A Trek, a Coup, and a Chicken Sandwich
24 September
I've been out of touch for the few days since the coup but, in general, it doesn't seem like much has changed in the country. The group and I finished our hike this morning and the drive back from our last village to Chiang Mai took about three hours. The hike was grueling. There was hardly a moment where I wasn't covered in mud or sweat but it was worth it. I don't have much experience outdoors and there was enormous satisfaction in reaching each village with that heavy pack on my back. Sore, dirty, hungry, and tired, I met members of the different Thai tribes on each of the evenings. We slept in sleeping bags on bamboo mats about three feet off the ground and enjoyed traditional foods at every meal.
It would have been easy to complain and yet I didn't really feel compelled to do so. Despite the fact that I was wearing completely the wrong type of shoes for trekking in the mud (you can imagine how much time I spent on the ground) and that I brought almost unnecessary item I could have with me (shaving cream?? I don't know what I was thinking.) it was surprisingly easy for me to focus on the positives. A few people have been saying they feel ripped off because we probably paid more than we we should have for drinks and other things along the way but I'm trying not to think about that. I figure I'll only be in Thailand once and, besides, anyone here that might be profiting off of me needs the money more than I do.
On the third day of the trek, our hosts took the group out for elephant rides. The trip through a small part of the jungle took about an hour and it was hard not to notice that these elephants were not happy creatures. Everytime the animal stopped to eat or to catch its breath, our porter screamed at it. He threatened it with a small slingshot and a blade, which worried me. How would you react if someone treated a two-ton animal you happened to be riding ten feet off the ground this way? Now, I don't know anything about training animals or about tribal culture for that matter but elephants are relatively harmless creatures and seeing this yesterday opened the floodgates. It became a lot more difficult to enjoy myself at this point.
I slept little on the trek and my body hurt. I was irritated about having to bathe in a river my elephant used as a toilet two hours earlier and about the few things I had to eat over the course of the trip. I don't mean to sound hypocritical, since this adventure was above and beyond the so-called "cultural experience" I came to Thailand for, but these past few days were more than enough. I wanted to remind some of these people its 2006. I wanted to ask how they could live this way. Yes, the children were laughing and the villagers seemed comfortable in this lifestyle but, after waking up at 4:30 each morning to the sound of pigs splashing in mud and roosters crowing, my patience had worn thin. The shower I enjoyed back at our hotel today will probably be one of the highlights for me of this trip.
I've gotten a lot of messages from people at home worried about my safety and I appreciate that. The first thing I noticed upon arriving back in the city was an increased military presence. I didn't know what kind of conditions I'd find back in Chiang Mai and, at least so far, the mood's fine. There are just as many tourists in the city as there were a couple of days ago and people are not flocking to the airport as might be expected. I'm in touch with both of my universities in Sydney and in New Jersey, as well as an international aid organization in Singapore. I don't think this was connected but the tour guide took us to see the Chiang Mai Tourist Police before we started the trek to register our location with them and to leave copies of our passports.
I'm glad to be back in Chiang Mai, the cultural capital of Thailand and its second-largest city. Here, my tour guide can help me buy souvenirs, order food, and recommend places to check out after dinner. The trek was fun but it ended right when it needed to. Perhaps I am a hypocrite though. I don't know how much of this type of travel I can take and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't looking forward to room service at the Marriott when my parents come to Sydney in a few weeks. I thought about a lot of what I've written when I ate lunch today... at McDonald's. Yes, my sandwich tasted different than at an American McDonalds and they even had duck sauce instead of mustard at the condiment counter. Thinking I deserved it, dessert came right after at a Starbucks across the street. I probably shouldn't be too surprised about that.
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