At 22:00 we caught the third class train to Chang Mai. Most people (including Thais) may fly the distance to Chang Mai or perhaps take a first class train or maybe even sacrifice for second class. Third class however, is out of the question for most. We however did not think it was that bad. While the chairs were straight backed with no reclining ability, they were cushioned. While there were many cockroaches crawling around, they were small, while locals selling things in the aisles were loud with screechy voices, we had the option to buy food. So all in all it was ok and we managed to get some sleep during the 16 hour ride. We even met a couple other backpackers and exchanged information to hang out later. We got to Chang Mai in the afternoon and as usual it was a very busy time and finding a place to stay took a few hours. We head to the place we wanted to stay at, but met people along the way that we chatted with so the process took even longer. When we finally got to Julie's guesthouse we were told it was full for the next week. Upon further inquiry however, we convinced them to let us share a single room which saved us money and we got to stay at the place we had wanted to.
From a near by travel agency we booked a trek for the next day and then went out for Pad Thai and chocolate pancakes. The chocolate pancakes here are not like the thick fluffy ones from Gili but rather they are thin like crepes and a bit crunchy, I'm not a big fan but Tyson would eat them 24/7, I'm sure. We walked through the night market where we did not shop. This is because we would see something that was kind of cool and we were interested in but then 100 people would be selling it and then we'd get bored of it. Additionally our originally 10 kg bags have magically doubled to 20 so we have to be more careful.
We slept well and started our trek at 8am the next morning. We were collected along with ten others in a transport device. It's a truck with a covered boot and bench style seating arranged along each side. So we all sit facing each other in the back of the truck and it's a bit squishy with 12 people but we survived. Our group included one french guy from India and French girl from France and the rest were from the Dominican. It was a very fun group and we all got along well. Our first stop was elephant riding. Tyson rode bare back on it's head, but I rode in a chair and we named our elephant Charlie. It was a lot of fun, we played with the animal and rode it to water where it drank from the lake. We also fed it bananas and had a great time. After this at around 10:45 they fed us lunch which was fried rice with vegetables (all you can eat), watermelon and water. Since it was so early and we had just had breakfast we could only eat three plates each.
We then drove to our trekking area where we hiked for several hours to a waterfall. Here we took a break and some people swam in the fresh water and then we hiked back down the same way we came. We then drove a bit to the rafting start point. Here we broke into two groups of six and learned the captain's signals. Of course the raft that we chose was the chaotic one that flipped over countless times and we all came out with minor injuries. Tyson believes that this makes the experience more fun but I disagree and think that pain-free-no-rapids-rafting is much better.
After an hour we switched from a proper raft to a bamboo raft that was several bamboo shoots attached length wise. We rode those with our captains to the end point. Following bamboo rafting we drove to visit a tribal hill villiage called the Akha people. This was a very strange experience because they dropped us off and we basically just stared at these people and then left. We managed to chat with them a bit and learn about their culture but only through our own independant initiation. It was awkward otherwise. And that was that, everyone was exhausted on the way home and our Indian-French guy friend was nodding off and unknowingly laying his head on Tyson's shoulder. It was hilarious and the whole group was laughing, I managed to get some photos of it.
Once we got back we cleaned up at the guesthouse and head out for Pad Thai. While that night's meal cost more than we were hoping to pay, it was also the best Pad Thai we had had. The owner/cook is a Mui Thai fighting champ who travels to Canada every year to teach. He runs the little restaurant with his family and it was yummy! After dinner we wandered the market a bit, ate snacks and slept well.
The next morning we slept in and were forced out of our room due to other reservations. So we stored our bags for the day and decided to leave that night. During the day we walked to several temples where old ladies at the front wanted us to pay to "release the birds". They had several small birds captured in tiny cages and wanted 100 Baht to release them, it was stupid and we didn't do it but others who did told us that the birds are trained to fly right back into the cages where some other sucker would pay to "release them" again. Dumb.
Anywho we walked to the Tribal museam which was a good 6km away only to find that it was shut down for renovations. The outdoor museam was open though and we were able to walk through and explore the homes of the hill tribe people. It was all set up with their belongings and everything so we learned a lot about the different cultures. The long neck culture also lives here where the women stretch out their necks with goldren rings that weigh about 2kg for the sake of beauty. Many still do not have electricity but they are changing because they charge each tourist group 200-500 Baht to enter their villiage and apparently this has been quite succesful.
We walked the six km back to town only to be told that if we wanted to take the train in the morning we would have to pre buy our tickets that night. So we walked to the train station another 6km only to be informed that we had to buy our tickets the next day. It would have sucked even worse if we had not found the absolute best strawberry smoothies and iced Thai tea along the way. We head back to our place and grabbed our bags and went to meet up with Laura and Ben (our friends from back home also travelling Thailand). This was awesome and we were all able to catch up and hang out for the night. We head back to their place with their other friends and all hung out eating their left over food from their cooking class until the middle of the night.
We spent the rest of the night at the train station and caught the 6am train back to Bangkok. Of course we rode third class (which is free for Thai people) and the ride that we were told would take 12 hours took closer to 20 hours and we arrived at 2am. Thai people sleep on the streets. I am not sure why but we have noticed that many sleep at their work (behind the counter on the floor) or they work at their home or they just sleep on the streets and in train stations. The station was closed but full families with babies were sleeping on mats outside the station. We walked accross the street to get Pad Thai and stopped at 7-11 to buy snacks and bread. While sitting at the Pad Thai place, we noticed that a man was being chased out of the 7-11 by several men. The men knocked him over and were kicking him in the head, kneeing him and beating him. I called out for them to stop but Tyson stopped me. It turns out the guy has shoplifted from the convenience store and this is how they deal with it. They beat the guy up and took the stuff back but no police were called. The guy got up and walked away. It's a little different from the Canadian justice system.
So we spent another night at the train station until 6am when we caught the train to Aranya prathet.
Of course the train arrived several hours late. We took a 10 minute tuk tuk that cost us the same as the 7 hour train ride to the border of Cambodia. Of course the driver stopped at an "official"
Cambodian visa place and tried to force us to get our visas from here for far more expensive. Luckily we had already read about these scams by the tuk tuk drivers and asked him to take us directly to the border. So we finally got to the Thai border and got our exit stamp then closely followed the directions we had read online to the real official visa place. Here there was a sign that the tourist visa costs $20 USD but then they had a hand written sign that poorly said $200 plus 100 Baht. I questioned the reason for the 100 Baht and the guy said it was the fee for the visa on arrival. So I asked why that was not written on the fees list on the wall and he said fine just give me an extra $5 each. This did not sit well with me so I questioned it again and told him I did not have any extra money. He waved me to go sit down and did not charge the extra fees. We just paid the $40 USD for the two of us. So even the official border guy was trying to cheat us and everyone we spoke to had paid the extra 100 Baht or $5 USD. Annoying.
Then we walked 100 meters and waited over an hour in the line up for the border into Cambodia. The whole process was stressful even though we had prepared. Had we not researched prior, we would have paid all the extra fees and fines for sure.
We easily got our Cambodian stamp and took a free 10 minute shuttle to the bus station where we caught an $18 bus three hours to Siem Riep. Of course the bus driver stopped at his friend's restaurant half way through to make some extra tips but we continued on and got there in 2 or so hours. The driver had told us that he would take us to the central market in town but decided that it would be better to drop us 6km outside of town where all of his tuk tuk buddies happened to be waiting. Awesome.
We resisted paying the tuk tuk guys because we heard they just take you to the hotel that they are associated with no matter what you as for. Plus the hotel will charge you more because they have to pay the tuk tuk commission. Anyway a super over-the-top nice guy in a silver SUV pulled over and asked us if we wanted a ride. At this point in the day we bitterly said no thank you and he kindly responded that we did not want anything from us, just to help. We decided to trust him and he actually drove us to the hotel we asked for free just to help a frustrated backpacker. It raised our hopes and made us trust again. It was the perfect moment for a stranger to show us some kindness.
We are now in the viscinity of Ankor Watt and planning out our exciting day tomorrow.
"If we are not happy and joyous in this season for what season shall we wait"
No comments:
Post a Comment
Thanks for leaving a message:)