Pai , Mae Hong Son, Chiang Mai

Hey there gentle readers!

Sorry it's been so long with this, I've turned REAALLLY lazy as this has gone on...well, school IS in midterm season now,so I guess I can use that as an excuse. yes, that'll do, ignore that bit about me being lazy. You know it's not true anyway :p

However, there won't be another post for an estimated 3 weeks since this week I'm off to Manila for the mid semester break, then I have to come back and do a swack of term papers, so I will turn into a ball of non-fun for a while (though you never know, I could end up posting more often to avoid paying attention to deadlines...start placing your bets now folks)

Anyway, onwards with the blogging. In honor of the really fast and clean coup the Thais have just had, I give you an equally whirlwind tour of Pai, Mae Hong Son and Chiang Mai. I will deftly condense the last week of my trip into a single post! Bwa ha ha ha ha ha ha! Okay, so it's not that fiendeshly clever, but I like laughing like that anyway, so give me my fun.


Now, the first thing easily noticable in Thailand are the large number of images of the king in honor of his 60th year on the throne (dont' ask me to spell his name, I can't even remember what the whole mouthful is. My friend Itt actually has a really long name, but goes by "Itt" to make it easy. All Thais do this, since the formal name is enough to make ANYONE want to change their name for the sake of ease if nothing else)

But yeah, that's a big ol' picture of royalty, eh?


In Chiang Mai I continued with my touristy kick and signed up for a cooking class! It was a good day of fun, with a fun group of people, and a really nice lady teaching all of us to make tasty tasty Thai food.



First stop on the class was to the market to buy all of our stuff. It was nice to get to know how to use a lot of local veg and spice (it's come in handy living here for a while), and she even gave us things we can substitute them with later on back in the west.



Yes, we're all very foxy in our aprons.

We got to mash all of the stuff together with a mortar and pestle for our curry dish (we each made 6 dishes in the day, and got a big recipe book at the end. I volunteer all of my lovely aquaintance to be my guinea pigs when I get back, since too much coconut milk and oil over here is already happening. Mmmmm, asia)



Later on I ended up at a Muay Thai fight, but forgot my camera,s o no pictures of it. man, those guys are savage. I don't think it was really my cup of tea, but it was interesting to see the spectacle of it all at any rate. And boy, those guys sure can move!

Afterwards it was off to the little village of Pai for a few days of doing not much at all, just enjoying massages, movies, and lots of different nice restaurants and street vendors. Below is the guesthouse I stayed at.



Just a shot of the river that flows just north of the village. It's actually more built up than this, but I liked the mountains too much.


Later on I ended up catching up with Demado from my trek, and we decided to go do Mae Hong Son together as a day trip. We found a really nice guy at Pai Nature Trails (use him if you're ever there. Really nice, good to the local area, and a good conversationalist to boot).



So yes, mountains continue, below is me in front of a Lahu village (lots of hill tribes out in this direction). the climate is pretty different in the north, lots of pine trees and cliffs with bee hives hanging off of them, and crabs up at high altitudes (the kind that scuttle on the ground...you gutter minded people you).



And yes, downton Mae Hong Son and all, very pretty.




Now for part of the uber tourist in me, the Long Necked Women of the Karen people. The women are actually all refugees from Myanmar, so they are not allowed to ever leave the village, so depend on tourist money. There are even military checkpoints with big scary guns checking id's on the way in and out to make sure everyone is who they should be and where they should be. Despite the tragedy, the women are quite nice, and are more than willing to sit and chat (they speak a lot of languages, largely to support themselves with more tourists, partly because what else can you do if you're stuck in the area?)


I forget this lady's name (it might be in my journal, but I don't feel like digging through it now) but she was really sweet, and played a funny stringed instrument quite well.



There were also the big eared Karen, though they don't tend to get as much attention as the long necked women. This particular lady was very nice as well, I ended up buying postcards from her.



What I really remember about her though is her son. A thousand thanks to Claire Carlson for telling stories about how excited the children in Nepal and India were about getting their photos taken. Remembering this, I got to show him pictures of himself, and he was giggling like nothing else! I never saw someone get so excited over getting a picture taken, it made my day!



Demado and another lady of the village.



And then a Burmese style temple up on a hilltop...I'm still a bit templed out. Angkor Was really jades one to the rest of the temples. And the temples are EVERYWHERE in Thailand. Quite a few beggars everywhere, but they aren't allowed in really. It's rather sad too, since the temples are always so empty. There's all this space that isn't really used for a lot, not even worship to a large extent. I got it explained to me that it's more about the hope that the temples bring, or just the hope that if you make something beautiful, your life will be beautiful too. Lots of lonely stupas and temples still are sad though, even where they're pretty.





I liked the dragon on the bell

Aaaand a nice view of Mae Hong Son from up above at the temple.



After that it was off to "fish cave". The big attraction... a cave full of carp. Lots and lots of carp. it was nice to get a little walk anyway, and hey, when do you get to see a ton of fish for no apparent reason?



After that was a really steep hike up to coffin cave. This is a spot that's rather hard to get to (Demado couldn't make it all the way up, and let me tell you, it was tough getting down. I ended up slipping and getting stung by something. Thank goodness for tiger balm.). The coffin there is a few thousand years old, put up by whoever was there before the Thais. I think that's kinda nifty anyway.





Jungle ginger above, and the Thai restaurant sitting platforms with cushions below. They're actually pretty comfy when you get used to them, and they're a good place to relax for a meal (the restaurant, not the ginger. the ginger is just pretty)



And more elephant riding!



Not great pictures, since I was on the elephant...and left my camera on the side of the road when we got to the river. good thing too, since that elephant liked to play in the water. To the tune of me getting bucked off and in to the water about a dozen times minimum. A playful elephant in water is a lot of fun, though when it starts to roll, you get the heck off. the Mahout and I had a good time though. he just walked along the side to make sure she didn't try to wander off to far, and I got to sit on her neck and head in the proper way, which was also awesome. A few hours of trying to stay on a playful elephant does make you sore after though. I assumed a pretty bow legged walk for the rest of the day on this one. totally worth it.



yeah, soggy Colin.



Just the city walls around Chiang Mai, since hey, walls and a moat make ANY city that much cooler. That and the cheap massages everywhere.... I miss those.



And don't die of shock, but I went shopping at the markets. Bartering makes for a good time, and holy consumer frenzy batman. With this much shiny stuff, i couldn't fight it...and more massages in between bouts of it also helps.




Example of the gasquillion temples of Chiang Mai.



Just another set of the Thai flag and the king's banner....these line the roads in all the cities right now. Well, maybe not RIGHT now, though I don't think the coup really changed that much in regards to the king's place in Thai society. More about the prime minister and all that jazz.



And this park and I got to know eachother fairly well, since it was by a fruit market. Some mangosteen and a book go a long way here. So pretty. And full of pigeons and fish. And vendors. Always vendors. Did I mention they like to sell things to you in Asia?







And yeah, a nice parting shot of the city from my guesthouse. It was a lot of fun, though the next day was just food and waiting in the airport (guess who had a really delayed flight?) All in all, the backpacking was pretty cool, if disorienting. I'll have pics from reading week up here next, though like I said, it may be a while. I'll get around to Singapore soon, promise. Feel free to leave funny remarks, and take care till next time gentle readers! (darn that Mr.Stelter, he's ruined me with that)
PS: If Auntie Jan is reading this still, I need your e-mail address!

Trek Near Chiang Mai

Okay. So, after a VERY long busride from the south, I finally arrived in Chiang Mai. I promptly signed up for a trek in the jungle for the next day (a 3 day deal), then spent the rest of the day wandering the city and seeing some sights (which get included later when I do the Chiang Mai post, since there are more than enough pics from a three day trek for me to talk about here)

There were 5 other people on the trek with me, and the guide, making for 7 of us all together. Phase one of our trekking deal: Elphant riding!



That was my elephant, and the guy in the red shirt was our guide.

And below is Rachel (from Ireland) and I catching photos of one another on elephant back (well, in a chair thing for this time around. But it was my first elephant ride, I didn't know any better)



And then there's the closest pic that I have on MY camera of me on the elephant...



Being up high like this, it affords a pretty nice view. Northern Thailand was cooler, and has a lot of hilly/mountainous terrain. This is still in the "avoid the cities and be super touristy" phase of the trip.



Okay, take a look at the elephants below, notice anything a bit different about their skin?



Yup, they're wet. this is because it's a hot day, and they ran across some water while we were out and about on them. Therefore, elephant water fight ensued. AWESOMENESS!!!
The trumpeting noises, the spraying with the trunks, it's all part of the deal (covering the camera so as not to have it die is the tricky bit, especially when a you're on a bunch of critters that can stomp you on a whim playing with tons of water) Definitely fun to be in the middle of.



After all of that fun, it was lunch, then off for a few hours of hiking through some hills, then into rice field territory...



To make it HERE for the night! It was in a Karen village in the hills. The people there were all very nice, and the food was awesome too. We all ended up staying up late playing songs and dancing and just generally enjoying ourselves (the "Chang" song is particularly funny once we all had a bit of the rice whiskey in us...the local far more than us of course).



Definitely a pretty spot. At night it's all lit by candles. There IS electricity, it's just used in certain spots, since they're run on generators. Up here there's a lot of new jungle that the king has been planting. Here we were on the edge of the old, overgrown stuff. Made for some interesting nighttime noises.





The next day, we get to go up and over the bigger hills to get to the next night's "campsite" (some huts out by a river, but nice. Defnitely a tourist area here). See all the ominous clouds? Just a bit of rain that day...



The group: Demado(Singapore) is hidden, David and Emily (France) in the foreground with Chow (our guide, awesomely cool Thai guy), Emmet and Rachel (Ireland) a bit in the back.


So we had a break for lunch at the top. Definitely a nice view.



More mountain hobo territory. I like this.



Lunch in a leaf is always nice. Noodles and rice things are often packaged like this, even in Singapore.



Apparently the river next to the camp site is normally clear, but the rain stirrred it up a bit. We all went for a good swim after a day of hiking.



Next day involved some pretty interesting terrain, and encounters with a lot of bugs and spiders. They've got some cool ones, and some terrifying ones. Still figuring out what this one is...(especially after almost walking right into it)





The final "activity" of the 3 days was a bamboo rafting trip. It's a rickety thing, and they foolishly gave me a bamboo pole to keep us off the edges. Needless to say, I ended up IN the river a lot, but it was a hilarious time. We got to try to tip eachother's rafts a lot, saw a bunch of elephants on the side, got soaking wet... wow. Of course, didn't have my camera with me due to all the water, so I leave you instead with a picture of a water buffalo. Till next time! (yes, the narration is bad on this post, I just wanted to get pictures up)