Thailand Part 1

I only spent a total of ten days in Thailand so I figured I could put all my adventures into two posts. Here's Part 1 (Bangkok and Chiang Mai)...

The bus to Bangkok was pretty dreadful. From Siem Reap to the Poi Pet border wasn't too bad, but the border crossing was manic! So busy. Luckily I had no issues in getting through immigration or in getting my Thai visa. I've heard so many horror stories of people going the other way, but as you don't have to pay for the Thai visa there's very little they can do to rip you off. Even so, the crossing took almost two hours due to the queues. Once we were across we were dumped at a little restaurant to wait for a minibus to take us to Bangkok - a four hour trip from where we were. It was packed. We were stuff in and as I was little I was at the back next to the bags (which looked as if they'd fall on me at any moment) and a sleeping Japanese man who kept nodding off onto my shoulder. The air con really didn't work and we had to yell at the driver to turn it up. He finally did - and then tried to turn it back down ten minutes later. Finally we arrived in Bangkok hot, sweaty and tired (and possibly ready to kill the driver).

I found a cheap hotel on Khaosan Road with some of the people off the bus and I was glad to have people around for my first introduction to the madness that was the backpacker district. Khaosan Road was just crazy! From people doing dreadlocks on the street to selling all those cheesy backpacker t-shirts to people selling all kinds of fake id to bars walking around with signs saying "Really Strong Cocktails - we never check id" (which kind of makes all the fake id's pointless...)!!! Had my first Pad Thai that evening which was lovely; tofu, egg and noodles.

I had almost a full day in Bangkok the next day as my bus to Chiang Mai (booked last minute) wasn't until 6pm. I spent it with two English girls I'd met on the bus the day before and we went to the Royal Palace and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha (which is actually jade but shh!). It was nice, but really really ornate, all covered with gold and shiny bits so you couldn't look at it in the sunlight without it blinding you. The sun was also super-bright so that really didn't help. From there we got a tuk tuk to the Wat Pho temple, though one of the tuk tuk drivers told us it was closed as it was 'Buddha Day'. We turned up any way and surprise surprise - it was open. It was a nice temple and very interesting to see the diagrams of pressure points painted on the walls (it was and still is a massage school). Feeling very tired we tried to get a tuk tuk back to Khaosan Road which proved impossible. I really really dislike the tuk tuk drivers here. No where else in Asia have I met such a nasty, lying, unhelpful, rude group of men. Apart from the guy that tried to tell us the temple was shut (because he wanted to take us somewhere else), every time we asked a man to take us to Khaosan Road the instant response was "why you want to go there?" Well honestly, it's none of your business and no, it's not for the shopping it's because we want to go back to our hotel. We knew the price should be around 30-40 baht but were willing to pay 50b just to get back but no, they'd only agree to that price if: "one stop first, yes? factory". No. No, we don't want to go to a factory where your mates'll try and rip us off. We just want to go back to our hotel. "Fine, 150 baht". What? Seriously? We gave up and got a taxi in the end which cost 60 baht and was air conditioned and less likely to kill us in the traffic. I refused to get a tuk tuk in Bangkok after than because I was so thoroughly disgusted by them.

I caught my bus to Chiang Mai that evening and met two lovely people: an English guy called Rob and an Australian girl called Tash. When we arrived in Chaing Mai it was 6am and still dark. The three of us got a songtaew to a hostel I'd found on the internet - Green Tulip House - and were given a bed and just told we could sleep and sort everything out (money etc.) when we woke up. At 10am we went downstairs and met Stella, who runs the hostel. She is mad! Actually mad, but wonderful. So enthusiastic about everything. She turned to Rob and said "I like you, you brought beautiful women to my hotel" while at the same time giving us a huge pile of leaflets of things to do in Chiang Mai. Rob decided to hire a bike while Tash and I went for a walk around the city, mostly from temple to temple. The first two were beautiful - Wat Phan and Wat Chedi Luang. At Wat Chedi Luang we had a lovely chat with a monk just about Buddhism and his life etc. He was originally from Laos and had been in a monastery since he was nine years old. He'd joined for a week because he thought it would be cool to shave his hair and wear funny clothes, and fourteen years later he's still a monk! He was studying English at the Buddhist University at the temple and wants to be an English teacher when he stops being a monk. He told us lots of interesting stories, such as the time he'd accidentally eaten dog because it had been donated to him and you can't refuse a donation. I thought monks were vegetarians but apparently not, though there is three types of meat they cannot eat: 1) if they've heard the animal being killed; 2) if they've seen the animal being killed; 3) if they suspect the animal was killed especially for them. He also told us about the only time he'd eaten Western food. He'd been out at 5am in the morning collecting donations when he met a group of Westerners who hadn't been to bed yet and were still drunk. They took him and bought him breakfast and he said it was the best food he'd ever had. What was it? A McDonalds. Oh dear!

We talked to him for about an hour and then went for a coffee. I had an iced cappucino... yes, an iced frothed milk. I didn't ask how they managed it. After the coffee we walked to the Tha Phae Gate and out of the old city to the Wat Bupparam temple where there's lots of plastic animals outside, including a statue of Donald Duck! So random! We then went back into the old city to look for the Women's Prison (all will be explained!). After following directions from a policeman and getting lost we found a coffee shop and asked the lady in there if she knew where it was. She didn't speak English but phoned her sister and had Tash try and explain over the phone to her where we wanted to go. Forty minutes later (no joke!) understanding was reached and then her and her friend took us there on their motorbikes. It was five minutes around the corner, and the part we wanted was closed! So they took us back to our hostel. We couldn't believe how nice they'd been. Just amazing and lovely. When we got back to our hostel Stella yelled at us to run up to the roof and see the sunset (in fact, she practically chased us up there while waving a huge almost empty glass of red wine). That evening we went to the Night Market with a Welsh man called Brian for food and a look around. It got late and we decided we had to leave because we all felt we were going mad. I was convinced a lobster was still alive and had winked at me despite being pink and cooked on a BBQ, while Tash had bought an (awesome) dolphin watch that had one of those snap bands as a strap.

The next morning Tash and I had breakfast opposite the Wat Phra Sing temple and were served by a really moody ladyboy. After a banana pancake we had a look around the temple and I was confused by a meditating monk who, despite being assured was real and alive, I was still convinced was a statue. From there we walked to the Women's Prison for... a massage! Yes, that was the reason for going. It's part of the rehabilitation program of the prisoners. In their last three months they get trained up and are allowed to practice in a special facility until they're released, at which point they have a guaranteed three month job in another shop. The massage was lovely and also good for us to get as we'd signed up for a massage class for the following day, so it only seemed fair we knew what it felt like first (a good excuse for some relaxation anyway!). That evening Tash, Rob and I played jenga on the roof while watching the sunset, before heading out of the old city to the riverside for food. Found a lovely Thai curry restaurant and then walked back to our hostel via a bar with live music. The band were... good even if they did keep singing the wrong lyrics to the Red Hot Chili Peppers and Kings of Leon etc. We also got very confused by the barmaids, as most of them were ladyboys but it wasn't always easy to tell which was which. Rob came up with a perfect tester: "The shorter the skirt the longer the..." (I think you can guess the last word in that :P ) After an strange old Thai man bought me a rose we made a quick escape and headed for bed.

The Thai massage class Tash and I did on the Friday was amazing! We started with some chanting, followed by meditation and then some yoga-like stretching to warm up, before spending the morning working on the legs. There was only Tash and I in the class so it was real, one-on-one teaching with us practicing on each other after being demonstrated on by the lady teaching us. Pretty intense but good. We had an hours break for lunch where Tash and I had burritos at a lovely Mexican, before continuing the afternoon's classes with the side (back), head and sitting positions. We were also given an illustrated book with all the positions in. We were back at the hostel at 4.30pm feeling tired but quite relaxed! That evening we went out with Rob and some of his friends. Found a tiny little street full of bars and didn't end up getting into bed until 5am. Ooops. Even bigger oops was Tash and mine's bus to Pai was leaving at 10am so we only had four hours sleep before attempting the infamous road to Pai...

To be continued!!!!