1 month in Thailand: it’s all been about food and massages

Hello out there!

I know it’s been a while since my last entry, but I assure you that this has been due to our absolutely stuffed travel schedule… We’ve been cruising all over the country and spent hours and hours in several busses and trains, seeing a variety of landscapes, cities, people, wats etc etc. We hardly ever stayed anywhere for longer than two nights, so it really isn’t much of a surprise that I didn’t manage to spent very much time in internet cafes…

After making our way up from the south to the north we spent a few days in Chiang Mai, which is a rather big, but farely relaxed city with loads of cafes and bars. We relaxed for a day or two (it was too hot to really do anything), spent a lot of time shopping at the night market and the Sunday walking street, and participated in a one-day cooking class on an organic farm outside of the city. We cooked a few different dishes like curry, soup and mango with sticky rice, which we unfortunately weren’t able to eat completely – it was very tasty but simply too much… But it was nice to be able to cook again, even if somebody tells me what to do, haha.

After that we made our way to Pai, a little but fairly touristy town northeast of Chiang Mai. From there we took a bus and a motorbike taxi to a village in the mountains where we stayed with a local Lisu-family for two days (Lisu is one of the hilltribes that immigrated from Tibet to Thailand and Burma some time ago…). We had actually planned to do a one-day hiking trip with our host Suzanna, but then we went to a Lisu-wedding in a close-by village instead. It was quite a nice experience, although the atmosphere has not been very festive; it felt more like that the wedding was a just welcomed excuse for a gathering of all villagers and the slaughter of a pig (which of course was the women’s job)…

After that we returned to Pai again, where we spent two days trying to learn the art of Thai foot massage from a local woman. It was quite hard work, but I think we managed alright in the end… Although I have to admit that I still find it a bit strange to massage the feet of some unknown person (as we had to do as part of the course)… Oh well, I’m sure there will be enough well-known persons back home that wouldn’t mind a go, am I right?

Anyhow, from Pai we travelled further north to a somewhat strange city named Chiang Rai… It’s not a terribly interesting place to visit, but as it is quite close to the Myanmar/ Laos borders and as I had to do a visa run (go out of the country and come back in again in order to get a new stamp in my passport so I’m allowed to stay in Thailand a bit longer), we made our way up there. While I spent a day hopping over to Myanmar for a few minutes, my friend Lia visited all the wats (temples) around. The next day we went on a guided trekking tour including a boat and an elephant ride and some trekking through hilltribe villages. It’s been an excellent and very informative day, despite the heat and the fact that I pretty much suffered from a heat stroke at some point… But it’s been worth it, haha!

The night after the trekking we spent in a bus back to Bangkok, where I still am at the moment… Lia and I used our last days together in the capital to explore it’s wats and the royal Grand Palace, and to do a little trip to a floating market. And then, last night, I had to say good-bye yet again as Lia had to catch her flight back home… It was quite sad, our one month together went over so quickly, it’s really hard to grasp! But it was an awesome time!!!

So, here I am now, all alone in the big city of Bangkok. For those of you who are wondering what I’ll do next, here’s the answer: I’ll head down south to the beaches again tonight and then I“ll gradually make my way through Malaysia to Singapore from where I’ll catch a flight back home – however, not without stopping en route in Peking, China for three days. I’ll be touching German ground again on May 29th! 

The next few weeks should be as exciting as the past ones, with so many places to visit! But I gradually do start to look forward to come back home, and give all the impressions I’ve gathered in these past months the chance to settle a bit…

So, I guess I’d better go and fetch a Pad Thai from on of the street stalls before I go on the night bus to the south, so I won’t get hungry in the middle of the night. I’ve uploaded new pics, make sure to have a look!

Speak soon!