"The road less traveled...Meh"

I'm gonna start by saying I apologize for the amount of the word "We" I use in this post.  It's hard writing haha

We started our morning with a quick cup of coffee and an even quicker discussion about what we wanted to do with our day.  Renting a scooter and heading up to wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara seemed like a fun option.  Yep Thats a mouth full so for the purpose of this post we will shorten it to Wat Phrathat doi Suthep hahaha.  Garrett read a couple of reviews that said this Wat was not to be missed except one… Chloe.  Chloe eloquently referred to this wat as “meh.” Meh?  Seriously?  An 800 year old temple on the top of a mountain is meh? Well, We’ll be the judge of that Chloe. 

It was so early that none of the scooter rental places were open yet so we decided to rent one from the guesthouse where we were staying. 

haha this needs no caption.. our whip

After being told to return the scooter with gas, we grabbed some crappy helmets and were on our way!  As soon as we hopped on, Garrett noticed the gas gauge was on empty.  We laughed and continued on our way, directly to a gas station. I have to admit, Garrett drove our scooter through the streets of Chiang Mai like Hans Solo flew the Millennium Falcon through the depths of hyperspace.  We didn’t win our scooter from Lando Calrissian in a hand of cards, but he was about as confident in our vehicle as Hans was about his. Okay enough Star Wars references for now i’m beginning to look like a geek.  Garrett and I headed for the hills after filling our tank and it was a lovely drive up into the mountain.  We were pretty hungry when we arrive at the wat so we had a quick bite to eat.  I had a delicious piece of fried chicken and Garrett had the standard Khao Soi.

Khao Soi

 Khao Soi is a traditional dish served in Northern Thailand with hand cut noodles. it’s similar to a stew.   Most of the women use scissors to cut the noodles into strips, some are wide (my favorite) and some are thin.  Garrett has been eating Khao Soi since we arrived and I have to admit it is sooo tasty.  Garrett was convinced the grayish brown pieces of spongey substance cut into squares was tofu.  I never saw tofu that color and was pretty convinced it was liver but I didn’t want to ruin Garrett’s day so I kept my mouth shut. We managed to confirm a few days later that yes it’s liver and now he and I both push the liver to the side of the dish.  

Hmong girl

After brunch, we started to head up to the long stairs to the temple when we see these absolutely adorable kids in traditional Hmong dress taking pictures with tourists.  These kids were hams! They knew exactly what they were doing!!  As soon as you start to take a picture they ask for money and when you give them some coins they jump in your arms and start kissing your cheek.  Our little nugget didn’t like that Garrett didn’t shave that morning.  These adorable kids were as trained for this as well as Toddlers in Tiaras are for a Little Miss whatever pageant.  One of these 6 year old girls even had an infant sister strapped to her back and the baby was happy as a clam.  It was priceless!!  The moms of these kids were sitting at the bottom of the stairs sewing costumes and chatting with each other. We loved these kids they were awesome.   

We climbed the long stretch of stairs and reached the platform where you pay admittance, and as I was paying the admittance fee, there was a bit of a commotion behind me.  Garrett turns around to see whats going on and much to our surprise there was a centipede about 8 inches long!!! It was beautiful and super creepy all at the same time.  I entered the wat and the first thing I could thing of was WOW!! Gold, gold, and more gold. This was the most impressive wat we had visited yet.  As you walked around there were drawn into different rooms of the temple where monks are giving blessings to the visiting tourists.  I participated in one blessing and Garrett participated in two.  It was certainly special for the both of us.  We walked around the grounds of the wat and took it all in .  Here is my response to Chloe… I feel sorry for you.  It must be incredibly difficult to please a woman who describes such a peaceful beautiful place as “meh.” 

 

After the wat, we decided to check out the Hmong Hill Tribe.  I’m not sure if that needs to be capitalized. (sorry mom)  We took the scooter through the National Forest on thin, winding roads  that lead us to the hill tribe.  It was an interesting community and as soon as we arrived there were coffee stands set up on the side if the road.  We pulled into one and ordered a cup of hot coffee and sat for a few minutes taking in the surroundings. 

After our coffee the adventure began.  We drove through the village hoping to get back on the road to lead us to Chiang Mai but what happened next was epic. We came to a fork in the road and had no idea which way would take us back to the main road so we did what all rational, educated people would do…we guessed.   Things were looking good for a while and we were descending the mountain on our tiny scooter at an even pace when the road starts getting a little sketchy.  The road turned from cement to clay and it clearly had been washed out by the rain because there were 18 inch ruts running down the road and big rocks everywhere.  The road was one sharp turn after the next all the way down. I trusted Garrett’s driving skills and he was doing an excellent job of getting us down a mountain on roads that should only ever be traveled by an ATV or monster truck. 

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Which brings me to what happened next, I was doing my best to hang on and not complain due to fear, when I looked down and there is barely any flat, dry road and a giant cliff to my right.   I asked Garrett to stop and I jumped off in fear that we will slide right over the side if the cliff.  He rode the bike down that section of the hill and I video taped it. That was the ONLY stretch of road that I jumped off.  Oh I think I forgot to mention that we lost our front brakes 15 minutes into our descent.  We didn’t see any other human beings for the entire time we were coming down the mountain.  We finally hit some better road and we realize we were in the clear almost 3 hours later!!! I haven’t been that white knuckled since I drove from Oneonta, NY to Binghamton, NY during a blizzard in my VW Golf to see Phish. (don’t judge!!!!)  We came through what may have been a farmer’s back yard and finally hit the main road.  Immediately we were driving around a big lake that we hadn’t seen before.  The lake had a hundred tiny huts on stilts all the way around so we decided to stop for lunch and check it out.  Thank goodness we did!  A young girl showed us to our hut, we took our shoes off and sat in the

hut for two hours eating, drinking and laughing.  We ate a delicious fish hot pot soup and some fried rice.  Both were so good.  We became huge fans of hot pot.  We also made friends with the 8-10 eighteen year olds in the hut next to us who were polishing off a case and a half of Chang beer tall boys, about 20oz bottles.  You could literally jump out of your hut and swim around the lake and jump back in the hut.  It was extremely cool and there were almost no tourists which Garrett and I truly appreciated.  This was one of our favorite days to date and I don’t think I have ever laughed as much as I did that day, and it certainly wasn’t “Meh.”

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We are currently in Pai in Northern Thailand.  We leave this tourist filled town for the mountains west of Pai to stay at the Cave Lodge ( www.cavelodge.com).  While at the lodge, we will be caving, hiking, exploring native tribal villages and enjoying the cool weather.

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La kohn! (Thai, for goodbye)

Loy Krathrong and daytime fun....

The flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (CM) was smooth as could be.  The weather was cloudy, so we didn’t get much of a view, but we were just happy to be on our way.  We collected our bags once we were on the ground and found a taxi into the center of town to secure our room.  Learning our lesson from previous taxi experiences, we had our street address on the ready.  Our driver was friendly and seemed very familiar with the city.  The brand spanking new Toyota Four Runner weaved its way seamlessly through the streets amongst countless bicycles, scooters, motorcycles, trucks, cars and last but not least, the beloved “tuk tuks.”  An important detail is that driving occurs on the left side of the road, requiring the steering wheel to be located on the right side of the vehicle.  This driving style has taken a bit of adjustment.  

Our driver delivered us directly to our guesthouse.  Pha Thai House greeted us with an ornate gate and exceptionally clean reception area.  Xi, our hostess, was immediately polite and incredibly welcoming.  She showed us to our room and we activated the electricity by sliding a card into a slot next to the lightswitch.  This prevents guests from running the air conditioning while not in the room, saving the guesthouse on electricity costs.  We dropped our bags in the room and headed out to hit the streets.  

The sky was gray, but the city was filled with color.  We donned our rain coats and wandered the streets the afternoon before the fist night of Loy Krathong festivities.  Buddhist temples, referred to as a “wat,” can be found throughout the city.  We walked into the courtyard of the first one we saw.  Seeing a temple for the first time is breathtaking.  The architecture of these structures is visually striking, with the sweeping roof lines, gold paint, colorful paintings and tall doors.  On the grounds there is a temple and a sacred structure known as a “chedi.”  These generally have statues of buddha or revered monks at their base.  The tiers of the structure represent the journey through life and ascent towards enlightenment.  A visitor shows respect by removing one’s shoes before entering the temple.  Two rows of pillars stretch from the door to the altar where one or multiple statues of buddhas are placed.  Incense, flowers and other offerings are placed at the altar.  We found the wats very welcoming and very peaceful.

The Loy Krathong started off with a quaint parade.  People dressed in traditional outfits and walked in groups designated by a sign (written in Thai, so we weren’t sure what they said).  The floats were pushed by trucks that were outfitted with flood lights, sound systems and gasoline generators to power it all.  The floats generally depicted Buddhist stories, while some carried what appeared to be beauty queens.  The parade lasted about an hour and we were headed back to the room for the night.  

Thursday was a whole other animal.  The city had begun to feel much more crowded and taxis were racing all over the place.  Vendors were more plentiful than before and so were the tourists spilling out of the cafes and hotels.  We visited a few temples and crossed paths with a friendly Thai man who struck up a conversation with us in broken English.  “Sing” was in town from Victoria, Australia with his wife and daughter.  He had spent a few months at the temple we were at as a young man, training to become a monk.  He eventually left the monastery and trained to fight the Thai style of boxing, known as 

“Muay Thai.”  He eventually went on to win the 1984bantam weight championship in Bangkok.  He now runs his own gym and teaches young men to fight and exercise courses.  We happily chatted with this native of Chiang Mai, hoping to glean some local information from him.  He mentioned he was headed to the jewelry store to get something nice for his wife and asked us if we would like to tag along.  Up for an adventure, we jumped in.

Our first stop was the Gem Exchange, a jewelry super store.  Busses of tourists poured through the doors.  Upon walking in, we were greeted by a Thai woman in her mid 40’s that spoke excellent English.  She sat us in a theatre that played a video explaining the mining process down to the manufacture of the jewelry and statues for sale.  After the 15 minute video, we walked through a room where workers were carving jade, creating jewelry and setting stones in the jewelry.  Stacey was taken back by the craftsmanship and beauty of the pieces.  Silver, gold, ivory, diamonds, sapphires, emeralds, jade and many other precious and semiprecious stones filled the cases of the store the size of a small grocery store.  

Sing insisted we see some of the many “handicrafts.”  We stopped in a store that manufactured bowls, plates, boxes, vases and more out of bamboo.  The bamboo was then lacquered and painted with various designs native to the area.  The pieces were extremely light and the colors were sharp and contrasting, making for excellent visual qualities.  We passed on any purchases and headed to our next stop: rugs!  The rugs were made from Thai silk and other natural fibers.  We eventually came to the cashmere rugs, containing 1530 hand tied knots per square inch.  The designs were absolutely breathtaking, taking thousands of hours to complete.  

We departed the rug store and made a quick stop into a leather store on our way to lunch.  Sing knew of a noodle hut nearby and promised we would enjoy it.  After a short drive, he pulled over and we crossed the road to our lunch spot.  Sing ordered for us both.  We sat and talked and Sing kept us in stitches with his humor delivered in broken English.  Before long, our table was full with large bowls of noodles and condiments to dress up our dishes with.  Stacey and I slurped our way through the noodles, vegetables and meatballs in short order.  The salty broth and smooth noodles provided the bulk of the soup, while the perfectly numbered three meatballs per bowl provided some savory protein.  We think the meatballs were chicken… but what part, we are not sure.  With full stomachs, we were ready to get some down time before the parade, scheduled for seven o’clock.  We said good bye to Sing and headed back to the hotel, very pleased to have met our friendly host.

Parade float 

Darkness fell and the town seemed to just be waking up.  The streets were near capacity with locals and tourists rushing to get a good spot to watch the parade from.  Vendors lined the sidwalks, selling krathongs (little boats made from banana leaves, flowers, incense and candles), paper lanterns, food and beverages.  We walked down the main street and found a nice spot to watch from.  The floats began and it was clear that the night before was merely a warm up.  These floats were bigger, louder and brighter.  The crowd would not be contained to the sidewalk and rushed in front of each float to obtain a better angle to take photos, videos and selfies with the parade participants.  Larger floats had guards walking alongside the float pushing the people back onto the streets.  

The lights in the water are the krathongs and the lights in the sky are the lanterns not stars

A view from a bridge in Chiang Mai

All over the city people were lighting paper lanterns and sending them into the sky.  These lanterns and the krathrongs symbolize letting go of the past year and starting anew.  The boats are launched into the river, filling the water with the flickering candle light.  At any given moment, we could look up to the sky in all directions and see thousands of lanterns floating  towards the heavens.  At times, the lanterns resembled the stars of the sky… but mobile.  Children were lighting fireworks and some adults were sending up some commercial size ones as well.  We took in the sights, sounds and smells as long as our legs would allow us and headed back to the hotel, the festivities still very much in motion.  

Friday night was very similar to Thursday, just with more people and more floats.  We tried to get down to the river and couldn’t get any closer than about 5 blocks.  An American couple we talked to the next night shared with us that it took them 3 hours to get through the crowd.  Having had enough of the congestion, we called it a night.  Chiang Mai’s Loy Krathrong Festival was an absolute blast! 

Those are lanterns not stars!!! so beautiful!

Parade float

beautiful women in traditional dress

All the cultures of Thailand represented

parade float

Garrett and a young monk lighting our lantern

 releasing our lantern

Amazing view from the city