After an 8 hour flight we arrived in Bangkok and quickly notices some differences. It didn’t take long for us to get headaches from the air pollution during our 1.5 hour bus ride from the airport to central Bangkok (which isn’t that far, traffic here is heinous – another major difference). The sun looked sick. It was fiery orange and the haze was so bad that even looking right at it, you could see the edges clearly and it didn’t hurt your eyes at all. Every once in a while we saw the sky above us in a clear patch and it was a beautiful clear day with blue skies, but you would never know.
We met some language difficulties but a lot of people speak decent English here so when we ask around enough we always seem to get the message across. One difference on the positive side is how cheap things are here. One night accommodation with a double bed, bathroom, and air conditioning is about $6-$7, with just a fan it is about $4 per night.
The next adventure was learning how to cross the street. In Bangkok there are at least 4 lanes, that that is hard to tell with the way they weave in and out and there are more motorcycles than cars. Our first attempt was on the way to the Grand Palace, we stood on the curb for about 15 minutes waiting for an opening (we didn’t see any cross walks). We finally learned that you just have to go and and they will slow down if you are right in front of them. (I think the strategy is to walk in front of the smallest vehicle possible, always go in front of a motorbike rather than a bus and you are ok).
The Grand Palace was wonderfully ornate and beautiful, as all of the Buddhist temples seem to be. We enjoyed seeing the craftmanship and attention to detail in the King’s palace. (He has since moved to a different palace).
That night we went to Muay Thai (Thai Boxing). In Muay Thai almost anything is fair game. There are a lot of knees to the ribs and kicks to the shins. Reportedly, a reigning Muay Thai champion has never lost to a champion of another discipline in an official fight. There was a lot of defense and it wasn’t as violent as we htought it may be. But we loved it. It was to great to watch the action in the ring and in the stands (there was a lot of gambling and enthusiasm). We were also fortunate that a local was nearby that spoke excellent english, he really helped us understand what we were watching.
The next day we took the overnight train to Chiang Mai. From there we took a trek into the mountains of Northwest Thailand, about 75 miles from Burma (now Myanmar) to visit Hill Tribes. The Hill Tribes migrated from Tinet and China a long long time ago. They still retain a unique language, traditions, and costumes. We visited 3 different tribal groups; Lahu, Karen, and Akha. We slept in bamboo huts in their villages and we got a glimpse of what their lifestyles are like. There is no electricity, no running water, few outhouses. They live on their own subsistence farming; we heard of them growing rice, corn and opium. The last day of the 3 day trek we did bamboo rafting and took an elephant ride from one camp to the next village. Traditionally Thai’s used elephants a great deal in daily life for transport as well as labor and they still do to some extent today, but not as much. Quoting from our guidebook “an adult elephant can run at speeds of up to 23 km/hr, but put less weight on the ground per square centimeter than a deer! The working elephants have a career of 50 years and Thai law mandates that they be retired at age 61 and be released into the wild where they usually live until about 80.”
After our trek we hung out in Chiang Mai for 3 days. Heidi had a cold so the rest was very welcome. We tried Thail massage (which Lauren, Heidi’s sister had introduced us to at home – and we loved it). Chad got a one hour massage for $2.50, hard to complain about that! Heidi’s foot massage was an extravagant $5.
During that time we were enjoying plenty of Thai food but we were surprised, the word on the street is that Thai food is among the world’s spiciest but we weren’t finding that to be true. So one evening Chad asked for spicy at the restaurant and she pointed at the one page of the menu that wasn’t translated into English. He bravely (and blindly) chose dish #113. Lo and behold, it was SPICY! He discovered why they didn’t translate it into English, his abdominals couldn’t translate it either. As he was trying to eat it, all the restaurant staff kept coming out to check on him nonchalantly. It was so funny. I could imagine their conversations inside. “No way! That white guy ordered spicy? Ha Ha Ha! What a sucker. I gotta see this!” Now Chad asks for European spicy, not Thai spicy. They understand that. This led us to the Thai cooking class that we decided to take. It was a one day class held on the outskirts of Chiang Mai. We learned to make sweet and sour soup, Pad Thai, Red Curry Paste, Thai Jello, Chicken with Ginger and Spring Rolls. It was really fun and our concoctions even tasted good! We were the only 2 in the class so we got much needed attention. Our teacher also took us to the market to do the shopping and showed us a lot of stuff there. We probably recognized about 30% of the items for sale. We did recognize the large pig heads that looked plastic they were so perfect and neatly shaved. They still had eyes, ears, skin, everything but a body and hair.
After Chiang Mai we took a train south to Lopburi. Chad found a section of our guidebook that mentioned a ton of monkeys live here, so here we are! And here they are! The book did not lie. The town is besieged by monkeys. There are 2 large bands of monkeys. One lives at an ancient temple ruin, the other in town. There are literally hundreds of monkeys that are all over. On cars, signs, buildings, telephone wires, temples (we saw one eating the floral offerings that the Thais give to Buddha). Fortunately for the monkeys, Buddhism holds a lot of respoec tfor life the thought of killing them is quickly dismissed. Also, the locals are happy to see the tourist revenue that they bring in. They don’t even soom to notice them. We were watching them playing on the parked cars and one guy got in his car to leave while a monkey was on his hood. He just fired up the engine and the monkey jumped off as he drove off. Then a woman pulled up, the moment her car stopped a monkey was on her windshield and she didn’t even bat an eye. Once a year, the town even holds a feast for the monkeys where they lay out a buffet of monkey treats to thank them for their contribution to the prosperity of the their town. Some locals even claim that they have seen monkeys board a train only to return later after their wanderlust was fulfilled. Which I can believe because the tracks run right through the center of town where they live. We really have enjoyed watching their behaviors. They do seem so human, expect for the whole picking lice out of each other’s hair and eating it out of habit.
So, that brings us up to date. On Monday we have a flight to Hanoi, Vietnam. We will spend 3-4 weeks travelling around Vietnam and Cambodia. After that we plan to visit Southern Thailand. That is all for now.
Lakhon,
Chad and Heidi