Flying Gibbon's, Crazy elephants, and massive parties: Thailand part 2

Ola everybody

I hereby proudly present: part 2 of the three bandits beaming their awesomeness in Thailand.

Soooo, after Phi Phi Islands were we stayed for 5 sunny days, the guys wanted to see some nature and wilderness! The most popular place for that is Chiang Mai up in the North of Thailand. I’ve been here on my last visit in Thailand last year and I enjoyed it very much. But, being on the road for a while, with a budget, sooner or later you experience a 2 things.

1. You always spend more money than you want to
2. You get a little bit spoiled by all the things you have done before.

So with that in mind, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to pay quite some bath (the Thai currency ;-) ) to get a plane (by bus would take forever) and spend another few thousand bath for a place I already have been. I’d rather save that money and spend it for something else, a new experience. But at the other hand, I neither wanted to split up with the guys already and besides I didn’t have a plan yet what to do if I would decide to stay behind.

Fortunately I knew Jeffrey, a cool Dutch dude who I met while I was in Cambodia. Because we have made plans to see each other in Malaysia, I speak to him regularly by phone and mail. He gave me the tip to go to Chiang Mai, but leave there as soon as possible by mini-van to a small town called Pai (say: ‘bye’). He told me it was one of the most beautiful places he has seen so far and that it’s very relaxed, laid-back and cheap. It is very tiny and the people who live there are all kind of ‘hippies’ and musicians etc. You might say it’s a rather artistic place to be.

After looking up some details in the Lonely Planet and discussed it with the guys we all agreed that Pai would be the place to be. And so we arrived in Pai. And Jeffrey was right. A few small streets, filled with street BBQ’s, small shops and little markets. Pai was tiny indeed, but it is literally located in the middle of a green valley, so you couldn’t be more in the nature (except when you do a jungle hike maybe). The people here were very chill and nice and made music, sang or played guitar on the street. Even the local police officer – and I’m not joking – was playing guitar on the streets after his duty, while still wearing his police officer uniform. Looked funny but also reminds you of ‘YMCA’.

There were no big disco’s or clubs. Instead of that you could just chill out a little mats on the floor of a small bar, while listening to some live-music or covers from Bob Marley. It was a very relaxing atmosphere to be in. The environment was very beautiful and we explored it on our rented 140cc scooters. After cruising around for some time, we drove past an elephant camp. The guys really wanted to ride an elephant, so we parked our scooters and asked the 'elephant lady' about the possibilities. She asked us if we wanted to go into the river with the elephant. Yeah, we wanted that, why not!! 'Ok' said the lady, 'you should wear some swimming pants than and leave all your valuables here in the safe deposit box'. I was not sure what she meant by 'wearing swimming pants', I did an elephant ride last year as well but we all stayed nice and warm and didn't get wet! But what the hell, just let's do this! Sooooo, after changed into our borrowed swimming pants a nice Thai guy, who just smiled and said some incomprehensible words, brought us to our elephant. We were told to climb on his back by the stairs next to the elephant. 'Where are the seats' I asked the guy (usually you have kind of 'elephant seats' where you can sit in for more comfort during the ride). 'No seats' the guy replied, while he watched us climbing on the elephant trying to hold on the bare back of the elephant with little success.

And so we took of for a little walk. On the regular road. Our elephant was quite lazy and the Thai man kept shouting commands to him what I think meant something like 'come on you stupid elephant, leave that tree for what it is and LISTEN to me and do for once what I WANT'. Very funny! After 10 minutes we arrived at the river and the elephant went in, with us still on his back of course. While the elephant stood in the middle of the river the Thai man shouted all kinds of commands from the shore while throwing little stones and branches at him to get his attention. The elephant didn't care at all and ignored the man completely, he was just standing there in the river, chilling his ass off, enjoying the sunshine... and yep, we were still on his back, enjoying the sun as well. Then, all of a sudden..... the elephant started to move around like a crazy bull! He literally rocked his body from left to right and stood on his back legs, lifting his back from the water! We all screamed like bitches and before I knew it I was thrown off in the river. I was a little bit in panic, 'cause I didn't know what happened and I sure didn't want to be in a river with a massive elephant next to me, going crazy! So I swam  like a crazy bastard to the shore. There I got my breath again and watched the scene displaying before my eyes. Ron and Michel were still on his back, but the elephant rocked his body several more times and they also flew off like little ignorant insects and landed in the water! I laughed my ass off. The Thai man laughed his ass off. It turned out the elephant didn't run wild, it was just all part of 'the deal'. Without knowing it, we apparently booked ourselves a real 'elephant rodeo'. When this became clear, we were more confident to climb back on the elephant's back and when we were all in place again, the Thai man screamed his commands again to the elephant. Prepared for what was coming this time, we hold tight to eachother and tried to stay as long as possible on the elephant's back. But again, we were launched and thrown into the water like we were nothing! It was sooooo freakin' hilarious, and it is so cool that after 4.5 months of traveling, I still haven't seen everything and still gets surprised! An elephant rodeo.... for about 30 minutes in a dirty river... IT WAS AWESOME! From now on there will be no more 'regular' elephant rides ever again! Compared to the rodeo, that will be too boring :P

On our last day in Pai we drove the scooter all the way back to Chiang Mai. We were able to drop off  the scooter in Chiang Mai so we thought we'd rather drive the magnificant route by ourselves on a scooter instead of sitting in a bus again for a couple of hours. While driving the scooter through the nature of Pai, I got the 'warm and fuzzy feelings' again which I had so many times while driving 'the Beast' in Vietnam. It was almost nostalgic. It was a memorable trip.

In Chiang Mai we booked an excursion called 'Flight of the Gibbon'. Yep, this concept is the same as 'the Gibbon Experience' which I did in Laos, only here you only do some ZIPPING for a couple of hours and that's it. Nevertheless it was great fun and we had some massive ziplines again, high above the ground and we reached speeds up to 80 km/hr. (according to the advertisment that is). But the highlight was not the zipping, but the fact that I saw actual GIBBONS this time. A little family with a male (who was minding his own business and being absolutely lazy) a female and her baby! It was so funny to see. The baby Gibbon was very curious and playing around, while the mother just watched him carefully. After a while she obviously thought it was time to go, so she grabbed the baby, put it around her belly and she swung off, from treetop to treetop! I was perfect in time to record this with my camera, so I've got some real good video's of it! It was beautiful to see.

And with Chiang Mai and the Gibbons as our last adventure, we took a flight back to Bangkok. Where the guys would stay 2 more nights and then fly back to Holland again. I, however, had still 1 week left before my flight would leave to Kuala Lumpur. Fortunately for me, Dave and Neil (my Vietnam Motorbike friends) were on Koh Phangan to experience the upcoming Full Moon Party. They invited me to come and I was able to crash in their bungalow for a few days! So, despite the fact that I already had seen Koh Phangan and already experienced the massive NewYears party there, I decided to go anyway! It was better than spending 6 long and boring days all by myself in Bangkok.

And so I said goodbye to Ron and Michel, and took off! For another legendary party, the mother of all beachparties, on Koh Phangan, with my other friends, Neil and Dave, who I hadn't seen for almost two months!

Damn... I hate my life!

click here for pics