we rode a ghetto bus up to chiang mai i can't quite recall how long it was, maybe 12 hours?
we arrived and there were pick up trucks waiting for us like vultures, wanting to take us to their guesthouses. of course we read our lonely planet guide and usually stick to the place listed in there that appeals to us the most. that said, we weren't really interested in the guest house we were brought to, imaginatively dubbed "nice place". the guy was nice enough, he had us all sit down and women brought us tea and whatnot. it's like, 6 or 7 am and i don't think anyone had a great sleep on the bus.the guy goes on a rant about thailand being a country of smiles and how he doesn't appreciate rude people who just shrug him off when they're brought to his guesthouse in this way. he also boastfully claimed his trek tours were the toast of the town and we won't find treks like this anywhere else and nowhere else offers treks t pai like he does... (later we found out most places do) truthfully, his guesthouse wasn't all that bad and he had a book full of travellers praise to back up his boasts. all the same, so did other guesthouses. we opted to catch a 20 baht tuk tuk cride to bow guesthouse and it was worth it, the rooms were nice and reasonably priced, and bow herself was a cute and sweet thai girl with an excellent standard of cleanliness etc etc. the room had a TV but chiang mai channels really suck and i was lucky to catch obama giving a speech or the movie 'hook' in thai with no english subtitles. it's actually pretty entertaining to watch a movie from when you were a kid in a different language because you know what they're saying at every point in the movie anyways.
we ventured out to the night market and it was insane how it just went on and on... i purchased an interesting incense holder and refrained from spending any more money on things like boba fett made out of nuts and bolts, ninja swords, massive novelty zippo's, a bouquet of fowers that light up and so on and so forth. the next day we booked a 2 day, one night trek into a jungle and through some hill tribe villages. it sounded well enough. after booking we decided to go to this mexican place that caught landon's eye the night before. we both got vegetarian burritos and then later that night, it was all over for landon. she spent the entire night puking... repeated trips to the bathroom. in the morning i had to go downstairs and tell the guide that we needed to postpone our trek by 2 days maybe while landon recovered. we didn't really do a whole lot in between, mostly sit indoors and read while landon recovered. i ventured out and discovered a street with 3 massive book stores and bought a couple of books. when the evening before our trek came again, landon was feeling peachy and it was i who was now puking and feeling the sick. and may i also note that indian food tastes way better going in than coming out. we couldn't get another extention the next morning and would not get our money back (1800 baht each) so we were left with no choice but to do this blasted trek with me having the sick anyways.
turns out i was okay for it, we drive a bit of a way to a waterfall. it wasn't until we got there until i noticed who we were actually trekking with... (i rode in the front of the pick up wit the guides). landon made a comment that the 2 finnish guys were drinking beers the whole way in the back of the pick up (10am approx.) and that never changed the rest of the trip. aswell, we had a very quiet german couple and a loud and talkative group of dutch girls, 3 in total. the waterfall was cold! but maybe that's what woke me out of feeling like shit. i was the first, aside from our guide to actually go underneathe the waterfall and it felt like getting repeatedly slapped on the back a milllion times. i think i have some good pictures out of that,., next we went to a hot springs that was much too hot to actually get into. none of us fully submerged but the finnish guys and me waded around in it a bit. from there there was no more truck and a 4-5 hour trek was before us. uuuuup the hill, doooown the hill. or was that mountain? the 4-5 hour hike consisted of what seemed like up a mountain and down a mountain 3 times with two villages in between for relaxing and water refills and one village at the end, our days destination.i recall at one point leading the group up a mountain and looking back to see i was way ahead of everyone, so i stopped and one of the dutch girls came eventually, calling "hey you're supposed to be the sick guy, how're you so fast?".
english was the common language between us all, and the only language me and landon know. however, the other groups of people tended to go off int conversing in their own tongue so at times everyone was pretty segregated. i really didn't mind because when we did talk with the other people they were all really nice anyways and i knew no one was trying to exclude anyone on purpose. the views from the tops of the mountains were spectacular! it was also a treat because the climbing was over and we knew it was down and easy from here..... but that was not so. going dow almost sucked more. it's like walking down hills and straining against gravity as to not end up uncontrollably running and dodging, in motion, jutting rocks, hanging branches and trees and cliffs in general. all in all it was an excellent workout and probably a good thing to keep my body from knowing it was sick.
we arrived at the destination eventually and i took a nap in our hut while everyone else went to the "showers" which they found out, upon arrival, was a river. ha! after my nap we had dinner, and we were spoiled with plates and heaps of extra food to refill. i felt bad because didn't really have an appetite due to recovering sick feelings. i hope the extra food went somewhere useful. from there it was beer and campfire and 'get-to-know-your-trek-buddies' time. most people were exhausted and cheered at the news that there was no more walking the next day. the next day? elephant riding and bamboo rafting......
that will be covered next entry....
