Some months ago, my dear friend Anah (and Gustie alumni and track teammate), and Elizabeth (Anah's close friend and my new friend and owner of The Twin Cities' Colossal Cafes) set out planning a trip to Thailand. Anah and Elizabeth are the first of my friends and family from the West to visit me in the East. Throughout the trip, the theme for me became the ways that the East and the West are woven together. Having lived in the East for a relatively short time so far, I am really just beginning to ponder the ways that we are, if I may borrow a favorite Thai phrase, same-same-but-different. The trip provided a number of moments to contemplate the ways the East and West are mixed together in our globalized world.
It was after a couple of summer planning sessions with good wine and Thai food, that we were nearly prancing around the dinner table after nailing down the details, filled with anticipation of what adventure the trip would allow to unfold.
And as each day stretched out before us, adventure we did find.
We made our rendezvous at Loy La Long hotel in Bangkok. This was a gem of a find. One of those quaint places where you instantly feel at home. As I was waiting for Anah and Elizabeth to arrive the first morning, I sat in the breakfast area that opens up onto the river. A warm rain fell that day. While the tugboats puttered by, I meditated on the way I feel life is quite enchanting when I travel. I am not a believer in fairytales. Oh, I suppose there is some innocent romantic hidden inside my heart that wants to believe in some of that magic, but largely I am a skeptic. Except, each time that I experience a new place, I fall in love with life again with all of the excitement and anticipation erupting in my body, a lava of life flowing into my veins.
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| Breakfast views at Loy La Long |
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| Those chicken skewers, though. |
For our second day in Bangkok, our original plans to hang out at Lumpini Park were foiled by monsoon-like rains. So we looked up at the Heavens and said, "We got you, Universe. Time for Thai massage, right?" After asking two locals, we headed to Health Land, a Western looking spa, offering a very Eastern experience.
As we were sitting in the waiting area, it suddenly dawned on us that we did not know what we were walking into. In the 30 seconds before we were called, a quick Google search surfaced the words "acupressure," "Ayurvedic techniques" and "assisted yoga positions." We all walked into the room with three thin mattresses on the floor wearing quizzical expressions. First, we were asked to take off our clothes in order to dress in loose fitting pants and a tunic-like top. The two hour massage that followed was quite different than what these three Western women are used to. Suffice it to say, my muscles felt thoroughly stretched out after the woman giving me my massage had used her arm like a rolling pin all over my body, and had stretched my limbs in all directions. The trip afforded us time for a second Thai massage, and after having a better understanding of what the experience was going to be, I relaxed into it more deeply, vowing to find Thai massage in China. If you're interested, read more about it here, and if you are in the Twin Cities area, you might even call to make an appointment for your own Zen Experience.
After our day and a half in Bangkok, we set off for the north and landed in Chiang Mai. When we woke up that first morning, we planned to hike to a waterfall near Huay Tung Tao Lake. As our Uber driver was taking us there, the rain began to pour down harder, but the mood was lightened as our new Thai friend belted out Country Roads. When the song ended, he looked in the rear view mirrror and inquired, "Why the people vote for Trump?" We quickly all chimed in our own confusion over the election as we shook our heads and explained many people did not vote for him.
After arriving at the lake, we acknowledged that the rain again had thwarted our original plans, so we set out to run around the water a couple of times, enjoying a good soaking in our good natured ways.
While our time in Chiang Mai had begun with some activity, this part of the trip was ultimately defined by really. good. food. During lunch at the Tikky Cafe, I had to follow my favorite Italian (at least I once heard a fellow Italian utter it) mantra: Eat through the pain. I licked clean my pineapple filled with seafood and brown fried rice. With bellies protruding with Thai food babies, we wandered the old city for some hours, coming across lovely scenes and cool coffee shops.
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| Ristr8to had a chill vibe and served handcrafted coffee drinks in these skeletal glasses. |
We rolled ourselves into bed that night, indulging our bodies in food comas. This was only to wake up the next morning for an 8-hour Thai cooking class. Anah and I really dug learning how to make curry paste and Thai soups, though Elizabeth, as the restauranteur that she is, was less impressed with the experience. This is something to note if you are considering the Thai Farm Cooking School. Its target audience seems to be amateur chefs. I did find one of our instructors particularly entertaining as she repeated, "More spiiicy, more seeexy," "More hiiigh, more seeexy" (as she pinched salt into dishes from sky high), and "Take it eaasssy."
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| Three ladies, so seeexxy. |
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| I added extra chili peppers. You already know what's coming... More spiiicy, more seeexxyy! |
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| Here's Thailand, offering more enchanting moments. |
What I found particularly fascinating about this walk was the way that the old and the new, the East and the West, were juxtaposed. The ancient temples are now surrounded by new restaurants and shops. As the monks chant inside the temples, just next door, Western pop music blares out of speakers at the local establishments. While Elizabeth and I explored inside the temples, Anah hung out outside to people watch. When we returned from inside of one, she recounted watching a monk in his saffron robe and bare feet, exit the 7-Eleven across the street. All of this was just really fascinating.
Kind of in the same same but different way it is fascinating that our stomachs can hold so much food. On the way home from temple gazing and wine sipping, we discovered another restaurant serving tea leaf salad ... and bananas in coconut milk. Omg, I'm so stuffed thinking about this trip right now ... but just not stuffed enough to turn down another papaya salad if it knocked on my door.
We did follow up our day-o-eating with a day-o-hiking. With a good sense of adventure, we followed most of the directions in this blog to make our way on the Monk's Trail to arrive at Doi Sethup. About halfway up the trail, we came across a meditation area that was just stunning.
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| If were were to do this again, we all agreed we would have set out on the hike allowing more time to hang out here. |
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| A clear indication that this is the right path. Only foggy brained persons walk past ... |
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| After a 45-minute detour, we did find our destination after all. |
Luckily, in spite of all of this talk of food comas and food babies, we still felt rather small ... in comparison to the elephants we spent the day with at Patara Elephant Farm following our hike. This was an experience of a lifetime for me. But hanging out with these grand animals does not come with some responsibility. All over the world, humans and animals are exploited. In Thailand, elephants are often the animals terribly treated so that tourists can have an experience to write home about. My friend Sung shared an article that is worth reading if you are planning a trip to see the elephants. We had done some research before booking our time with Patara, whose mission is rescue, recovery, reproduction, reintroduction. We found the day educational and delightful as we fed the elephants, bathed the elephants, and had an elephant ride. While my gut says Patara is caring for these animals' welfare, there are sources that report any elephant riding is bad for the elephant. I encourage you to do your own research in order to make the decision you feel is most ethically sound.
Now here come some great photos, folks...
It was difficult to follow this day up, but when we arrived at the The Nest 2 in Chiang Dao in the evening, we found ourselves in a serene setting. This time, we foiled our own initial plans of another good hike because we were very tired ladies after a good deal of action. A slow meander up and down the road near our abode led us to explore the ancient buddhist caves. As we went from expansive spaces to squeezing ourselves into tiny spaces, while listening to bats swoop over our heads, I've never felt more like I was in an Indiana Jones film.
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| Beauty in the town square near where you enter the caves. |
We talked into the night about the ways in which the trip had somehow changed some part of how we viewed the world. Elizabeth noted how before she had come, she had been told she would experience so much culture shock. What she noted throughout the trip was how accessible the travel was, how unintimidating being immersed in another culture had ended up feeling. Anah and I spoke about how we were more aware of being socially conscious. And this, to me, is perhaps the greatest beauty of travel. One cannot leave a place without the fiber of their being somehow changing shape.
I am signing off here tonight with words from English writer Gerald Gould:
Beautiful
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