The Journey

After leaving wintertime in Vancouver:



and heading to New York:



to celebrate New Years and my birthday in the big apple:




I left the city to head back to Southeast Asia. This time to Chiang Mai, in the mountains of Northern Thailand. I flew the cheap route - roundabout and time intensive - through Anchorage (Alaska) and Taipei (Taiwan) to Bangkok and then took a night bus (VIP!) to Chiang Mai. I arrived in Chiang Mai at 5am on the 9th, three days after leaving New York. 

By the time I arrived in Bangkok airport I was feeling dirty, homeless, and ambivalent about ever really arriving anywhere. I was too tired to be offended at sleeping on benches, plugging my computer in to random outlets in hallways to watch hours of heroes, or living entirely on airplane food, mostly rolls because the meals were getting progressively stranger from one flight to the next.

The bus to Chiang Mai was an overnight bus, complete with a stewardess and the movie Transformers (in Thai). Enough about the traveling though. First impressions of the city: not too hot (YAY), paved roads, cheap and delicious street food, functioning internet, and laid-back friendly people. All the things that made life a little more difficult in Phnom Penh: not being able to go out at night alone, worrying about getting robbed, sketchy internet, overwhelming heat... not a problem here. It is LOVELY.

CHIANG MAI!!!! This is the view of the city from Doi Suthep, a mountain to the North(?) of the city.



And Wat Suon Dok, the Wat near the BAB office:



My first day in Chiang Mai I was exhausted and jet lagged, but got up early to go sightseeing and try to get situated. My first major Thailand purchase was a helmet - safety first!



After purchasing my stylish and functional helmet I headed up Doi Suthep to a big Wat up there. Arriving at the Wat, by this point exhausted and a little grouchy, I was more than slightly irritated to find that there was a "Foreigner Fundation" extra charge to ride the tram up to the Wat. Having decided to take a stand against the extra dollar charged to foreigners for the service, I was left with two choices - either walk up 300 stairs to the Wat, or call it a day. Guess which option I chose. The entrance to the Wat was beautiful though, and there was an elephant chained up there for no apparent reason. I love elephants so that was something. Throw in some monkeys and it would have been pretty much perfect.



The journey up to the mountain was something else. Mountainous, lush, tropical. All good things. In a week full of journeys, I decided that this was what was important - the process of getting there - and not just arrival at the destination. 

As for my irritation at the Foreigner Fundation, having taken the time to think it through a little, I was a bit of a jerk for not forking over the one dollar. Tourists from everywhere come to Thailand, some for good reasons and some solely to behave badly, but regardless of the purpose of the visit, putting some money back into the country and hopefully to people who need it should always be a priority. I will have to go back and ride that tram.