January 12 2010
This morning we ventured into Sukhotai to see the old city ruins. We went to the most beautiful Buddha wat of all the
We dropped Brittney off at our guesthouse and Elena and I decided to go find an exchange bank to prepare ourselves for the trek into Chiang Mai wilderness. We took a cute tuktuk downtown to Big C, made our exchange, then wandered into a supermarket. We had a blast going through the store finding hygiene products, rechargeable batteries, large waters, and to our delight: peel-able fruit. Sunset had come and gone while we were shopping and as we stood for 5 minutes watching traffic sparingly go by we started to realize that our situation was looking a little grim as far as public transportation. What we learned from a local vendor was that no taxis exist in the town, and the city busses and tuktuks had stopped running around 6pm.
This same vendor offered to ride us back to our guesthouse via motorbike, and seeing no other alternatives we accepted his offer. I had been under the impression, as he natively spoke to wife and vendor friends about the situation, that we would be taking two motorbikes. Come to find out that all THREE of us would be cramming onto one, one urban Thai motorbike. The family and friends of the local driver were left standing and matching our open laughter at the hilarious spectacle I only imagine at were. This was my first motorbike experience and my mother would have cried at the sight, half from laughter at the hilarity of us and half from fear as none of us were wearing helmets. Truth be told this seems a more horrifying story but as our staunch old steed of a bike carried one small Thai and two healthily plump American girls, I’m sure we were moving at a survivable speed. We eventually made it home after some confused directions, and now that I look back it was quite thrilling, but not something I would like to repeat.
A day or two prior we had met a sweet aussie named Alex, she has occasionally accompanied us on a few adventures. The night after our motorbike escapade she had dinner with us girls and at the end of the meal the owner of the guesthouse had become partial to us and gave myself, Brittney and Alex a shot of Thai whiskey. Initially we were hesitant, but we swallowed our fear and took a strange opportunity by the horns and swallowed this “unique” masterpiece. We found out, some minutes later as the hilarious owner was picking up our empty shot glasses, that the slightly flakey shot we just swallowed had been scooped from a large jar sitting on the front desk, which was full of whiskey soaking with a tiger’s penis.
I love life.
No comments:
Post a Comment