For the past 2 ½ years I've been
teaching English in Thailand. Recently, I left the sun and islands
of the south for a small town on the northern Thai-Burmese border.
For the next three months, I'll be volunteering my time, teaching
English to Burmese immigrants-- economic, educational, and political
refugees-- that fled their country to escape human rights abuses and to pursue the opportunity of receiving a proper education.
After fending off unruly Canadians in Chiang Rai, my tour of the north
continued by backtracking three hours by bus to Chiang Mai. The last
time I was in Thailand's “City of the North” was over two years
ago and in an entirely different situation.
During Songkran, you can run but you can't hide!
(photo credit: tlcthai.com)
In April of 2010, I first visited Chiang Mai with a couple of friends during songkran on
our way to Laos and Vietnam. Songkran is the annual
water festival held in celebration of the Thai New Year. Chiang Mai
happens to be home to the biggest and wildest songkran hullabaloo (I
love that word) in all of Thailand. What was once a simple and
traditional celebration has grown to be a week-long music and beer
fueled water war. Every April thousands of Thais and foreigners,
young and old, pillage Thailand's old capital for six or more days of
drenched revelry. Unfortunately, this time my stay in Chiang Mai
would accommodate no such debauchery.
No jungle trekking, no Muay Thai fights, and no late nights staring down empty beer bottles. Nope. This time, my four days in Chiang Mai were
spent relaxing, reading, writing this blog, and hammocking in the garden of my guesthouse (Choke Dee Guesthouse- 350 baht/night). In fact, the most exciting
thing that I did was take a cooking class. Scoff away, but taking a Thai cooking class is something I've wanted to do for a long time. I've
mentioned many times that one of my favorite parts of living in
Thailand is the incredible food, and it would be a shame to leave the
country without at least attempting to acquire some of it's culinary wizardry.
For 700 baht (about $22 USD) I
attended a 4-hour "half-day" course at Baan Thai Cookery School. It was great. First, the instructor
walked us through the local day market and showed us how to find the
different fresh ingredients that we'd need for each dish. When we returned to Baan Thai
we broke up into groups depending on what dishes we were cooking.
There were three courses in all. We started with an appetizer, then
a soup along with a rice or noodle dish, and with a curry for the grand finale. For
each dish, the instructor showed us how to
prepare the ingredients and follow the recipe. Then... Cook. Eat. Repeat.
For my appetizer I made som tam
(shredded, unripened papaya salad with lime juice, fresh-ground
chillies, peanuts, fish sauce, and palm sugar). And for my
soup creation, I made tom kha gai
(chicken soup with coconut milk, basil, ginger, lemongrass, and
chilli paste, lime juice, and cilantro)...
tom kha gai (left) and som tam (right)
Next, I mastered Thailand's most renowned noodle-dish, pad Thai
(Thai-style stir-fried noodles with egg, shrimp, peanuts, coriander, lime, and fish sauce)...
not even flexing.
I finished strong with my masterpiece-curry, khao soi gai
(a northern-style curry famous in Chiang Mai, made with egg noodles,
Indian curry paste, coconut milk, pickled cabbage, and ground
chillies fried in oil). One of my favorite dishes in Thailand the
world...
food porn
After we cooked each dish we took it back to the table to taste test our creations. By the end of the class I had learned how to cook four awesome Thai meals, in less than four hours total, and devoured every one of them. I was stuffed.
imm maak maak! Sooo full...
It was a fun experience and I'm glad I did it. Not only did I get to eat some awesome food, but I learned a lot. We even got to keep our own got our own copies of the cookbooks we used. What's that old saying? You can shear a sheep once, but if you teach it how to fish you'll never be hungry... yeah, something like that. I know that one day the time will come when I'm somewhere else in the world, and I'll have an insatiable som tam craving but can no longer walk across the street and buy a plate for a buck. I'll be ready!
A busy October. Back to America for
three weeks for my dad's wedding and to visit some friends and
family. Then, just as the jet lag was wearing off it was back to
Thailand, half-way around the globe. I spent a few days in Bangkok
at some old haunts near the oh so infamous Khao San Road, met my girlfriend's parents for the first time, and
showed them around the city hitting the Grand Palace and several
other tourist spots. Having packed up all my belongings and
moved out of my house in Surat, I still had three and half weeks to
kill before orientation for my new job. After four days in the city,
I was already dying to get away from the noise and stink of Bangkok, so north I went. First stop: Chiang Rai.
Chiang
Rai
It took 15 hours on a sleeper train
from Bangkok, then another three hour bus ride, and finally a 10
minute tuk-tuk to reach my accommodation (Chat Guesthouse) in
Chiang Rai town. I checked in and paid for a night (90
baht/person/night for a double bed), took a hot shower, and went to
sleep.
At 5:30 am Mother Nature sounded the
alarm clock in the form of several screeching roosters just below my
window. My goal for the day was to see what Chiang Rai had to offer
without breaking my budget (I'm paycheckless for the foreseeable
future). For 150 baht (about $5 USD) I rented a motorbike for the
day and followed the free map I got from the tourism authority to
Chiang Rai's famous Wat Rong Khun (the White Temple).
Wat Rong Khun
Narnia/Chiang Rai, Thailand.
The White Temple
Reminiscent of a Narnian castle, Wat
Rong Khun is a Buddhist and Hindu temple as well as a seemingly
never-ending art project for its creator, the artist Ajarn
Chalermchai Kositpipat. Funded entirely by public donations, the
project began in 1997 with a projected completion date for the year
2070. The inside of the White Temple (which is not allowed to be
photographed) is somewhat of a social commentary and features scraps
of pop culture painted atop of traditionally designed Buddhist walls.
Aside from the beautiful and unique architecture there's also a
gallery with paintings, drawings, and sculptures by Kositpipat.
Britt's new friends
After Wat Rong Khun, Britt and I
hopped on our trusty two-wheeled rental and sputtered another 20 km
down a scenic connection of badly paved mountain roads until we found
Khun Korn Waterfall. From the entrance of the park it was a
45-minute hike up and down a muddy trail cutting though bamboo
thickets and jungle. Brittany was immediately befriended by three
little Thai girls that were in absolute awe that a foreigner could
speak their language so well. The mist from the waterfall cooled us
off as we took some photos, then back down the trail to the motorbike
we went.
Khun Korn Waterfall
Chiang Rai, Thailand
We only wanted to pay for the bike for
24 hours, so the next day we were on foot. In the morning, we
checked out Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha). Guess what
I saw? A temple. And an emerald Buddha.
We killed some time in the afternoon
at the Hilltribe Museum and got our learn on about the local native
cultures and the history of opium in the region... welcome to the
Golden Triangle.
Finally, just before dusk, we were
picked up in an ancient Land Rover-style 4-wheel drive SUV by Nok,
the owner of Bamboo Nest Guesthouse where we'd be staying for the
next two nights. About 30 km outside of town, we turned on to an
unpaved driving path and it was all off-road and uphill from there.
Upon arrival at Bamboo Nest we dropped our bags in our private bamboo
bungalow and followed the moonlit trail back to the common area for
a home-cooked Thai dinner. There were six other travelers there
but unfortunately four of them were Canadian so conversation
wasn't exactly electrifying.
Noi, Nok's husband and co-owner of
Bamboo Nest, lit us a fire in the fire pit. Britt called it a night
and went to bed. I made the ill-considered decision to stay up
drinking cheap Thai beer with the Canadians and two others. I was
outnumbered and ended up defending America as the subject of a
relentless interrogation. They bombarded me with an unending barrage
of half-witted questions like, “Why do we know the name of you're
president, but you don't who Stephen Harper is?”
“Stephen Harper? Hmmm. You mean the guy in
the wheel-chair with the robot voice that's always talking about
space and time travel and worm holes? Oh. No. Wait. That's
Stephen Hawking,” I half-jokingly answered.
In truth, I had no
idea who Stephen Harper is (the Canadian Prime Minister-- thanks
Google). Didn't know. Didn't Care. I don't go around asking stupid
questions to Canadian people like, “Why do you think its okay to
wear denim shirts?” or “Are you growing that mustache because you
lost a bet or are you actually serious?”
Outnumbered as I was, I easily fended off these haters from the land of snow and syrup. The truth is, Canadians are jealous of Americans. Robin Williams said it best, “Canada
is like a loft apartment over a really great party”. While things
were still in good spirits I said goodnight to Joni Mitchell and the
other hippies and went to bed.
I woke up the next morning with a slight
headache and a dry mouth. It all disappeared when I stepped on
to the bamboo balcony outside of my bungalow. It was a comfortably
cool morning and the sun sparkled off the shiny green jungle, still
wet with mountain dew. Leftover mist trapped in the valley blanketed
rice paddies in the distance. Otherwise it was clear. This is the
type of scenery that Northern Thailand is renowned for. It was an
entirely different kind of beautiful than what I am used to in the
south. The guesthouse was appropriately named. It really is like a
Bamboo Nest in the side of the mountain.
I spent the rest of the day exploring
the compound a bit, but mostly laying around in the hammock on my
bamboo porch. Nok had done a superb job with the landscaping and
there were various flowers, plants, and trees strategically placed to
add that much more to the already naturally impressive terrain. There's
an abundance to do at Bamboo Nest. They offer jungle treks and 4x4
off-roading. It's only an hour's hike to a waterfall and natural hot
springs. If that's too far, a ten minute stroll down the mountain
will bring you to a Lahu hilltribe village.
Since I've been back in Thailand, the
two days I spent at Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai have been by far my favorite and the most relaxing. It's easily one of my
top 3 places I've stayed in all of my travels. I could go on and on
into more detail about Bamboo Nest, but I figured the best way to
show how great it is would be to show you with a quick video. Here's the
newest Blake's World episode... Enjoy!
Want to see what it's like at Bamboo Nest de Chiang Rai? Watch the video above!
I've lived in a lot of different places since I made move to Thailand in 2010. In Bangkok I had a small apartment in a great part of the city. In Surat Thani, I lived in three different houses with a handful of awesome roommates. But, by far, the most interesting place that I've lived (and my favorite) is a shipping container in the jungle.
It's not exactly as it sounds. It's actually two shipping containers welded together in the middle and renovated into a small "house" complete with electricity and running water. It stands on stilts over a pond in the jungle, just 5 minutes across the river from town. Living in the jungle was an adventure in itself. I'd routinely see giant monitor lizards lazily crawling through the tall grasses and there was monkey that lived a stone's throw away. Not to mention all the cool flora and fauna.
After six great months in the jungle and almost two years of living and teaching in Surat, it's time to move on. I'm trading the sun and the islands of Thailand's south for the cool, green mountains of the north. Surat Thani, you will be missed.
Here's a quick video of the jungle crib... (not the best quality)...
