Way Up North to Chiang Mai

After spending several days in Bangkok, we took an overnight bus north to the city of Chiang Mai. It is a very large city with about a million people. The roots of the city go back centuries when it used to be on the trade route that brought silver, handmade goods and jewelry. Remnants of the ancient city walls still wander through the city. Scattered throughout the city is over 300 Buddhist temples. The most famous is Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep. Perched up on the hill overlooking the city. It is another island of glittering gold. We rented scooters for the day and headed up there. Once there you have to climb another 309 steps to the top. On our way up, we took a little detour off the main path and came across our first elephant. It was chained at the foot but immediately started dancing back and forth. A big smile on his face and glint in his eye gave every impression that he was glad to see us. Just like a dog greeting a stranger, this elephant was reacting to us being there. If they weren’t so big, I would love to take one home.

In the afternoon, we rode to the other side of the town where they were having an umbrella festival. Thousands of handmade umbrellas were on display. We visited the factory where women were taking raw bamboo and literally carving each spoke in the umbrella. Each piece was amazingly exactly like the others. They were then all assembled together interlocking each piece with precision until the piece was finished. Then they were all hand painted and laid out to dry in the sun. This factory that produces thousands of umbrellas had absolutely no machinery. All were handcrafted by women who devote their life’s work to producing one part of the whole.

One of the amazing things about Thailand is how cheap everything is. You could get a hotel room for as little as $10 a night and a real nice one for $24. Our cheapest meal was Phat Thai for only 3 cents. And that included the paper plate and fork. Most of the tourist things were free. An hour massage was typically $6.00. You could rent a taxi for the afternoon for a dollar. The only problem is they want to take you to their “special shops” where they get vouchers for gas by bringing in customers. We were not really shopping so asked that they just charge us more.

While we were up north we went on a trek up into the mountains. There are hundreds of mountain tribes that have remained virtually the same for centuries. Some still don’t even have running water. Or trek began with an elephant ride through the jungle. It was really a fun experience riding these mammoth beasts. The one thing that we quickly learned about elephants is that they are constantly eating. They literally never stop, consuming about a quarter ton of food a day. Everywhere we went, they were reaching out with their trunks grabbing half of a bush. It is a good thing things grow quickly in the jungle. From there we hiked up hill for the rest of the afternoon. We finally arrived at a very isolated village that seemed to tolerate tourists like the elephant tolerated the flies that buzz around them, a little annoying, but nothing to get upset about. Our guides fixed us a nice Thai meal and then had us sleep in a one room thatched hut. We slept right on the wood floors with absolutely no padding. That was difficult but the hardest thing was to keep from freezing to death. The sleeping bags were so thin you could see through them. Temperatures dropped to around zero that night. I was curled up in fetal position under my sleeping bag just waiting for morning. Mike finally got up around 3 in the morning and spent the rest of the time waiting for the sun to rise next to the campfire. It was a far different climate from the 80-degree weather in Bangkok.

We took a plane down to Phuket, which is at the south end of Thailand. This town was clearly built for the American GI’s who had their R&R in Thailand during the Vietnam War. There was one bar right after another. And standing in front of each bar were beautiful Thai girls literally trying to drag you into the bar to buy them a drink. When you go to a bar in Thailand, you are customarily given a woman who is your companion for the night. Her job is to try and get you to drink as much as she can and to supply her with as many drinks as you will buy for her though I doubt her drinks have much alcohol. I felt like Pinocchio when he is on the Island of Lost Boys. So much alcohol and so much sex steaming through the streets. It all didn’t do much for me, but there were plenty of guys who loved the attention and who knows what else. We didn’t stay long in Phuket. Instead we headed to one of the hundreds of resort island, Phi Phi.

By this time in our trip, we had seen enough temples and done enough shopping. We were ready to kick back and enjoy a nice week of resort living. Our bungalow was just steps from the beach. We ate our meals with the sound of the surf slapping against the white sand. During the day we would lay around the pool reading books and soaking in the sun. In the evenings there were plenty of fire dances and disco dances to entertain us. It was really just a very relaxing part of the trip. We took day trips on long tail boats, which mean they were regular boats with a car engine mounted on the back. Where the drive shaft is was a very long pole that attached to a propeller. They were fast and cheap and took us to some of the other islands where we fed the monkeys and dove into the crystal clear water. This was one of the islands that got wiped out by the tsunami a couple of years ago. It was a bit unnerving to see tsunami signs scattered throughout the island keeping you always aware of where the highest point of refuge would be in the event of an emergency.

Spending time in the kingdom of Thailand only made me want to come back and spend even more time. I want to explore the surrounding countries of Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. It is an amazing part of the world that has a history and culture going back for centuries.