Pai in 3.14159 days or less

Our Indian Odessy was over when we sad a sad goodbye to the country that had us hooked from Day 1, and boarded our Indian Airways flight bound for Bangkok. My first impression of Bangkok was utter shock at how modern it is! The brand new airport that we arrived in looked like something out of a futuristic space age movie. I guess I hadn't mentally prepared myself for the transition from the chaos and random assortment of buildings in Delhi, to this organized modern feat. We were dropped off at the end of the road that is the famous backpackers paradise - Khao San Road. Although I have heard tales of western males with Thai "girlfriends" and the multitude of fake designer items available, I really ahd no idea that both would be apparent in such quantities! The stalls and shops along Khao San road were full of everything from North Face backpacks to designer perfumes and Lacoste shirts, just to name a few. You can even get a fake driver's licencse, ISIC card, or university degree made in "5 minutes or less". Interesting. Although I was expecting it, it was also a huge shocker to be suddenly thrust into an environment with so many foreigners. We easily saw way way more in 10 minutes than we had come across during our entire month in India.

We only spent 24 hours in Bangkok and then caught an overnight bus north, to Chiang Mai. I have to say that in a sense, at times Shaina and I have almost felt bored here - everything is just so convenient and easy here. The bus was easily found, it was a huge double decker wtih large, cushy seats with leg rests, and English movie, blankets and even a toilet!!! What luxury...we had to laugh as it all just seemed so easy after our experiences in India. I immediately liked Chiang Mai more than Bangkok, as it is much smaller (about 350 000) and the old city has small quiet streets, surrounded by a pretty canal. We immediately headed for the market and feasted on amazing juicy mangoes (my FAVORITE) and bright pink dragon fruit. Just by chance, we happened to be there for the weekly Sunday market, which happens from 5 pm - 11pm, and encompasses several blocks which are closed off to traffic and lined with vendors selling everything from clothing, to jewelry, to handicrafts and multitudes of food in such interesting forms - on sticks (I have decided that we really need to have more foods on sticks back home), in banana leaf packets and in bamboo cups. The highlight was definitely the vendor that we ran into who was selling roasted cricket, beetles, huge grasshopper-like insects and worms. Yum. Our second day in Chiang Mai we rented bikes ($1.00 CDN for a full day!) and went exploring, in search of the "real" Thailand, away from the multitude of internet cafes, English restaurants and foreginers that had been surrounding us thus far. As we manouvered our way through the constant traffic of scooters, cars, tuk-tuks and taxis I was amazed at how natural it felt to be on the left side of the road! Things got interesting when we came to the "Superhighway" and had to cross it twice, over 3 lanes of traffic - yikes! Good thing India prepared us with techniques in which to navigate oneself across crazy roads! It felt so incredible to be on a bike - to be going fast enough to cover some distance, but slow enough to take it all in. Our destination was the Tribal Museum, which had information and artifacts from the various and numerous different hill tribes in Thailand; 'twas interesting and informative. It was located on a large pond which was surrounded by bamboo structure food and drink places. After visiting the museum, we ventured into one of these places and removed our sandals, and sat crosslegged, relaxing on the bamboo mats which were only a few inches off of the water. There was not another foreigner in site, we were surrounded by Thai people and the menu had not a word of English on it - exactly what we had been looking for. Along with Shaina's quick sketch of a "pig" and my chicken noises and arm flapping, we managed to get the point across that we wanted something to eat with no meat in it. It must have worked, as we got a delicious meal! On our way home we came across stables and a horse racing track - of course I was in heaven just wandering around and admiring the beautiful horses. One thing I have definitely learned while travelling is that stepping off the beaten track and exploring always pays off. Another highlight of our time in Chiang Mai was the traditional Thai massage that I had - 1 hour for less than $5 CDN!!!! I have never had a real massage before, but I can't imagine a better introduction to this art. I left feeling just incredible. I will defintiely have to take advantage of this one (or a few) more times when we are passing through here before heading home!

Our next stop was the small town of Pai, 4 hours north of Chiang Mai. In our continuous effort to escape the tourists, we decided to take a local bus instead of one of the many advertised tourist minibuses. We had to laugh again, as although Lonely Planet described the trip as follows: "The road is savagely steep and snaking; grab a window seat and ride on an empty stomach if motion sickness is a problem", it was a breeze for us - I guess India really did toughen us up! Pai was a really chill town, and a popular destination for Thai artists and free-spirits. This day also just happened to be Halloweeen, and as Shaina and I had made an earlier pact that regardless of where we were on Halloween, we would dress up in some shape or form, we did. We decided to be nerds, and made use of the town's name by making Pi symbols out of duct tape for our shirts along with huge square glasses made out of straws and chopsticks, pants hiked up to our ears, and me with a calculator in my pocket and Shaina with pens in her shirt pocket. Not bad for the limited resources we had!!! We hit up a Halloween party (we were surprised to find that there were 4 or 5 different ones going on - the influence of tourism for you ), and had a fun night. The next day we jumped at the opportunity to rent bikes again, and found ourselves finally in the "real" Thailand we had been hoping to see - on a quiet road in the midsts of bright greenery, rural traditional agriculture and bamboo houses. Our destination was one of the many waterfalls that surrounds Pai, where we played in the water and relaxed in the sun.

We are now back in Bangkok and are both battling with a bout of food poisoning. Although Shaina's is much worse than mine (hence the proposed title of her recent blog, "Explosions") we both have to laugh at the baffling fact that we managed to tough out India with not a single case, and are now hit with it in Thailand! That is irony if I have ever seen it.... Tomorrow we are taking off for Burma (Myanmar), where we will be doing a 10 day tour. I am quite excited to explore this country that is not readily travelled by tourists, and it will be quite eye opening given the current situation in Burma with the Totalitarian government that is in place there. For this reason, among others, there is a lot of controversy surrounding travelling within this country, but I only hope that I do not leave feeling as if I have supported the government and done more harm than good. We have done our best to ensure we are only staying in family run guest houses and using non government transportation. We shall let you know how it goes when we return.

(Just for the record, I am not as big of a nerd as the title of this blog makes me sound - I just couldn't resist! Even though I may be an Engineer, I had to google "Pi" for the last 3 digits ... I promise.)