Author's note: These entries are post-dated, as we did not have internet access for most of the time we were traveling.
Monday, May 18, 2009
Chiang Mai reminds me very much of Iquitos in Peru, perhaps a bit more developed. It's a place people come, not necessarily for the city itself, but for everything around it. A frontier town, of sorts. After the Elephant Park for a week, it was still a little jarring to be back in a moving city. It's amazing how quickly I can adjust to non-urban life, even after living in New York for fifteen years.
We did hang out with the other volunteers that stuck about Chiang Mai on Sunday evening. We had dinner at Taste of Heaven - the park's sister restaurant. Very nice vegetarian food (and I'm not one to usually say that about vegetarian cuisine), and then beer at the local Reggae Bar. The blaring music and party atmosphere was a little odd after our week, especially as Kristin, John (one of the other American volunteers along with his lovely wife, Gemma) and myself were more interested in discussing ways to help the park. We ended up heading back to our hotel fairly early - exhausted from the week - but it was nice to get to say farewell to all we had spent time with.
Our first complete day back in civilization we really just decompressed. We did laundry, much needed, and met with Jeff at the Park office to discuss materials and ways to help. I felt it was a good meeting - without the cultural and language barrier, it was easier to discuss things like 501c3s, proposals, other foundations that have supported them, etc. I'm hoping Jeff can continue to be out point person, even as he gets more involved with the sister elephant park in Surin.
After our meeting, we felt it was time to move, as Chiang Mai wasn't really speaking to us. So we set about making our plan for Laos. As is turned out, the Park office is also a travel agency, so we were able to book a direct mini-bus to the border cross-over town, Chiang Khong, with little fuss.
The skies started to darken, but we were famished. We went for supper at the cafe Naga, one of the many Thai/Western hybrids in Chiang Mai. Kristin had a strawberry smoothie, and I had some chicken fired noodle curry that came to haunt me a few hours later. It was delicious nonetheless, and worth the future discomfort. Just in time for the skies to open, we hoofed it back to the hotel in the warm rain to pack.
I recommend the Na Inn in Chiang Mai, especially if you've been roughing it for a while. Huge, western style rooms, real working A/C, and from the top floor there is a killer view of the mountain and several wats. It's modern, clean, and relaxing, and had little hassle at all for 600 baht a night.
We rested a little, then got cleaned up and decided we had to go see the famous Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. We did find a few gifts and nice clothing items, but honestly, as we had done the Sunday Market the week before on our arrival, and as we have Chinatown in NYC, I was not that impressed. The Sunday market prices were much cheaper, and there were less touts and hawkers in your face every ten seconds. I don't know why they think that works as a sales tactic with westerners - it completely turns me off. In fact, the one booth that we did actually buy something from was run by a little, older Thai lady who spoke fabulous broken English, and who was very polite and calm. She asked where we were from, and then she said she was from the north. She then said she was cold (it was a little breezy, having rained, but still warm by my standards), and then she asked how cold it got in New York. When I said zero degrees (Celsius), her eyes almost popped out. I couldn't tell if she thought I was lying - but it's not Thai custom to say that sort of thing out loud.
We then headed back to out hotel, full of anticipation for our crossing the Mekong into the heart of northern Laos. We started our walk through old Chiang Mai, but got turned around. It's easy to do that in Chiang Mai. Fair enough - a three dollar tuk-tuk ride home didn't seem that exorbitant. Onward, traveler.
