Not Thai-ered - Week #2

So apparently I'm an epic failure at writing up-to-date blogs... but that just means that I'm having too many adventures to stop and write all of them down as they are happening.  Orrrr it just means the internet in our hostel is sketchy, maybe a combination of the two.

Well a LOT has happened since my last post, but I'm just gonna keep going chronologically and recount week #2 and see how far I get after that.  Most of the week consisted of exploring the area around our hostel, attending the first real week of classes, and getting to know each other.  Everyone in the program is amazing, and I am looking forward to getting to know them better in the upcoming weeks.  Learning (which is a VERY loose term in this case) to speak Thai is probably the hardest class, even though it's not technically graded.  Our teacher Nan, a bubbly, energetic, cute young Thai english teacher, keeps encouraging us to incorporate Thai into our daily lives.  Therefore the next morning I tried to to order the chicken rice soup in Thai - "Caaaw tom yum gay kah?", this was met with a blank stare, an awkward silence, and ended with the waiter shuffling away and me feeling uncomfortable.

I ended up with something completely different than what I had attempted order, but oh well - maybe better luck next time.  So far my attempts at speaking Thai have have had varied responses:

1. Blank stares
2. Giggling followed by blank stares
3. Smiles while they look around to their fellow Thais as if nonchalantly asking "What the hell is she trying to say?"
4. A combination of all of the above

It seems like some people, especially at the market pretend that they don't know what you're talking about even if they do in fact understand you.  Especially those frog ladies I was telling you about in my first post - you can practically scream MAI CHAI GODDAMNIT (which basically means not yes) followed with a "kha" - to be polite despite the yelling of course - and they just stare at you like you're from outerspace and then thrust more bracelets and frogs at you.  Frustrating...  

So one of our finds amidst our exploration of Chiang Mai the first week was an eccentric little roof top bar called "THC" which stands for Tribal Heritage Conservation - so they say, I think its just a clever name to attract traveling hippies and stoners into their bar.  We were enticed in by the sounds of reggae and the brightly colored prayer flags.  Since it's on the roof you go up all these crazy flights of stairs and through passage ways where most people have to duck their heads (not the midget 5'4" girl of course - much to the amusement of the fellows I was with).  Once to the top, you take off your shoes and can choose a place to sit on the ground among the various brightly colored pillows and low tables.  It had a great vibe to it and a beautiful view, since it was at sunset.  Definitely I place I'd like to return to...

The following Saturday was the first of our field trips coordinated through the program.  We traveled around the local Chiang Mai area and toured various factories that produced items such as ceramics, silk, silver, jewelry, and so forth.  While it was interesting to see how things were made, we quickly learned that "factory tours" is a loose term that more accurately described a clever marketing scheme to entice naive tourists into their souvenir shops.  One glorious part however was the double decker bus we used to travel around from place to place - it had curtains, air conditioning, and seats that reclined back almost all the way - veryyy nice :) 

My favorite stop was probably the silk factory, we got to see the different stages of how silk is made, from the silk worms to cocoons and then eventually the lovely stage where the cocoons (and little wormies inside) are essentially boiled alive while their respective cocoons are turned into silk string.  Kind of gnarly but the finished product is beautiful silk.

The next day was our first free day to do whatever we wanted - some people chose to take their scooters to a small town called Pai a few hours away, while others explored what Chiang Mai had to offer.  As for me and two friends, Arielle and Julie, we decided to try our luck hiking up approximately 12 km to a temple called Wat Prathat Doi Suthep.  It's at the top of this mountain, at the end of a curvy road that  can easily be accessed via song tow (the red taxi trucks) or scooter.  So naturally we decided to attempt to hike there instead - good idea in theory, not so much in action.  Although we had heard from various people that there is indeed a trail to the top, we didn't have any specifics as to where it started.  We asked multiple people at the bottom of the mountain if they knew how to hike to the top (of course this was done primarily with poor sign language and some ridiculous charades that involved lots of pointing to the top of the mountain coupled with exaggerated marching in place motions) and did not get much of a response.  Most people didn't understand what we were asking, others said it was too far, and most just said "taxi taxi" - apparently hiking to the top isn't a popular past time for Thai people.  Stubborn and determined we decided to hike part way up the road to a cut-off for a waterfall/national park and ask the park rangers there.  To our excitement, the rangers told us that there was indeed a trail but that we couldn't take it because it was too dangerous.  We tried to figure out what exactly "dangerous" meant to a Thai park ranger, trying to act out falling, too steep, slippery, tigers, etc apparently is a very comical sight and was met with laughter from the rangers.  Oh well.  So we hiked up to the waterfall anyways to see if we could figure out our own way up.
The waterfall was small but beautiful, and we felt accomplished for at least making it SOMEWHERE of consequence.  After exploring for a bit we came across a trail that had a sign with a big "X" on it.  A few minutes later a group of rangers and white people (an anomaly at times) came down the trail, we asked them if there was a way up to the temple and they said there was but it was currently closed because two people slipped and fell on a trail that was adjacent to the waterfall and one was severely injured and the other died. So THAT'S what the initial ranger meant about the trail being too dangerous.  Drat.  Discouraged, sweaty, and hot we turned around to hike 2 km back down to the road where we started.  We did procure vague directions of another way to hike up to the top from one of the white people who spoke English, but that that point over 4 hours had passed and we had not made very significant progress.  We finally conceded defeat, hailed down a song tow, bartered so that we could pay half price (we had hiked part way up the hill afterall), and made it to the top.  The temple was beautiful, but much more modern and tourist-y than I had initially expected.  It was built 700 years ago, but has been renovated many times throughout the years.  Apparently the Thais do not believe that historical temples do not lose any spiritual significance with extensive repairs and modern materials.

Hot, discouraged, hungry, disgruntled, and defeated.  Waiting on the side of the road for the next Song Tow :(

Looking goooood.  REAL good.  Hiking shoes + sweat + headbands + dresses = pure classiness

Hmmm. Uncomfortable. 

Buddha!

Gold scaffolding and all. 

and finally:

Always remember, when in doubt put helmets and yourself and leave your baby to fend for itself. If it falls off, too bad. Survival of the fittest at its finest.  Haha.

Well, till next time!  Stay uncomfortable, stay classy.  

Bangkokroaches

Mmmmm... lovely.  

Not really in bangkok, but the name's too good to pass up.  The bugs here are INTENSE.  Enough said.