The start of today was like any other day: a "cookoo cookoo" noise. In my normal, Taipai County life, my phone in alarm mode goes "cookoo cookoo." Alternatively, my girlfriend, when really bored, wakes me up by pushing me and saying "kookoooo kookooo." But today was slightly different: there was 30 cookoo's, and they were real. I slept wonderful in Lahu, the weather acceptable, and no construction. Yan-Shih and I were the first people to leave the sleeping quarters, and made our way into the main hut, where our guide was starting to boil water. The three of us sat down and chatted, enjoying nice cups of coffee. Food finally came, we ate, and went on the trail.
The previous day was five hours of up, today was three hours of down. Honestly, I prefer the up to the down. Continually on the verge of slipping, I felt much more in control than most people -- especially considering I had my adventure shoes (a pair of Keens). One of the highlights of our trip down was stopping at a huge waterfall. This waterfall, as you can see by the pictures, was the perfect height where it would provide a back massage.The guide jumped in, and I soon jumped after him. I was the first to step out, and took a few photos of people.
We hit the trail shortly afterwards, and hiked and hiked. A few small villages we along the road, and eventually we came out at the elephant reserve. This reserve is a place where, apparently, elephants are sent whom can't survive in the wild. We went to a little hut, put our gear in the back of a truck, and walked up to a large, slightly waving, ramp -- and climbed on elephants.
Indeed, this was a unique experience. The elephants were so used to the routine, so used that they could know what would happen next. We purchased some banana (like, 50b each). After a few minutes we started to feed our elephant (and the baby one that joined us). A march up the road and trail back to the camp, we disembarked, and got on the white-water rafts. The river was a class 3 at best, and should have been rafted in an innertube with a beer in hant. However, we had no beer or inner tubs, so no-can-do.
Nothing too excited, but we did enjoy our ride down. Inside our raft was a couple from Sweden -- however they weren't that talkative.
After about an hour we pulled out of the river, and set in on bamboo rafts. Yan-Shih really liked this, but I think it sounds cooler than it really is. Then again, I'm guessing not that many people have gone bamboo rafting, so I should feel special.
We finished shortly, and disembarked for dinner. A quick, freezing, shower, and we started eating. After dinner, we said g'bye to our guides, and got int he truck. The road was bumpy, curvy and with large pot-holes. Our cramped truck-taxi was pretty quiet, most people didn't talk. There were two guys from San Francisco, and we chatted. One of the guys had just come back from India, so Yan-Shih and I listened to the stories he could tell. While the stories had an undertone of misery, that misery intrigues us; I'm sure we'll go at some point.
We dropped people off one-by-one, and walked to another hostel. The smaller two person rooms were all taken, so we had to take a "deluxe" room -- but at under $10/night, for the room, we could't complain.
The last time we talked with Sean we decided to meet for dinner. Since we didn't really know where to meet them, they just suggested a little market near the edge of old town -- coincidently two blocks from our hostel. There is a certain liveliness in Chiang Mai, partially fuelled by the lively night markets. Sean and his girlfriend (Pink) were easy to find (actually, Sean spotted me). A quick meal, and we then jumped in a taxi.
With Sean following us, we departed for a little bar nooked off any foreign-infested street. The bar was humble, but beautiful. One of the most notable aspects of this bar was the cheerfullness of people. Unlike some of the bars in the U.S., which seem to have a particular dreary, this bar was lively but peaceful.
Sean and I split some beer, Pink and Yan-Shih ordered some cocktails. Soon I needed to go to the bathroom. The bathroom was actually inside the associated house to the bar, and luckily I had the general experience to know that I should take my shoes off.
After talking for a while, and much teasing of Kelvin, in multiple languages, we departed back to our guesthouse. Exhausted, we slipped into sleep the second we hit the bed.
This entry is from my journal and was written on Aug. 8, 2006. It's been tagged with taipei. There have been 0 comments so far.
@depping Tweeting while flying, that's almost ironic. (about 9 hours ago)