A New Leaf

Sitting in the Chiang Mai airport right now, waiting for a flight to Bangkok. We’re having coffee at Black Canyon, a chain of gourmet cafes found mostly in Asia. The logo is a cowboy sipping coffee, a lone star at his shoulder.

So, to continue the story where we left off: the bus to Chiang Dao dropped us in the middle of a very small town – no indication of how to get anywhere. A smiley man in a truck swooped in to help us find our way to the hotel we’d booked. The Chiang Dao Nest is a dozen or so bungalows a few miles outside of town, with forested mountains towering above. We were surrounded by wildlife – birds, lizards, bugs – none of it offensive or irritating, apart from the odd mosquito. The air was cooler and free of the city smog in Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

This little hotel has a remarkable operation – despite the remote setting, they boast one of the best restaurants in Thailand, according to the local zagat-like reviewer. And it was. In fact, the best two meals we’ve had so far where at the CD Nest European restaurant and their sister Thai restaurant down the road. On the first night, we dined outside with a bottle of white wine to cool us off, steak and confit of duck to fill us up.

Ok, off to catch my flight. To be continued when I get to Bangkok.

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.

After my last note, Greg and I tried taking a taxi back to our hotel… unsuccessfully. Greg almost blew a gasket as we sat waiting for a red light to change – we got out of the car at the 25 minute mark and started walking.

Downtown Bangkok is not really pedestrian-friendly, and the smog from all those cars makes strolling around a bit of an effort. Add to that the 95-degree heat, and the fact that it looked like it was about to rain on us at any moment.  I’ll skip the rest – we finally made it back after a 2-hour trek.

A disco nap, then we were off to Bed Supperclub. This place is unlike any restaurant I’ve ever been to. The building itself is like some kind of spaceship – an elliptical cylinder (follow the link to see pictures). For weekend nights, they give you a carefully choreographed “experience” – at precisely 9 pm, following a pre-dinner drink, the meal starts. It is a “surprise” menu, which means they give you the course then tell what it is after you’ve eaten it. During each of these courses, they have [a] massage ladies (each wearing t-shirts labeled “Madame Relax”), [b] a tarot card reader, and [c] a mini-Broadway show. Bizarre and wonderful.

After dinner we hopped a cab to Patpong, the (in)famous red-light district. Another bizarre place, perhaps not so wonderful. I couldn’t take two steps without being accosted by some skeezey guy asking if I wanted to see a “ping pong show”. We passed a bit of time people-watching from an out-door table at a bar along one of these streets.

Today, we’re hanging around the air-conditioned mall. This afternoon we’re heading to the train station to see about getting an over-night train to Chiang Mai, where we’ve booked a few nights at the “Montrara Happy House” (a hotel recommended by Matt Flanzer). The hotel has free wireless internet, so I’ll be able to post some pictures tomorrow.

I’m writing this from an internet cafe on khaosan road, a backpacker’s destination in Bangkok (of The Beach movie fame). [Remind me to reset every password I have...] Unfortunately, this means no photos for now.

Getting to the city proved difficult – I arrived at about 2 am last night after well over 24 hours of travel. Miraculously, like a cat landing on its feet after a fall, I am somehow on the right sleep schedule.

Today Greg and I went to the Grand Palace, which is a compound of many buildings and minor temples, culminating in a visit to the building housing the Emerald Buddha. This small statue (about 75 cm) is a highly revered symbol of both the local religion and embodies a nationalism due to its history of theft by foreign invaders and subsequent re-acquisition by war over the centuries. One interesting thing about it is that it has three sets of “clothing”, one for each season (hot, cool, rainy). These bejeweled garments are changed by the king himself in a solemn ceremony at the beginning of each season.

We’re off now to one of the weekend markets, then a late lunch. Tonight, we’re planning dinner at a place called the “Bed Supper Club” – meals are served on large beds. And what a ridiculous name – I have to see it. Tomorrow we’ll find our way to Chiang Mai via overnight train.

More later from the road…

High winds in San Francisco and volcanic ash in Alaska conspire against me today. So I’m waiting an extra hour or so in Seoul after 12 hours in the air. Fortunately I have the Traditional Korean Cultural Experience Zone to keep me occupied.

I wrote that a bit sarcastically, but it’s pretty nice – they have a 24-hour Korean craft space where you glue and paint your way to a traditional Korean cultural experience. At least in the airport, there is a kind of pride in the service employee’s clean uniform that I never see in the US. The third-world roots reveal themselves only indirectly, for instance, in the labor intensity of said service operations.

In the end, though, I’m happy being here because in Seoul I’m a tall man.