Friday, April 15, 2005
I've been kidnapped by a truckload of Thai people
I actually spent most of yesterday revelling with one sandal.
I'm hanging out near the Tae Pae Gate in Chiang Mai with my water rifle, sipping a can of Chang, enjoying the sun and waterfun. A truckload of Thai college kids and I exchanged some water ordnance, and Bobo - the leader of the gang - ended up offering me a beer and a ride on the tailgate of their truck - an offer no sane person could have refused. As the dozen of us zipped around Chiang Mai, some of my new Thai friends stopped off to buy a block of ice (to both keep the beer cold and the filthy moat water icy, as it's all the more fun to dump icy water during Songkran.) The block of ice was huge, and they were unable to get it onto the truck without dropping and breaking it. Somehow in the melee I lost my right sandal, and I wasn't ready to give it up. Picture this: I hopped off the moving truck (I'm soaking wet and have a bright colored water rifle strapped over my shoulder), run back to get my sandal againt the traffic, and pick up the last chunk of our ice that is lying next to my flip flop. I then sprint back to the truck (a la OJ Simpson in the 80s Avis TV commercial) all the while being doused with water from the trucks I'm passing with my (American) football sized chunk of ice under my arm. When I caught back up to the truck, my new Thai friends were thoroughly impressed.
However, the sandal was not meant to stay on my foot, because a short while later, it fell off when exiting a gas station. So I found myself crossing the waters of Chiang Mai, with one sandal.
After a few more hours of water fighting around Old Chiang Mai, I discover that I'm riding on an expressway off to the campus of Majeo University, where all my Thai friends go to school. I ended up eating at some Thai restaurant (and this was authentic: I was the only farang and there was no English menu) and staying at Bobo's place. Bobo's funny, when we were leaving his apartment complex this morning he was showing off to the Thai girls that work there that he had made a friend from another country. The songthaew back to Chiang Mai was a little scary, as I had no idea where is would drop me off, but I can pronounce Tae Pae Gate well enough in Thai that I made it back to my Guest House without too much trouble.
Even funnier is that one of the Thai girls gave me a pair of sandals to wear to the restaurant that are about 3 sizes too small for my (rather large) feet - I look absurd and my heels are half exposed when I walk in them.
I thing I'm going to stay in Thailand for the rest of my trip, Laos seems like too much work with the short time I have left.
I'm hanging out near the Tae Pae Gate in Chiang Mai with my water rifle, sipping a can of Chang, enjoying the sun and waterfun. A truckload of Thai college kids and I exchanged some water ordnance, and Bobo - the leader of the gang - ended up offering me a beer and a ride on the tailgate of their truck - an offer no sane person could have refused. As the dozen of us zipped around Chiang Mai, some of my new Thai friends stopped off to buy a block of ice (to both keep the beer cold and the filthy moat water icy, as it's all the more fun to dump icy water during Songkran.) The block of ice was huge, and they were unable to get it onto the truck without dropping and breaking it. Somehow in the melee I lost my right sandal, and I wasn't ready to give it up. Picture this: I hopped off the moving truck (I'm soaking wet and have a bright colored water rifle strapped over my shoulder), run back to get my sandal againt the traffic, and pick up the last chunk of our ice that is lying next to my flip flop. I then sprint back to the truck (a la OJ Simpson in the 80s Avis TV commercial) all the while being doused with water from the trucks I'm passing with my (American) football sized chunk of ice under my arm. When I caught back up to the truck, my new Thai friends were thoroughly impressed.
However, the sandal was not meant to stay on my foot, because a short while later, it fell off when exiting a gas station. So I found myself crossing the waters of Chiang Mai, with one sandal.
After a few more hours of water fighting around Old Chiang Mai, I discover that I'm riding on an expressway off to the campus of Majeo University, where all my Thai friends go to school. I ended up eating at some Thai restaurant (and this was authentic: I was the only farang and there was no English menu) and staying at Bobo's place. Bobo's funny, when we were leaving his apartment complex this morning he was showing off to the Thai girls that work there that he had made a friend from another country. The songthaew back to Chiang Mai was a little scary, as I had no idea where is would drop me off, but I can pronounce Tae Pae Gate well enough in Thai that I made it back to my Guest House without too much trouble.
Even funnier is that one of the Thai girls gave me a pair of sandals to wear to the restaurant that are about 3 sizes too small for my (rather large) feet - I look absurd and my heels are half exposed when I walk in them.
I thing I'm going to stay in Thailand for the rest of my trip, Laos seems like too much work with the short time I have left.
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Dude, I looked at the globe. Chiang Mai is like spitting distance from Laos. You should definitely go for a few days.
So what's the capacity on your super soaker?
So what's the capacity on your super soaker?
And that wasn't OJ in that Avis commercial BTW. Some lesser-known halfback whose name I forget (hence, lesser-known).
The problem with Lao, Centerleft, isn't getting there - it's getting around. The roads are terrible, and a trip from one town to the next often takes 10-12 hours by slow boat. I could have gone to Luang Prabang (the whole town is a UNESCO heritage site) but I really couldn't have gone much anywhere else. Saying that I've been to Lao would be cool and all, but I'm trying to learn to resist the urge to merely collect stamps in my passport.
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