesting. Mostly, it's a home base for an abundance of activities just outside the city; some awesome (elephant sanctuaries) and some terribly touristy (go karts). The city itself is fine. Until this point we had only been down on little islands, so this was our first real experience with tuk-tuks (which i love).
It was also our first experience with people visiting thailand for sex tourism purposes. While it is not super seedy in Chiang Mai, we saw a number of middle aged white men with younger Thai women (thankfully most were at least in their late 20s).... A rent a girlfriend for a week kind of deal I think.
DAY 56: we spent our first full day in Chiang Mai 'trekking'. I am using that term loosely. Trekking is what we signed up for, but in reality it was more of a tour.
I've been in Asia for 8 weeks now; I should have learned that any time i sign up for a tour or a trek, the provided itiniary is really just a suggestion. This 'trek's' surprise activity was white water rafting....
The one day 'trek' we signed up for was supposed to have us trek to some local tribal villages, go on a one hour elephant ride, trek to a waterfall, and then float down river back on some bamboo rafts. I guess that's what we did....only there really wasn't much actual trekking involved.
It started with a stop at a super lame butterfly and orchid farm.....ok? After that we 'trekked' to see some of the hill tribes, but the trek wasn't really that far off road and the local village was anything but authentic. Yes, all the women there were "long neck karen's" who wear the copper coils on their necks, but the village itself was completely geared towards tourists.....our guide told us that some villages get lazy and decide to stop working and live entirely off selling scarfs and silver bracelets (and the like) to tourists. That was the case here. None the less, seeing the women and children and hearing a bit about their beliefs and history was interesting.
Next was lunch and an elephant ride. I didnt want to do the elephant ride because we had a day with elephants booked the next day, but it was impossible to find a trek that didnt include it. The elephant ride was fairly scenic and provided some nice views of rice fields and the landscape, but otherwise it was pretty lame. There were stairs to get onto the elephant and then we sat in a basket on the elephants back. Not really interactive or interesting. And i felt bad for the elephant, who did not seem to pleased to be dragging us about.
After lunch, we did hike for a few hours, to a waterfall. But when we got to the "waterfall" it was to dry to swim in. LOL. After that we went white water rafting, on pretty low grade rapids.....I can't imagine they were any larger than class II. After doing class IV and V in costa rica, this was pretty tame. None the less, it was fun, albeit short. When the river slowed down, we transferred to bamboo rafts, which was maybe the lamest part of the day. We got on the raft and it sank. Craig was in charge of steering, but I think there was too much weit on the boat and so we floated down the river, up to our waists in water.
Anyway, overall an interesting day....
Dinner was also eventful. We found a great mexican place, which was such a nice change after 8 weeks of asian food. The food was good and we were having a nice time, until this guy came in. He was obviously high out of his mind (as he stood with his face pressed against the mirror, drooling, in the entry way for about 5 minutes before he entered). He sat down at a table and proceeded to order chilies only. Then he picked up his phone and started to have a conversation, although there was clearly no one else on the other end. Meanwhile, there was a large white haired American sitting next to us (wearing what can only be described as pajamas) eating dinner and getting increasingly frustrated as this high idiot caused a disturbance. He was clearly mad, but didn't do anything until the guy started licking the salt out of the dish on the table.....then he leap up, pulled the guy out of his chair, said "that's it, you're outta here", and threw the guy into the street into a number of scooters (which toppled over). The only way to describe the incident was 'strange'.
It did become more clear when we went back the next night.....the PJ guy was there again, only behind the bar, so he must have been the owner. That makes more sense as to why he was so annoyed with that guy.
DAY 57: this was one of my favourite days of the trip so far. We spent about 8 hours at an elephant sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai. The sanctuary rescues/purchases elephants that have been previously made to work in the tourism industry doing elephant shows, or from the logging industry. We were given a 38 year old female elephant named Mehkapah (no idea if that spelling is anywhere close to correct). They had rescued her 3 years ago from a logging camp in Burma. Given that she was 38, she likely spent a long long time working at that camp. The skin on the top of her head, while healing well, was still a bit cut open and rough, likely from the camp. She also had a huge hole in her ear, where she was probably tagged.
Anyway, she was huge. She was a little apprehensive of Craig and I at first, but the more we fed her, the more she came around. We started with a basic health check, and then a feeding of two large baskets of bananas and sugar cane. she liked that. They we went down to the river and washed her off.
In the wild, elephants spend most of the day walking, so after the bath that's what we did for the rest of the day. We climbed on and walked about an hour to a nearby waterfall. We sat right on her head, not in baskets or anything (which can be quite uncomfortable for the elephants). It was pretty cool. The whole walk she was looking for food....her trunk grabbing at trees everywhere.
When we got to the waterfall, we had lunch while the elephants played in the water. Some of them loved playing in the water. A few rushed right in and spent about an hour rolling around in the water that went up to their backs. Mehkapah went in for a bit, but was more interesting in trying to steal food from our lunch than she was in playing in the water. At the end of lunch the elephants got all the non-meat leftovers....bananas, oranges, rice, etc. They were pretty funny. They know the routine. As soon as lunch was jut about over they were all lined up, trucks out, jostling for position, waiting to get fed.
Mehkapah got herself in prime position and probably managed to get 50% of all the leftovers from everyone. Craig and I mad an extra effort to give her lots as elephants have excellent memories and are able to associate people with memories. It seems to have worked, because after lunch she was 1000 times more interested in us and interested in co-operating.
We spent the afternoon walking (with frequent food breaks) before saying goodbye around 4. Overall it was pretty cool. The elephants seem pretty well taken care of and pretty happy, so it's nice that their lives have been improved.
One funny story. At night the elephants are chained to the property by one leg (on a long chain). The camp didn't like having to do that, but it's mostly for the elephants own good. There apparently are frequent stories of elephants wondering off and injuring or killing themselves by accidentally pulling power lines and such down. At the camp we were at, the issue was less serious. A number of years ago, before they used chains at night, the owner of the camp got a call one morning from the four seasons hotel (which is close) asking why there were 8 elephants sleeping, eating and pooping on their grounds. He had to go retrieve them and clean up. Apparently they like luxury too.
Anyway, we had Mexican for dinner again and an early night, because we were exhausted.
DAY 58: this day we went to go see more exotic animals, only this time in a zoo. We went to the "tiger kingdom" where you can pet, cuddle, and take pictures with the tigers. Despite the fact that I don't like zoos (and that the large tigers were most likely drugged) it was pretty freaking cool. We saw big tigers and baby tigers. The babies were better because they were most likely not all drugged up. We got some pretty cool pictures.
This weekend was a big holiday in Thailand. The first full moon in November is Loy Kratong. The entire city of Chiang Mai was out, lighting and releasing lanterns, floating banana leaf boats down the river, lighting fireworks, etc. Apparently the day is a day to atone for your sins committed over the year. You release the boats and release any badness. Craig and I participated. We bought boats and lanterns and released them. Craig's lantern Hindenburged though,.... It burst into flames before getting to far. Funny.
DAY 59: we had an early morning flight to Bangkok. We arrived at our hostel around 11am. It's a really nice new modern place in a very central location.
After checking in, we went to a weekend market in the northern part of the city. The books all said "lose yourself in this massive market." that's exactly what we did....only the losing ourselves part was involuntary. We literally could not find our way out. The market was ok, but pretty crowded and nothing really that we wanted to buy.
In the evening we ventured into the Patpong area of BKK. Years ago, is was the center of sex tourism.....today its a market and a place for tourists to go get a feel for the sex tourism industry without going to the really shady areas. About 90% of the people there were tourists like us.... There to gawk.
We had a really nice dinner a few blocks off the strip and then headed over. It was pretty interesting. You can't walk more than two steps without some guy trying to get you to go into his club and see some sort of weird sex show. The funniest part of the night was these two guys we saw walking around a few times. They were 40 something year old American males and were clearly drunk. They thought they were so cool. They came out of bars giving each other high fives and dancing like idiots. So pathetic, but pretty funny.
DAY 60: we intended to do all sorts of touristy things this day, but after 9 weeks I'm finding that my motivation to go to temples and see the sights has diminished. I'm glad I did china first and that I'm doing a tour for my last 2 weeks....otherwise I don't think I would do much.
We went to the Royal palace around noon. 3 times a year, the king visits the palace and changes the jacket of the emerald buddah....to mark the changing seasons. Wouldn't you know, we got there a d half the complex was closed because the king was due to arrive very shortly. The place was teeming with secret service, highly decorated military officers, guards, etc. As such, our look at the palace was pretty short. We couldn't be bothered with the crowds and it was very frustrating being directed away from half the sights.
After lunch we went to another market where they sell lots of knock off stuff. It was ok, but its all the same shit now. I think I have all the fake stuff I want for now.
We did dinner at a really yummy Mexican place, before walking around the area. It was Craig's last night, so he wanted to do some final shopping. I was a bargaining master. I was talking people down 50% of the price or more. He ended up getting a few good things and was pretty happy.
And that brings us to today. Craig left this morning and I am meeting my tour later.
Next stop, Cambodia.
Cheers
- Siobhan
DAY 54: this was our last day down south, but it was pouring rain when we got up, so we couldn't have one final beach day. So instead we went and checked out neighboring Ao Nang for the day. Despite the fact that it's only a 15 minute boat ride away, it's completely different than Railay. Ao Nang had roads and cars and stores and a variety of restaurants. Very different compared to carless Railay. I wish we had spent a night or two there, as it would have been a nice change.
Anyway, it was raining so we went for a massage. Craig was massaged by a man and was super uncomfortable. LOL. By the time the massage was over, the rain had stopped and we spent the rest of the afternoon shopping and such.
We once again had a quiet night in Railay.
DAY 55: this day was a travel day to Chiang Mai. We flew out of Krabi airport and had a stop over in Bangkok. All went smoothly and we arrived in Chiang Mai around 5pm. The day was filled with a variety of modes of transportation. Railay has no dock and is only accessible by boat but the tide was way in in the morning when we were leaving. So we were put on a large tractor and taken out to a long tail. We then took a long tail to Krabi town where we were put in a van and driven to the airport. After landing in BKK we had to take a bus to the terminal and upon arrival in Chiang Mai, we took a taxi to out hotel.
Our hotel was in an excellent location. It was basic, but clean and only about $20 a night so it was good. We spent the evening exploring the night market. Once again, it was nice to be out doing something, after the sleepy days in Railay.
Chaing Mai is interesting. Mostly, it's a home base for an abundance of activities just outside the city; some awesome (elephant sanctuaries) and some terribly touristy (go karts). The city itself is fine. Until this point we had only been down on little islands, so this was our first real experience with tuk-tuks (which i love).
It was also our first experience with people visiting thailand for sex tourism purposes. While it is not super seedy in Chiang Mai, we saw a number of middle aged white men with younger Thai women (thankfully most were at least in their late 20s).... A rent a girlfriend for a week kind of deal I think.
DAY 56: we spent our first full day in Chiang Mai 'trekking'. I am using that term loosely. Trekking is what we signed up for, but in reality it was more of a tour.
I've been in Asia for 8 weeks now; I should have learned that any time i sign up for a tour or a trek, the provided itiniary is really just a suggestion. This 'trek's' surprise activity was white water rafting....
The one day 'trek' we signed up for was supposed to have us trek to some local tribal villages, go on a one hour elephant ride, trek to a waterfall, and then float down river back on some bamboo rafts. I guess that's what we did....only there really wasn't much actual trekking involved.
It started with a stop at a super lame butterfly and orchid farm.....ok? After that we 'trekked' to see some of the hill tribes, but the trek wasn't really that far off road and the local village was anything but authentic. Yes, all the women there were "long neck karen's" who wear the copper coils on their necks, but the village itself was completely geared towards tourists.....our guide told us that some villages get lazy and decide to stop working and live entirely off selling scarfs and silver bracelets (and the like) to tourists. That was the case here. None the less, seeing the women and children and hearing a bit about their beliefs and history was interesting.
Next was lunch and an elephant ride. I didnt want to do the elephant ride because we had a day with elephants booked the next day, but it was impossible to find a trek that didnt include it. The elephant ride was fairly scenic and provided some nice views of rice fields and the landscape, but otherwise it was pretty lame. There were stairs to get onto the elephant and then we sat in a basket on the elephants back. Not really interactive or interesting. And i felt bad for the elephant, who did not seem to pleased to be dragging us about.
After lunch, we did hike for a few hours, to a waterfall. But when we got to the "waterfall" it was to dry to swim in. LOL. After that we went white water rafting, on pretty low grade rapids.....I can't imagine they were any larger than class II. After doing class IV and V in costa rica, this was pretty tame. None the less, it was fun, albeit short. When the river slowed down, we transferred to bamboo rafts, which was maybe the lamest part of the day. We got on the raft and it sank. Craig was in charge of steering, but I think there was too much weit on the boat and so we floated down the river, up to our waists in water.
Anyway, overall an interesting day....
Dinner was also eventful. We found a great mexican place, which was such a nice change after 8 weeks of asian food. The food was good and we were having a nice time, until this guy came in. He was obviously high out of his mind (as he stood with his face pressed against the mirror, drooling, in the entry way for about 5 minutes before he entered). He sat down at a table and proceeded to order chilies only. Then he picked up his phone and started to have a conversation, although there was clearly no one else on the other end. Meanwhile, there was a large white haired American sitting next to us (wearing what can only be described as pajamas) eating dinner and getting increasingly frustrated as this high idiot caused a disturbance. He was clearly mad, but didn't do anything until the guy started licking the salt out of the dish on the table.....then he leap up, pulled the guy out of his chair, said "that's it, you're outta here", and threw the guy into the street into a number of scooters (which toppled over). The only way to describe the incident was 'strange'.
It did become more clear when we went back the next night.....the PJ guy was there again, only behind the bar, so he must have been the owner. That makes more sense as to why he was so annoyed with that guy.
DAY 57: this was one of my favourite days of the trip so far. We spent about 8 hours at an elephant sanctuary outside of Chiang Mai. The sanctuary rescues/purchases elephants that have been previously made to work in the tourism industry doing elephant shows, or from the logging industry. We were given a 38 year old female elephant named Mehkapah (no idea if that spelling is anywhere close to correct). They had rescued her 3 years ago from a logging camp in Burma. Given that she was 38, she likely spent a long long time working at that camp. The skin on the top of her head, while healing well, was still a bit cut open and rough, likely from the camp. She also had a huge hole in her ear, where she was probably tagged.
Anyway, she was huge. She was a little apprehensive of Craig and I at first, but the more we fed her, the more she came around. We started with a basic health check, and then a feeding of two large baskets of bananas and sugar cane. she liked that. They we went down to the river and washed her off.
In the wild, elephants spend most of the day walking, so after the bath that's what we did for the rest of the day. We climbed on and walked about an hour to a nearby waterfall. We sat right on her head, not in baskets or anything (which can be quite uncomfortable for the elephants). It was pretty cool. The whole walk she was looking for food....her trunk grabbing at trees everywhere.
When we got to the waterfall, we had lunch while the elephants played in the water. Some of them loved playing in the water. A few rushed right in and spent about an hour rolling around in the water that went up to their backs. Mehkapah went in for a bit, but was more interesting in trying to steal food from our lunch than she was in playing in the water. At the end of lunch the elephants got all the non-meat leftovers....bananas, oranges, rice, etc. They were pretty funny. They know the routine. As soon as lunch was jut about over they were all lined up, trucks out, jostling for position, waiting to get fed.
Mehkapah got herself in prime position and probably managed to get 50% of all the leftovers from everyone. Craig and I mad an extra effort to give her lots as elephants have excellent memories and are able to associate people with memories. It seems to have worked, because after lunch she was 1000 times more interested in us and interested in co-operating.
We spent the afternoon walking (with frequent food breaks) before saying goodbye around 4. Overall it was pretty cool. The elephants seem pretty well taken care of and pretty happy, so it's nice that their lives have been improved.
One funny story. At night the elephants are chained to the property by one leg (on a long chain). The camp didn't like having to do that, but it's mostly for the elephants own good. There apparently are frequent stories of elephants wondering off and injuring or killing themselves by accidentally pulling power lines and such down. At the camp we were at, the issue was less serious. A number of years ago, before they used chains at night, the owner of the camp got a call one morning from the four seasons hotel (which is close) asking why there were 8 elephants sleeping, eating and pooping on their grounds. He had to go retrieve them and clean up. Apparently they like luxury too.
Anyway, we had Mexican for dinner again and an early night, because we were exhausted.
DAY 58: this day we went to go see more exotic animals, only this time in a zoo. We went to the "tiger kingdom" where you can pet, cuddle, and take pictures with the tigers. Despite the fact that I don't like zoos (and that the large tigers were most likely drugged) it was pretty freaking cool. We saw big tigers and baby tigers. The babies were better because they were most likely not all drugged up. We got some pretty cool pictures.
This weekend was a big holiday in Thailand. The first full moon in November is Loy Kratong. The entire city of Chiang Mai was out, lighting and releasing lanterns, floating banana leaf boats down the river, lighting fireworks, etc. Apparently the day is a day to atone for your sins committed over the year. You release the boats and release any badness. Craig and I participated. We bought boats and lanterns and released them. Craig's lantern Hindenburged though,.... It burst into flames before getting to far. Funny.
DAY 59: we had an early morning flight to Bangkok. We arrived at our hostel around 11am. It's a really nice new modern place in a very central location.
After checking in, we went to a weekend market in the northern part of the city. The books all said "lose yourself in this massive market." that's exactly what we did....only the losing ourselves part was involuntary. We literally could not find our way out. The market was ok, but pretty crowded and nothing really that we wanted to buy.
In the evening we ventured into the Patpong area of BKK. Years ago, is was the center of sex tourism.....today its a market and a place for tourists to go get a feel for the sex tourism industry without going to the really shady areas. About 90% of the people there were tourists like us.... There to gawk.
We had a really nice dinner a few blocks off the strip and then headed over. It was pretty interesting. You can't walk more than two steps without some guy trying to get you to go into his club and see some sort of weird sex show. The funniest part of the night was these two guys we saw walking around a few times. They were 40 something year old American males and were clearly drunk. They thought they were so cool. They came out of bars giving each other high fives and dancing like idiots. So pathetic, but pretty funny.
DAY 60: we intended to do all sorts of touristy things this day, but after 9 weeks I'm finding that my motivation to go to temples and see the sights has diminished. I'm glad I did china first and that I'm doing a tour for my last 2 weeks....otherwise I don't think I would do much.
We went to the Royal palace around noon. 3 times a year, the king visits the palace and changes the jacket of the emerald buddah....to mark the changing seasons. Wouldn't you know, we got there a d half the complex was closed because the king was due to arrive very shortly. The place was teeming with secret service, highly decorated military officers, guards, etc. As such, our look at the palace was pretty short. We couldn't be bothered with the crowds and it was very frustrating being directed away from half the sights.
After lunch we went to another market where they sell lots of knock off stuff. It was ok, but its all the same shit now. I think I have all the fake stuff I want for now.
We did dinner at a really yummy Mexican place, before walking around the area. It was Craig's last night, so he wanted to do some final shopping. I was a bargaining master. I was talking people down 50% of the price or more. He ended up getting a few good things and was pretty happy.
And that brings us to today. Craig left this morning and I am meeting my tour later.
Next stop, Cambodia.
Cheers
- Siobhan
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