Lookback: Thailand (2012): Part 4

Our backpacking trip through Thailand continues, don't forget to checkout last weeks journey if you haven't already

Lookback series

As many of the photos are around 10 years old, they might not be as high resolution and level of quality we try to stay at today

An helping hand from the Army

After I was done taking a million pictures and looking at everything I headed outside to take the taxi waiting for me back to town. I was walking around where we agreed to meet, but I couldn’t find him. After a little while an army guy walked up to me and asked if I needed some help, told him I was looking for my taxi. Had to repeat that some times, so he didn’t think I wanted to order an taxi (Thai people and English isn’t the strongest match).

It ended up with me sitting on a bench, while an entire patron of army guys, and some of the staff of the sea world as well looking for my taxi driver. Even the manager of the Sea World came down and talked to me. They told me if he didn’t show up in 30 min, they’ll drive me back into town. About then minutes later the taxi driver came back with a military guy riding with him, and he started to apologize to me. Only in Thailand I say.

The next day I rented a scooter, and took a trip down to an wild Elephant National Park. I spent a long, LONG time finding the place. In Thailand many of the road signs are only in Thai (which is understandable, but doesn’t make it easier), and as in the rest of the world. The signs are half ass made, what I mean with that is that you start your trip, following the signs. They say left, then right, then straight forward, and so it goes on for a little while until the signs suddenly stops, you starting to get confused if you took a wrong turn, backtrack to only find out you are on the right track. The sign just stopped, and near when you need to turn off to the spot you are headed. They have the smallest, most hidden sign you easily can pass a million times before you see it.

After I finely found the place, I headed up to the entrance. They told me that if I wanted to see the Elephants I needed to go by car, since the scooter I was driving would make to much noise and scare them off. They told me that they could drive me around for 700 bath, I was thinking about it when another tour car arrived. They told me I could join that group and only pay the entrance fee of 200 bath, I accepted the offer. Three hours later, and a lot of standing around I ended up with only seeing 1 elephant in this Elephant and Buffalo reservation, look away from those annoying flies going around and around my head.

After that it had gotten pretty late and it started soon to get dark, so I stated to head back towards my Guest House. When I arrived at the Guest House a guy was standing just outside and cooking some meat, oh how nice it smelled. I parked and went over for a closed look, he told me it was going to be ready in 15 minutes. I headed up to my room dropped off my gear and went back downstairs. The meat was awesome to say it light, it was buffalo meat, so I did get to see a buffalo that day, just not in the way I planned. After that we went over to the local bar next door and grabbed a few beers.

After a late night I woke up at 11 AM (new record down here, not something I’ll try to beat), and headed to the train station to get to Bangkok, was told there to head over to the bus station instead. One hour later I managed to find the well hidden bus station, I booked a ticket to Bangkok. Where I jumped on another bus down to Pattaya, where the Norwegian Sjømannskirken (roughly translated: Sailor Church) is located, where I can get some Norwegian food, among other. I’ll be heading over there in 8 minutes when they open, that’s if I can find the place.

Nong Noch Tropical Garden

I’ve started my time in the garden just walking around, and being amazed of what I was seeing. I’m walking through all these beautiful flowers, trees, bushes, you name it, when I suddenly stumble upon a car exhibition in the middle of the park. Where they have a huge selection of cars, the next looking more amazing than the previous.

After enjoying the cars for a moment I headed further into the park, until I arrived at an bridge (see picture). I headed over the bridge, which started to swing heavily back and forth when people walked on it. And you got an easy laugh looking at the other people struggling to uphold their balance. On the other side a Cactus Garden was waiting, as well as the place they make all the pottery you see in the park (Just as the Mammut’s on the first picture).

After seeing more of the amazing garden I arrived into the animal area of the garden, you had lions (I was standing half a meter to a meter apart from the lion), turtles, birds, fishes, you name it. And I’ve never seen so many different kinds of turtles before. Of course 90%+ was super lazy and barely even moved their head when I was hanging over them to take a picture. After I was done being amazed by the animals, I headed over to the eating area and got myself some fried noodles with beef. So now that I’m all recharged I’m ready for the show that was starting at 2 PM.

I headed over to the place where the show was, after some walking back and fort to find it. And grabbed a seat and enjoyed a Cultural Show, but that’s not what I had come for. After the cultural show was over, we headed to the building behind the stage, where one, after the other came marching out on the stage. Yeah, I’m talking about those great, big grey, creatures on four legs called Elephant.

I would never in my wildest dreams believed that I would see a elephant shoot dart, let alone two elephants competing against each other playing dart. You had elephants, bicycling, playing football, an variant of basket, painting, bowling, and so much more.

This was truly an magical place, and it’s hard to put it into words

Pattaya – Chiang Mai

When we went of the bus we were stopped by some police officer’s, they asked to see our passports, and started to go through our luggage. Mine was barley look at, but my friends luggage was torn inside out after wards. They were clearly looking for drugs, since they earn good money on bribes.

After wards we headed into Siam Square and the shopping malls there. After buying up on necessary supply (comics) for my train ride, I was walking around and was thinking of hitting the cinema. At the cinema I found out that none of the movies ended before my train ride, so that didn’t work. I heard some noises, and headed around the corned and there I saw big screens, and ton of people sitting and playing a Counter-Strike clone. It was awesome to see how they have their e-gaming down here. They even had some VIP seats where people was sitting in the most comfortable looking chairs watching the match, on multiple screens to see all the angles.

Then I headed for the train station and took the train to Chiang Mai, and it’s a new record for me when traveling on train down here. Two minutes delayed, I’ve never been on such a precise train. The previous train I took was only three hours delayed before departure. After a night sleep on the train, I arrived in Chiang Mai train station.

Now I’ve been spending my last day’s here in Chiang Mai getting ready for the Songkran starting in the next days. I’ve been spending my day’s with this guy I meet while the rain was poring down the first day I got here and we were hiding for the rain. We started talking, and decided to do something together since we’ll both be in town for a few days. He’s from Hawaii in the US (if you didn’t get that by reading Hawaii), and we’ve been checking out the markets, the area around here and not to forget the town (Oh, how nice a cold Chang can be).

Songkran

On the picture above, you can see all the people standing against the river, and throwing water on the people driving/walking by. You have vans, like the picture on the side, where you have people in the back throwing water on you. Unfortunately most of the time this is ice-cold water, so it’s freezing cold. If you look in the bucket you’ll see a huge ass ice-cube.

You’ll be partying in the streets, and the cars will be passing through. The people on the stage will be throwing water at you, you’ll be throwing water on them. The music is playing loud and everybody, I said EVERYBODY will dance. It’s just awesome, and it last way past when it get dark.

In two weeks we'll travel to Japan