Back to Reality…

Hey folks,

Well, it’s finally over…well, it’s been over for a week now.  I got back on Sunday April the 29th, it felt really weird when I did get home, when I had left and arrived in Thailand, it didn’t seem like I was in a foreign land, it seemed right for me to be in Thailand when I was there.  When I got home, that was when I felt foreign, things didn’t seem right at home…it seemed like I was more at home in Thailand than I was in my own bed, maybe I wasn’t ready to go home yet.

The past week since I’ve been home I’ve been battling my internal body clock, I keep waking up at 5 AM and crashing (and I mean crashing) at 8 PM – 9 PM.  I went through the weekend keeping the same kind of hours which is kind of a drag when I want to hang out with friends and such.  I could have gone to ‘Avengers’ (awesome movie) for the second time but I was already in bed and sleeping when my good friend was at the theatre.  Oh well, it should normalize sooner or later.

Overall, I’m happy that I went to Thailand, it’s such a big part of my life when I first went there, I fell in love with the culture, the people and the chilled out atmosphere in lots of the places I went.  The Thais use the phrase, ‘Mai Pen Rai‘ which is Thai equivalent of  ‘Hakuna Matata‘, usually you can get out of a disagreement or misunderstanding just by saying ‘Mai Pen Rai‘, not only is it a phrase that can possibly get you out of a bind but it’s also a way of life.  Living life with ‘no worries’, that’s the Thai way.  Maybe it was just me being on vacation but I always adopt that kind of mentality when I’m in Thailand, it’s so liberating.  Maybe that’s why I felt foreign at home, I came home to all the stress and anxieties when life was so simple otherwise.

‘C’est la vie’, I’ll just look forward to the next time I’m in Thailand.  I still have some gaps left in my blog posts on my trip, I’ll have to go through my pictures and dig up some stories and I’ll post some more about my trip.

’til next time…

~Clem

 

Alive and Well

Hey folks,

Sorry it has been a while since I’ve updated my on travels.  One thing I guess I forgot is that the more isolated you are, the more the internet starts to cost and since I’m traveling with the mindset I had 5-6 years ago, I didn’t bring my cellphone or laptop.  But with technology advancing in those years every hotel, restaurant, bar, street food vendor and etc. has wireless.  If I brought my cellphone, I probably could have got the gyroscope fixed on it, darn my stubbornness!

Since my last update, I was in Chiang Mai for one more day.  I booked a zip-lining trip called ‘Flight of the Gibbon’, apparently it was featured on ‘The Amazing Race’.  ‘Flight of the Gibbon’ has the longest zip-line course in the world, with their longest run spanning 800 metres.  All in all, we spend 6 hours in the tree tops zip-lining, crossing rope bridges and rappelling, very jam-packed day.  I recommended it if you are in Chiang Mai and have 3300 baht to spend, there is no danger doing the zip-lining, everything is pretty safe.  I say the only dangerous part is the drive to and from the course.

After that, I reluctantly left Chiang Mai…another day would have been nice to actually explore Chiang Mai not during Song Kran. I headed towards Phuket as my launching point to Railay and Koh Phi Phi, Krabi would have been a better launching point but the flight from Chiang Mai to Phuket was cheaper.  When I first arrived into my guesthouse and relaxed after having a quick shower, my room started to shake.  I was dumbfounded looking out my window trying to see if a train had past by or something.  I went out eventually to find something to drink but the ‘Family Mart’ next to my guesthouse was closed and I noticed a huge crowd of people coming from the west heading east.  The front desk lady was telling me ‘No problem, no problem! Only three!’, I’m wondering what the heck do you mean by 3?.  I realized after that the exodus of people were leaving the beach to go towards higher ground because that shaking was an earthquake, 3.2 on the Richter scale, and that people were cautiously leaving the beach for worries of tsunami.  Every place was closed, all that Thais headed for higher ground and I couldn’t get anything…except for a lady selling fried chicken and sticky rice, delicious!  In the end, it was only a precaution and there was nothing to worry about.

Next morning I headed off to my favourite hangout, Railay.  I had hopes that in 5 years all the same people would be there and would remember me.  I remember coming back my second time and everyone remembered me and my friend, but that was only after about a year since we were first there.  When I arrived, I hardly recognized a lot of the area, after getting a bungalow, I walked around for a bit to see how much has changed.  One big shock was a new resort that opened up that was amazingly fancy…each bungalow had its own swimming pool, someone told me it costs about $400 per night there.  I’ll take my $20 per night bungalow thank you very much.  Railay has changed quite a bit in 5 years, but the beaches are still some of the best in the world.  I think coming to Railay made me realize how much inflation has an affect in the world, I don’t remember paying these prices for food/drinks and internet unless I really didn’t care about it before.  I kept things low-key in Railay, chilled out on the beaches, did the viewpoint hike again, met up with some random Canadians and drank with them one night, the things that I remembered being fun in Railay.

Next stop was Koh Phi Phi, I made the horrible mistake of booking a bungalow on Long Beach which is either a 10 minute longtail boat ride from the main (Tonsai) beach or a 45 minute hike which the Lonely Planet book describes as ‘sweaty’.  I bit the bullet since the bungalow was really nice for the price I paid and I figure I’ll just go to the main beach in the morning/afternoon and come back at night.  Koh Phi Phi, now that’s a place that has really changed.  Granted, I first went to Thailand 2 years after the tsunami devastated Koh Phi Phi and they were in the rebuilding phase, but I didn’t realize how jam packed things would be when I got back and once again, prices really seemed to have gone up for things.  There are two things in Koh Phi Phi that I recommend, SCUBA diving and snorkeling tours.  If you have the time, get certified for SCUBA diving in Koh Phi Phi, I didn’t go SCUBA diving this time around because I had done the introductory dives twice before and couldn’t justify the price for a third time (next time around I’ll get certified…finally).  Instead, I did a snorkeling tour by speed boat, they seemed to hit up more locations than on longtail, though you pay about twice the price, but overall it’s not a bad price (1200 baht).  Thanks to that tour, I’m as dark as a Thai person now.

Now I’m on the last leg of my trip, I’m currently in Phuket now, I’m going to avoid the sun like a vampire, my poor burnt body can’t take anymore sunburns, carrying my backpack was like torture yesterday.  My vacation is almost up, time to go back to reality soon, I’ve been happy to go back to Thailand, I remember all the things that made me fall in love with the country; the nice people, the beautiful landscapes, awesome adventures.  I wonder how long I’m going to wait before going back again, hopefully it’s not another 5 years.

Cheers,

~Clem

Wet ‘N Wild Chiang Mai (Part 2)

Swaa-dee khap!

So it’s the third day of Song Kran in Chiang Mai, I can’t emphasize how crazy it is out here.  I thought yesterday (Day 2 of Song Kran) I’d be able to wake up early in the morning and go around and explore the town and take some pictures.  Nope, after I had breakfast, it had already begun.  I had to ditch my SLR camera back into my room and change to something I didn’t mind getting wet in.  Unfortunately, due to my carelessness of the first day of Song Kran and staying out for a solid 3 – 4 hours dancing and water fighting on the street, I was horribly sun burned.  I’m rocking a wicked farmer’s tan now, so I’m going to wait till I head south to the beaches to balance it out, going shirtless with this farmer’s tan would just look ridiculous right now.  So now, the only thing I can wear is my button-up shortsleeves I brought.

After two days of doing Song Kran, I think I had enough of being soaking wet from head to toe.  So I ended up booking a cooking class with a cooking school that’s like a half block away from my guesthouse.  I booked the lesson where you go out to tour a food market and a farm that grows a lot of the ingredients and also you cook out in the farm as well.  I chose the very pinnacle of Thai dishes to make: spicy papaya salad, chicken tom yum soup, pad thai, matsuman curry (we made the curry paste as well) and finally for dessert, mango sticky rice.

I started the day at the cooking school waiting to be picked up to go to the market.  I was picked up in one of those trucks with an open canopy that they use as a taxi in Thailand.  I knew something was not right with the situation at that point but didn’t look into that much, it was still early in the morning…we stopped at a open market to chat about fresh ingredients used in Thai cooking, it was cool to see this because there really isn’t any supermarkets to get your fruits and veggies in Thailand.  We got to walk around for a bit which was nice because I happened to find the best thing at the time…donuts! freshly made donuts, so good for the first thing to eat in the morning.

Next stop, we went to the train station to take a 30 minute ride to the farming village where we were going to cook.  When we arrived, we all got on bicycles to pedal over to the next stop, a farm that grows different kinds of basil, there we had a quick lesson on the different kinds of basil and how they’re used in different dishes.  After we collectively picked some for cooking we finally went to the kitchen where going to cook.  All of my food that I cooked turned out quite delicious, I’m not a bad cook at home either, so it was nice to learn some new dishes.  The pad thai was my favourite of the bunch.

So, on the way back, we hit up the train again and we arrive at Chiang Mai at about 4:30 PM, the festivities have probably started at least 6 hours ago.  We get to our vehicle and I realize it’s the same truck from this morning.  Well, shit…not even 2 minutes of pulling out of the train station, a few buckets of ice cold water come flying into the back of the truck, all of us are drenched as we fight to keep things dry like our backpacks, cameras, wallets and newly acquired recipe books.  We get the driver to stop immediately so that we can hide all that stuff inside.  As we drive around town dropping people off, I realize that I was the only one picked up at the main office of the school, which was the last stop.

The area that I’m staying at, is close to ground zero of where all the major waterfights are happening.  I think in the two days that I’ve been out participating in the waterfights, today of all days, was the day I got the most wet.  Every place with kids parked outside ready to throw buckets, every passing vehicle armed with people with waterguns and every farang who’s participating are making the back of the truck the main target.  After the first bucket is thrown at you, you lose your inhibitions about being dry, now you just accept it.  The iced water is refreshing and the tepid water is nice after cooling off a bit from driving around.  After the first bit of water hits you, you are free to let loose and enjoy life.

So much for doing a cooking class to stay dry…

~Clem

Wet ‘N Wild Chiang Mai

Next stop, Chiang Mai.

Today is the Song Kran festival, it essentially a gigantic street water fight, I paid 150 baht for basically a giant water syringe, it’d still lasting me as we speak.  I’ve seen other people’s knock off Super Soakers failing almost immediately, I’m quite happy with my purchase.  I parked myself next to a store that sold me the syringe and they were constantly filling up a bucket of water for me to suck up and spray.  I spent 3 hours doing this while dancing to crazy club music, it was a friggin’ blast.  I’m not one to go dancing back home in Canada, but there was a crazy energy in the air that got me moving.  I took a break after the 3 hours as my legs gotten really tired and I’m now hungry…not thirsty though.  I’ll have to come back again and see how everyone is doing out there, I want to find some peace and quiet for a bit and enjoy some dinner.

I can’t imagine how dangerous Song Kran can be, I haven’t researched any numbers, but there’s no way they get away with no accidents/deaths on these days.  You’re throwing buckets of water on people driving by on scooters and anyone walking by, everyone is fair game.  I try to keep it civil though, I don’t go for headshots for people driving, I usually get them on the back as they drive by, I go for headshots with people walking by and usually get the favour returned.  It was a crazy 3 hours, I’ll upload some videos when I get a chance, probably when I get back to Canada unfortunately.

Peace out!

~Clem

 

Elephants, Crocodiles and Tigers…Oh My!

Hey folks,

So on Monday, I was set to go to the Grand Palace and take some pictures, I planned my route, had my proper clothes on for the Palace and as I set off to get there I notice something was amiss.  There’s police barricades and officers closing the roads to vehicles going to and around the Grand Palace.  I end up getting stopped by a tuk-tuk driver trying to sell me the (now) 20 baht tour (must be inflation, it was 10 baht 5 years ago).  I ask him what’s going on at the Grand Palace and he told me it was closed to the public for a funeral.  Well, darn.  I decided to change my clothes to something lighter and head around the perimeter to take pictures anyways.  At least I don’t have to wear such stuffy clothes in this heat although it didn’t fully matter anyways, I was drenched in sweat in a matter of minutes after I had changed, it was 34 degrees and sunny that morning.

Tuesday, I booked a day trip out to Kanchanaburi, west of Bangkok.  The tour contained more than I wanted, all I really wanted to do was go to the Tiger Temple to get some pictures with sleepy tigers, but it contained a stop at the Bridge Over the River Kwai, an elephant ride, a bamboo raft ride in crocodile infested waters, a stop at waterfall and of course, last but not least, the Tiger Temple.

I’ll just skip over to the best part, the Tiger Temple.  I’m not 100% sure what the truth is about the Tiger Temple, there’s claims of the monks mistreating the animals that they sought to protect and that they drug them prior to having tourist come and take pictures of them.  That’s why they’re on such a tight schedule that they have to work everything through in about an hour and a half.  Then there’s a pamphlet they hand out about the temple saying that they don’t drug them, they work off of tigers instinctual body clock, around 3-4 PM they are docile and since they’ve been raised around humans, they don’t mind humans being around them.  I don’t exactly know what the deal is really, so I’m pleading the 5th.

The fun part is when the tigers are ‘ready’ (in whatever sense, drugged or natural docility).  You line up for your turn and one of the volunteers at the temple holds you by the hand and takes you to different tigers in different poses for you to pose next to them while getting your photo taken.  My favourite was two tigers spooning on a rock, I was getting my hand in there for a picture when the little spoon flipped over and gave me the full monty.  The volunteer was like, ‘don’t worry, put your hand on the tiger’…yeah, but where, on his junk?

Overall, the tour felt incredibly rushed, we stopped at each place for about 10-30 minutes with 1 hour allocated to the Tiger Temple, there was a handful of driving so it mostly seemed like we did that more than actually enjoy what we were doing.  A slower paced tour without cramming everything in it would have been nicer.  I didn’t even realize we were stopping at the bridge or doing a bamboo raft/elephant ride.  Things I could have done without because of how abbreviated they were and I know that you can get better elephant rides and bamboo raft rides elsewhere.

Anyways, I’ll probably post my next post when I’m in Chiang Mai for Song Kran!

See ya next time,

~Clem

First *Somewhat* Full Day in Thailand

With the 13 hour time difference from Bangkok to Edmonton, when I arrived in Bangkok it was about 10:30 PM and I was pretty wired, the mixed of excitement that I was finally here and/or the fact that in Edmonton, it was 9:30 AM.  By the time I got through immigration, got my backpack and taxied it to Khao San with the other Canadians, it was already midnight…and I still had to find a place to stay for the night.

I was truly hoping for a long yearned Thai massage last night, what I love about in Bangkok is that you get the cheapest rate in and around Khao San.  200 baht for an hour, that’s less than 7 dollars, try getting a massage in Canada for 7 dollars without the masseuse laughing at you in disbelief.  In the end, a lot of places were closed for the night…shucks.

By 2 AM Bangkok time, I decide to call it a night, but of course, I’m still pretty wired and I’m thinking about all the people that might be on facebook at 1 PM Edmonton time.  Unfortunately, the internet cafe I used to visit all the time does not stay open 24 hours anymore due to the fact that every place has wifi and everyone brings their laptops and such (unlike yours truly!), so like everything else, it closed up shop for the night.

The one luxury I ended up getting with my room without intention was a TV and I must say, Thai TV rules! It’s a mix of Asian, European and Western content all rolled into one.  Who knew ‘Beauty and the Geek’ was so popular in Australia that it had a second season? and why is ‘Cash Cab Asia’ full of white people?

After somewhat falling asleep, I end up waking up at 6 AM (5 PM Edmonton).  There’s got to be something out there to do, I have a quick shower and head out for a little walk.  It takes me a few minutes to realize that absolutely nothing is opened, I don’t know traditionally what time the Thais get up, but it’s desolate right now.  The only good thing that came out of this is that I found a 24 hour internet cafe with awesome computers

The other thing that I wanted to do in Bangkok before leaving for Chiang Mai was to get some tailored suits made.  Definitely you pay for the quality, so I was in the search of a good place without breaking the bank.  The last two suits I had made were pretty good, still holding up but I can see their flaws.  Also, I wouldn’t be able to find out where I got it made or if it still exists.  I end up going to a place suggested by the guesthouse I’m staying at and unfortunately, I break the bank buying two suits with pants with a handful of shirts.

Next stop was MBK, probably the coolest place in Bangkok, in my opinion, if there’s anything at all that you want, you can find it here and for an awesome price.  Since the only thing I really packed was 7 pairs of boxers, I needed more clothes, sunglasses for when I head south and sandals.  If you want a good deal on things, head to the 6th floor.  You’ll find endless amounts of clothes there and a little further in, there’s every Thai souvenir you can think of, I’ll be visiting that part near the end of my trip.

Finally to top it all off, I head back to Khao San on an exhilarating scooter taxi (we were driving on the wrong side of the road to pass cars in the correct lane!).  I finally hit up a Thai massage place.  It’s been something like 5 years since I’ve had a Thai massage, my first trip to Thailand, in Koh Phangan, I was getting them daily as part of my short Muay Thai training stint.  I felt like the masseuse was working the groinal region a little too much but it felt really good, I realized after that years of hockey has probably tightened up that area quite a bit.

It’s still pretty early in Bangkok, it’s around dinner time, but my body clock is so screwed up that I pretty much passed out during the Thai massage, I’m going to fend off sleeping and go to bed at a decent time tonight.  Taking the scooter taxi, I was able to find out how to get to the Grand Palace again, if I wake up early…sorry, when I wake up early tomorrow, I’ll hit it up while it’s still cool in the morning.

’til next time…

~Clem

…and I don’t know where I’m going

It only took about a total of 30 hours of flying and layover time, but I’m finally here in Thailand.  The flights were awesome, Japan Airlines does a really good job with their flights, although I feel bad for the people that sat next to me, I usually take the aisle seat so that I’m not a burden to people when I want to stretch my legs, but I also tell the window seat person to not be shy about asking to move about.

Both flights, my 10 hour one from Vancouver to Tokyo, the poor lady only used the bathroom maybe twice and during my 6 hour flight from Tokyo to Bangkok, the lady next to me used it once.  It’s not my fault if they end up getting thrombosis.

When I arrived into Bangkok, through immigration, I met a friendly Canadian couple from Montreal, I saw their passports as we were lined up and striked up a conversation.  It’s their first time in Thailand, so I gave them a few pointers, as it turned out, they were staying close to Khao San Road (backpacker central) so I asked if they wanted to split a cab.  We chatted along the way and sounds like they’ll be in Chiang Mai the same time I will be, I told them to try to be on the look out for me.

I escorted them to their hotel, said our good byes and I went to find a place to stay for myself.  Yeah, I didn’t book anything for Bangkok, it’s pretty easy to find a place once you get to Khao San Road.  I decided to try the Wild Orchid Villa, which is a place that the travel group Free and Easy use for accommodations in Bangkok, I happened to see a group ready to disembark back home, I chatted with them for a bit before I realized I needed a shower very badly, 30 hours stewing in my clothes, I felt disgusting, the shared bathroom’s cold shower was nice.

I ended up walking the streets a bit in the search for street food and a Thai massage, by the time I was out and about though it was past 1 AM and places were closing.  I settled for some street pad thai and decided to call it night.  Oh well, I’m currently on my first day in Bangkok, my sleep is screwed up since I couldn’t sleep at all last night, I ended up ‘waking’ up at 6:00 AM (7:00 PM Edmonton) to go out and do something.

See ya next time…

~Clem

I’m on my way…

“So many people live within unhappy circumstances and yet will not take the initiative to change their situation because they are conditioned to a life of security, conformity and conservatism, all of which may appear to give one peace of mind, but in reality nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future. The very basic core of a man’s living spirit is his passion for adventure. The joy of life comes from our encounters with new experiences, and hence there is no greater joy than to have an endlessly changing horizon, for each day to have a new and different sun.” ~ Christopher McCandless

Tickets bought, plans made, bags packed…If you’re reading this now, I’m on my way to Thailand!  I’ll update my blog when I can, I’ve left all my creature comforts at home: no laptop, no cellphone, no videogames.  If I was going to bring all that stuff, I might as well just stay at home.

I’m armed with a copy of ‘The Hunger Games’, an SLR and also a point and shoot camera, plus a waterproof camcorder (for Song Kran).  I will chronicle as much of my trip as I can and at the same time, there will still be reviews coming out for pho places in Edmonton, every Monday!

See you guys on the other side…

~Clem