Rambo: That you guys don't take any shit?
Mousa: Yes... something like this.
(I've never seen the movie but now Trav has me fascinated with it)
We arrived into Thailand late Friday afternoon. My favorite thing about this competition is that it takes you to places that you would never know to go on your own. I have wanted to dive in Thailand for years but until we landed, I had never heard of the second largest city in Thailand, Chang Mai, We stayed at the Shangri-la. Although it was the nicest hotel I have ever been, in it was nearly empty. There has been some recent shootings and rallies in Thailand and although the problems weren’t near Chang Mai, I guess it scared off visitors. The same thing happened to the resorts in Mexico during the swine flu scare. In my world a tiny risk of illness or political violence is a fine swap for a luxury hotel to yourself.
The first afternoon we were exhausted and had to talk each other into leaving the hotel for a food scavenge. Dinner perked us up enough to wander into to one of the many spas on the street (spas in Chang Mai are like Starbucks in NYC). A 30 minute foot massage, 30 minute scalp massage and an hour and half full body massage later (all for a grand total of $38usd for both of us), we decided we really liked Thailand.
We wandered around the night market which was crowded and hot but friendly, bright, cheery and cheap. Extremely cheap. We bought wooden and silk lanterns, knives, necklaces, beautiful paintings of Asia, dozens of hand painted postcards…. And I don’t think either of us spent over $50.
On Saturday, we went to a tiger sanctuary. You can actually go in and play with tigers—babies and adults. When traveling internationally it’s hard to ditch that built in American sense of “if it wasn't safe I’m sure they wouldn't let me do it” security but I managed to right about the time I found myself petting a 600 pound tiger. Although I was a nervous wreck, it was one of the coolest things I have ever done. Being so close to something that massive and seeing the huge paws and long tail, was incredible. Travis was much more relaxed about this than me. In the 15 minutes we were there he kept me from stepping on a tiger’s tail and from leaning into an electric fence. Will someone remind me about this the next time he makes me mad? As he for sure deserves a few passes.
After this we knocked out one of the Great Escape scavenges and went to Mae Sa Valley to see snake charmers with the king cobras. Since we first saw this scavenge on the list Trav had been singing a line from Rambo 4 “ay ay king cobra… ay ya king cobra” in a deep Thai accent. It turned out this was the exact place that part of the movie was filmed and his impression was dead on. When we arrived a young guy was charming a huge king cobra- it was impressive. At some point he put it around my neck (I’m not really sure what happened as my mind tends to go blank when in panic mode but what I do know is there are now several photographs of me with this thing around me). As all of this was happening a woman was rattling off in broken English accent “ay ya king cobra, ay ya king cobra, be careful very poisonous, be careful” The whole thing was madly impressive and ended with a little boy 4 year old boy charming 3 snakes. This made me cry (being away from my child has turned m ridiculously emotional). When the show was finished, I gave the little boy a squishy toy ball I had in my backpack. Travis found this amusing-- “he gets to play with snakes… he doesn’t want your stupid ball”. A valid point.
While we were in the Mae Sa Valley went to see the “long neck people”. The villagers themselves were very beautiful but we both found the experience disturbing. The entrance to their village has a small ticket counter where you pay a $10 admission to wander around and “view” these people in their natural life setting. A very rustic lifestyle with no water or electricity (yet there was a “tourist only" running water bathroom near the ticketbooth). Lots of children and babies, all dirty and in rags. We both felt guilty and attempted to lessen that by buying a ton of stuff from the villagers.
The last crazy thing we did Saturday was visit a fish spa. You soak your feet into an aquarium of small fish that eat the dead skin off your feet and this somehow improve your circulation. It was neat but it was creepy…. I had to will myself to keep my feet in there the entire 30 minutes. Trav, however loved it (?). Ha, even though there were a ton of other spots in the spa, they sat us right in the window to do this. So for 30 minutes other tourists and kids were walking by and pointing at us, laughing and taking pictures…. Karma I suppose for our visit to the Long Neck Village.
Thailand was our last stop on this trip. Bill, the event director took us to dinner at an extremely nice restaurant for our last night. Thai food is amazing. Thai food is spicy.
It has been one of the most amazing experiences we have ever had and we met some of the most fantastically interesting and fun people (both in the countries we visited and competing with us). The competition itself is much harder than I thought it would be—mentally and physically exhausting. Aside from Trav and I (who remained in last place for our 10 days) the competition is very close. I’m interested to see who will win.
I’m in my 32nd hour of traveling home and currently on a redeye out of LA. I’m jonsing to see my baby and kiss her fat little cheeks.
You two are kind, interesting and adventurous people. A rare combination. Together you simply glow and has been a pleasure to know you.
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