food

Chiang Mai and Welcome to the Jungle

/ Terry Heck / Leave a comment

When we last left off, Neil, myself and our counterparts from Germany and France arrived in Chiang Mai at our hostel “Living Place 3.”

The place was run by a man known only by “V” and his daughter Anna that was visiting from the Czech Republic. “V”, an eccentric, friendly Thai man who was equal parts kind, helpful and generous. His daughter Anna, a twenty year old girl with the same qualities as her father, tended to the front desk. Two of greatest hostel proprietors I would have the pleasure of meeting during this trip.

The hostel itself was quiet, most of the time. Our room was an eight person dorm that we had complete run of, save for a night when one other person needed a bed. There was one hard fast rule about this place, no food or drink in the rooms. Neil found this out the hard way as there was a chocolate milk that had partially spilled in a plastic bag in his backpack. He got ants, a lot of ants. Some rules are meant to be taken seriously I suppose.

Chiang Mai itself was very…..different from both places we had been already. Smaller in size than Bangkok and much larger than Ayutthaya, it was a welcome midpoint between the two. I saw many more expats and travelers here than in Bangkok, primarily because while there we did not stay on Khaosan road. Taking it’s smaller size into account as well. There was truly positive vibe here, a lot of that having to do with the people we traveled there with and the people we met. One of the things I wanted to do while backpacking in Thailand was to eat a tarantula. I was told Chiang Mai had many insect vendors, alas, I could not find my prize within the myriad of stalls available to us.

I had the worst scare of the entire trip here. A night of attending Muay Thai fights turned into a drunken, black out, can’t remember how I got back to the hostel kind of night. Then morning came, I woke up startled and in a panic, I knew something was wrong. I shot out of bed and realized that I lost my camera. I remembered we went to another hotel for an after party, but who knew where that was? I ran down three flights of stairs faster than I ever have before to see if I had left it there before passing out. No, not there either. I had no Idea what to do. I hadn’t backed up my Thailand photographs yet and half of my Europe pictures were on there as well. I was gutted, and simply wanted to cry or break stuff, I couldn’t be sure at the time. I went outside for a cigarette and tried to calm down. One of the other guests was out there already and noticing that I was sheet white asked what was wrong. My sob story was reiterated as calmly as I could. All of a sudden from behind me I hear another voice say to me “Man, I have your camera!” I looked back and saw Matt pulling my camera bag out of his scooter. Apparently he had stayed the night at the other hotel and brought it back for me. It would appear as though I have the greatest luck known to man. I hugged him as tightly as I could, almost uncomfortably so but at least I had it back. The days in Chiang Mai after that were spent ensuring I did not take my camera anywhere that may turn into a particularly un-sober evening.

We spent most of our time relaxing, eating, drinking and making new friends. We did however go zip-lining through the jungle on one day. I don’t think I have mentioned before that I am afraid of heights. It was difficult for me to trust the ropes that were holding me up, not to mention walking across a rope bridge seventy meters above the jungle floor. I did it, however, despite my entire body and mind telling me not to and I am happy that I did.

Two nights were spent in a tree house on the side of a mountain one and a half hours north of Chiang Mai. The views were breathtaking and it was quiet. A welcome juxtaposition from the cities we had been calling home as of late.

A Thai family called this place home and welcomed guests to stay with them. They fed us. Glorious, fantastic, mouth watering northern Thai cuisine.

We went on jungle treks through rivers that ended with us taking in the sight of a fantastic little waterfall. Temples were explored on the second day, along with a cave system that was attached to it. All in all there were a few of the best days I had in Thailand.

Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai – New Friends in a New Land

/ Terry Heck / Leave a comment

Our first five days were over. We got the tattoos we wanted and were off to our next stop. Ayutthaya. Neil and I chose a lot of initial locations and planned the first seven days or so with food in mind. Ayutthaya was no exception. It had the added benefit of being one of Thailand’s previous capitals and another bonus of having ancient temple ruins. It was a win win really. The small town is approximately just over an hour by train, a relatively short trip by train standards, and extremely cheap. It cost us about fifteen Baht each if memory serves, so roughly fifty cents. We were off in the morning, as early as we could drag ourselves out of bed, complete with sleep in our eyes and our backpacks at the ready. The train was uncomfortable at best, mainly because Neil and I had to share a seat which was at the back of the car and smaller than the rest. Grateful that it was only an hour or so we sat there like two peas in a pod that would take a tremendous amount of force to pop out of the shell.

We arrived in Ayutthaya and got off the train realizing in that moment that I had forgotten to save the address of the hostel we were staying at. A local tuk-tuk driver offered to help, no doubt to try and give us a ride afterwards, by taking us to a local restaurant that had WiFi. We found the address and got directions from the driver that said he could take us there. As he looked with hopeful eyes, we declined and opted for walking. Along the way we stopped at a hotel to re-confirm the directions and kept our bearing towards our goal.

As we were walking we noticed a couple that seemed as lost as we were. They were French and had a fair amount of difficulty with English so as we criss-crossed each other a few times the exchanges that were made were small smiles and awkward laughter due to both pairs being slightly lost, even with our directions and their map.

We finally arrived at our hostel and got checked in. It was a small family run place, not many rooms or extras, which was expected, but the staff were friendly and helpful. The only other two people there were a pair young ladies. I overheard them as we walked up the stairs to our room, Germans. I went back downstairs after depositing my bag to have a smoke and sat down next to them. I asked to share their ashtray to which they obliged. Small talk and introductions ensued between the Germans, Julia and Lena, and I. While this was happening Neil took off out of the hostel without a word. I assumed he was grabbing a coffee or water or something similar so I didn’t bother to ask. He arrived back about three minutes later with a large plastic bag full of beer from the F-Mart down the road. It begins, I thought to myself. Without a word he handed out beers to myself and each of the girls while introductions were made again. Another five minutes of the obligatory “Where have you been” and “Where are you going” discussion went by and in walks the French couple from before. Again without words, and while they were walking up the stairs past us, we handed them beers, motioning for them to join us when they settled in. They came back down and introductions were again completed. Ben and Cloe. Our first night become a bit of a drinking game to break the ice and entertain one another. Honestly I never expected that when Neil and I brought up Chiang Mai and our plans there that all of the others would ask/mention/hint that they would like to come along. One night…one night was all it took to become fast friends. I guess that kind of thing happens a lot while travelling. You almost have to become friends quickly because you have no idea how long you will see or know them for. It makes for heightened awareness and a high likelihood of friendship anyway because we were all there for the same reasons. Travel and experiences. Little did I expect to be travelling with Julia and Lena for ten days and Ben and Cloe for five though.

We took an extra day in Ayutthaya in order to ensure that we all got on the same train together. This also meant that we had one extra day to check out more temple sites and more food. Our primary reason for choosing Ayutthaya as a food location was this restaurant we read about that serves massive river prawns. This would be the most expensive meal in Thailand by a huge margin. We dragged the others along with us however we did not expect an hour and a half long tuk-tuk ride each way in torrential rain. In any case, we arrived and were seated. Immediately we ordered the prawns and they certainly did not disappoint.

After temples the second day We left for Chiang Mai on our night train, this one fourteen hours, with all of our new friends with us. I found sleep difficult due to the noise and motion of the train but managed to get enough broken up rest that the day would be fine. Neil and I had a plan of action for Chiang Mai, at least for the hostel we wanted to stay at. As I was beginning to understand all to well, plans can change quite rapidly. We adjusted our plan so that the six of us could all stay at the same hostel. We settled in at Living Place 3, dropped our bags and proceeded to discuss what the next set of plans were. That is for next time, though.