tourist traipse

as i said, we took the night train to chiang mai. in general i love train travel and night trains are always exciting for some reason. our compartment was quite nice and we had the 4 berths to ourselves for several hours (until more tourists arrived around 10pm - i've never seen so many foreigners on a train!). the ride overall was good - we have a rather expensive meal brought to us along with 'wine' (actually a wine cooler), and it was a tad jerky, sort of a side-to-side rocking. but i slept soundly as i always do (i like to think the train rocks you to sleep, even if it does inhibit reading at times) and woke up in the thai countryside. lush green scenery and trees on either side.

chiang mai itself wasn't quite what i expected. on the drive into the old town i realized the shops were filled with t-shirts (the tired 'same same but different' and a variety of local beer logos) and restaurants offered cuisines of various countries (personal favorite: loco elvis' tex mex). it was clear this town was going to be a bit more touristy than expected.

green leafies at the market

we checked into our pleasant room inside the old city (surrounded by what was once a moat but is now really a series of water-filled medians dividing the road) and went out in search of a traditional lunch. something of a challenge, as it turns out. on the way we passed italian, middle eastern, and 'continental' cuisines but no thai. finally once we reached the market (and had passed approximately 8 dozen massage parlors) we found a small stall just opposite that served up tasty, authentic dishes cooked to order in the giant wok? (pan?) out front. everything is fresh, naturally since all the fruits and vegetables come from the market that's literally steps away. the market itself is full of crazy-looking giant fruits, fish in little baskets and of course all manners of green vegetables.

dark wood with flowers, nice touch

next up: what else? temples. we began the trek as laid out by the guest house owner on our map. this walk took us outside the city 'walls' (that moat thing) and back in. the temples all vary but usually have some-lots of gold ornament and the typical pointy roofs. the one at right was more in the lao-style, which i suppose means dark wood and less gold. understated is refreshing at this point. finally about 4 temples and lots of walking later we found ourselves back in the middle of town. off one of the main streets i spotted a vintage clothing store where i scored some cute wedges (no small feat finding shoes that fit in asia! pun intended!) and a polka-dot dress. pleased with my find and tired from all our walking, we made our way back towards the guesthouse for a quick rest.

why mess with a good thing

and after our rest, a massage! we stopped at one of the many parlors we saw. the prices are all about the same, so might as well stop at a place that looks pleasant, right? that logic seemed to work out pretty well for us. the place we chose had bamboo walls, dim lighting, soft new age music - the works. the massages themselves were pretty good too. i was certainly relaxed. from there it was just a short walk back down the street to our lunch spot. can't be good food with fresh ingredients right?

the next day was the day we chose to do a day trip/tour of sorts. my mom and i aren't 'tour people' as such, but in this case it seemed to be the best way to do a variety of things in the area we wanted to do. the guesthouse proprietor advised us to choose the cheapest package as they all end up being more or less the same anyway. we took his advice and in the midst of breakfast (they had to box it up) we were whisked away into the back of the songthaew (song means two, which i assume refers to the benches that line either side of the back area). we stopped at several more guesthouses picking up new people along the way. we ended up with a fun group - a young australian girl, a very blond, very tall belgian flight attendant, an outdoorsy american couple, a french couple and a gaggle of czechs who didn't speak much english (side note: how do you get by traveling in asia without knowing english..?). it was a bumpy ride but our young, energetic guide remained peppy throughout (at least she seemed peppy; we rarely knew what she was saying), despite having to sit on the floor.

just look at all those butterflies

the first destination was an orchid/butterfly farm, which sounded neat enough. well, something must have been a little off, because the number of butterflies i saw was exactly zero. unless, of course, you count the dozens of dead ones in the gift shop. including earrings made out of those beautifully iridescent wings (cool or creepy, i can't decide). at any rate there were orchids, which i suppose is still pretty nice.

the downhill portion

a bumpy ride later, we arrived somewhere out of the city amidst greenery and hills. glad to be out of the songthaew we walked quickly over to the where the elephants were kept, where we were instructed to read the information about their place (and why it's not inhumane to ride them, keep them chained up, etc. etc. which i'm sure is true, i'm not trying to be flip, though i'm sure every such place has the same information). we climbed up the platform as the elephants sidled up and then shimmied on to the metal baskets above. it was something akin to what you would get inside to ride a roller coaster at a small carnival. perhaps for that reason, the ride itself was somewhat underwhelming. the elephant was led around a prescribed, circuitous path, taking us through a small stream and past a view of an elephant that seemed to be sipping from the stream in an idyllic setting (upon closer inspection, we realized he was chained there. oof.) i couldn't put my finger on it, but it just wasn't as exciting as i had anticipated. once we came to the end (our elephant was easily distracted by sugar cane/grass/anything) we dismounted and sat down to a lunch of rice and vegetable curry.

supposed 'long neck' tribe member

my mom and i were then informed that we had to make a choice between staying with the elephants to learn.. well, something, it wasn't clear what, or going to visit the nearby 'hill tribe' for an extra 300 baht. (remember how i said all the tours are essentially the same? evidently everyone on our tour paid a different price; this one we hadn't paid for yet.) we opted for the hill tribe, which was a rather short drive, considering one would expect them to be, well, in the 'hills'. this should have been the first clue that something was awry. when we reached there we saw a lovely (man-made?) waterfall and situated around it, dozens of stilted wooden structures. these were essentially shops, staffed by 'authentic hill tribe members' in traditional garb. of course the fact that they represented a number of different tribes in such a small area indicated that they were brought to that area for this specific purpose. who knows where they were actually from. it seemed like a big sham, and everyone was pretty universally disappointed. as it turns out, though, our belgian friend who stayed with the elephants didn't fare much better. she was made to put on a denim shirt and then wait for her elephant ride as the mahout smoked a cigarett and, apparently, forgot about her.

ah, well. onwards! this time a longer drive to take our 'jungle hike'. mom opted out of this one, which was for the best since, as she suspected, the trail was full of steep slopes and rock scrambles. the scenery was nice - quite green and well, jungley. we spotted a few giant spiders and crazy looking centipedes along the way. eventually we reached the waterfall below where we were meant to swim. the water was freezing though so i opted to sit out and take photos for the others. it was not terrible picturesque but it did fit all the requirements of a waterfall as it had water flowing vertically over some rocks. a short hike back uphill and we were back at our vehicle.

best view of the ride was before we began

at this point we were all pretty exhausted - i think more from the bumpy, cramped drives than the actual walking (of which we hadn't done that much) but we still had the last leg of our day to go. this section was to be either white water rafting or a bamboo raft ride. i had hoped for the former but the group chose the latter. although, in hindsight, it was likely better that way since we were all so pooped. we began our rafting trip with mild anticipation; it quickly waned from there. the views from the boat were.. fine. a house here, a patch of trees there. by 10 minutes in, we were rafted out. but the ride.. it just went on and on and on. we were all going slightly stir-crazy, wondering if each successive port would be our final stop. no? maybe this one..? what's that? oh.. sigh.

finally the boat ride came to an end and we were loaded back into the songthaew for the long drive back. at some point i was comparing the ride to driving in india. there's just something about driving in india that's unlike anywhere else. oh boy, four days out of india and i'm getting nostalgic. eesh. by the time we had re-entered the old town and dropped off several of the passengers, including ourselves, it was far past dark. we were, as i said, pretty tired. but we had one more destination:

business at the night market

the saturday market. we had heard it was not as big as the sunday market, but no matter. we were not to be disappointed. it was enormous! it stretched way, way down one main street. in fact we never actually came to the end of it. at some point we figured we'd done all we could and about-faced. the market itself was great though. i came expecting handicrafts and scarves but instead found more trendy, local-made crafts that seemed more typical of richmond than southeast asia. (i counted no less than 11 stalls with bicycles on t-shirts) no complaints here though! the market, of course, also included a wide array of foodstuffs, ranging from snow cones to noodles to spiders (no, we didn't sample the latter). and it was packed! especially considering this happens once, well twice including sundays, a week. it must just be where everybody goes. we even saw our exhausted tour guide out eating with her friends after spending the better part of her day on a bumpy truck floor.

overall a chaotic ending to a crazy full day. and a fitting end to a very full trip to chiang mai