At the train station we tried to get our tickets to Chiang Mai but much to our disappointment, all the sleeper class tickets were sold out for a few days. Memories suddenly flooded into my head of my 13 hour train ride in China without a seat. I would NOT go through with that again in any circumstance, but i also did not want to stay in Bangkok for a few days. While sitting around debating what to do, we found Craig sitting alone in the train station waiting for the same train we were trying to get on. What are the chances of that? He was here about an hour before us and got one of the last sleeper tickets. What a doosh. After much debate we decided to suck it up and book a ticket anyways. We ended up scoring the 2nd class air-conditioned car with two, very broken but better than the ground, seats.
The train ride turned out to be quite a crazy adventure. As we rolled out of the Bangkok station heading north, we met up with Craig and made our way to the restaurant car for dinner and some drinks. We ended up meeting a whole group of Germans and the beers kept coming. They even kept the car open just for us. But soon, the Thai staffs hospitality waned when they realized we could drink all night and weren't going to bed any time soon. So they kicked us out of the restaurant and closed the car for the night. Left to wander the cars with nowhere to continue our little party, we all somehow ended up in one of the bathroom cars. Out came another bottle of whiskey from the Germans and the night continued on, much to the annoyance of the rest of the train who were likely trying to sleep. We would meet lots of other Germans on our trip and i'll have to say they are quite the fun bunch of people. Especially when they get into the booze. So here we were, all crammed tightly into the washroom car, taking shots and discussing the differences between our countries late into the night. When finally enough people had come to complain and we decided we should probably head to bed. I stumbled back to my car, sat down in my chair and fell into a nice, whiskey induced sleep.
I woke up surrounded by thick, green jungle and beautiful mountains. There was a part between the cars which was open to the outside and I leaned out to take a look. The view almost immediately cured my hangover and I took a deep breath of some of the freshest air i've breathed. We were about an hour out of Chiang Mai already, what a great train ride.
Chiang Mai is a small city of about a million people in the hills of northern Thailand. It's surrounded by jungle and in close proximity to the many hill tribe villages that live in the mountains, who still try to maintain traditional ways of life. We took a Tuk Tuk through the main city to the hostel which I had picked out from my guidebook. Julies Guesthouse in Chiang Mai is definitely one of the coolest little places i've ever stayed and if anyone ever goes there I recommend it. The rooms were also 150 baht a night for a two bed private room. Which is about $4 Canadian. On the roof they have hammocks laid out and the downstairs common room is full of backpackers mingling. They even have a giant fridge they stock with beer and let everyone take whatever they want as long as they write down in a book what they took. That was the mood in Chiang Mai, laid back and friendly. The bar worked on the honour system for god sakes. This was a place that old hippies flocked to, and we met lots of them who had taken up permanent residence in the city. We explored the city a bit, but decided to take a day of rest before heading on any crazy adventures. At night we went to the Riverside bar and saw one of the best cover bands i've ever seen. Thai people know how to rock and roll like no ones business. Looking around the bar I noticed they were very different from Chinese people. The Thai are hipper and more stylish. They were more laid back and friendly than their distant cousins from the North. If I could describe Thai people i would say they are like Rastafarian Chinese. I heard Bob Marley and Chilli Peppers everywhere. They definitely had a better music taste than the endless Lady Gaga I hear in China.
The next day I rented myself a second bike. Scoot Scoot II. This red beauty came with helmets this time, but because i'm badass like that I decided against wearing it. But mostly because I saw children driving around on them without helmets. As you probably figured already, safety regulations are much more - whats the word i'm looking for.. non-existant.. in Asia. Like petting a 500-pound man-eating predator for example or driving 90 down a highway on a vehicle I had never driven before without a helmet. But, living in China the past 6 months I had grown used to the carelessness and come to embrace it. I myself had gotten a little better with driving the bike, but we were deciding if we were going to let Craig rent his own to follow us up the mountain we intended to drive up. We worried about our new adopted child, you know? I took him out on mine to show him the ropes and then gave him the keys and let him go off on his own for a bit. We were sitting eating breakfast when he came back covered in blood. He had bailed out on one of the busy streets and gone flying onto the sidewalk. We took the keys away and patched him up.
"Yea... theres no way i'm letting you get on a bike and try to drive up a mountain after that." I said to him. And we put him in a cab to follow us there.
We began our ascent up Mount Doi Suthep, about 20 minutes out of the city of Chiang Mai. The roads twist and turn sharply with perilous cliffs on the side of you. It was quite the ride and Vanessa was hanging on the back for her life as I twisted my way up the mountain. The view kept getting nicer as we made our way up. On top of the mountain, we visited a Buddhist Temple, had lunch and decided to go off on our own little hike through the jungle. As we made our way through the thick jungle we came across a bunch of caves where as we passed noticed some monks who had taken up residence in them. I tried to be quiet and respectful while passing them but much to my surprise they suddenly turned on some music and one started puffing on a cigarette. What was this? Were monks allowed to smoke cigarettes? Had we discovered renegade monks who escaped the monastery to live in caves? They did not speak a word of english but happily waved and smiled at us as we passed. It was a strange sight indeed. We headed back to the bike and made our way down back the mountain. I now wish I got a picture with smoking cave monk. Oh well.
On our last day in Chiang Mai, we signed up for one of the day trips. We jumped on a truck with about 6 other people and headed off about 2 hours out of the city. After one of the bumpiest rides of my life we got out at an elephant camp where we got to hang out with some elephants for a bit. I thoroughly enjoyed feeding them bananas for some reason. They would get all excited when you had them and follow you around until you gave them to them. Then they'd snatch them from you with their trunks and pop them in their mouth, peel and all. When it came to ride them I didn't really even want to. I just wanted to feed them more bananas. But the tour group had a schedule and moments later I was riding atop an elephant through the jungle. After the elephant ride we would have a three hour hike to a waterfall. And we pulled up the camp where we met our Thai guides, one of which was a dog, who ran through the jungle with tourists everyday and knew the route. We followed our canine guide through the dense jungle and eventually stopped at a little hill tribe village hut to have lunch. We ate some Pad Thai and then they gave us a bucket of rocks and slingshots to keep us busy for a little bit. Oh they knew me so well. After trying to peg a target for awhile the hike continued to the waterfall. And after a white-water raft trip back to the elephant camp, we got back in the truck and headed to visit one of the hill-tribe villages. The most famous one being the long-necked Karen tribe. Who you've probably seen in national geographic with all the rings on their necks. I had no idea they were in Thailand until then.
Just outside the Karen village there was a little monkey going crazy. He had a leash attached to him but he had gotten himself all wrapped around a bush. His owner was nowhere to be seen so I decided to help the little guy out and broke the branch, freeing him from his shackles.
This was a terrible mistake.
The monkey immediately jumped up and knocked someones drink out of their hand, which was a cold coffee drink. He then proceeded to drink the coffee and after that he was wired beyond belief. He went bananas.
Jumping off the bench at me, he grabbed onto my arm, climbed up and ripped off my necklace. I was pissed.
This monkey was going down.
I grabbed him and tried to pin him down on the ground but he jumped out again and started climbing up my leg. He started pulling my hair and I grabbed him again and tried to hold him still. Grabbing his little arms, flailing and punching me, I managed to throw him off me. At the time I was not very happy but thinking back I had just enacted one of my lifelong dreams. I had successfully had a duel with a monkey. Though he was far too nimble for me and I eventually gave up the battle. I still believe it was a tie.
After a long day of elephant feeding, hiking, white-water rafting and monkey battling we once again had to head back to Bangkok. When we got back to the train station we were informed that the train we were supposed to board had broken down and we would have to take a bus back. We weren't too happy about this but luckily the bus only took about 8 hours and we arrived back in Bangkok at about 5am monday morning. We checked into another of the thousand hostels near Kao San road and took a much needed day of rest.
We would be heading down south next, to the island of Koh Samet to spend the remaining days of our vacation in a tropical paradise.
great stories - thanks Corey for taking us on this journey with you through your blog. Miss you. Aunt Sheila
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