Our time in Chiang Mai has been nothing short of incredible so far. In a city that offers so many activities, the only constraint on what you can do is time. After our early mornings and late nights we tossed around ideas for what to do today. Joel and Wally were hesitant on zip lining due to a South Park episode centered around the activity's issues of large crowds and over zealous botony freaks. Ultimately TripAdvisor's stellar reviews convinced us to take the day trek through the Rain Forest via Flight of The Gibbon. With the gang all in disarray from last night's festivities, we boarderd our bus for the hour long trip. We passed the time with conversation with two of our fellow flight crew on the bus who had quit their jobs some 3 months ago and boarded a flight to Manilla only to find themselves strapped in harnesses in the tree tops of a Rain Forest with us. Hey... things could be worse.
When we arrived, we were assigned two sky rangers to help ensure our safety and enjoyment, which luckily are the only two guarantees of Flight of The Gibbon. With regular sky ranger, Jack, off for the day we were assigned Aof and Tim. Having noticeably a bit less pep in our step then we should Tim asked about our night out. Of course, after learning we spent the night at Tawan Dang his immediate reaction , after he recomposed himself from laughter, was to pick up the radio to call over to Aof in a different treetop. However, Tim validated our decision to of going to Tawan Dang and reiterated the the establishment's credo "Give 100%, Live 100%" before launching us off a platform.
Our guides were definitely loving life, having moved from the north east of Thailand to work as a sky ranger where they get to enjoy the sweeping views of the Rain Forest and swing through the tree tops all while messing with freightened tourists. Fortunately, Joel and Wally's fear of our rangers boring us with facts of the different flora and fauna didn't come true as they seemed more concerned about pointing out that they weren't ladyboys then pointing out the plethora of banana trees that filled the Rain Forest. After 32 stations, we repelled down from the trees to enjoy a long lunch with our flight crew in a bamboo hut featuring an authentic Thai band who willingly serenaded us. After lunch we hopped on over to the local water fall to relax before heading back to Chiang Mai to hang by the hotels infinity pool prior to going back out into the town for our final night.
Chiang Mai is known for its night market and plays a perfect host for some much needed haggling. Since Jay, Mike, and I continuously debate over who would win in mattress price negotiations, we had a chance to show our skill. The process is somewhat ceremonial. They toss out some arbitrary number, you counter with half the price then you settle somewhere in the middle after realizing you've spent 20 minutes arguing over 50 cents you've acquired your souvenir.
We enjoyed our best dinner to date at Whole Earth a Thai/Indian Vegeterian/Non-Vegeterian restaraunt.
After dinner, we hopped in a Tuk Tuk and headed to Tha Pae Boxing Stadium to get a glimpse of Muay Thai. Tickets to the 7 bout event weighed in at a 400 baht. However, for 600 baht we could enjoy "VIP" amenities. Needing the full experience we dug deep into our pockets for the extra baht. After being escorted to our ringside seats, we watched as the fighters used their brute kicking and punching strength to weaken their opponent. We quickly found out that our seats were equivalent to the splash zone at Sea World as the fighter's sweat rained upon us with each punishing haymaker that was landed in our corner of the ring. As the night progressed the stories that we've heard about the fights being fixed seemed to be true. Each bout shared the same triumph over tragedy tale as Rocky and locals were happy to wager on the fights mid round. This comes with one exception, the "special fight" of the night, which featured 8 fighters blind-folded.
As exhaustion settled in from the day we retired back to the hotel for a few hours of shut eye before our 4 AM wake up call to catch a flight to Ko Samui.
No comments:
Post a Comment