We owe some details on what we were up to at the end of January in northern Thailand and our slow boat trip down the Mekong. So here we go:

In an earlier post, I might have mentioned that on our second day in Bangkok, we were taken around town in a tuk-tuk to some wats, a tailor, and a travel agency office. At the travel agency, we were told that it was a "special holiday" and that all tours booked in Thailand that day would be discounted 30%. We were very suspicious but allowed ourselves to get sucked in and wound up booking a 3 day-2 night trek in the hills of Chiang Mai that included rafting on a bamboo platform, elephant riding, hiking to waterfalls, and a stay with a Karen hill tribe (they're not all women). Additionally, we booked accommodations for 3 nights while in the city (in a hotel that looked really nice from the brochure) and a cooking class when we returned from our trek. We had read that these trips could be really touristy and had reservations about booking a hotel when we weren't able to see it in person, but we felt like we were getting a good deal and agreed that if we had a terrible time, we'd never do anything like that again.

We flew from Phuket to Chiang Mai and were picked up in the airport by a man holding a sign that said, "Jenn Feinberg." That felt pretty good. No scrambling to find a cab. No battling with tuk-tuk drivers about fares and which guesthouse to go to. Just us in the air conditioned cab of a sawngthaew, headed to our pre-booked hotel. Because Tyson had gotten sick in Phuket and was still recovering, we rescheduled our plans to do the cooking class first and the trekking afterwards. Our hotel, the Winner Inn, definitely did not live up to it's name. It wasn't awful, but it wasn't worth what we had paid for it and it had the most uncomfortable bed of the trip (that is, until the bed we slept in in Vientiane).

We loved our cooking class. We went to a local Thai market and selected all the ingredients we needed for the day. Then we went back to our cooking teacher's house where we cooked on separate stoves in an outdoor pavillion with 3 other travelers. It was a day of laughing and eating eating eating. And you should see Tyson in an apron: ooh la la. We learned how to make our own chili paste, spring rolls, pad thai, tom yum soup, stir-fry, and we were sent home with a huge cookbook of Thai cuisine. Absolutely delicious.

Cooking Class!

The next day, we headed out for our trek. It was probably the least favorite thing we have done so far, so I don't really feel inspired to write that much about it. It wasn't awful, it was just exactly what we were hoping it wouldn't be. It was touristy. We were in a big group. The elephants were treated poorly and some were displaying neurotic behavior, like you see in polar bears or tigers in the zoo. (I cried when we saw the elephants; Tyson and I were miserable during the whole ride and swore we'd never ride another elephant again). The Karen village where we stayed had satellite dishes and tv antennae. The place we stayed in the village was a large, open-air bungalow with bamboo for beds and bedding and mosquito nets were provided. Tyson said his sleeping bag smelled like 1,000 dirty hippies had sweat and rubbed their armpits on it. Two young guys from Scotland that were in our group got wasted and were yelling/singing/knocking things over until 4am. It was frustrating, infuriating, and laughably ridiculous at the same time.

Taken as we got into "bed" on our trek

The next day was better. The group got smaller and the hike we did was beautiful. We spent most of the trek talking with one of our guides, Bulle Bulle, and learning about his life and his family. We swam in a waterfall and slept in another open-air platform bungalow. The Scots passed out early and we were able to listen to the sound of the water running along the rocks. And just when we thought everything was going to be ok, sickness struck. I started throwing up at about 4:30am (in a squat toilet in a shed in the middle of the woods) and had the most miserable day of my life as we hiked out of the hills and slowly made our way back to the hotel (after the rest of the group ate lunch and went on the bamboo raft). When we finally got back to Chiang Mai, I was so thankful for our air conditioned hotel!

We learned alot from this experience. We learned that you really should research your treks/tours before booking them. We learned that it's really hard to have an authentic cultural experience when everyone else in the travel scene is trying to have that same experience. We learned that even thought the trip as a whole was slightly disappointing, there were pieces that were special and genuine. We loved talking with our guides. The time spent with them made the trek worthwhile. And, Scottish boys excluded, met some really great fellow travelers.

We are learning to appreciate those moments because often, they are often the only glimpse of authencity we can get.