So, I'm in Northern Thailand.
It was a sudden decision. I got an apartment, then was looking what to do for the next few weeks until work. I was planning to go to south for a Full Moon Party. Unfortunately this time it also falls on the day after a Jungle Party, and Songkran. I'm sure this weekend on Koh Phangan will be insane. That is, if you have a way to get there, as everything is already booked or are at a crazy price from scalpers.
So leaving the hostel, I ran into Tony. He's been at the hostel before, and was going to Chiang Mai today. Also in a crazy stroke of luck there are tickets available. Alrighty then. Off I go on a 14 hour train ride for a few weeks after learning about it moments before - my life is silly. Actually the train was pretty nice. You leave in the evening, and by the time you get bored it's time to sleep. Wake up and boom, on the other side of the country.
It was a short stay though, as we met a guy on the train, Serge. Serge was headed to Pai, a town about 3 further hours north near Myanmar. Sounded good to us. So off we went on another trip, winding through the mountains. I was quite ill by the end, and thankful to get out of that stupid van.
Pai is weird. Its like Woodstock never ended and everyone moved to northern Thailand. The population is 90% bearded, rastafarian foreigner hippies. It is cheap to live here though. All you can eat buffets for $3, hotels for $2. It's ridiculous. Anyway Tony wanted to rest after his trip, and Serge and I wanted to see this big buddha statue we saw on the mountain.
So we hike to the top, and there's this overlook with chairs. We sit down next to this girl, and she looks very familiar. Turns out I met her in Manila 2 months ago. Crazy how that works! Of all the places in the world, we meet again on mountain overlooking a hippy commune in Northern Thailand.
So the next day, I said goodbye to my travel companions to go to Lod Cave. I met up with my partners for the day, a group of 8 girls from the US on vacation. They were very "cliquish" and I pretty much was forced to keep to myself. I got some amusement though, because before we got to the cave one of the girs said "Guys, do you think there are bats there? God, I HATE bats." I'm thinking "It's a cave, I'm pretty sure there will be bats."
Lod Cave is supposedly the largest cave in Thailand. Outside I saw a few bats flying around, which the girl somehow convinced herself were birds. Anyway we got our guides, then we had to take a bamboo raft to get inside. There were tons of fish, and then the guide turned on a flashlight towards the ceiling. It was completely black, covered in bats. The girl screamed and started crying, which I quite enjoyed. Other than that it's a pretty impressive cave - although the rock structures really only looked like "elephants" or "tigers" if you had an *extremely* vivid imagination. After wading through pounds of guano, we came to the back of the cave. There were some old coffins there. I don't really know the story of these, but still, kinda creepy.
On the way back we stopped at Mor Peang waterfall. Pretty, but kind of a pain to get to. There were a lot of people swimming, but meh, not really my jam.
As soon as we got pack to Pai I rented a scooter for the next part of my trip - to Pai Canyon. This is more my thing. Pai Canyon is a very pretty place full of sheer rock faces, nice views, and this godamn super fine yellow sand that gets everywhere. But I hiked for a while, having to scale places more suited to a rope and harness rather than just my hands and feet. The end result was some amazing views, and after the sunset I went back to Pai for a few beers. It was an early night though, because the next day was...
Hill Tribes! I met two others interested in getting off the beaten path, and we hired this guy in town to take us up to the border of Myanmar. There's a group of people I wanted to check out, the Longnecks. Literally that's their name. Cause they use rings to make their neck longer. Don't judge, you've never tried it.
Anyway, it's a 3 hour drive and then a bit of a trek, so I don't think they get too many visitors. But they get enough that they sell stuff. Overall though it was interesting. This is as villagey as villages get. The kids were playing around, catching crickets on a stick. Good eating, those crickets. For such a small village there wasn't much to do. Take some photos, browse their wares (which included ivory and tiger's teeth - eesh!), play with the kids, and back to Pai. After another night out of drinking, and eating at an amazing buffet, I was up bright and early in the morning to go back to Chiang Mai. My driver was certifiably crazy. It takes 3 hours to get there, he made it in a little over 2. Winding through all those mountain roads at breakneck speeds, I thought for sure I would die. One of the girls started to get really sick, and shouted from the back "Can you stop please?" The guy held up his hand immediately, and said "No, no stop!" She asked again. He said "Stop, 20 minutes!" Well she started dry heaving, and suddenly the van screeched to a halt. He opened the door, said "Go go!" and waited by for her to finish outside. I was in the front so I lucked out in the motion sickness department, but man that dude was in a hurry.
Whew! Back to Chiang Mai, and a touch of civilization - there are malls here! I need to see what I can do at this crazy city.
Fuck you, Chiang Mai.
I don't like this city. It's too big to walk, but finding a taxi is like finding a unicorn. There are plenty of tuk tuks though, more than happy to rip you off. Songkran is in full swing here, celebrated predominantly by foreigners. I got a taste of Songkran in Pai - you know, a water gun here and there. Chiang Mai's Songkran goal is to get you as wet as possible. You know how you can't push people in pools anymore because everyone has a several hundred dollar phone in their pocket? They never got that memo here. I thought my poor phone had been killed when someone, literally, stuck a hose in the window crack of the taxi. I was pissed. The driver was pissed. I know you want to have fun but by ruining a car's interior? Luckily a night in a bowl of rice seems to have saved my little S3. Furthermore I've had 2 meals ruined by assholes, and saw some drunk foreigners ruin an old lady's cart of sausages. Why would you do that? Have fun, but let's keep the property damage to a minimum.
The only other thing of note was when I arrived. I had a crazy night out with some guys from the hostel. There was a Thai kid at this club, and he asked me to give him a piggy back ride. So that was fun. After he challenged drunk people to arm wrestle. But he blatantly cheated by putting all his weight on his arm. After he asked for 100 baht. I wasn't even mad, that kid was hilarious. If this is his "job", he's making more money than I am.
