The bus ride turned out to be
phenomenally easy and painless, and though I was in and out of sleep all
night, I got there in one piece, well rested. It was 7am, and I got
into a taxi (and by taxi I mean pick up truck type of vehicle with the
whole back section covered and filled with wee benches, for them to drop
off people in succession. I was in there with 2 monks and we chatted
briefly about a monk chat thing they do 3 times a week for people to
come in and talk to the monks. I'll probably go.
I was then dropped off at my hostel, signed up for a cooking class that would depart in an hour for that day, and an elephant tour for the next day. I got a brief period of shut eye before heading off to the cooking class which went from our hostel to a little school to pick out items from a menu which we would be making later. The group 4 couples and 4 people traveling alone, with a pretty big age range. Next we were off to a market where we were taught a lot about various types of food like noodles, tofu, rice, and spices we could buy there. I realised at this point that I left my camera battery in the wall instead of taking it with me. Bugger. I asked the tourguide if there was any way I could get driven back to get it and he took me on some motorbike to grab it. People are so good. Next we went to a farm and walked around smelling various things and learning about fruits and veges in thailand. There's a lot that one wouldn't be able to get outside of thailand which was interesting, specifically these little eggplants that were circular and green. In gili we were talking about how the thing they called eggplants weren't actually eggplants, and now I know why. This was also the site for our cooking, which started with a stir fry dish. I went with pad thai, like most of the people there (cause I mean, how could you not?) And A, our hilarious, miniature asian instructor showed us all how to make it, instructed us to cut the veges, and then set us to work at our wok stations around the stove. Honesly, delicious and so incredibly easy. Next was an appetiser, and I went with spring rolls for the experience to know what's inside, how to roll one, and deep frying something. Others went with various salads, but as far as rolling goes, I got the 'best rolled spring rolls' title. He went step by step through each of the chosen items so we could all learn how they're made. The spring rolls were delicious in the end. Our next move was to prepare curry paste and soup ingrediants. The curry I picked was masoman, an indian one. We took turns using the massive mortar and pestal, crushing spicy smelling things to A's satisfaction. The soup was to be a coconut soup. We left the ingredients to rest and started on dessert. I went with sticky rice and mango, which had extremely minimal preparation on my part. Oh well. A lot of the others made fried bananas which was cool to taste and see. Once desserts were settled, we cooked the curry, adding chicken and a lot of coconut milk mostly. It was quick and delicious, with a controlled level of spicy. The soup was also quick to cook in the coconut milk. We all tried palm sugar as well, to know what we were putting in, and it was obnoxiously sweet but good. The epic many-course day was awesome, and the people I met there were great. We were all given cook books with all the recipes when we left, a parting gift for great thai meals of the future. A bunch of us planned to meet at a pub for the evening for more chats and finally some of the consistently desired chang.
We ended up meeting at spicy, a club, first before going for a wander to find the appropriate spot. We found "zoe in yellow," a loud outdoor ish music filled bar, which later became known to everyone as zoes, the place to be. The group was 2 couples, eefje (the awesome dutch girl from my hostel), another singleton, and michael, a boy from our hostel who eefje met earlier in her travels and decided to join us. The plan was to hang for a bit (we met at 830) and then go on our way, to clubs or whatnot. We ended up staying there for ages (till like 2) enjoying the bar.
There was a thai guy persistently trying to sell everyonr these string bracelets with words on them. Eefje was interested in getting one that said "same same," this kind of annoying phrase they say here... They'll say same same, but different when it's almost sorta similar, but not quite.. Like if the taxi driver doesn't know where you want to go, but still tries to take you. She didn't like the colours of the ones they had, so asked for a custom one, to which he tried to charge 250 baht. After much haggling, we got 2 for 200-- I got same same as well, but different colours from hers. The group then dished out for 3 more, of varying levels of stupidity, like ''I love myself." All tacky, all fun. We got to watch him make them, and were with him for ages so a few beers were bought in his honour. The group was great fun, but once it became 2, tiredness dragged me home.
That day was eefje's birthday, so aside from everyone buying her drinks, I also picked up a piece of cheese cake from a nearby cafe, birthday candles in 7 11 and we all sang happy birthday.
8am wake up meant catching my ride to the elephant farm for the day to train elephants... Or something like that. I didn't really know what I was in for, but knew that I 'had' to do it. The ride was long, in a red taxi with 4 chinese people who spoke no english. I slept a bit after finishing up the massive brekky I brought, and soon enough we stopped at a market to pick up bananas for the elephants. A bit after, we got to the park, jumbo park, and I quickly learned that I was the only one doing the riding that day, and the chinese counterparts were there to do trekking, which is more like riding in a weird carriage/box on the elephants back, after getting put into it off of a little lift. I was signed up to bareback. I was given a funny little outfit to wear since I'd be getting wet at the end-- loose pants, shirt, and a weird bandana scarf thing. No complaints. After changing I had some tea and sat to learn all the commands from the thai instructor. You'd get a little bamboo pole thing (for beginners-- they have metal tipped ones) and based on where you put it on the head, how you use your legs, and what you scream out, the elephant does different things (supposedly). Bai, kicking forward with your feet, and holding it across their head means forward. Toi (?), moving your body back and forth, and pulling the stick on their forehead means backward. Pae, having your hands crossed and the opposite (of where you want to go) arm pulling the stick by its ear, whilst kicking with that same leg, means turn that way, and lastly how, with the stick on the head, clamping your legs makes it stop.
Nezt bit was to get comfortable with the elephant by feeding it bananas. It was mostly just a throw-two-at-its-mouth kind of exercise, but I got a massive lick once. Bleh ha.
After I was tested on these commands, and shown how to get on to the elephant-- holy shit that was my biggest fear. You get it to bend it's knee, step on the knee while using the ear and a flap of leg skin as handles, and pull yourself up. The first time I got some help, but it wasn't as bad as it couldve been. Once on, I walked back and forth with it for a while practicing the commands. I realised how uncomfortable it is to be on the back of an elephant, clamping legs for dearlife to stay on, and supporting yourself awkwardly with your arms, all on a chair that isn't anyhting like a chair for humans.
Nezt I sat down for some lunch, which was spring rolls and noodles with chicken. Quite massive and filling. I got a fruitly desser and chatted with the thai people about the different fruits and veges in thailand. After some much needed digestion, I was off for the next leg of the tour-- an hour walk with the elephant around a track in the mountain area. I went with two korean trainers, who were speking to eachother in thai the whole time, which was the first time that day that I was kind of upset I was the only person at the tour. Otherwise it was good, getting more safe attention and not having to share an elephant. For the trek though it was difficult to control the elephant which kept veering off to eat branches, properly swinging them around whilst grabbing for leaves. It was a sport in ducking and trying to maintain use of my eyes. Once that bit was done we ended at a little river where I helped wash the elephant. All I could be bothered with though was freaking out about the chance of getting any of the water in my eyes or mouth. Some waterbourne illness was the last thing I needed for the day. Luckily, all was okay.
Next I went for a shower and change before heading out. On the way back we went to a dung factory (lol) and I learned about how elephant dung is used to make really beautiful papers. I bought a teeny piece as well as a hilarious oven mit (dunno why that was sold there as well). Eventually I was brought home again where I rested for a bit and met a bunch of the people in my room finally. Two girls and I decided to go to the temple where the monk chats were happening, even though they were to end an hour from then. We raced out, grabbe a redcar who knew where he was going (bullshit) and were on our way. He dropped off some people but we soon realised the driver was just going in circles.
It was getting late, and we were losing hope that anything would end up working out, so when he stopped to let some chick in a wheelchair in (how the fuck he thought that would work without a ramp was beyond me) we decided to cut our losses and just eject ourselves from the horrific situation. We were coached around for an hour, missed the chats, but had a pretty good time getting to know eachother on the travel. We opted for a tuktuk to get back, and while they got dropped off at some dimsum place, I went to the night bazaar for a wee walk around. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but will hold off until I'm done with my travels, so I neednt lug it around. The main desire was these nuts mchammer like harem pants. So many kinds, and so comfortable looking. I'll get them eventually.
After the market I went back to meet eefje for dinner, but had a while to hang first and started talking to someone who was in the main hanging room, at the table that has the best wifi. We chatted for ages and then I met all the girls he's been traveling with (he's studying in singapore now and just came for a weekend trip). They were surprisingly, and hilariously classy (maybe it's the backpacker differences getting to me) being all dressed up, pouring cocktails, and having little dishes with assorted snack foods like pistachios and dried bean things. Eefje got back around then, and we left to get food, and then meet everyone at zoes, which seemed to be the plan for multiple groups of people we met.
We went to a thai place which was super yummy and cheap, ezactly what we needed, and then headed to zoes. The same bracelet buy was there and we tried to advertise for him. Dunno if it was successful, especially because 4 mysteriously disappeared when michael wenr off with 2 racks to try to sell them. Still no one knows what happened. The night traveled to an outdoor fire show and a crazy reggae bar with an awesome live band before finally getting to the club we wantd to go to the night before (spicy). It was okay, but definitely nothing special, and my night wrapped up at like 4 am.
Come noon I was up and moving, as much as my hilariously sore legs would let me (I'm still sore from the elephant experience). I went to get a massive omelette breakfast but opted for a lazy day or flight/hostel bookings when I felt the beginnings of a cold coming on.
In the evening I met a great british indian guy who attributed his traveling to a 'quarter life crisis' and ended up ripping out. The entire vietnam section of my travel book to give him, since I wasn't going to go there.
Saturday night meant saturday night market where I walked around with eefje and michael (who left for muay thai after a bit) for ages, eating random foods and desserts, and then finding the perfect pair of harem pants to make up a new daily uniform for my next month. The desserts we tried were really weird, and the best thing I probably had were weird squid puff things. The scene was painfully crowded, and there were street performers all over. One particularly fun group were 4 blind men, sitting on the ground in a row, with various instruments, producing an awesome sound. Another fun one was a dude with a guitar sitting, using his toe, which had a drum stick tied to it, to have an accompanied rhythm section.
Once we were exhausted by that we went back for some much needed internetting. I also took the opportunity to create a makeshift menorah out of travel pamphlets, and used birthday candles to celebrate the first night of hanukkah. More bizarre contraptions to come.
Michael also returned at a point and though tired, I ended up staying up until 3 am chatting with him.
Comr morning the 3 of us met at 10am for breakfast at a cafe before I was off to arrive at the airport hilariously early for my flight to luang prabang.
I was then dropped off at my hostel, signed up for a cooking class that would depart in an hour for that day, and an elephant tour for the next day. I got a brief period of shut eye before heading off to the cooking class which went from our hostel to a little school to pick out items from a menu which we would be making later. The group 4 couples and 4 people traveling alone, with a pretty big age range. Next we were off to a market where we were taught a lot about various types of food like noodles, tofu, rice, and spices we could buy there. I realised at this point that I left my camera battery in the wall instead of taking it with me. Bugger. I asked the tourguide if there was any way I could get driven back to get it and he took me on some motorbike to grab it. People are so good. Next we went to a farm and walked around smelling various things and learning about fruits and veges in thailand. There's a lot that one wouldn't be able to get outside of thailand which was interesting, specifically these little eggplants that were circular and green. In gili we were talking about how the thing they called eggplants weren't actually eggplants, and now I know why. This was also the site for our cooking, which started with a stir fry dish. I went with pad thai, like most of the people there (cause I mean, how could you not?) And A, our hilarious, miniature asian instructor showed us all how to make it, instructed us to cut the veges, and then set us to work at our wok stations around the stove. Honesly, delicious and so incredibly easy. Next was an appetiser, and I went with spring rolls for the experience to know what's inside, how to roll one, and deep frying something. Others went with various salads, but as far as rolling goes, I got the 'best rolled spring rolls' title. He went step by step through each of the chosen items so we could all learn how they're made. The spring rolls were delicious in the end. Our next move was to prepare curry paste and soup ingrediants. The curry I picked was masoman, an indian one. We took turns using the massive mortar and pestal, crushing spicy smelling things to A's satisfaction. The soup was to be a coconut soup. We left the ingredients to rest and started on dessert. I went with sticky rice and mango, which had extremely minimal preparation on my part. Oh well. A lot of the others made fried bananas which was cool to taste and see. Once desserts were settled, we cooked the curry, adding chicken and a lot of coconut milk mostly. It was quick and delicious, with a controlled level of spicy. The soup was also quick to cook in the coconut milk. We all tried palm sugar as well, to know what we were putting in, and it was obnoxiously sweet but good. The epic many-course day was awesome, and the people I met there were great. We were all given cook books with all the recipes when we left, a parting gift for great thai meals of the future. A bunch of us planned to meet at a pub for the evening for more chats and finally some of the consistently desired chang.
We ended up meeting at spicy, a club, first before going for a wander to find the appropriate spot. We found "zoe in yellow," a loud outdoor ish music filled bar, which later became known to everyone as zoes, the place to be. The group was 2 couples, eefje (the awesome dutch girl from my hostel), another singleton, and michael, a boy from our hostel who eefje met earlier in her travels and decided to join us. The plan was to hang for a bit (we met at 830) and then go on our way, to clubs or whatnot. We ended up staying there for ages (till like 2) enjoying the bar.
There was a thai guy persistently trying to sell everyonr these string bracelets with words on them. Eefje was interested in getting one that said "same same," this kind of annoying phrase they say here... They'll say same same, but different when it's almost sorta similar, but not quite.. Like if the taxi driver doesn't know where you want to go, but still tries to take you. She didn't like the colours of the ones they had, so asked for a custom one, to which he tried to charge 250 baht. After much haggling, we got 2 for 200-- I got same same as well, but different colours from hers. The group then dished out for 3 more, of varying levels of stupidity, like ''I love myself." All tacky, all fun. We got to watch him make them, and were with him for ages so a few beers were bought in his honour. The group was great fun, but once it became 2, tiredness dragged me home.
That day was eefje's birthday, so aside from everyone buying her drinks, I also picked up a piece of cheese cake from a nearby cafe, birthday candles in 7 11 and we all sang happy birthday.
8am wake up meant catching my ride to the elephant farm for the day to train elephants... Or something like that. I didn't really know what I was in for, but knew that I 'had' to do it. The ride was long, in a red taxi with 4 chinese people who spoke no english. I slept a bit after finishing up the massive brekky I brought, and soon enough we stopped at a market to pick up bananas for the elephants. A bit after, we got to the park, jumbo park, and I quickly learned that I was the only one doing the riding that day, and the chinese counterparts were there to do trekking, which is more like riding in a weird carriage/box on the elephants back, after getting put into it off of a little lift. I was signed up to bareback. I was given a funny little outfit to wear since I'd be getting wet at the end-- loose pants, shirt, and a weird bandana scarf thing. No complaints. After changing I had some tea and sat to learn all the commands from the thai instructor. You'd get a little bamboo pole thing (for beginners-- they have metal tipped ones) and based on where you put it on the head, how you use your legs, and what you scream out, the elephant does different things (supposedly). Bai, kicking forward with your feet, and holding it across their head means forward. Toi (?), moving your body back and forth, and pulling the stick on their forehead means backward. Pae, having your hands crossed and the opposite (of where you want to go) arm pulling the stick by its ear, whilst kicking with that same leg, means turn that way, and lastly how, with the stick on the head, clamping your legs makes it stop.
Nezt bit was to get comfortable with the elephant by feeding it bananas. It was mostly just a throw-two-at-its-mouth kind of exercise, but I got a massive lick once. Bleh ha.
After I was tested on these commands, and shown how to get on to the elephant-- holy shit that was my biggest fear. You get it to bend it's knee, step on the knee while using the ear and a flap of leg skin as handles, and pull yourself up. The first time I got some help, but it wasn't as bad as it couldve been. Once on, I walked back and forth with it for a while practicing the commands. I realised how uncomfortable it is to be on the back of an elephant, clamping legs for dearlife to stay on, and supporting yourself awkwardly with your arms, all on a chair that isn't anyhting like a chair for humans.
Nezt I sat down for some lunch, which was spring rolls and noodles with chicken. Quite massive and filling. I got a fruitly desser and chatted with the thai people about the different fruits and veges in thailand. After some much needed digestion, I was off for the next leg of the tour-- an hour walk with the elephant around a track in the mountain area. I went with two korean trainers, who were speking to eachother in thai the whole time, which was the first time that day that I was kind of upset I was the only person at the tour. Otherwise it was good, getting more safe attention and not having to share an elephant. For the trek though it was difficult to control the elephant which kept veering off to eat branches, properly swinging them around whilst grabbing for leaves. It was a sport in ducking and trying to maintain use of my eyes. Once that bit was done we ended at a little river where I helped wash the elephant. All I could be bothered with though was freaking out about the chance of getting any of the water in my eyes or mouth. Some waterbourne illness was the last thing I needed for the day. Luckily, all was okay.
Next I went for a shower and change before heading out. On the way back we went to a dung factory (lol) and I learned about how elephant dung is used to make really beautiful papers. I bought a teeny piece as well as a hilarious oven mit (dunno why that was sold there as well). Eventually I was brought home again where I rested for a bit and met a bunch of the people in my room finally. Two girls and I decided to go to the temple where the monk chats were happening, even though they were to end an hour from then. We raced out, grabbe a redcar who knew where he was going (bullshit) and were on our way. He dropped off some people but we soon realised the driver was just going in circles.
It was getting late, and we were losing hope that anything would end up working out, so when he stopped to let some chick in a wheelchair in (how the fuck he thought that would work without a ramp was beyond me) we decided to cut our losses and just eject ourselves from the horrific situation. We were coached around for an hour, missed the chats, but had a pretty good time getting to know eachother on the travel. We opted for a tuktuk to get back, and while they got dropped off at some dimsum place, I went to the night bazaar for a wee walk around. There were so many things I wanted to buy, but will hold off until I'm done with my travels, so I neednt lug it around. The main desire was these nuts mchammer like harem pants. So many kinds, and so comfortable looking. I'll get them eventually.
After the market I went back to meet eefje for dinner, but had a while to hang first and started talking to someone who was in the main hanging room, at the table that has the best wifi. We chatted for ages and then I met all the girls he's been traveling with (he's studying in singapore now and just came for a weekend trip). They were surprisingly, and hilariously classy (maybe it's the backpacker differences getting to me) being all dressed up, pouring cocktails, and having little dishes with assorted snack foods like pistachios and dried bean things. Eefje got back around then, and we left to get food, and then meet everyone at zoes, which seemed to be the plan for multiple groups of people we met.
We went to a thai place which was super yummy and cheap, ezactly what we needed, and then headed to zoes. The same bracelet buy was there and we tried to advertise for him. Dunno if it was successful, especially because 4 mysteriously disappeared when michael wenr off with 2 racks to try to sell them. Still no one knows what happened. The night traveled to an outdoor fire show and a crazy reggae bar with an awesome live band before finally getting to the club we wantd to go to the night before (spicy). It was okay, but definitely nothing special, and my night wrapped up at like 4 am.
Come noon I was up and moving, as much as my hilariously sore legs would let me (I'm still sore from the elephant experience). I went to get a massive omelette breakfast but opted for a lazy day or flight/hostel bookings when I felt the beginnings of a cold coming on.
In the evening I met a great british indian guy who attributed his traveling to a 'quarter life crisis' and ended up ripping out. The entire vietnam section of my travel book to give him, since I wasn't going to go there.
Saturday night meant saturday night market where I walked around with eefje and michael (who left for muay thai after a bit) for ages, eating random foods and desserts, and then finding the perfect pair of harem pants to make up a new daily uniform for my next month. The desserts we tried were really weird, and the best thing I probably had were weird squid puff things. The scene was painfully crowded, and there were street performers all over. One particularly fun group were 4 blind men, sitting on the ground in a row, with various instruments, producing an awesome sound. Another fun one was a dude with a guitar sitting, using his toe, which had a drum stick tied to it, to have an accompanied rhythm section.
Once we were exhausted by that we went back for some much needed internetting. I also took the opportunity to create a makeshift menorah out of travel pamphlets, and used birthday candles to celebrate the first night of hanukkah. More bizarre contraptions to come.
Michael also returned at a point and though tired, I ended up staying up until 3 am chatting with him.
Comr morning the 3 of us met at 10am for breakfast at a cafe before I was off to arrive at the airport hilariously early for my flight to luang prabang.
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