driving elephants

We arrive in Chiang-mai by plane. Our first day consisted of visiting temples, getting massages at the Thai massage school (heaven!), finding the best roti stand in Thailand, and booking a trek for the next day. We also found out why it is called shave ice... we walked past a stand with kids lined up, holding out baht coins in their hands, and watching a food stand intently. Turns out the stand was selling shave ice. The man who owned it had a huge block of ice that he was running back and fourth over a metal blade, which shaved off ice into a bowl below. A few strokes of the ice block and the bowl would be full, at which point a girl would take it and add the flavored syrup before handing it over to an eager little kid in exchange for 5 baht. Obvi Lo and I needed some too... literally shaved ice! too good to pass up!

Our first night in Chiang-mai we went to the night market - a great local experience. it is huge and overwhelming, but very fun to bargain with the locals who bring their goods to sell. they start off with a high price, you pick a low price and basically say "no" until they agree to your price (a lot of times the bargaining is done silently - you take turns entering numbers into a calculator back and fourth, it's fun!!). Usually you begin walking away, at which point they will grab your arm (sometimes quite violently), and agree to sell the item to you at the price you had been insisting upon. Occasionally they refuse your price, so you go to the next stand, and they will sell you the same item for the cheaper price. I had a good time buying Thai silk and elephant souvenirs :)

They have everything from funny t-shirts that say things like "same same" on the front and "but different" on the back (we saw that one a lot and though we didn't really get the joke, we over-used the saying on our trip anyway :) There was also a shirt that said "youtube myspace and I'll google your yahoo" - that one made us laugh. You can also get pretty much any item of clothing made out of silk, including silk boxers with elephants on them that I really wanted Kor to buy... he didn't. There are Buddhas and elephants, wooden frogs that make a funny noise when you run their back with a wooden stick, bright lights, fake watches, purses, Tiffany's necklaces, and pretty much anything else you might want. The selection is incredible! and the prices are too good to pass up. I think most of my souvenirs were under $5 US.

the next day was the real adventure in Chaing-mai - the trek!! it was the day we were most looking forward to during our stay in Chiang-mai. we were picked up early along with 6 other travelers: two girls from Sweden who were just out of high school and had been traveling for 4 months (and had the bug bites covering their legs to prove it), an older woman from Spain who was sooo excited to be able to speak Spanish to Lo, and three people from the UK who knew each other from school and had met up to Travel through Chiang-mai together. the 9 of us, along with our driver and our tour guide Mano, took off for the hills/jungle outside of Chiang-Mai where the trek would begin. We started in a village where we were able to watch the women weaving traditional dresses and scarves, one of which I bought after watching the woman who made the scarf at work (it is really incredible what they do, such skill! I didn't bargain with her, just handed over what she asked for the scarf, judging by the living conditions in their village, she needs every baht she can get).

as we hiked out of the village our guide stopped us at a tree. nothing too special, just your average green leaf tree near the outskirts of the village. he picked a leaf, stem and all, from the tree, as we watched with curiosity. he broke the stem, split it just so (to create a triangle shape) and then used the sap the filled the broken area to blow bubbles!! true bubbles! everyone quickly grabbed their own leaves and began trying to coax bubbles from their broken leaf, a few leaves later and our group was ready to see a newly married couple off to their limo :) so many bubbles!! we all got a kick out of that one. next we hiked down to a muddy river (seems to be a trend with the rivers around here in the summer), where there was a dried log serving as a bridge. i wasn't too keen on crossing over the wide rushing rapids on this log, but there was no other choice. fortunately, there was a railing... unfortunately the railing was detached at one side and wiggled around so much it did more to throw off your balance than help it. another bridge later in the hike was equally as precarious and substantially longer. this one was made out of bamboo but it was a suspension bridge of sorts and was being held up by thin scrap wire coiled around the trees at either side, and for support in the middle, the bridge builder had used a downed limb caught in the mud of the stream to brace the center for the bridge... not exactly well-engineered. and the railing of this bridge was crawling with those damn ants that had attacked me on the island, so i was reluctant to use my hand to steady myself as I crossed... we all survived.

our guide showed us another cool plant on our trek, this was a piece of a thick green leaf he took in his hand, wet it with a little water from his water bottle, and mashed the leaf, which quickly turned a vibrant red. Lo and I grabbed some of the same leaves and smashed until they were red, then Lo decided it would be a good idea to use the red as war paint on her and Kor's face. For some reason, Lo's war paint washed off no problem, Kor's was still on his face two days later :) haha! and since we're on the topic of cool plants, I have one more to share about that Kor showed us when we were in Bangkok. This is a plant with a small narrow seed that you pick, and then spit on it and watch it in the palm of your hand once it is wet.... a few seconds will pass and then suddenly it will explode! sending seed shrapnel everywhere!! pretty fun. Thai plants are cool!!

we finally made it to a long and narrow path (man-made, there were irrigation ditches on either side), that had periodical divots usually camouflaged by plants, so as you walk you have to be careful not to step hip-deep into a hole. we looked out over the fields and could see our destination, a small village, in the distance. this village was where the Hmong people live, which was very interesting because I had learned a lot about their culture when i read the book "the spirit catches you and you fall down" for my ethics internship senior year of college. bringing travelers to this village is a great source of revenue for the people living there, and many of our group members bought jewelry and other gifts.

on to the cool part, that was just the warm-up. elephants!! we arrived at the elephants, bought bananas from the locals (they know just how to get you), and climbed onto our elephants (they are sooo huge, I can't believe how big they are! you climb at least 15 stairs onto a platform in order to get onto the elephant's back). feeding the elephants is really fun :) they lift their trunks up over their heads and exhale in your face until you place a banana in their dexterous trunk - my elephant was particularly greedy and would gesture for banana after banana... if I didn't give her one quickly enough she would stretch her trunk out to Lo and Kor in front of us and beg from them! Our group was split up on 4 elephants, I was sitting with our Spanish friend and our elephant was being "driven" by a young girl who looked to be about 8 years old, at best. we started off into the jungle, and once we made it up a steep and muddy path, the view was incredible!! LOST all the way :) when the path flattened out our "drivers" hopped down and Kor took over sitting on the neck of his elephant, while I moved down to drive mine, although I don't know that I was doing much to steer my elephant. I was mostly laughing, petting the rough, cracked skin of her head, and feeding her bananas. It was such an experience!! and being the animal lover that I am, I felt surprisingly ok with how they treated the elephants. The elephant is such a huge part of the Thai culture, and they care for the elephants very well. I still can't get over how intelligent these animals are, they responded promptly to many Thai commands that sounded like nonsense to me. An unforgettable experience no doubt!

After riding elephants we were all convinced it couldn't get any better... that is, until we were driven to a river and told to climb onto one of the bamboo rafts. The rafts were long and thin, and Lo, Kor and I sat down in the center of one while our guide steered us down the river. I decided after a minute to stand in the back and use the other bamboo pole to help steer. The trip down the river was over an hour and I was in the back most of the way, balancing and helping keep us on course (obvi all my experience rafting on the Tual and Clack prepared me to be an excellent river guide in Thialand :). We would go through rapids on occasion, which was the best part of float, and we saw the cutest baby elephant ever with a bunch of adults, it was sooo tiny and adorable!! toward the end of our river rafting I was getting tired of standing, so I asked Kor if he wanted to stand in the back for a bit and try guiding the raft... we switched places quickly, I sat down and scooted in front of him, and he walked to the back to take my place standing with the bamboo pole. Mere seconds later I heard a loud splash from behind me. We had just started a small stretch of rapids so I was focused on the river ahead, but still, the splash got my attention enough that I turned my head. Kor was no longer on the raft, but bobbing up and down in the water, his dry bag keeping him afloat, as he got slammed into rocks and flushed downstream behind us.

Lo and I had a moment of disbelief that Kor had pole-vaulted himself into the water, then a moment of panic wondering if he was ok... but once we saw he had survived the fall, we broke into uncontrollable laughter. Seriously, I haven't laughed that hard in I don't know how long... tears were streaming down my face and my abs were aching, I could hardly breath as I tried to gain enough composure to hang on through the rapids (I didn't feel like joining Kor in the murky water). I think our wild laughter scared our guide, who misinterpreted the tears running down my face and thought I was crying in fear for my friend. Quite the opposite, I was thoroughly enjoying the misfortune of his tumble. Kor finally made it down the rapids and climbed onto the raft. Lo and were still in a fit of giggles but we made sure Kor was ok - he was - and then asked him what had happened. He said he hand bent over to pick up the bamboo pole and lost his balance, at which point he fell, head first, into the water, dry pack, bamboo pole and all. He was a little beat up from floating the rapids, but we all agreed it was the worth the story, and so appropriate that he would be the one to fall in :) oh Kor!