4/25 Doi Suthep Waterfall Hike

4/25/2013: Ariel arrived on 4/22, so we've been scoping out Chiang Mai and getting her adjusted to the heat and time zone for the past few days. She's currently napping and not creating her own awesome blog, so I'm taking the opportunity to add to mine...

We decided to make a short trip up to Doi Suthep National Park to try to escape the heat and hike to one of the many waterfalls in the area. We took a songthaew (red pickup truck that works as public transit/taxi here) up to the Chiang Mai University area, then transferred to another songthaew after waiting for 20 minutes for the driver to find as many passengers as possible to stuff in his truck to maximize his income for the trip up the mountain. Everyone else was headed to the temple, but we were dropped off part-way up the mountain. It was not much cooler at the park entrance compared to Chiang Mai below. We paid our fee and trudged along a hot road for 3km until we reached a parking lot, then hiked a few hundred meters more to a lower waterfall and a few pools. We waded in and enjoyed the surprisingly cool water. We then hiked a little higher up and enjoyed a bigger pool with a bigger waterfall, and soaked up the scenery for a little while. I got my t-shirt nice and wet before leaving the pools behind and hiking back to the main road to find a ride back into town. We vowed to learn how to drive motorbikes, so we can rent them and drive wherever we want so we don't have to rely on songthaews to get around. Some pictures from the trip:

4/21 Chiang Mai FC

4/21/2013: After my all-nighter in getting back to Chiang Mai, I took a long nap on Sunday. I had plans to go to the local pro soccer game that night, so I had to be rested before the 6pm game. John (the Thai guy who works at the hotel I stayed at when I first arrived) picked me up on his motorbike and we drove to the game. We each got a Chiang Mai FC jersey, and he picked up some street food before we headed into the stadium. Strangely, there are no food and drink vendors inside the stadium - only outside. The game had just started when we sat down in the bleacher seats section near mid-field. You can get a 40 Baht ticket, 60 Baht, and 80 Baht, and we got the 60 Baht seats to be with the "real" fans. 40B seats are in the corner, so bad vantage point. 80 Baht seats are actual seats and are under a big awning for rain protection. 60 Baht seats got us in the same area as the drummers and chanters, who sang the team song the whole game ("we are, we are, we are Chiang Mai, we are, we are, we are Chiang Mai, etc......ole!").

The local fans

 The stadium is pretty small, and not a lot of bells and whistles. They had a color screen at the east end of the stadium, but it just displayed the score the whole time. Nowhere did they actually display the play clock. A track surrounds the field, so I felt pretty separated from the action. It was a good time though, and fun to see how people cheer for soccer in other countries. Drums seem to be universal, and so does "ole!" Whenever there was a bad play, or a player from Uttaradit got in a Chiang Mai player's face, the fans wouldn't boo or anything, they would just shout "hey!" in quick succession, like a dog barking at an intruder. It rained for about 20 minutes, but it felt pretty good.

Me and "John" in our Chiang Mai FC jerseys

 Chiang Mai is the top team in the league currently, and they gave Uttaradit a serious beatdown: 4 - 0. Two goals in the first half, two in the second. It was never close, but it was fun to watch.

Chiang Mai FC thanking the fans

I "talked" to a pretty drunk Thai fan on the way out, who said his name is Tony, and he insisted that I drink some of his beer, which was in a plastic cup, with ice and a straw. That was the first time I've had ice-beer through a straw...

Me and "Tony"

Overall fun night, and I'm looking forward to taking Ariel to the next home game.

4/20 Penang Hill and Return to Chiang Mai

4/20/2013: In the morning I woke up somewhat early, said goodbye to Katrin, and then headed to Komtar - a huge skyscraper in Georgetown, the base of which houses the bus terminal. I found a bus company that was open and purchased a bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur that departed Penang at 9:30pm that night. On my way back to the hostel I wandered through a nice Saturday morning market, where all sorts of fruits and veggies were being sold, as well as clothes, fabric, jewelry, random trinkets, and chicken heads (along with - but separate from - the rest of the chicken). I stopped at a small restaurant and had some roti, which is this great Indian flat bread, along with a nice light soupy curry for dipping.

Roti

I returned to the hostel and had some coffee with Benedicte, the French girl I'd been chatting with occasionally during my stay at the hostel. She asked if I was planning on going to Penang Hill, and I said yes and asked if she wanted to go along. She said yes, so we hopped on a bus and headed west to the base of the hill. On the bus we were approached by an older Malaysian man who asked where we were from and initially predicted France. I don't know if it was a lucky guess, but I was impressed (not that I'm from France, but Benedicte is). I told him I was from the US, which propelled him into a tirade about America. He apparently had tried to move there at some point and said Americans are a bunch of assholes that didn't treat him well, yet when Americans come to Malaysia they love the country. It turns out he has the same exact name as the guy responsible for the bombings in Bali and US Immigration gave him a hard time when he was entering the country. He didn't see the problem. Then he said he wanted to move to South Carolina because he thought there were a lot of black people there and that he could fit in because he has dark skin too. Apparently he wasn't treated well, and I told him he may have moved to the least tolerant state possible in regard to Muslims. I don't think he was listening though. He just said he understood why America has so many enemies and that was that. No point in arguing with someone like that, so I started up a different conversation with Benedicte.

We arrived at the last stop and bought our tickets for the cable car up to the top of Penang Hill. The cable car really shoots up the hill, and we climbed about 700 meters in only a few minutes. At the top, we had great views of Georgetown, the ocean, and the Malaysian mainland in the distance. It was ultra-touristy, but we still had some nice views. We checked out a Hindu temple and laughed at a deity that looks like a sleezy guy from the 70's. There was a mosque nearby (Benedicte called it a "mosquey" with her French accent). After soaking up the view some more, we decided we were very hungry and caught the cable car back down, then took the bus back into the center of Georgetown. We found a place that served nasi kandar, one of the dishes I'd been wanting to try in Penang, and it was fantastic. You start with a pile of rice on your plate, then just point at which curries you want to plop on top of the rice. The server didn't speak much English, and somehow he determined that I wanted every curry, so I had a colorful mound of food to eat. Benedicte struggled a little with the spiciness in her meal, but mine was great and I cleaned the plate. We also had some tasty milk teas. It was overall a great meal aside from the big rat we spotted in the corner.

We slowly wandered back towards the hostel, stopping for a while at a cafe to cool off and drink some more iced milk tea. This time we were at a Chinese restaurant, with a fat, loud, and angry Chinese waiter hustling all over the place. Benedicte originally studied prosthetics in France, then moved to French Polynesia after getting her certificate. She worked there for 5 years ("prosthetist" sounds like "prostitute" with a thick French accent), but left when she decided she was missing out on life, although I pointed out that she actually had a pretty sweet life by most people's standards. She left French Polynesia and has since been working random jobs until she has enough to travel, then finding a new job when the money runs out. She had been in Australia for 9 months previously. On this trip, she had met up with her boyfriend in the Philippines, where they met some "very friendly" Filipinos, who invited them to travel to their village with them. Apparently they were having a blast until the second night, where supposedly they were drugged and robbed while they were passed out. Benedicte lost 100 Euros, but her boyfriend lost $800 USD and 300 Euros, effectively ending his trip and forcing him back to France to find work. Thus Benedicte was left on her own for the remainder of the trip. We finished our second milk teas and ventured back out into the heat and over to our guest house. We talked to Ali, the guy at the front desk, for a long time. He can speak four languages - English, Malay, Tamil, and Urdu. He was born in Penang but his parents are from India. He was fun to talk to, and gave a great perspective of life in Penang.

It was getting close to dinner time, so we wandered off to find a pre-dinner drink. I wanted to find a bar that overlooked the ocean, but we ended up at the Eastern Oriental Hotel, which might be the most expensive hotel on the island. We headed to the fancy bar and discovered that they had seating outdoors, which was by the swimming pool and right up against the ocean. We had a drink there, then hustled over to the street food area and enjoyed one last Penang dish - mee goreng. I scarfed it down, grabbed my bags, and headed to the bus station for my 9:30pm departure. I passed six or seven transvestite prostitutes along the way; one of them waved his little fan on me as I sped past.

The bus left the station around 9pm, stopped briefly in Butterworth, and then arrived in Kuala Lumpur at 2am. I was dropped off at a bus station, then hounded by taxi drivers who saw a sleepy white guy with a big pack at 2am in a seedy part of town as an obvious opportunity. I fended them off, not really knowing what to do or where I was, and decided to go to a nearby open-air restaurant to watch some live soccer on TV and drink some mango juice. When that was finished, I caved and hired a taxi to drive me to KL Sentral, where I caught the 2:45am bus to the airport. I arrived at the airport around 4am, checked in, went through security, and hung out until my 6:55am flight. Thanks to awful planning and my deeply ingrained cheapness, I pulled an all-nighter on my last night in Malaysia.

 

 

 

 

4/18 Penang National Park

4/18/2013: After eating some breakfast and chatting with Irene and then her new friend Katrin (a German girl), I caught the bus westward for about an hour to the Penang National Park. My plan was to hike to Monkey Beach, and then have a boat pick me up at the beach and drive me back to the trailhead. I arranged for the boat, paying 40 MR ($14USD) and hoped the guy would actually pick me up. I signed in at the park, and started the hike.

Penang National Park entrance

It started out very mellow, with a nicely paved path along nicely manicured forest. I could see the ocean on my right - I was following the northwest corner of the island. I spotted my first monkey near some picnic tables, and noticed it was missing its left forearm, but it seemed to be getting by just fine, thanks to lots of food from tourists. The trail got tougher as I got farther in, and came across a young Chinese couple who said they had to turn back because the trail was too difficult. The trail was going over big roots and through low-hanging vines, but wasn't too bad. 

Not a bad life for a monkey

It eventually led out onto a thin beach, where I spotted some big lizards, who casually trotted away from me and out into the ocean. 

Big lizard!

 The trail kept going into the jungle, then back onto the beach. Penang might be the hottest place I've ever been - it's certainly the closest to the equator that I've ever been. The temperature was probably in the 90's, and the humidity was also in the 90's. I think I just sweated constantly, all day every day. I came across a British guy going the other way who said he left some sticks out on the trail that I could use to beat the monkeys away. He said they were aggressive, so I had to be intimidating with the sticks. Having been bitten in China, I was a bit nervous. As I entered Monkey Beach, I saw one monkey, who stayed in the bushes, so crisis averted. The beach was nice - a little narrow and steep, but relatively unpopulated and set into a little cove. I walked past a couple on the beach, and when I turned around to look back, I saw a monkey going through their stuff while the girl was distracted taking pictures. I yelled back to them but it was too late, apparently it stole some of their popcorn. 

Langkawi Island in the distance

 

Monkey Beach

Monkey Beach again

I ordered some food from a little stall set up with a few tables and jumped in the ocean. I had about 2 hours to kill before my boat picked me up, so I just relaxed on the beach and went into the ocean occasionally to cool off and wash off the biting ants, although the water was so warm it didn't do much good for cooling off. Eventually my boat came by ("Ready to go Mister Dan?!"). An older British couple came by and asked if they could split the cost of the boat, which I readily agreed to. I ended up riding the bus back into town with them. They're sort of retired - the man had worked as a civil engineer building hospitals and was around 60 years old. They decided life was too short and quit everything and sold everything and headed to Asia. They've been relaxing in Thailand and Malaysia for a few months now and seemed pretty happy. They might return to England to work a little more, but they're trying to see if they can get by with what they have.

When I got back I showered and prepared for my Duke interview, which was at 9pm. When I got out, I grabbed a quick meal from a street vendor, and then went out for some beers with Irene and Katrin. We picked up two other people from our hostel along the way - a guy from Holland and a girl from London. Because Malaysia is a Muslim country, they make alcohol pretty expensive, while everything else is cheap. Meals and lodging were comparable in price to those in Thailand, but a pint at the bar we went to was over $6 USD. We hung out at "Soho" (a British pub) for a couple hours, then wandered around some before returning to the hostel. I stayed up pretty late trying to figure out the details for getting from Penang to Kuala Lumpur to catch my flight early on the 21st.

4/19 Butterfly Sanctuary

4/19/2013: The night before I had talked to Ali, the front desk guy at the guesthouse, who was telling me about all the things to do in Penang. One of the suggestions was the fruit farm, where you pay 15 MR and eat unlimited amounts of fruit, including obscure tropical ones like durian. I was intrigued, so that was my plan for the day. I'd told Katrin about it and she wanted to do it too, so she decided to extend her stay in Penang for another day to go see the fruit farm. We took a bus out towards the national park and first got off at the butterfly sanctuary. The plan was to go to the fruit farm after that.

Katrin is originally from Germany and was trained as a dental assistant. She decided after a few years that she wanted to become a dentist, so she's planning on going back to school, and traveling in the meantime. I think she was about 2 months into her trip by this point - having spent some time in Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia. She met a Mexican guy and traveled with him for 7 weeks, and when I talked to her she was thinking of going to Mexico to work for his family as a tour guide for their German customers (his family runs tours in Mexico and Central America). She said that her English had really improved during the trip, which is a funny concept - traveling to SE Asia can improve your English.

We didn't have very high expectations for the butterfly sanctuary, but it turned out to be pretty cool, albeit very touristy. It's just a big pavilion with lots of trees, bushes, and flowers, and thousands of butterflies flying around and (I assume) enjoying themselves. We pretty much just wandered around and admired butterflies, which is admittedly not one of the manlier things I've ever done. It was fun though. There were also some big fish, an iguana, and a little sand pit of millipedes, which reminded me of the snake pit in Indiana Jones. Katrin had a nice fancy camera,  and my camera's battery had died (and I forgot my charger), so I let her be the photographer. We spent a long time there, and then moved inside where there were displays of frogs, bugs, and some snakes. Then we entered an endless maze of gift shops, which were actually pretty entertaining. 

Gold cocoons

Millipedes!

Butterfly Charmer

Leaf frogs

  As we were leaving, we talked to a Malaysian man for a little bit, who told us that the fruit farm was much more expensive than we thought, and that nothing good was in season so it would be a disappointment. We decided to just eat some fruit from the fruit vendor outside the butterfly sanctuary. We hired a taxi (spelled "teksi" in Malaysia) with an Australian guy and his mom, then caught the bus back to Georgetown. The Malaysian guy had told us to go to the Snake Temple instead, but by the time we got back to the city it was too late. The snake temple is just a temple with a lot of snakes apparently. We were both starving, so we wandered into Little India (the district, not a restaurant) and got some tandoori at a restaurant. Little India is a pretty sizeable area of the city, and most of the shops are either selling gold jewelry, Indian silk fabric, or gold deities. It felt like we had left Malaysia and entered India.

We returned to the hostel in the evening and took it pretty easy that night.

4/17 Arrival in Penang

4/17/2013 afternoon: The train arrived in Butterworth, on the mainland, around 2pm, marking 39 hours of train travel since leaving Chiang Mai. I got off the train with the couple I'd met (Kristin and Eric), and exchanged Thai baht into Malaysian Ringgits. We dodged some surly taxi drivers, offering to drive us to Georgetown on Penang Island for 57 MR, and instead hopped on a ferry for 1.20 MR. We added a German guy named "Aryan" (strange, I know) to our group on the ferry and chatted with him some. I'm at the point now where everyone I meet has one of three stories and the typical introductory small talk is not really interesting anymore (1. they're backpacking for X months around SE Asia, 2. they're teaching English somewhere and on vacation, or 3. living somewhere in SE Asia temporarily and on a side trip). Aryan was a #1, having recently graduated from college. We wandered into Georgetown after getting off the ferry and we all ended up going to the same area - Chinatown, where all the hostels are.

I stayed at the Old Penang Guesthouse, a very nice hostel that is a historical building, rebuilt after WW2. As the website states, "It is a best accommodation for travelers who seeking for budget heritage stay." Hehe. I checked in, sent off some emails, and went out in search of a quick meal. I went about a block down the street and found a noodle shop, where the guy running the place eagerly recommended some noodles that turned out to be delicious and one of the specialty dishes of the island. While eating, another guy sat down at my table and started talking to me. He was an Indian guy, and eventually got onto the topic of where I was staying and how much I was paying. It turned out he had a guesthouse and I assumed he was going to start trying to sell me something. He never really did, but he seemed sort of shady. He gave me his card and wanted to get together later for a drink, but I managed to dodge him for the rest of the trip. I saw him later that night outside my hostel talking up some other white guy apparently about various day trips he could book for him. After my quick meal, I went for a short run with the remaining daylight. Georgetown is not a great place for running - intermittent sidewalks and no trail along the coastline. I did see a good amount of the downtown area though. I returned to the hostel to figure out dinner.

Penang Island is one of the most interesting places I've been. It has big populations of Malaysians, Muslims (not a nationality but I'd say a distinct culture), Chinese, and Indians, and the specialty dishes of the island really show that. Penang is apparently well known as a foodie destination, with interesting mixes of Chinese soups and noodles, Indian curries and breads, halal dishes, and probably Malaysian elements too although I don't know what those are.

Hokkien Mee

Nasi Kandar

Mee Goreng

 I went to the Red Garden, which seemed a bit touristy and not very authentic. It's a food court, so I found the stand that had the dish I wanted (Hokkien Mee) and then grabbed a table. I ended up chatting with a couple at the next table, the guy from Vancouver and the girl originally from New Zealand. We talked skiing most of the time. After dinner, I wandered around some more and found another food court - this one populated mostly by locals, and I ordered the famous local dessert - "chendal" - which contains shaved ice, some sweet green gelatinous worm-like things, red beans, and some sweet syrup. It was interesting, but not something I'll crave ever again. I wandered some more, up to the northeast corner of the island, then back to the guest house and called it a night after chatting with a French girl (Benedicte) and a Dutch girl (Irene).
 

Chendol

4/17 Train Ride to Penang

4/17/2013: So much time on the train…I'm currently (while writing, I'll have to upload later when I have internet) just outside of Hat Yai, one of the southernmost towns in Thailand. At 6pm on April 15 I boarded the special express from Chiang Mai bound for Bangkok. At 11am 4/16 we arrived in Bangkok - 2.5 hours late, and 17 hours of train time. I went to the ticket counter to get a spot on the next train leaving for Butterworth (Malaysia) and I was told that they were all sold out. I could get a ticket to Hat Yai, at least in the right direction, but I left the counter to do some research in my travel guide about whether it was worth spending any time in Hat Yai. After deciding that I could spend a day there, I went back to the counter and they actually had one ticket left for the 2:45pm train bound for Butterworth (by way of Hat Yai). So I paid with my wet Songkran money and grabbed a smoothie before hopping on the train.

Not a lot of exciting events happen on a sleeper train. On both trains, I've gotten an upper berth in an air-conditioned 2nd class sleeper. The upper berth is not as good because when the beds are set up, you can't see out the window. Obviously that doesn't matter much at night, but in the morning it would be nice. I've read that 3rd class is not much better than a cattle car, and when I peeked in after arriving in Bangkok, it looked brutal. Just hard, rickety, wooden benches and holes in the sides of the cars. I only saw a handful of Thai people and some monks in there. My 2nd class sleeper from Chiang Mai to Bangkok cost me 750 Baht ($23ish). I sat across from a British guy from the York area that I could barely understand. He felt the same about me, and was even mystified by the way I pronounce my name. He was with his wife, who was across the aisle, and they were visiting her daughter (also across the aisle) who is living in Thailand teaching English. Sean (the step-dad) was a nice guy from what I could gather, but I understood about 50% of what he was saying. He's a huge soccer fan, a supporter of Hull City, which is currently in the 2nd tier league in England but probably moving up to the Premier League next year. He wore two different Hull City jerseys throughout the trip. It was fun talking to the family, though.

The attendant comes through around 8 to set up the beds (the lower seats are converted into the lower bed, and the upper berth pivots out from the wall like a murphy bed kind of). We didn't really want to go to bed yet, so we told him to hold off for a while. Eventually I climbed up to my upper bed and watched some episodes of Mad Men on my tablet. I slept ok - not great. Lots of rocking and jerking. I woke up around 7:30am, passed on breakfast thinking we'd get into Bangkok in an hour, but then our train was two and a half hours late so I was starving when we arrived.

I killed time in Bangkok after getting my ticket, and even bought a collared shirt at a nearby shop after finding out that my interview with Duke would be over Skype while I'm in Malaysia.

My second train ride was pretty uneventful. My section just included me and a Thai family of three who didn't speak English, so it was a pretty quiet ride. I mostly just listened to This American Life episodes and other things while looking out the window and taking in the sights.

The view from the train was the main reason for this trip. Unfortunately I didn't see much on the first leg, since it was overnight. I did see a massive Buddha outside of Bangkok. Outside of Bangkok is some extreme poverty. Along one stretch, it appears that everyone just dumps their trash over the tiny wall that separates the road from the train tracks, and I even saw a dead cat in there. It was an incredible amount of trash. Leaving Bangkok, we passed a long stretch of "shanty towns" with improvised wooden walls and corrugated roofs. In these areas there were lots of stray dogs running around or sleeping in the shade. Some of the shacks were eating and drinking establishments, with a few guys sitting around smoking and drinking and looking pretty content. I saw a girl walking from one shack to another one a few doors down, listening to her iPod. When I see living conditions like that, my first reaction is to feel bad about people living like that, but who is to say that they are unhappy. I've certainly seen worse conditions in Tanzania and China.

As we got further out of Bangkok, we entered more rural areas, like we had traveled back in time 30 years. This is what I'd wanted to see - endless rice fields, greenery everywhere, huge palm trees, and maybe a few rice hats. The climax was around sunset, as we passed through one particularly bright green area that appeared to be in its natural state, with some big rocky hills sticking up in the distance. I even saw a monkey hanging from the telephone cable near the train. It started to rain after that, then it got dark, and my viewing session was over.

The attendant set up the beds around 7:30pm, which was disappointing because that meant I'd have to be horizontal for a long time. I watched a lot of Mad Men, and chatted a little with an American couple whose beds were near mine. They're from Texas, teaching English in Surat Thani (Southern Thailand on the east coast) and traveling for 2 months during their "summer" break. They had been in Vietnam, then went to Chiang Mai for Songkran. We had been on the same train from Chiang Mai. Very nice couple, maybe a little younger than me. The guy (Eric) was reading a nerdy physics book that I'd read (part of it at least) so we talked about that for a little. They're heading to Penang, too.

Last night I took a sleeping pill and slept much better. The attendant actually had to shake me pretty hard to wake me up this morning to tell me it was time to take the beds down. 3 more hours until we arrive in Butterworth. Then a ferry to Penang. I've had my fill of trains for a while. If we arrive on time in Butterworth, I will have spent 38 hours on trains. I need to get some exercise when I'm in Penang.

4/15 Songkran

4/15/2013: Songkran festivities ended up being much more extreme than I had expected. While biking into the old city for lunch on Friday, I'd been splashed a little by people along the road, but it was pretty minimal and I assumed that's how the rest of Songkran would be. On Saturday, I first rode my bike into the old city to visit Wat Phra Singh (the most visited temple in Chiang Mai) and happened upon a big Songkran celebration where they were removing a buddha from a temple and putting it on a float. It was pretty entertaining - the guys that were struggling to move the heavy buddha also had to deal with a constant barrage of water being thrown at them. An interesting part of the water throwing that I wasn't aware of is that people like to collect the water that has run off of the buddha and then pour it on their heads. In parades I saw, most floats that had buddha statues on them had a guy on the float who was there specifically to collect water and then distribute it to people along the parade route.

 After the temple, I wanted to go to Waroro's market, on the east side of town, so I hopped on my bike but it quickly became apparent that I wasn't going to make it to the market, nor would it even be open since it appeared that everyone in Chiang Mai was hanging out around the moat splashing each other. It's difficult to accurately describe the scene, and it was difficult to take pictures without getting my camera wet.

Basically, tons of people drive around in their flatbed trucks with about 8 people in the bed, along with a large tank of water (sometimes with ice in it), and everyone has waterguns and buckets for splashing people. So the trucks drive around the moat (which defines the old city). Everyone else walks along the moat and scoops up water from the moat and splashes the trucks, motorcycles, tuk-tuks, etc. that go by. They splash each other too. Really no one is spared. You could be wearing a 3-piece suit or a wedding dress and I think you would still get soaked. There apparently are rules about Songkran that the government released, which I haven't read but I assume is meant to specify who is game for a splashing and who isn't. From my experience, it was mostly indiscriminate. There were some polite children who would wave their arm in the standard way that I assume means "can I splash you?" and, if I was biking, I'd ring my bell and let them douse me. Like I said before, sometimes people put ice in their water, which made it really unpleasant to be splashed. It's still 100 degrees here, though, so the splashing was actually usually pretty nice. I gave up on going to the market and decided I'd just bike around the moat and be an easy target for everyone. I could tell that Thai children value splashing "farangs" (foreigners) more than others, mostly from the look of disappointment on their faces when I'd bike by and they were in the middle of filling up their water guns and didn't have a chance to get me. Anyway, the scene is incredible. So many people along the moat, still tons of street vendors that are actually exempt from splashing, and the main road all the way around the moat is jam-packed with pickup trucks that are pretty much parked, and motorcyclists weaving in-between the trucks. Some trucks were blasting music, which turned it into a bigger party. Some other trucks just carried guys with big drums and sometimes a little whiny flute, which was also awesome. I learned that foreigners are bigger jerks when it comes to splashing. Thais will typically go for your chest or stomach, and often they would just dip their hands in the buckets and just do a small "spatter." Foreigners were merciless, and aimed for the ears and sometimes, with squirt guns, tried to get under my sunglasses to get me in the eyes. "It's all in good fun though." At some point I gave up on riding my bike, parked it on a random side street, and walked around some. I ended up near Thapae Gate and happened upon another parade, so I grabbed a chair outside a bar and drank some beers and watched the parade, which consisted of a lot of floats with buddhas, women doing traditional dances, and ladyboys. Lots of ladyboys.

Refilling from the moat

On Sunday, after biking around for a while and getting thoroughly soaked, I went back to my apartment and just watched the scene from the 5th floor patio, which overlooks the south side of the moat. It was really entertaining. There was one guy who was set up at a little shop at the foot of my building who was really merciless and I was cracking up watching him methodically march out into the street and dump water on passersby even if they were gesturing that they didn't want to get splashed. I decided to take the one bowl I own and go down to see if I could join him. There were actually a handful of Thai guys hanging out at the front of this shop just getting drunk and splashing people. I ordered a large Chang beer from the lady that was actually working, and then pointed with my empty bowl to the large tank of ice water they had. They all emphatically nodded and encouraged me to go douse people. They didn't speak much English, so there wasn't much talking, but there were lots of "cheers-ing" and dousing. They offered me some odd snack, which I tried, and it turned out to be delicious. It was like a sour gummy worm, but actually I think it was a tamarind (a type of fruit). It had seeds in it, which surprised me, but I spat them out which for some reason really amused one guy who almost fell over laughing. He was pretty hammered and I'm guessing just finds foreigners funny in general. There was a little kid there too, who kept splashing me. One guy said his name was "Sam" or something like that, and said his kid's name was "Ud"….like "Ud-quake" and then pantomimed an earthquake. It was a good time - definitely more fun being a splasher than a victim. They told me to come back at 1pm the next day. I was getting ready for my trip, so I only stopped by for a bit, but managed to get a few splashes in. They were using ice water, though, so I feel guilty about that.

All in all, Songkran started on Friday, and was still going strong Monday afternoon when I stupidly took a tuk-tuk to the train station for my trip to Malaysia. Tuk-tuks don't offer much protection from splashing, so I was thoroughly drenched when I arrived at the train station. Even in Bangkok, when I paid for my next train ticket, all of my cash was still wet.

Passing through random towns by train on Tuesday, I could tell that Songkran was still going strong.

4/11 Prepping for Songkran

4/11/2013: OMG I saw Pancake. "She is Thai superstar." Oh. Cool. She is "Miss Songkran" in Chiang Mai this year - the guest of honor for the annual Thai New Year's celebration. I was about 20 feet away from her and had no idea I was so close to such a celebrity. I was like "hey, who's that babe on the float in that parade?" So I took a picture, then showed the security guy (Tony) at my apartment and he said I was very lucky to have seen Pancake. He said he thinks she goes by Pancake because her face is flat. Her real name is Khemanit Jamikorn.

Pancake in purple

People going nuts over Pancake

Pancake on the float

Anyway, Songkran is (so I've heard) a huge celebration in Chiang Mai. Rather than re-write stuff, I'll pull out the good parts from Wikipedia. It's funny that the holiday has gone from solemn and respectful to a water-fight. I suppose you could say similar things about American holidays (replace "water-fight" with "heavy drinking" or "excessive gift exchange").

• Songkran is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year's Day from 13 to 16 April. It coincides with the New Year of many calendars of South and Southeast Asia.
• The most famous Songkran celebrations are still in the northern city of Chiang Mai, where it continues for six days and even longer. It has also become a party for foreigners and an additional reason for many to visit Thailand for immersion in another culture.
• The most obvious celebration of Songkran is the throwing of water. Thais roam the streets with containers of water or water guns (sometimes mixed with mentholated talc), or post themselves at the side of roads with a garden hose and drench each other and passersby. This, however, was not always the main activity of this festival. Songkran was traditionally a time to visit and pay respects to elders, including family members, friends, neighbors, and monks. The songkran festival is counted as a new life.
• The throwing of water originated as a way to pay respect to people, by capturing the water after it had been poured over the Buddhas for cleansing and then using this "blessed" water to give good fortune to elders and family by gently pouring it on the shoulder. Among young people the holiday evolved to include dousing strangers with water to relieve the heat, since April is the hottest month in Thailand (temperatures can rise to over 100°F or 40°C on some days). This has further evolved into water fights and splashing water over people riding in vehicles. Nowadays, the emphasis is on fun and water-throwing rather than on the festival's spiritual and religious aspects, which sometimes prompts complaints from traditionalists. In recent years there have been calls to moderate the festival to lessen the many alcohol-related road accidents as well as injuries attributed to extreme behavior such as water being thrown in the faces of traveling motorcyclists.

 I was told that I should get a water gun. I have not done that yet. It's probably too late now. I guess we'll find out soon.

4/6 Downhill Mountain Biking from Doi Suthep

4/6/2013: Before I get into details about one of the scariest activities of my life, I want to point out some functionality to my blog that makes it pretty sweet. First, there's a Daily Puppy gadget I've added on the right-hand side, which provides the goods that I know everyone is seeking whenever they go online. Additionally, you can sign up for email notification whenever I add a new blog, which I'm guessing is what all 6 of you wanted when you signed up to "follow" me. I'm not sure what being a follower means, but it appears to be about as fun as being poked in Facebook. Now you submit your email using the form to the right of the blog text (where it says "Follow by email") and you will get notifications whenever I post, as well as opportunities for fast cash in Nigeria and beautiful wives from Eastern Europe. Puppies, fast cash, and wives - my blog is nearing readable status.

Oh and Ariel, Mom, Dad, Amy, and Devon - I've already added you for email updates, hopefully that's ok.

Oh oh and also I will now be notified if you make a comment on my blog, so you can feel free to comment and it won't feel like you're talking to a wall. I don't know if you'll be notified if I comment back - I suppose you'd have to be "signed in" or something for that to even be a possibility.

I arrived in Chiang Mai March 27 and haven't really done anything noteworthy (as is apparent in my latest posts), so I decided to sign up for a mountain biking trip on Saturday. I'm attempting to do mostly activities that Ariel doesn't feel bad about missing, and saving the other ones for when she arrives. I can say with confidence that Ariel would have HATED this mountain biking trip, so I picked the right activity.

I signed up with a tour company (mountainbikingchiangmai.com), and, thinking that it's a touristy activity and that what they call "expert" is probably pretty tame, I said I wanted to do the expert ride. The trip involved picking me up at my apartment, driving me to their shop, paying and getting gear, and then riding a vehicle up to the top of Doi Suthep, the large mountain west of Chiang Mai that is in a National Park. The mtn. biking company advertised the trails as being old hunting trails used by the hill-tribe people, which might just be a gimmick, who knows. Hopefully they aren't current hunting trails, since we probably would have scared all the game away. I was picked up at 9:45 and we drove back to their shop in the old city. There was a good number of people, all of them signed up for different tours of different difficulty levels. I should have known mine might be more intense than expected when the head guy told me I needed a helmet with a full face mask, but I still thought they were just being over-protective of the loser tourists. We went through safety details, etc., then rode for about 30 minutes up to the start.

On the way I talked to a couple from the US who are engineers in Guangzhou (China), as well as a guy from Scotland. We attempted to talk to a guy from Taiwan but didn't get very far. Once we arrived, I was given my bike, which was full-suspension and very heavy-duty (Kona Stinky is the model). The seat was extremely low, which I took to be a bad sign, since lower seats mean you'll be leaning back a lot so as not to go over your handlebars on steep downhills. Two other guys were signed up for the expert trip, and we would have one guide with us - a Thai with minimal English. Evo (that's how it sounded at least) is from Holland originally but lives in England now, but is maybe moving to Australia soon. Aiden (I'm less confident about that name...maybe Adrian?) is from New Zealand. Both are about my age. Aiden is a pilot for Cathay Pacific and lives in Hong Kong. Both were very pumped about downhill mountain biking and it was clear early on that I would be the slow one, which I hate.

Gapin' it up with protective gear

 We started up, riding a paved path downhill for the first part. Aiden and Evo and the guide were veering off to the side and hitting little jumps, and I was just trying to get comfortable riding a bike with a seat lower than the handlebars. It felt like I was riding a BMX bike. Obviously I wasn't going to be doing much sitting on this ride. Along the way, we took a small detour so the guide could hit a massive jump, a rickety wooden construction that probably dropped the rider about 10 feet from takeoff to landing.

Evo was considering hitting the jump, and our guide did it while Evo was debating. More of the other riders showed up as Evo was considering it, and he decided to bail, which he regretted the rest of the ride. The guide nailed it, though, which was pretty impressive to watch. I tried to get a picture but mis-timed it, so I only got a picture of the ramp:

Top of ramp on the right (I forgot I had my camera on a dark setting...sorry)

 We continued on down the paved path and stopped at a coffee shop for some reason. I'm guessing the guide maybe got some commission for taking the riders to the café, but it was good coffee and the open-air spot overlooked the area where the beans are grown. We finished our coffees, and I was feeling even shakier after adding caffeine to my nerves. Finally we reached the single-track section, and it was very steep with deep ruts, slippery leaves, and tons of rocks and roots. Not having a full-suspension bike would have made the ride impossible. The trail was much steeper and bumpier than anything I've ever ridden. I originally signed up being a cocky Coloradan but was immediately humbled. We were riding over logs, making regular drops off of big roots, and my rear tire was continuously sliding as I tried to get traction on the super-steep, sandy, and leafy trail. Everyone else was much faster than me, although I think they appreciated the opportunity to stop and rest occasionally. Despite not having to pedal ever, it was exhausting. I was constantly standing up on the bike, trying to absorb the bumps with my legs and arms, and gripping the handlebars like my life depended on it. And braking constantly. After our first stop I realized I'd left my water bottle at the coffee shop, so I was now the beginner that was slower than everyone and also borrowing their water. Evo and Aiden were extremely nice about it and offered me as much water as I needed. It was a little cooler up on the mountain, but probably still in the 80's and 90's, so I was sweating profusely. The hot coffee hadn't helped.

We continued on, with the guide in front, then Aiden, then Evo, then me at the back. I rode most of the trail without walking, and even got some air off of a few drops. I rode one steep downhill section that dipped back up quickly as everyone else watched - I had to lean back so much that my butt was behind my bike seat, with the seat being about level with my stomach.

I reached a point about 60% through (according to the guide) where my hands, arms, and legs were so tired that the bumps were becoming too difficult to handle - somewhat comparable to skiing when you do one more mogul run at the end of the day and it's much more dangerous because you're too tired to ski it properly. During one stretch, I went over the handlebars twice, but only came away with some scratches on my upper right arm. I crushed my sunglasses, though, which I'd put in my shorts pocket. I'm happy to have gotten away without a more serious injury.
We stopped briefly at a stream to splash water on ourselves. After that point, I took the steep sections a little more cautiously but still tried not to walk any of it. Evo was having troubles too, and hit a few trees on some tight turns. Everyone was pretty pumped about the ride though, although I was ready for it to be over since I thought I'd injure myself if I kept going much farther. Evo got a flat rear tire, so we stopped for a bit to replace it, then we stopped a little farther down for a photo session. Evo and Aiden rode back up and the guide and I took some action shots when they came back down. I was too tired to go back up (we were low enough now at this point that the temperature was back up above 100 deg F), so no action shots of me.

photo sesh at the end

 

not sure why i chose to stand behind a tree

Reviewing the photo

Definitely a tamer section of the trail

Action shot of Evo hitting a little jump

View back up towards the mountains

We finally got to the road and followed it a couple miles back into town, stopping for some lunch along the way. Overall it was a fun day - I had thought about bailing and doing a lower level of difficulty trail, but decided to give downhill a try to see if I could do it, despite being the weak link in the group. I'm glad I stuck with it, but I don't think I'll be doing much more of it in the future. It was exhausting and terrifying, but pretty fun when it was all said and done (Brady/Chris/Ariel/Kirk/Amy, if you're reading - that would be type 2 fun I believe).

In other news I've acquired a lizard as a roommate - he was hanging on the outside of my door, and when I opened my door to leave this morning, he jumped onto me and then onto the wall in my apartment, then scurried into my apartment somewhere. Hopefully he stays out of my bed.

Ok that's all!

4/3 Settling in Chiang Mai

4/3/2013: I moved into my new apartment yesterday - the easiest move-in ever. I had a large backpack, and a small backpack, and a large jug of drinking water. It required one trip. My apartment is a small studio, with a basic little table with two stools, a little couch, a sort-of desk with another stool, a TV (with cable and a decent number of English channels), and a king-size bed. It's hard to take pictures of the place since it is so small, so here's the link to the building's website: http://www.lifeintownchiangmai.com/accommodation/deluxe-room.html. It's good for now. I have it for a month, so when Ariel arrives, we might restart our search for a bigger place. Hopefully by then I'll have a better feel for the city and know where to find cheaper, bigger apartments that don't have inflated prices for foreigners.

Not much new to report, I'm still spending a lot of time working and then just wandering around outside in the evenings. Last night I walked along the southern wall of the old city and happened upon Talat Ton Phayom, which according to Lonely Planet is a local market and souvenir area for Thais visiting from other provinces. There was still a decent number of foreigners, but not nearly as many as in the Thapae area, where my hotel was. I had a pork noodle dish and then grabbed some mango sticky rice ($2.30 or so for the whole meal). I went into a Tesco afterwards (like Walgreens) and stocked up on some basic things for the apartment.

I was reading up on the Thai language last night, and it seems like a hopeless endeavor to try to learn much of it. So far I can count to a thousand (once you know how to get to 10, you just need to know the words for "hundred" and "thousand"), however I think I'm only getting it half right because, like Chinese, Thai is a tonal language. The tones are different though. Chinese has four tones (I think)...upward inflection, downward inflection, flat, and down-and-then-up. There's probably a better way to say that, but that's the gist of what I've learned from Wei, Rosy, and Chris. Thai has five tones. Three of them are flat, but at different pitches (low, medium, high). And then a downward tone (like if you're yelling "hey!" at someone from far away) and an upward tone (like how we ask questions). It seems very difficult. I've tried my numbers on some vendors and they seem to understand, but probably only because they've said the number to me in English already. I also can say hello and thank you. That's all. I'll work on more phrases. I think "sorry" is the next most important one.

I guess that's all for now...

4/1 Checking In

4/1/2013: This is my first post after 6 days in Thailand. The main reason for this is that I've been spending most of my time catching up on work, and when I'm not working, I don't feel like sitting at my computer some more and typing up a blog post. Although I still need to get caught up for work, I feel a little more settled in and I'm currently happily soaking up some air conditioning after too much time spent outside in the 100 deg F heat. Since I've been working a lot, I'm not going to thoroughly cover the past 5.5 days since it hasn't been very exciting so far. Instead, I'll do a cursory review of my non-work events and then put down some thoughts on my first impressions and interesting people I've met.

I arrived at the Chiang Mai airport in the morning of March 27 after 27 hours of traveling. I slept a lot on my flights but did not at all feel rested upon landing. I got a cab to my hotel (Thapae Boutique House), checked in around 11am, and accidentally  took a 7 hour nap. That wasn't part of my plan, since I intended to make it until a reasonable bedtime and then get a fantastic night's sleep and be fully transitioned to Thai time by the next day. Instead, it was dark when I woke up and I was extremely disoriented. I stumbled over towards the Thapae gate, which is a very touristy spot but also has lots of streetfood. I went a little farther south and grabbed a table outdoors and ordered some pork green curry from a vendor. It was very tasty, and I survived my first meal of street food without getting horribly sick. Not much else happened that day.

The next few days I worked a lot and did a little bit of exploring around town. I had a mix of street food as well as some meals in restaurants, since it's nice to have air conditioning. Working has been a little difficult since there is no desk in my hotel room, so during the mornings and evenings I work in the covered patio of the hotel, but when it gets too hot I have to work in my bed in my room. I also visited a few different coffee shops nearby for a change of scenery. Ok oops I said I'd avoid talking about work stuff.

So my days have so far been mostly work and a little bit of walking around whenever possible. My game plan coming in here was to not worry about finding an apartment and getting settled in until after the end of March, since I had to get a lot of work done. It is much harder to execute that plan because it sucks living in a hotel room and not having a more permanent residence. So in my free time I've been looking online for housing options. What I quickly learned is that there aren't many options besides studio apartments. And many housing options are just actually hotel rooms that the hotel owner calls "serviced apartments." They're typically less than 30 sq. meters (320ish sq. ft) and have a small bathroom where you can sit on the toilet and shower at the same time (if you want). However, housing is cheap. Housing prices for foreigners appear to be inflated (we only look at the postings that are in English), but even the inflated prices are cheap by American standards. The cheapest apartments I've looked at that are barely livable (and already furnished) are around 6,000 Baht ($200/month). Granted these are very small places, but $200/month is still a steal. Mention that price to a Thai, though, and their eyes bug out.

I've been hanging out some with the night-shift guy at my hotel. His name is John, a nice 22 year-old that's taking evening classes at a local university. He's excited to practice his English, so I've spent some time picking his brain about nice areas to live in and other Thai-related things (also he owns a rooster for cock-fighting). Yesterday morning (3/31) he even drove me around on his motorcycle to check out some apartments. I think he new about some different places because he had recently helped his friend search for an apartment. The first place was 2000B/month ($68/month), but the building was full. He took me to another spot that was 1600B/month ($55/month), but it was a room the size of a bed. I told him it was too small, so the next place he took me to was pretty much a house - 2 stories, a small kitchen, 2 bedrooms (very small ones), an office, and a nice living room at the entrance. That was 10,000B/month ($342/month), which appeared to be incomprehensible for him but I was considering it. It wasn't in a great location, though. We tried a few more places but they all said they were full, although I wonder if they just didn't want any foreigners living there. No success with John, but riding around on the back of his motorcycle was fun.

That afternoon, I went out on my own to check out some places. I caught a tuk-tuk (picture) to the "Loft Residence" on the north side of the old city. Their rooms were kind of nice but also depressing, so I moved on. I got a crappy guidebook (e-book) about Chiang Mai, which recommended a crappy guesthouse for cheap accommodations (which I was considering moving to while doing my apartment search since my hotel isn't incredibly cheap), so I caught a songthaew (picture) to the place and discovered that the rooms were depressingly crappy. Like jail cells. I moved on. I stopped in at a place called "Seven Suns" to ask about monthly rates, but the American owner told me it was probably out of my price range. I was half offended but also figured he was right (he was...25,000 Baht/month), but he recommended "Life in Town Condos" which was more reasonably priced. He said "Life in town, life is good." That helped me remember, not that it's a difficult name to remember. I didn't find any more good options and was very sweaty and gross, so I returned to my hotel and took a cold shower.

Before heading to Thailand, I had been emailing with some Bucknell alums who live in Bangkok. I had initially emailed Pam (class of '08, same as me) through the Bucknell alumni network to see if she knew of any job opportunities in Chiang Mai. She directed me to her father, Prechai, who also went to Bucknell (class of '76 I think) and is now a retired general from the Royal Thai Air Force. They've both been incredibly helpful and welcoming (even though I haven't met them yet). Ariel and I are no longer in need of jobs, but I told Prechai I was still interesting in volunteering some to teach English, so he set up a meeting for me with Group Captain Prayoon at Wing 41 headquarters in Chiang Mai at 9:30am today. I decided I should look somewhat presentable despite the heat, so I put on some nice clothes and caught a tuk-tuk out to the base near the airport. There were some puzzled looks from the guards as I tried to enter, but my tuk-tuk driver switched to translator and I was given a "visitor" badge and was met outside the building by an officer who walked me upstairs where I met Nok, the English teacher at the base. She was very friendly and I talked to her for a while about what I was doing in Thailand and what I had in mind for helping at the base. I told her that I had never taught English before and that I didn't really have much of a plan, but I thought a native speaker might be somehow useful. She agreed and said that she really needed help both teaching and developing lesson plans. After about 30 minutes, another officer led us into a waiting area outside of GC Prayoon's office and I was given coffee and water. GC Prayoon briefly came out of his office to get something off of the table, and Nok stood up quickly at attention. I was busy sipping my coffee and he disappeared back into his office before I had a chance to do the same, so hopefully I didn't offend him. Every time another officer entered GC Prayoon's office, he stopped and bowed his head before entering (and did the same while exiting). With all the formalities and the obvious fact that GC Prayoon is a big deal, I was glad I didn't wear shorts and flip flops. Next, the chief of staff came in and talked to Nok and me for a while. He also spoke some English and had spent some time in Alabama during college (for some reason it seems like all the people I've met in Asia that have traveled to the US have been duped into going to obscure locations that turned out to be disappointing experiences for them. One girl in Japan had done a foreign exchange program in Ellensburg, WA, which is really in the middle of nowhere. Another  Korean girl had done an exchange program in middle-of-nowhere Minnesota, but she actually claimed she really liked it). The chief of staff and Nok grilled me about everything while taking notes - where I went to school, my job, where I had volunteered in the past, where I applied for grad school, family background, etc. Nok told me later that the main obstacle in getting GC Prayoon to agree to let me into the base to help with the English program is my security clearance. I guess they were just interrogating me to make sure I'm not a spy. They asked if I wanted anything in return for my volunteering (accommodation, transportation, etc.) and I didn't really know how to respond - yes obviously all of that would be great, but I didn't want them to turn me away now if there were some strings attached. They said maybe sometimes the pilots could pick me up and drive me to the base. I said that would be nice. I also asked for a visa that lasted longer, but they said that would be complicated. Finally, GC Prayoon emerged from his office and we chatted a little. He said his 13 year old son wants to learn English and that I should go to his house sometime to talk and play with him and his other kids. I'm not sure how I feel about being a babysitter, but it could be interesting. After I told him I'm from the US, he said he meets with the US consulate in Chiang Mai regularly. They have a "sports day" occasionally, where his staff plays the US staff in sports. From what I could gather, they beat up on the Americans in soccer and some sport I didn't recognize that sounds like basketball but people carry the baskets (I found this description of it in an inferior blog)... I repeated what I had said to Nok and the chief of staff, and GC Prayoon explained to me that he had to get me cleared to enter the base. He also said that he'd invite me to the next "pilot party" so I can speak English with the pilots then, since they'd be more comfortable in such an informal setting. I said I'd be there if there was beer, which is actually really what I'm looking for - the opportunity to hang out with Thais and drink beer. Unfortunately I think they're still going to try to get me clearance and get me involved with actual teaching. I do think beer-based informal English practice would attract a lot of students. We finished the meeting, shook hands, and Nok walked me out of the base after scanning my passport and exchanging contact info. She hailed a songthaew for me (she insisted to stay with me to make sure I got a fair price), and I got a 40 Baht ride back to my hotel. My tuk-tuk to the base that morning had cost 150 B, so I guess Nok saved me some cash. It was a pretty fun experience, hopefully I can spend more time at the base.

After returning to my hotel, I changed into more practical clothes for 100 deg heat and continued my search for an apartment. I'd made up my mind that I would just find a place for 1 month, then when Ariel arrives we can decide if we want to find a different apartment (or city or country for that matter). I checked out a few places near Thapae gate. The first was very small, and the second was ok but probably not suitable for 2 people. I walked south to Life in Town which was much nicer than the other places. The girl showed me the standard room, the deluxe room, and the deluxe corner room. I liked all of the rooms, but she offered me a discount on the deluxe room so I decided to end my search and put down a deposit on that room. It's 34 square meters (366 square feet), with a little couch, a king-sized bed, a table and chairs, and a balcony that doesn't appear to be accessible from anywhere. The cost is 7,500 B/month. I move in tomorrow (4/2). After paying the deposit, I walked around the neighborhood and enjoyed a nice spicy pork sausage noodle dish. I think it will be a good spot.

So some observations of Thailand and other things I've learned so far:
1. Everything is very cheap. Meals are typically $1-$3, taxis are cheap, beer is cheap, lodging is cheap.
2. It is very hot here. High of 100 every day so far, lows in the low-70s. This is the hot season, with April getting even hotter apparently. Not too humid though.
3. Surprisingly lots of tourists. I didn't expect to see so many...
4. Tons of massage parlors. These women are aggressive too. The "masseusses" hang out in the front of the building and shout at foreigners as they walk by. ("Sawahdee Kraaaaaaaaap! Hellooooo! Massagggggeeee!"). I've been yelled at from across a busy street - I don't know how I'd get to their store even if I wanted a massage. Sadly, I suspect these women might be offering more than just foot massages, since I can't comprehend how so many massage parlors can survive on the number of tourists I've seen.
5. Generally the culture here is scuzzier than what I'm used to. I've seen many creepy older white men with younger Thai "girlfriends." Many of the bars around the old city have Thai women in skanky clothes hanging out. I initially assumed they were all prostitutes (which they still might be), but read online that most bars have "hostesses" which, if I understand correctly, are just there to flirt with the patrons and generally push drinks. While that isn't extremely reassuring, I do feel more inclined to actually enter a bar now, since I was previously afraid that I'd be naively stumbling into a seedy brothel that was just showing soccer on TV as a facade.
6. I'm excited to explore Chiang Mai's surrounding areas - Chiang Mai is known for its natural beauty, so I'm looking forward to getting out of the city and doing some hikes and bike rides. I'll try to wait until Ariel comes.
7. The touristy things look pretty fun - there's "Tiger Kingdom," where, from what I can gather from the advertisements, you can lounge around and baby tigers crawl all over you (playfully). There are also lots of elephant-based activities, like feeding elephants, riding elephants, bathing elephants, and watching them play soccer. There is a "flight of the gibbon experience," which appears to be ziplining through the forest. I'm not sure if you ever actually see any gibbons. Also the same advertisement for the flight of the gibbon that appears everywhere around the city features a white woman with cat-eyes (slits for pupils), which makes no sense to me. I'll see if someone can explain it to me.
8. Feb-March is "crop-burning season," where all the farmers in the surrounding areas burn stuff. The air quality is apparently dangerous during this time, and many foreigners who live here actually leave Chiang Mai during this period. I try not to think about it too much.
9. Thailand has a reputation of having some odd gender-related quirks - namely ladyboys. Apparently it isn't a myth - my crappy guidebook says that because Thailand is largely Buddhist, which teaches tolerance, there is a significant number of "transgender" individuals in Thailand (ladyboys and "toms") and it apparently is generally tolerated. I don't think I've seen any yet, but maybe I have and didn't realize it...
10. Thailand loves its royal family. There are pictures of the family (mostly the King) all over, and laws against disrespecting the royal family are strictly enforced.


Ok, I think that's all for now. I haven't taken any pictures yet, but I'll try to go exploring soon and take my camera along.