life's adventures This is the story of my wanderings through Asia

I am surprised and disappointed here in Thailand. I think over the years the numbers of friends who have told me I would love this place, they instilled in me a sort of expectation, the sort no traveler should ever take with them on the road. I know this, yet still I am shocked at how westernized these places are. I am loving the variety available to me that I haven’t enjoyed since being in New Zealand. In Chiang Mai I found salmon and avocado sushi, I spoke to a guy who was feasting on a giant burrito, and I almost splurged on overpriced but enticing Chinese dumplings.

The Thai food here is good though. Not great, I have yet to find a green curry that impressed me, the pad thai is also very nice, but nothing to go on about. Here I find myself thinking a lot about food. Dare I judge a country by its food. I think not, as I haven’t spent long enough in any to really taste all it has to offer. I will say I do miss specific dishes from China, and Vietnamese coffee of course.

The night bus to Chiang Mai, the well visited tourist destination in the north, was long and uncomfortable, who knew the miniature beds crowding Chinese night buses could be better than Thailand’s ‘recliner’ seats? On arrival in the crisp morning sunshine, we wandered to a recommended hostel, Julie’s. I got a small single room, which was perfect in every way. I spread my belongings out in disarray around me and tried to organize some way I could continue on without breaking my back. I haven’t bought much along the way, but my backpack seems to expand at each stop.

Chiang Mai is a city. I didn’t expect this at all. It has traffic like crazy zooming around the streets, and continuous firecrackers going off making ears ring. We had come on the second day of celebrations for the Loy Krathong festival. That evening I wandered around the crowded streets, snapping photos of the pretty lanterns and the stunning full moon. The numbers of people was a bit much so I found my way back to the hostel, where I met a couple from Sweden, who I quickly found to be my newest friends.

One more day spent in Chiang Mai before I wanted to head north to the relaxed town of Pai. In the morning after wandering around town for a while, we managed to find ourselves in a group of solo travelers all keen to go to see the tiger sanctuary nearby. So off we went, in a large tuktuk, a few ks out of town, to hug and pet some tigers. As this is the Chinese year of the tiger, my year, I was in awe of the great beasts we were touching. We made high-pitched noises when watching the babies, but it was the daddies we were able to spoon whilst the group caught each moment digitally.

That night was the grand finale of the festival, which our group largely avoided by hanging out the back of the hostel, before heading out to wander in search of some live music. I wanted to find a friend from Dali, Eddy, an old Dutch guy who got stuck in Dali with various ailments for a few months, what better place to get stuck in, you could ask. We found him at a quiet bar, preparing to go on a visa run to Burma the next day. I will stop through again to hopefully spend at least a day or two with him, as he is a true heart warmer.

These are some of the recurring concepts I find other travelers talk about, as two farmers would discuss crops or the weather. Where and why you have found yourself stuck, and visa runs. Stuck, now this could mean there was a flood or landslide, not so nice to be stuck in the middle of a small island with waters rising I would imagine, but a very good story to write home about. The more common stuck, is when you just can’t seem to leave a place, it’s too good. So many people had been stuck in Dali while I was there. And I witnessed a few who had been stuck in the madness of VangViene too. There’s also a hinted recommendation in those places where people say they got stuck, must be great I’ll have to go there, you say each and every time.

Visa runs, these are common all over south east Asia, and are particularly for illegal workers, or those who got stuck somewhere and have run out of time to go anywhere else. Could be worse though, as some places here I’ve seen advertise a package tour which includes a bus to Burma, waterfalls on the way, lunch over the border and then back down to Chiang Mai. Not half bad I’d say.