Chiang Mai is a 12 hour train ride from Bangkok. Endless lush jungle the whole way. I stick my head out the window only to see Mincks hanging out between cars, yelling with his shirt off “Yaaaaa!” We meet a cool cat from England named Andrew, also traveling the world but focusing more on scuba diving than world experience it's his 2nd big trip.
Finally arrive 3 hours behind schedule, that's Thai time. Andrew joins our search for cheap beds. Settle for the Chiang Mai Inn and Andrew shacks up with us to save money.
Starving we head out in search of food. Trotting down the street we see an insane old lady growling a 3-wheeled Harley, it has black saddle bags covered in silver studs. Her ashy afro blows in the wind over her face stone hard like she was born to ride! But here's the kicker, there are 3 flags on the bike, 2 small ones on either side, 1 Thai and 1 American, and in the middle is pompous Confederate flag HUGE!! Haha! We couldn't get over how awesome she is so we ask around about her, find out what bar she hangs at and plan to go but never make it... still regret it to this day!
Time was not on our side in Chiang Mai. The town is known for lengthy treks into surrounding mountains and villages which are by all reports incredible, but we're in a rush to explore Laos before the Full Moon Party, so an authentic trek just isn't in the cards. Try to make the best of it, book a cliché day trip through a local travel agency. 1st stop is river rafting, if you can call it that. There are maybe 3 small rapids the entire time, the rest of 'rafting' is spent floating on a calm river, enjoying the scenery and commenting on the massive butterflies.
Stop 2 is Elephant riding, something I've been looking forward to since we started planning the trip! And WOW did it meet all my expectations... about 7 elephants all together, each with travelers on top. Jen and I sitting together in a big basket on an enormous, bus-sized elephant and we remove our shoes to rest our feet on her neck feeling her massive muscles expand and contract. In thick jungle we climb hillsides, trot ridges, wade rivers, and every now and then the big girl stops to take a drink. There's a bald guy from Cleveland in the group, he's big so the guides give him his own basket, he almost doesn't get on he's too timid, he ends up being taken on a detour— his elephant decides to just wander aimlessly away from the group, all the while he screams “I knew I shouldn't have gotten on this damn thing! Where is it taking me? AAAH!” and we're laughing hysterically!
Stop 3 is another river. We ride traditional bamboo rafts. A guide stands at the bow and another at the tail. They control it gondola-like stabbing a long bamboo spear into the sediment, pressing hard. They give each of us a chance at it: there's a duo of Japanese guys in the group, and on their turn they serenade Jen with a slow Japanese love song, like true gondoliers.
Stop 4 was at 'long-neck' and 'big ear' village. It's really just a small group Burmese and Chinese people living on the outskirts of town, being exploited for their tradition selling souvenirs... not an authentic cultural experience but still a trip.
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