Rain, mud and elephant poo

I am alive. Sore and a little tired but alive. The unusual rain for this time of year persisted for 3 of the days that I was out trekking and resulted in much mud and general wetness as well as the death of my near new MP3 player.
Yes, yes I was asking for trouble bringing electronic gear to the jungles of Chiang Mai and the dumbest part of it all was that I had multiple dry bags in tow and I was only dunked for a second. However, as many a canyon newbie has come to realise, if you don't put your stuff in the dry bag before you get wet, well you can guess the result. That was a cost I wasn't quite expecting to pay. And yes, as seasoned canyoner I should know better.

Anyhow, as mentioned 3 days of mud sliding and river crossings ensued. The hill tribes were interesting in as far as seeing rural asian living but wasn't anything new to me considering I'm from Malaysia. What was fun was smoking a corn leaf rolled bark cigarette with a local sharman before getting 'blessed' on my journey. All in all very farang type experience, but at least my legs hurt by the end of it. My fitness level is of non-existant standard and it was very demoralising seeing the guides trot along wearing bits of plastic for shoes, puffing away at a cigarette the whole way. But do that trip day in day out and I guess you get used to it.

Having come out of the DRC for 3 months I've also noticed my time there has tainted my view towards the world a little. Not quite as glossy and innocent as before and there's a tint of cynicism in the way I see things. It is a shame on one hand, but I'm glad to have seen the other side of the coin. One of the 'village tours' was nothing more than a meat market with every foreigner getting mobbed by kids chanting 'Hello ten baa, hello tan baa' while waving the ubiquitous woven wrist band. Unfortunately for me this was a solo tour so running down the street with 10 kids in tow made things a little more interesting. In the end, for the ones who hung on the whole way, I just bought them all an icecream. Yes it cost '10 baa' a piece anyway but I'm a firm believer in not giving young kids money. At least they got something for themselves rather than disspearing to whoever ran the show.

Well, food is beckoning so it's off to hassle to locals for some chow. Trying to stay as authentic as possible so it's off to the food markets again.

Hopefully, a week or so of climbing is beckoning. I'll update the next adventure as it comes around.

It's all about timing

For the last month or so here in Chiang Mai the weather has been a toasty 25 to 30 degrees with clear sunny skies. The very day I bomb in to do a 3 day hill trek it starts a monsoon rain. At least I won't be sweating too much...

As far as interesting places go Chiang Mai is pretty cool. It's a lot like small towns in Malaysia but the people are friendly and less abrupt. I've also seen more foreigners here in one day than my whole 2 months in the DRC. A refreshing change to say the least.

Cost of living for a farang is also pretty good. The boutiquy hotel I'm in is only 1000baht a night. About $35 aussie at current rates.

Had a wonder down to the night markets tonight. There are 2 different sections. The first one where you'll struggle to see one white man, is the local food area with roadside stalls and fruit vendors. Makes for a great dinner location. Chilli lime squid, dumplings, fresh juices.
To my amusement, I get treated as a local (initally anywhay) so I get to move around without getting hassled too much.
Down in the next section however, is where all the local trinketry is sold and where you'll find the grazing grounds of the 'Great White Tourist'. You'll see them milling around their favourite food dispensers of such variety as 'Burger King' and 'MacDonalds'. Kind of defeats the whole purpose of a culture change if you ask me, but no one is so moving on...
The foreigner radar was a bit keener down there. What was funny was looking at vendor faces and seeing them trying to work out whether I was a local or not and what language to start in. One industrious lady covers it all and produces a version of "Hello, hello you look see" in 5 languages all in one breath.

Bearing in mind I've got a 3 day trek ahead of me and I'm carrying everything I've got, I restrained from buying too much. So I only escaped with 3 pairs of cotton pants, 2 silver neck chains and a silver ring. I reckon I did alright.