"Hey you, where you go?"

February 15, 2011
Falling a little behind on the blog again.
We arrived in Bangkok Feb 8th (I think) and quickly realized it's a city with two faces. On one side it's energized and chaotic, full of street vendors and shops, tuk tuks and taxis. People in every direction yelling " hey you, where you go?" and "how much you give me?". And all it takes is a turn down a side road to see the other side of Bangkok. Calm tranquility with temples subtly situated around an unsuspecting corner.
In Bangkok we took in a little of both worlds. We shopped on Kao San Road, ate our weight in spring rolls, Pad Thai, coconut shakes and fresh fruit prepared by the street vendors, walked around numerous temples and visited the Grand Palace and toured the city by water bus.
Spending time in a city is a little different than spending time on an island or beach....obviously. When you are in a city it is important to have a good place to stay because for the most part there is not a lot of relaxing places to hang out during the day. You spend the day walking about touring the city so at the end of the day a nice room is the perfect place to unwind after the day.  Saying that it was quite hard to find a hostel in Bangkok that had that feel. The hostel that we found was far from relaxing, it was only slightly better than a jail cell. It was concrete walls, no windows, two single beds and stifling hot. We spent very little time there but we were only in Bangkok 2 nights so we couldn't be bothered to pack up and move on. 

After Bangkok we boarded a supposed V.I.P bus on Kao San road bound for Chiang Mai, 12 hrs.....the bus ride from hell (that may be a slight exaggeration but it wasn't fun).  It was an overnight bus which is automatically a bad sign but in addition to this it was full of Mosquitos, there was little leg room, there was only a hole where the tv used to be, the bus stopped for no apparent reason every 2 hrs turning all the interior lights on just as everyone fell asleep and for some reason the A/C was turned to maximum once it got dark out. We had made a rookie mistake in that i had only brought a pair of capri pants and a hoodie, q on the other hand was in shorts and a t-shirt. We both woke up at 1 am shivering, noticing that we were sitting below the main a/c vent. Realizing that it was only 1 am and we still had 7 hrs to go I had a mini meltdown.  Up to this point q had been using the hoodie for a pillow so when we woke up he wrapped the hoodie over my upper body and head and I was able to warm up a bit. We slept sporadically until around 0630 when the bus pulled into a closed gas station on the out skirts of Chiang Mai. They then advised us that this was stop and there would be a couple of mini buses to take us the rest of the way. Everyone one thought that was a little weird and we later found out that the buses that run from Kao San road and not the actual bus station run illegally. Needless to say we both learned a couple of valuable lessons on this bus ride. 1- take only gov't run buses from the actual bus stations and 2 - dress like you are spring camping in Alberta, nice and warm during the day but damn cold when the sun goes down.

Chaing Mai has been a welcoming change from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. It's population is 1.6 million, but it feels more like a village full of history and culture than a metropolis. We stayed in a guesthouse in the 'old city'. It's a 10-15 block square bound by moats and the remnants of a medieval style wall built 700 years ago. Our guest house was wonderful...queen size bed, flush toilettes and it even had warm water.

We spent the first morning catching a few more zzz after our bus ride and the afternoon exploring the many wats and temples. There are as many temples here as there are in Bangkok but the city is only a sixth of the size. That evening we headed down to the enormous night bazaar. This market has been running for several hundred years and was a major stop along the original Yunnanese trading route which ran from China to the Indian ocean in Burma. Things are a little different in today's age. The streets are lined with glass fronted shops, several covered areas and thousands of street vendors. Even though the market produced a lot of the same products as Bangkok the hassle was substantially less which was a nice change. 
The guesthouse that we were staying at has had great reviews for it's cooking class so I signed up for one for the next day. It was certainly a highlight of the trip for me and I think Q would agree bc he got to indulge in the finished product... All the delicious Thai dishes. The day started out shopping in the local market which did not resemble any grocery store I am familiar with. The are separate vendors for every item. There is a noodle vendor, a rice vendor, a fish vendor with live fish in buckets that they kill and clean for you etc. I chose 5 dishes to cook and I even got to learn how to make plate decorations... A rose out of a tomato and leaves made from cucumber. I was lucky to be the only one signed up that day so it was essentially a private lesson and Q got to take part for free. Much of the enjoyment of the class was because the teacher was so animated. His tone and mannerisms reminded me of the charter Rafiki in The Lion King, "stirring, turning, thicker, thicker, STOP!". He never failed to entertain us.

One of the major draws that brought us to Chiang Mai was that here was an elephant conservation center. This center has rescued elephants from all over Thailand that were used for logging, elephant shows and all in all cruel lives. We signed up for a day to learn about the elephants, and become junior mahouts (slight exaggeration).
We started out learning about the elephants, things like they eat 200 kg/day and drink 60 gallons of water/ day etc, but the real fun began when we got to feed them. They had 15 elephants and as you walked by them with handfuls of sugar cane they would each reach their trunks out for a snack. Wow, a trunk is such a weird appendage. Each elephant has their own mahout (trainer) and after learning a few basic commands, turn, stop, lay down so I can get off, we went for a bareback trek through the jungle... Elephant exercise. It was only about an hour long but we knew it was just long enough when our leg muscles were shaking from straining to stay on the elephants back. Apparently it wasn't only the elephants getting the exercise. The elephants are bathed 3 times a day and to top our adventure off, we got to join them for bath time. The mahouts road the elephants into the water and we waded in after with buckets and scrub brushes. The water was a little more than waste deep so you could easily climb on the elephants backs and pour bucket after bucket of water down their face. Some of the elephants really enjoy bath time and will completely submerge themselves and roll side to side. You can imagine how funny that looks... A 2 tonne animal trying to roll around in the water with nothing more than it's trunk sticking out. Too funny. An especially cute site was one of the baby elephants trumpeting as he trotted towards the water and then splashed in without hesitation. We have a good video to show everyone later. 
We arrived back to our guest house in the early evening and after a short nap we met up with some friends for a stroll through the Sunday market. Along the journey we came across a couple of temples that we had seen in the day, but at night they looked AMAZING! They were lit up with lights and there were floating candles in the neighboring ponds as well as tranquil music playing. It was so relaxing and peaceful.
Our last full day in Chiang Mai (our valentines day) we had nothing major planned. We rented a scooter to tour the city, bought our bus tickets ( we splurged for the good bus), I got another Thai massage (Q doesn't like them) and we went to Monk Chat. Monk Chat is held at a temple and it's a two hour session where curious minds can go and ask monks any questions they may have. Unfortunatly we didn't get there until 6 (ends at 7) and 1 hour went by too quickly. It was really interesting to talk to them. 
After a 9 hr bus ride we are back to Bangkok (it was far better than our 12 hour bus ride out). 
Today, february 16, we will take a bus to Cambodia. First stop, Siem Reap!