Chiang Mai, Thailand.....More Successful Second Time Round

    This trip my companion and I decided to give Thailand a second chance; surely our plan would work out more smoothly than the first trip. After traveling to Vancouver for a flight to LAX in L.A and then on to the Gimpo Airport in Korea, we finally arrived in Bangkok........awake for 29 hours.

  We shared a taxi to Khaosan Rd. with a couple who had had the same grueling flight schedule as us. The Diana Guest House from our first visit had changed to Freddies; the lights were out so we checked into a Malaysian Hotel room, that was 700 Baht.

                                          

 In the morning I took a long walk around the city, filling my lungs with smoke and vehicle exhaust; there was a lot of development. I wrote in my journal how sore my throat was from the pollution, but I also wrote about how affectionate the Thai parents are with their kids; it is nice to see a culture where the parents give their kids love and attention. The 12 hour night train to Chiang Mai was booked for that evening; it was good to leave this city of 6.5 million quickly. We had a surprise in store for us at the station; we talked to a cute little boy for awhile, and then his older brother. When a train stopped we walked the length of the locomotive, only to find out there was no car with our number on it. We showed our tickets to a worker and he told us that the train for Chiang Mai had left at 6pm. We had stood on the track #7 platform waiting for train #7; that train actually came on the #4 track. There was no #4 on our ticket or the envelope; so we took a 7:40 train, after paying 350 Baht more.

  The familiar trip up to Chiang Mai; with all of the rice fields, was pretty good.

                        


I took very few pictures from when we boarded the train to walking in the front door of the same bungalow at the Golden Riverside Lodge. The first priority was to walk up the road to Pradid and Amira's, our local friends from the last visit, we had a great day. We went to the night market for dinner, the food was so delicious, and the company was exceptional. The next day we rented 2 motorcycles and choked our way through the exhaust of Chiang Mai before traveling the curving mountain road again to the Phuping Palace; this trip to the palace we stopped at the Doi Suthep Temple,

                                    


the serpent staircase was extraordinary, very fancy.

                          


  The next day we hung around the city; checked out the market, it was very crowded. There were so many products for sale; many fruits and vegetables.

                           

cheap knick knacks, and then, the meat section; the stench of something rotting was very strong. The following day we booked a long boat ride up the Ping River....before turning back, after traversing the waterway, we had a nice lunch. There were so many huge homes along the river, I guess it is a prime location. Like in many countries, someone who lives in this

                           

will live close to someone living in this home.

                           

    Our next agenda was a mountain trek; we left early in the morning in a jeep and headed north for about 100 kms. We went up high into the mountains; first stopping at a village called Lehu (approx. 350 people), which is about 50 kms from the Burma border;

                           

                           


the locals were originally from Tibet, they then lived in Burma (Myanmar) before crossing the Thai border. The scenery was very nice on this day, especially when we got higher in altitude. We then walked for about 2 hours to another village where we were to stay the night. I felt a little uncomfortable staying there because the village adults did not seem to want us there. All the young kids were excited to see us; we had some little gifts for them but for the local adults it was like we were trespassing. Our guide Veer said that the people did not mind us being there and that they do not think about things like we are rich, I did not agree. The adults just looked right through us; you can't blame them when they live in an isolated village where they haul water bare footed, garden all day; and the western people come along with their expensive runners, backpacks, camera's and mouth full of teeth.

  Our sleep was not so good; the bed was just a mat on a wood floor; the dogs, pigs, roosters, and crying babies kept us up most of the night.

                              

                              

 In the morning we left the village with our fellow trekkers Ivan and Diane from Switzerland for a 3.5 hour hike up the mountain to the elephant camp. We had a quick rest at this waterfall

                                              

  The elephant ride was about 1.5 hours of traversing narrow trails on steep grades. It was amazing how these huge animals were so sure footed. It is not exactly a comfortable ride on the back of an elephant with the pounding and hanging on for dear life, but it was quit the experience.

                            

  We arrived at a Karen Village where we would sleep for the night. Veer the guide started a fire to cook our evening meal, as he had done in the morning. The smoke is a bit hard to handle as it fills the hut we called home.

                            

  We were guaranteed to be woken up by: the dogs biting pigs behinds, kids crying, bulls grunting, people yelling, and the dreaded roosters. The view from the village was nice.

                           

Once we ate our basic breakfast we walked about an hour on the jungle trail to the Mae Kok River where we would raft. The river was a bit too low but the 5 of us had a great time; with lots of laughs. Too bad Veer translated what guys had said in the larger village that we passed when we left the home village; one guy said, " how come the beautiful woman is with that ugly man (me), and that ugly woman (Diane) with that better looking guy?" I could tell that Diane's feelings were hurt...really too bad to know what guys were saying; I could have guessed, that is common behaviour; especially when one does not speak the language.

  We got back to Chiang Mai; had a shower and then went to Pradid and Amara's place; we eventually went to eat at the night bazaar. The food choices at the bazaar were tremendous....with great company the night was very successful. The next day we just relaxed and hung around, returning to the night bazaar again to have dinner.

  The following day I walked again down to the morning market, it was a great ritual to watch the hustle of the crowds walking among the many types of fruits and vegetables. This day was a school holiday so we went with Pradid and his family to the Mae Sa Valley where there is a large garden to view; we had a lot of fun.

                        

 
  We then went to an elephant camp where there were 40 elephants that we could feed, that was also a great experience.

                        


   We proceeded to the Chiang Mai Zoo which was a bit depressing for an animal lover. The pens were overcrowded and Thai people were throwing so much junk for the animals to eat. One hippo stood on the concrete in the hot sun with his mouth open against the wall, people threw candy's still in the wrappers, cigarette butts...just disgusting and hard to witness. The day ended well with a group meal at the mall.

  Our second trip to Chiang Mai was memorable, we felt fortunate to have good friends to share some of our days with. This would not be the last time in Chiang Mai. We set off on the train to Bangkok.