12.25.01

Happy Birthday to me!!!  Merry Christmas.  We arrived in Chiang Mai at 5am on an overnight VIP bus.  Rod was out most of the way and I did my best to sleep.  We are now at the "Winner's Inn".  Rod is still sleeping off his bug.  Chiang Mai is smaller, cleaner and quieter than Bangkok.  We hope to visit the night bazaar and to do our trek.  Maybe 3 days in Chiang Mai and off to the beaches.  I've just done the "laundry by hand" thing  and tidied our room.  Ready to roll when Rod is.  I expected to be the afflicted one but so far Rod has been sicker than a dog.  I really hope it lifts soon.  He has done nothing but sleep for the last 36 hours.  though he does seem a little better today than he was yesterday.  My poor baby :(  I will do budget then wake him for an amino drink (Japan's cure to the hangover has come in handy).

12.27.01

Yet another overnight bus.  Bound for Bangkok, the port of all ports.  Gorgeous 3 days in Chiang Mai.  Xmas/Birthday dinner on the river.  Night bazaar.  Visit to Wat Phra Sing-- gorgeous working temple.  Loads of monks in orange dress.  Boy monks in full attire playing soccer.  The place, like most of Thailand, was in a state of disrepair, but painfully beautiful nonetheless.

Today we spent the day trekking and I'm now bone-tired.  We rode an enormous elephant first off, through hilly terrain.  Big old guy straining to get up and down the inclines.  The trainer rides on his head.  They ate bananas fiendishly afterwards, almost trampling me to get at them.

Our tour was arranged and orchestrated by "Star Tour"-- great place run by young Thai people.  Man, I want to come back to this place.  Get my TESL certificate and come back to do something productive, and teach some students who actually care to learn.  I just love it here.  Life will probably get in the way, though.  Finished the day helping one of the girls at Star Tour study for her English exam tomorrow.

We also visited 2 hill tribes today-- the Mong and the Karen people.  The Mong are a polygamous group living at very high altitudes.  Whereas the Karen live in the lowlands and are monogamous.  the Karen dress much more colourfully and make exquisite weaves, but are discriminated against by the Thai people as stinky because they keep animals under their homes.  Both tribes speak dialect and have difficulty obtaining official status within Thailand.

We also visited a waterfall and went bamboo rafting.  Tons of hiking in between.  Oh how my legs will ache tomorrow.

Good bye ChiangMai (from the bus).  This bus is crowded and much less spacious than the last one.  All sorts of negotiating in various forms of broken English.  "Free for all" as Rod calls it, grabbing frantically for our bags, asserting a spot for us in the New Year's rush.

TOP