Day 67-70: Chiang Mai

Finally, a chance to rest! We have finally made it to Thailand's north, to the city of Chiang Mai. I expected a mix of old medieval-style city and quiet hill station. I did not expect this town to be the Bangkok of the north!

We arrived and just have taken it easy. Exploring the Night Bazaar, doing laundry, watching the rest of The Mindy Project (note to others: season 1 is really funny, season 2 is decently funny, and season 3 is a bit more serious than we'd prefer), and relaxing.

We only stepped out to explore the city for the Sunday Walking market. This is a market unlike any other we've encountered. This market takes over the entire old city.

The architecture here is really like no other we've seen. It's a bit like LOTR Rohan. This area of Thailand was under the "Lanna Kingdom." What does that mean? Uhh.... look, something shiny!

The structures are all built in teak rather than in stone. It's way more 'woodsy' in it's appearance; however, I'd say it's actually more beautiful. As we came across various temples, the temples all had small wind chimes hanging off every one of their rooftops' awnings. We also found an amazing crumbling stone-built 13th century temple that was incredibly different from what we saw in Sukhothai. It had stone dragons guarding 4 of the paved over steep stairwells up to the Buddha at the top. A crumbled stone spire rose from the top of the Buddhas, crested only by the filling moon. To top it off, we came at such a time that all of the child-monks were passing by. When I say child-monk, I mean Buddhists monks under the age of 18. At least 30 of them crossed us while we were at the temple. Man, when I was under 18, all I could care about were the physical things of this world: butterscotch pudding, cartoons (as seen by my 3rd grade calendar, where every Saturday had 'Cartoon Day' clearly labeled on it), and weird stupid girl problems. I certainly wasn't contemplating letting go of the physical and searching for Nirvana - unless you mean the band.

We then high-tailed it out of the old city, with some small shopping interruptions. The city became absolutely chaotic! It was filled with hill-tribe people selling things; street performers and beggars in the middle of the narrow lane ways, and throngs of people creating walking rage in every direction. There were so many people that we got into a full sweat. Never have I been at a place where the temperature was warmer at night than it was during the day.

Cool town and just a bit more to go before we leave Thailand.

Day 65-66: Sukhothai

We have somehow made it this far through Thailand without visiting any famous temples. In a land where Buddhism is everywhere, the absence of these famous temples in our adventure is really surprising. My desire to see 'ancient' Thai cities and temples only increased after our horrible trip to Ayutthaya, where we departed having seen nothing but deceit!

The city of Sukhothai is very similar to Ayutthaya. The main difference is, as far as I have poorly understood and re-twisted my daily Wikipedia history lesson, that the Khmer empire had a seat of power in Sukhothai whereas it didn't in Ayutthaya. Other than that, the two seem to be sister cities. Both were founded roughly around the same time in the 13th century. Both formed the foundation of the country of Thailand. Both have some pretty cool ruins. Same, same but different.

Sukhothai is a much  nicer city than Ayutthaya. The ruins are quite spread out, so you can opt to rent a bike to see them more effectively. I have no idea what happened to my bike riding skills but I completely got smoked on the bicycle by Pallavi. This bicycle defeat didn't just come while we were at the ruins. It came also both nights we were there, when we borrowed bicycles from our guesthouse to bike down the street to get dinner. As I was riding the bicycle, which looked like something straight from my Grandma's 1960s cupboard, I kept thinking, it's not me, it's got to be the bike. No, it's not the bike, Sarah. Okay self, well, maybe it's that the seat's too low, so I can't get effective momentum to propel myself at great speed. No, it's not the seat, Sarah. Okay, I've gotten more pathetic in my bike riding since my old POS bike (may she rest in peace) from college. It's just as sad a story as that.

The ruins were different from ones I'd seen in the past. Like many old cities, the religious structures were the only remnants; however, I'd never seen so many Buddhas. The main temple must have had a minimum of 5 Buddhas and there must have been at least 6 temples in the main area alone (there were at least 3 areas). The Buddha adds just a different mystic to the ruins. Plus, as Pallavi added, where did people live among so many temples?

Ancient temples in Thailand. Check.

Day 63-64: Mae Sot & Visa Run

We have been on a ticking clock ever since we arrived in Thailand. Thailand recently has changed a lot of its border policies. Americans happily get a 30 day visa on arrival by both land and by air. Australians get only a 15 day visa on arrival by land and a 30 day visa by air. Most backpackers subject to these 15 day visas conduct at least one "visa run," exiting Thailand into one of its neighboring countries and then returning back to Thailand with a new 15 day visa on the same day. We knew these visa limitations prior to deciding our mode of transport into Thailand, and decided travelling by land was the more economical and doing a visa run was the more economical option for us.

Lonely Planet outlines all of the various visa run options and, after some research, we decided that the visa run that suited our schedule and timing best was the one that exists on the border of Mae Sot, Thailand and Myawaddy, Myanmar.

We arrived in Mae Sot after travelling on an overnight bus and figured we'd just get this visa thing done and over with, then go and sleep in a hotel. First things first though, let's go and find a hotel to dump all of our stuff at. The internet had told us to just walk about 1 km and then you'll start finding places. Pallavi had wanted to book a place the night before and I figured we'd just wing it. Mistake! We walked and we walked and we walked. No places to be found. We found a map and tried to ask a local tuk tuk driver - who didn't speak even a bit of English. No place to be found. We walked and we walked and we walked....we must have walked 3 kms (in my head it was farther, but I'm dramatic) before we finally just took a place up.

Up until now, we really have been spoiled with being able to use English to get around. Most people speak just enough English for us to function. Simple things like 'how much?' or 'room?' seems to work. Not here in Mae Sot! It took us taking out monetary notes and fake counting them to the bus driver for him to show us a 100 baht note to indicate how much we needed to pay per ticket. At the hotel, in what I think was my finest charades moment, it took mimicking the sound of the drill that was working outside of our drill and disturbing our sleep and pointing to my watch, to get them to tell me 5:00 p.m. was the time that drill would finish (and then they kindly moved us to a different room). Okay, maybe that one was complicated, but getting the room also involved a bit of holding up fingers, indicting people, and making some hand gestures towards money to get a price. If you want authentic non-touristy Thailand, Mae Sot is certainly it.

We got ourselves sorted and Pallavi became the only non-Burmese/non-Thai person in the immigration queue at the border. It costs $10 USD for a one-day temporary visitor permit to the town of Myawaddy, so we decided I would stay in Thailand and Pallavi would cross over for 90 minutes or so and then return. I waited and people watched. This area was quite an active border crossing. Lots of Burmese people, wearing traditional clothing, walked by selling all sorts of new foods. People passing each other things through the mesh fence separating non-mans land between immigration and Thailand. You can see  the fog-covered mountains of Myanmar in the background of the teak-built homes.

The people here seem to wear some sort of 'mud' on their face. Pallavi says they wear a similar mud pack sort of thing in India to help protect the skin from the sun. Apparently it is quite good for the skin. We hadn't seen it anywhere else in Thailand, but we see it everywhere here! Men, women, children, and adults. I'm completely fascinated. I think I might need some 'mud' on my face too! I already stand out, why not stand out a bit more.

Pallavi made it back from her adventure, which involved the Thai immigration almost not letting her leave the country even though her visa was over that day and somehow walking over 2 kms in Myawaddy to see the sights and still having time both to have a coconut water and to have a tea in just 90 minutes. She also apparently saw lots of blatant people smuggling across the river as well. Nothing like a good adventure.

New visa acquired, we slept the whole rest of the time. Now we have a bit of time to slow down and go and explore Northern Thailand. 

Days 61-62: The Bridge Over the River Kwai, Hellfire Pass & Kanchanaburi

There is so much emphasis on the WWII Pacific Theatre; however, I don't feel like we as Americans put as much emphasis on the atrocities that occurred in Asia as we do on the ones that occurred in Europe. Yes, I can agree that you can't visually see the impact of the WWII here like you can in Germany or in the UK. You don't see shell-shocked buildings or remade stain-glassed windows. Pallavi and I have both done different German concentration camps. Now was our chance to head out to Kanchanaburi, the location of the Bridge Over the River Kwai and of Hellfire Pass.

Less than 2 hours outside of Bangkok, it's hard to believe so many POWs and locals slaved under such extreme and horrible conditions to try to build this Thai-Burma railway. We arrived in Kanchanaburi and walked from our place to the Bridge. We had been told this walk was 3 kms. 5 kms later with a sun about to set, we finally made it to the Bridge. During that 5 km walk, all I could think was that I would never have made it as a POW. This walk seemed difficult and it was 6 p.m. at night. How could I have ever cut through solid rock at 2 p.m., in the sun, on minimal food and sleep (see yesterday's post about starving without energy while just sitting on a train)? Just another reason why I would not make a great Survivor contestant. I might be stubborn as, but I'm a bit precious when it comes to my basic needs.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai is not as big as I thought it'd be. It's not as high above the water. The metal skeleton is not as high. However, as I looked at it, against the setting sun, a Bodhisattva statue peaking over the top of it from a temple on the shore behind it, I felt a profound sense of sadness. This place shouldn't be one of Hollywood style tourism, with people selling things on all sides, and a restaurant overlooking the bridge. At least, it didn't feel that way to me. It should be a place for quiet reflection. There are only a few trains per day, so the bridge is open for you to walk on and across. About halfway across the bridge, the tourists dropped off. We had the entire bridge to ourselves. On the other half of the bridge, it's quiet and serene. It probably has not changed since 1945. We sat for about an hour just looking at the bridge in mostly quiet before deciding to leave.

We knew we didn't want to walk the 5 kms back, so we waited for a mini-bus right in front of an ambulance station. We waited for a good 20 minutes before one of the EMTs asked our destination and told us that the mini-bus didn't run at that time of night. She then called out to another EMT about to drive his Rescue vehicle off and he said he'd take us to the bus station. Rescue rescued us!

The next day we went to Hellfire Pass. If you haven't seen the movie The Railway Man I highly recommend it both as a film and to learn more about Hellfire Pass. Long story short, the Japanese used some odd 60K POWs and 200K locals to cut through the mountain basically by hand (with a bit of help from explosives) on 2 bowls of rice per day, working 18-24 hours per day, to help lay the railway line. Hellfire Pass is one of the biggest mountainsides they cut through. It's called Hellfire Pass both because the high death toil (46%) and for how it looked when lit up at night. After the war, the English dug up some odd kms of track at the end of the line to prevent some other not nice thing from happening, including the track that went through Hellfire Pass. The Australian government has built a memorial museum here as they had the largest POW casualty rate here of any Allied country.

Walking through Hellfire Pass feels like walking with ghosts. To channel Derek from Most Haunted, you feel the residual energy of sadness, lost hope, and desperation throughout the pass. It feels like, if you listen, you can still hear the sounds of men working. As you walk, you pass bits of track, railway ties, and other bits of iron poking out of the cliff where its owner had left it. There are mostly Australian flags tucked in little hand holds in the cliff as tributes to the fallen. As much as POWs 'own' the tragedies of Hellfire Pass, in reality, of the 100K people who died here, POWs made up only 10K of them. 90K locals died! It's unbelievable. As we wrapped up and tried to walk up the 100 stairs to the top of the memorial, again we both recognized that we'd never had made it as POWs. We can't even walk up the nicely made stairs to the top at 4:30 p.m., in the shade, with the sun setting.

Tourism is a funny thing as too much can destroy a place; however, I think everybody who is in Thailand should make the journey to come here. It's an incredibly moving reminder of our past. 

Day 60: Ayutthaya

Ayutthaya is a crap town! We thought we would take a day trip up to Ayutthaya from Bangkok to see its water market. Thai water markets are meant to be absolutely photographically amazing. As per yesterday's experience at the Artist's Village, historically Thai people moved and traded along the various canals and waterways. Thus, the water market.

Not only are the water markets great for trade, but it also makes for great James Bond action sequences. If you've seen the movie Man with the Golden Gun, you may remember a scene involving a water market. That James Bond action sequence took place in one of Bangkok's water markets.

However. the problem with finding the right water market to go to is three-fold:

1. Most water markets only take place on weekends or, if they are open on a weekday, they are only open between 7-10 a.m.. We are on a bit of a timeline at present, so sticking around until Saturday-Sunday isn't really an option. Also, 7-10 a.m. is just painful when you add in the fact we are staying on a crowded party area in Bangkok and the sounds of bad 80s cover bands do not make for effective lullabies. 
2. Most of the most colorful and crowded markets are about 90kms outside of Bangkok. Also, the more colorful the market, the more touristy (and inauthentic) the market.
3. The authentic markets that are nearby aren't very colourful. There are 7 boats instead of a multitude of boats. 

After hours of searching, we decided that the market that fit the criteria of a) open on weekends, b) not as touristy, and c) not as far was Ayutthaya. Ayutthaya is about a 2.5 hour train ride away. The train costs a whopping 50 cents. I had wanted to go to Ayutthaya initially because it is the original seat of the Kingdom of Thailand. Prior to Ayutthaya's founding in the 14th century, what is now Thailand was primarily ruled by the Cambodian Khmers. As Ayutthaya and its leaders strengthened, they captured more land and founded Thailand. Ancient palaces and temples, all surrounded by a water and a floating market to boot! Sounds pretty cool, right?

Wrong! After we got off what felt like the slowest train ever, we were immediately met with the kinds of Thai people we had been warned about. Tuk Tuk drivers wanting astronomical costs to take us to the water village. Information people telling us that there is no mini-bus to take us to the water village when we know there is one, etc.

We decided screw them, we'll just walk the 3-4 kms to the water village. After a hot walk, we finally got to the water village and..... it was a fake! We had been duped. It was a replica of a water village - and not the kind that is even trying to fake you out into thinking it was real. We were so disappointed by the entire experience that we decided to get the next train out of town. No exploration of ruins. Nothing. We saw some ruins on the overpriced tuk tuk we took back to the train and called it a day.

Oh, did I mention we didn't eat anything during this entire day either! Okay, one half of a sandwich for breakfast. By the time we reached Bangkok at 5 p.m., we were hangry, exhausted, hot, sweaty, AND disappointed. We know travel is a bit hit and miss - but missing is darn frustrating.

(PS - I did make up for the food with super yummy dinner + dessert. I was basically an eating monster.)

Day 59: The Artist's House, Bangkok

Everybody had warned us against Thai people. They told us that Thai people try to take advantage of you as a tourist. Other than the questionable tuk tuk scam(?), we have found Thai people to be some of the most lovely, helpful, go-out-of-the-way people we've met. I would say I haven't met a people like them outside of the Irish. 

Our Bangkok plan was a little thwarted when we decided to not go to the Grand Palace or any of the other main temples here. The Grand Palace is very near to where we are staying, so we can see it from across the park. It is really quite grand (from what we can see). The grounds are a minimum of 16 city blocks. Thai style gold gilded rooftops filled with ornamentation peak out from above the boundary wall. However, when we read the description and looked at online pictures, the Grand Palace didn't seem worth the $20 entry. Neither did any of the accessory temples for whatever fees they charged. 

We sat around trying to find what we wanted to spend our time and money on instead. Bangkok is filled with activities, it's just hard to find the right one. We found it. We happened upon some article about a place called The Artist's House. It's tucked away in a quiet neighborhood in Bangkok, along a canal, where people live as they have lived for the past few hundred years. Judging by the lack of information on how to get their by public transportation, this seemed like a place that most backpackers and tourists don't visit. Plus, they have a traditional Thai puppet show performance at 2 p.m. The time when we made our decision to go here: 12:00 p.m. 

We went to try to find the bus. I happily went to where I thought the bus stand stood (without confirmation or asking). We happily got on the bus and, after 10 minutes, I thought something didn't seem quite right. I asked the bus driver for our intended station - he, and every other person on the bus, told us to get off and get on the same bus number headed in the opposite direction. Well, no way would we make the puppet show now! So stupid! 

We got on the correct bus and asked for our intended station. The conductor said he'd tell us when. As we traveled, the woman behind us asked for our station. We told her. When we reached the station, the conductor, the entire bus, and specifically, the woman behind us, told us to get off. The woman got off as well, and asked where we were going next. We told her in our best bad Thai. She not only figured out where we wanted to go, but she pulled over another mini bus, told the driver where to take us, and told us the price. Then she happily went on her way. 

We stayed on the mini bus, again asked somebody in bad Thai where we wanted to go, and that person also helped u get off at the right place. 

Finally, puppet show missed, but finally there, we came up and over a canal, into a quiet area, bordered by conjoined wooden houses. You just walked from one wooden house to another. As we walked, we passed locals feeding the fattest, most active catfish I have ever seen. A minimum of 50 catfish surfaced, gasping with mustached mouths at the food tossed towards them. I, of course, looked for fisherman and saw none! Why not? Not sure. 

As we went along, we passed artists' house after artists' house, until we came to the one for which we had come. We had missed the puppet show, but one of the puppeteers still had a puppet on his hand for practice. From what I could see, Thai puppetry is a mix of dance and puppets. The puppeteer moves so gracefully, even without the puppet. Each step is choreographed from head to toe. It was amazing to watch. The puppets are about 3-4 feet tall. Slim with rods to control the movements. They are held much like Jim Henson's muppets (only without any hand up the back to control the mouth movement). I'm so glad we caught this guy's practice. 

We then explored a bit more, took lots of pictures, and enjoyed the quiet and calm. This place has no tourists. People speak only broken basic English (at best). As we explored we came across a Buddhist temple, filled with monks. Sitting around. Reading a book. Sweeping the streets. Nobody else there. There is also a floating market that occurs in this area (probably on weekends, as it was empty when we arrived). 

I didn't want to leave. Absolutely magical day in Bangkok. Exactly what we didn't know we wanted. Anybody can go and everybody has gone to the Palace. Very few have made it here. 

Day 58: Bangkok

We arrived in Bangkok at 6:30 a.m. to a city unlike what we had expected; however, as the day progressed, it turned out to be exactly like I had expected.

I was expecting Bangkok to be more like Jakarta - filled with high rises and skyscrapers. It is not. Bangkok is surprisingly accessible. It is a city filled with Buddhist temples, palaces, rivers, and open green spaces.

We couldn't check in to our hotel until 12, so we had breakfast, and decided that, as it was hot outside, 9 a.m., and we were a bit tired and inappropriately dressed to go into the grand palaces (which requires pants that cover your knees and shirts that cover your elbows), that we would go to the national museum. As we went along, the following things happened: 

1. A friendly man asked us where we were going. When we said we were going to a museum, he said that it was closed until 1 p.m.. He then recommended a few other free temples that we could go to. He also recommended we go to the ferry, where we could take a ferry tour. You know me and free. I'm all about it, so it seemed like a decent plan. 
2. Conveniently, a tuk tuk pulled up and the man went over and told him where we wanted to go.
3. He told us it would cost us 20 baht. Seemed good - but I seemed to recall something I had read earlier..... no tuk tuk costs just 10 baht a person. Watch for scams! Too late. We were in the tuk tuk. 
4. We went to temple #1. Temple of the Standing Buddha. We went in and poked around. It seemed alright, but nothing really that great. Whatever. Win some, lose some. We went back to the tuk tuk. 
5. We went to temple #2.Temple of the Lucky Buddha. This temple seemed closed, but we stalked a few other tourists who seemed to have a guide who took them to the back. We didn't bother going in to the temple area (I'm tired of taking my shoes off). We went back to the tuk tuk. 
6. We decided we didn't want to go to the ferry. We'd just go back to the hotel. 
7. The tuk tuk asked if we wanted to stop by the tourist information centre. We said no. Then he asked if it was alright if he stopped for himself. We said, sure no problem. 
8. The tuk tuk stopped at the tourist information centre and suggested we get out. We asked if he was getting off. He said no, he stopped for us. We went in and discovered it was a tour booking centre filled with very unhelpful people. We asked if the national museum was closed. One guy said no, it's open every day.
9. We got back in the tuk tuk and asked him to drop us off. By now, I feel very uneasy about the whole thing and a bit nervous that this thing is a scam. When we got to our road, I just asked the tuk tuk to pull over, even though we had wanted to get to the national museum after that.

End of story. We then went to the national museum, which didn't pan out because I had misread the cost. We went back to the hotel, checked in, and while Pallavi slept, I looked up tuk tuk scams. 

Events #1 through #5 were identical in all circumstances! I then read in Lonely Planet that, in addition to no tuk tuks are for 10 baht per person, also don't believe anybody who tells you something is closed! 

I conveyed my findings to Pallavi when she woke up; however, as she reasonably asked, what was the scam then? We weren't asked for money. We weren't taken anywhere we didn't agree to go (except the info centre, where they barely even answered our one question, let alone try to get money from us). How could we have been scammed? 

If this was a scam, it was the worst scam! We came out of it with just a 20 baht tuk tuk ride and a questionable tale to tell. What do you think? Scam or no scam? 

Speaking of tales, Pallavi has not allowed me my unhealthy quantity of coffees per day. This change in caffeination is mostly healthy, but a girl sometimes just wants a nice sweet hot beverage that just happens to have caffeine in it! After we ate dinner last night, a man came by with roasted scorpions on sticks. I have always claimed that I could probably complete all of the eating challenges. Here was my chance! I asked Pallavi what she would give me if I ate a scorpion. She said, "I don't know. What do you want?" I thought about it. Last time we did this back and forth I asked for too little, so I decided to ask "for you to not give me any grief anytime I want coffee or beer for the rest of the trip." Pallavi thought about it and said, "the rest of the trip is a really long time. How about until India." Sounds like a deal to me! Much to Pallavi's surprise, I called the scorpion man over. After a bit of negotiation (which I could have done better at), I had my scorpion, we took the obligatory before photos, and I ate it! It was delicious! It didn't taste insect-y at all! No claws. No shells. Just yumminess. It also had a meatiness to it which, along with the charred BBQ, was quite delightful! 

Next, we decided to go and try to find Bangkok's legendary ladyboys. They have this whole ladyboy culture, their attitude towards which is incredibly liberal. To have a ladyboy is considered lucky! We went down towards a district where they are notorious... the gaybourhood of Bangkok! We sat down at a bar that was having its birthday celebration. We made friends, we danced on stage to 'Hava Nagila' with an awesome transgendered singer (seriously - she was good!), I lost a beer drinking competition (and let my ND MBA compatriots down in the process), and finally made it home. It was an absolute ball and the best drag show I've ever seen.

Tuk Tuk scams, scorpions, and ladyboy drag shows. It was exactly what I had expected from Bangkok.