Thailand days 1 and 2

This will by far be the longest post of my blog. I have been writing for about 40 minutes and realize i am only 2 hours into the second day, so this will most likely come in different installments throughout the day. I am sick today and not going to class, so I couldn't think of a better way to kill several hours than by logging my thoughts on Thailand. The following will be a day to day account of my 8 days in Thailand. But if you aren't dedicated to reading the whole thing, i will sum it up in a sentence or two here. This was my first experience in any Asian country, and i don't think I could have had a better time. The people, the places, the traditions, the food (and the list goes on) were all 100% amazing, and I can't wait for my next chance to go back.



Day 1:



I don't think it would be fair if i didn't start this entry at the airport, as it is a pretty big part of traveling. I made my way to the Sydney airport at 5:45AM to catch my 9:00AM flight with Tom and Danny, who were heading to New Zealand for the week. After killing mulitple hours loitering in the airport gift shops, I ran into Regan, Lindsey, and Ingrid (my traveling buddies for the week). We boarded the plane and took off for Bangkok. We flew Thai Air, which was the nicest airline i've ever been on. there were great movies on demand, video games, and LEG ROOM. Anyways, the 9 hour flight flew by, and we landed in Bangkok International Airport. We had a small lay over, so Regan and I split a chicken sandwich and water for 400 Baht (at the time, 35 baht = $1 U.S.), and this was expensive food. We then got on the 5 o'clock flight to Chiang Mai and got there around 9. Upon landing we regrouped and boarded the buses for the Vdora Resort and Spa. After several wrong turns we reached our destination to find a 5 course traditional Thai dinner awaiting our arrival. I had several dumplings with green chili, green curry chicken, and deep fried bananas with honey and went to bed (in my single suite, may I add).



Day 2:



In the morning, we woke up for yet another good meal at the resort. We all bought water pistols in preparation for the day's battle. See, we arrived in Chiang Mai at the time of the Thai New Year, called the Songkron Festival. It all started when people used to put drops of water on your head to wash away the bad luck and spirits for a good new year. Over the years, it has just turned into a massive water battle where no one in Chiang Mai (the capital for the water fights) is dry for three days. We put our belongings in Plastic bags and boarded the open back taxis/trucks to get to the elephant camp. The drive took about 2 hours and we stopped half way to go to an open air market for water and some snacks. It was here that I experienced the first water battles of Songkran. This one little kid had a hose and buckets of cold water, so we battled for a good twenty minutes until we had to leave. Good times. As we continued the drive to the elephant camp, the onslaught of water continued to soak me and the 6 girls i was with. People stood every 200 yards or so along the road JUST to throw water onto unsuspecting people in pickup trucks and vehicles like ours (and this was the countryside...just wait until i get to the city).

We were all soaked, but an hour later, we arrived at the elephant camp. I rode my elephant with our group's guide, Christian. Nobody was "steering" my elephant, so I took the liberty to sit on the elephants neck and guide it through the forest. It was pretty surreal...riding an elephant through the jungle in thailand while the elephant guides just followed closely behind smoking their banana leaf opium cigarettes. We spent about 45 minutes on the elephants until we continued our soaken car ride to the village we were to spend the night in. However, before we left, i wanted to go take some more pictures of the elephants. There was a 2 month old baby elephant in the mix, and I made up my mind that i was going to pet it. At first it was kind of scared of me, even though it weighed 4 times what I did. I got down on its level and, apparently in the elephant world, that means "let's play". The baby playfully charged at me, knocked me over, and stepped on my foot. It didn't hurt too bad, but it didn't really feel great. We played for a little longer, then we hit the road.

Our caravan arrived at a small Christian Church (on easter sunday, mind you) in the middle of the jungle. This is where we started our 4 hour jungle trek to the village (which i will name later when i get the right spelling). We met La, our guide, and walked to the waterfall to swim and get some lunch. Some locals at the waterfall played music on some thai string instruments and smoked opium while we all jumped off the cliffs into the water. On our 4 hour walk from there, i heard about 3 hours and 45 minutes of complaining from the girls in my group. In group #2 of the thailand trip (my group), we brought 90% of the JAPy (Jewish American Princess) population of Long Island and North Jersey. There were only several instances on the trip that I didn't want to strangle at least one of them, and those moments usually came when i was either sleeping or alone. Yet, I digress. Me and La were at the front of the group and he taught me all about the various ways people farm and live in the area. Our conversation would be cut short when he would decide to climb a tree and jump out and scare the unsuspecting stragglers of our group. He was the man.

We got to the village in the mid-afternoon. This village was amazing. It was run on the principles and ideals of community. People helping people. All the homes were made of bamboo and strawgrass. La's uncle was generous enough to let myself and 6 others to share his house for the evening , while the rest of the group spent the night in a kind of bamboo warehouse. Even as one of the groups more cultured people (yeah, i am bragging, so what?), I was pretty shocked at our accomodations. We literally had wool blankets made in the village and a tiny pillow. The rest was a single room completely made of bamboo. The only decoration was a picture of the King and Queen of Thailand on the wall.

On a quick tangent, the King of Thailand can literally be found within 100 yards of you at all times. In Thailand, it is a criminal offense to say anything blasphemous about the king or queen. Their birthdays are national holidays, and people must pay tribute to them at all times. Just think if we didn't have that political freedom of speech. I'd say about 70% of the US population would have been jailed during the presidency of George W. Bush.

Anyways, we headed down to the camp fire for dinner, a mini market, and songs with the locals. It was during this time that I met, Dai, Len, and 'Bob Marley'. These guys would be my entertainment/friends for the night. Right after dinner (best red curry i've had) Dai busted out the acoustic guitar and started playing some Hotel California and "take me to your heart", Thailand's current ballad hit. Soon the guitar started getting passed around and we all started jamming. Before I knew it, we were a few beers and a few shots of moonshine rice whiskey deep and just chillin around the fire playing music. I stayed out there with Dai and Bob Marley for quite some time, teaching them some english slang and talking about thailand. it was the first time since i left the states that i could really see the stars, and it was a very welcome sight. Christian and I drunkenly stumbled back to our hut and fell asleep in the draftiest building i've ever slept in. This concludes the first full day in Thailand.