Evan in SE Asia: Ayutthaya and Chiang Mai

Time for the weekly update. A lot has happened since we left the River Kwai. If you don't want to bother reading all the words below, then just let all the pictures in my web album explain: https://picasaweb.google.com/102885910560995076727/EvanInSEAsia?authuser=0&authkey=Gv1sRgCM6RsaGd2vPloAE&feat=directlink

From Kanchanaburi we took a minibus about three hours to Ayutthaya, once the capital of Thailand for about 400 years. The "Old City" is essentially an island surrounded by three rivers. Within the confines of the waterways lie many old temples and buildings, many in ruins, others still in use. Kodi and I were dropped off in the backpacker area, but it turned out that the hostel we booked online was outside of the city a ways so we hired a tuk-tuk (those small three-wheeled, open-air vehicles) and set off. We arrived to the Lima Place and something just seemed a bit off. Things were dusty everywhere and it seemed like no one was around. Our room was okay, except that again, it seemed like there was a slight layer of dust on all the surfaces. Also, our shower only had cold water. Refreshing! Turns out, this place was hit by all the flooding you probably heard about. After we set our bags down we walked into town. On the way we passed heaps of trash and, much to Kodi's disgust/dismay, multiple dead snakes. The walk ended up being a lot farther than we anticipated, so it was dark when we reached the main town area. Had some dinner and walked around for a bit before returning home. The next morning, we got up really early and rented another motorcycle to explore the city on. We had breakfast in town and explored many of the ruins. At about 2, we headed back to get our things and head to the train station. A short stay in Ayutthaya, but we wouldn't have wanted much longer anyway.

Our next stop: Chiang Mai. Arguably the tourist center of Thailand, if not the trekking/adventure capital. But first, we had to survive the train ride. A few days before we had gone to book our train ticket on the overnight train. "We'd like two sleeper tickets to Chiang Mai, please," we said with polite smiles. "No more," the ticket seller said with his own slight smile, which might have said something along the lines of: Dumb farang (foreigner), everyone knows you have to book sleeper tickets well in advance!. Turns out they only had some regular old second class tickets. We didn't have much of a choice, and the tickets were only about eleven dollars anyway. So the train shows up-- an hour and a half late, of course-- and we get to our seats and settle in for the long journey. I'll try to paint a clear picture of what it was like. The windows are all open, and rotating fans on the ceiling are blowing air all around. Not unpleasant. I don't think we really needed the more expensive AC tickets anyway. Even as we got into night it didn't get too cold. People were constantly walking up and down the train cars selling food and drinks, shouting what they had (this made sleeping a little difficult). Also, there were lots of bugs. And most of them would just fall on you and already be dead for some reason so you'd have to shake off all the dead bugs every once in a while. Kodi didn't last long before going to sleep and trying to sleep for most of the ride. I busied myself with starting The Girl Who Played With Fire and ended up getting about halfway before trying to sleep at around 2am. When it started getting light out we were passing some nice scenery, and soon we started passing through really thick jungle. Eventually, after a mere 15 hours on the train, we arrived in Chiang Mai at about 8:30am, only three hours late!

We stumbled off the train and met our host, who had been waiting for us all that time. We had used airbnb.com (highly recommend checking out this website!) to book a couple of nights at the Spicy Villa bungalows about an hour and a half north of Chiang Mai, up in the hills. Before heading up there, we stopped at Samart's house in the city where he gave us breakfast and coffee. Then we ran a few errands before heading up to the bungalows. The drive was along some windy roads heading ever higher into the mountains. We arrived to simply stunning views of the valley. The hand-made bamboo bungalows and the property were amazing. Samart has developed this little eco-resort up there. We had running hot water, flushable western toilets, solar powered lights, and about every other convenience aside from internet. During our stay there, we were provided amazing food and we got to meet a number of Samart's friends and guides (he also operates an eco-tourism company). There was only one other person staying there as a volunteer. She got to stay and eat for free as long as she helped out with chores, cleaning, building, gardening, etc. Seems like a pretty good deal! We mostly just relaxed because there isn't a whole lot to do up there. We did go to a small river for a dip the first night.

The next morning was Christmas! Probably the least festive Christmas ever as there were no trees around and Thai people don't really celebrate it (as far as I know). We walked down to the local village and walked around a bit. Later that day one of the guides took us bamboo rafting and elephant riding. But wouldn't you know it, it was the one time I forget my damn camera! The guide was able to take some pictures on his cell phone, and I'm still trying to get in contact to have him send them to me. So if that succeeds, you may yet see pictures and know that it really happened. Anyway, the bamboo rafting was ok. We just sat/squatted on this raft as a young boy of around 15 navigated the river with a long pole. After that we went to one of the many elephant camps in the area. The guys working there were two guys we had eaten dinner with the night before so it seemed our guys were good friends with them. We walked up and within 30 seconds we were on the elephants! Their skin is so rough and their hairs are so prickly! We headed straight down and into the river. It was pretty cold. Luckily my elephant didn't spray me, but Kodi, who really didn't want to get wet, was sprayed by her elephant about five times. There was also a little baby playing around. Really funny. He even wrapped his trunk around my foot and tried to pull me off! The guys said he was really playful, but he's really strong so you have to be careful. He kept chasing around our guide Daeng. Even chased him up into a tree, then proceeded to stand up against another smaller tree and bent that over trying to hit him with it. Quite an entertaining experience. Again, I'm still kicking myself about forgetting my camera. Then we headed on up into the jungle where the elephants spend the night. This is one of the only elephant camps that takes the elephants up into the jungle every night to sleep. Apparently, it's illegal for domesticated elephants to sleep in the jungle? I couldn't quite understand what they were talking about.

The next day, we checked out and were driven back down into the city to our next hotel. Chiang Mai is definitely a touristy city. It seems like half the people here are foreigners, and most of them from Europe. Luckily, everyone speaks English because the rest of the world is bilingual. There are SO many restaurants here. Pretty much all of them have western and Thai food, and all of them have about 100 dishes on the menu, so mealtimes become a long and stressful endeavor. We have done a lot of walking here and otherwise have taken it easy. Yesterday we splurged and went on a tour called Flight of the Gibbon, which is an adventure ziplining course in the jungle. It was pretty fun and we even saw a few gibbons from a distance. Mostly you just hear their really loud call. The jungle was very amazing and the platforms and ziplines are pretty high up. They even claimed to have the longest jungle zipline in the world at 850 meters! Very crazy.

Our time in Chiang Mai is up tomorrow. In the morning, we board another bus for six hours to Chiang Khong, which is on the border of Laos. Then the next day we get on a slowboat for two days down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang. From there, we only have a rough plan. I'm a little sad to be leaving Thailand, which is a really amazing place, but I'm excited to move on to Laos and Vietnam.