Part 1.5: Day to Day Chronicle of My Southeast Asia Trip, July, 2004
流水帳紀事 - 第一部
Part I

created 9/2004

Day 1 (7/1):

I did not sleep well last night. Since I wanted to move all my stuffs out of my Lower East Side apartment by 7am today, I had to wake up very early. Dragging three small pieces of luggage across SoHo to my storage place, I passed by its usually crowded shopping district. Maybe because it was so early, I have never seen Spring Street this quiet and peaceful. Listening to Sun Yanzi’s “Encounter” (孫燕姿的“遇見”) from my iPod, I felt I was encountering a romantic side of New York I’ve rarely seen.

Just in a few hours, I would have a very long flight back home. Since Northwest Airline is the only airline offered ticket price lower than $1,400 to Taipei, I basically had no other choice. Unfortunately, Northwest still uses the 747 Jumbo jets for flight to Asia. Not a very comfortable choice if you fly on the Economic Class (Boeing 777 and Airbus 340 have fewer seats each row and thus less crowded). I expected I would have a long and tiring flight to Tokyo (about 13 hours). And hopefully I wouldn’t sit next to people who just cannot shut up like last time.

Guess what? I was upgraded to Business/First Class because they oversold their Economic Class seats! Though not a stranger to Business Class myself (I flew to Ecuador last year on Business Class, using my mileage award), this was the first time ever I was upgraded for free on a transoceanic flight! My Elite Status on Continental Airline finally gave me something deserving.

Being used to encounter some unexpected bad things coming my way, it felt great to have some unexpected great thing actually happening!

If only New York could have done the same magic….

Day 2 (7/2):

Crossing the International Date Line, one day was officially lost. (but will be given back when I return to U.S.) I was still playing with the personal video system, in which you can choose to play selection of movies anytime, pause, fast forward, and rewind them as you wish. I was about to start my third film of this flight (Scooby Doo 2 is horrible), while still managed to finish my ice cream sundae’s Godiva chocolate shell. “Another Amaretto di Sonanno, please”

I almost forgot I had slept only two hours the night before.

The three hours stopover at Tokyo International Airport was a little too long. But thanks god, they do offer free internet at the Airport (I later found only four trial laptops were free, most other internet stations do charge). Even though this airport is not among the best I’ve ever seen, it is still enough to put all three New York area airports to shame…

No free upgrade on the flight to Taipei. Doesn’t matter. I can sleep in my own bed in a few hours (in my real home).

Day 3-5 (7/3 –7/5):

Time to take a few days’ break before my trip to Southeast Asia began. I also had chance to catch up with many of my childhood friends. Well, what can I say? I am not the only person remaining unmarried (or let’s put it “unattached”). Watching the Independence Day firework on TV, things back in the U.S. suddenly felt very remote (emotionally).

While a typhoon just passed Taiwan a few days earlier, the rain had been pouring for sometime. It was damp and sticky here in Taipei.

Day 6 (7/6):

Flight to Bangkok, Thailand today!

Because my mom will accompany me to Thailand, I advised her to get both of us EVA Airline’s famous "Economic Deluxe Class." (about $100 more than regular Economic Class) We both can have enough space and a seatback TV screen to watch. The flight lasted only about 3 hours, so I did not have that much time to enjoy its entertainment. Still, after a Business/First Class experience (with personal video system), this “Economic Deluxe” was not really a big deal at all.

We arrived at Bangkok by lunchtime. Even though I traveled to Thailand before (Phuket Island, it is pronounced as “Pou-kate,” not “f_ck-It,” okay!?), this is the first time I visited Bangkok, its capital city. My mom’s friend, a very wealthy Thai scholar, already arranged her daughter and personal driver to pick us up at the Airport. Fortunately, the daughter speaks decent English (though not speaking Mandarin like her mother), so we were able to communicate a lot of things. I saw a lot banner along the Highway, welcoming delegates to this International AIDS Conference (the banners show up every 20 meters, in both English and Thai). This Conference must be a really big deal for Thai government!

We checked in the Novotel at Siam Square, a popular, posh shopping district popular by Bangkok’s affluent youths (有點像台北的西門町). The hotel itself is a destination for some locals because there is a popular nightclub and Karaoke bar in its basement.

We did not wander far for the rest of the day, except for visiting a few department stores nearby. We had some of my favorite spicy Thai noodles at a popular pan-Asian noodle place called “Noodie.” We had to catch another early flight to the Northern Thai City of Chiang Mai for our pre-paid 5-day Northern Thailand trip.

Day 7 (7/7):

Flight to Chiang Mai on Thai Airway. Even though Thai Airway is ranked among the top 5 airlines in the world, this is the first time I flew on their fleet. Well, there is always first time for everything, even for people my age.

Our personal tour guide Sonchit picked us up at the Airport. Well, I did not expect we would actually have a personal guide (and a driver) accompanying all five days for only two of us. Maybe that’s why this 5-day trip cost so much, $500 per person. It is very expensive for local standard! Since this tour was arranged by my mom’s Bangkok scholar friend, I guess she assumes our family is as wealthy as theirs (but we do not have personal driver and live-in maid in Taipei)- that $500 shouldn’t be a problem for us! Well, at least we did not have the challenge to be in the same tour group with some obnoxious tour mates. Though it is a little lonely to have only your own mother to talk to for five days.

This afternoon, Sonchit took us to the most famous temple in Chiang Mai – Doi Suthep (also dubbed “Temple of Twin Dragons”). It is a long drive out of the City and is hidden inside the nearby mountains. Compared to Bangkok, weather in Chiang Mai is much milder. However, July is the traditional wet season, so the sky was usually overcast and occasionally drizzled.

Doi Suthep is a nice temple and a giant, golden chedi pagoda. I have taken a lot of pictures, which you can take a look in my photo album:

After Doi Suthep, most other Chiang Mai Buddhist Temples are all pale in comparison. We went to another temple Wat Chiang Man (Wat means "temple" in Thai) inside Chiang Mai old town. However, I cannot recall much detail about its features, except an old pagoda supported by elephant statues...

Day 8 (7/8):

This morning we continued our sightseeing in Chiang Mai. Sonchit took us to another temple complex, Wat Thatnoi. Most of the complex is in ruin and some of it is still being dug up. It is a respectable but not spectacular site (I guess after viewing Angkor Wat in Cambodia, few temples in Thailand can really be claimed "spectacular," but that is another story). We were dropped at a handicraft market later to do our own shopping. Most of the woodcarvings are too huge to bring home (even more expensive to ship). There is not much we wanted to buy anyway. It is not a very interesting stop.

Afternoon is free time for us. Mom was taking a nap while I used the time to wander around Chiang Mai's old city center.

One thing surprises many visitors is: There are so many Westerners in this city. Maybe it is the starting point for trekking trip into the mountains, which is a very popular activity for Westerners coming to Thailand. Maybe it is all the good words that Western travel guidebooks (such as Lonely Planet series) give to Chiang Mai. For me, it is nice but really not that fascinating (sometimes even too touristy). The old city wall is well-maintained but not too beautiful. Most of the old town is crowded with low-rise, semi-ugly buildings (the only high-rise buildings here are hotels, ironically). Traffics are heavy and sidewalks are narrow, which makes it not very pedestrian friendly. It is odd when I passed a German beer hall with Thai waitress wearing traditional Bavarian skirts. Quite a tacky place. I guess Taiwan’s ancient capital Tainan may have more charm than Chiang Mai.

Chiang Mai's night bazaar is just outside of our hotel. After night falls, all the street vendors set up their shops on the sidewalks. While a lot of things are on sale, not many of them are really that interesting (well, unless tacky souvenir T-shirts are your things). It is also sometimes too crowded and hard to move along. We ended taking a coffee break at a local Starbucks.

Well, globalization definitely have come to Chiang Mai too, together with all the tourists.

Day 9 (7/9):

With Chiang Mai less interesting than expected, we were actually happy to move on to the next destination. It was a relatively long trip on the road today. With both car and boat, we would arrive at the northernmost province, Chiang Rai, in style (well, sort of).

Leaving the overhyped Chiang Mai by car, after about one-hour’s drive, we arrived at Chiang Dao's famous elephant camp.

Elephants are such popular animals in Thailand, you can see their symbols everywhere in Thai temples. Even the logo of this International AIDS Conference is a profile of three red elephants. However, this was the first time I finally saw real elephants in this trip.

Well, what can you expect from an elephant camp like this? It is quite touristy (Interestingly, we were the only non-Western tourists that morning). I fed elephants (don’t fight! Next banana is yours! Eh, don’t grab my hand with your long nose), watched elephants shower, and saw them moving logs in piles. The only tourist thing I did not try is riding an elephant. Been there, done that in Phuket! It is not very comfortable anyway.

Click for pictures from Elephant Camp.

The more adventurous part of the day was the afternoon boat ride on the River Kwok from Thaton to Chiang Rai. Well, "boat ride" it is. It is on a small and very narrow long-tailed boat and we would be on this boat for three hours. I was sort of looking forwards to the adventure on the rapid streams. However, my mother was very uncomfortable with such small boat and thought about sticking with the car. Eventually, she decided to give it a try. Many hilltribe villages in our itinerary can only be visited by boat. At least it is covered (so we don’t need umbrellas when it rains later).

We stopped at two villages along the way and purchased some souvenir from the villagers. As the boat approached Chiang Rai City, we saw an enormous resort on an island. It is a luxurious hotel completely unmatched to its pristine surrounding. It turns out this is our hotel for the next two nights – Dusit Island Resort. What a contrast, a super fancy hotel after a very basic transportation.

Of course, the long tailed boat was a relative luxury compared to the smaller boat that would take us to Laos the next day in the Golden Triangle area.

I was definitely excited about the next day’s itinerary because I will visit two new countries.

More pictures from Northern Thailand.

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