Friends! Really sorry we haven’t blogged in a while.
We’ve finally left Thailand. We managed to separate ourselves! What was supposed to be a 2 week relaxation period on the islands turned into a 6 week stay (with a little detour to Myanmar). Safe to say we were sucked right in and had all our expectations challenged and surpassed. So far, this is the only country I genuinely feel like we’ve backpacked. You know the type of travelling where you’re going easy, taking your time to get to know a city, live it, where sightseeing is optional.
Chiang Mai
I have to say, I prefer North Thailand. During our stay, we kept coming back to Chiang Mai. This is a city with a lot to offer. It is the second largest in Thailand, but somehow doesn’t feel it. Steven and I had a serious temple fatigue here both after Ayutthaia and Bagan (in Myanmar, more on that in a different post) and so we did not do a lot of sightseeing. We just lived here. Our temple was the gym.
We found this amazing open gym with everything you can wish for in terms of free weights and boxing, and we just kept coming back and doing our thing, having protein shakes. The life we led in Chiang Mai is pretty similar to the one back home and it was such a welcome break. Well, apart from the bounty of Thai food we were consuming for dinner every night.
I even went as far as, and you’re going to think me crazy, buying porridge oats and the works and making the best oatmeal porridge for breakfast. I’ve been on the lookout for this during our whole trip in every place we went to for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and succeeding in finding it only a handful of times. You should’ve seen the joy on my face when I made it that first morning. Chiang Mai even managed to be a place of reunions. We managed to catch up with Ian, an old friend we had met eight years ago while island hopping in Croatia.
By some freak chance we found ourselves in the same country at the same time. It’s funny how time flies yet it felt like it was only yesterday we were chilling in Dubrovnik, drinking beer, finding out where to stay for the night and contemplating a park bench.
Elephant sanctuary
The only touristy thing we did in Chiang Mai was to go to the elephant sanctuary. Steven had a wish to do this for a while now and so why not. I was not difficult to persuade.
This is a place run solely on donations and ticket revenues (and they were expensive) where all the proceedings goes to help save elephants from a life of abuse and work, as well as elephants that were badly injured from for example land mines, and providing them shelter and food in this amazing place. When you know the money goes to a good cause, you’ve no hesitation buying the ticket. We helped feed them in the morning, and helped wash them in the river after lunch. It was such a sight to behold how they enjoyed this washing ritual, only to muddy themselves again a few minutes later.
Apparently this is their way of protecting their skin from sun exposure. Elephant skin, even though it’s quite rough, gets easily sun burned. We visited families and packs and observed their life by the river, which must have been my favourite part of the visit. Elephants build strong bonds to each other and are fiercely protective of their young. They are also quite territorial. While we sat on the river side only a stone throw away from the bathing elephants, we witnessed a showdown between two packs.
Mahouts (elephant guides/carers) managed to separate them, but it caused a bit of nervousness. This left one of the elephants running in our direction. The funniest thing about all of this was our guide gently saying “and now, we run”. So we ran as fast as we could as far as we could. Elephants have a very limited vision, you do not want to be finding yourself in front of them at a stampede. Now consider this; at no point in time did the mahouts consider doing something drastic to the elephant to prevent her from running at us, such as tranquilising her. We were in their home, in their sanctuary, we were the “intruders”. A place where their wellbeing is a top priority. I find this such a beautiful thought.
Pai
We left Chiang Mai with a bit of a heavy heart and went to Pai to check out what it is everyone had been going on about. From what I had read the place was the Khao San road of the North and so I wasn’t expecting much. And Pai town wasn’t much, and it definitely catered for tourists, yet it had an unbeatable relaxed vibe and a feeling of being nestled in a cocoon, surrounded by jungle covered mountains.
It has a walking street with loads of silly good food carts with international foods, a riverfront with a little walkway where we did yoga one day, loads of cafes to chill at, hot springs and waterfalls just a few kilometres outside of town and of course a few bars that sell, ahem, shroom shakes.
We were supposed to stay for two nights, and we ended up prolonging to four. I have no idea what we did there. Well, apart from gazing at the very vibrant colours of the town and having profound conversations about life, time, and our own existence of being. Ehe.
Wat Pa Tam Wua Forest Monastery
One of the last things we wished to do still in Thailand before leaving was to visit Wat Pa Tam Wua forest monastery.
Steven and I signed up to a ten day silent Vipassana retreat in Indonesia and wanted to have a little taster of what it would be like. Vipassana is insight meditation, in which your focus is not only on breath but involves also scanning the body and observing how it feels at that very moment and accepting these feelings. Such a technique is useful in life as it helps you focus and prevents you from being reactive to your surroundings and being a slave to your emotions. I sit here and I preach of the benefits, yet I was quite miserable during our short stay. I managed to be mindful for two of the six hours of meditation per day.
The rest of the time I felt trapped, my body ached, and I felt a bit like a failure. Of course it requires training to be able to focus on your breath for such a long period of time, and being unable to do so is part of the journey.
Acceptance of your miserable state of mind and being is the whole point. And this was very much a boot camp. Steven on the other hand didn’t necessarily find it easy but had a keen interest in the link between meditation and neuroscience and a curiosity as to the change a few days of meditation would bring about. I really do applaud him and look forward to his holiness and glow when his Vipassana retreat on Bali is finished. Yes, I wrote “his”.
Our stay in the forest monastery was cut short by a worsening of a tooth ache Steven had been having for days and which he couldn’t meditate away. There wasn’t any doubt, we had to go back to Chiang Mai to see a dentist. I’m so glad we decided to do this as the situation had actually been much worse than what we expected. What we thought was a little cavity turned out to be four, of which one of them had to be sorted with a root canal. I don’t think we could have been in a better place to have this sort of problem. The dentist he saw was crazy good and the price was just a fraction of what he would have had to pay in Europe. They were so service minded, gentle and thorough, explaining the procedures in detail and discussing the best way to go about it. Conclusion is: next time we have such issues, we’re definitely buying a ticket to Thailand and having a little holiday on the side. I suggest you do the same.
We’re now in Laos, more precisely in Luang Prabang. The journey was long and was had on an odd, one of a kind, overfilled bus that had permanently reclined seats. Meaning we were laying down for all of the 13 hours of this trip.
So far Laos is somewhat underwhelming and expensive compared to its neighbours. Luang Prabang is definitely beautiful and has a French colonial charm to the houses and buildings, but nothing that would stop you in your tracks and go wow, this is special. The people do not smile much and have been downright rude at times. Perhaps it’s a cultural difference we’re not clocking on to. We are bearing in mind we’ve been here for a grand total of two days. There is still much to see and plenty of time to change our minds. We’ll keep you posted!
The adventures of Taller and Shorter 
