Anyway, our days in Chiang Mai were action packed. After arriving with a nice case of Bangkok belly, we downed some Imodium and I had plain white rice for dinner. No more ice in drinks, even if the place looks clean. The next morning we got up and went rafting and elephant trekking. The elephant ride was kind of bizarre. We were the only ones in the group doing this excursion so the driver taking us rafting dropped us off at this elephant camp and the rest of the group headed up to the river. I was feeling pretty guilty at first about this because the elephants are chained during the day, and I had heard some bad stories about how these camps treated the elephants. This place turned out to be okay, though. The elephants lived with their mahouts at night and weren't confined (or so they say). There was a mom with a baby at the camp, and when the mom was being ridden, the baby followed behind with its trunk wrapped around her tail. Pretty cute.
So we hopped on our elephant and headed out into the jungle on a well worn path. First stop was to this guy's hut in the trees where he sold little bananas for 3 bhat a bunch to the tourists on the elephant rides. We, of course, bought a bunch and proceeded to feed our elephant way to fast and were out of bananas in about 5 minutes. Every time we pet the elephant on the head, it would reach its trunk back looking for the banana. Needless to say, I think it was kind of upset with us for running out of treats. Riding an elephant is not comfortable, at least in a palanquin on top of the animal. Maybe the mahout's seat directly on the elephant's neck would be better. They rock back and forth and when going down hill it feels like you're going to fall forward. Despite all the lumbering, they're pretty agile. These guys navigated down a narrow rocky path and I never felt like I might fall off the path, just the elephant.
So we said good bye to the elephants and headed further into the jungle to raft. The base camp for the rafting operation was amazing. A series of huts right on the river and we had an amazing Thai lunch cooked for us. With the exception of the people who were staying at the camp, Eric and I were the only ones who had rafted before. This river wasn't too difficult, mostly 3's and 4's, and seemed like the toughest river in Thailand. Only a few companies had white water rafting operations. Most of the rafting involved standing on a rickety bamboo raft while some guy older than dirt used a pole to move you down the calm parts of the river. This seemed far more dangerous than actual rafting, despite some of the questionable safety gear in Thailand.
Made it down the river unscathed, although I think we got one of the most inexperienced guides since we were the "experienced" rafters. We went down one big rapid backwards, which I don't think was part of the plan.
Day 2 in Chiang Mai was our cooking class. It was basically a half day class where we cooked about 7 courses and stuffed ourselves. We made a trip to the market and I nerded out on the live fish selection and did my best to identify species. Tilapia and some sort of catfish, probably tra, was the best I could do. We had our guide identify some pretty weird looking fruits and veggies, but a lot of them were actually pretty familiar since I've spent some time in Asian markets. Anyway, it was hot, we cooked, ate, took a nap and cooked some more. The school rotates its classes by day of the week. We made:
- Spring Roll (Pho-Pea-Thord)
- Fried Rice (Kao-Phat)
- Papaya Salad (Som-Tam)
- Yellow Curry Paste (Nam-Phrik-Kaeng-Kao-Soy)
- Chiangmai Noodle With Chicken (Kao-Soy)
- Deep-fried Banana (Kluay-Thord)
On our last full day in Chiang Mai we headed to Doi Sutep, an ancient temple up on the hill. Chiang Mai is full of temples, and has some of the oldest temples in Thailand. We went in a scary truck with benches in the back up this huge mountain in the rain. This was really the only rain we got the entire trip, and it was really nice. The mountains are substantially cooler and the drive was beautiful. We got to the top and took the elevator to the top of the peak the temple was on. We didn’t see the stairs until we headed down. It was pretty packed up there and the temple was beautiful, but it was all about the view. Chiang Mai is huge! It sprawled out for miles. On the way back down, Eric bought what he thought was a sausage on a stick, but it turned out to be even better. A whole meal on a stick! It was a sausage casing stuffed with meat, vegetables, rice and noodles. On a stick. Scary.
Oh! I almost forgot the best thing massages. I think we got three of them in Chiang Mai. An hour massage was 6 bhat, or 2 dollars. We didn't even get the cheapest ones. I made friends with one of the massage therapists, Tra (I'm sure I'm missing some subtle tones here because I don't think her name is pronounced like the catfish). She was fantastic, and did a great job, especially for someone who was about 4'10". Come to think of it, though, I don't think I'd want anyone much bigger than 4'10" standing on me. I think there's a reason Thai massage originated in Thailand. It would be waaaay less enjoyable if it were, say, large Eastern European massage or fat American massage.
No comments:
Post a Comment