recap

i'd love to regale everyone with my observances of all the backwardsness and absurdity that is life in thailand, but first i should give a quick history of what my trip has entailed up 'til now. it's been about a week (i'm having trouble keeping track, as i've all but lost the ability to sleep), so i'll make this as short as possible...

i arrived in bangkok just after midnight on feb. 15th, and headed straight to khao san road in the banglamphu neighborhood. this is the backpacker's ghetto, and supposedly a good place to acclimate yourself. it's also an ideal spot for starting up conversations with dreadlocked europeans who left their soap at home. my first impressions of this place were that it's ridiculously overcrowded, and full of people who want to sell you anything under the sun (tours, food, booze, clothes, fake IDs, trinkets, themselves, etc). after a few hrs. sleep, i walked around town a bit, and met an interesting guy from chiang mai (northern thailand) who showed me all around the area and helped to fill me in on thai life and culture. after grabbing a few drinks, he took me by a TAT office (official thai gov't approved travel agency), and convinced me to take a a 3-day trek based outta his home town. was he a tout trying to sell me on this, or someone just proud of his own turf who wanted to make sure it was enjoyed by others? i don't know, but maybe it's not a coincidence that we went to grab drinks before receiving a sales pitch at the agency. seeing as i wanted to head up to chiang mai anyway, i went ahead and signed up with them. at least with a planned tour, i'd be sure to get travel accomodations, as well as an elephant ride, visit to a hill tribe, and a bamboo rafting trip.

though the TAT office had a nice, professional atmosphere, it turns out they are just as ass-backwards as everything else in this country. they botched my ride to the airport, took me to see the wrong tribe (a mellow mountain people who subside on hawking their wares to tourists, as opposed to the long-necked freaky looking folks who i was looking forward to gawking at), and apparently didn't secure our guest house rooms on the final night. in all, they were a total hassle. fuck them and the elephants they rode in on.

in actuality, the trek was a lot of fun. there were 8 of us in total, ranging from such obscure locales as argentina, spain and venice, california. that's right, after traveling over 9,000 miles, i'm hanging on to dear life in the back of a pickup with someone from my own neighborhood.

our adventures started with the elephant ride, which was mildly entertaining. sure, it was fun, but like a jet-ski, the appeal was a novelty that wore off after about 5 minutes. however, unlike a jet-ski, there were was the looming threat that the tempremental beast would shake me off and stomp me to death at any moment. i think my favorite part of the ride was when my elephant (i called him Stampy) stopped to let loose an earth-shaking fart and bowel movement. like me, Stampy's also not fond of squat toilets; he went right in the middle of the trail. thankfully, he was the lead elephant. i felt bad for everyone behind me. and even worse for everyone behind my elephant!

afterwards, we began the trek, which was to take us to various outposts over the next couple nights. we got to see a few of those rice-growing steppes, which were quite a sight, but are apparently far more beautiful during the wet season (i.e., a few months from now). other than that, the hiking really wasn't much different than going through the woods of wisconsin. just a few bigger bugs, which carried more threatening diseases. our first night was spent with members of the karen tribe. well, it wasn't exactly spent with them, just near them. the only interactions we had were trying desperately to turn down their excessive hawking of goods. i think a few of us were guilted into buying various trinkets, in part to help out the tribe, but also in an (unsuccessful) attempt to get them to leave us alone. though the karen people speak their own language, they have no words for "no thank you" or "personal space."

afterwards, more trekking, visits to waterfalls, and finally, the bamboo rafting trip. this part was a hoot. picture nine thick bamboo reeds of various lengths tied together. now throw one gondolier on top, and a handful of tourists behind him. this was an amazingly fun (and dangerous) way to wind down the excursion. we ran into rocks, the shore, other rafts, splashing each other and yelling for dear life the whole way. needless to say, bamboo does not make for great footholds. we were nearly thrown off a handful of times, and a couple of the less fortunate rafts capsized. i found out afterwards that there have been a few fatalities on this trip, which really isn't surprising.

so, the trek came to an end, i spent another night in chiang mai, then headed back to bangkok and now have plans to leave in a few hours for the full moon party on kho pha ngan island, down south. i've heard mixed reviews of what to expect, but i can be certain that i'll have to face an endless supply of backpackers and techno music. should be interesting, to say the least.

i'll try to add more soon, and hopefully some pictures.