Tarts in Thailand

Our journey since leaving Laos has come to resemble the path of a coked-up chicken running around sans head as opposed to the organized procession it once was. This makes writing a blog entry a little more complicated but I'll give it the good ol' college try.

After the harrowing bus journey to the Thai border I wrote about earlier, we arrived at the border town of Chiang Khong. Here I got the first inkling that something was amiss in Thailand due to the 'retro' sign posts on the river bank that proclaimed we were now leaving 'Indochina' and entering the glorious kingdom of 'Siam'. Perhaps the sign-changers have yet to hit this land crossing and are still stuck back in 1939/49... or had I warped back in time?

Turns out that upon hitting Thailand we were still in the 1940's in a number of respects and yet very much in the 21st century in others. Thailand is an interesting country full of strange contradictions. From the very beginning it was painfully evident that the famed sex-trade was still very much alive and kicking... Old, white men paraded around the towns and cities with lackadaisical (and VERY young) Thai girls or sometimes boys on their arms. Big bucks are made with dubious 'Thai Massage' and sex shows. At the same time, the society is fiercely proud of their long-standing king (apparently there is harsh punishment for belittling him in public) and is seemingly very conservative in other ways.

Anyway, from the border we took a VERY speedy mini-bus ride to the northern base of Chiang Mai... Here I should wax poetic about how much everything has changed in the 15 years since I first set foot in this place, as a tender 10 year old, but I can't as I don't remember a damn thing. That said, Chiang Mai is a nice city but is absolutely FILLED with western stuff (read: Starbucks, McD's, shady trekking companies promising forays into untouched ethnic villages, scantly clad tourists etc.)... I'll take a giant leap here and say that it has changed a lot in the last few years.

I had mixed emotions upon entering Thailand. On one hand I was overjoyed to finally be back in an area with some creature comforts. On the other hand I felt like I had been prematurely ripped from the warm, comfortable and relaxing arms of mama-Laos. Once the novelty of coffee shops, book stores and gazing at scantly-clad tourists wore off I was left with an overwhelming sense of annoyance at how touristy everything was. During our stay in CM we visited LOTS of Wats, went on a really long and fruitless bike ride in search of the illusive museum and participated in a really interesting 'monk-chat'.

The highlight of our sightseeing circuit was definitely the monk-chat. While walking through one of the temple complexes we happened upon a sign advertising a free chat with a novice monk. Apparently, in Thailand they do this to let the monks practice their English and to allow foreigners to find out more about life as a monk and the basic tenets of Buddhism. Amy and I, along with a friendly French-Canadian guy, spent a good 2 hours picking the monks brain about the Buddhist idea of how life began, the origin of Buddha and of course the role of women in Buddhism (he wasn't too enthused with this one haha). I'll leave it to Amy to discuss this further because she is much better at explaining this sort of thing.

Another thing that made Chiang Mai a bit more interesting was (another) chance meeting with a Nina and Sheri (a couple from Ottawa we have been meeting a lot en route), Nina's sister Raquel and friend Barrett (from Edmonton!). We happened to be staying at the same guesthouse, the amazing CM Blue House, run by a couple of guys from the US. Anyway, we were able to take advantage of the good company for a few days. Raquel and Barret happened to be massage experts and convinced Amy and I to try the famous Thai massage (not the type with a 'happy ending' haha). As my first experience with a professional massage I was shocked to find that it felt like I was being stomped on by an elephant... My shoulders were stiff for three days after. I was assured that the more I go, the better it will feel. After trying one more time in Bangkok I vowed never to let the tiny, and perhaps a little sadistic, Thai ladies touch me ever again.

From Chiang Mai we took a bus all the way to the former old capital (1238-1438) of Sukhothai. The draw of Sukhothai is exploring the ruins of the old city. I wasn't expecting much, having been to Angkor, but the ruins were quite impressive and walking around the area was a lovely way to spend a day.

From the relative serenity of Sukhothai we plunged head-first into manic Bangkok. The city itself is alright, cosmopolitan and interesting. However, nothing could prepare me for being dropped in the middle of the young traveler ghetto of Khao San Road. As one woman we met put it, Khao San encompasses the worst parts of Western and Thai culture... Street stalls selling the all-important souvenir t-shirts, fisherman pants, cheap (and skimpy) bathing suits and VERY expensive beer/food. Very young-looking travelers (freshly crispy from their trip to the islands) spend all their time walking around beer in hand, trying SO hard to fit in with the scene they look painfully uncomfortable. Everyday, the street looked like a huge festival was taking place and every night a huge contingent of cleaners was employed to take away all the garbage from the area. In a nutshell... YUCK!

All that aside, once we ventured away from the tourist ghetto the city felt a lot more normal. We spent one full day burning up the pavement... We walked through Chinatown, explored the center of the city and even ended up visiting the infamous Patpong area (famous for all the sex shows/girly bars). Apart from walking around we visited the vast Royal Palace complex. This area includes the former residence of the king as well as Wat Phra Kew that houses the Emerald Buddha... Apparently it's actually made of jade and is so important that it has a robe for each season. Wat Pho was another must-see as it houses the giant reclining Buddha that's on all the postcards, as well as a famously old school of Thai Massage and medicine.

At this point we were sick of Thailand and made an uncharacteristically impulsive move... we booked a ticket from Bangkok to Borneo!