Sorry for being slack; Phil arrived on Thursday and despite (or perhaps) my worry that he might not find enough things to do, we have been going pretty much non-stop for his entire visit so far. As I type he is trekking in the jungle. Probably with leeches. Gross.
Anyway, he is dutifully eating - even enjoying! - everything on offer and has become quite obsessed with banana rotee. Although really - who can blame him? Such sugary, buttery, gooey, banana-y goodness.
The tale of a little red dog, a restaurant on a mountain, and a big night out, Thai-style
I thought that Phil might like to meet some of the friendly and funny expats I've met since I got here, so we arranged to meet up with Zach, Jenny and Dave after dinner on Friday night. Before hitting the town with them, Phil and I headed up Doi Suthep to a restaurant halfway up the mountain. Lucky songthaews are manual vehicles - I'm not sure an auto could get up there on the winding and extremely steep roads. The restaurant had a spectacular view over all of Chiang Mai, as well as having an extremely attractive lake directly below the verandah where we were seated (by candlelight - very noice). The food was spectacular, and they had what I would describe as a Thai country and western (but quite versatile) live band who knew just about every cheesy 60s, 70s and 80s ballad you can think of. There was also a clown (why? who can say?) who roamed the restaurant making balloon animals. He was so cool that he like, didn't even need to look at what he was doing.
He gave me a red poodle.
After dinner we met up with the others at a club/bar/pub type place called Warm Up - massively popular haunt of Chiang Mai Uni students. My prudish opinions regarding sartorial appropriateness in Asia were sorely tested - these girls wear the smallest skirts, the tiniest tops and the highest heels I've ever seen! There was was in my hidjus, hidjus silver plastic shoes, long trousers and new top (might I say in my defence, a very Karen Walker-esque blouse), feeling oddly - well, Amish, in my modesty. Anyway, we downed a few drinks in the "New Age Lounge" whilst Ole (Danish, 6 foot 6 and a bit) mutilated my poor poodle and much merriment was had.
After that we went to another place called the Monkey Club. There was a live band playing; they were clearly very famous because it was PACKED and everyone knew the words to every song. We didn't know the words, and Phil and Ole were about 3 heads taller than everyone else, but we jumped up and down and sang along (words? who needs words?) anyway.
On the way home I had little pork dumplings. Who wouldn't love a country where you can get delicious food at 2:30am?
I am too old for this
On the way home from our big Friday night Phil and I had raved enthusiastically that, "Hey, it doesn't feel late at all! This is easy!". Then we got up at 8 the next morning to go to elephant camp. (This one time, at elephant camp...) Actually, to start with we were fine.
The elephant camp at Mae Taeng was probably the most touristy place I'll go to in my entire time in Thailand (Benjawan says that Thai people never go to the elephant camps, of which there are many in this region) but it was amaaaaazing! They are
such beautiful, intelligent creatures; enlarge the pic of the elephant in front of the easel to reveal his painting in all its glory, complete with his name signed across the bottom of the bunch of flowers that he painstakingly painted in front of a live audience. He can also paint elephants. Like, pictures of elephants.
We rode an ox cart through breathtaking jungle, mountain and pastoral scenery (green, green and more green), then we rode an elephant (we decided ours was a dissident elephant - much cooler than the others, making her own path through most of the trail) then, after lunch, hopped on a bamboo raft and floated peacefully down the river through lush jungle. Well, peacefully apart from the bits where Phil was trying to steer the raft.Then we went to an orchid farm - by this stage I was falling asleep in the car, thence home for a long nap.
Yesterday we were both still exhausted, despite 9 hours of sleep overnight and our siesta the day before. Tragically we had to drag ourselves out of bed to go to a waterfall, so off we went to Mae Wang, to a beautiful and not-infested-with-tourists waterfall amidst more lush jungle. Phil went swimming, but I was too self conscious to strip down to my togs in front of young Thai men who were already looking at me curiously. Hmmm.
We popped in at a Karen (largest hilltribe in Thailand) village, where the cows roam free, the houses and huts are built the way they've done it for a hundred years and where, despite the traditional lifestyle, there are still satellites to pick up cable tv so that everyone can clamber around the television to watch Thai boxing.
We also went to an artisan village. Phil bought a bowl.
Monday - an unfortunate realisation
Had a massive sleep last night, and I toddled off to my Thai classes this morning whilst Phil and Jaran went off to trek in the jungle somewhere. As you do.
Thai has been quite easy until now. Today I started learning to read and write Thai script. There are 44 consonant characters alone.
Bugger!
1 comment:
this one time, at elephant camp... love it.
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