Chiang Rai

So I know that I said I was going to post the day before yesterday but I ended up being so zonked I didn't. After the last post I fell into what was perhaps the deepest sleep I have ever been rudely awoken from as I was awoken from it two hours later when I had to wake up to go out. After meeting up with our trek group and having a couple drinks, I returned to the hostel and zonked out again not to wake for about ten hours.

So I never really ended up posting.

Now it's two days later and we're in Chiang Rai. We arrived here by bus late last night and scouted out a hostel with a couple of Danish girls. More on that later, now to catch things up with the trek.

So the last thing I talked about, I think, was what we did on Wednesday walking and biking around Chiang Mai. We were picked up for the trek Thursday morning by not much more than a truck which we all sat in back of. There were eleven of us: a pair of French brothers and their father, a middle-aged French couple, a young British couple, a young Irish girl, a young Korean girl, and Nicole and I. Along with our Thai guide, that made twelve. And yes, a Korean. Talking to her made me start to miss Korea. Is it strange that, in light of the fact that we've met many other Americans or at least English-speakers and Westerners, that she was one of the most familiar-feeling people I have met so far. I think I've just gotten used to Koreans. She was from Seoul, in an area she didn't think I'd know but I happened to have a friend who lived one stop away from her on the subway. It's a small world...

We picked everyone up from their respective hostels and drove out into the country. Our first stop was to eat lunch followed by an elephant ride. I didn't actually know that we would be riding elephants. Perhaps this was my fault as I entirely neglected to read the confirmation email that Nicole forwarded to me but I was suprised nonetheless. I wasn't so sure how I felt about the elephant ride at the time and I'm not so sure now. I'm not a fan of taking wild animals and using them for entertainment even if all these elephants did was walk around. Regardless it was rather exhilirating, especially when the elephant is on some very steep slope and you're holding on feeling like the whole animal is about to just topple over. It's funny how your mind thinks about it. If I were in a car the size of that elephant going on the terrain we were on I am sure it would have toppled over, or at least gotten very stuck, but I was on an elephant and not in a car. Elephants are suprisingly graceful creatures for being so large.

The elephant did sneeze on us a number of times. Much to Nicole's dismay.

After the elephants we started on our walk. Since for the first part of it we were on a slightly inclining road we all kind of laughed it off. Over the course of the day (and I use the term "day" here lightly as we were walking for maybe about three hours only) the terrain and the path just got steeper and steeper. It was alright for a while but I remember, at some point during the day, having not much energy to do much else other than stare downwards at the path in front of me and contemplate my existance one step at a time. I mean that, and focus on the song playing on my ipod, haha. That was during the last leg, or perhaps the second-to-last leg, where things got really steep. It was a beautiful view though.

We stopped halfway through at a waterfall and "took a shower" as our guide advised us. There was a small hut with one guy in it selling water and cokes. "7-11" was carved on one of the posts exterior. Haha. Ha.

At the summit we stayed in a little village. I am not entirely sure I heard right but I think our guide said that there were about 180 people in this village. It was so small that kids older than 7 had to board at a school down at the bottom, near the main roads. The view was fantastic, and I'll put up a lot of pictures once I get the chance. It was serene and quiet and at night there were a billion stars. I forgot what it was like to see so many stars. In Chicago there aren't many and in Seoul there are none so I haven't really seen them in a while. It was amazing. Some of the women in the town offered us massages and I think everyone bought them. The next morning I wasn't stiff at all and I think that was the only reason. We had a great dinner, prepared for us by some people in the town, of curry vegetables, some potato thing, and bananas, and then talked into the night for a while. Our guide played us songs on the guitar and was suprisingly good. We slept in the "guest house" of the village on mats and with wool blankets and mosquite nets. I went down easy but the next morning it seemed like I had been the only one who had gotten a good night's sleep.

We had breakfast (toast, hard-boiled eggs, and bananas) and then started back down the other side of the mountain. Down is always easier than up but it was still tricky and most of us slipped at one time or another. I don't know what happens if someone breaks a leg or an arm; we were in the middle of nowhere. I didn't really want to think about it and it didn't happen. But it definitely could have and I'm sure it does. A dog from the village followed us the entire way down. Who knows where he went after.

There was another waterfall halfway down the hill and after that the going was pretty easy. We reached the road again finally and walked it a bit before arriving at the rafting place.

The rafting was fun but certainly not the most trecherous I have ever been on in my life. It was certainly designed for over-relaxed and under-skilled tourists althought they tried to make it seem daunting with tales of crocodiles which absolutly none of us believed. One guy on our raft (who was not part of our group) did actually get flipped in and frankly could have broken something the way he hit a rock but the boat was barely moving at the time and he was just being un-observant about things. Eventually the guides got all of us in the water no matter how against our will it was. It was rather against my will mainly because I didn't want my pants to get wet but it was fun swimming in the water. Thailand has just been a mix of being overly-hot or overly-cold. The times when I am at a perfect temperature have been rare. Right now is pretty good though. Night is coming on and its breezy but still warm. It's certainly not bad being a little over-heated. It just makes me want to sleep all the time. I think that's mainly what a lot of the tourists (and locals, sometimes) spend a lot of time doing.

After rafting we had lunch and then were driven back to Chiang Mai. I actually managed to fall asleap in the truck, my head against the metal wall of the back of the cab, despite the fact that we were bumping along country roads. Ahh... sleeping anywhere. We returned to our hostel where I promptly took a shower, wrote the poor attempt at a blog post from the other day, and fell asleap.

Yesterday morning (after sleeping until about 11) we traveled to the bus station in Chiang Mai to get a bus to Chiang Rai. Despite the fact that we arrived at the station around 1:30, the next bus available (that wasn't filled) was at 5:00 so we had to wait around for a bit. Nicole and I walked around, had a mediocre lunch, and then split an excellent chocolate brownie from Starbucks. The bus ride was not long (4 hours) and was relaxing. It's always relaxing to be in transit for me. You know where you're going and all you have to do is just sit and look out the window, which is pretty much all I did. They played a movie (Night and Day with Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz) but it was dubbed into Thai. It didn't matter much, however. It looked like it was about the worst movie I had ever seen, and I didn't even know what was being said.

When we got off the bus we didn't know where we were going to stay so we kind of buddied up with this pair of Danish girls (Julia and Josephine) from the bus who also were looking for a place and together we found rooms. We then had dinner with them and walked around for a bit. We decided to meet up the next day and also to cross into Laos and take the boat togeher (which we will do tomorrow).

Chiang Rai is much smaller than Chiang Mai and, more than the other cities we were in, the tourist area seems so confied to one small place its stifling. When I say confined, I mean that, if you walk outside of the tourist area the establishments change so fast from restaruants, massage parlors, and travel agencies to gas stations and residental streets its a bit startling. I think I like Chiang Mai the best so far of the three although I do admit it was one of the most tourist-oriented cities I have ever been to. Regardless, it's beautiful and breezy and natural.

We didn't do much today. We met up with Julia and Josephine around 11:00 and then had lunch and took a bus to a temple just out of town. This was our "bus adventure" as we called it since we basically just walked to the bus station to get a map but ended up being persuaded by a middle-aged Thai guy to get on this one bus after we told him where we were trying to go. The bus was a bit old and cramped but it felt rather authentic so we were rather pleased with ourselves. We traveled to a temple which deserves its own post so I will talk about it later because I'm getting almost too tired of typing at the moment to really do it proper justice.

We parted ways with Julia and Josephine who I will henceforth refer to as J&J and later had dinner and that catches everything up until now.

Tomorrow morning we will take the bus to the border town between Thiland and Laos to cross. Tomorrow night we will be in Laos and stay at a place just over the border before starting off on the boat down the Mekong River tomorrow morning. This boat (dubbed "the slow boat" by all tourists and tourist agencies we have come across) takes two days to reach its desination, Luang Prabang (I think that's correct). Apparently the itinary is 9 hours the first day, docking to sleep, and then another 9 hours the second day or something to that effect. There is a "fast boat" as well but apparently this boat involves wearing helmets and the occasional fatality. Well... we have to choose one way or another. I suppose we could fly. But what's the fun in that?