From Bangkok to Bear Cave

Thursday (Jan 21) was well spent in a swirl of skype and sleep. I was supposed to get up at 4am BKK time to participate in a ‘training session’ for the Cultural Correspondents Program between students studying abroad and classrooms in North Carolina. The program has paired me with a 3rd grade class in a public rural North Carolina school while I study in Thailand. Ill give you more details when I get them, but the whole idea is for me to teach the kids a lesson (one per month) about the differences between Thailand and America. Anyways, I slept right through the training… as should be expected at 4 in the morning! I didn’t even hear the alarm go off. I spent the rest of the morning between sleep and skype with Dad, Anne, Austin, and Scarlett, my mom, and HGW. By the time all of the goodbyes were said, I was fully packed and ready to head off on my 10 day vacation to Chang Mai. Id been on and off the phone with my friend Ashton during the day about a book I had been dying to get my hands on. This book, Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert, is the sequel to EPL (which I LOVED). The book is also written in English, and I have learned (after visiting a few bookstores) that most books arent sold in English in BKK. So I did some online searching and Ashton offered to look for the book for me. He didn’t have much luck at the bookstores at the Emporium in BKK, so I decided to look for the book myself at another mall before we met at the train station at 8pm. Remembering my search results from earlier, I headed out toward Siam Paragon in downtown BKK. Holding an English copy of Committed was the perfect way to start my journey to Chang Mai. Then I found out that the entire book was on marriage, which is a very distant topic in my future. Nonetheless, I have been reading the book in my spare time ever since and have learned a lot about one of the most important commitments I will ever make in life. Leave it to me to be well prepared for this encounter.

Above is a picture of Siam Paragon which is more elegantly decorated than any mall Ive ever seen!


We got to the train station at the same time as Ashton and Will and our 5 person group was complete. Steve, Josh, Jennifer, Ashton and Will… once again I was the token girl. Mai pen rai. We went to buy our sleeper car tickets at the train station, but they were all booked! So instead, we booked a 2nd class car (with only uncomfortable bus-like seats) for the 10pm-1pm (15 hours, not 3) train ride to Chang Mai. An interesting night on the train was filled with raised squat toilets (about 1.5 feet off the ground… which happens to be a REALLY uncomfortable height for a toilet to be located at when the car is swaying from side to side across bumpy tracks), a conversation with three boys from Madrid who swear that Madrid is better than Barcelona (a trip I will be taking with an ever-so-handsome boy in March), an “American” breakfast complete with two baby hot-dogs, some really soggy toast and a runny (hardly cooked) egg, and a new friend. We picked up Brett on the train, and she became the other girl on our journey in Chang Mai. Brette is from Canada, and she was a delightful addition to the group! The picture is of Josh and Ashton during our card game of Yanif before we retreated to sleep in the train seats.

This brings me to a great point. In the morning on the train trip, I dialed a familiar 704 and had a spotty phone conversation with bad reception. I left the conversation feeling lonely and quite sorry for myself after the reception abruptly ended without the reassuring hugs and kisses. I was sitting alone in a window seat looking out into the nothingness of Thailand’s dried up rice fields, a few hills with trees, and some mountains in the distance. I decide to get out my ipod and turn it on the Christian play list, hoping for the sweet comfort I can only receive from Jesus Christ. Im too distracted by the landscape to listen to the music. But then the train goes through a tunnel during a song that is detailing how JC came to the earth to die for us. In the tunnel, suddenly the scenery was gone, and all I could see was Jennifer. I was staring in the window back at myself and it hit me. Jesus endured unbearable pain during his time on earth and Im wallowing in self pity on a bus in Thailand on my way to trek through the jungle and ride elephants. The encounter helped me to gain some perspective on my situation… to the point where I thanked God that I got off easy, because things could definitely be worse. It's too easy to forget how blessed I am when Im 9000 miles away from the ones I love.

Upon arrival in Chang Mai, we checked into the Little Bird Guest House (see above for transportation) where the dorm room style beds go for only 100 baht a night. What a steal! We walked to get some pizza (surprisingly good pizza) and spent the rest of the day just hanging out around the guest house. Since we didn’t really get a good nights sleep, and we had three days of trekking through the jungle ahead of us, we had to stock up on some rest for the next three days. ‘Ah’, our trekking guide, sent by a woman to collect our 3200 baht each for the trek. This made me quite nervous. First of all, we had never met Ah before. Second, we didn’t really know that this woman was working for Ah. And last, we were paying before signing any waivers, getting any more details from Ah other than what was on the website. But I still paid my 3200 baht to this mystery woman for the trek I was hoping to take. And I made sure to get a receipt, although I am not entirely sure what good the receipt would have done. Then Ah came by to give us an update. I was greatly relieved when he showed up (but I wasn’t too worried about the ordeal cause I had read about 90 pages of my book and taken 2-3 naps since our arrival). Ah told us what we needed to pack and what time he would be there in the morning. He also collected copies of our passports. We later determined that Ah came to meet us that night because he wanted to see what kind of shape we were in before he took us on the trek. I hadn’t thought about this aspect, but I bet he has to ‘size up’ his customers before he takes them on a trek through the jungle, and this is to his advantage as much as it is to the customers.

At 7pm that night we attended a Kantoke, or a Northern tribe dinner and show for only 250 baht that included transportation, a meal, and a set of dances. We sat on the floor of an open area with only plush triangles to cushion our backs. The five of us from BKK and Brette were seated in a circle with a family style dinner before us. My favorite part of the meal was the banana fritters (fried slices of banana). I probably had the group ask for 4 more servings of the deliciousness. See the picture for a visual.

Check out our spread of food at the dinner. We also asked for a couple extra servings of fried chicken. I was surprised to learn that fried chicken is pretty much everywhere in Thailand. Always had it in my mind that it was a southern US thing to fry chicken, but there is plenty to go around here.

After the meal, we watched several traditional hill tribe dances, many of which consisted of excruciating slow foot taps and hand motions that failed to be entertaining after the first dance. I can say that I appreciate the style of dance, but I don’t care to watch more than one act.

This one act with the girls (in the traditional Thai garb) playing a bamboo version of double dutch was cute.

We switched to a different location to watch another set of dance which involved the slow motions once again… but this one also included fire, a fuzzy animal puppet that housed two grown men’s bodies, and a costume on a beautiful Thai woman that looked like it could have been put in the VS Fashion Show had it been a little more revealing. There was also an adorable 2 year old who made my night by running in and out of the dances while they were being performed, and I almost got him to sit on my lap (keyword- almost). He reminded me of my nieces and nephews- who I have dearly missed being able to squeeze and tickle- although they are more willing to sit on my lap.

VS Fashion Show could use her as a model if she was showing off her hip bones.

Have I mentioned that Im a pyromaniac?

Rice anyone?

Im pretty sure he doesnt have a role in this dance. But isnt he adorable? After the show, I saw him sitting with his mother at a market stall with his cute outfit on. No doubt he was the model for the Thai traditional children's clothes she was selling. Lets be honest... where are you going to ever wear this? I can think of two places... the next time you go to a traditional Thai hill tribe gathering and Halloween. That's all folks.

The next morning we awoke at 7am to take a not-so-hot shower and pack for the trek. Each of us had a backpack with money for water during the trek. We stopped at a local Thai market on the way out of town to pick up breakfast and some supplies for the trip including insect repellant, a flashlight (Ah preferred to call it a torch), toilet paper, and any snacks. I picked up some pineapple for breakfast (you know it’s my favorite) and some oranges for the road. MMMM. Thailand has wonderful oranges! Then we stop at a Tourist Police Station, and this is when I began to feel comfortable about the journey. Ah (and his friend Song) took us to a tourist check point before leaving town where Officer Dan Kelley (from Northern Ireland) and his two Thai daughters (who wanted to learn more about the tourism industry) checked our passports and gave us some helpful advice for the trek. He also told us that if we did not return to Chang Mai in the time expected, he would send out a search party to come find us. That one was for you, Mom. We hop back in the bed of the songtau and get ready for our 2.5 hour drive to the jungle. A songtau is basically a truck with a hooded bed and two benches in the back. We rode in the back of this songtau for 2.5 hours (1 hour outside of Chang Mai and 1.5 hours up the side of the mountain) until we reached the wildlife preserve. Luckily, Ashton had brought his ipod portable speaker so we jammed out during the drive to many different types of song, even the familiar “You Belong with Me” by Taylor Swift was belted by all.

I leaned out of the songtau to get this picture. Ah informed us that this is the mountain where we would start our trek. Majestic, isnt it?

I had to take a leak at the preserve, and Brette tried to show me (without visually showing me) her technique for mastering the squatting toilets. Turns out, spreading your legs SUPER wide and squatting almost in a defensive position gets the job done with accuracy and precision. Two musts in this case. Another reason I am glad we picked up Brett on the train. A few more minutes of driving gets us to the drop off location where Ah and Song pack up a 1 kilo bag full of fresh food for the hike.

We walk across a river (where-within the first FIVE minutes of the trek-I graciously slip and submerge my shoes under the muddy water) and dry terraced rice fields (see above) and hop a fence to get to an abandoned picnic shelter. Aren’t all picnic shelters somewhat abandoned? Well, I say this one was abandoned because it’s spirit house was looking pretty rough (and if your spirits arent happy in Thailand, then you might as well be abandoned). We ate chicken fried rice with spicy fish sauce at the picnic table (the only meal on the trip that Ah did not personally cook for us).

 I tried my hand (not literally) at peeing outdoors where it did not seem that I was favored by the spirits either. My shorts are too tight to permit my knees to spread far enough apart for the proper defensive position, so I would need to adjust my strategy next time, and that included taking one leg out of my shorts and assuming the position, if you will. We packed up the trash and continued on to the first part of our trek… Cave trekking! We had a total of nine people in the cave: Ah, a cave guide, another trek guide, and the six of us. Song had stayed with the songtu back at the drop off location. The cave guide was 62 years old and in flippy floppys.

Jennifer, Steve, Brette, Ashton, Josh, and Will at the entrance of the cave. Like our headgear?

As we winded through the cave we went down steep ladders and around huge stalactites. When I made my way toward the front of the group, I realized that our cave guide was figuring out the way as we walked through. He would get to a fork in the cave and look left, then look right, then pick one. Ill admit that it made me quite nervous, especially when we saw a huge spider and heard the bats overhead.

 The trek guide (in the white hat) was there to guide us after we reached the other side of the cave. The cave guide is the guy caressing the stalactite... Im not sure whats going on here.

But the beauty of the cave was breathtaking, which kept me far away from worrying about our direction. The temperature was probably 10 degrees cooler in the cave, so we weren’t sweating our way through which was pleasant. I guess you know we made it through the cave (since they probably dont have internet reception in the cave), so no suspense there as you wait for the next blog post.

OVER.

 and UNDER.