The Trek Part 1: The night train and Kantoke Dinner

Our time in Chaing Mai is coming to a close, as I start to write this up; I am in a double deck coach bus (on the second level of course). On the TV screen I can see Thai Pop music videos, and the volume is at an annoying high level. The interior of the bus is mainly purple, but it also has day glow accents on the upholstery of the seats and the ceiling. The bus is the perfect place for a rave (which unfortunately we are not having) and the worst place for someone with a hang over (which fortunately I do not have).
In any case it looks like it will be a more comfortable, if more boring trip than our train ride to Chaing Mai.

Steve Jennifer and I arrived at the train station to meet Ashton and Will. We thought we had come early enough to get a second class sleeper car on one of the night trains, but such was not the case. We were able to get normal second class seats on the last train out. This gave us a few hours extra to sit around and chill. We first stopped by the Train stations KFC and found an out of the way corner on the second floor to chill. Ashton and Will ordered some food from there, and eventually we all went over to the 7-11 across the street to buy food and drinks for the trip. Still having time to kill, and feeling we had overstayed our welcome at KFC we found a spot in the middle of the terminal floor and someone took out a deck of cards. We played the game Yanif, which a group of Israeli travelers taught Ashton and Will when they were in Pattaya.

When we got on the train we found our accommodations not bad. It was at least better than the 3rd class trains I was used to riding in to Auyttaya and to Samut Songkram. The seats were upholstered and kind of reclined and we had air-conditioning. The car in front of us was the dinning car, which we had heard was where the real parties were on the night train, so after awhile we decided to check that out. Rumors were true, the place was loud and boisterous. Part of that might be the cars policy of kicking you out unless you were consuming either food or alcohol. We played more Yanif and chatted with other travelers. There was a group of Brits who said that they would meet us at the train station to see if we could trek together. (they never did, either they were just being polite or they were all too drunk to remember having said that), There was a group of Spaniards from Madrid who taught Jennifer a new card game (which she has yet to share with us, so either it sucked or she forgot how to play) and there were a couple of undercover Thai cops, who were too drunk to stay undercover. They were a joy to chat with, and insisted on sharing their beer. I do not altogether like beer, however it would have been rude not to drink with them (and they were cops, which made it a bit more important to not be rude to them) and it would have been ruder to not toast with them (“chaio!”). My polite manners, coupled with the fact that that they never let my glass stay less than half empty led to me consuming an uncomfortable amount of alcohol, which I will not bother to elaborate on.
At 2am the dinning car closed and most of us went back to our seats while some people stood on the areas between cars to smoke. I heard later that one of the cops was trying to sell Will and the Spaniards some weed. Luckily everyone was in a clear enough state of mind to realize that that would have been a very bad idea and angrily declined.

Upon waking up the next morning I saw a landscape out the window quite different than I see in and around the central plans of Bangkok. Our train chugged along in large valleys, with forested mountanis in the distance, and we ran through and occasional tunnel to punctuate our continued progress into the northern provinces.
We were served an American breakfast for 100 baht. I tried to eat the eggs, but that was quite unpleasant so I just stuck to the toast. After breakfast a Canadian traveler sat down to chat with us. Her name was Brette and she was traveling alone through Southeast Asia while her husband worked in the oil fields. She said that she didn’t yet have a place to stay in Chaing Mai and was hopeing to go on a trek. I had booked beds at the dorm for 6 people, since we were originally traveling with that many, but since we were down to five we invited her to come with us.

We finnaly arrived at the Chaing Mai train station sometime after noon. We found a Songtau that would take us to A Little Bird Guesthouse for 20 Baht each. We loaded our bags onto the top and pilled in the back. At the guesthouse, we checked in and were shown to the ten person dorm room that we would be staying in. I set to calling our trekking company to work out payment and confirm our trek and finalizing arrangements for our traditional Northern Thai Dinner that I had been trying to book for that evening. The rest of the group went to make copies of their passports and grab a bite to eat.

Chaing Mai is quite a ways away from Bangkok and unsurprisingly has a different culture. A northern banquet dinner is called a Kantoke. On the website I was booking from it was quoted at costing 200 Baht per person for transportation, dinner and entertainment. My email confirmation however listed the price at 350 Baht. I called the company and explained that I was very set on the website price and the lady on the phone conceded. Later, while I was busy dealing with something else, some body else called and when Jennifer answered explained that it had to be 300 Baht. When I was told of this I was rather frustrated and again called the company back. They offered me a ‘deal’ at 270 Baht, but I explained to them that 250 each was the highest my group of 6 would go. They agreed to that price.

The trekking company sent someone to the guesthouse to collect the money for the trek and then later they sent our trek guide to provide us with an orientation and a question and answer session. Our guide introduced himself as Ar. However, we all heard his name as Ah, and called him that until the second night of the trek. When we had run out of questions he took his leave and said he would see us at 8am the next morning.

Shortly after Ar left the minibus to take us to the Kantoke arrived. I made certain that we were only paying 250 each, and then we all paid and climbed aboard. We drove to an expensive hotel which had a space set aside for such events. It was an open air space, with a performance area in the middle, surrounded by rugs and pillows. We all had a triangular pillow for our backs and sat in a circle. We were brought out two communal platters of traditional, delicious, northern food to eat from, with sticky rice. The best part was when we finished a dish, more was brought out to us. It was all you can eat!!

Part of the way through dinner the dancing started. People from the different local tribes came to perform traditional dances. They ranged from the rather boring to exciting sword dancing. After we had eaten untill very full and told our waiters that we were done, we were served platters of fresh fruit. Luckily there is always room for more in my stomach, and in all of my friends stomachs it seemed. The fruit was delicious. (I’m rather certain that ill never be able to eat a supermarket purchased fruit when I return back home without thinking about how much better the fresh Thai fruits are)

After Dinner and dessert was done the night still was not over. We had a change in location to go see the Hill Tribe show. As we walked to the stage, we deduced that the only real reason for this change in local was so that we had to walk through a small marketplace. And of course they had my least favorite of all goods found in Thai markets. Wooden frogs.

The wooden frogs are frog carvings, with a stick that when you rub across its spine makes a kind of croaking noise. The vendors seem to think that by annoying you with the noise from these infernal devices that you will want to buy one of your very own. I personally would not be opposed to destroying each and everyone one in Thailand.
The Hill Tribe show was just an extension of the dinner performances, with the very boring old Hmong ladies chanting, to the much more exciting fire dancer.

After the hill tribe show we returned to our minibus and were driven back to the little bird to get some rest before the start of our trek.

Adventure to the Monkey Jungle Part 1: The Journey

Monkeys have for a long time been a favorite animal of mine. So when I discovered the possibility of being able to see monkeys in their natural habitat, I of course had to get there. It might have taken a taxi, a train, a ferry, another train, a tuktuk and a longtail boat to get us there, but eventually Steve, Jennifer, Johnny and I were in a river through a mangrove forest, surrounded on both sides by hordes of monkeys as we tossed them bananas.

Without a vehical, the small resort town of Klong Khone is a bit of a challenge to get to, since no public transportation goes directly to it. For someone who doesnt speak nor read thai it is even harder, since the resorts cater to Thai, not foreign, tourists so nearly all of the information is in Thai.
I found that the closet large city was the town of Samut Songkram, and endeavored to get there. That meant taking a small railway line, called the Mahachai Railway. This line, now owned by the State Railway of Thailand, was originally a private rail line for transporting fish, and never got connected to the main line. Not being able to find a train schedule, and wanting to budget time for getting lost on this trip, we decided to all meet in the lobby of the apartment at 6am.

At 6:15am Steve and I received a knock on our door. As i woke up to answer it I 1) realized that the alarm i had set did not work for some reason, and 2) had a horrible flashback to the time that I was late for a directing scene my freshman yeah and had to be woken up by my co-actors (sorry about that, Kelly). Steve later told me that he had a similar flashback.
15 minutes later we were downstairs hailing a cab. Telling the driver where to go was no small issue, given that the train station, an unlikely destination for us, had the same name as a much more popular skytrain station. Our security guard helped us explain to him where we wanted to go.

The taxi stopped at a seemingly random curb, and there was no train in sight. He pointed towards a market and we went there. Out of nowhere the tracks and train appeared. We located the ticket window and ordered tickets to the end of the tracks. The train was leaving soonly, so we boarded and got comfortable. The first leg of the journey was an hour long. Upon leaving the city limits, we entered a jungle area, the ferns were huge, and every so often we would pass through small provincial towns. The towns seemed quite nice, and i had half a mind to get off the train and explore. However, we had far to go.

The tracks ended when the train could go no further, due to a large river being in the way, and no bridge having even been built. We asked some locals where the boat was, which seemed straightforward enough. They didnt speak any english, but we knew the thai word...however in thai knowing a word and pronouncing and toning it correctly are two very different things, but eventually we were sent in the right direction. On our way to the ferry we got a handful of "hellos", and stares from people and it became quickly evident that people of our skin tone were fairly uncommon in this town. Jennifer and I both bought spring rolls from a street vendor who seemed very pleased to be serving us.

We got to the ferry and paid our fee of a few baht and were handed a ticket. Standing almost directly next to the ticket both was the ticket taker, who immediately took our tickets after we had got them. It was an odd system, seeing as everyone could see if we had paid or not. Shareing the ferry with us was many motorcycles, as the ferry was the only way they could get across the river.
When we had arrived on the other side, we disembarked from the boat onto the pier, but waited for the cycles to drive out of the boat and up the gangplank.

As we wandered into town, we were unsure of where to go, so we started walking. It was quite pleasant. As we walked by houses the townspeople they would smile and wave at us, and it was quite peaceful. A Japanese man riding a bike, who spoke fairly good English came up to us and asked us where we were going. He started leading us to the train station where we ran into a monk named Wegeta (at first it sounded like Vegeta, which would have been awesome).

We were informed that the train didnt leave for another 3 hours (on this side of the tracks the train only runs 4 times a day) and invited us on a tour of his temple. He showed us the festival grounds where the village had had their new year celebration, and explained to us a bit about Buddhism as he showed us the Wat. The Wat was smaller than most that we had been in, but this was the smallest town we had visited thus far. It had an outdoor area, were there were some statues set up, and a large pictures of astrological animals. He then took us into their ordination hall with the principle Buddha image. Wegeta invited us to take a picture posing in front of Buddha, which I had understood as something that should be avoided out of respect for Buddha, but we figured if the Monk says its fine, then it must be.


After we finished the tour we headed over to the train station to wait. Two young thai children joined us, and just kinda hung out around us and played with us while we waited there. I found them to be a nice diversion.

After much waiting (and, for jennifer, sleeping) the train was ready to go and we hopped on board. On this leg of the journey we passed by many salt fields, and debated among ourselves if they were salt fields or not (they were). Durring most of this time Steve slept, and provided us with much amusement, as the ride was very bumpy and his head would bounce with every bump of the train. He also sleeps with his mouth hanging wide open like a cavern, which was just funny.

After about an hour, we reached our final train destination: Samut Songkram. Upon getting off the train, we walked into the local market, which was situated on the tracks. The costumers, walked along the rails and the shopkeepers pushed their wares all the way to the tracks.

After a little bit we heard a train whistle, and the shop keepers started pulling back all the goods and closing the awnings of their stands. Some of the larger vendors (like the butchers) had carts on wheels so as to be able to move them more quickly. Some of the items, such as fruits, were left by the track if they were low enough to be cleared by the train. I was ushered into a shop and waited for the train to pass. I must say i dont think i have ever been so close to a moving train before, but all of the people at the market were very chill about it, as this was old news for them.

When the train had past, everything immediately sprung back to its previous state as though opening a pop-up book. Awnings swung down, people walked onto the track, fruits were moved back into position, and the slowly fading sound of the train was all that remained of any hint that a huge machine had just driven directly through the area.
By this time we were all feeling a bit 'heuw' (hungry) and ventured to find a food vendor. We stumbled upon a small resturant in another part of the market, and ordered chicken and rice (which was the only thing we were able to given the language barrier). It turned out to be quite enjoyable. After eating we went to find a way to Klong Khone. We were directed towards a tuktuk driver, and using my phrase book i asked him how much it was to go to Klong Khone. He said some things in Thai that i didnt understand, and pointed in another direction. Jennifer then interceded and started to communicate the idea of a swimming monkey by both saying "ling nam" (water monkey) and by acting it out, switching between jumping and scratching like a monkey and swimming. The tuktuk driver, greatly amused agreed to take us there.

I am no stranger to the tuktuks, they are my favorite form of transportation around bangkok, but i cant say i was prepared for this ride. He drove us out of the city and onto a highway. He proceeded to reach speeds that i did not think tuktuks could reach (ill estimate 50-60 mph) and was even passing cars by driving on the shoulder. I think he may have ruined rollercoasters for me, because there is no way that any amusement ride can beat the exhilaration of riding, in a 3 wheeled vehicular, open to the air, with no seatbelts at that speed.
After a while, when we were just starting to get used to flying down the highway, he slowed down and pulled off on an unassuming side road and started driving down it. He drove us deeper and deeper into this area, making a turn every few minutes. We passed lakes, and houses and stores every few minutes, and saw acres of forests in the distance.

Eventually, when we thought we were going to never stop riding this tuktuk into the bush, he pulled into a very nice resort looking place. We got out and paid the tuktuk; he gave us his number to call when we needed to be picked up and we went to see if there was a room available.
The man at the resort who seemed to be in charge was the only one who spoke english, but other than his accent, he spoke it very well. He told us that they had only one room left, an 8 person bungalow, and that it would cost us 4000 baht. Being that there were only 4 of us, that was a bit steep of a price. Eventually we got him to agree to a 2000 baht price. I inquired about the boat ride to see the monkeys and he said that one could be ready in a half hour. We signed the papers, handed over the money and relaxed after all the traveling while we waited in great anticipation for the boat to arrive.

Jaywalking (and other travel)

You may have noticed that my blog title is no longer "Bangkok Bound". I figured that now that I am here I am no longer bound, and I should make it something more cultural and less cheesy.
But why "Jaywalking Through Bangkok"? Well simply put, that's what we do. The Thai people seem to be experts on making their way through heavy traffic. Jaywalking, is almost an institution here, we do it on every road, right in front of cops.

Other ways that people navigate Bangkok is by the motorcycles for hire at the ends of most good sized Sois (Side roads). These people wear orange vests to differentiate themselves, and charge around 20 baht for a 5 minute ride.
Before comming to bangkok i had never actually rode on a motocycle before. Needless to say it was quite a harrowing experience. I bargain with the driver as to the price and destination. I then get on the back and hold on for dear life. It is important to remember to keep knees close to the cycle. At every stop light it looks as if there is a huge motorcycle gang. This is because the motorcycles operate under less traffic restrictions than a bicycle does in the USA. During traffic jams the bikes weave in and out of the cars, drive down the lane lines and even on the sidewalk.

Driving just as daredevilishly as the motorcycles is the tuktuks, although they are more challenging to bargain with. Tuktuks are the 3 wheeled bastard child of a motorcycle, taxi and a golf cart. Tuktuk drivers are notorious for the scams that they run. Amusingly the tuktuk drivers are very open about it if you call them on it and will talk to you at length about their business. The tuktuk drivers try to take their costumers to suit shops, gem stores and Travel Authorities. They often take people on a 'tour' of different temples and insist on taking the costumer to a shop that has a deal on this day. If a costumer stays in a shop for 15 minutes the tuktuk driver gets a gas card. Some tuktuk drivers who work with a shop for awhile will get up to 20% commission. They often work with a partner who is good at English to convince people to get in the tuktuk, often by standing outside of a tourist attraction and telling people that it is closed.

Other transportation in bangkok is taxis (always make sure that they turn on the meter, they try to charge a flat rate that is usually too high), the buses (that dont run on time, and i still have yet to figure out the routes) and water taxies (which i take across the river to school every day) and the sky-train which I take to the mall.

I Flew through the Air. Which is awesome no matter what.

This morning I woke up for the first time in my life in a country other than America.

Our Journey began with what I will call a good omen. We went to O’Hare airport to check in and receive our boarding passes, and found out that coach was full so we would be bumped up into business class. I had never traveled in business class, and I thought that 12 or so hours that I had for the flight to Tokyo was ample time for me to try it out and decide if I like it or not.
And like it I did.
To start with the seat had something that I didn’t think they allowed on airplanes--Legroom. By my estimate I had a full yard of space between me and the chair in front of me. And speaking of the chairs, they had a control panel so they could be electronically adjusted. So, basically I had a Lazy-boy recliner as a seat. The next thing I noticed was that in the front pocket, were they keep the safety information and airline magazine and catalogue there was a plastic wrapped pair of complimentary slippers.
Now this was all fine and dandy and luxurious, but by far my favorite part of this flight was the food. First they passed out Champagne or green tea. Being that I dislike the taste of tea, I took the champagne. It didn’t take long for me to remember that I dislike the taste of champagne too. They started us out with a 6 course Japanese meal, which was delicious. Drinks were complimentary so I had sake with my dinner. Then after that, at any time we could order delicious delicacies off of the snack menu. Needless to say, I pigged out. With snacks I tried a Japanese Whiskey. The stewardess told me that there was the option of the dry whiskey or the sweet whiskey. I asked for the sweet one. It still tasted pretty dry to me!
My Tray table was built into the right arm of my seat. When I checked the left arm of my seat to see if anything was there I found a personal TV screen. I was given the option to watch movies on demand (there were about 30 American and Japanese options) or play simple video games such as pong and Tetris.

Our flight path took us up through Canada, Alaska, the tip of Russia and down to Japan. Many of the landscapes, especially the Canadian Rockies were breathtaking. Unfortunately due to when we hit the international dateline we were unable to ring in the new year at midnight, but around the time that we passed the dateline and entered 2010 we ordered a round of Screwdrivers to celebrate.
(I would like to point out that I drank a lot of bottled water during the flight and did not finish all of the drinks that I ordered.)

Upon landing in Japan we made our way to the gate for our connecting flight, and watched the sunset and the moon rise over the land of the rising sun. About 45 minutes before we boarded the airplane to fly to Bangkok a gentleman sat down next to us and started talking about Bangkok. It wasn’t long before we realized that he was a sex tourist. And it was quite a bit creepy talking to him once we realized this.

Closer to boarding time I see Steve wave at someone. Confused as to who he would be waving at I turn around and see our friend Maggie, who was supposed to already be in Bangkok but had her flights canceled due to snow. It was quite a serendipitous moment to see someone we knew during the 4 hours we spend in the Tokyo airport.

During the six hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok we were not bumped to business and had to deal with coach. I’d rather not talk about the experience.

Packed

5 months in another country = 2 bags.
My carry-on luggage and my backpack. And neither are exceedingly heavy either. Now the question is just, what did I forget? Which undoubtedly will only be answered when I actually need said item.

Tomorrow is my last dinner at home. Then I'll spend Wednesday night at Steve's before departing on Thursday. Needless to say, we will be eating good tomorrow night. Dad is cooking us up some steaks, and there is blue moon ice cream (my favorite and it should be yours too) for dessert.

At this point I am wondering what I'll miss most about America, and I'm not quite sure. I feel as though I will have most of the 'comforts of home' over there also. English, i think is what I will miss more. At this moment, I speak about 5 phrases and 5 random words of Thai. I like the game charades, but I have a feeling it will begin to wear thin on me if it has to be my main way to communicate.

Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it!

Thailand, being a predominately Buddhist country does not celebrate Christmas as a national holiday, however the secular aspects of it creep into their culture more year after year, mostly due to shop owners seeing the monetary benefit of a holiday tradition based around buying stuff for people.

As for my christmas, Santa, unsurprisingly, blessed me with gifts perfect for my trip to Thailand.
Clothing for a tropical environment:
~A lightweight rain slicker that rolls up into a small pouch.
~A lightweight tee-shirt designed to wick sweat away from my body.
~Lightweight trousers (shorts are only worn by tourists, Thais almost always wear full length pants).
~A button up shirt that repels mosquitoes. I dont know exactly how its possible, but they apparently infused the shirt with mosquito repellent. Hopefully it will work on my trip to Cambodia, when i will be in a malaria zone.

In addition to Santa's thoughtful gifts my aunts and uncles also chipped in to assist my journey
~A money/passport pouch. Im said this is a must for international travel. It makes me feel like a badass worldwise traveler, so I dig it.
~Inflatable Travel Pillow. Its like and upgraded version of when i would inflate a plastic bag from lunch to use as a pillow in high school.
~1500 Baht in 20, 50 and 100 Baht notes. Lovely money, the color of monopoly. The most interesting thing is that the 100 Baht note is slightly longer than the 50 and the 50 is longer than the 20.
(33 Baht equal 1 Dollar, so this is about 45 Dollars worth of Thai Money)

Less than a week till I depart. I suppose I should give some thought to packing. . . Nah.

Adios Lincoln!

On Friday I finished my finals, packed my minivan full of Steve's and my stuff and cruised out of Lincoln. As we said our farewells to friends and acquaintances we were given a plethora of advice for our trip to thailand. Most of it, however was squarely in one of two camps.
1) Be safe.
2) Don't be safe.
I think everyone knows which advice I prefer to follow. However, I think the most sage (sagest?) bit of advice was "Get in dangerous situations, just don't die".

So never fear, everyone, I fully intend on not dieing. (and if i do the heath insurance covers repatriation of remains, so you can still come to my funeral, in which everyone is welcome to give a eulogy, and it should be more like a roast than anything)