Southeast Asia Program: Chiang Mai to Laos
Let's see, where did I leave off? On Oct 6, we had an early breakfast and then walked over to the Chiang Mai Rock Climbing Adventures office where we were outfitted with climbing gear and loaded into songtaos for the 30 minute drive out to Crazy Horse Canyon. When we arrived we split into two groups (I was on Team Ahoy Ca-toi or Hello Ladyboy!!). My groups first activity was a casual walk through a couple of large caves including an introduction to cave formation. Then we practiced rappelling/abseiling on a small 20 ft cliff before our big rappel of 60 meters (almost 200 feet!). After our practice, we hiked 15 minutes up to the top of the mountain and then rappelled down one-by-one (some of us decided to "race" down the rappel - I got third place with a time of 1:48 behind Glen's 1:26 and Bennett's 1:44). After the big rappel we hiked back down to the base area and had our lunch of fried rice. After lunch we swapped activities with the other group so we did rock climbing. There were 4 routes set up and the hardest route was a 6A or 5.10. It was pretty difficult but 5 of the 8 people in our group did it (me, Glenn, Shira, Lauren, and Bennett). I climbed 3 of the 4 route before we returned to the base area, met the other group, and hiked 30 minutes through the jungle in the slippery, slimy mud to our camping area. Our four communal canvas tents had been set up already so we "showered" (a bucket with cold water) and stretched/yoga then ate dinner. After dinner the guides built a HUGE bonfire and we played "Birdie on a Perch" and roasted sticky rice.
The next day we had breakfast and drove back to the base area. Today the activities were caving and a Tyrolean traverse with free hanging rappel. Team Ahoy Ca-toi started with the Tyrolean traverse. We hiked up and into the large rappelling cave from yesterday but from a different side. Then we climbed to a spot overlooking the traverse 45 meters above the ground. Safety precautions were reviewed then we each went one-by-one across the zip-line like traverse and rappelled down. Most of our group did it twice, including Mandy and Sophea who were both hesitant at first due to the height - they were awesome! We headed back down to the base area for lunch then waited for the caving group. Everyone was totally, completely coated in mud so some of us swapped shoes as not to get another pair filthy. We headed off to the cave around 1 pm in helmets, headlamps, and thick knee pads. From the very start we were down on our hands and knees (and in some cases our stomachs) pulling, pushing, and squeezing ourselves through the muck. It took about 45 minutes to reach the "end" - a 25 meter crevasse that requires ropes and harnesses to cross. After a short break and mud wrestle or two we headed back out the way we came. We decided it would be funny to sneak through the woods and surprise the other group (they had chased us down that morning and given us all muddy hugs so we figured we would return the favor!). We were very stealthy sneaking through the woods but Zac spotted us and everyone ran for cover before we could attack! After showering with buckets and hoses we drove back to the camping area to rinse our muddy clothes then piled back into the songtaos for the ride to Chiang Mai. We showered (for real!) back at Mandala House then went to dinner at the Ratana Cafe before a much needed good night's sleep.
October 8: We had breakfast at the guesthouse before taking two songtaos to the Burmese Refugee Learning Center. Mr Sai, the founder/director who fled Burma 20 years prior, gave us a 45 minute lesson on Burmese history before we broke into volunteer groups. Half of us did English language skills while half of us did computer skills. I did computer skills but the student I was paired with was a 16 year old boy who had only been in Thailand for 4 months and spoke virtually no English. We looked at pictures on facebook, maps of various places (Thailand, Burma, Oregon, California), played an online video game involving shooting men in black suites with yellow ties, and then watched videos on youtube. We left at 11 am and had free time for the rest of the day. I walked to CMRCA and got a t-shirt since they ran out of my size yesterday. I had lunch at a juice bar/restaurant called Juice4U then walked all the way down Thanon Loi Kroh to the Apple store to see if they could fix my iPod that hasn't been working since the first day in Bangkok. Then, I went with V and Emily by songtao up to the Wat Doi Suthep high in the hills above Chiang Mai. The Wat has 306 steps leading up to it and was built on the spot where the royal white elephant carrying the self-replicating Buddha relic stopped and died. We explored the Wat and received a blessing by a monk. After returning to the guest house around 4 pm, I walked over to the Salon Loi Kroh and got a traditional Thai massage. Lots of poking and squeezing and pulling and stretching. The bruises and bug bites on my legs really hurt but the back/neck massage portion was great! At around 7 pm, I met up with V, Shira, Jenn, and Sophea at the Internet place and we went and got dinner. Then I met up with Glen, Mels, Lauren, Zac, and Emily at the guesthouse to go to a Muay Thai boxing match being held nearby. We paid our 400 bhat cover and walked down the row of bars to the ring in the middle, escorted by our very own Ca-toi! We ordered drinks and snacks and waited for the matches to start at 9:30 pm. There were 6 official matches plus the Ca-toi Cabaret Show and 2 bonus exhibition matches. The first weight class was only 100 lbs and the boys fighting looked about 10 years old. They boys progressively got older and bigger each successive match. The Ca-toi Cabaret Show included lots of spandex, feather headdresses, lip-synching, and plastic surgery! We stayed until the very end then stopped at a 7-11 for ice cream on the way home.
Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong: After breakfast and some last minute Internet, we left the guesthouse at 10:15 am for Chiang Khong on the border with Laos. We drove for two hours and stopped at a rest stop/restaurant/store called Cabbages & Condoms. Yep...condoms. They promote safe sex awareness and have some really funny condom souvenirs (their slogan is "Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy!"). We got some snacks and lunch then drove 3 more hours before stopping at a little roadside marketplace. We had coconut cream turnovers, thai iced tea bubble tea, fried bananas, taro, and various meats on sticks. We drove 30 more minutes to Chiang Khong and checked into the Namkhong Riverside Hotel. We all have wooden balconies overlooking the river and Laos across the water. We had a border crossing briefing then dinner at a local Mexican restaurant (surprisingly, pretty good if very slow). We also stopped at the Tepee Bar - literally a thatched tepee with cushions, music, and beer run by some nice but very strange characters. After dinner we returned to the hotel to pack for our border crossing tomorrow.
October 10 - Welcome to Laos! We had breakfast then took AC vans down to the river where we boarded small open wooden boats to cross the water. We disembarked in Laos in less than 10 minutes (it's a pretty narrow river). We filled out our Visa and arrival cards and paid $35 US for processing. We were met by our contact who led us up the hill to the waiting vans. V and I and Lauren and Mandy made it to the vans by 8:40 am and then waited and waited for the rest of the group. They started arriving about 9:30 am (they all got trapped behind a large group of European tourists). We exchanged money and bought snacks then drove 3 hours through the mountains to the town of Luang Nam Tha. We had lunch at the Boat Landing Guesthouse and broke into our trekking groups for tomorrow. We drove into the main part of town and the Zuela Guesthouse where we relaxed before dinner (a few people rented motos and drove out into the countryside). We met at 6:30 pm to go to the night market for dinner but the food didn't look very veggie friendly so several of us went to the Manychan Restaurant for dinner. Most of us got "lahb" for dinner, a Laos specialty of minced meat or tofu with cilantro, basil, rice, mint, lime, and chili - delicious!
More updates to follow soon.....
~Jessica
The next day we had breakfast and drove back to the base area. Today the activities were caving and a Tyrolean traverse with free hanging rappel. Team Ahoy Ca-toi started with the Tyrolean traverse. We hiked up and into the large rappelling cave from yesterday but from a different side. Then we climbed to a spot overlooking the traverse 45 meters above the ground. Safety precautions were reviewed then we each went one-by-one across the zip-line like traverse and rappelled down. Most of our group did it twice, including Mandy and Sophea who were both hesitant at first due to the height - they were awesome! We headed back down to the base area for lunch then waited for the caving group. Everyone was totally, completely coated in mud so some of us swapped shoes as not to get another pair filthy. We headed off to the cave around 1 pm in helmets, headlamps, and thick knee pads. From the very start we were down on our hands and knees (and in some cases our stomachs) pulling, pushing, and squeezing ourselves through the muck. It took about 45 minutes to reach the "end" - a 25 meter crevasse that requires ropes and harnesses to cross. After a short break and mud wrestle or two we headed back out the way we came. We decided it would be funny to sneak through the woods and surprise the other group (they had chased us down that morning and given us all muddy hugs so we figured we would return the favor!). We were very stealthy sneaking through the woods but Zac spotted us and everyone ran for cover before we could attack! After showering with buckets and hoses we drove back to the camping area to rinse our muddy clothes then piled back into the songtaos for the ride to Chiang Mai. We showered (for real!) back at Mandala House then went to dinner at the Ratana Cafe before a much needed good night's sleep.
October 8: We had breakfast at the guesthouse before taking two songtaos to the Burmese Refugee Learning Center. Mr Sai, the founder/director who fled Burma 20 years prior, gave us a 45 minute lesson on Burmese history before we broke into volunteer groups. Half of us did English language skills while half of us did computer skills. I did computer skills but the student I was paired with was a 16 year old boy who had only been in Thailand for 4 months and spoke virtually no English. We looked at pictures on facebook, maps of various places (Thailand, Burma, Oregon, California), played an online video game involving shooting men in black suites with yellow ties, and then watched videos on youtube. We left at 11 am and had free time for the rest of the day. I walked to CMRCA and got a t-shirt since they ran out of my size yesterday. I had lunch at a juice bar/restaurant called Juice4U then walked all the way down Thanon Loi Kroh to the Apple store to see if they could fix my iPod that hasn't been working since the first day in Bangkok. Then, I went with V and Emily by songtao up to the Wat Doi Suthep high in the hills above Chiang Mai. The Wat has 306 steps leading up to it and was built on the spot where the royal white elephant carrying the self-replicating Buddha relic stopped and died. We explored the Wat and received a blessing by a monk. After returning to the guest house around 4 pm, I walked over to the Salon Loi Kroh and got a traditional Thai massage. Lots of poking and squeezing and pulling and stretching. The bruises and bug bites on my legs really hurt but the back/neck massage portion was great! At around 7 pm, I met up with V, Shira, Jenn, and Sophea at the Internet place and we went and got dinner. Then I met up with Glen, Mels, Lauren, Zac, and Emily at the guesthouse to go to a Muay Thai boxing match being held nearby. We paid our 400 bhat cover and walked down the row of bars to the ring in the middle, escorted by our very own Ca-toi! We ordered drinks and snacks and waited for the matches to start at 9:30 pm. There were 6 official matches plus the Ca-toi Cabaret Show and 2 bonus exhibition matches. The first weight class was only 100 lbs and the boys fighting looked about 10 years old. They boys progressively got older and bigger each successive match. The Ca-toi Cabaret Show included lots of spandex, feather headdresses, lip-synching, and plastic surgery! We stayed until the very end then stopped at a 7-11 for ice cream on the way home.
Chiang Mai to Chiang Khong: After breakfast and some last minute Internet, we left the guesthouse at 10:15 am for Chiang Khong on the border with Laos. We drove for two hours and stopped at a rest stop/restaurant/store called Cabbages & Condoms. Yep...condoms. They promote safe sex awareness and have some really funny condom souvenirs (their slogan is "Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy!"). We got some snacks and lunch then drove 3 more hours before stopping at a little roadside marketplace. We had coconut cream turnovers, thai iced tea bubble tea, fried bananas, taro, and various meats on sticks. We drove 30 more minutes to Chiang Khong and checked into the Namkhong Riverside Hotel. We all have wooden balconies overlooking the river and Laos across the water. We had a border crossing briefing then dinner at a local Mexican restaurant (surprisingly, pretty good if very slow). We also stopped at the Tepee Bar - literally a thatched tepee with cushions, music, and beer run by some nice but very strange characters. After dinner we returned to the hotel to pack for our border crossing tomorrow.
October 10 - Welcome to Laos! We had breakfast then took AC vans down to the river where we boarded small open wooden boats to cross the water. We disembarked in Laos in less than 10 minutes (it's a pretty narrow river). We filled out our Visa and arrival cards and paid $35 US for processing. We were met by our contact who led us up the hill to the waiting vans. V and I and Lauren and Mandy made it to the vans by 8:40 am and then waited and waited for the rest of the group. They started arriving about 9:30 am (they all got trapped behind a large group of European tourists). We exchanged money and bought snacks then drove 3 hours through the mountains to the town of Luang Nam Tha. We had lunch at the Boat Landing Guesthouse and broke into our trekking groups for tomorrow. We drove into the main part of town and the Zuela Guesthouse where we relaxed before dinner (a few people rented motos and drove out into the countryside). We met at 6:30 pm to go to the night market for dinner but the food didn't look very veggie friendly so several of us went to the Manychan Restaurant for dinner. Most of us got "lahb" for dinner, a Laos specialty of minced meat or tofu with cilantro, basil, rice, mint, lime, and chili - delicious!
More updates to follow soon.....
~Jessica
posted by Pacific Discovery at
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