The Wild Side of Bangkok

My mother and I arrived in Bangkok a little after 4am and since public buses were miraculously still running we avoided the dreaded tuktuk/taxi dilemma and within no time had arrived back at The Overstay where we had left some lugofgage. We hung out there a bit before doing some sightseeing and I was again struck with the sentiment that I wish I could have spent more time at that hostel. Our day of sightseeing began with visiting the Grand Palace, then deciding it was too hot and crowded and giving up on the palace, taking a picture in front of it instead so we could claim we were there. We visited Terminal 21, a bizarre mall with a different country theme on each floor, made even more bizarre by the fact we were there - the jury is still out on which of us hates malls more, and later a walk through Chinatown. I seemingly blinked and found myself standing at the ARL station hugging my mother goodbye.

The first time I was in Bangkok I had taken it easy, nerding out with boardgames and night markets, this time I was meeting up with my Dutch friend Freddy who I'd met in Chiang Mai and we were staying at a hostel on Khaosan Rd so there was no mistaking that this time would be different. My suspicions were proven when I met up with him and within moments we were on Khaosan Rd having what would be the first of many drinks that night. Having been in Bangkok multiple times Freddy was the perfect tour guide into the hedonistic wild side of Bangkok.

Drinking & Laughing Gas
On Khaosan Rd you can find a myriad of things, which we sampled ranging from cold beers and buckets of booze to laughing gas. The buckets I've grown used to but the laughing gas was a first. We sat down at one table to share a bucket and next to us was a Thai woman selling balloons of laughing gas that tourists would buy, inhale and exhale almost instantly  experiencing a laughing gas high. A truly bizarre experience.

Ping Pong Show
Yes I saw one. It could be worse, that was Freddys second time seeing one in two days. I'd been torn about wanting to see one since it sounds terrible but weird enough to be intriguing. Which is exactly how it was. Getting there is a bit of a scam with the tuk tuk drivers and negotiating the prices (we agreed on 700bht for 2 then once we were there it became 800bht) but soon enough we had our free drinks and were inside. Sure enough we saw the girl who was able to bounce multiple ping pong balls into a bucket at the other side of the stage which left me wondering how you discover such a talent and also wondering how I can be so terrible at beer pong when that lady on stage can aim so well with her "no hands" version. There were a few other acts as well each weird in its own unique way and while it was an incredibly bizarre experience the earlier drinks and the good company dulled the weirdness somewhat.

Freddy forcing me to try a scorpion

Freaky Street Food
Normally street food is something I am wild for but on Khaosan Rd there are a few street food additions I didn't care too much for.  As it would get later, the scorpion vendors would come out to play and I may have even glimpsed a few giant spider dealers but I was excellent at ignoring those. My first night Freddy kept threatening that he would get me to eat a scorpion. I successfully avoided it the first night but was less lucky on night two. Freddy stopped one of the vendors and bought two scorpions as we tried to convince the lady that we wanted the teeny tiny ones not the jumbo ones she tried passing us. We counted to 3, he succeeded at eating his and after a false start I managed to get mine down in one gulp. The taste itself wasn't so bad but I could feel legs and pincers and other unsavoury bits that were impossible to chew and swallow. It made me wish for more silkworms and crickets.

My second stay in Bangkok was short but jam packed with weird adventures and as I was leaving for Myanmar I knew I was in for a drastically different experience.

The Chiang Mai Lantern Festival

On treacherous roads some pray to god, for me on the road from Pai to Chiang Mai I prayed to Gravol. I'd slept through the entire drive to Pai so I'd been blissfully unaware that there were 762 curves in the road however this time I was awake and feeling it...until the Gravol gods heard my prayers and the drowsy anti-nauseant kicked in. Praise Gravol! At the bus statiom we caught a songtheow and I felt proud that I had kicked ass at bargaining - something that fills me with dread and anxiety - and had properly conveyed our destination. The trouble came afterwards when we were on the right street and couldn't find the Mojo Guesthouse that we'd booked on Air BnB. Nobody on the street knew of it and even more perplexingly nobody knew the street name despite living on working on the street. We finally asked Baan Thai Resort for directions and discovered they'd renamed themselves ages ago and had forgotten to delete their old AirBnB account.

My mother bailed on the Sunday night market so I met up with Carlota and we made our way over to the giant, crowded street full of trinkets and food - which we thoroughly enjoyed. On top of the food and sights we ended up at one closed interection where a group of guys were jamming on didjeridoos and drums, so of course we pushed past the crowd and sat on the asphalt at the front of the circle. Then, because a night out with Carlota never ends early we found ourselves making our way to the Reggar Bar, something I found hilarious since Carlota had just bought a new 85L backpack so it came with us to the club. In Thailand the bars close at midnight so afterwards we were mingling outside with some others when a motorbike with a thai guy and Carlota stop in front of me and she shouts "Get on! We're going to a secret after hours club" which led to another Carlota-esque night where I found myself returning as the sun was rising.

The morning after I still luckily made it to the Myanmar embassy where the line was non existent, the staff were super friendly, and the application was easy despite a few odd questions (i.e. What is your skin colour?). Somehow the ride there was 40bht but coming back the cheapeast was 150bht so out of stubborness I walked back in the blazing sun, arriving just in time for my mother and I to sign up for a cooking class for later that evening. The class started with a tour of the market where we learned about some thai ingredients and then we drove out to the countryside to a farmhouse where we would learn several dishes. The entire course was so much fun and the instructor Richie was great, when teaching us how to make the chicken cashew nut dish he impressively set the wok on fire, then told us we would be doing the same trick,  starting with yours truly. He got me to tilt the pan, pour the mix in and leap back as a fireball seemingly erupted in my pan. The best part of course was eating what we'd made which consisted of papaya salad, mango sticky rice, curry paste, green curry, pad thai wrapped in an omelette, chicken cashew nut, and chicken coconut soup and every single dish was unbelievably good.

The day after our cooking adventure we decided to embark on an elephant adventure. I was dead set against elephant riding and wanted an elephant sanctuary whereas my mother desperately wanted a picture with an elephant and wasn't too picky where she got it. Luckily we found a place that was not just an elephant sanctuary but a BABY elephant sanctuary, for young elephants rescued from the circus. Kid, our fantastic guide, picked us and two other girls up and once we were at the sanctuary and had changed into our very flattering mahout attire we got to meet the 3 babies (more like toddlers).

The three girls were Nathalie, Bplaifun, and one with a name impossible to remember with the youngest, Bplaifun, being 2 years old and about a head shorter than me. It was actually intimidating at first meeting such a large foreign animal that had a trunk moving all over the place but we fed them an absurd amount of bananas, moved past the intimidation stage and into the stage of awe and admiration at these beautiful creatures. We led them up the hill for a walk, joking with the mahouts, one per elephant, and feeding the girls the entire way.

After the walk we ended up at a small pond where we waded in, fully clothed, to swim with and wash the elephants, which of course was just another excuse to joke around with the others while the elephants shot trunkfulls of water at us. My mother refused to go in the water because she heard the elephants pooped in the pond but so far on this trip I've been covered in worm poo (vermicasting at Layog Country Farm in the Philippines), chicken poo (cleaning the chicken shelf at Clayzy House Koh Lanta), bat poo (stupidly posing for a picture in a cave in Pai not realizing that was not dirt...), so whats a little sketchy pond water? Besides, we had a great time in the water with the elephants and I would not have traded that, not even for perceived cleanliness. Saying goodbye to the elephants was sad but it was a great adventure at the Elephant Park Rescue.

Part of the reason why we had chosen to be in Chiang Mai for those for those dates was because of the Li Peng and Loi Krathong festivals. We had watched some of the Li Peng  festival the night earlier where we'd watch them put floating lanterns down the river however as cool as that was, the main event would be the floating lanterns the next day. The only problem was that the festival was so disorganized. We finally discovered that there was the main event that you had to pay 100USD for and book a year in advance, and a free event that had been cancelled that year but was somehow still running anyways outside the wall of the main event. Another confusing option was that people were letting lanterns float up within the city walls however that option was an unofficial one and technically illegal. With the first two options we were able to watch the lanterns being set off by the unofficial event and then at 9pm the official release would happen. All this information we learned while picking up my visa at the Burmese embassy when we asked Kenny the super helpful employee there.  We found out the events were held near the Mae Jo University which was about an hour drive north and then as luck would have it, Kenny said he lived near it and if we could wait 40 minutes till his shift ended he would drive us there. Embassy hitchhiking, best way of getting around! For two hours we watched lanterns being released next to the river and even released one ourselves but the truly amazing moment came after 9pm when the official event was allowed to release their lanterns. Before the sky had been dotted with hundreds of lanterns but when the official release happened it was like a swarm of thousands of lanterns blocking out the night sky and full moon and was only made more impressive by the fireworks that were let off slightly afterwards.

Lesson learned:Cooking Thai food isnt that difficult and I fully intend to cook it frequently when I have a kitchen again (whenever that may be).

Bangkok and Pai with my Mother

The only thing that pried me away from the amazing place I'd found with Wanderlust Hostel in Koh Phangan was the prospect of meeting my mother in Bangkok. I've met travelers who have not been home or seen family in years and they seem fine with that but that is not me! Back home my sister is my best friend and I'm extremely close with my mother and father and stepmother so being away for so long has been tough. I'm not sure how I succeeded but I managed to convince my mother to join me for two weeks in Thailand and as her visit approached I was more and more excited. Does it make me a terrible daughter if I was also really excited to see how she handled the crowds, the language and lack of any english on signs, the first time when  a Thai person would tell her some food was not spicy when it was and the bathrooms with bumguns and no toilet paper? Probably.

I got to Bangkok a few nights before her and I walked around a lot, went to the nearby night market every night but I barely did any sightseeing. The nerd that I am, the highlight of my days alone in Bangkok were when I found an online meetup for boardgaming and spent 11 hours playing games with locals and boardgame cafe hopping with them. After 6 months I was pretty deprived of gaming and I can even try and claim it as a cultural experience too because by the end of the night I had learned numbers in Thai. My lameness may have also been a good thing because the others at the hostel seemed to have suffered from the infamous Khaosan Rd. One guy had his passport stolen, another had his passport, wallet, phone and likely dignity stolen and the biggest tragedy of all was one poor girl who had lost her phone, her money, then missed her non refundable flight back to London, then while spending a few more days in Bangkok she was robbed twice more and for a second time drunkenly missed her flight back to London.

My mother arrived on November 16th and since it had been so long since we'd seen each other I was not sure I'd be recognized so I made sure to stand next to the taxi drivers holding a sign that read "Mom". She claimed to have recognized me but I'm pretty sure it was the sign that did it. It was amazing and surreal seeing my mom standing there in Bangkok and I was so glad to have her there but her first 24 (36?) hours there were rough. We exited the airport and she was crushed by the heat, then since the Airport Rail Link that I  had now mastered was closed, she was subjected to the joys of catching an airport taxi in Asia which took several tries. I had given my mother a few options of places we could stay and instead she sent me a link of the exact hostel I would have loved to stay at but had assumed she would hate. We booked it, checked into the hostel and as I had expected I loved it. Also as expected, the hated it. The Overstay is this fantastic hostel that may be a bit grungy but has a great vibe and collection of people and is the kind of place that would be great to just hang out. Unless you are looking for a perfectly clean place that has a/c blasting everywhere and is quiet, then like my mother you would be complaining and miserable to. The daughter laughing and saying I told you so probably didn't help her mood. The next day we wandered around Bangkok and Khaosan Rd but she was so miserable in Bangkok that when we checked the bus prices to Pai for the next day she asked if it was possible to leave that night. We got tickets, sped back to the hostel, furiously packed and somehow made it back in time to catch the overnight bus which was 12+ hours of solid sleep for me and another 12 hours of miserableness and carsickness for her.

Just in case

Getting our feet eaten at a fish spa. 

Once we arrived in Pai the culture shock and not so fun experiences stopped for my mother because we were finally in beautiful Pai. After the heat and crowds and concrete jungle in Bangkok, Pai was like a paradise for us since it was so tiny you could walk everywhere in town, it was cooler or at night even cold, and there was beautiful scenery and views everywhere. Our first two nights were at the Pai Circus school where I learned a bit more Poi and some firestaff (still no fire) and not only did my mum stay at the Circus school too but she even tried a few of the activities, slacklined, and one night she hung out late with all the young hippies and held her own. My mother and I really wanted to see the surrounding area but the fact that every person at the hostel was covered in bandages from motorbikes wasnt making us feel too confident. Somehow miraculously we found a taxi that would take us around for 1000bht, then 2 french girls overheard us and asked to join in. Then a third girl, Vie, overheard us and also joined in bringing the cost to 200bht per person. The hilarious part was Vie had rented a bike that morning and we had seen her driving and that had been the final straw in our decision to not to drive a bike. A minute after she passed us she crashed and turned around. That day we saw the Pai Grand Canyon, we visited thw land split (not too impressive), saw the waterfall which was beautiful and swam in its icy waters, and ended the day at the sai ngam/secret hot springs which at 20bht entry was much more preferable to the slightly better one that was 300bht! The entire ride I sat in the back of the pickup truck with Vie and the views were beautiful but the steep ups and downs of the roads would have been terrifying on a bike.

My mother rocking at the slackline

When we got back to the Circus I was greeted by the pleasant surprise that my friend Tyer had now checked in. To me the Circus School was a fun and funky place but for Tyer it seemed he had found the spot he belonged the most in the world. I've never had that but seeing Tyer experience it I hope to god I do someday. The 3 of us ventured out to the main street to see the daily night market and it was a colourful mixture of artisan handicrafts and more importantly, delicious foods. Tyer would see a colourful sweater, I would see khaosoi salad, he would see a gem necklace, I would see bacon wrapped mushrooms. The only thing I wish I hadn't seen was the bug stall. I've avoided trying them so far because I didn't want to buy a whole bowl of them but then as we're watching some poor tourist who is about to try them he offers me some. So I pick up a silkworm, we cheers, then down it. He offered me a fat beetle which I said hell no to so we settled on trying crickets together. The silkworm was okay (can't believe I can say that) but the cricket was all legs and crunch and felt like it never left my teeth. To rid myself of the terrible cricket taste I treated myself to even more street food.

Pai Grand Canyon

Stunning view from te Pai Circus School

Yeah...I ate that

After 2 days of being a trooper and putting up with staying at the circus my mother opted for getting our own cute little bungalow away from the crazyness. We spent the rest of our time there getting thai massages and one night we even searched out the Purple Monkey hostel when we heard they had poutine and caesars. Sadly the poutine stops after 5 but that was the best damn caesar ever.

Our last day in Pai we decided to have a nice lazy day tubing down the river. We get in the tubes and then are immediately separated, then launched into the rocks, escape the rocks, then were launched into spiky bushes and spent the next five minutes de-thorning everything. It was chaotic but hilarious, especially when you add in my mothers reactions. The group eventually became myself, my mother, Luke, and Connor and miles back were the rest. While talking together Luke, the super sweet South African guy found out I wanted to learn to ride a motorbike but was too scared so after tubing he made it his goal to teach me. After tubing he drove around a bit and we visited the waterslide waterfall where you climb up, look down and go "Oh crap I have to slide down THAT?" but it was actually a blast to go down it. The water in the shallow pool below was Canadian cold so I was okay but poor Luke being from South Africa was shivering to death and I swear he was turning blue. Despite seeming nearly hypothermic and me being fine he still insisted I be the first to use his towel. Then the scary part comes. He pulls the bike over and says 'Your turn'. It was terrifying to me but he was an awesome teacher and sat on the back so if I messed anything up he could adjust it. When I think of how many tourists are thrown on a bike by the bike shops and are told 'this is gas, this is brake' and then start driving I can't help but feel incredibly lucky that I had Luke to teach me. The hills in Pai are insane so I wasn't up for braving it all the way so we thankfully switched after a while and drove to the white buddha to watch the sunset. Then my mother and I ended the day yet again at the night market. I think night markets are like sunsets, you can never see too many.

Lesson learned: If you are a terrible and nervous driver like myself but you still stupidly want to try riding a bike 1) have someone actually properly teach you, 2) do it before your medical insurance expires! (Dec 20th - Happy Birthday to me!)