Happy Thai-nese New Year

Yes, it's Chinese New Year. Not the one in January that happened last month (while that was quite the adventure). The new year in Chinese culture is a big deal here; think Christmas married New Years and had a 1st of July honeymoon (4th for any Americans who have somehow found their way here). Lots of lanterns and decorations go up in parks and outside businesses, the city gradually grows quieter, and my classroom slowly comes apart at the seams as the impending holiday grows nearer. 

As a disclaimer, it's probably not a good idea to be anywhere Chinese-ish while the new year is taking place. While the locals travel home to see their families and do all nature of holiday things (so much so that it has become the biggest migration of humans on the face of the earth), China is CLOSED. Businesses, supermarkets, restaurants, your favourite Kebab shack around the corner. NOPE. Most sensible migrant workers (such as myself) go abroad to take advantage of the 9 days off. Even though I'm not always sensible, I thought I would try and look the part, so I booked a ticket and embarked on what would become one of the most thoroughly enjoyable adventures of my life. 

Thailand. Land of the golden waxed thunder thighs; My destination was Chiang Mai, a 900-year-old city in the northern part of the country. With a little convincing, I was able to rope in two pals to join me on a week-long expedition that hadn't had a morsel of planning put into it. While there was a lot that happened in this wonderful country, I'll highlight/summarize the neatest bits to try and keep this under dictionary-length. 

Chiang Mai is pretty neat. I announced this aloud to my friends nearly every day. Unlike southern Thailand, which is beach & party-heavy, the north was quieter,
kind of a hippie retreat, but not so bad that I would feel shamed for showering or being able to digest glutenous foods. We found ourselves a ton of things to do just through the hostels we stayed at, I definitely recommend going places with next-to-no plans, because I definitely would not have had as good as a time as I did with a metric butt-ton of commitments. 

So here they are. Landon is a fellow I endured music school with a few years back and we made plenty of jazz. PLENTY. He's been travelling in Asia for the past two months, and will be for another two. Jade is a gem of lady I went to teacher's college with just last year [SECTION 8 PAR-TI-CI-PATE], who now lives in Kuala Lumpur making learning go. With our powers combined, we made a pretty spectacular week come together. 

Item number one (and only) on the menu was to get our hands on some two wheeled transportation. Since the three of us had never ridden motorcycles before, we started in easy mode and got these simpler machines to use while in town. You've got to change the gears with your feet, but there's no pesky clutch to deal with (think of an automatic car with those numbers you can shift into). We spent our first day learning how to ride whilst checking out the town, hiking through a national park (complete with waterfall climbing) and heading to a gorge with ~30 foot drops and clear blue water for a swim. Turns out there was a tasty Thai restaurant that overlooked the quieter side of the gorge. You can spot the divers in the distance if you take a look for yourself. Legitimate Thai food is pretty incredible. I mean, jam-packed with flavour, a beautiful marriage of spicy, sour, sweet and savoury, gleaming with colour, served tapas-style so everyone can have a taste. It's going to be hard to go back to the same stuff made here. 

Landon parted ways with us to meet another friend in the area, and so the two of us went to a village for a 2-day trip. Thatched roofs, elephants, a quiet river you can stick your feet in. There were also a group of other travelers who we met, who I quickly converted to Dutch Blitz fanatics. I never considered doing things like hiking, white water rafting, and sleeping in a bamboo house to be part of a standard vacation, but it reminded me of how good it is to spend a good chunk of time outdoors. The neat little ponds, the outlooks, the spots just to pull over and have lunch in the shade & fresh air, they make for the mini-vacation inside the vacation. A pretty neat thing to do. 

We reunited with Landon, and after a good evening of foot massages and roadside banana/nutella crepes, we made plans for the next chapter in the trip; Pai. A village that sits in the mountainous range north of the city, we could either take a bus or risk the 762 bends & curves stretched out over 136 KM of Asian country roads. With no proper riding experience whatsoever, we chose the latter (obviously). 

These are the three bikes we used over our three day trip. Jade had the smaller one to the left, feeling more comfortable without a clutch pedal to worry about. Landon opted for a sleek and stylish Yamaha bike like the uppidy jazz city slicker he is, and I chose the most sensible bike, a 150CC Suzuki with large tires and a comfortable, wide seat. We strapped our bags on the back and hit the road. 

That was probably the best part of the trip, just going. A destination somewhere up ahead, with an unknown road and undiscovered places in between. Learning on the go was an initially daunting yet very rewarding process, and it went pretty damn well. Although there was one moment, while riding, I had thought I had been hit with a handful of gravel. Turns out it was bees, no big deal, just a chestful of bees. They just stuck to my shirt and I pulled over and picked them off very diplomatically. No biggie. Just regular things like bees. 

Pai turned out to be a pretty great place. There was tons of street food (a section of the town is closed to traffic at night for all the vendors), good music (the jazz bar was especially neat), we made some new friends and old ones (who happened to know Landon from his small hometown in Northern Alberta), and just explored the area with no real expectations than to find things that were neat. 

I'm surprised that I'd never thought of this before, but they were serving baked potatoes as street food. They'd grill these babies up in foil over a charcoal fire, and fill them with all nature of tasty goodness. Much like a pizza, you could get tomatoes, onion, pesto, olives, hot peppers, cheese, meat bits, the WORKS (you can see part of the menu for yourself). After staying two nights, we headed back to Chiang Mai for our last night together. 

I suppose I didn't get a lot of touristy photos because didn't do a lot of touristy things (also because I lost my phone somewhere on the road, probably while making engine noises and aggressively shifting gears). I guess that's not what the point of the trip was. We went to find neat things with no real expectations, and we had the absolute best time because of it; Tasty food (and goddamn was there a consistent amount of tasty food), nice massages, fantastic outdoor escapes, making friends, and going fast (next time, without the bees). 

As much as I put on a confident attitude about doing new things, I've had trouble with travelling. During my time off, I'd just like to be with good friends. Meeting people while travelling is great, until the next day comes and you've got to find someone new, or find some comfort in doing things on your own. Man, I feel really lucky to have been able to spend a week with two top-notch human beings who made each day so full and consistently satisfying. Travel, it's a neat thing, but made exponentially better with some good buds to do it with. Nice work you guys.