Going it Alone

Most of my friends (and family, of course) cannot fathom how a young woman can backpack alone through New Zealand and Australia, nevermind Asia - "you're travelling alone?!!? Aren't you worried/lonely/scared? Isn't that unsafe!?" My mother made me watch the movie "Taken" before I left (in this blood pumping thriller Liam Neeson's daughter gets kidnapped and sold into self trafficking but I assured her that white men would definitely not travel all the way to Thailand to have sex with me!) Although I travelled on and off with my college buddy Tim in New Zealand (and will probably meet up with him again in Cambodia), the majority of my travelling since then has been "alone". I will say, though, that It's easy it is to meet people along the way. After a simple hello to another traveller I have asked "can I tag along with you?" only minutes later. Of course, on the days when I just can't be bothered to talk to people I end up sitting on the internet or reading a book, which can be lonely, but hey, I get the best of both worlds; friends when I want them and alone time when I don't. Tonight is my first night truly "alone" in about 3 1/2 months, and it is actually pretty nice. But as for tomorrow, I hope to meet some new people to hang with!


So I haven't written in two weeks, and to my dedicated readers I apologize, but I have been too busy having fun! Rego and I headed south from Bangkok two weeks ago to the island of Koh Toa to start our scuba diving certification. The island itself was another paradise; bigger than the parenthian islands, with more bars, shops and stores, with just as nice beaches and that fun laid-back, beachy feel. After 3 days of pool training, cheezy american DVD watching, amazing scuba diving and a "final exam" (which I decided would be a group exam, and open book while the instructors weren't looking) Rego and I recevied our PADI Open Water certifications. I was enjoying my time underwater so much that even though Rego stuck to our intial plan and headed back to Bangkok, I decided to stay in Koh Toa for three extra days to get my advanced diving certification, which included a night dive (we used flashlights - crazy!) and deep diving to 30 meters. Koh Toa wasn't all scub diving though, I also rented motor bikes with my friend John and drove around the island (and no I didn't learn my lesson; they were still horribly scary, and I gave up after two hours), saw a "Lady Boy" Show (this is a word which is now permanently in my dictionary, and I am sure you don't need the definiton), and enjoyed the beautiful beaches!


On my ferry ride back to mainland I met three American doctors (they all just graduated from Medical school and are travelling through Asia until they start their Residencies in June) who happened to be going north to Chiang Mai, so I invited myself to tag along.

After a 3 hour ferry, 8 hour overnight bus (which got us into Bangkok at 3am!), a 5 hour wait in the train station, and a 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai in 90 degree heat because the AC in our car was broken, we arrived tired and sweaty. A "taxi" (a pick-up truck with bench seating in the back) drove us to a guest house and we were able to split an amazing room for only $6 a piece!!



The next day we took a 6 hour cooking course where we learned to make traditional Thai meals like Pad Thai, Green Curry, Spring Rolls, Sticky Rice and Mango and Burnt Garlic (actually that's not a traditional dish, it's just a new one I came up with.) We were all throughly exhausted after the class (especially after the deep frying garlic panic session) that we went and got Thai Massages. Reminder to Self: Never get a Thai Massage in a group. It was like when I go to a yoga class, and everything makes me laugh so hard that I can't relax. Between the farting noises (it was supposedly "changing position on the mat" and Don, one of the doctors, being so inflexible that the massuse fell over trying to sit him up) it was the most hysterical (and unrelaxing) massage I've ever gotten!

That evening we went to the night market, where I haggled for some deals on fake birkenstocks and another unneccesary dress, ate ice cream cones at MacDonalds (covered in chocolate for only 30 cents!) and danced at a salsa/hippy bar.


The following morning we began our 3-day trek through the Northern Thailand jungle with our tourguide Moonshine, a native Thai man with no teeth and really, extraordinarily long hair growing out of a mole on his chin. On the way we stopped at the local market to pick up some food for our journey, and me and two of my new American friends decided to eat some bugs.
I ate one super big grasshopper-type-bug, and a juicy maggot. Despite the initial shock of what I was eating, they weren't too bad!! Before we began our trek we did a quit pit-stop at the Elephant camp, where we rode a banana hungry giant for an hour as he trotted around, stopping only to ask for more bananas with his trunk, to poop, and to scratch his butt on rocks. The jungle trek was interesting, and like everything I have found on my journey a little spoiled by tourism. After a one hour hike you come up to a hut which sells Coke, Fanta, Sprite and Chang (a Thai beer), and then another, and another and another. The "tribe village" we stayed in was certainly interesting, but you could tell the bamboo hut was only built for the tourists who stop in there every night. Both nights we played poker using rocks, lychee fruit and bottle caps, and during the day we hiked, swam in two beautiful waterfalls, did some white water rafting (you could call it that, but the water level was so low we got stuck about 10 times in front of the locals who would laugh at our misfortunes, basically you could have walked faster) and rafting down the river in a bamboo raft. On our return to Chiang Mai my new friends caught the overnight bus back to Bangkok and I continue my adventure here. I plan to stay in Thailand until May 11th (then my 30-day visa ends), and possibly head to China or Laos. I will keep you updated!