Well writing from Lao, neighbouring country to Thailand. Just got here today - got a bus and then a boat to cross the river. Staying in some dusty little town and tomorrow I go on my trek and ziplining thing for 3 days.
I had a great time in Chiang Mai. Its been a festival called Loy Krathong which is all about making offerings to the river, in the way of little floating bunches of flowers, candles, and incence. The idea is that you are supposed to say thank you to the river for all it provides and then also apologize for all your wrong doings?! Confusing. Also the second part to the festival is about lighting these lanterns and letting them float off into the sky. You make wishes about love and happiness with your lanterns and set them free into the night sky!(I asked if it was bad luck to have more than one lantern...) Its also customary to set firecrackers off - kind of like Guy Fawkes - I think thats just thrown in to entertain the kids. So there is a load of things to see!The festival also involves parades over the course of the week and can be likened to a Thai version of Mardi Gras I suppose! Its very spiritual too, and there are literally candles on all the houses and decorations of flowers everywhere. Too beautiful, the atmosphere is amazing. The first couple of days I was there I just walked a shit load to familiarize myself. Went to some amazing night markets and saw some lovely and very sad things! Unfortunately when you are in areas where there are tourists and poor people, you get begging.I can brush beggars off - but when someone with no eyes/arms/legs etc in a dirt poor country begs - it does break your heart. I saw lots of amazing temples - Chiang Mai is known for them and there is a sense of peace when you spend some time in these beautiful places. Went to a couple of bars in the evening and met some fun people. Booked myself on a hiking and biking day trip in the mountains - I was worried when I heard the other 3 people on the trip talking about the training they were doing for their next "marathon". 26km later - very red in the face, sweating like a pig and with a seriously sore butt,I can honestly say it was probably the best day I have had in 6 months. We walked through some amazing scenery and didnt come across anyone else until the very end of the day. After having spent the time in cities for the last 10 days it was just lovely to get out into the greenery to clear my head. I saw my first rice paddy!! Totally worth it and I realised I have a lot more will power than I thought I did. On another day I went on a trip to an elephant sanctuary - another heart breaking yet also heart warming tale. Back in the day when logging was still being done, the elephants were used to work. A act in itself which I think is awful! Anyway - logging is now illegal, which left quite a few thousand elephants out of work. With the flourishing tourism in thailand this now led them into other ways of exploiting these amazing animals. The park we went to is run by a woman who actually buys the abused elephants from the owners - and lets them live a happy old life on the huge land she has. She also does several other things involving educating people about how to treat them, and getting new laws drawn up to protect them. She gets elephants from people who either were using them to beg in the streets or abusing them in general etc. The day is spent feeding them, having swims in the river with them and having a delicious lunch at the place. A really nice day - however I did feel it was a bit busy with tourists for my liking! But its money that goes to a good cause and all the ellies there seem happy as can be!
In the evenings I went out to some of the social hotspots, and had a blast on the one evening that left me seriously hungover. I met up with different people, and bar hopped to some pretty cool places! Totally random little bars on street corners and of course loads of travellers in them.
I met up with a dude who invited me to go on a bike trip with him out of the city - so the following day we hired a motorbike and headed out. Now I know you might say: A bike trip with a complete stranger - into the mountains.. is this completely safe? Well he seemed nice enough so I thought what the heck!
We left the following day at about 2pm.. what we were aiming to do was just go for a ride for a couple of hours into prettier scenery in the surrounding countryside. We had to be back for the festivities in the evening...WELL. NICE PLAN.
First of all we got caught in a serious thunder storm - were only wearing t-shirts and shorts and riding through the mountains the temp got progressively cooler. We were freezing to death. Fortunately I had a beach towel in my bag, which I wrapped around me! We then got completely lost and were riding on like dirt roads with serious erosion craters in... A tell tale sign that we were heading in the wrong direction might have been that the only person we saw for about 2 hrs was a lonesome tribal looking dude with a hunting rifle. I did have a moment of panic and had visions of hanging above a cauldron with the local villagers rubbing their hands in delight whilst looking at my juicy loins. Luckily he wasnt a cannibal and gave us some directions. It was getting dark by now - oh and the bike was also without a fuel gage - so we had NO idea how much more petrol we had! Worst case scenario we knew it was only about 60kms back, only issue was this is 60km through the mountains on a rickety old bike with basically NO lights. When I say it was pitch dark, I mean PITCH dark.... we had to go about 20kms an hour. I of course had gone past the stage of being worried and just found everything absolutely hysterical. It was such a series of things going bad that it was funny. At one stage I actually had the giggles so bad I almost wet myself. The guy - Dan is British, and has that amazingly super sarcastic sense of humour. He kept a running commentary the whole way home which had me in stitches. Oh and there was one point where I thought I had dropped my camera and in reflex I prodded him in the ribs on a hair pin bend. He skidded to a halt and turned around and looked at me - and was like "WHAT THE FUCK WAS THAT FOR?!" my response was: "WHERE IS MY CAMERA?!!"... Taking into consideration we hadnt stopped yet, I dont know how in he was supposed to know but it was just a reflex reaction to my panic!! Of course this would be the SECOND camera I would have lost. His response was something along the lines of "WELL, CONSIDERING I HAVE BEEN CONCENTRATING ON NOT KILLING US ON THIS BIKE, I WOULD SAY HOW THE FUCK AM I SUPPOSED TO KNOW?! I suppose at times I can be a little bossy - hahaha. Luckily my camera was safely in my bag as it turns out. We eventually got home about 4 hours later than planned and all is well. A funny experience/adventure.
My last day and night in Chiang mai was pretty cool - went another bike trip to a lake and just chilled for a few hours, had some time in the sun and ate some yummy food. The evening was going absolutely mental with activity and it was the official night to start off the festival celebrations. All over the city and along the river thousands of people letting off crackers, there lanterns and then the little floats for the rivers. There were bands playing everywhere - pop up food stalls and just a really buzzy atmosphere. I bought a special little float/krathong and lit it and made my offering. I then headed to a temple and watched in delight as loads of monks were letting off their lanterns. Such a spiritual sight! I got my little lantern and had a thai lady help me light it - I said my wishes and let it off into the sky. The festival is held in conjunction with the full moon - so you can only imagine the sight of seeing literally THOUSANDS of these lanterns light up the sky. It was sublime. I felt quite emotional about it all and headed off to a local bar to get a drink. Went to this delightful place and had a few beers and something to eat whilst chatting to some fellow travellers.
We then went back down to the river and saw some amazing fire works.
It was lovely, but part of being on your own when you travel means at times like these - which are truly romantic in every sense, you do get a little envious of all the couples enjoying their moments. I was totally drunk by this stage and was just staggering around miserably swearing at anyone looking remotely caught up in the moment - "IT WILL NEVER FUCKING LAST", "YOUR LOVE LANTERNS SUCK", "YOUR MAKING ME WANT TO VOMIT ON MYSELF" and a range of genuine heart felt sentiments. I did also point out to a few people that whilst the lanterns looked glorious and lovely now flying up in the sky all together feeling all smug and pretty, eventually they would run out of steam, float back down to earth and then be left in some remote place. Alone. and used. and dirty. HA HA - look who is laughing now you stupid smug little bastard love lanterns, LOOK WHO IS LAUGHING NOW!
But not that I am bitter or anything. Totally fine.
I think in hindsight I should have stayed at the lantern release area with the monks. The celibate monks made me happy. Hindsight... Hahaha - okay honestly - it was still amazing :)
ANYHOO! I am now getting ready to go into the Lao jungle - wish me luck!
Should touch bases in a few days.
Gypsy Regdelp signing out.
Ps. I will post photos when I can be bothered to download them..arrggh.
xoxoxoxo
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