CB in .th

First of all, Happy Labor Day to all of my American friends. I hope you had a nice 3-day weekend. I didn’t even realize that it was this weekend until Monday. I thought I would get bummed out when I missed out on a US holiday, but I guess not.

One thing that I have missed this year is the Great Minnesota Get-Together – the State Fair. I think I’ve gone every year since I was about 5, so it was a little sad to miss it this year. (And, I know that my friends Jed & Alison are missing it too, while living in Italy). But, fear not – I did have a hotdog on a stick this weekend. But, unlike in America, it didn’t come wrapped in Corn Dog batter (or if you want a vastly inferior product, Pronto Pup batter). No – my hot dog came wrapped in a waffle. An interesting taste – pretty good actually.

As mentioned in my last entry, I’ve ventured North to the Land of Smiles… Thailand. I spent a long weekend vacationing in the northern city of Chiang Mai, hanging out with my friends ReAnn, Jon, and Pooklook & Brian (along with the rest of their family).

This was my first time to Chiang Mai (Thailand’s 2^nd largest city, after Bangkok), and I’ll definitely be back. It’s a wonderful city. It’s up in the mountains of Northern Thailand, so it’s much cooler than Bangkok. This was by far the most pleasant weather I’ve experienced in Thailand. It had to be in the low 80s in the city, and when we got up into the mountains, probably in the mid 70s.

The weekend was packed full of activities, although we didn’t get to do what we had planned. We planned to go on a 2 day trek up to an area called Doi Inthanon. But, Chiang Mai has been getting tons of rain lately, and there has been lots of flooding. Plus, we were going to be heading deep into the jungle, and there were concerns about malaria with all the rain. So, we cancelled those plans & went on several day trips.

On Friday, we went up to an Elephant Reserve (passing washed out roads, and flooded streets along the way). When we arrived, there were some elephants putting on a show – one was painting (and doing a pretty good job… for an elephant). One was punting a soccer ball that it dropped from its trunk, one was twirling a hoola hoop from it’s trunk & playing a harmonica. They even had two people come out from the audience to get a Thai massage from the elephants – getting patted on the back with their trunk, and tapped with their foot. Pretty brave actually, trusting that the elephant wouldn’t put its weight on that foot.

The best part of the day was the ride that we took through the jungle on the backs of some elephants. I was on the back of a giant bull elephant. It was a little unnerving, since I was sitting really high up in a basket that was held on by a rope (which the handler had to re-tie during the ride), and we were walking on really muddy ground near some pretty steep slopes.

On Sunday, ReAnn, Jon, and I were on our own. Pooklook & her family all had plans, but she was nice enough to arrange a day full of activities. She hired a driver for us, and we drove up to Doi Suthep, a nearby mountain. He dropped us off (and waited for us) while we walked up several hundred steps to a really cool temple at the top. The temple has a really cool viewing area that overlooked the city. The mountain was shrouded in clouds, so you could only see the city when you walked to the ledge. If you took a few steps back, all you saw was clouds beyond the granite wall.

After Doi Suthep, we stopped for lunch, and then drove an hour or so to who knows where. We stopped on some roadside stand for our next adventure – bamboo rafting. They drove us a few miles up stream, and then we walked to the river where a bunch of bamboo rafts were waiting. Don’t get the wrong idea when I say ‘raft’. These were a bunch of bamboo stalks tied together to make a platform that’s about 50 feet long & 4 feet wide. I wound up on the back end, ‘helping’ steer the raft through the river with a bamboo pole. The guide did most of the work from up front, and was able navigate around rocks & branches while constantly pointing out that I was pushing on the wrong side of the raft. I only fell in once, which actually was really refreshing, since I was getting hot from all the pushing & trying to keep my balance.

By the way – flying AirAsia was really disappointing! They messed up my flights both going to & coming back from Chiang Mai. I was supposed to go up at 12:30pm on Thursday. Well, that flight got cancelled, and I got bumped to 8:40pm (fortunately I was able to change my flight from Singapore, so I wasn’t sitting at the airport for 10 hours). Then, the 8:40 flight got changed to 9:30. When I got to the airport, I found that the 9:40 flight was delayed to 10:25pm, and then to 10:45. We finally boarded & took off around 11:00pm. On the way back, our flight was cancelled, so I had to wait another 3 hours. Fortunately, I had ReAnn & Jon to hang out with on that leg.

Now the vacation is done, and it’s time to work. I flew back to Bangkok, and got picked up at the airport for the 2 ½ hour drive up to Korat. I’ll be working here for the next 2 or so weeks.