Chiang Mai - Chiang Rai

Dear Reader,
[SKIP TO PHOTOS HERE IF YOU WANT : http://gallery.me.com/ericsutherland/100191]
Train travel is fantastic, an old past time that (at least on the West coast of USA) has sadly disappeared. What a noble way to travel, especially for 12 hours, being rocked to sleep to a distinctive rhythm and getting to socialize with so many elements of society. In my sleeper car there was a Dutch woman and two contemporary Thai artists who were opening an exhibition in Bangkok. Such interesting work they made, very figurative and spiritual. I joined them in the dining car later on. The dining car was the best; an open air, green and red lit party car with American rock classics cranked to 11. Crack a couple beers with these dudes and you're in business. Good fun.
Waking up to the Thai countryside was amazingly beautiful; the sun bathing a cold, unwilling landscape in heat, and soon that crisp mist that settled in the night turns into hot soon enough. Actually had to wear a thermal, can you believe it.
Chiang Mai; second biggest city in Thailand. Seems like when you arrive at a new place for the first time you have to get ripped off at least once with a tuk-tuk or taxi: "I don't care what it costs, just get me there!!" and really, you're only paying a few dollars anyway. The taxis are a little different then a straight up taxi as in Bangkok: a pickup truck with a hard top and two benches is a taxi. Couple that with passengers going in a similar direction, it trundles along and picks up people going in a similar direction. Rejection becomes part of the game when dealing with this type of transport.
The hostel I booked turns out to be more of an "experience" then a typical hostel... After taking absolutely forever to find the place (turns out that it's on the outside of town) I arrive to find Vee: a hospitable, hilariously gay artist, who has turned a drab open room with a plastic floor into the vague image of a hostel. (As you will see in the pictures) It is his take on Chiang Mai that is the unique experience you will have there, that and the connections you make with other travelers. He created the space not only to be a working hostel but a working art space; paper mache tree growing off a column the room, art supplies strewn about all over, entire walls dedicated to being written on, sculptures, stickers, etc etc. Each night he gets a group of willing victims together and takes people to cheap, tasty, local food stalls. And being Thai, he knows most everyone and gets local rates on everything. Fa'lang (foreigner) rates are usually 80% more in price, even though that works out to only 2-3 dollars. I thought at first it was a bit weird, but then realized the brilliance in his business model; all the reviews on the various hostel websites and the comments left behind, scrawled on the walls, were glowing.
The first day there I rented a moto (scooter) for about 200 baht + gas ($6). I quickly leaned this is THE way to see a city quickly and cheaply; it's fantastically flexible and you don't end up as sweaty as all the other walking chumps! What a deal. I ran into Sally, a Brit who I had spent time with at the SkyBar and shared the same hostel with in Bangkok at the same hostel. Apparently we had the same idea of looking at the highest rated hostels and picking from that list of 90% and above. It was her birthday that day, and she was well hung over so I offered to take her to a waterfall and national park that Vee had mentioned. If you want to escape the heat of the day, simply pull the throttle back more, and the wind blows it all away! The drive up the waterfall was lovely, winding roads through Thailand jungle, banana leaves straining out high across the road and bamboo shoots perched precariously in cliff sides, clinging into the soil and rock. We stopped at a stream where a huge group of children had gathered on some school outing and were being taught traditional Thai music, or theater or story telling with music involved. High above the city, next to a babbling stream where blue butterflies danced around in circles, I started to really understand why people like Chiang Mai so much. We pressed on and found our way to a series of waterfalls in the jungle that were pleasant enough, but nothing compared to the massive giants of Iceland.
The food here is so fantastic; it's great growing up with things like thai iced tea, phud see lard, phud see yew, phud thai, tom kah gai, tom yum, etc etc and then being here, and finally seeing the place where all these dishes came from, it's a real pleasure.
The next day, I booked myself an experience with elephants. I was very clear that I did not want to see elephants abused, doing shows or circus like stuff, I didn't want to ride via the chair they strap to elephants, etc. Basically I wanted the more pure elephant forward experience possible. One ranch in particular stood out above the rest for all those requirements. I'd say the name of it now, but all I remember is it started with a B. They acquired elephants from various backgrounds, usually logging work on the Burmese boarder, and put them in a place where they can eat, exercise and play in the water and that's it. This was a fascinating experience because it was very honest and very non romanticized. It costs quite a lot to house an elephant. They eat 300kg of food a day and drink upwards of 60 gallons of water a day. Not only that, they can be very temperamental, go figure. One elephant would not stop a bobbing and weaving type movement... a testament to the memory of an elephant; she had been taught to dance in a circus, and since then, could not unlearn this movement. The manhouts (Thai elephant handlers) said she most likely had a severe mental illness because of this type of training. It was really sad to see. One girl from the hostel had gone to this elephant place and had been thrown to the ground and hence, had to be taken to the hospital and patched up. I think she had been messing with the elephants when no one was watching, so she might have deserved it. They had to chain some of the elephants because of their differing personalities, they would sometimes attack each other, try and fight, escape and terrorize the countryside, cause damage, get killed from hunters or locals, etc... turns out it's a very complex and multifaceted subject; elephant rescue. All for these amazing creatures, I can't tell you how amazing their trunks are; dexterous and nimble, able to grasp as well as a human hand. Their skin is thick and tough, 3 inches thick and full of coarse, wiry hairs. I realized humans have a way of unjustly anthropomorphizing animals: dolphins, dogs, elephants.... Notice how they "smile"? Smiling is really a unique primate behavior and we think these creatures are always happy, always smiling at us. Elephants "cry" when in actuality their tear ducts are cleaning out their eyes. The memory of an elephant, etc etc... it's all bullshit, really. Why we like to place our characteristics on these animals is strange to me. Then again, who am I to judge.
We got to lean the basic commands of a manhout, down, forward, stop, turn; all accompanied with a nudge of the elephants ears. Turns out ALSO, that there are approx. 20,000 domesticated elephants in Thailand alone... and only 3,000 wild elephants. Domesticated as in, they don't know how to take care of themselves in the wild, hence all the verbal commands from their human companions, the manhouts. It's like a dog, maybe they'd survive in the wild for a little while but in the long run, it's not a sustainable solution to let the free. Our guide for the day spoke about the most temperamental of animals as having "high personality". What a humble way to say it, I thought. Next time I encounter a total asshole I'm just going to say they have high personality. At the end of the day we got to wash the elephants, and that surely was the highlight of their day, wallowing around in the cool water, blowing gallons of in all over them and everyone, really such a pleasure being with such amazing creatures. "Elephant is still elephant. Animal is still animal."
After that and the usual local dinner routine (again, AMAZING food for so damn cheap) the hostel people and I cycled around with Vee into the wee hours and eventually found an open piano in a gallery/bar space. With a few drinks in me and a VERY stiff actioned (weak hands?) piano, I attempted to serenade those around me with the usual crowd pleasers, to which most seemed pleased. Except me, I thought I played terribly. Was not used to such resistant action in a piano. I was then approached by a local promoter who gushed at my terrible renditions and said she wanted to fly me out to Chiang Mai to do a concert. This was all too unexpected and I don't remember what I said although I still have her email I think. Or it just went through the wash, now that I think of it. Will sort it out later. This was great though, some drunk off his ass, wasted to the end, Brit/Aussie/American/Canadian? dude asked if he could recite a poem after I played, and, not having anything to do with anything around the whole join said, "okay...", he began to go on a high volume, self indulgent improv rant about who the hell knows what. I hid my head and laughed and I think everyone else did as well. Maybe he sensed that because after about 4 minutes he stopped very abruptly. Then him and the remaining whitey bar patrons began doing accents of various nationalities. I started to wonder if Chiang Mai was where failed actors went to die, like the Florida of ex-pats...
Day three , Chiang Mai was spent exploring the city via moto and I do remember towards the end seeing a muay Thai match, traditional Thai boxing, which was great fun but not nearly as bloody and ambulance-ridden as I'd hoped. They really lay into each other, no holds barred, with each knee, elbow, high kick, etc, you can hear the the force of the impacts on the others body.
The days seem to blend together, next day I remember trying to get my passport back from the moto place but they were closed, so I had the moto for another day and puttered around again, checking things out, got some cheapy shirts and sunglasses (a life saver when navigating rush hour traffic and soot) but that evening was great; bar hopping with Vee and the gang and generally getting goofy with everything. Fire dancers, fa'lang, Chang beer, DJ's, that university town of Chiang Mai knows how to have a good time.
Next day I caught a bus to Chiang Rai, a slightly smaller town. The bus journey was beautiful, actually, all of the Thialand countryside is beautiful; jungle, rice paddies, mountainous hilly regions, farm steppes, river banks... all fantastic.
Chiang Rai was a lovely, livable, fairly unpolluted place that I really grew to like. Stayed at Chez Nous, a French/Thai run guest house with all sorts of kitch in the rooms but it was really quite nice. Spent the first day on another moto (a semi-automatic this time...! exciting.) and went to the BLACK TEMPLE. Or the temple of doom, as I liked to call it. The Black Temple is in reaction, or contrast to the White Temple; a Chiang Rai disney land full of tousists day and night. It looked like a nice place, and I intended to see it. More on that later. The Black Temple is as if Thailand comissioned Lars von Trier to design and build a temple. Sadly I'm blanking on the artists name who built it, but what he came up with is truly amazing; black wood, animals skins everywhere, bone sculptures, and in the main temple one massive long table, with bone chairs at each end and dried snake skins extending the length of the table. It's as if vikings and Tim Burton went crazy and were funded by Disney.
I actually really liked it though! So dark and weird. Good to see those things sometimes just to put the light in stark contrast.
I then took moto to see the white temple, which is supposed to be the easy one to find (the black temple is supposedly impossible, hence the lack of solo tourists there. I'm pretty great with getting around though ;) but then I realized, I'm completely far away from Chiang Rai, so I headed back. Instead, you can amuse yourself with the pictures I WOULD have taken had I seen the white temple by viewing these stock photos of it:
http://www.google.co.th/search?q=white+temple+thailand&hl=th&rlz=1C1CFCH_enTH438TH440&prmd=imvns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=BYU6T_OLG8rtrQf6_9msCA&ved=0CCgQsAQ&biw=1190&bih=714
It was time for some not touristing. Spent the evening with some charming French sisters who were so funny and fun, we played darts and talked shit about everything. By the end of the night we ended up at a Thai bar with some really lovely Thai, Japanese, and French people. And a couple Swedes. Good end to Chiang Rai.
Today, was bussing it on over to Chiang Khong, the boarder town to Laos. The ride was smashed between a grumpy monk and a halitosis ridden canadian, who I didn't speak to for fear he would open his mouth and infect me with who knows what mouth icky. We passed burnt rice paddies, winding hills, dried up corn fields, tiny places that could hardly be called villages and lush jungles. Finally ended after a bumpy time in Chiang Khong, perched on the banks of the famous Mekong River. It is truly stunning, the Mekong; massive and wide, it is the life blood of inner Indochina and the Hmong people. After prowling around for sometime, trying to find this guest house that was recommended to me by the proprietor of Chez Nous, and realizing it probably doesn't exist in my plane of reality, and needing to shit my guts out for some reason, I picked a sterile yet clean hotel-ish thing in the center of town. A gaggle of Irish girls flank my room, and hanging with them has been hilarious, as hanging with Irish always is; they got the craic.
There is a slow boat from CHiang Khong to Luang Prabang, a well known city in Laos. It takes two days and apparently I can get my Laotian visa and boat ticket on arrival in Laos. LPDR (Laotian peoples democratic republic), or better known; Laos Please Don't Rush. This is known to the most languid country in southeast asia, where reservations count for naught and simply showing up is reservation enough. Evening time over the river is so amazingly lovely... from about 4pm-6pm, is my favorite time of day in Southeast Asia so far; the honey colored light casts long shadows into the distance, crickets start to buzz, birds start their evening song, the temperature starts to fall and the sun grows in color and size. Somehow everything starts to smell more vivid at this time of day too, I don't know if it's just me or if it really happens like that. Peach, orange, burnt umber, ocher yellows all mix together and create the most serene of moments, heralding the end of business and oppressive heat, and fortelling of evening frivolities and possibilities. Markets start to open up, food stalls start wafting their wares and eats onto the streets, tempting churning stomachs like mine. I know I'll miss the cheap street so much when I leave SEA.
After some Irishing with the Irish constituents and some stocking up on river boat supplies with a Canadian Muay Thai girl, I'm now ready experience the next journey; Laos. Terrible fact, the amount of American ordinance dropped on Laos totals an American bomber dropping a full payload on Laotian soil every 8 minutes for 9 years straight. Sadly. approx. 78 millions bombs did not explode and remain primed in the raped and altered countryside.
See you in Laung Prabang,
-E
PS Since I'm only on PC's here, the photos are going from most recent to least recent, and in order they damn want. Thumbnails don't load in the edit windows, everything is named retardedly, so they are not in chronological order with the writing from the blog. Sorry. There are no Macs in this part of the world, otherwise everything would flow much better. You'll just have to piece together this journey with the text and the pictures the best you can ;)