Now’s as Good a Time as Any

Spicy!

July 30th, 2007 by Greg

The mini-bus from Chiang Kong to Chiang Mai was a bit cramped, but it was a short journey, and I ended up sharing it again with the Canadian girl from the Gibbon Experience Kelly. She’d made friends with a couple Japanese guys in Houayxai the night before who came with us as well, and the group of us passed the time fairly quickly.

We arrived in Chiang Mai and unfortunately I lost track of the group of them, as I had booked a hostel on the other side of town from where they were staying. It’s not a massive city, and there’s a main center part where most people hang out, so I had hopped I’d run into them again, but alas I did not.

The hostel I stayed in, however, was superb and the guy running it came and picked me up in his car near where the bus had dropped me off. He told me he was taking a group of people to a local Thai barbecue that night and I was welcome to come along, and was happy to offer advice about my plans for the next few days. We got to the hostel and I was amazed: it was literally a little gated community of houses that looked like American suburbia. One of the houses had been turned into a hostel called “Spicy Thai Backpackers”. The inside was and inviting home, one room full of dorm beds, and upstairs the private bedrooms and a small girl’s dorm.

A group of us set off for the barbecue in the hostel’s Sangthaw, our host Pong in the driver’s seat. We arrived to a massive concrete-floored tent, full of plastic picnic tables and chairs, and in the middle, a buffet of uncooked meats and vegetables. Our table had about 20 people, and we were given 4 grills to cook on, essentially the same steamboat setup I’d seen before in Cambodia and Laos. We all went over to the food and loaded up our plates with unknown meats and vegetables we thought we recognized, and brought them back to the table. It was a great way to meet a bunch of people, and we all had plenty to eat (though not all of it tasting like what we thought it would).

When we got back, Pong said he was going to a bar later to meet some friends, and if anyone wanted to come with they were welcome. I joined a smaller group from dinner and we all piled into his car, and drove to the center of town where all the bars were. The bar we arrived in was packed full of people and had 2 stages with Thai bands covering all sorts of western pop songs. I got a table with the other people from the hostel and we ordered up rounds of beers, laughing at the slightly distorted renditions of a random mix of music. Eventually the night came to a close and we all headed back to the hostel, not too late.

I woke the next morning and had an email from Kirsten and Eilidh, they had arrived in Chiang Mai the same day as me and we arranged a time to meet up that afternoon. I spent the morning walking around the city, doing a little shopping to replace some clothes that had become dirty and worn out (the Gibbon Experience put an end to a few shirts that were looking ragged already). After some successful shopping I met up with the girls and we continued the walk around the city, recounting what we’d been up to since I’d last seen them in Cambodia.

Eventually we made our way back towards the side of town where I was staying, and had some dinner at a local shopping mall, at an outdoor food market. A bit more wandering around, and we decided to go out and get some drinks. I dropped my purchases off at the hostel, and we went to a bar near by and ordered some beers. And then some more. We left one bar and started walking back towards the center of town, and found another. It had started to rain as we were getting there, and we managed to get inside and avoid the hardest part of the downpour. The rain stopped and we got to another bar, and before we knew it it was fairly late and the bars were all closing.

Not ready to get to bed just yet, I had heard about an all night club we could go to called Spicy (no relation to the hostel). We flagged down a tuk-tuk and got a ride there. We danced and drank some more and had a great night. Several hours later we finally were finished for the night, and parted ways back to our hostels as the sun started to rise. I walked through the door into the hostel at around 6:30 am, and crashed out on the bed.

Now my plan had been to take a bus up to Pai the next day and maybe go trekking or ride a motorbike around the countryside. However, because of the previous night I didn’t wake up until well after noon, and as I had to check out and catch a bus well before this to get to Pai, my plans were going to have to change. Anxious to get down to the islands and the beach, I decided to skip Pai and catch a bus the next day to Bangkok and make my way south.

After a slow “morning” I met up with the girls again for dinner and group moaning about how we were feeling as a result of the previous nights festivities. We were sure that none of us was ready for another night out and decided to consider our options. We opted for a movie, the new Harry Potter in fact, which made me a little homesick, as that’s exactly the kind of thing I’d do at home after a night like that. We even had a dinner of western junk food beforehand, just like home as well. The movie was alright, though nowhere near as good as the book (like usual). Following that, we went for a foot massage to finish the night of slothfulness and recuperation.

I bid the girls farewell, possibly for the last time to Eilidh, though Kirsten said she wanted to try and meet up with me in the Philippines for a couples weeks, so hopefully that will work out. The next morning I boarded a bus for the long trip back to Bangkok, where I hopefully won’t have to spend too much time.

No photos from Chiang Mai unfortunately, I seemed to always forget my camera when we were out.