Thailand - Phuket & Chiang Mai

Oh Thailand... sigh. Arriving in Thailand was a surreal experience. I flew into Phuket at 8 PM and the bus ride to the hostel was extreamly exciting. I could already tell that Thailand would be unlike anywhere I've ever traveled.

Phuket
I met a young German bloke at the airport and I soon learned that he was naive in the ways of backpacking. Our first meal cost about 330 bach each - which I thought was cheap. I only later discovered that meals in Thailand are usually between 20 and 150 bach a person. Thai lesson number one.

I stayed in Phuket for 2 days at a hostel called Phuket
Backpakers. The hostel was clean and in the center of Phuket town, but the pushy taxi drivers outside made it a bit annoying. One such driverswas Mr. Sawee. He was very persistant and made "deals" with us to visit a temple and a monkey school. My second discovery in Thaland: "deals" are most usually NOT deals.

Above: Mr. Sawee sings to us at a park in Phuket

Above: My route through Thailand

Chiang Mai

I took a flight north to Chiang Mai and stayed at a 400 bach a night hostel just inside the north gate of the city. I arrived in Chiang Mai on a Sunday afternoon - which happens to be the best day in Chiang Mai because of the abundant Chiang Mai Sunday Market. I spent one hour near the old town walls and thought I had seen all of it only to discover that I had only seen one tenth of the market. The market is blocks and blocks long and wide. I spent most of the time eating extreamly tasty street food snacks. I had shreded pork dumplings, spring rolls, pad tai, 5 bach sushi, and watermelon on a stick.
Above: one of many Buddahs in one of many temples.

Below: Girl dancing in Sunday Market

I spent most of my days in Chiang Mai exploring the various temples in town. I would set out in the mornings with a plan of which temples to visit, only to find many other temples on the way to the planned temples. I visited the oldest, largest, wisest, most educational, and most natural temples in Chiang Mai. By day 3, I was all templed out.

A side note on Fear: In Thailand I began reading "Why Is God Laughing" by Deepak Chopra. The story and principals are very enlightening and one main concept I took to heart is the concept of fear - or rather the non-existance of it. Deepak explains that fear does not exist. It is created in our minds. Growing up I felt afraid of everything. I thought that everything was going to hurt me and that the unknown was beter left that way. I have since gotten past most of my fears; however, I still felt fearful of perception. I lived in a constant fear of what others might think - even complete strangers. My mother calls this shyness, but in essence it is basic fear of people's perception of me. At 26 years old it is a difficult thing to admit, but that was my reality. As I entered one of the temples in Chiang Mai I saw a monk blessing a group of Thai worshipers. I badly wanted to walk over and be blessed by this monk, but had never participated in such a blessing. I watchted the Thai's as they bowed and clasped their hands, then repeated bows. As badly as I wanted to be blessed I was afraid that someone would see that I had no idea what I was doing and judge me. My throat closed up, my palms started to sweat, and my heart rased. I was trying to talk myself out of the potential embarasment of becoming a spectical to Thai strangers. I started walking away, but then realized that all of this was the fear. It took me what felt like hours to kneel down infront of the monk and get blessed. I bowed my head, clasped my hands, and repeated... all while feeling a huge sense of accomplishment of concoring a fear that did not exist in the first place.

I took a cooking class on an organic farm just outside of Chiang Mai. We visitied a local food market (where I had the most amazing Thai tea I've had since). We learned about Thai food culture as we roamed around the farm identifying Thai specific fruits and veggies and learned how to cook curries and other Thai dishes. Thai food is extreamly fast and easy to cook and with a little fish sauce, oaster sauce, and palm oil - you can make pretty much anything (note that olive oil is only used in Thailand for oil massages!).

After my Thai cooking class I changed to a more affordable guesthouse (lesson #3: always look around for accomo and bargain!). I found a great guesthouse called Same Same and I had my first Thai message, which is equivalent to message yoga (ouchie).

I spent the evening with a couple from my cooking class and a few expats. We sat outside a bar on a busy street and drank buckets - which is not the best thing for your liver (specially Samsung whiskey). We chated about what most backpackers chat about: politics, travel destinations, life epiphanies, and sports.

The next morning the Samsung was making me feel il, so I decided it was time to move on...
...to Pai.