I love it here.
read more ↓My initial issues with Thailand have pretty much disappeared. I think my big thing was I wasn't a huge fan of Bangkok for the same reason why I can't spend more than a day or two in Vegas at a time: it's very noisy, bustly and crowded, overrun with chaos. I'm kind of in a no-chaos frame of mind these days, so I was pleased to find the kind of Thailand I was looking for in Kanchanburi and Chaingmai.
First, Kanchanburi. We set up shop at Apple's Guest House, then a few of us walked about a half hour to the infmaous bridge on the river Kwai (and yes, I may have spelled that wrong... I'm typing on the fly and there's no spellcheck in my blog client, so bear with me.) I took a bunch of shots there and walked across it, then back again to hang out in some of the night markets. After a little bit of bargaining, I nabbed myself a string of jade mala beads for 180 Baht... which comes out to about $5. Not too shabby.
The next day was bliss. We had breakfast and took off to the Raft House, which was essentially a rustic floating palace that would take us to a couple of temples before doubling as our dining room and bedroom for the night. The first temple is known as the cave temple (I don't have the exact Thai name for it on me right now), and a cave temple it was, complete with a giant golden Buddha nestled amongst the rocks... and bats. Plenty of bats. Oh, joy.And yet, when I scaled the mountain to make it to the temple's highest point of worship, I took no notice of the snakes that slithered past my feet (I only know about them because one of my travel mates made a remark.)
Temple two was pretty damned amazing. The Buddha that sat as the centerpiece to it was visible from hundreds of miles away, and was so large that I couldn't fit it all into one shot when I knelt at its feet to try and take a picture. After we wandered around there for a while, we took a refreshing leap into the river for a swim. (Yes, I SWAM IN THAI WATER and no, NOTHING IS WRONG WITH ME, and yes, I am JUST FINE, thank you.)
An aside about the raft: happily, blessedly, my acute boat narcolepsy that I feared had been lost since the Oz shark diving incident has returned full force. The moment I set foot on the raft I was out like a light. I woke up long enough to scale temple one, fell asleep again after we returned, scaled temple two, then - after dinner - laid down to read and found myself so overcome with sleep that I knocked out for 12 hours. Of course, that could also be because of the minor cold that has been nagging me. But I'm 99.9% positive the boat had a lot to do with it.
The next day we visited the Jeath war museum, which was depressing as hell (nothing against the history of it, I just don't take great joy in seeing how POWs suffered during the world war.) We then visited the Erewan Waterfalls, a collection of seven waterfalls over a total of 1400 meters, which, naturally, I hiked. And swam in. When I stood still, little fish came up and nibbled at my feet and legs. It was amazing.
Eventually we took two busses that led us to the former capital of Thailand, where we saw city ruins that were used in the filming of Mortal Kombat. Ahh, cheesy movies follow me wherever I go. And not long after that we hopped an overnight train that took us to where I am now, Chaingmai. It's beautiful here, a great mix of city and nature. Yesterday we scaled a 306-step temple where I was blessed by a monk and received a fortune that told me I'm greatly lucky, slow but sure in love, and that I'd have a baby boy after I was married. I'm not too sure about the last thing, but I can get behind the first two.
But the most fabulous thing about Chaingmai? The night market. Oh, the shopaholic on a stringent budget was let loose last night, and with great results - three pairs of pants, a skirt, three tops and a necklace... for the equivalent of $29. Plus, I had some incredible green curry soup, which has helped greatly with the cold.
Today is our free day before we start three solid days of trekking, during which we'll be sleeping on tribe floors in the jungle. I slept 12 hours last night and already feel the nap bug coming on, and I'm going to have to succumb soon if I'm going to retain any energy to hike 7 hours a day. I woke up not too long ago, had lunch and stopped at an internet cafe to check e-mail and write this... and my plans from here are to head back to bed.
Anyway. I'm enjoying myself, and find myself both sad and happy that I have another week left. I miss home a little, but I'm having an incredible time here. Should any of you wish to see Thailand the way I'm seeing it, I highly reccomend you visit Intrepid Travel and look up the Northern Thailand trip. You won't regret it. I certainly haven't.
(Mind you, I say this before I trek through the jungle for 7 hours a day for three days...)
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