Bangkok Finale

December 2011

All good things must come to an end, and in this case Bangkok was that end. Khaosan Road seemed like a place every local would hate due to the western tourists, but was it ever a good time.

The infamous Khaosan Road

Bug Grub cart

Best group of people possible to end a trip off

The END......for now

You have to see this place

December 2011

White Temple, Chiang Rai
                         
                          

You simply just have to see this place with your own eyes to appreciate it. It wasn't your traditional ancient religious temple. For example, inside there was a large mural over the door with the devils eyes. George Bush in one, Osama Bin Laden in the other...

If you looked closer, you could spot Kung Fu Panda, or the burning Twin Towers with fuel pumps coming out of the flames, dripping gas into Satans mouth. Deep shit.

Pai

(Yes, I'm finishing this 2 years after the fact, but I guess thats the way its's going to work)

The next 2 weeks after meeting my new travel buddies really proved that the people you meet along the journey certainly can make the trip.

Once back in Chiang Mai we made some plans to get out together and see more of Northern Thailand. Not before a night out with almost everyone in the hostel to a neat little rooftop bar and a bunch of cold Changs.

Groovy rooftop bar, Chiang Mai

We headed up to Pai, a small town near the Myanmar border, with the reputation as being a nice quiet little hippy village.  The 3 hour ride, whilst a tad hungover was hands down the craziest vehicle ride of our lives. The driver was, INSANE, and the roads were sick and twisted. With no exaggeration, he had the tires chirping around nearly every corner on the twisted mountainside roads, whilst trying to pass 4 vehicles going into a hairpin corner. Yeah.

The drive took a toll on us

Pai had some nice night markets in the streets and we found a cool bamboo shanty hostel down by the river to stay in.

This will do for a night 

We heard about hot springs nearby so we all grabbed scooters and headed for the hills.

A convoy of scooters with my new travel buddies on sunny day through the foreign country side was just another one of those things I soon won't forget.

Sharing the road with an elephant

Hot Springs were hot enough to boil an egg

My UK buddies suggested I tag along with them for the rest of my trip, and being a solo traveller its as easy as saying "Sure, why not". And that was that, Back to Chiang Mai we go!

Sunny day by the river, doesn't get much better

2 Day adventure to the Lahu Tribe Village

For for the few days in Thailand I had been there, I mostly stuck to myself. That's nice and all, but it gets lonely at points.
The best decision I could have made while in Thailand (aside from not befriending any ladyboys of course) was go on a 2 day mountain trek North of Chiang Mai.

An hour long trip in the back of a pickup truck with 8 or so new friends, with a pit stop at a local food market, and we were headed up the hills on a road covered in elephant dung in a truck reeking of burnt clutch struggling to get us up the hills.
First highlight of this 2 day adventure: Elephants. Grabbed some bananas to satisfy them as we all rode a group of 5-6 elephants along a walking trail to the water and along a hillside. The guide on my elephant jumped off at one point and asked if i wanted to sit on its neck/head to ride it instead of the the standard (and safer) seat fastened on its back..... HECK YEAH? . It was a bit sketchy, a little hairy, and a lot dirty, but still a very unique and great experience. GoPro footage, as per always to prove it. I thought some of my friends passed gas in a serious way, but these elephants, they can sound like a brass band at times. Careful where you stand.

2+ hour hike up the mountain with a refreshing stop to slide down a natural rock waterfall, and we arrived at the very top to the Lahu Tribe Village. No running water, no electricity, just a small village of people living off the land with an incredible view from the top.
Standing on the bamboo balcony of our bambo hut on stilts looking out into the valley, and the sun set over the mountain and hills in the distance was another one of those, well, you know how it goes by now, kind of moments. Ah, the good life.

"You want maaaaasage?"

Our tour guid Nuun cooked a stellar pumpkin type curry among other curry dishes for us all, as well as a few cold Chang beers. Changs, guitar, and drinking games around the firepit inside the hut all night long with a group of new friends set the stage for the following week with the new group of Brits I stuck around with. "Absolutely brilliant".

Breakfast laid out ready to go after to coldest semi-sleep of my life under a bug net beside my UK buddy Scooter, and we were back down the mountain the next morning. Pit stop at another incredibly cold fun waterfall and then headed along the riverside for a while towards the white water rafting adventure ahead of us. Ever gone floating down a rapids with elephants on the riverside to your left, and a tour guide at your rear yelling at you to stop paddling like Ladyboys? Again, the GoPro was there to prove it all.
A few km down the river we switched gears and hopped on shady bamboo rafts and went a bit farther. Hardly impressive, but another check in life's TO DO box. Pad Thai spread laid out for us on shore and a little slingshot fun and it was time to head back to Chiang Mai.
Curious how much 4 meals, an elephant ride, night in a tribe village, 2 waterfalls, white water rafting, bamboo rafting, 2.5 hours travel by truck and meeting 6 of my best new travel buddies cost?






............All of $35

Not done yet

I'd like to finish off the last week and a half in Thailand, at least for my own benefit down the road. When I get a chance...

Going up high in Chiang Mai

Before grabbing the overnight bus 800km north to Chiang Mai, I managed to mow down on more pad thai and some more sights in Bangkok. Couple of markets selling everything under the sun from shoes, knives, jewelery and deep friend banana to t-shirts, brass knuckles and miniature Buddhas.
Looking to try a different mode of transportation, I paid a man $1.50 to give me a ride on the back of his scooter to Wat Pho temple near the Grand Palace, home of the worlds largest reclining Buddha.


So theres an elderly Buddhist Monk and a young adventurous Canadian sitting on a bus together and the monk says "                ", nothing........

After spending a night sleeping beside a Monk (Bet you've never said that before?) and driving through some of the residual flooding in northern Bangkok, I was in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, just in time for the sun to come back up.
Where to next Mr. Lonely Planet book? An hour long walk through Chiang Mai to Julies Guesthouse inside the city square surrounded by a moat and some crumbling castle walls. I keep getting lucky on these spontanteous decisions. The guesthouse was cheap and fantastic. $2.50 per night with great food and cold beer, as well as an excellent tour agency.

Want to rent a scooter for a day? Just tell the happy go lucky staff at reception and they will have one delivered directly to you for $3 per day. Out of the city and up Doi Suthep mountain I go....
The perfectly smooth, insanely curvy and remarkably fun road winding 1676 metres up the mountain are a motorcycle enthusiasts dream come true. The GoPro footage can prove that..
Pit stop at 2 waterfalls and a fraction of a gas tank later, I was near the top where the very popular Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Buddhist temple is located.

At Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep

Even in a left hand drive country, when a car is coming at you, instinct still tells you to veer right. Yikes! I'm still alive though, I think that's whats important.


Continued a bit farther up to the peak, for another breath-taking view nearly in the clouds, then it was back down the windy mountain to see how fast I could get the 125cc Honda Click scooter purring! (hit 90km/h before the holy-shit-this-is-too-fast-to-be-going-on-a-scooter-and-there-is-a-corner-comming-up governor kicked in and I grabbed some brakes)


 










Chiang Mai has a really cool Night Bazarre that goes from 7-Midnight every night downtown, in which you can again, buy anything under the sun  moon. Half the fun is walking around and pretending you know how to barter, and grabbing the odd passion fruit drink or foot massage in between.

Calvin Klein boxers : $2.50
5 pairs of Oakley sunglasses: $3/pc
Hangover 2 DVD to watch before going back to Bangkok: $1
Tanktops: $3/pc
Burberry belt: $13
Red Sox fitted cap: $10
Deep fried crickets: $0.80

Sammys Organic Cooking School

Feb 21 EDIT: 
Not sure how I forgot to include this this entire day, but another reason I chose to go north instead of the beaches to the south was the unique cultural classes and experiences available around Chiang Mai. I signed up for an organic Thai cooking course, to maybe learn a skill to bring back home aside from just pictures and the odd story.
A Belgian couple and myself got picked up and we took a truck 45mins out of town to Sammy's Organic Cooking farm for some Thai cooking lessons. Sammy's recipes were truly organic, picking ingredients right from the plants behind our table and the garden around us.






Menu for the day:
Green Curry with Chicken - Extremely good, such a unique taste, but a lot of effort to make
Hot and Sour Prawn Soup - Meh....
Pad Thai - Quite honeslty the best I've ever had, and I made it?





Deep Fried Vegtable Spring Rolls - They look as good as they taste
Mango with Sticky Rice - I've never considered rice as a desert, but mixed with sweet coconut milk and sugar, and the mango.. Oh so good

One night in Bangkok

Even before hopping on the turboprop jet off the Tarmac at YXU London, I had a strong feeling that Thailand was somewhere I wanted to go, somewhere far different than the western ways in Canada and Europe.

While in Africa watching the news about floods in Bangkok, I had feared the chances of adding a Thailand stamp to my passport were being washed away. Luckily, the water receded enough, just in time.




"So what else do you need to know?
Stuff about my family or where I am from? None of that matters.
Not once you have crossed the ocean and cut yourself lose;
looking for something more beautiful; more exciting.
And yes I admit something more dangerous.
So after 18 hours in the back of an airplane;
three dumb movies; two plastic meals; six beers and absolutely no sleep.
I finally touched dowm; in Bangkok

…So never refuse an invitation; never resist the unfamiliar;
 never fail to be polite; never over stay your welcome.
 Just keep your mind open and suck in the experience:
and if it hurts it’s probably worth it.

....and as for traveling alone; f*ck it. 
If that’s the way it has to be; then that’s the way it is.” - The Beach




Why Thailand?
Read on I guess....

To start, the service and food on Thai airways alone was comparable to nothing I have experience before. For example, I literally just ate smoked salmon as a starter to my braised pork and sautéed vegetable main dish. Take that Air Canada, and your rice and lentil vegan meal....


Landing in Bangkok the only knowledge of where to go and what to do next came from the Lonely Planet book Ben lent me, and some fantastic information I obtained from a really interesting guy I shared a room with in Rome. He owned a bar and diving school in Thailand for 3 years, and consequently had some priceless knowledge.

Scooters, Scooters everywhere

After reading some of the warnings in the lonely planet book, it only took two nicely dressed men asking me to follow them to a tourist information shop (which just happened to be on their way home from there work) to confirm the books suspicions.

"So whew yew fwum?"
"Canada...."
"Oh Canada, I have fwiend fwum tha..... Justin Beebah!!!"

Thanks Beebs.....

Local food market around the corner

What else is there to do on your first night as a tourist in Thailand? Get a massage and go try all the random food from the hundreds of food stalls along the streets, despite not knowing what exactly you may be eating.
Conclusion: the massage hurt like hell and the food was cheap and delicious. It felt like she was literally standing on my back and shoulders and leaning back to dig her heals in... Wait a second, yep that's exactly what the 90 pound Thai woman with strength like a gorilla was doing.




I still hadn't decided which party of the country I wanted to visit even by the time I arrived in Bangkok. Either head south to the most beautiful white sand beaches in the world for some rest and relaxation, or head north to Chiang Mai and that area for some more cultural experiences.
I can enjoy picture perfect beaches when I'm older, so I figured it was better to do the adventurous stuff up north while I'm ripe and ready for it.

How cheap is Thailand?
For the same price of a cab ride home from a bar in Rome I:

• Took a Tuk Tuk ride 20 mins to the bus station
• Paid for a VIP overnight bus to take me 800km north
• Took a Taxi back to the guesthouse
• Had Pad Thai made right infront of me, and had a bottle of coke later on.

Bada boom bada bing, I can get used to this place.

Must.Find.Time

I think I could easily write for hours about every single day spent here thus far, but it just doesn't feel right sitting behind a computer screen when there is just so much to do and see outside this little internet cafe.
In Chiang Mai and couldn't be more pleased.

It will have to wait....

To put it simply however, its without a doubt been the most amazing experience and adventure of my life. Period.

More to follow, but not sure when

Further across the pond

Nothing is more expensive than a missed oppourtunity.
I've wanted to go to Thailand for some time, and that opourtunity is here, so I'm jumping on it

To be continued...