So last Thursday... Kayla Gebeck arrived in Thailand!!! Kayla and I are both in KDE at Dartmouth and she studied all winter term in New Zealand on the Linguistics FSP. She arrived around 10 and me and the boys took her right to Khao San road for some buckets and dancing!
The next day we woke up and booked our tickets to Chiang mai on an overnight bus (Friday night to Saturday morning). Then Kayla, Antoine, Niko, Issac, and I spent the afternoon at the Art and Cultural Center, Roaming around near Siam Paragon and Central World, and finally at an art exhibit outside of Central World featuring a French photographer.
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| This is the art exhibit we went to later in the day |
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| outside the Arts and Cultural center |
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| Inside the Art and Cultural center |
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| Food Fair! |
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| Beer ice cream... not my favorite |
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| The biggest toy car race track ever (outside Central world) |
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| The gang outside Central World |
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| Art Exhibit outside Central World |
Then that night we caught our bus to Chiang Mai at 10:45 PM and arrived at the Chiang mai bus terminal around 8:00 am. The bus we took was amazing. We had a bus attendant who served us free food and drinks, our chairs reclined to a 175 degree angle, and each chair was a massage chair.
On the bus we decided that once we got to the Chiang Mai bus station we would catch a bus to Pai, a small village 3 hours from Chiang Mai and in the mountains. So that's what we did.
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| Kayla was a bit jet lagged... |
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| Public bus we took from Chiang Mai to Pai |
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| Trying not to freak out when we were driving through the mountains because I though we were going to tip over |
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| Our bus |
After 3 hours of winding through the mountains on a public bus (I seriously thought the bus was going to tip over), we arrived in Pai and immediately booked a day and a half trek leaving the next morning.
Then we found a cute little bungalow on the river and explored the town a bit. Pai is a sleepy little town in the valley of the foothills of the Himalayas. Kayla and I treated ourselves to a nice oil massage and then rented motor bikes and drove out to Pai Canyon to watch the sunset. The view was amazing.
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| View from the bus to Pai |
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| Our Bungalow in Pai |
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| the bamboo bridge we needed to cross to get to town from our bungalow |
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| A Wat in Pai |
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| Sleeping Monk in the Wat |
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| Streets of Pai |
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| Hair waxing place in Pai... with some very poor translating |
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| Sunset at Pai Canyon |
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| We made it back in one piece this time |
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| Lizards! |
Then we headed back to town and went on our own little date at a nearby restaurant and then for a few drinks at a bar. It was great to have someone with me that reminded me of Dartmouth and KDE and the people I love back in the states.
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| Our dinner date... so romantic |
The next morning we left at 9:00 am and drove to the Lisu village about 45 km away from Pai.
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| An adorable puppy came to see us off on our trek |
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| Streets of Pai in the morning |
The trekking group consisted of Kayla and I, four german girls (3 med students and 1 law student), one german guy, and our tour guide Corn. Corn was amazing on the trip, he was not of any of the hill tribes we visited but his grandparents had been of the Karuhn people so he new a lot of the customs and the language. Also the trekking organization he worked for gave about 15 to 20 percent of the earnings from the treks to the hill tribes for medicine and water and things.
So we started in a Lisu village and headed up the hills into the mountains. For awhile we were trekking straight up but the path got easier as we headed into the bamboo forest. Here Corn made us cups from bamboo trees and a device to boil water to make tea and coffee for lunch. He also found a cumin root which he dug up to put in the homemade whiskey we would drink later that night.
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| Lisu Village |
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| The villagers |
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| About to start our Trek! |
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| We were basically going straight up for the whole beginning of the trip |
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| Cumin from the plant root that Corn dug up |
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| Corn searching for some good bamboo to make us cups |
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| Kayla in the Bamboo forest |
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| Bamboo cups for tea and coffee |
We ate lunch near a stream in the forest. Our bowls for the friend rice were made out of banana plants and sewn together with bamboo, our tea was cooked in a bamboo shoot and we drank from bamboo cups. So cool.
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| Corn making us bowls out of banana tree leaves and bamboo stitching |
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| Fried rice with egg for lunch... yum :) |
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| Our tea cooking |
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| Corn made a fishing rod out of bamboo as well and actually caught a few fish |
So I just realized I have a limit to the number of pictures I can put on each blog so I will continue this trip on a different post... to be continued....
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