Chiang Mai Mountain Trek

When I spoke with the travel agent my first day in Bangkok, I told him that I was interested in doing some cool mountainous treks and he informed me that Chiang Mai in the northern part of the country was the place to do it. He described an overnight trek to a remote mountain village with promise of waterfalls, rice paddy fields, and bamboo river rafting. Sounded perfect.

After a few nights in Bangkok I arrived in Chiang Mai. Having an evening to kill before the big trek, I decided to check out the local night market. I was told by the people at the hostel that it was about a 20 minute walk, so when the pouring rain subsided I was out the door. After a few steps a little Thai guy on a moped rolled up and asked where I was going. I told him and he offered me a ride. Sweet. Well sort of....he was a super nice guy but wow, he stunk so bad. I literally had trouble breathing sitting behind him. He zipped around the streets and he made sure to point out where the "party" areas were, which I made note of as I was interested in grabbing a drink later in the evening. Before he dropped me off, he also mentioned that he had a sister and if I would like to go to see her. I chuckled to myself and respectfully declined.

I walked around the night market and it was pretty cool, but a lot of the tents were repetitive and it was mostly little touristy knick knacks, although there was some cool authentic looking stuff too. More importantly there was a massive food area and since I was starving I spent a good majority of my time over there.

After I was bored of the market I headed over to the street where my new buddy said the good bars were. I didn't make it very far before I realized this was just a huge strip of "girlie bars". A girlie bar is a place where you can go and grab a drink and shoot pool or whatnot, but you are going to be hounded by girls hitting on you in an effort to get you to take them home, for a price. Some of them will even grab your arm as you walk by and try to drag you in! The novelty is funny at first but it gets annoying. I suppose it could be fun with a group of friends, but kind of a sketchy scene to be at alone, so I decided to head back to the hostel and get a good nights sleep before the big trek.

Typical Girlie Bar

The next morning the truck pulled up bright and early and we hopped in the bed and were on our way. As was the case throughout Thailand, I was the only American out of our group of over a dozen. Actually, everyone was Dutch except for one German couple. It was kinda funny, they were all speaking rapid fire Dutch along the way, and then one pointed out that it was rude to do so, since I did not understand anything they were saying, and they switched to English. Haha I thought that was kinda funny, and a nice thing to do. Turned out to be a really great group.

After about an hour of driving, sitting in the back of the bumpy pickup, we hit our starting point - a pretty cool waterfall right next to the trailhead. We hiked down to the waterfall, and as I noted it had been raining the previous night as well as drizzling at the time, things were a bit slippery. As we traversed through little streams hopping from slippery rock to slippery rock, there was a bit of tension among the group as there were a few who were struggling a bit, including a couple of the younger teens. I was wondering if our guide was going to turn back but he seemed unfazed by it and we continued on, helping each other out where we could, and alas we made it to the waterfall. They allowed us an hour or so to enjoy the scenary and climb around a bit. There was one huge boulder in the middle of the waterfall that everyone was trying to climb up but failing, so I had to show em how it was done.

After getting our waterfall time in it was time to hit the trail! Ready?? Check out the video below to come along!

 

As you can see it was a really cool hike, through the mountains to this remote little village where a small tribe still resides. Along the way, our guide "Ray" was on the lookout for wild mushrooms which would later become part of our dinner. Yum!

We passed by a bunch of other smaller waterfalls, which were all pumping due to the recent rains.

After a few hours of hiking we arrived at the small village around late afternoon. Our guide Ray pointed to a small hut and noted that that was where we would be staying for the evening. I laughed because I honestly thought he was joking, but he was not. He showed us to our little hut which was basically just straw and bamboo strung together with wood floors. See those thin little mats? Those were our beds. Good thing I've always liked my mattresses firm!

Sleeping Hut

Our bathroom facilities were equally as posh.

Shortly after we arrived, a few of the villagers came around with beers for sale. Sweet! We all cracked one open and cheers'd to what had been a great day and was sure to be an interesting night! Our guide Ray had begun preparing dinner so I went to scope out the action. He was putting together a massive stir fry, which included our wild mushrooms, that looked really tasty! I hung around and shot the breeze with him while he cooked.

Dinner was on point, and along with the beers the villagers were selling, a couple of the Dutch guys smuggled in some Thai whiskey so needless to say we had ourselves a bit of a party that night!

I slept like a baby. The next morning we were up bright and early, and after a quick breakfast we said our goodbyes to the villagers, who had shown us nice hospitality.

And the animals too.

And were on our way.

After a bit of hiking we came across another little waterfall, which was perfect since we were all feeling a little grimy by that point, and slightly hung over.

Shower Time!

Feeling nice and fresh, we continued on through the mountains, zig zagging through a ton of rice paddy fields.

After a couple more hours of trekking we made it to the grand finale, bamboo river rafting!

It was actually a lot cooler than expected! There were three of us on the bamboo raft, in addition to the guide, who used a long bamboo pole to steer and get us out of trouble. We picked up some pretty good speed and narrowly missed careening in to some big rocks jutting out but our trusty guide kept us on course and afloat. There were a few minor mishaps with one of the guys bouncing off the raft when we hit some little rapids, but luckily the water was only about waist deep. Funny stuff. After our wild little rafting trip it was time to head back to the city. It was a really fun group and we all had a great time so it was a little sad to say goodbye, but I was ready to get home, shower up, and hit those girlie bars.

Kidding ;)

 

 

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Tiger Temple

We've all seen it right? That random friend who goes to Thailand and comes back with a crazy photo of themselves petting a tiger? Well maybe you haven't seen it, but I have, and I knew that if I ever made it over there, I was going to be that random friend. So as silly as the whole idea sounded to me, I signed up for a trip to the famous Tiger Temple. When in Rome...

So after about a 2 hour bus ride from Bangkok we arrived at the Temple!

The entrance was a little hokey, but once inside, they had a series of mural which told the story of how the Tiger Temple came about. Basically, one day a group of monks rescued a tiger cub from a poacher and nursed him back to health. Enjoying the company of their new pet, they started rescuing more, and then they all started breeding, creating a nice happy family of tigers. Then apparently one day, the monks got the bright idea that they could monetize this, and opened their doors to the public. Ok fair enough.

We grabbed our tickets, signed some little waiver, and marched inside. As we passed through the entrance, it opened up into a large field area with several packs of animal roaming about. There were cows, deer, pigs, and some other weird things but no tigers. Was this their food?? Strange. Just then a herd of cows came meandering by.

And then we stumbled upon a pack of wild looking pigs, with a few small piglets in tow. The piglets started straying a bit from the larger ones so naturally I saw this as an opportunity to try and catch one. However they were a heck of a lot quicker than expected, and I gave up on that idea after a couple attempts. We saw that there were some enclosures off in the distance and decided to scope them out. Bears. While cool, it was not what we came to see, so we started asking around where the heck the tigers were. Someone pointed us in the general direction and also notified that the tiger interaction area would be closing shortly. We hightailed it over and found it, finally!

Wow there were 12 - 15 tigers in the interaction area along with dozens of staff, monitoring everything. Strangley absent though were the monks. I only spotted one the entire time. Intrigued by this, I started chatting with one of the staff and they noted that they were all volunteers from around the world, some staying for a couple weeks and other for months at a time. I got the impression that they did most of the work around the joint, especially the grunt work. Those monks had a good thing going.

We finally reached the front of the line, and one of the staff girls grabbed my hand and led me around, as they did all the other guests. There were literally three staff for every visitor inside the interaction area. One to hold your hand and guide you around, one to take pictures, and the other I'm not really sure about. Although I was glad he was there just in case one of the tigers went rogue as it decreased my chance of being the one to get eaten. One by one we went around and got to visit with each of the tigers. It was really cool! Especially because there were some really big ones. And they were all super chilled out so I felt comfortable getting right in there and giving them some lovin. After about ten minutes we had met with all the tigers and proceeded to the exit where my camera was returned. To my delight the photos came out really great, and a small circle of envy gathered around me when I realized I had one specific gem, with the tiger baring his jaws and reaching up toward the camera.

Awesome! Heres some of the others, which were also really good :)

Scolling through these for the first time was a ball, and made the trip out there absolutely worth it.

A few of the people in our group wanted a second go-around, but since I was overly thrilled with the photos I'd gotten, I chose to hang out and chat with some of the staff instead. I was curous as to whether there had ever been any incidents, and as to why the tigers seemed so subdued. The staff noted that there really hadn't been any incidents, as the cats have had tons of human interaction since they were tiny cubs, and didn't see us as a threat or more importantly a food source. They also noted that of the 100+ tigers they have on site, those in the interaction area were the most well behaved of the bunch, and on top of that were fed shortly before they were able to interact with visitors. The volunteers that I talked to seemed well educated and many were pursuing or had degrees in the biology. They seemed to really care about the tigers and were enjoying their time at the Temple. That made me feel good, as I had heard rumors that the cats were drugged so that they were real lethargic with the visitors, and that it was all just a big money making scheme. Of course that may all be true, but its not the feeling I came away with. Surely with all the volunteers coming and going, someone would have blown the whistle if they had witnessed or even sensed any foul play. At least you would think.

So yeah, overall it was pretty awesome. A bit of a random place with all the other different animlas just roaming freely about, and I never actually saw any sort of temple, but to visit with the tigers was a really unique and fun experience. And now I am that random friend with the cool tiger pic ;)

 

 

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Fight Night!

First night in the Kok and what do ya know, there just so happened to be a big fight going on at the local arena! After a pretty exhausting first day, watching two Thai guys slug it out sounded like a delightful way to spend the evening. As I mentioned in this previous post First Day in Bangkok!, my tuk tuk driver was an ex Muy Thai fighter and gave me the scoop on what to expect and sensing my excitement even offered to drive me there for free. Score!

Upon arrival, my driver hollered at one of the promoter girls out front who presented me with a price listing. Both she and the driver highly recommended that I take one of the ringside seats, which were quite a bit more expensive, but had a much better view and more importantly were sectioned off from the local crowd which I was warned can get pretty wild at these events. Alright ringside it was!

Check out the video below to step into the action, front and center!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BmKzyRCnhI

Haha it was pretty cool! Now, it wasn't as brutal as I was expecting, which was honestly kind of a let down, but the fights had a cool flow to them, with the fighters moving in sync with the weird rhythmic music playing in the background. The music also added some dramatic effect, getting louder and faster as the action progressed. Overall though it felt like more of an exhibition of the sport than a real gritty fight. There were no knockouts and none of the fighters sustained any real damage. At times they seemed to just be dancing around the ring waiting for the bell to sound, even if they were clearly losing. I also disagreed with several of the outcomes, with one guy clearly winning only for the other to get his hand raised in the end. I'm gonna have to brush up on my Muy Thai scoring for next time!

However, what really lent legitimacy to the whole thing was the sold out crowd, which was red hot the entire night. While those of us at ringside enjoyed the action from our posh little chairs, the crowd behind us in the bleachers stood the entire night and were fully vested in each fight. The roar of the crowd following a good shot or flurry of action was almost as electric as the fight itself. I caught myself looking back and forth, as the commotion in the crowd was nearly as compelling as the action in the ring! And it didn't let up in between rounds either as that is when all the betting occurred. So as the bell signaled the end of each round, chaos ensued in the stands with people fighting to secure their next bet. Very entertaining.

Although it wasn't quite as extreme as I had expected, overall it was a cool experience, and I enjoyed the fact that the locals were so into it. While a lot of things to do in Bangkok seemed overly touristy, this definitely did not. It was a packed house full of locals having a ball while enjoying the centuries old sport that their country made famous, and I was happy to be a part of that.

 

 

 

 

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