Thought
I would post for yesterday and today but yesterday's post (Saturday) took me so
long to type that I will post for only a single day. If I awake early enough in
the morning I'll tell you what I did today. Let me just pique your interest and
tell you today was the hi-lite of the trip thus far.
Yesterday
(Saturday), my guide Sutthi picked me up at 8:00 AM sharp. He took me on a very
quick little tour of Chiang Mai and we visited a very large Temple that had
been built thousands of years earlier. It certainly looked to be of historical
significance from looking at the decay and restoration process. On the same
property a newer Temple was in use and I got to witness the Monks chanting. It
was a beautiful thing to hear.
Sutthi was a Monk from the ages of 15-21 and he's taught me a lot about their
lifestyle, the rules they have to follow, why they become Monks etc. In
Sutthi's case, his parents were deceased when he was 8-years-old, and he was
raised by an older sister and her husband, who were farmers and had a young
family. It was a struggle for them to feed Sutthi too as there were 8 siblings
all totaled so he decided to become a Monk where life is very simple and they
do not want for material possessions. I'm really enjoying learning about
Buddhism philosophy from him and the things that he is showing me along the
miles of our 4-day journey.
Leaving
Chiang Mai we did the "tourist trap" things that are about a 20
minute drive out of Chiang Mai: The elephant camp and the orchid farm. Both
were interesting. The elephants are in quite an orchestrated show and honestly
I could've done without witnessing that bit of it but I did enjoy seeing the
elephants walk down the river to have a bath. Further down stream there were 3
ladies with big plastic baskets that looked similar to laundry baskets. Their
job was to catch the elephant dung so that it did not float further down river
into the village. What a job, but I guess someone's gotta do it and it beats
unemployment.
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| Paintings done by the elephants were sold in the gift shop. |
Second
stop of the day was an orchid farm. It was enjoyable. I had no clue how an
orchid is grown from a seed in a bottle not dissimilar to a whisky flask and
then transplanted into soil. They need very little soil to grow. The orchid
farm was massive. So many stunning colour combinations and hanging from
practically every object.
With it being lunch time, we stopped in a little town and perused their farmer's market. It was an excellent market. So many weird and wonderful things from bugs to worms to live frogs in plastic bags. My thoughts immediately turned to the TV show "Survivor". Sutthi was his usual informative self explaining everything to me. He bought a variety of food items from many stalls. We then crossed the street and went to a Mom & Pop "diner". All eating in Thailand is basically outdoors or in open air buildings. Sutthi ordered a couple of hot dishes which we shared "family style" and he spread out the array of goodies he purchased at the farmer's market: Bamboo shoots; sticky rice; and some other kind of sweetened rice for dessert.
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| Fresh frog at the Farmer's Market!! |
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| Pad Thai |
We
entered a National Park and did a short (10 min) hike to a gorgeous waterfall.
In the heat of summer it's a great place to take a dip. Two huge waterfalls
with a huge gush of water that showed no sign of slowing down to a trickle any
time soon.
Mork-Fa Waterfall
Still
in the National Park but many more miles down the road, we left the main
highway and traveled down a road that had been recently paved because the
Princess of Thailand wanted to pay a visit to the area and heaven forbid she
had to ride on a bumpy dirt road. So we got to travel over nice new pavement
for about 15-20 minutes. At the end of the road we hiked about 10 minutes to
see some geysers. The water was hot enough to boil eggs. Seriously! I have the
photos to prove it too. On the car ride to the geyser I noticed an old lady sitting
at the road side weaving baskets. Very odd I thought as who could possibly be
interested in purchasing her little baskets out here in the middle of nowhere.
Well at the geyser, low and behold, people were putting those bamboo woven
baskets onto bamboo poles and letting nature work its miracle on those eggs.
The water was much too hot for us to put our feet in but in the area near where
we parked we were able to roll up our pant legs and have a 10 minute soak. It
was lovely. There is a little resort there and guests were swimming in the hot
pools. The resort was nestled in a lovely valley and I have some nice photos of
it. (I wish this blog site allowed the posting of more photos - so far I
haven't had any luck, sketchy wifi and this site acting up more times than I
care to be reminded of).
Eggs cooked in the gaiser
Sutthi gave me a quick tour of the town of Pai and showed me the streets where the
night market would be happening. The resort was about a 3 minute drive out of
town and we drove there and checked me in. Sutthi was staying elsewhere as the
Ban Kratting Resort was too expensive and "not in the budget" according
to Sutthi. The resort consists of bungalows on stilts in a grassy meadow. My
room as very nice and modern. It has two decks, one out front and one out back.
From inside the room, there was a huge picture window looking out over the deck
facing the forest.
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| Ban Kratting Resort at Pai |
The
resort offered a complimentary shuttle to the night market. I partook and it
was really great and really large for a small town. A moment of panic set in
when I realized I had gotten turned around and had no idea which way I was to
go to meet the shuttle for my 9:30 PM pick up. After much to'ing and fro'ing
through the utter throngs of people, up and down streets I thought I had
walked, I found my pick-up destination. Whew! Now I could enjoy the last 45
minutes of my time and I paid extra careful attention to every street that I
walked down so I could find my way back.
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| Tea at the night market in Pai. |
Shuttled
back to the resort and was beat so went to bed by 11:00 PM.
Awoke
this morning to a huge mist covering the resort area. It was a bit eery to see
and I had hoped to take some photos of the lovely surroundings. I still took
photos but they have that misty hue to them. Mist is a common occurrence in the
north of Thailand at this time of year.
Unfortunately,
there was not a drop of running water in my room at 6:30 AM. I went to the reception
area and explained in English "no running water", to which I got
something in Thai in reply. I don't know if she understood any English at all
but one would think that in a tourism job such as hers she would be able to
communicate in English but no such luck. In any event, she said her Engineer
would be here in 10 minutes. I waited about 30 minutes and visited reception
for the second time. Now she's making frantic phone calls and I begin to wonder
if this was the first time she had picked up the phone since my first visit. I
don't think the "engineer" had been made aware of the situation. I
head back to my room. 7:30 rolls around and I've been up for an hour and still
haven't had my shower and Sutthi is coming around at 9:00 AM. I pack up my
suitcase and head back to reception for the 3rd time this morning. I tell her
that she must give me another room to shower in. She understood that
immediately and handed me a key to another bungalow. Crisis averted!
Sutthi arrives promptly (early) and we commence day #2 of this 4-day adventure. Next
final destination for the day Mae Hong Son.
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