I can never get over how well night train compartments are put together. After a few hours, the attendant comes through and in about 5 minutes - top bed down, sheets made, pillows fluffed - both bunks are ready to go. Curtains with bed numbers on them, reading light behind the cushions, and cup holders - just so well-designed. Now if I could just figure out how to brush my teeth without falling over...
After spending some time lazing around and journaling in Chiang Mai (the weather is not a great incentive for activity), I enrolled in a cooking course. Someone should've warned me to avoid eating breakfast before I got in because, between 9 and 4, I was in for a longer progressive meal than Christmas day. These photos are just part of it: My 3-day trip to Samoeng seemed like some sort of Tom Sawyer childhood I never had, set in northern Thailand. Hiking through the hills, with the smell of fermenting mangos in the air. Eating fresh, tart lychee off the trees. Swimming in the lake and sitting around chatting with other hikers afterward, enjoying the breeze and the spray of the waterfall. White-water rafting, then floating down the river on a bamboo raft, with the rower's occasional response of "oh my Buddha!"
Not bad for something I signed up for without knowing much about it.
As seems to be the theme with my hiking experiences (or perhaps all hiking?), the first day was spent scaling a rather large hill jutting out of the jungle. But, as always, the end justifies the means. After watching the gorgeous sunset over the mountains and eating stir fry for dinner, we hikers got to sit back and watch the local children sing and dance for us (yes, a contrived tourist gimmick, but those kids were just so cute).
After a second day of treking, we arrived at the elephant camp. When we woke up the next morning, the elephants were coming in for our ride. My elephant du jour was Mae Bun Tung, a fiesty balding elephant that realized I'd feed her bananas if she stuck her trunk back and breathed out, spewing me with elephant snot. Such an effective trick, she realized, that she would stop every 20 feet to negotiate another.
Tomorrow morning I'm off to Chom Tong, in another part of my trip that resembles "Eat Pray Love": a 10-day Vipassana meditation course at the Wat Phradhatu Sri Chomtong temple. Which will involve getting up super early, wearing white all day and night, very little talking, no use of electronics (so no internet), and no reading or journaling. Not sure how this is going to work, but it should be a cool experience.
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