The great explorersI was deviating from the plan before I even got on the plane as I started planning on going North and then South which I rapidly changed to South then North to fit around a diving trip. This all changed again on about my third day in Thailand when I found out that the weather down south was unnaturally dire and ended up heading east (even though I had had no intention of going in this direction at all).
This great teacher I had at school comes to mind. He was called Doctor Peevey - he taught RS and we didn’t give a damn about most of the subject but once our relationship had found an unsettled balance(I think I made up a new excuse for not having done my homework every week for a term until he stopped asking for it) he came out with some fascinating insights into life and spirituality. Most prominently I remember one lesson where I hadn’t heard a thing (too busy daydreaming) until he piped up with “I’m going to tell you something really useful. The key to life is to have a plan”. I think it’s a good key to take with you and it’s definitely been a useful idea, but a lot of enjoyment and self confidence and adventure arises from deviating from the plan...so anyway.
There were a few things I was DEFINITELY not going to do. Things like drinking tap water*, letting a tuk-tuk driver take me on a route with -insert random number- stops, staying in dorms with just boys*, going into possible malaria zones without malarials* etc etc. (Take a wild guess as to what the * stands for.) One of the most prominent of these was getting on a motorbike/scooter of any sort. There’s too many stories in my family tree of motorbike accidents and only this April I met a couple who were same side leg amputees after a biking accident and took away far too many details about how this came about. It also seems to crop up in every “dangers and annoyances” section of every Lonely Planet page associated with Thailand. ******!
Sooooo deviating from the plan….
The morning of our departure for the big mountainous adventure I went to yoga with Tom (from Koh Samet) and then returned to the hostel to meet Rowan to make plans. Tom had decided to join us and we agreed we’d need to rent another bike so Rowan gave him a…er crash course and set him off to practice for a while around the town.
Half an hour later I’d long finished packing and we’d seen and heard nothing from Tom. Another half hour later we’d both been out to look for him around the nearest blocks and Rowan was on the phone to the tourist police to try to get the number of the local hospital. Tom rocks up with a load of scratches down his arm and no bike. He’d panicked at a junction and naturally reacted by driving into a car smashing a wing mirror and his confidence.
Tom left a permanent mark in Chiang Mai
So Tom took the extortionate 40baht (80p) bus to Chiang Dao and I hopped onto the back of Rowan’s motorbike (*). The trip was spectacular. The views of the sun setting across the mountains were stunning and then we hit the winding jungle roads where we’d occasionally pass through pockets of moist (cool) air for which neither of us was appropriately dressed - cue slightly awkward hugging to keep us warm. We wafted through amazing aromas of barbecuing pork and chicken from every road-side stall and waved at children and wrinkly grandmothers sat in makeshift sidecars. Heavenly.
The ride to Chiang Dao
The feeling of adventure was slightly tarnished (in more of a polishing than blackening way) when we realized how lush our accommodation was. An en suite brick hut in amongst these fruit and flower trees with our own porch and hammock and a gorgeous view of the huge mountain. Two massive double beds ("well I’m the only girl"), towels, hot water and the most adorable puppy running around yapping and nipping at our ankles.
Lucky and the boys
On our first morning we got up early, (played with the puppy while we waited for Tom to finish faffing) and headed into town with all three of us on the motorbike (when in Rome...). We wandered around the most authentic market I’ve seen yet. Markets in Chiang Mai and Bangkok are really just massive tourist traps, this was most definitely more about practical home products, clothes, food and the trade. We’d heard that the hills tribes people came down to trade and we did see one or two but not as many as expected - I resolved to ensure we took a trip to a village. We were pretty much the only white people there attracting wide-eyed stares from the children and furtive glances from the adults. One woman stopped me to ask me to take her picture so she could see it, others were excited to use their few English words - a lot of “hello”s.
A very happy Rowan
My favourite stop was with this woman filtering honey into bottles straight from the comb. It was the smoothest, most delicious honey I’ve ever tried and the boys and I spent the next half hour dipping our fingers into the cup I bought and getting ourselves suitably messy and hyper.
Fresh honey in the market
Beans, rice, herbs, roots, all sorts!
We and our cameras became an attraction. This woman asked to have her picture taken.
After wandering the market we rented me a (much nicer) motorbike (than Rowan’s :D) and headed up to a national park to explore. We’d had the foresight to grab some exciting looking fruits, leaf-wrapped coconut packages (to die for when smothered in that honey) and lime nuts for lunch which we wolfed down after scrambling all over yet another beautiful waterfall - this time with FAR fewer people oggling bikini-clad Sam. We were the only people there besides a Thai mother and her kids having lunch for ten minutes at the bottom.
A coconut pastey lunch
After all that exercise and the equivalent of asian cookies and milk the boys took a nap. We then ambled round a pretty herb garden, risked certain death playing on some logs that had fallen across a little brook, and then took a mini-hike along a nature trail up into the jungle. The crunchiest leaves I’ve ever known crackled under our feet making bird watching nigh-on impossible, but we made up for this by attempting to climb vine-suffocated trees and arguing over whether the landscape was more Star Wars or Star Trek and, upon a decision for the former, who was which character.
Layers of mountains
Coming down as the sun sank behind the jungle-covered hills we got on the bikes again and headed to some hot springs - exactly what we needed after our sweaty hike. We skipped the freezing showers and shamelessly jumped in as the sky turned pink and the few other visitors departed.
The heat was intense. It wasn't that it was particularly hot - comfortable hot bath temperature, maybe 38 celsius - but we were soaked/absorbed through with it and, unlike a bath, the constant flow of warm water meant that there was no reprieve. With a recommended 15minute maximum stay in the water Tom and I jumped out and hit the cold showers to hop back in for another soak. Dragonflies flitted around the pools and we watched the sun go down between the trees and the stars come out.
Hot springs in the dark
We took the motorbikes on the hour long ride back in the dark - the dark, me, all of a day's experience riding a motorbike, I don't think I've concentrated harder at many things in my life! We were also still sopping wet from the springs so Rowan and I in particular suffered a chilly ride and I was glad to have Tom to hug my tummy warm!
We found an excellent friendly little restaurant for dinner and were uncommonly excited (especially given the aforementioned bike ride) to find some really good ice cream!
I haven't slept as well as I did that night in a while!
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