A New Leaf

Sorry for being incommunicado the last few days. Internet access is not as convenient up here as in more populated areas. I’m writing this from a small hotel in Chiang Dao, a town in northern Chiang Mai province. I’ll explain how we ended up here…

Since my last post, we boarded the train to Chiang Mai, which is a relatively large city north and west of Bangkok. There were only “second class” sleepers available, so we opted for that. It turned out that these were reasonably comfortable. If not for the length of the journey, I would recommend the night train. But because we spent 16 hours (!) cooped up in our tiny compartments, I was glad to de-train.

Monday

Chiang Mai has a lot of energy, and plenty of culture and night life. We stayed at the Montrara Happy House, a small guesthouse near the “old city” of Chiang Mai, which served as a kind of capitol city for one or more ancient monarchies.

Our first stop after checking in was the nearby Libernard Cafe, a little coffee shop off the main street with a shady outdoor area. It caters to the foreign set, and it almost certainly would not exist in its present form if not for the Lonely Planet – this is true of several of our stops on the trip so far.

After filling up on a decent breakfast of eggs, bacon, and toast, we set out to see the various “wats” (temples) that Chiang Mai is known for. It was a brutally hot day for walking, unfortuneatly, so we didn’t get to all of them, but stopped at another Lonely Planet recommendation – the Writer’s Club and Wine Bar – to partake of a glass of white wine and some philosophical debate.

Wandering around for some lunch, we stumbled on a local Thai joint, where we tasted our way (tentatively) through a sampler platter of different Thai sausages. They also served us what they called a “baby eggplant salad” – a deliciously crispy and spicy dish.

After lunch, we were in the mood for more sitting and talking, so we managed to locate the UN Irish Pub. Greg’s camera came in handy when a moth bigger than your hand spread wide landed on a branch next to my head.

Later that afternoon, a tuk-tuk (mini-cab powered by motorcycle) drove us to the Chiang Mai night market, a bazaar of trinkets and scarves and silks and other souveniers. As we people-watched from a cafe there, we had a bizarre conversation with a fundamentalist Christian ex-military volunteer covert medical trainer, who illegally accesses Thai-Burma border areas to train local villagers in field medicine. He seemed to relish in recounting the various atrocities he attributes to the Burmese army, who evidently treat these border villagers harshly. I don’t know what he said that was true – it was fun to hear his Obama-related theories. Apparently, Obama’s primary goal is to bankrupt America. When asked why he would care to do that, this fellow’s reponse was simply “because he is a Muslim.” I guess that’s supposed to mean something sinister.

Our Lonely Planet is a few years old, so many of the restaurants and cafes we attempt to locate don’t exist anymore, which was true of our intended dinner locale. Instead we ended up at Brix, an upscale place overlooking the river, complete with cover band rocking out to “Hotel California”. Is it just me, or is that song the single most-covered-by-restaurant-bands-outside-the-United-States?

Tuesday

The next morning, while having breakfast (again) at the Libernard Cafe, we starting thinking that maybe we should keep moving north instead of taking all our time in Chiang Mai. So we hatched a plan to visit one more wat (the “Forest Wat” – Wat U Mong) and then take a bus to Chiang Dao.

Wat U Mong was beautiful. Outside of town, surrounded by trees, and thus quiet and not so smoggy, the temple compound was peaceful and cool. We got some great photographs of what looked like a Buddha graveyard – hundreds of broken, be-headed, chipped and crached Buddha images the local monks had salvaged from abandoned monestaries around the countryside.

Then on to the bus station – and straight into a sauna for the 90-minute ride to Chiang Dao.

…There is a lot more to tell you about our two days in Chiang Dao – the stunning views, the elephants, trekking, bamboo rafting, and missionaries. I have to finish up now because our cab is on the way to take us back to Chiang Mai… So, I’ll write more when I get back to Chiang Mai tonight.