Steve’s Travel Blog

Hello all,

Well after getting to watch the end of the Olympics and Canada winning gold in hockey, I figured it was time to get on the road again and see what the other parts of Thailand had to offer.

My first adventure away from Bangkok was to the west.  I decided to head out with a tour group because after looking at all the options it turned out to be the cheapest one.  Most go on a day tour to the area but I wanted to see a little more and planned out a 3 day tour.  I also did not want to go on a big bus tour so I picked one with a smaller group of only 10 people.  I was picked up at 7am and everyone on the bus was very quiet.  It was early and most were still a little sleepy.  It turns out that even though I was going for 3 days I ended up with all the one day tour people as well.  It was okay because there were some really nice people in the mini bus and we had a good time.  Part way through the day I was transferred to another bus because I had some different things to see with my three day tour. So what did I see you ask??? Well heading west means going into the area that is famous because of WWII and Japans part in the war.  We started off by going to Kanchanaburi and visiting the allied war cemetery and  war museum.  It kind of prepares you for the rest of the war things that you are going to see and try to understand.  Kanchanaburi is famous for one thing, Bridge over river Kwai.  Yes, you remember the movie about it or maybe you don’t, I don’t but now would like to see it again.  The bridge itself is just a bridge but it is how and who made it that makes it so significant.  The Japanese forced allied prisoners to build the railway and several bridges of which this was one of them.  It was good to see the pictures in the museum because at the time of building there was nothing else around and now the bridge is in the center of town and it is hard to imagine what it would have been like during the war.  I walked along the bridge and try to take in the atmosphere of what it would have been like.  There are lots of other tourists around so I walked all the way to the other end of the bridge where very few tourists went to.  After 3 days in the area I have a much better understanding of what happened during the war in this area.  I really had no idea about the area before or at least don’t remember anything from my school days.  You all know that I am not much of a fan for school, but I really do enjoy learning all this stuff in my own way and seeing for myself.  I seem to go onto the internet and look a lot of stuff up after I have been to these places just to get more information, who knew history could be so entertaining!!!  I had 2 other stops on this tour that dealt with the war and one was a trip on the Death Railway.  No the railway is not unsafe, it is called that because so many allied prisoners died while building it.  It was pretty unsafe at the time because some prisoners would purposely use bad wood or miss nailing in pegs so that it would fall apart, but if they got caught doing this that meant a beating and maybe death.  My other stop was a part of the railway called Hellfire Pass.  In this area the prisoners had to remove a large part of a mountain to get through to the other side.  They would dig by hand and then put in dynamite to help along the way.  It was called Hellfire Pass because they were made to work day and night and at night the area was lite up by torches that made the area look on fire.  Parts of the railway are still there today and walking through the pass was an intense feeling for me and I took some time to reflect on the stories I read about throughout the 3 days.  Not everything I did was about the war and I was able to have some fun as well.  The one afternoon I went on an elephant ride which turned out to be very touristy and I am not so sure that it was very good for the elephants.  The elephants end up having to take tourists up and down this path about 6 times a day and once I thought about it I was not that happy I did it.  I was able to make amends for it the next morning as I was able to go for a bath with the same elephants.  They take a very small group and you meet the elephants at the river for some fun.  It is their bathing and play time.  I followed my elephant into the water and they lean down so you can get on them but this time you are seated directly on them and not on a chair strapped to their back.  Pretty much the first thing that happens is the elephants lifts his trunk and completely sprays you with water.  Now that everyone is wet we can have a little fun.  It is almost like elephant rodeo and they move around and toss you into the water.  There is lots of laughing and the elephants have a ton of fun in the water.  After about 1/2 hour of play it is time for them to go and I headed back to the accommodation to see what else was planned for the day.  The accommodation is actually a room that is right on the river (called a river house).  It was a nice place and had friendly people, staff and other guests.  Both nights I was there I meet several people and we had great evenings.  I also got to go to the Tiger Temple.  From the info I had read the place is run by the monks and you can pet, play and walk with the tigers.  Most of the tours allow you 1 hour at the temple which I knew would be not enough and a big reason why I planned a 3 day tour.  I was able to stay at there for 3 hours and it still was not enough time.  I got there and the first stop is where you can pet the tigers.  I meet one of the trainers and was told that if I wanted to get a much closer look that I should come back later and see them during play time, which had an added cost but most of the tourists are gone and it is a better experience.  It sounded like a great idea so I paid and continued my way around the rest of the place.  It was a very open area that had lots of deer, horses, oxen, camels and other animals just roaming around.  The tigers all had there own area but during the day most are out with the trainers among the tourists.  I was able to sit right beside one tiger and get a picture.  It was interesting because the tigers are all on big chains and are not allowed to get to far.  I suppose this is good as they might decide to eat a tourist if they got hungry.  The only part of the day that I did not like or i guess understand was that I walked around the place for 2 hours and did not see one monk and could not find a temple.  Not sure if I was looking in the wrong area but it was strange not to find either.  The best part of the day was getting to see the tigers during their play time.  Most of the tourists had to leave and about 12 of us got to stay.  The first thing they do is take all of us and put us in a cage, instead of the tigers.  It felt good that we were the ones caged.  Once we were in, although the cage is not very high or really that safe, the tigers were taken off their chains and let to roam free.  You could quickly see which ones were the dominant ones and which ones just tried to stay out of the way.  Several played fairly rough with each other like 2 brothers fighting.  The trainers brought out some toys for  they to play with and got them jumping and swimming and having fun.  It was amazing to see how much respect the tigers have for the trainers as they could attack them at any time but just seem to want to play and have fun.  It was good to see this as I think most of their day is spent chained up and walked around for tourists to see.  My last stop in the area was to see a couple of waterfalls.  The first day I was dropped off at a small waterfall that most only see for 30 minutes but I had 3 hours again.  I was able to climb to the top of the waterfall for an excellent view of the area and then I found a trek that went into the mountains and 2 caves.  The first cave was not much but the far cave looked very impressive.  I started my way down the cave even though the sign said to wait for a ranger but none was coming.  I soon realized that this was not such a good idea to do alone especially in flip flops and without a decent flashlight.  I did go a little way until I could not see anymore and had no idea where or what I was stepping on.  On the way back I stood in the middle of the waterfall and had a refreshing cleanse.  The other waterfall I got to see was called Erawan Waterfall and it was completely amazing.  It is part of a national park and is a long trek to get to the top of it.  The waterfall has 7 levels and most do not go higher than about level 4 or 5.  I stopped for a swim at level 3 and then continued all the way to the top.  The scenery is so good and full of energy, at one point on the way back I just sat down for a while to take it all in.  The colors and smells of the forest and the sounds of the water are really relaxing and made me feel so good.  After 3 days in the area I headed back to Bangkok in the evening and got ready to make my way north of Bangkok.

The next morning I got onto another tour that was headed north but this time I took a one day tour with no plans to return to Bangkok.  I was the only one that had a big bag with them and most asked mt why I was bringing so much.  Once I explained that I would stay in Ayuthaya and not return that evening with them it made more sense.   Ayuthaya is all about seeing temples (Wats) and the Buddhist culture in the area.  We were toured around 6 different Wats during the day and seen some amazing places.  At this point I had seen lots of Wats through South East Asia and now I was looking for more information on what I was looking at.  This ended up been the perfect place to figure some of the information out.  During the day I wa able to understand the difference in a Wat, Chedi, Stupa, Pagoda, Prang and the other monuments.  I will not try to explain them all because we could be here for a long time then.  It was good to have a better understanding of all the monuments and get more information about them.  I was also able to find out a lot more information on the Buddha statues as well.  There are 3 different positions a Buddha will be in (sitting, standing and reclining) and all have different meaning.  The Buddhas have specific hand gestures as well and each has its own meaning.  There are to many to list but if you are interested you can look them up on the internet.  It has been very interesting to get an small understanding of the Buddhist faith just like it was with Hindu and Muslim as well.  I feel that having this understanding is making me a much more well rounded and better person.  Like I have said in the past, I think religion is a very personal path and I will not preach that any is right or wrong as each person has to make their own choice on what they believe.

I only stayed in Ayuthaya for 1 night and the full next day.  That evening I took an overnight train north to Chiang Mai.  While I have been in South East Asia I have been lucky enough to be getting lots of massages.  They are very cheap and make you so relaxed, and no I am not talking about the ones that have the “happy ending”.  I have always liked getting massages but also giving massages as some of the backpackers I have met can attest to.  While in Bangkok there were lots of courses in learning the art of Thai massage and I was interested but never did anything about it.  That all changed in Chiang Mai.  In my short time in Ayuthaya I met Eveline who was also on her way to Chiang Mai and interested in doing a massage course.  She ended up there the day before me and looked up a few schools that offered courses.  We signed up on Sunday for a 2 week course that started the next day.  I was really excited to be learning something new but also very nervous.  The course we signed up for was for Traditional Thai Yoga Massage.  When we got there on Monday morning and met the other classmates I was even more nervous.  Most of the class had done some form of yoga and had some interest in energy lines in the body and some other stuff I did not understand.  Thank goodness I learned a little about Buddhism and the energy of the body earlier as this is where this form of massage comes from.  Our teacher was a fantastic Thai lady that has been doing this for a very long time.  There was very little theory in the course with the majority of it been a practical class.  This was very good for me because I do not learn very well from a book and much better by just doing it.  Each day started at 9am and went till 4pm with an hour lunch break.  In the morning we would learn how t0 massage a certain part of the body and then in the afternoon we would practice on each other.  We had to practice with all of the people in the class which was good because there were many different body types in the class.  We had 3 guys and 5 girls in the class and everyone got along pretty well.  We actually had a 6th lady in the class to start but something happened the first day and she went running out of the class and never came back.  She kept on talking about some former boyfriend and seemed to be really unstable.  Most of the time I just tuned her out and I think it was good that she left as it could have been very distracting.  After the first week of class i was almost on overload with so much information and we still had more to learn.  A few of us did a practice session on Saturday and then I took Sunday off and did nothing with massage.  It was very strange to be in a class again but I was really enjoying learning something new.  Over the weekend I also took in the Saturday and Sunday night markets that are famous in Chiang Mai.  The market is huge and has anything and everything a person may want.  I think if you liked shopping you could end up spending a lot of money in a place like this, I did get a few things but was able to control myself.  The second week of class was also good and by this time I knew most of the class pretty well as we would meet for dinner in the evenings too.  The other 2 guys in the class were from the States (Yo and Balla), Annikii was from Sweden, Arati from India, of course Eveline who was from Austria, Lenny from Holland and a french girl that I did not get to know.  Eveline, Annikki, Arati and I spent a lot of time together during the class and in the evenings.  They were all great but I spent most of my time with Eveline as we were in the same guest house and seemed to chat a lot about all kinds of topics.  She is someone that I can see been a friend for a long time and chatting with as I continue on my journey.  I have several other people like this as well and it is nice to meet such great people as I travel. We completed all the learning by Wednesday and then Thursday was all for practice.  Our final exam was to do a full Thai massage on Friday which takes about 2 1/2 hours to complete.  We drew names for who we would have as a partner and I got Balla.  I was very lucky as Balla is a yoga instructor back in the states and had a really good knowledge of what was going on in the class.  On exam day when I got stuck at one point he just moved into the next stretch and then I knew what I was forgetting and was able to continue.  I was also able to get a really good massage in return and that did not happen for all in the class.  In the end I got a certificate that I completed a Beginners course in Traditional Thai Yoga massage and I was very proud of myself.  The amazing part was as I was going through the course and getting massaged everyday I learned that I was not as inflexible as I thought.  Although I am not that flexible I did get into some positions that I never thought I could.  I can even touch my toes without bending my knees, which I have not done in probably 20 years.

After 2 weeks in Chiang Mai I knew it was time to move on even though I had not seen that much of the city itself but I did tour around a little.  My next stop in Thailand was to Chiang Rai.  While I traveled in Indonesia I was told about a great couch surfing host in Chiang Rai so I contacted then before I got to Chiang Rai and set up to stay at there place.  That is where I am now and will stay here for a few days.  I went to the Saturday night market last night and this morning I went for a 3 hour bike ride through the countryside with Phillip another couch surfer here as well.  I think I will stay here until Wednesday when I have to take a bus out of Thailand and make my way to Laos.  My 30 day visa in Thailand runs out on Wednesday so that is why it is time to move on.  I have really enjoyed Thailand and learning some culture and ways of life in the country but I think I will always remember Thailand for the massage!!!

Thanks for following along on my adventure and I hope you continue to enjoy reading about it as much as I enjoy living it.

Till next time, take care all, love ya!!!

Steve

PS: It time for me to send out a birthday wish as I always do and this time it goes out to my cousin Jacqueline!!! I always enjoy our skype conversations and look forward to the next one.

Tags: Thailand

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 21st, 2010 at 4:53 am and is filed under Thailand. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.