Thailand - A Different World

The flight from NZ to Thailand was about 9 hours long and overall was great! Good food, comfy seats, nice flight attendants, not too bumpy - until, I got an intense case of what I would call food poisoning. Let's just say I was nervous about being in the toilet when the plane landed. You would think I would get sick once I arrived in Thailand but not from the airplane food. Oh well, at least I got it out of my system, literally. And, I felt better within a bit over a day. We arrived in Bangkok airport around 10pm and just leaving the airport and trying to get a taxi was overwhelming. We arrived at our hostel, Big John's Guesthouse and pretty much just went right to sleep. My body was destroyed and rest was imperative. The place is run by an Australian guy and was nice enough. Even had a restaurant on the main level and the bed was comfy and we didn't have to pay for a blanket like in New Zealand hostels. Plus is was like $5 US a night, nice!

Walking around Bangkok the next day was more overwhelming then the airport but in a much better way. The streets were crowded with motorcycles and scooters zipping their way through the traffic. Some drivers even wore medical masks to keep dust out! The streets were also lines with little food stalls and impermanent noodle stands. They set up tables and everything right on the sidewalk for lunch and break it down later. Decided to let my stomach recover before attempting some real Thai food. We decided to go ahead and book an overnight sleeper train (1st class) to the northern town of Chiang Mai for that night so we had just enough time to get our first Thai massage and then back to Big John's before lugging our packs and extra bags on the sky train and then subway to the railway station. We were exhausted by the time we arrived.

It felt funny to us to hear both Thai and English on the subway announcements. I guess there are just so many foreign travelers that speak English it makes sense. The sleeper train was a funny experience but I wasn't feeling so I just took some Pepto and slept. The breakfast we ordered was not the best, Carrie didn't even eat hers. The eggs were pretty runny for scrambled and mine had a hot dog cut up in a design along with bread not really toasted and a yummy piece of pineapple. Heck, I do eat pretty much anything when I'm hungry. :) We decided to take the tuk tuk to our guesthouse, Lanna's. Well, actually we were going to another but the driver asked us to check out his "sister's" place because it was cheaper. After Carrie looked at both (and I stayed with our bags) we stayed at the cheaper place. Good move in retrospect. Only 120 baht for a double bed with bathroom, very cheap.

Also, decided to go on the 3-day trek to the hill tribes the next day. I already decided I liked this city and guesthouse much better then Bangkok, much more chill atmosphere. The Thai people are so friendly and many speak at least a few bits of English. Lanna's is right near Wat Prasingh (wat is a temple) so we checked it out and then found some French guys to share the taxi up the mountain to another Wat, Doi Suthep. This one has 300 steps to walk up to the temple itself and was just beautiful. It is too bad that there is so much pollution in the cities because the view from the temple would be gorgeous. While we were in Wat Pra Singh I was blessed by a monk for happiness in the New Year!

After, we headed with the guys to try out a street restaurant (one of the impermanent) and it was YUMMY! And, only 210 baht for about 5 meals! So, we decided to try a bar and the taxi driver took us to this very cheesy club called Bubble Club. Quite a few old white guys looking to pick up some young Thai women. Pretty digusting if you ask me! But, we got a bit of dancing in and just had fun anyway. Then back to sleep before we go on the trek the next day (Jan. 12-14).

Next installment I'll tell you all about the trek and our othere adventures in Chiang Mai!