Chaing Mai - Jan 6th to Jan 9th
Jan 6th - Jan 9th
Feeling a little rough for wear today. I have just returned from a 2 day trek and it seems like half our tour group is either suffering from heat exhaustion or we may have accidently drank some bad water...ugh...I feel rough...
The night of the 6th, Dan and I had gotten settled at the Libra Guesthouse.
The Libra Guesthouse is recommended by Lonely Planet, Let's Go, and The Rough Guide to Thailand publications. Dan's friend stayed here and also recommended it. It's nice. The folks that run it are super nice and one of the fellow travellers we met mentioned that for the same cost of other guesthouses (they looked at 3 or 4 others), this was the cleanest and nicest they found. As I'm a bit of a clean freak, I would agree.
Web site:
http://www.libraguesthouse.com (for some reason, their site doesn't work but I'll mention it to them).
Telephone/fax:
+66 53 210 687 (from aboard)
053-210687 (call in Thailand)
Address:
28 Moon Muang Rd, Soi 9. Chiang Mai. Thailand. 50200
If you book at the Libra Guesthouse, be sure to make a reservation as the Guesthouse folks will pick you up from the airport. If you try to take a Taxi or a Tuk-Tuk, the drivers will lie to you and tell you that it's closed. This is because they get paid to take you to a Guesthouse that they are affiliated with. That or just be adamant about them taking you to the Guesthouse.
The night we arrived, Dan and I hit the market. There are two markets, a night market all week long and one huge Sunday market. Both are good (Dan and I picked up a couple of knock-off watches from a local vendor) but the Sunday market is a 2km stretch of road that get's shut down for a massive sale. I wasn't able to make the Sunday market (laid up with this heat stroke) but Dan mentioned that they had higher quality clothes and goods that were different than what was available at the daily night market.
It was funny, for the night we arrived, Dan and I played "Good Cop/Bad Cop" on negotiating for these watches we bought. Negotiating is expected and it was kewl to use a sales tactic that I almost never use back home...don't know why...I could save more if I just negotiated more back home. Oh well. Anyway, I used a tactic that I've seen my
dad use in the past. The stand up...slowly walk towards the door...come back...slowly walk towards the door...come back a bit...walk out the door....hang out outside.... In a span of 4 minutes, Dan and I knocked off 75% of his asking price...and we knew he was still doing good. It was funny, when I walked outside, I moved out of view, Dan stayed in view and made motions like we were talking about the deal when we were just shooting the shit and discussing dinner or
something. When we bought the watches, the guy was like "You hard deal...why did you leave?". Hahaha...he was smiling and having fun with us and asked where we were from. I think he was making note of dealing with Canadians in the future. You know, in perspective, it was the difference of about $60CDN..not a big deal but in relation to what prices are here, it's all ecomomies of scale. I did feel a bit guilty at first about negotiating but this is the game out here and the one these guys play real well. The small stuff I won't fret about but figure if someone is good with a price that we settle on, then I will be too.
The next day, Dan and I left for a two day/one night trek into the hills to visit a village. One of the guys that had picked us up from the airport was a self proclaimed "Lady-Boy" named Roonie. He was our trek guide and a funny sod to boot!We were treking with a total of 10 people (folks from Austrailia, UK, Canada, and the US); Roonie would turn to all the girls in the truck ride up, point to each in turn and say "I don't like you...I don't like you...I don't like you..., etc.. because you are prettier dhan Roooo-nie! Dhese men are to be my boooooy-friend!!". Hahaha, this guy was hilarious!!. If one guy would be talking to someone when Roonie was trying to say something, he'd threaten "Yoooou don't talk when Rooon-ie talk else I put my mooouu-th on your mooouu-th!!!".
The trek started off good. We fed elephants and went on a ride with them. Man, are these things furry and huge. Elephant hair are like needles...I was afraid to sit on it's neck as I want to have kids some day. And can they spit!! Dan was recording video on his camera and got a shot of me getting covered in elephant mucus..yuck!!
Mr. B., you'll be happy to hear that I'm keeping up with our "EDGE" workout. Everyday, except for today...I feel like crap, I've been able to workout. I got these stretchy bands and have been able to keep up with shoulders, chest, arms, etc... The trek was awesome for cardio; it was like doing the Grouse Grind! It took us 1.5 hours to reach a waterfall where we did some swimming. The falls were moderately powerful and it was like swimming under a pressure washer.
We hiked another 45mins the rest of the way to the village where we were to stay and were treated to a faboulous dinner by one of the villagers. I got to know the tour group better as dinner was being prepared - a good bunch of people from a mix of backgrounds...some had been travelling for a short time while others were on year long excursions. We all shared one room at the house we were staying at and slept on straw mats on the floor. It was chilly at night and I was
glad to have brought a sweater and extra sleeping sheet.Talk about rural living though...I haven't seen a squat toilet in
years. The girls would comment on how much they loved this...
Yesterday (day two of the hike), we continued our trek into a few more villages to give the local children toys and school supplies...but no kids... It was a Sunday and they where either in church or working with their parents in the fields.
The people that live in these villages were originally from Burma and came to Thailand because they were being oppressed by the military government out there. Roonie would say, as we would pass by signs and postings, that the locals were all pacifists. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds (Christian, Muslim, Bhuddist, etc..) and all
just wanted to be left alone to run their lives. I think tourism probably helps a bit for village needs but the villages themselves look generally self-sustaining; a lot of farming of rice and stuff here.
We made our way back down to a river to continue our final leg of the trek; a bamboo raft ride. Take it from a guy that can't swim and was put on the back of the raft to row us along; this was fun!!
Other than this heat exhaustion, this has been a good couple of days and I'd recommend both the trek as well as the Guesthouse. These guys at the Guesthouse here are ultrachill and a good bunch to stay with.
Dan and I are to fly out in a few days to Bangkok and will meet up with Arnie on Bottle Beach; near Koh Phangan. Next update in a few days (I'll also update this BLOG later with some pics).
Harvey
Feeling a little rough for wear today. I have just returned from a 2 day trek and it seems like half our tour group is either suffering from heat exhaustion or we may have accidently drank some bad water...ugh...I feel rough...
The night of the 6th, Dan and I had gotten settled at the Libra Guesthouse.
The Libra Guesthouse is recommended by Lonely Planet, Let's Go, and The Rough Guide to Thailand publications. Dan's friend stayed here and also recommended it. It's nice. The folks that run it are super nice and one of the fellow travellers we met mentioned that for the same cost of other guesthouses (they looked at 3 or 4 others), this was the cleanest and nicest they found. As I'm a bit of a clean freak, I would agree.
Web site:
http://www.libraguesthouse.com (for some reason, their site doesn't work but I'll mention it to them).
Telephone/fax:
+66 53 210 687 (from aboard)
053-210687 (call in Thailand)
Address:
28 Moon Muang Rd, Soi 9. Chiang Mai. Thailand. 50200
If you book at the Libra Guesthouse, be sure to make a reservation as the Guesthouse folks will pick you up from the airport. If you try to take a Taxi or a Tuk-Tuk, the drivers will lie to you and tell you that it's closed. This is because they get paid to take you to a Guesthouse that they are affiliated with. That or just be adamant about them taking you to the Guesthouse.
The night we arrived, Dan and I hit the market. There are two markets, a night market all week long and one huge Sunday market. Both are good (Dan and I picked up a couple of knock-off watches from a local vendor) but the Sunday market is a 2km stretch of road that get's shut down for a massive sale. I wasn't able to make the Sunday market (laid up with this heat stroke) but Dan mentioned that they had higher quality clothes and goods that were different than what was available at the daily night market.
It was funny, for the night we arrived, Dan and I played "Good Cop/Bad Cop" on negotiating for these watches we bought. Negotiating is expected and it was kewl to use a sales tactic that I almost never use back home...don't know why...I could save more if I just negotiated more back home. Oh well. Anyway, I used a tactic that I've seen my
dad use in the past. The stand up...slowly walk towards the door...come back...slowly walk towards the door...come back a bit...walk out the door....hang out outside.... In a span of 4 minutes, Dan and I knocked off 75% of his asking price...and we knew he was still doing good. It was funny, when I walked outside, I moved out of view, Dan stayed in view and made motions like we were talking about the deal when we were just shooting the shit and discussing dinner or
something. When we bought the watches, the guy was like "You hard deal...why did you leave?". Hahaha...he was smiling and having fun with us and asked where we were from. I think he was making note of dealing with Canadians in the future. You know, in perspective, it was the difference of about $60CDN..not a big deal but in relation to what prices are here, it's all ecomomies of scale. I did feel a bit guilty at first about negotiating but this is the game out here and the one these guys play real well. The small stuff I won't fret about but figure if someone is good with a price that we settle on, then I will be too.
The next day, Dan and I left for a two day/one night trek into the hills to visit a village. One of the guys that had picked us up from the airport was a self proclaimed "Lady-Boy" named Roonie. He was our trek guide and a funny sod to boot!We were treking with a total of 10 people (folks from Austrailia, UK, Canada, and the US); Roonie would turn to all the girls in the truck ride up, point to each in turn and say "I don't like you...I don't like you...I don't like you..., etc.. because you are prettier dhan Roooo-nie! Dhese men are to be my boooooy-friend!!". Hahaha, this guy was hilarious!!. If one guy would be talking to someone when Roonie was trying to say something, he'd threaten "Yoooou don't talk when Rooon-ie talk else I put my mooouu-th on your mooouu-th!!!".
The trek started off good. We fed elephants and went on a ride with them. Man, are these things furry and huge. Elephant hair are like needles...I was afraid to sit on it's neck as I want to have kids some day. And can they spit!! Dan was recording video on his camera and got a shot of me getting covered in elephant mucus..yuck!!
Mr. B., you'll be happy to hear that I'm keeping up with our "EDGE" workout. Everyday, except for today...I feel like crap, I've been able to workout. I got these stretchy bands and have been able to keep up with shoulders, chest, arms, etc... The trek was awesome for cardio; it was like doing the Grouse Grind! It took us 1.5 hours to reach a waterfall where we did some swimming. The falls were moderately powerful and it was like swimming under a pressure washer.
We hiked another 45mins the rest of the way to the village where we were to stay and were treated to a faboulous dinner by one of the villagers. I got to know the tour group better as dinner was being prepared - a good bunch of people from a mix of backgrounds...some had been travelling for a short time while others were on year long excursions. We all shared one room at the house we were staying at and slept on straw mats on the floor. It was chilly at night and I was
glad to have brought a sweater and extra sleeping sheet.Talk about rural living though...I haven't seen a squat toilet in
years. The girls would comment on how much they loved this...
Yesterday (day two of the hike), we continued our trek into a few more villages to give the local children toys and school supplies...but no kids... It was a Sunday and they where either in church or working with their parents in the fields.
The people that live in these villages were originally from Burma and came to Thailand because they were being oppressed by the military government out there. Roonie would say, as we would pass by signs and postings, that the locals were all pacifists. They came from a wide variety of backgrounds (Christian, Muslim, Bhuddist, etc..) and all
just wanted to be left alone to run their lives. I think tourism probably helps a bit for village needs but the villages themselves look generally self-sustaining; a lot of farming of rice and stuff here.
We made our way back down to a river to continue our final leg of the trek; a bamboo raft ride. Take it from a guy that can't swim and was put on the back of the raft to row us along; this was fun!!
Other than this heat exhaustion, this has been a good couple of days and I'd recommend both the trek as well as the Guesthouse. These guys at the Guesthouse here are ultrachill and a good bunch to stay with.
Dan and I are to fly out in a few days to Bangkok and will meet up with Arnie on Bottle Beach; near Koh Phangan. Next update in a few days (I'll also update this BLOG later with some pics).
Harvey
posted by Harvey at
12:05 AM
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