Back to BKK

Bangkok

We caught the overnight train from Chiang Mai to BKK. Overnight trains and buses always seem like a good idea until you actually arrive at your destination at 6AM sleep-deprived and disoriented. Luckily, we sort of knew our way around Bangkok. In the interest of time, we thought it best to straight to the Chatuchak Market. Well, that turned out to be a horrible idea.

First of all, the market has no luggage deposit so we were stuck with our backpacks. They were only 30L so not a huge burden, but still uncomfortable and clunky. After getting some food and iced coffee, I motivated to do some souvenir shopping. I never do souvenir shopping and I quickly remembered why. I totally got ripped off. After 5 months of arguing hard for everything, I totally got ripped off. Second, the market is not so captivating the second time around. All of the vendors and their products just seemed a lot less enchanting .

Finally, after an indirect bus ride back to Khao San Road area, we went back to the place we stayed before. Khao San Road was even less amusing, but I was glad to be able to have some ‘muesli’ and fruit. My partner had a flight at some odd hour like 1am, so I walked him to the bus stop (really cheap airport shuttle) and said goodbye for a few days.

At that moment, I suddenly realized that our adventure was over and I was really sad. As I walked back to the guesthouse, I felt free though. I felt the feeling of anonymity that I love feeling in cities. I walked along and I could have stopped anywhere and told the people thee anything. There’s something about being able to be anyone you want that is really appealing. I asked some strangers to open my beer at a gas station near the guesthouse. They invited me to join them, but I had tim-tams to eat and packing to do.

More Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai:

While there are definitely some over-touristy parts of the city, Chiang Mai turned out to be better than expected. I think it was mostly due to the fact that we had a scooter. We stopped at a different market almost every day on our way back from climbing and sampled everything that appeared strange and new. The people in Northern Thailand seemed a lot nicer. Plus, we knew our numbers now since it was the same as Lao so I’m sure that helped out a lot at markets.

Food: Papaya salad was a maintstay in our diet. We were concerned about getting enough protein (b/c we were expending so much effort climbing) so we frequented the eggs-on a stick woman. I don’t know how it works but somehow the yolk just blends in and so the yolk isn’t like a hardboiled egg but the white is. We also found some chicken on a stick guys. A lot of the food vendors weren’t willing to negotiate which was sort of discouraging, but we ended up scoring some good stuff. I developed an unhealthy addiction to mango sticky rice. It was about 25 baht outside of town and 30-35 at our ‘local’ market. I think it involved butter, condensed milk, salt, sugar, and mango, but there was nothing like it after a hard day of climbing. That and our ridiculously cheap beer substitute- yum!

Chocolate: So, I had this challenge the whole time I was in Asia. I’m a chocolate eater. I enjoy cheap sketchy chocolate. But, I didn’t want to buy US candy bars while in Asia. Especially for more money than I would spend in the US. We went to this one chocolate/coffee boutique place in chiang mai and it was sort of a waste. I don’t know how many times I have fallen for this (and will fall for it again), but baked goods that aren’t quite sweet enough will never satisfy my chocolate cravings. Tim-tams (even though they are the ‘Asian’ modified kind) were my lifesavers. If you don’t know what tim-tams are, find your nearest Aussie.

Errands: We found a few other markets around northern Chiang Mai that were pretty interesting. It’s hilarious how the ‘geared for tourists’ market are starkly different from the local parts. We found the ‘dried fruit and tea’ section of the market and bargained for dried strawberries, lychee, and bael fruit (for making tea.) We later went upstairs where all the women were calling to us in English and trying to charge us double the price. Unfortunately, the US wouldn’t let the bale fruit in, but it made it all the way across the pacific.

I also took our ‘off day’ in Chiang Mai as an opportunity to get some much needed pages added to my passport. It’s sort of neat that I’ve been to 4 different continents and lots of different countries. Of course I want to see the whole world, but filling up a passport was an accomplishment, in a weird way. It also helps that the Asian countries all give visas that take up 1 page. Why can’t they just have stamps like everyone else ? 

Thailand-Round 2

The Thai/Lao New Year sort of wrecked our plans. We budgeted more time in Laos because of our first negative impressions in Thailand. Five months of travel sounds like a lot, but when there are only a few weeks left, it seems like there is this great pressure to do so much and see so much to make up for the previous 4 months of slacking.

Anyhow, one expensive flight from Luang Prabang to Chiang Mai later, we were back in Thailand. This time with the potential to stay 30 days. Too bad we only had 2 weeks. After walking from the airport to town, we found a ‘cheap’ place to stay. For 150 baht per night, we secured ourelves a room at what we later called the burnout hotel. It had free wifi and felt relatively safe.

We got down to business immediately: locate the climbing shop. We paid ridiculous amounts for the rope rental but it got us started. The climbing is about 45 min. outside of chiang mai. I was amazed at what we found when we got there. There were bathrooms, signs containing lots of information, bamboo shelters, fences, etc. I guess the climbing shop is trying to be responsible with its monopoly. Although, it was interesting how they wanted donations for the water fund yet there only appeared to be water whenever they had clients.

So, we settled into 5 or 6 days of serious climbing. First, we rented a scooter from our burnout hotel. Scooters are so great. Then, every morning, we went to the same lady to get Cambodian style noodle soup and iced coffee. After, we would split up and gather the necessary supplies for the days nourishment: the sweet rice treats, fruit, waffles, and whatever else look portable and interesting.

Next, we would drive out to the climbing spot. We had a 3rd climbing buddy for a few days. It was interesting to climb with someone else. People have different methods and preferences. The days sort of blur together now, but I earned some tim-tams by on-sighting a few 6A routes. After 1 day of completely flailing, something clicked and I felt like I could climb anything. There was one 6C that completely shut me down, but I cruised a few 6B’s and managed to climb a few 6C (with a few falls). I didn’t really realize it until I got back, but I love sport climbing. Limestone is pretty amazing. Climbing stalactites and crazy formations is my favorite thing.

Climbing still remains one of the weirdest things I have ever done. In no other sport that I participate in do you have to confront failure head on almost every day. But, I guess that is what makes success so sweet!