Thailand Part 2

I left off on the over-night trip to Chang Mai with the fam. Originally the train was supposed to be 13 hours long, with a departure at 7pm and arrival at 8am. We got in at 3pm, making it a 20 hour train ride. My story is fragmented, but from what I understand it’s because the original engine pulling our train caught on fire. I remember seeing the entire train staff running up to the front in a panic and feeling the train stop. That was about 3 hours into the ride. After being stopped for a good hour and seeing all the conductors chilling outside on the platform, Chris, Zach and I decided to get off and go to a local shop to get some food. The conductor assured us the train wouldn’t leave without us. However, about 15 minutes into the meal we hear and see the train pulling away. Without us. I dropped everything and ran toward the train, hoping to stop it. As soon as I got there the station operator told us that it was coming back and not to worry. It still freaked us out, and when it was coming back we hopped on, just in case it didn’t stop. When we got back to our cabin the rest of the family had no clue we were left at the station.

When we did get to Chang Mai, it was much more pleasant than Bangkok was. It was smaller, cleaner and more tourist friendly. We checked into the guesthouse and then went on an adventure. We walked around, and had dinner on the waterfront. Then we went in search of some real authentic Thailand Muay Thai boxing. We eventually found it, where we watched a few matches. We saw an American tie a Thai fighter, and an Australian WRECK a different fighter.

The next morning we got up early and got a bus to Elephant Nature Park. I was really hoping to be able to ride an elephant, but apparently that’s bad for them, and since the place we were going is a sanctuary for rescued animals that wasn’t going to happen. Bummer. But during the day we fed the elephants, washed the elephants and watched them. It doesn’t sound like a lot of fun but it was. Most of the time the elephants are so gentle and loving. The older ones can act as grandmothers, and they enjoy being petted and fed. Also trunks are amazing things. I’d seen them before but watching the up-close and personal amazed me. It’s just this one huge articulate muscle.

We stayed there for two days, before going back to Chang Mai and a different guesthouse. Problem was they didn’t have our registration. Luckily it was an American who owned it and we eventually got things sorted out. It was somewhere is this confusing transition that my camera was either stolen, or misplaced by me. That night we went to the famous Sunday night street market in Chang Mai. It was one of the most overwhelming experiences of my life. The market was HUGE. It stretched for miles packed full of people and stalls selling everything from salted strawberries (yuck) to jackets for your dog.

The next day Chris, Zach, Dad and I went mountain biking. It destroyed us. Chris convinced us to do the hardest and longest trail they had, of which the first 25% was straight uphill. We literally pushed our bikes for the first hour because it was impossible to ride up. After that is was more fun and mostly downhill. It still took 2 hours longer than it was supposed to though because we messed around too much. On multiple occasions we had huge spills. My spill was particularly spectacular. I was in first in a heated race down the mountain when I hit an edge and ate it hard. I fell sideways and rolled like they do in movies when they jump out of cars. I rolled off the road and started to roll down mountain before being stopped by a bush. Luckily aside from a few cuts I was unharmed, but I can’t say the same for my knee pads…

After a long, but fun ride we got back to the guesthouse, got Thai massages from blind people and had a nice dinner.

The next day we rented vespas, which was scary and exhilarating at the same time. It was awesome to drive a motorcycle but scary to drive on Thai roads. We drove to lake nearby and had some lunch. It was  like drinking lava. It was the spiciest, hottest meal of my life. Chris literally got light-headed because of it. After that we headed back to Chang Mai and eventually to the airport to take a flight back to Bangkok. It was a short 1 hour flight. Then we got on another over night train headed south toward Khao Sok and Phuket.

Thailand Part 1

I kinda dropped off the face of the earth in regard to blog posts. I just got super lazy and tired of doing them cause it takes a good hour or two for each post.

I left off when I described the way I’ve changed since I got to New Zealand. I’ll start from my departure from New Zealand, which was more than a month ago.

After leaving my last organic farm I stayed in Auckland for my last day in New Zealand. Unfortunately it was raining AGAIN so I didn’t get to see it properly. I did get some last minute souvenir shopping done, visit a museum similar to the MOMA and had a coffee with Corey. You may remember him from my first post in New Zealand.

The next morning I left for the airport at 11 for a flight at 1, I think. I can’t really remember. Nothing much happened while in the airport. I had a little down time. The plane was a 747 with the bubble which I thought was cool, and the plane was delayed 20 min. 11 hour flight and I landed in Hong Kong. That’s where the mess started.

I had gotten up early that morning, and by the time I landed it was like 2 am in Auckland. I was excited to be in Hong Kong but my mood turned sour pretty fast. The first thing that annoyed me was that Chris (my older brother) wasn’t going to meet me at the airport, but gave me directions to get to his house. 2^nd, Hong Kong isn’t credit card friendly so needed cash to buy a simcard and octopus card (so I could get a bus). 3rd my credit card still didn’t like working at ATMs. 4^th , I could not figure out how to get the octopus card. 5^th, few people speak English well enough. 6^th, customs took forever. I was just really tired, and in a bad mood. Needless to say Chris took the brunt of my annoyance. Eventually I got everything sorted out and got on the correct bus, the A12. I got off at stop 19, where Chris was nice enough to meet me.

Fred's head. It's the only picture of him i have...

We caught up some that night and went to bed because we had another flight the next day into Bangkok.

After exploring in Hong Kong a little bit the next morning we got a late flight into Bangkok on Ethopian airlines. Yep. Ethiopian  Airlines. It got Chris, Tory and I there safely but I was pretty ghetto. The tv’s were old tube tvs and discolored and the plane was definitely at the ends of its life. But I’m not complaining; it did its job.

We arrived at the condo we were borrowing from a friend and fell asleep.

The next morning we got up late and go a taxi to a bigger street with food and shops. It was like $1 for the taxi right and $5 for breakfast for the 3 of us. Bangkok is very different from any other city I was used to. It was very grimy, and less developed but the temples were some of the most elaborate and beautiful things I’d ever seen. It was amazing they could spend so much on religion but be so poor. Also they have shrines to their king everywhere. You’d think that he was Jesus or something. It’s actually against the law to insult him.

Chris and I spend the rest of the day (and the next one) exploring Bangkok.

shine to the king

The end of the second day, my parents and Zach arrived. We went out late and got some food, beer and foot massages because everything is SO cheap.

The three day’s we spend exploring Bangkok. I’m not going to go into detail, but I’ll put some pictures.

After 5 days in Bangkok (which is MORE than enough) we all got an overnight train to Chang Mai.