Travel Journal:

my first trip out of the country - so the music thing happened...


so the music thing happened again 2007-01-24
 
hey (time for another),
There's about 3 days worth of experiences..

Day 1:
We started the trek on monday morning. We started late as groups tend
to do; its hard to get everyone moving........ we drove an hour or so
out of chang mai and had "lunch" which consisted of very bad fried
rice.. we then proceeded to go to ride asian elephants.. i actually
got to ride on the head the whole time..... the whole activity was
incredibly touristy but very fun nonetheless... my only real concern
was how the elephants are treated.. i didnt see anything first hand
but they looked very depressed. i think maybe elephants look like that
anyways.. after that we then proceeded to drive another hour to the
point of which walking began... we only walked a fairly short time
before we reached the "jungle hotel". we all took a bath in the river
and began to lounge and socialize......  as i mentioned earlier there
were some people who were really into good music i got a chance to
share it with them which was kool.... there were also people who kept
asking me to sing a song (like you know the kind with a beat and
lyrics... like you know trendy music) which was amusing.. the food was
pretty good (chi, one of our guides, is an excellent cook)

the night at the jungle hotel was fucking freezing cold..... i was the
last to bed so i got stuck outside of the mosquito nets with only 2,
very thin, blankets. several of us could not sleep because it was so
cold.. we built a fire at 2 in the morning and hung out for a while...
actually ryan (another new traveling partner), tink and i ended up
sleeping out by the fire because it was better than inside......
another interesting note was that whitney and jess (the least annoying
of the 3 aussie girls) both ended up throwing up for a good part of
the night..........

Day 2:
we awoke totally sleep deprived but in good spirits...... jessie and
tink (the two kool aussies that had become our traveling buddies) were
planning on leaving so we knew our party was going to drop in size but
then a miracle happened!!! since jess got sick the other aussies left
as well........ this dropped the party down to 5 of us, since whitney
decided to be hard core and keep going..... the breakfast was toast,
jam and hardboiled eggs (sound familiar amanda?).... so the party
halved in size which left me, abe, ian, whitney and ryan...

our hike that day was fucking intense.... we hiked up and down a
mountain that was 1700 meters high.... we then proceeded to eat raman
noodle pad thai (which was gross).... the only reason i was ok during
that hike was because i had protein bars.....

we ended up hours later at our guide lar's wife's village..... this
was kool because we got to meet his wife (who is by far the most
attractive thai girl i have seen on the trip.... like holy shit
hot.... go lar!!).. we also got to meet his son who is a 7 month old
baby.... whitney quickly proceeded to fall in love with the baby and
hold him for an extended period of time.. as soon as word got out that
we were in the village we the proceeded to run away from an
exponentially increasing bunch of women trying to sell their
crafts...... we were all exausted  and were very overwhelmed by all
this attention and hid in our houses for a while....

the women actually set up camp outside our house and about 6 of them
sat outside for about 30 mins and waited for our exit... this is the
only point in the trip i wished that the other three aussie girls were
there.... there was only one female among us (who had already
purchased something) and suddenly we were in need of several girls who
spend way to much time focusing on clothing/ascesories.... we had some
excelent food and then proceeded to talk to each other about our
relationships with our parents and other such things... i also got a
while to talk to lar our guide about the political situation in
thailand... and his family life/village life and that was really
interesting..

by the time the night had really gotten started i had proceeded to get
diareiha and ian was now the one of us that was throwing up
violently...... we proceeded to spend the second night much like the
first except no fire and it wasnt as cold...... so that left the last
healthy two; abe and ryan.

Day 3:
i began to realize that my illness was not actually sickness but my
body reacting to being under nourished and having far to much sugar in
it... ian was feeling better but no one feels totally better after
being up all night throwing up so he was fairly outta comission...

we ate breakfast, which was a step up, that consisted of a scramble
and toast and jam.... ryan and i, after talking with lar decided to
buy crafts from the villagers as that is a primary money source for
them....

we started on our hike late because of ian's and my state..... we
actually ended up calling a truck to help us along because two of the
3 had no energy... we visited a kool waterfall and got drenched in its
water... after that we went bamboo rafting which was totally fucking
fun!!! we got to jump off a tire swing into the river and had an
overall good time..... we then had an hour ride back to chang mai and
the trek ended there............ i had a wonderful, wonderful time

Chang Mai:
well first things first; showers came and was one of the best showers
i have ever taken.... on the way back there was a general concensus
among us that a good course of action would be to get pizza and a thai
massage......

we did both and god were they fucking needed..... i desperately needed
actual nourishment.

the massage was fucking hilarious because they put on the most
horrible crap muzak on for the massage... when we entered it was
beautiful traditional thai music.... this is the second time that this
has happened.... i really wish i knew how to say leave the thai music
on........

the thai massage was then abruptly undone on the way to the night
bazzar... we came across a club playing some exceptional drum and
bass..... i had heard good music there a couple of nights back and
ryan wanted to show us it so we went in... this dj was one of the most
exceptional djs i have heard in a while but something was wrong.... no
one was dancing to this exceptional music......... being the dj
sensitive person i am i quickly proceeded to start dancing.... from
what abe said i had about 15 people staring at me for a while and then
it happened.... more people came to dance and pay the necessary
hommage to such an exceptional talent..... i thought it was kinda kool
because i stuck to who i was and refused to be embarassed or self
conscious about it and my insistance on integrity began to spread....
this is a somewhat miniscual example but i think of this as being
applicable to a lot of fascits of life...

now i am writing yet another very, very, long travel guide at 1:26 in
the morning... abe already left and i am a bit worried about being
able to get back in the room so i shall go now........ and so shall
you......
 
Map and Photos for my first trip out of the country
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Thailand Journal : my first trip out of the country - so the music thing happened again Travel Photos
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