I must love you all very much, because I've taken a break from reading under a thatched roof, cushion covered garden platform to tell about our trip thus far.
(Don't miss the links!!!)
Even the plane ride here was full of amazing sights. Because of the curvature of the earth, we flew very far north en route to Tokyo. Flying over the coast of Alaska we could see inlets and fjords that gave way to endless stacks of snow covered mountains: more snow than I've ever seen in my life. Flying over the Pacific we could see the texture of the swells that will eventually make their way to land and become surf, amazing to see on that scale. Eventually we were asked to lower our window shades so that people could see the television screens, and I couldn't believe it when the flight attendant asked me to put mine down, telling me "there's nothing out there." I guess the thrill of being inside of a cloud wears off after a while when you work at 30,000 ft. Otherwise both of our flights were pretty uneventful, which I suppose is a good thing.
We got into Bangkok just after midnight, and rode a cab the nearly half hour drive to
our hotel from the airport. Had a moment of concern when we pulled into a dark alley, only to see the sign for our very swanky hotel a moment later. Our suite had two bedrooms located through triple doors of colored glass overlayed with carved wood. The staff was extremely friendly, and we had some great interactions with our first trials of the Thai language: amusing for both parties. I am discovering that the Thai way to deal difficult or awkward communications is to make light of the situation, to smile and laugh at the silliness of the situation. This suits me just fine; I'm sure my pronunciation sounds absolutely hilarious (I try to remember how funny foreign accents sounds in English) and its so much more comfortable to laugh at your difficulties than to become upset with them. Sarah is particularly good at international charades, which always gets some giggles as she's silly and adorable while managing to get her point across quite well.
After taking a day to recover from travel, and explore the neighborhood around our hotel, we took the bus downtown to the train station where we booked second class tickets on the night train to Chiang Mai. We didn't want to venture too far while waiting for our train, as Bangkok seems to be arranged like a giant rat maze, and we were all still feeling a little travel weary, not to mention wiped out by the abrupt switch to 95 degree humid heat. We found a great hole in the wall Cantonese vegetarian restaurant down a little street by the train station, and had a great, slow lunch to pass the time.
The train was lovely, much much more comfortable than the Amtrak cross country. Each "cabin" area had four bunks, two top two bottom facing each other. The bottom bunks were treated as bench seats until the conductor came through to make them up into beds, which we had him do almost immediately. When we woke the next morning we were riding though the countryside, little ramshackely towns, towards the mountains. Brilliant pops of color were everywhere among the fields and bamboo forests, every color of flower imaginable speckling the ground or in giant swaths on treetops. We arrived in
Chiang Mai around one in the afternoon, four hours later than scheduled. At least there are some things that are the same everywhere in the world!
We're staying in a
hostel here that a friend of Sarah's in Astoria helped build just a few months ago. He was getting back to Oregon just as we were about to leave, just in time to tip us off to this great little place. We've eaten some of the most amazing food since we got here yesterday: a little fixed price veg place that served us heaping plated at less than a dollar, banana pancakes, delicious spring rolls with a sweet carrot sauce, and surprisingly some really excellent Mexican food. I've also been blown away by the quality of coffee and skill of baristas here. So so much fresh fruit and juices too, which are really nice in the heat. Just wandering around town has also been fantastic; yesterday we visited the largest Wat (Buddhist temple) in Chiang Mai. It was such an overwhelmingly beautiful place; I've never seen anything man made the rivals it. I've been amazed, though, at how many other tourists, both Western and from other Asian countries, seem to have made no attempt to look into how to behave (and dress)respectfully, and remain fantastically oblivious of what seems appropriate. I've felt the same way seeing how people behave in European churches; makes me extra grateful to have the travelling partners that I do.
Tomorrow we're going to venture out of town for five days, take a breather and really relax. This evening we're meeting with someone who owns an
eco resort up in the mountains about riding out there with him tomorrow and spending our time there. They guide treks, teach Thai cooking classes, and work with a local tribe to develop tourism on their terms, which sounds like perhaps the most respectful to be able to experience rural Thailand. It will be nice to escape town for the first half of Songkrang, the New Years festival, and when we get back into town on the 14th we can jump into the craziness of a city-wide week long water fight refreshed!