Aaaaand Action!

Scene one, take one: Discovering Chiang Mai and the beloved bed bugs 

Statues at one of the many temples of Chiang Mai

The old city is partially walled with an additional moat for protection and it holds a couple of really nice temples that we visited. One of them has an old, ruined chedi in the backyard that reminded us a bit of Angkor while all the other temples were of the modern Thai style: lots of white, red and golden or silver mosaics. So where it got really interesting for us wasn’t necessarily at the temples but in the many Sois: little alleyways that lead through the city like a maze and hide the real gems. From the prettiest little garden cafes to beautiful residential neighbourhoods, quite corners and lively local meeting points, from boutique hotels and spas to lotus ponds and peaceful canals – the atmospheric Sois are really good for some nice walking.

Sunday walking street in Chiang Mai

Since it was Sunday, we also did the (inevitable?!) touristic visit to the famous Sunday Walking Street: a huge area is blocked for traffic and what must be thousands of vendors build up their street stalls for handicraft, good and bad food, street music etc. It feels a bit like a fair and it gets crowded like on a fair as well. Loudspeakers play music and warnings in Thai and English not to leave any belongings unattended etc. The only real cool thing was when around 6 pm (like every Sunday everywhere in the country) the national anthem was played and the many thousands of tourists and vendors all stood still out of the sudden, stopped talking and just listened and paid their respects. After that, we tried some Chiang Mai sausages and dumplings and then fled the bazaar – it was just too much shuffeling. Instead we went to the nightmarket outside of the old town that at every other day of the week is crowded as well, but on this day was calm and empty of other tourists. A much nicer experience!
Oh, yes – and then we discovered the hundreds of bed bugs in our bed when we got back to the guesthouse. Not pleasant – I’ll spare you the details…

Scene two, take one: First day of two day mountain trek

Longneck woman

We were picked up from our hotel in an appropriate manner (10 people cramped into the back of a pick-up) and first drove to a local market where we could buy some necessary items for the adventure, like toiletpaper or mozzie repellent. Afterwards we visited a village of the Longneck-people which was pretty disappointing. The men and women came here from Myanmar a couple of years ago and are not allowed to leave any more because the Thai government earns quite a deal of money with them. The whole “village” is made up by one path through the forest that is plastered with the peoples’ shops where they sell handicraft goods and souvenirs. Visitors are allowed to take pictures of the Longneck tribespeople without asking them for permission first so there is no need to get into any kind of conversation other than bargaining for prices if they wish to purchase something. All in all a pretty sad scene, despite the beautiful jewelry of the people and the surely quite different cultural background that could have made for a very interesting encounter. So back on the truck and right on to the next stop along the way: an orchid farm with butterfly gardens. We spent a beautiful 5 minutes before we got back on the track to go – o the horrors – to yet another stop before the real thing, a snake farm. After having witnessed a horrific show (the way they treat the animals is at least as disgusting as the animals themselves…) and walked around the snakes' cages for a while we finally went to the mountains where we had yummie fried rice lunch and then started hiking. It was about time.

Dusk as seen from the mountain top

Enjoying Dinner with the whole group

The hike took us up through dense jungle and it was a real hard climb at times so we were sweating like madmen. We stopped at a waterfall where we could take an ice cold swim before we went up higher. The hike only took a total of a little more than 3 hours but it surely wasn’t easy and our legs were shaking when we reached a tiny hilltribe village of little more than 10 huts on top of the mountain. The views from up there were reward enough for the hard climb up there. After a short icy shower in one of the very basic “bathrooms” and a good beer, we felt better and enjoyed sitting on our big terrace with the rest of our group and watching the sky slowly turn dark. We put on a fire and some candles for light, our guide cooked us some delicious Thai curry and stir fried tofu and knife-danced for us after a couple of more beers and everything was perfect. Only downturn: all the massive spiders that came out after dark and blocked the entrance to the toilets, our beds (basic bamboo mats under a mosquito net – perfect jungle romance) or anywhere else I would have wanted to go to. Seriously, I have never seen so many biggies in one place. And at night, when you flash them with your torch, they stare at you with their shiny eyes and slowly move a couple of their legs as to say “Just come near me and I WILL move after all!” Needless to say I preferred going into the nature for my needs this night…

Scene two, take two: second day of two day mountain trek

Beautiful (and easy for once) walking through the forests

We got up early from all the roosters whose inner clock must be off – why else would they wake us at 3:30 am?! Seriously… Stayed in bed until breakfast at 8 am and then went hiking down the mountain. The path this day was very steep and slippery so that not only our bodies (especially the legs - knees and behind to name it) but also our brains worked out hard because we constantly had to watch our steps and find good places to put our feet.

Cool down at the waterfall

We first walked through jungle and then arrived at a beautiful waterfall where, again, we could swim a little to cool off. The track then lead us along the river through beautiful forests to our lunch stop (hmmm, good Pad Thai) at an elephant farm.
After lunch we mounted our elephants and went for a ride. The landscape was nice and the giants skillfully climbed up and down the steep slopes – but still we couldn’t really enjoy the ride a lot as we felt bad for the animals that weren’t treated very well by their Mahouts (care taker). When we got back to the camp, we jumped from the elephant right into a white water raft and with that into the wild river. We rafted down a couple of serious rapids and had a blast! Saying we got wet is definitely an understatement. Quite the adrenaline boost! Once we left the big rapids behind, we changed to a bamboo raft for a tranquil, relaxing ride down the last couple of km on the river. Weird thing about this: the raft was floating, but not on the surface but about 40 cm below it, so our buds were kissed by fish a lot during the ride…a little random… 

Scene three, take one: Mahout training
 

The next day was elephant day. We were picked up early and went to an elephant camp where old working elephants come to and can live a better life. On the way there, we practiced some Mahout commands to communicate with the animals, when we arrived we quickly changed into the traditional Mahout outfit (loose clothing that allowed us to jump onto the Elephant) and finally got to know our new best friends: the elephants. We first fed them so they could get used to us. Their trunks would swing towards us and grab the banana that we offered, swing back towards the mouths of the elephants and then, about halfway back to the mouth, change direction again and swing towards our other hand where we still held the rest of the whole banana plant and quickly grab that as well before we could take it out of reach. The trunks felt wet and soft at the top, and they had a very firm grip on our hands when they got them. The skin was rough and dry, almost hard. A very cool experience getting so close to these giants, having them run around freely and ever coming closer to us whilst we tried to find some new food for them. Of course next we got even closer to them as we had our first test rides on their necks. Unlike at elephant rides, Mahouts don’t sit on the animals back but on their necks, with their knees locked behind the ears, ready to use them for steering. Sitting atop the elephant and feeling how they react to your commands is a very unique experience. After the trial we got our personal elephants to take care of for the rest of the day. So we had to go out to the jungle and collect some food for them, bring them water, prepare some special medicine for them and ride them to the river to bath with them. My elephant had a baby that was not leaving its mothers side. When we were bathing in the river, it was playing, going under water and splashing and kicking – while I tried to be close to the mom to wash her. I can truly say, I swam with the elephants…quite the underwater stampede…
An awesome day!


Scene 4, take one: Thai cookery class

Working on the soup

That morning we didn’t have breakfast as a whole day of cooking and eating great Thai food laid ahead of us. After we were picked up, we went to the market with our instructor who told us a lot about the ingredients of Thai cuisine: spices, different kinds of rice, meat and tofu and tons of vegetables are all in the mix. Afterwards we went to the countryside by train and then took a bike for the last couple of km before we arrived at the school, located on a farm.

Stir-frying Pad Thai

We had great menu choices and to pick only one each was really hard, but in the end this is what we cooked: Jens had Deep Fried Vegetable Spring Rolls as an appetizer, Local Sweet And Sour Chicken as a soup, Chicken Pad Thai and Massaman Curry (based on a self-made curry paste) as the mains (yes, he CAN eat some curries…just not the powder as it might include dry nuts) and Fried Banana as a dessert. I cooked and enjoyed Spicy Papaya Salad as a starter, Chicken In Coconut Milk as a soup, Fried Chicken With Holy Basil and Green Chicken Curry (also based on a self-made curry paste) as mains and Sweet Sticky Rice With Mango as the dessert. It was sooo tasty! And the sheer amount of food reminded me: it was Thanksgiving! What better day for a huge meal than this?! (You’ll find some of the recipes in a new section of the blog as soon as we find some time for that.)

That's how we felt after all that food :)

The next scene will take us to Lampang where we will have our first couchsurfing experience on this trip and then on to Sukhothai where we'll see the festival of lights! After that we already have to go back to Bangkok because our time here slowly comes to an end... :(