I'm writing this from the slow boat to Luang Prabang, Laos and indeed it is a slow boat. We boarded around 11 am and will dock around 7 or 8 this evening and then repeat the process tomorrow tacking on a couple hours for a grand total of 18.
The trip has been great and the lack of plans has been going semi-smoothly so far, knock on wood.
Jess arrived in Khon Kaen last Saturday and Neuki took me to the airport to fetch her. Naturally, we headed straight for the mall to eat suki which is Jess's second-favorite meal so far. I showed Jess a bit of my neighborhood and we had a mini planning session before she passed out. That was when we started freaking out about not having enough time in each place and we decided to leave on the night bus Sunday instead of Monday. So, with our new departure looming, we spent Sunday running errands. Jess still got to see my office, meet my Thai tutor and friend Gee, eat another delicious meal, and go back to the mall for some bowling with Neuki, Toffee and Meredith before we got on the 11 hour bus to Chiang Mai.
We arrived around 7am and immediately caught a minibus to Pai. I somehow managed to sleep for 90% of the windy journey through the mountains even after sleeping 9 of the 11 hours from KK to CM. We almost lost our lunches on that same minibus ride on the return trip which makes our sleeping feat on the way to Pai seem all the more incredible.
Pai is there-are-no-words good. It is a tiny town tucked away in the gorgeous mountains of northern Thailand. It is small enough to explore thoroughly on foot in a couple hours, but filled with coffee shops and arts and crafts shops and restaurants so that one could keep him or herself occupied doing nothing there for a while. It is becoming pretty popular with tourists and we did meet some cool ones, but I hope tourism does not ruin the magic of the place like it tends to do in Thailand. We stayed at a place called Aqua Resort and got a pretty good price since it is still low season. It is a really tranquil setting about a mile or 1.5 outside of the town. We got our fairshare of exercise since we did not rent motorbikes like most tourists, and the walks to and from town really allowed us to take in the scenery. Photos of stunning mountains and green rice paddies to follow.
Looking back, we definitely could have stayed in Pai for another day, but we opted to leave after two and a half days since we had seen the whole town, did some hiking, and gotten a good feel for the place...I hope to get back there at some point.
When we got back to Chiang Mai with no guest house reservations, the lack of Peters-planning bit us in the butt. We got stuffed in a dingy and sweltering room on the fifth floor of a stinky guesthouse with the world's most uncomfortable beds. We also had our first bad meal in Thailand that night after wandering for an hour on a quest to find an Indian food place recommended, though we are not sure why, in the Lonely Planet Guide. At least we learned our way around almost all of old Chiang Mai that first night...no better way to get to know a place than to get lost in it! I just recommend doing it in a cooler (temperature) environment and with a less cranky-if-she-has-not-eaten travel buddy.
With most of the bad luck behind us, we moved guest houses in the morning. The upgrade to Julie's brought a much nicer room with it's own bathroom and a crowd of really fun people and a helpful staff (well worth the extra 50 baht). Highlights of our stay in Chiang Mai listed in order of occurrence include:
1. Getting confused for a mother and daughter pair. If that is not funny enough... upon further investigation, I was told that I looked 41 because I have wrinkles around my eyes. Later, Jess did not deny the existence of said wrinkles but acknowledged them as laugh lines...ha ha
2. Our night out at this area referred to (I think by more people than just us) as the reggae garden.
3. Wat Suan Dok which is a temple originally built in the 1300s with a beautiful buddhist cemetery with ornate white stone graves. We sweated up a storm here and needed some refreshing so we headed to...
4. Nimmanheiman Road which is a sort of posh street with cool cafes and shops. We spent an hour playing rapido in iBerry, a quirky little ice cream shop recommended by a friend. For those of you who do not know, rapido is a card game Jess and I have been playing for ages. We are in an ongoing battle of rapido and yahtzee ("kniffel" to the Germans on our boat). After iBerry, we had amazing Thai massages, and to top off our day of indulgences, we proceeded to eat the best meal of our trip so far (yes, we have them ranked. That should not surprise you since Jess and I are into ranking systems and really into food). The place was this Thai vegetarian restaurant and we were the only customers in their trendy and serene little garden.
5. Going to this bar on the river called Brasserie to hear some of the best live music we have heard in a while. The opening band had a female singer with a ridiculous voice and the main attraction was a trio playing classic rock. The guitar player was incredibly talented and so captivating because he was a tiny Thai guy with a huge overbite that gave him the goofiest grin while he performed. It was so funny to hear such a raspy bluesy voice come out of this guy.
6. The Thai cooking course which we arranged at the time it was scheduled to begin...while we were still in bed. After Jess declined to be picked-up by car, we speedily dressed and hauled it a couple blocks on foot to discover we were the only students that day. We began with a market tour to get the ingredients and then went to the kitchen which was outside in a really shaded area. We made so many delicious things (since we do not love fish, there was a lot of chicken on the menu)... Green curry, cashew chicken, fried chicken cakes, red curry chicken baked in banana leaves, tom yam with shrimp, pad Thai, spring rolls and custard inside a pumpkin. It was all delicious and Jess is still talking about how someone cleared away the cashew chicken she was saving for later.
7. Small world experiences. My friend Mary just moved to LA to teach High school English as part of the Alliance for Catholic Education program. Think Freedom Writers. Anyways, Mary's roommate Sean, also an ACE teacher, has a girlfriend who just moved to Thailand to teach. Mary has been saying how well we would get along and encouraging us to make contact with each other via email. No need. As I sat down to write postcards, one of the few American backpackers started chatting with me and it took us about 10 seconds to realize that we had stumbled upon each-other. Her name is Lili and she had two friends with her. Jess and I had a lot of fun with them our last day in the city. I still cannot get over the coincidence.
8. Haircuts. Definitely our poorest decision to date. I have been needing one for ages and have been nervous about the language barrier in Khon Kaen and the precious mane that I had painstakingly grown out for the past two years. Needless to say, it is gone and what is left ain't pretty. I would be complaining more, but Jess had a little more trouble. First, the lady washing her hair got it so tangled that she proclaimed she could not brush it. Four people, including Jess, were needed to comb it out. Have you ever asked to brush your own hair at the salon? The Thai women are not used to foreign hair, but Jess's really threw them for a loop. After all was said and done, Jess had received quite the cut involving many, many inches of golden locks on the floor and a new layered do. It actually looks nice but it was a drastic "trim" and it might make her look a little younger. Oh, when the man guessed 41 for me, Jess got 17 and that was before the haircut. We both agree that our cuts really messed with our images, but lesson learned and it will grow back...by the time I'm 30.
9. Right before the bus to the border, we went to the Saturday walking market which was full of arts and crafts and delicious treats. It was a really good way to end our stay in Chiang Mai. Tourist-activity-wise, we did not do as much as we could have in the city which actually feels like a big town but we know it pretty well now since we explored it all on foot.
This morning, we had some meal issues, including stolen fried rice lunch boxes, inedibly fishy papaya salad and extremely expensive sticky rice that tasted like cement even before we discovered the ants steamed into it. So, besides being hungry and a little uncomfortable on the wooden benches, we are very happy. We are really looking forward to arriving in Luang Prabang, though taking in the scenery for two days on a boat is definitely a good way to see this beautiful place.
Since writing this, we made another day's journey on the boat and arrived in Luang Prabang, or Heaven. After three hours here, we are in love. It is so quaint with it's French colonial architecture and hardly any cars and it is right on the Mekong. There are lots of tourists here, but somehow it is more tasteful tourism than in Thailand. We are so excited to drink delicious coffee, eat French bread, do some trekking, and really just soak up the atmosphere for the next week.
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