Now, after a lazy day of computer-ing myself to death, I'm wide awake because Daddy is coming! He's never been to Asia before, and I hope he likes it. My landlord Justin said Daddy could stay in an unused condo and pay by the night, that way he'll be just a few floors away from me and have an entire apartment to himself for 700 baht a night. I had a lot of fun shopping for it today and preparing the condo with fruit, water, cereal, milk, and most importantly instant coffee... I'm determined that he stay awake tomorrow. I at least want him to make it through dinner at Chotr Chitl. Mmm, my mouth is watering just thinking about the eggplant salad, beef and pumpkin curry, and crispy noodles we'll eat. Not to mention my favorite dessert stand of thick, buttered bread topped with chocolate and coconut cream.
Friday we're registered for a cooking class at Mai Kaidee, a famous vegetarian restaurant in Bangkok. I've been waiting for Daddy to come to take the class with me, that way he can make me all the recipes when I'm in Houston. :) Saturday we're off to Phi Phi Island, sight of Leonardo Dicaprio's The Beach. We don't have return tickets so we'll stay however long we want before heading back to Bangkok, where I may make him do the floating market and tiger temple one day. We were supposed to go to Chiang Mai as well, but I was there twice in the past three weeks and went on one of the famous treks, but am too unimpressed to subject my dad to another flight and hotel.
Speaking of trekking, I'll move backwards through time. I just got back from Chiang Mai to celebrate Songkran, or the new year. (By the way, happy 2551!) I stayed for three days, one of which I did an all-day trek in the countryside packed with activities:
1. We visited a butterfly museum and orchid farm. I really like the orchid farm, but all the butterflies had torn wings. I wondered what little kids had been grabbing at them.
2. I finally rode an elephant. That part was fun, because Jake (who I went with) and I got the biggest elephant, and he kept venturing off the trail to grab huge piles of bushes to eat. A highlight of my whole time in Thailand was when I dropped my lens cap. I figured it was a lost cause trying to get it, seeing as I was about 10 feet up on this giant animal, but the elephant at my back actually stopped, picked the lens cap up, and handed it over.
For that I will always have respect for Thailand's national animal.
As good and fun as that was, though, I was uncomfortable on the elephants. Our guide used a tool shaped like a curved pick to get the elephant to cooperate, and though I admit I'm not elephant expert, none of them looked very healthy. (Big has got to be good, though, and my elephant was big.)
3. My least favorite part of being a tourist in Thailand was visiting the Karen tribes. They're famous for their long necks, which you may have seen in National Geographic-esque pictures. I almost felt sick while walking through the "village" set up for us. Yes, the Karen tribe may actually live there, but our guide explained to us that these are not Thai people, and they are given almost no status by the Thai government. The Karen tribe is native to Burma, where they were persecuted and forced to leave. They are refugees in Thailand, and the only reason the Thai government lets them stay is to attract tourists like me, willing to pay 1,000 baht to see them as part of a day's adventure. It's gross.
The worst part was that, as tourists, we were expected to take pictures of them and with them, like a zoo. I couldn't do that, but I did buy some of the beautiful scarves they made, with two in mind to give Stephanie and Elana. The first (and possibly only) souvenirs I've bought or will buy here.
When I bought them, the Karen tribe members and I spoke broken Thai to each other. (Most rural villagers, even native Thais, speak dialects of Thai.) They didn't seem particularly unhappy, but as I was in contact with them for less than an hour, I'm in no position to assess their happiness. (Or their misery, for that matter.)
4. The best part of the day was white-water rafting, if you can call it that. Thailand is now in its dry season, and because of that we spent most of the time bouncing around in the raft, throwing all our weight to one side or another, and with the help of our guide making it over the rocks. When we came to white-water actually deep enough for us to get over easily, though, what a trip! I loved that part, and it inspired me to try to make a rafting trip when I get home.
The Songkran holiday turned the banks of the river into a celebration reminiscent of the 4th of July, complete with picnics on the bank, Thai barbecuing, and plenty of Thais in and around the water. The original tradition during Songkran was to sprinkle water on people as a blessing. This tradition has now developed into a crazy mass of people pouring, dumping, splashing and squirting water - often cooled with ice - on anyone and everyone. Chiang Mai was a positive war zone, and the river was no different. As we made it down, our comical raft and the fact that we were a bunch of farang in it (the Thais must have been thinking how silly the things are that farang pay for) made us the targets of plenty of splashing, and even the subject of pictures. I swear, more Thais have pictures of me from that day than I do.
5. We ended the day with a slow bamboo raft down the smooth part of the river. Nondescript.
Like I said, Chiang Mai was a war zone for the entire holiday, which lasted from Saturday, when we got there, to today, Wednesday. No one was really sure when the actual change of year took place. Like I said, I stayed for three days, one of which was spent trekking, and by the end of the third day I was more than ready to leave. Splashing people and getting soaked in your clothes (inappropriate to wear just a bathing suit around town) is fun for while the sun is at its height, but around 4 p.m. the sun loses its strength and I begin to feel like I'm coming down with pneumonia. I'm also pretty sure everyone got diarrhea from swimming, splashing and peeing in the canal surrounding the "old city" of Chiang Mai, where most of the action took place. I definitely drank more water than I cared to.
View of Songkran at the end of the day (when it had died down a lot) from inside a car:
Backing up a little more, I had exactly one night between Chiang Mai and Hong Kong. Hong Kong was... intense. To preface my impression of it, I'll say that I lost my passport on the first night and got a bad stomach bug (that lasted) by the second night. I know. I've dealt with it.
The two things that stand out to me the most about Hong Kong are the subways, which I feel like I spent most of my trip riding, and which I actually really liked for ease of use, and the go! go! go! atmosphere. I really didn't like that. I'm sure it was because of my stomach bug, and also my life in Thailand, which is so opposite of go-go-go (Thai people are infamous for walking very... slowly...), I just wasn't used to it at all. I was literally pushed around every day, and told to stand up when I sat down on the steps of my hostel. The security guards where I was staying liked it better if I at least looked like I was going somewhere soon.
Marney on the subway:
It is beautiful, though, in a very different way than Thailand. The buildings go on forever, and they're all tall. They're also set against the harbor, very reminiscent of Vancouver.
Victoria Peak overlooking the city:
Still atop Victoria Peak. This picture reminds me of paintings of Mt. Fuji:
It's embarrassing how little I remember from my trip. When I talked to Mommy on Skype the other day she asked me about it, and all I could say was that I shopped a lot and threw up at Ocean Park, one of HK's theme parks. (I threw up because of my stomach virus right off one of the roller coasters. I turned around to see the stricken faces of the impending ride-goers.) I'll have to consult Meris's blog to figure out exactly what we did. And for the record, HK police found my passport. Phew!
To back up one last time, I had a day in Bangkok between the Gibbons Experience and Hong Kong. Now, the Gibbons Experience was just that, a true experience. I started my trip with a solo journey to Chiang Mai (which scared the pants off my mother). There I visited Wat Doi Suthep, a temple that overlooks the city. It was fine, and I got blessed by a monk, so all was well:
I also had a very solitary dinner:
I was thankful when Andy joined me. I think traveling alone is very emotionally rocky, and I was only alone for a day.
Laos is possibly the only country in the world slower and happier than Thailand. Everyone I met there was very friendly, and spoke so quietly I had to resign to pretending to be able to hear them. (Damn American ears, only attuned to loudness.)
The Bokeo National Reserve, where we spent three days hiking through the jungle, was breathtaking. (I should have trekked through Chiang Mai first, because going through Bokeo dwarfs the natural beauty of most other places.) We spent most of the time hiking the steep ups and downs of the forest, and about every 45 minutes we would get to zip line 200 meters high, and sometimes for as long as 700 meters, from treetop to treetop. I didn't take any pictures that could capture how amazing it was.
The best part was getting to know the other members of our group. We were eight in total, a melting pot of travelers from all over the world. Four of us were venturing solo, and as usual I enjoyed hearing those stories the most, fantasizing that I, too, would be in their shoes soon. (I need to get some money and some guts first.)
On the last morning we woke up early and zipped out of our treehouse into the darkness. It was 5 a.m.; the sounds were the best. We hiked through the reserve to where we could hear the gibbons sing, and as we went I noticed that the forest was much more alive in the early morning. In the heat of the day nothing stirs, but before 6 a.m. there's a general rustling and singing throughout. We made it just in time to hear the gibbons, and no more than 10 minutes after we arrived (around 6 a.m.), they stopped singing.
We didn't make it unscathed, either. Garth, Amanda and Rotem all got leeches. I'm very happy to say that I didn't, although on the first night I awoke to a rat crawling on me. Who knew that rats could climb so high?
So sigh, I'm back in Bangkok now, and very happy for it. I'm settled in with my air-con (gee whiz, the Europeans are rubbing off on me) and my wireless, and at 4:30 a.m., it's time to sleep.
