Sawasdee!

In Thailand, Sawasdee (Kaa/Kup for Female/Male) is kind of like Aloha, and serves as a polite hello and goodbye. It’s pretty much the only Thai that I’ve learned that I remember.. except that Mai Pai means bamboo… But anyhow, it’s a good one to know.
Well, now we’re on a train, heading from Chiang Mai to Bangkok after a crazy trekking adventure through the hills. It all started three days ago, when we packed up our rented day packs with rented sleeping bags and all our stuff for 3 days, loaded up into one of those pickup trucks, like bench taxis, and headed off into the wilds. And by wilds, I mean that a lot of people live there but the bathrooms have no running water, the roads are not paved, and most electricity comes from solar panels.




After stopping to check out a pretty waterfall in the woods and grabbing some fried rice lunch in a bamboo hut, we were left off at a trailhead that led into the jungle, about 2 hours out of Chiang Mai. It was hot, and immediately required a steep uphill climb that got most of us panting. I was kind of expecting a nice little nature walk, but it ended up being mostly dramatic up-hills and down-hills with a sprinkling of level ground, much of it through what seemed like never- or relatively infrequently-trekked through areas. The jungle was beautiful, very green and lush and a fairly cool temperature in the shade. Every now and then I got a buzz in my ear, but other than that the bugs were minimal. The first part was through mostly pine tree forest, with huge rubbery vines hanging down that some people tried swinging and climbing on a bit. Our Thai tour guide, Tony, is apparently a budding archeologist, and he showed us a few foundations of old structures, mostly made out of brick remnants, that he claims were temples about 400 years ago. They both had large pits in a certain area, where he said there used to be gold Buddhas, but that someone must have tried to come dig them up and steal them. Everywhere you looked, there were green rolling hills, and sometimes if you got low enough there were rice paddies visible at the bottoms of the hills. The trek was about two and a half hours, but seemed much longer because of the strenuous ups and downs. My mom took a dramatic fall on one of the down hills, which was scary but she was pretty much completely fine (a little shaken) afterwards, so we trekked on.



Finally, after a particularly steep downhill stretch, we saw a little village appear beyond the bright red, long stemmed poinsettias. It was a village of about 200 people, and most of the structures were made out of bamboo with either thatched or metal roofs, raised above the ground. Chickens, dogs, and water buffalo wandered around, and the people watched us walk through, pretty unphased and uninterested, except for a few little giggling girls who kept peeping over the ledges at us. Most of the women were dressed in shirts and sarongs, and we watched one of them sift through some rice to separate the hulls. Tony led us to a larger structure, also made of bamboo, right next to a stream, which was our home for the night. In the stream they had set up a bamboo log that ran the same way the water flowed. The log stuck straight out over a small drop off in the stream, so we went and stood on the flat lower area and the water that ran through the log and shot out, serving as an extremely cold but also refreshing shower. The boys chose, instead, to grab beers and go chill in a waterfall area a little further downstream.



Our local guide, whom we called Mr. G, had bought a lot of food at the local market for us and served as our chef (among other things) for the whole trip. On the first night he made some delicious spring rolls and curry. There were two outhouse-type bathrooms, one with a western toilet and one with a squattie, and two large bedrooms, one for girls and one for boys. After dinner it was actually pretty cold, so we all sat around the fire for a while and enjoyed Tony’s baffling magic tricks (he’s a jack of many trades), which used strings and coins and cards, for a few hours. Then we passed out early to the loud sound of water running right by the cottage. There was no electricity, so we used little flashlights, which made for scary treks to the outhouse in the dark.



The next day my mom decided that her trekking days were over, so she hired a local guy to take her to the next village on his motorbike. After a few hardboiled eggs and some toast, the rest of us set out on our second trek. At first we trekked through some hills in a bamboo forest, which led to a lower area with rice paddies. We stopped for lunch in an empty raised hut by a rice paddy and Mr. G pulled out our lunches – noodles wrapped in big beautiful banana leaves, with grilled chicken and fresh-cut pineapple, which was really delicious. On the way, he had carved chopsticks for us out of bamboo. He and Tony never ceased to surprise us with their talents. The water buffalo around us made funny little noises that sounded like “hmm?” as we passed them and trekked on through more rice paddies, and then back into a bamboo forest, and over multiple little streams. The trek ended up being about 4 and a half hours total, including lunch, but it went by quickly and painlessly and was pretty fun and pleasant.



The second village we stopped at was about twice as big as the first, 400-500 people. The bathrooms were also like outhouses, but much closer to the raised hut where we were sleeping. They had Southeast Asian-style baths, which are huge tubs of water and a small bucket in a little outhouse, where you stand and repeatedly fill the little bucket and pour it over yourself. The water was very cold, but it was nice to be able to at least control it and brace yourself before each splash. This hut was bigger, so we got to sleep about two people per room, but the beds were the same type of thin pad on the bamboo floor. After arriving, they called in a group of elephants to take us for an hour ride. It was really fun! We sat in little boxes on their backs, while their trainers sat on their heads and directed them. They took us on a path through some fields and woods, and then back through the river. One of the elephants had a 6-month-old baby that tagged along, weaving in and out between its mother’s feet.



When we got back, we washed and freshened up a bit, and then took a walk into town to visit the local school. Since this was one of the largest villages in the area, it was where all the surrounding villages’ children came to school. Most of them lived there Monday through Friday, going home to their parents only on the weekends. Tony explained to us how they learned to cook and clean there, along with their other lessons. Some of the boys on our trip joined a large game of soccer with the kids after they finished dinner. Later, we enjoyed another wonderful Mr. G meal, which included banana spring rolls and a sweet pumpkin dish.

We stayed up a little later talking and listening to Tony tell us about the king and queen and princesses of Thailand to candlelight for a while after dinner. Apparently the king hand-picked his third child, a princess, to succeed him. It seems that although the government has changed hands multiple times in recent history, the royal family as served as kind of a stable form of leadership. They are highly respected throughout Thailand, and most businesses have their pictures up, and sometimes a large, elaborate shrine for them. Tony told us about how he encourages the kids in the villages to write to the princess to ask for improvements in their roads and other more modern accommodations. Unfortunately, it ended up being very hard to sleep that night because the roosters decided to have some sort of crowing festival under our hut.

In the morning, we woke up early, had breakfast, and then loaded ourselves and all our stuff onto two bamboo rafts that had just been built by the local people. They each were basically made of about 15 long bamboo trunks tied together, with a little tee-pee type structure at the front to hold our bags above water. We put 5-6 people on each raft, and Mr. G and Tony served as rowers along with two local guys (2 rowers on each boat, one front and one back) each rowing with a long bamboo pole. We all mostly stood on the rafts, since the bamboo floated just below the water and a lot of water came through the cracks. The morning was a bit chilly and overcast, and sometimes we would go over small rapids and have to kneel down, so we ended up getting kind of wet (except Kate and Bill were talented enough to stay dry through the whole thing). Jim, Marc, Mr. G and Tony all went for a swim when it got a little warmer and the river was deep enough. We rafted for about 3 and a half hours, through peaceful jungle scenery, listening to Tony and Mr. G sing random popular American music (you know:.. “hey jude”, the Titanic song(!), the typical ones..) and some Thai ones. We ended up at another little bamboo hut, where we were served great phad thai, and then loaded back into our truck taxi and drove for 2 hours back to the city.

I have to say, as fun as the trek was, it was so amazing to have a hot shower and a soft bed back in Chiang Mai. Our 2 star hotel seemed like the most luxurious 5 star possible and I think we all slept very well.

This morning we woke up, and my mom, Kate and I went to an Elephant Training Camp that Tony recommended. It was really awesome, and there were tons of elephants with their trainers walking around. We got there just in time to see them get washed in the river that runs through the camp. As they walked past us they reached out their trunks to us, hoping to find some bananas or sugar cane. They didn’t find any, but we got to pet them, which was cool. They went down into the river and rolled around and sprayed themselves as their trainers scrubbed them down with brushes. Then we bought some bananas and headed over to the nursery to feed them to a baby elephant. The elephant mom was jealous, I think, because she kept blasting me with air.. and snot and other things.. with her nose.. so that was gross. But the baby was cute. After that we watched the main show, where the elephants played soccer, darts, harmonicas, and even painted pictures. It’s shocking how smart they are. One of the elephants painted a whole landscape, while another painted pretty little flowers growing out of a pot, and another drew a tree.

In the afternoon, Tony took us to look around the old part of Chiang Mai town, which included a few temples, one of which was about 600 years old called Wat Chedi Luang and used to house the “emerald” Buddha. Tony told us a story about how the emerald Buddha didn’t want to be in Chiang Mai, and its temple kept getting hit by lightning and then collapsed during an earthquake in 1545, so the king took a hint and moved it, and himself, just in time before Chiang Mai got attacked and overrun by the Burmese.

This afternoon we packed up our stuff and loaded up on to a train, which we’ll spend about 14 hours on, and wake up in Bangkok tomorrow morning. Phew.. it’s been a packed couple of days. Sorry I had to save it all up again and pack it into one entry, but needless to say the villages didn’t have internet access.

So far, I love Thailand. The people are very friendly, and not super aggressive (not as much as in China anyway). It has a very pretty and respectful culture, and the people are very proud of their culture and history and love to share it with visitors. My one complaint is a problem that I suppose I’m contributing to, which is that there are SO MANY tourists here. I swear in some parts there are more European -looking people than Thai. Anyhow, I can’t blame any of them for wanting to visit or live here. It’s beautiful, warm and the food is amazing. The temples are very intricately designed, often using either gold encasing or trim. It is very rude to point the sole of your foot at someone, and just like in Cambodia, the sign for thank you is to put your palms together under your chin with your elbows out and bow slightly. The people here definitely look more East Asian than those in Cambodia. Cambodians have generally darker skin and rounder eyes than the Thais or Vietnamese. It’s interesting how Cambodia got so much more Indian influence than the countries around it. It makes me wonder what Laos is like.

We had to say Goodbye to Mr. G yesterday, which was very sad, and will soon have to part from Tony and his many skills, which will also be unfortunate. Luckily we have a long train ride to rack his brain for ideas of how to spend our next few days in Bangkok…. Till next time.

PS. I didn't realize that my small camera uses an XD card, and I don't have a card reader yet, so I can't put some of my awesome bamboo rafting and other pictures up until later. These ones are from my mom's camera