We arrived in Chiang Mai after an early morning start from Koh Samui and took a little rest. For the remainder of the day, we toured temples and walked the city center of Chiang Mai, a bustling city in the north of Thailand. We got fantastic hour long foot massages for $4 – Gerad’s first but not last! We visited the residence/office of a local in hopes of booking a jungle trek. Unfortunately, the rivers were way too strong and the cost did not justify the journey, so we decided to save that for Pai. In the trek owner’s home, we discovered that he actually went to the University of Florida to get his Doctor of Philosophy. They welcomed us into the living quarters and were so excited to show us his diploma, UF coffee mug and license plate frame. Very cool! We ran into a guy that we dove with in Koh Tao that night, not expecting to see him! Such a small world!
On Sunday, we lounged around and then set out for the bustling Sunday Walking Street Market. It was absolute chaos in every direction…vendors selling all kinds of things, lots of Thai people everywhere, Westerners sprinkled throughout. We ate delicious street food, bought some stuff and things and then decided to people watch from a nearby bar. There, we met a fabulous couple, Alex & Gino (picture) and chatted with them about the Price is Right, mostly. They own a flower business in Hawaii and supply the show with all their flowers. I almost felt like we were personal friends with Bob Barker and Rod Roddey (RIP) afterwards. You can’t make stuff like this up! We went out Sunday night really late (home after 4 AM…yikes!) with the owner of our guesthouse, Kung, and some of her friends. Lots of fire twirling, Thai whiskey and dancing. My life passed before my eyes a few times, once as the fire stick landed on our table and again as kerosene was accidentally sprayed all over my shirt. Luckily, I never burst into flames!
We took a fantastic cooking class all day Monday, completely exhausted! We did a market tour and then headed to the school for a day of cooking and eating. Between the two of us, we made: pad thai, green curry paste and green curry, chicken w/ cashews, spring rolls, fried bananas w/ ice cream, sticky rice w/ mango, hot and sour prawn soup, prawn and coconut milk soup, chicken with basil leaves….incredibly delicious food and boy were we stuffed by the end of the day! Needless to say, the Barden children were well fed on Monday and slept like babies Monday night!
We lounged around, still sloth-like from overindulging on Thai food, for most of Tuesday morning. That afternoon, we more than made up for it by taking a three hour Muay Thai (Thai Boxing) class at an outdoor gym. I was sweating and exhausted before we finished warm-ups!! The class was a lot of fun. I was, not surprisingly, the only girl. There was a chubby 10 year old English kid…I had just slightly more stamina than he did to get through the class. We learned lots of punching, kicking, blocking, kneeing…great fun! That night, we went out with Kung and an Irish guy at the guesthouse. Amazing Thai food and then a live show performed by Thai women dressed as women and Thai men, some dressed as women, some as men. It sounded like cats dying and the whole time I couldn’t stop thinking of nails down a chalkboard…it was horrible. Oh well, they looked like they were having fun trying!
Could barely move on Wednesday what with more exercise in the 3 hours of Thai boxing than I have had since leaving Beijing in January! We took a bus to Pai, in the northwest part of Thailand. We’re staying in a bamboo hut for $6.50/night. It’s a village with only 3,000 residents and judging by what we’ve seen of it so far, will likely become my favorite city in northern Thailand!
I’ve learned the following things about my brother: he has frequent dreams of leading an army against oncoming zombies, he thinks I hog the bed (yes, unfortunately we have had to share a bed more than once on this little adventure), he likes to have a toilet nearby at all times, just in case, and he gets cranky when he’s hungry or thirsty or tired. ;) That’s all for now!
Sibling update from Gerad’s view: My sister does not like to carry ANY of her own things, definitely likes to hog the bed, and can only sleep on the outside of the bed because she has to use the bathroom during the night, of which she has not done so far. Other than that we are getting along fine and have not gotten on each other’s nerves too much.
Chiang Mai was an excellent change of pace from the beach. It was nice to be in a bigger city for a while. We stayed at this little six room hotel close to the city center. The owner was this tiny cute Thai girl named Kung, she was an excellent cook and a great hostess. We did a Thai cooking class, which was actually a lot of fun. It was very well organized, but too much food. We literally ate all day, the class was from 8:00 AM to 4:30 PM and we stayed out until about 4:00 AM the previous morning with Kung and some other people from the hotel. So, needless to say it was a bit hard getting out of bed, but it was well worth it because I am officially a certified Thai chef. Do not fear, I will not be opening up a Thai restaurant anytime soon.
After being complete gluttons, we signed up for a Thai boxing class scheduled for the next day. I have taken a few of these classes in the States, but this one was a little more authentic. Our trainer was a Thai boxing champion with a totally of 287 fights under his belt. It was a cool experience to see where and how the Muay Thai fighters train and the moves they learn. If you have never done a Muay Thai class, you might need to give it a try. Believe me; you will be carved out of wood in a few short weeks. These guys are bad asses. It was funny because I could tell they were going SOOO slow when we had to try to block their kicks and punches, it was almost silly. They are professional fighters trying to train out of shape foreigners, it was funny. We even took a few short videos and a bunch of pictures; however I hope none make it on here because they are kind of embarrassing. We survived our first Muay Thai lessons in Thailand!!
We packed up from Chiang Mai, said goodbye to our new friends and headed to Pai, which is a little town in the mountains. We already have an adventure to tell on our second day in Pai, which involves a scooter and me falling off said scooter. Do not worry Mom, I am not hurt in any physical way. To be honest the fall was not entirely my fault, as any man with wounded pride would try to put to blame on someone else. I will tell you next time and let you decide who is at fault. The rider or the person he is riding with??
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