To save on
accommodation, we usually ride through the night, but there were only two
departure times available, 3PM (the 6hr ride would land us in Chiang Mai in the
dead of night) or 6AM. So 6AM it was. Ben kept an eye on the clock, watching for
city signs. At around 4PM, we rolled
into a biggish city, but not Chiang Mai.
A kid jumps on the bus, headed for Chiang Mai himself, we find out that
it’s actually a 16HR bus ride...
Awesome. Thanks Pattaya Bus
people, real helpful. That puts us at a
Midnight arrival which is bad for a few reasons. One, it’s scary. Two, tuk tuks & baht buses charge “last
resort” rates. Turns out the other
foreigner on the bus speaks a little Thai & we all split a decent priced
truck to our hostels. Aimlessly
wandering through unusual residential streets, we’re unsure what to expect of
our hostel. Accommodation is often set
in bustling (& sometime hustling) parts of town, tall dingy buildings cozy with
one another. Never in a classy, upscale
European neighbourhood with yards, picket fences & scab-free dogs. We spot our hostel & push open the
unlocked door to our 19th century 2 story house, making our way towards
the light. There sit 2 tired locals. “Ben?”
We reply,
apologizing for not contacting about our new arrival time. Expecting a little sass in response, we were
surprised to hear “We emailed you wondering where you were. We were getting worried.” Huh?
Noom
introduces himself & his wife then explains how things work at Spicy
Thai. He starts in, “we are a family
here. Breakfast is available from
7:30-11:00 each morning. You serve
yourself & clean up after yourself.
If you have special diets, you can shop for yourself. If you’d like to show off any cooking skills,
you can make dinner for the family. Here
is the fridge, take what you need & write it down. It is based on trust. There are two living rooms for chilling out,
free internet, hammocks outside, etc.
The dorms are basic because they are meant for sleeping. We’ve done our best to make the rest of our
house comfortable for you to hang out and enjoy the other travellers & our
company. Each day, we do an outing. Sometimes it’s free, sometimes it’s not. If you can come, that’s great. If not, don’t worry.”
This is what
we love about hostel living.
Next morning
we sit around the breakfast table, with our new family, chatting about where
we’ve been, what hot spots are around, & which places are a waste of time. Our first day, the outing is a Thai BBQ plus
a temple tour with the owner of Spicy Thai, Pong, who was at one time, a novice
monk. We were lucky to receive a little
history on Buddha & life as a Monk.
A few snip-its... In Thailand,
the year is actually 2553 as they count from Buddha’s death. Monks eat only what they are given by the people
eating once in the morning, & again before noon. Male Monks are to live by 227 rules, while
female Monks live by 311. The orange
coloured robes mean nothing. They do not
sing or dance. Buddha was an Indian
Prince with a wife & son. His father
created for him, a world full of beauty, kindness & wonder, free of
pain. Catching a glimpse of real life,
Buddha chose to leave his title of Prince to seek out the best way to spend his
time on earth.
The BBQ was
insane. Hundreds of people gathered down
a back road, under an open aired tent.
Tables overflowing with every kind of meat, seafood, fruit, vegetables,
& deserts you could imagine. Lesson
one in buffet dining: always scan the offerings before piling your plate full from
first few sections. Otherwise, once
you’ve caught a glimpse of these other glorious options, you’ll either be full,
or feel glutenous, going back for 2nd & 3rd helpings.
Next day,
Ben & I were set up to go on a 3 day jungle trek through some of the mountain
villages, ride Elephants, raft a bit, & check out waterfalls. What an amazing few days. This was proper jungle trekking. We were led to the Elephant camp to feed
& walk the beautiful beasts. Not
much to be said here... It was just very cool.
I wish we could say they didn’t use bull hooks or any other taming
tools, but I can’t & would rather not talk about it. Moving on...
As we
started in on our major trek for the day, we picked up a new mum dog from a
small village. When they realized she
was leaving for good, her pups turned back for town. Now equipped with two guides, we headed into
the thick bush. At hour 2, our guide “V”
stops for a rest, starts a fire, grills up a grasshopper, chomps ‘er down,
& off we go. We had our very own
Survivor Man. After 4 long, hard hours,
we made our first camp with traditional dinner prepared& mind tricks ready to
waste away the night. Accommodation for
the evening was a long bamboo house with a thatched roof, bamboo walls &
floorboards, all propped up by logs. Our
beds, floor mats with Princess style mosquito netting, scratchy, but warm wool
blankets & a stone pillow. Pigs
& roosters made the “basement” their home, which at 2AM can sound
scary. Whoever said that a Rooster crows
at dawn was... well, a liar. What he
meant was that their raspy “cock-a-doodle-doo” kicking off at midnight, is so
painful, that by 5AM you are forced up to go muffle the sound with a shot gun. That’s what he meant. In addition, anyone who has watched the movie
“Snatch” would understand the terror that crept up my spine when the pigs
started up below. Was this a trek? Or a plot to steal our belongings & use
the pigs to cover up our existence! I
never thought I’d grow to fear Piglet.
Alas, there I lay.
Still, it
was beautiful. Set on top of the valley,
an open fire cook shack, crisp morning air... It was wonderful.
Neglecting
our legs, we paid severely on day 2. Our
trek would be 6 hours in total, 80% uphill through the jungle, but a break to
cool off at the waterfall!! What an
absolute treat! As we ducked under &
climbed over deadfall, we came to an opening, there it was... Water blasting over soft stone into a refreshing
pool with a hut stocked full of ice cold Coca-Cola! Our grimy bodies scrubbed, thirsts quenched,
& swelling in our feet down, we laced up & continued the climb. Dairy, as they boys named her, after her
unfortunate swinging utters, had stayed with us (I know, I know... brutal name). When we stopped for a rest, she’d stop. If she got too far ahead, she’d slow her pace
to wait. What a cool dog. V said he worries for Dairy. She is likely to be picked up by locals for
food or killed by other dogs. And so, we
kept a watchful eye on her. Just as the
sun was setting, we reached the village.
Poor Dairy was not welcome... The
local dogs picked up her scent, showed their teeth & chased her out of
town. We’d like to think she made it
back home safe.
Our new home
was much like the first. Up on pillars,
farm animals underneath, an outhouse a few steps away, & a cook shack. These people don’t have running water or
electricity, but they make sure to hook up solar power for their satellite
dishes bringing in the latest episode of “As the World Turns”. I loved the feeling of our temporary home. All of us joined on the floor mat around a big
bowl of Green Curry Soup & Sticky Rice that had just been prepared by the
Villagers by fire-top! Candle light flickering
over our faces, sipping on local whiskey.
It was so nice. Then the darkness
spread, out come the creepy crawlies, pigs & roosters start in, the outhouse
seems more frightening than ever. I
choose ignorance to deal with my fear of spiders the size of your head. Ben needs to see, with his own eyes, the
things that go bump in the night. These
two ideas clash. And so is the tale of our
first public fight:
“I DON’T
WANT TO HEAR ABOUT WHATS ABOVE ME!”
“WELL I NEED
TO KNOW! Oh God, look at that one!”
“That’s it. I’m peeing outside. Cover me.”
Adding to my
phobia was the lack of mosquito nets. At
any moment, a spider could drop on my head, a cockroach crawl in my ear, or a
moth (which could be easily mistaken for an OWL!!) could flap its dusty self
all over MYself! I always thought I was
“woodsy”... I take it back. I’m girly.
Ah, sweet,
glorious, creep-free morning has arrived!
For breakfast we put down boiled eggs, toast, & juicy
pineapple. Today was to be easier than
the previous days. Most was down hill
& only a couple hours. The local
school was on our way out of town.
Outside, a little boy, slightly red from all the dirt, was playing with
his toy gun. Looking closely, it was a
real gun, with its metal bits removed.
Ben sat down showing photos to the boy.
He’d look, smile, grab his shirt, pull it out to see that it was
matching the photo then look up at Ben, amazed.
With not much, these kids were some of the happiest I’ve ever met. We could have spent hours just watching them
(that sounded slightly creepy).
One more
stop before we reach the river to catch our raft home... The Bat Cave!
Leaving our packs up top, we climb down a steep path to the mouth of the
cave. Monks are known to come to the
cave seeking dark & quiet calm to mediate, sometimes for days. With Ben shaking in his girly boots, we
didn’t make it to the belly of the cave, & we made our way back to the
light.
Our trek was
coming to an end. A quick ride on a
dingy through rapids & bamboo raft to our pick up point then we were back
to city life.
Going back
to a place like Spicy Thai is not bad at all.
On the board was posted “Cheap local dinner + Free Thai Boxing.” We’re in!
Now, I love
curry, I really do. And, I can handle
spice. Kristi & Lindsey would
disagree & feed you lies of my inability to dance with the fire. But as of late, I am increasing my tolerance
to heat. When we sat down & the
waiter informed me the green curry was out, I opted for the red. This is usually not a brave choice. But today, it was. I received a plate of rice with
chillies. I couldn’t even chill out the
heat by upping the ratio of rice to spice, impossible. I swear the chillies were mocking me from the
plate...
When we
arrived at the fights, I was first to the beer station, ordering a cold Chang
to keep the blisters from swelling too badly (okay, I exaggerate, but it was
hot!).
Right away,
Ben starts up the internal betting ring amoung us foreigners,
“I got blue shorts. Who do you have? A beer for the winner.”
“We” have
agreed that, if we are to afford travel for the next 8 months, Ben’s betting
career is on hold.
Locals start
into us in Thai. Which no matter how
much you wave no, or say in their language that you don’t speak Thai (which I
now see appears to be a lie), they continue.
For the most part, they were friendly, interested to see foreigners at a
local fight. Once the bell rung, hands
fly into the air, waving new odds at the Bookies.
Whispers
started through the crowd... “There’s a Brit fighting tonight”. Exciting!
When he climbed through the ropes, no one thought much. All the locals started again, wanting us to
bet for the Foreigner. Then he
disrobed. Thai tattoos covered his
body. This guy was for real. Taking his time to perform the traditional
Muay Thai dance, he throws fierce eyes at his opponent. I had my camera out & was pushed as close
to the front as I could by the crowd.
For all they knew, he was my brother.
Ding! Ding!
A quick heel
stomp to the Thai’s chest left the local breathless. A sharp elbow to the head left him legless. WHAM-O!
A solid knee with another elbow.
30 seconds
later, fights over.
By the
Locals reaction, you’d think we just fought.
They cheered & slapped us on the backs! What a night.
The
following day we had planned to rent bikes & site see. Realizing we had neglected to figure out our
next move, we stayed at the hostel, preparing to leave.
Stephen, one of the guests, was a Chef back
home & decided he’d share his love for cooking with us. The guests pitched in a few baht each for
groceries & away he went. The rest
of us sat around the yard listening to music & chatting while he made magic
in the kitchen! Dish after dish made
their way to the tables, all pushed together in the dining area; Spectacular
grub. Tiring ourselves out with a game
of poker, we made our way to bed. A
great way to end our stay at a great hostel.
See you in
Laos.
