Chapter 10
Day 11
Chiang Mai
I woke up in my dimly lit room with a deep sense of quiet. The rush of the previous days, compared at the easy life of this part of the trip, made me feel like I were suspended into a glass of crystal clear warm water. All my senses weren't at the ready to spot anything. I just laid a little bit more, close eyes, breathing deeply.
Smell of wood and some cheap cleaning chemical. A little vanilla in the air. The sound of falling water from outside. Many other times I mistaken this sound for falling rain, but now I recognized her voice, was the fountain in the yard of the hotel.
A drop, a splash. Tweeting birds from the lightly open window. A drop, a splash. Some voice from behind the wooden door. A drop, a splash.
My shower was leaking. I had to tell this to the girls of the hall.
I checked at the time, it was 7.30. Damn early to start a day in holiday, but it was also a good time to have a quiet breakfast and get ready for the day.
I thought to myself “Get up, a new day of adventures is waiting!”. So, I rolled over, unsnarled myself from the twist of sheets, and stood up. Before putting my feet off the bed, I checked if there were any spider around. No, there were none of them.
I got dressed with shorts, a clean T-shirt and sneakers. The previous day I wore all the day sandals and it felt great, but this time I was leaving for some kind of an adventurous trip and I needed the sneakers.
I staggered, still dizzy, out of the hotel, armed only with my wallet and mobile phone and started my journey toward Starbucks. I passed by some bar that was starting to open, some group tourist already going somewhere, and some old guy, looking definitely like expats, sitting at a bar reading a newspaper.
I was in a deep lack of caffeine. I could hear bells in my hears warning me that I was at the limit of my caffeine-free time. I needed to hurry for a coffee. A long black one, American style.
The walk to my old friend Starbucks took longer than I expected. So, I thought that, maybe the next day, I should try to find another place where to have breakfast. Or maybe to try again the hotel kitchen, even if I still reminded quite well the terrible breakfasts of the previous years. Yes, I still remembered quite well the metal taste of their instant-coffee and burnt bread.
Just after a famous gogo bar, the Spotlight, which I always feel the smell of something, like the air was soaked in Tequila there, I finally arrived at the Starbucks and I entered the Coffee shop, I ordered a Latte, and a Pain au Chocolate. I turned the mobile phone on and tried to log into the WiFi. It couldn’t connect. It looked that it couldn’t detect a free WiFi connection. In the meanwhile, I received two messages. One from my friend L, that said that she was sure I’d be back in Chiang Mai as she knew my love for that city, and she won her bet knowing I'd crush there in this trip too. I'm easy to understand. Or maybe naïve. If I say Thailand, I mean Chiang Mai. If I say Chiang Mai, I mean something that I keep dear into my heart. The other from my friend M, that in spite she already told me about the disaster in my city, kept on writing how bad had been the flood. Her message was the bad copy of the one that she sent me the previous day. About the same words, but in random order and with a more dramatic effect. Sometimes it's fun to read her Italian messages that are as bad as my English writing. At least, we share something. Horrific writing.
I finished my breakfast that I was the only customer of the shop. The waitress looked busy with the coffee machine. Actually, she looked like one of those steampunk figures deep into maneuvering some steam powered weird machine. Her duty? Was to flush at regular times the steamer nozzle for the cappuccino.
I imagine her thinking “I swirl this thing, I push here, pressure is rising, I turn this and that, I turn the release valve and we are!”, Bang, a Nuclear Blast. Not actually, it was more likely a Turkish Steam Bath for her. Good to cleanse the skin from impurities.
I was sitting on a stall at the window, looking Chiang Mai traffic flowing slowly. Many cars were passing by, Tuk-Tuks, motorbikes with parents taking babies at school, people going to work. Not much different from home. Just some Tuk-Tuk in more, but the same sleepy faces. I was still alone as it was too early for the usual crowd of people. So, as soon as I finished my breakfast, I went back outside, in the heat, and went back to my hotel with a new caffeine-powered strength.
In a matter of minutes I got ready for my trip and I went downstairs to wait for the tour minibus, which wasn't there yet.
Time started to flow slowly and I was staying waiting while many groups of tourists were taken to their trips. There was a group of young tourists which were looking like going for a trekking trip, another group was taken by a Cooking School pickup or two girls going away for another day trip too. Then, I started to see that cars were coming anymore. What was going on? Was there a traffic jam? All of a sudden appeared a procession, and were the students of the nearby school, the Chiang Mai Commercial College. They were in groups carrying what looked like statues of trees from which branches were hanging 100 Tb bills and sweets. I wondered if it was connected with the Loi Krathong.
The procession slowly went by, and all the students, neatly, followed their route until the boundaries of their school, where they gathered into their main yard. Some voices were broadcasted in the yard of the school and it sounded pretty much like an announcement. Then it started another voice, that sounded like a prayer.
That day didn’t look like a normal school day, but the school looked like it was more lively than usual, like they were undergoing the preparation of a big party.
Cars started to flow again, but there wasn’t a trace of mine. I came back into the hall and I connected to the WiFi, looking if there were news from Italy. Everything sounded normal, then I logged on a news website, until I heard a voice calling me. It was a Thai boy which was screaming my name. I stood up and went to him.
I entered the van that there was only a vacant seat left, that was in the middle row. I told to everybody “Good Morning”, but I received only answer from a French guy and a boy from Hong Kong. In that trip we were all men but a girl. Was it a too adventurous trip? Or was there some other reason? I’d discover it a little later, while in the forest.
The minibus started, and we left toward Chiang Rai. People fell asleep in a matter of seconds, most of them listening at their MP3 players, while I was missing mine. The landscape changed along the way, from hills at the sides of the motorway to woods and again farmlands. Then, like my fellows did, I fell asleep too.
It felt like a short sleep, but when I woke up, we had already left the motorway and we were going up a hill, on a narrow and steep street, surrounded by a lush forest. We stopped a few times, mostly to let cars and truck to proceed in our opposite direction, or when the driver decided that there was something that we couldn’t miss. Like when he stopped, went out of the van, disappeared down a small cliff and came back with some seeds. He gave us these seeds and said “Coffee!”.
I took the seeds and smelled them. I scratched one with a fingernail and smelled them again. No, they didn't smell like my Espresso coffee. The smell of chlorophyll along with some aromatic resin smell. My memory jumped back in space and time.
It was one year and two month before just a little more southward. I was in a journey with Miss L, and I was taken by Mr. Gnam Gnam, or whatever was his name, to a coffee farm. I still remember quite clearly the picking of coffee berries that which smelled about the same way. Then I volunteered to roast some coffee and then I tasted the famous Kopi Luwak Coffee, in which the coffee berries are first digested by the Luwak, an animal, and then roasted, ground and brewed. It was a very tasty coffee, but you’ve to face your own limits to taste it. Yes, the smell of the berries was the same. As Thai use to say “Same Same, but different!”.
Same Same but different.
I gave the berries to the other fellows of the trip, but they didn’t look much interested in them. The only one, was a French guy that pocketed the berries into the pocket of his backpack. I guess if later he tried to powder them and brew a very light coffee with them.
Smell of wood and some cheap cleaning chemical. A little vanilla in the air. The sound of falling water from outside. Many other times I mistaken this sound for falling rain, but now I recognized her voice, was the fountain in the yard of the hotel.
A drop, a splash. Tweeting birds from the lightly open window. A drop, a splash. Some voice from behind the wooden door. A drop, a splash.
My shower was leaking. I had to tell this to the girls of the hall.
I checked at the time, it was 7.30. Damn early to start a day in holiday, but it was also a good time to have a quiet breakfast and get ready for the day.
I thought to myself “Get up, a new day of adventures is waiting!”. So, I rolled over, unsnarled myself from the twist of sheets, and stood up. Before putting my feet off the bed, I checked if there were any spider around. No, there were none of them.
I got dressed with shorts, a clean T-shirt and sneakers. The previous day I wore all the day sandals and it felt great, but this time I was leaving for some kind of an adventurous trip and I needed the sneakers.
I staggered, still dizzy, out of the hotel, armed only with my wallet and mobile phone and started my journey toward Starbucks. I passed by some bar that was starting to open, some group tourist already going somewhere, and some old guy, looking definitely like expats, sitting at a bar reading a newspaper.
I was in a deep lack of caffeine. I could hear bells in my hears warning me that I was at the limit of my caffeine-free time. I needed to hurry for a coffee. A long black one, American style.
The walk to my old friend Starbucks took longer than I expected. So, I thought that, maybe the next day, I should try to find another place where to have breakfast. Or maybe to try again the hotel kitchen, even if I still reminded quite well the terrible breakfasts of the previous years. Yes, I still remembered quite well the metal taste of their instant-coffee and burnt bread.
Just after a famous gogo bar, the Spotlight, which I always feel the smell of something, like the air was soaked in Tequila there, I finally arrived at the Starbucks and I entered the Coffee shop, I ordered a Latte, and a Pain au Chocolate. I turned the mobile phone on and tried to log into the WiFi. It couldn’t connect. It looked that it couldn’t detect a free WiFi connection. In the meanwhile, I received two messages. One from my friend L, that said that she was sure I’d be back in Chiang Mai as she knew my love for that city, and she won her bet knowing I'd crush there in this trip too. I'm easy to understand. Or maybe naïve. If I say Thailand, I mean Chiang Mai. If I say Chiang Mai, I mean something that I keep dear into my heart. The other from my friend M, that in spite she already told me about the disaster in my city, kept on writing how bad had been the flood. Her message was the bad copy of the one that she sent me the previous day. About the same words, but in random order and with a more dramatic effect. Sometimes it's fun to read her Italian messages that are as bad as my English writing. At least, we share something. Horrific writing.
I finished my breakfast that I was the only customer of the shop. The waitress looked busy with the coffee machine. Actually, she looked like one of those steampunk figures deep into maneuvering some steam powered weird machine. Her duty? Was to flush at regular times the steamer nozzle for the cappuccino.
I imagine her thinking “I swirl this thing, I push here, pressure is rising, I turn this and that, I turn the release valve and we are!”, Bang, a Nuclear Blast. Not actually, it was more likely a Turkish Steam Bath for her. Good to cleanse the skin from impurities.
I was sitting on a stall at the window, looking Chiang Mai traffic flowing slowly. Many cars were passing by, Tuk-Tuks, motorbikes with parents taking babies at school, people going to work. Not much different from home. Just some Tuk-Tuk in more, but the same sleepy faces. I was still alone as it was too early for the usual crowd of people. So, as soon as I finished my breakfast, I went back outside, in the heat, and went back to my hotel with a new caffeine-powered strength.
In a matter of minutes I got ready for my trip and I went downstairs to wait for the tour minibus, which wasn't there yet.
Time started to flow slowly and I was staying waiting while many groups of tourists were taken to their trips. There was a group of young tourists which were looking like going for a trekking trip, another group was taken by a Cooking School pickup or two girls going away for another day trip too. Then, I started to see that cars were coming anymore. What was going on? Was there a traffic jam? All of a sudden appeared a procession, and were the students of the nearby school, the Chiang Mai Commercial College. They were in groups carrying what looked like statues of trees from which branches were hanging 100 Tb bills and sweets. I wondered if it was connected with the Loi Krathong.
The procession slowly went by, and all the students, neatly, followed their route until the boundaries of their school, where they gathered into their main yard. Some voices were broadcasted in the yard of the school and it sounded pretty much like an announcement. Then it started another voice, that sounded like a prayer.
That day didn’t look like a normal school day, but the school looked like it was more lively than usual, like they were undergoing the preparation of a big party.
Cars started to flow again, but there wasn’t a trace of mine. I came back into the hall and I connected to the WiFi, looking if there were news from Italy. Everything sounded normal, then I logged on a news website, until I heard a voice calling me. It was a Thai boy which was screaming my name. I stood up and went to him.
I entered the van that there was only a vacant seat left, that was in the middle row. I told to everybody “Good Morning”, but I received only answer from a French guy and a boy from Hong Kong. In that trip we were all men but a girl. Was it a too adventurous trip? Or was there some other reason? I’d discover it a little later, while in the forest.
The minibus started, and we left toward Chiang Rai. People fell asleep in a matter of seconds, most of them listening at their MP3 players, while I was missing mine. The landscape changed along the way, from hills at the sides of the motorway to woods and again farmlands. Then, like my fellows did, I fell asleep too.
It felt like a short sleep, but when I woke up, we had already left the motorway and we were going up a hill, on a narrow and steep street, surrounded by a lush forest. We stopped a few times, mostly to let cars and truck to proceed in our opposite direction, or when the driver decided that there was something that we couldn’t miss. Like when he stopped, went out of the van, disappeared down a small cliff and came back with some seeds. He gave us these seeds and said “Coffee!”.
I took the seeds and smelled them. I scratched one with a fingernail and smelled them again. No, they didn't smell like my Espresso coffee. The smell of chlorophyll along with some aromatic resin smell. My memory jumped back in space and time.
It was one year and two month before just a little more southward. I was in a journey with Miss L, and I was taken by Mr. Gnam Gnam, or whatever was his name, to a coffee farm. I still remember quite clearly the picking of coffee berries that which smelled about the same way. Then I volunteered to roast some coffee and then I tasted the famous Kopi Luwak Coffee, in which the coffee berries are first digested by the Luwak, an animal, and then roasted, ground and brewed. It was a very tasty coffee, but you’ve to face your own limits to taste it. Yes, the smell of the berries was the same. As Thai use to say “Same Same, but different!”.
Same Same but different.
I gave the berries to the other fellows of the trip, but they didn’t look much interested in them. The only one, was a French guy that pocketed the berries into the pocket of his backpack. I guess if later he tried to powder them and brew a very light coffee with them.
Doi Lankah – The Jungle Flight
Soon later we arrived into a village in the forest. As soon as we went off the minivan, a concert was waiting for us. All the forest was the concert hall where tens of roosters were singing together all the time. It was unbelievable; I’ve never heard so many altogether. I wonder if these people were raising chicken as a source of both food and richness. Anyway, the concert from the roosters was so funny.
Soon we were taken to a shed where we were first invited for a check in, then we were taken to a locker room where to store our valuables, and then again we were given our rock-climbing equipment along with a helmet. So, it was dangerous for real, at least, it looked like.
In less than I could think, we were called to go up a pick-up and we were taken for a short ride to the starting point of our adventure. Our two guides took us for a short hiking in the forest and there it was. The first platform. A steel wire was spread across a divide between our safe platform to the other, about 10 or 15 meters far. A small divide was the first challenge. It was a small divide, but it still looked like an waterless abyss opened wide before us, and we should be hanging on it speeding at the speed of light, going straight, in a route of collision, with another tree on the opposite side. You go, you fly, you end your run when you meet, even hug, that solid and tall tree just there standing in the middle of your route. Easy, even too easy.
Screams were coming from invisible people in the rain forest. What was going on there? Was it so scary? I should be the one that gets paid to make this stunt, not the one that pays for it! I turned around and everybody was helping each other on pulling the strings of their gear. The Asian couple helped each other, and then, all the boys were together. One helped the other and then… He squeezed gently the pectoral muscles of the other. I felt like in the middle of the foreplays of a gay porn movie.
The only English speaking guide was giving us some instructions on how to make it. Something like “This is the pulley, ok? You no touch it! No-no! We make it! This helmet, no take it (off)!” and then he took out a piece of bent wood and said “this is the break, you put it on the wire and if I say BREAK, you break. If you don’t break, you crash. If you break too much, you stay in the middle, a problem!”. Ok, now I felt very safe. Then, the guy placed his pulley on the wire and flew like a graceless angel on the other side. Or maybe like a graceless gibbon. A gibbon wearing an helmet, a pulley and without grace.
As soon as the guy arrived on the other side, the other guide turned to us and said “How’s first?”
“I’m going first”
Everybody looked at me. I said those words. I stepped forward, the guy locked me at the wire, I hanged in my gear, like I was sitting and then I took the flight. It started slow and in a few seconds I reached the top speed. It was simply amazing. I was flying. Flying like a gibbon between the trees. Soon I arrived on the other side where the guide locked me first to a safety rope and then took off my pulley from the wire. It had been such an amazing experience. The adrenaline was sky high and I felt like I was gliding from a cloud to the next.
One of my favorite places was when we landed on the top platform of a very high tree. From the platform we had to take a spiral stairway to descend to the following stairway. There wasn’t a chance to avoid vertigo watching anywhere but down. You had to look at your feet and the deep jump that was below. The going down that stairway, the creaking wooden planks under the feet, the spinning head, the feeling of vertigo and a priceless panorama over the rain forest canopy. It was such a deep emotional blend that made those seconds worth the very trip. In the meanwhile, my camera was on and it recorded all the spiral staircase. When I watched it back home I thought that I’ve to be definitely nuts. But all the trip was worth to be done.
We kept on flying from a platform to the next. In some case, we had to be taken to the lower platforms using a rope. The bad was that, thinking to be fun, the guides liked to make people to have 2 or 3 seconds of free fall, to slower just later, while near the next platform. That was one of the moments where people liked to scream. But these weren’t the screams that I heard before. In fact, soon we reached a group that was before us. In the groups there was the bizarre combination of a guide totally nuts which liked to make jokes, or like Thai say “Ting Tong” among two black ladies from UK which were true screamers. Of course, in a few minutes I’ve got more friend with the crazy black ladies than with the people from my group.
It was late morning when we reached it. The biggest divide. About 310 meters wide gap over a small valley where the canopy was there far below us. The jump looked very long and scary. The guide “The first… You come!”, it was me. It’s always me. I smiled, he locked me and said “You ready?”, “Yep”, I answered to the whistling wind that was singing a perilous song into my hears. The guy pushed me and I was speeding into the open air. Flying away. Free, far from the ground. Airborne. I passed fast near the first trees and then I was free, it was long I was looking for this feeling.
Too soon I had to meet the other platform. The other friends were so far from me, on the other side of the gap. I did it, I made the longest “Flight of the Gibbon” and liked it.
When arrived the other guys we were taken to few other platforms and then it was trekking time. The trekking was the time that we were taken to relax a bit. We were given a small snack that I put into a side pocket of my shorts and a bottle of cold water.
Luckily the break lasted short and then we were asked to keep up with the guides for some more trekking that took us through a set of suspended bridges over the lush of the forest. Even if walking on those bridges shown to be a very tiring experience, more than walking on regular soil, it was still very nice to be done. While walking I was near one of the guides and I heard him talking to the Asian couple, that revealed that they were coming from Hong Kong. Surely the boy was the nephew of the Old Chinese Man, and that’s way I didn’t like him. The girl was just a deaf Chinese-looking wax doll. She didn’t speak, barely emitted sounds and moved in slow motion. I wonder if she even breathed of was moving thanks to some Chinese copy of a Japanese servo mechanical system. Anyway, I heard the guide singing Chinese songs and saying some Chinese words. Then he confessed that in Thailand are popular some channels from Hong Kong, that’s why he knew so much about Hong Kong. He learnt it all from TV. He looked like being a real TV addicted or a very good student, I guess the first option.
After the short trekking we arrived to the next set of platforms. This second set lasted shorter than the first one and we never had to use the break, that means, they were quite low speed rides. The second set lasted short and then we were again in the top of the tallest tree. From there, we had no more wires. We had descent with the rope and it was a fall of more than 30 meters. As the previous ones, it started with a long free fall followed from a fast slowing down and a landing on a large mattress.
The tour was over but I felt enriched of such deep good emotions that were hard to be forgotten. I definitely loved this trip.
The guides took us some pictures and then took us, first to two pick-ups, and then to the village where we were given a very tasty dinner. It was a range of both vegetarian and meat-based Thai foods. I loved them all.
When we were called back to our van, it felt like too early. It was time to get our stuff back. We were also given the official “Forest Flight” T-Shirt and then we were invited to go to our van where we took back our seats. It was time to go back to the city.
We came back in the city at dusk. I woke up from my sleep that we were already in the outskirts of the city. Then it appeared the moat, and it marked that we were already in the centre. The minivan in this way started its loop to take all the boys back at their hotels. I didn't want to waste more time in that minivan. So, when it stopped to let four of the boys down, I went down too. I said “Bye” to the drivers and the guys too, and I took a random direction.
The sense of being lost vanished in a few minutes when I started to recognize the landmarks and in less that I could think, it appeared the Tha Pae Gate. I went near to it, and without even thinking twice, I entered the Black Canyon Coffee shop. I went along the wall and I sat at a table. Miss Pui came to me and asked what I wished. I told her a tall Black Coffee. She asked if I wanted some milk inside, and I told her that I needed some bitter coffee to wake up for good. Then, while waiting for my coffee, I turned the smartphone on and I logged into the WiFi.
I checked the emails, but nobody wrote a note. Then I checked my facebook profile and it was filled with comments to my most recent posts. Among them, my friend Stefano told me that he was still stuck in Phuket. Good for him. I told him to be prepared because the next night, probably will start the Loy Krathong. Yes, probably.
How was possible that nobody knew the exact days of the festival? I asked to loads of people the days of the Loy Krathong and anybody was telling me different days. I couldn't believe at it. By good luck, I knew that the only certain day of Loy Krathong would be my last day, for this holiday, in Chiang Mai. That was sure. This was the word of the Thai tourism association, or whatever is its name.
I ended my Black Coffee that I felt refreshed. The feeling of being just awaken was just a strange weak memory. Now I could run across all the city and back. So, I went off the shop and I crossed the gate. Now the square was all lit with lanterns of any shape, color and size. Most of them were arranged in stages and had typical shape, but there were even shaped like huge white elephants and Singha Lions, and if I say Singha, I mean exactly the Lion of the Singha Beer, in the exact same pose in which it's drawn on the beer bottles. Then there was also a stage for the Airasia with a huge lantern shaped like an Airasia airplane. I loved this place. It felt like it was telling us that a huge party was upcoming. And I was looking forward for it.
Soon we were taken to a shed where we were first invited for a check in, then we were taken to a locker room where to store our valuables, and then again we were given our rock-climbing equipment along with a helmet. So, it was dangerous for real, at least, it looked like.
In less than I could think, we were called to go up a pick-up and we were taken for a short ride to the starting point of our adventure. Our two guides took us for a short hiking in the forest and there it was. The first platform. A steel wire was spread across a divide between our safe platform to the other, about 10 or 15 meters far. A small divide was the first challenge. It was a small divide, but it still looked like an waterless abyss opened wide before us, and we should be hanging on it speeding at the speed of light, going straight, in a route of collision, with another tree on the opposite side. You go, you fly, you end your run when you meet, even hug, that solid and tall tree just there standing in the middle of your route. Easy, even too easy.
Screams were coming from invisible people in the rain forest. What was going on there? Was it so scary? I should be the one that gets paid to make this stunt, not the one that pays for it! I turned around and everybody was helping each other on pulling the strings of their gear. The Asian couple helped each other, and then, all the boys were together. One helped the other and then… He squeezed gently the pectoral muscles of the other. I felt like in the middle of the foreplays of a gay porn movie.
The only English speaking guide was giving us some instructions on how to make it. Something like “This is the pulley, ok? You no touch it! No-no! We make it! This helmet, no take it (off)!” and then he took out a piece of bent wood and said “this is the break, you put it on the wire and if I say BREAK, you break. If you don’t break, you crash. If you break too much, you stay in the middle, a problem!”. Ok, now I felt very safe. Then, the guy placed his pulley on the wire and flew like a graceless angel on the other side. Or maybe like a graceless gibbon. A gibbon wearing an helmet, a pulley and without grace.
As soon as the guy arrived on the other side, the other guide turned to us and said “How’s first?”
“I’m going first”
Everybody looked at me. I said those words. I stepped forward, the guy locked me at the wire, I hanged in my gear, like I was sitting and then I took the flight. It started slow and in a few seconds I reached the top speed. It was simply amazing. I was flying. Flying like a gibbon between the trees. Soon I arrived on the other side where the guide locked me first to a safety rope and then took off my pulley from the wire. It had been such an amazing experience. The adrenaline was sky high and I felt like I was gliding from a cloud to the next.
One of my favorite places was when we landed on the top platform of a very high tree. From the platform we had to take a spiral stairway to descend to the following stairway. There wasn’t a chance to avoid vertigo watching anywhere but down. You had to look at your feet and the deep jump that was below. The going down that stairway, the creaking wooden planks under the feet, the spinning head, the feeling of vertigo and a priceless panorama over the rain forest canopy. It was such a deep emotional blend that made those seconds worth the very trip. In the meanwhile, my camera was on and it recorded all the spiral staircase. When I watched it back home I thought that I’ve to be definitely nuts. But all the trip was worth to be done.
We kept on flying from a platform to the next. In some case, we had to be taken to the lower platforms using a rope. The bad was that, thinking to be fun, the guides liked to make people to have 2 or 3 seconds of free fall, to slower just later, while near the next platform. That was one of the moments where people liked to scream. But these weren’t the screams that I heard before. In fact, soon we reached a group that was before us. In the groups there was the bizarre combination of a guide totally nuts which liked to make jokes, or like Thai say “Ting Tong” among two black ladies from UK which were true screamers. Of course, in a few minutes I’ve got more friend with the crazy black ladies than with the people from my group.
It was late morning when we reached it. The biggest divide. About 310 meters wide gap over a small valley where the canopy was there far below us. The jump looked very long and scary. The guide “The first… You come!”, it was me. It’s always me. I smiled, he locked me and said “You ready?”, “Yep”, I answered to the whistling wind that was singing a perilous song into my hears. The guy pushed me and I was speeding into the open air. Flying away. Free, far from the ground. Airborne. I passed fast near the first trees and then I was free, it was long I was looking for this feeling.
Too soon I had to meet the other platform. The other friends were so far from me, on the other side of the gap. I did it, I made the longest “Flight of the Gibbon” and liked it.
When arrived the other guys we were taken to few other platforms and then it was trekking time. The trekking was the time that we were taken to relax a bit. We were given a small snack that I put into a side pocket of my shorts and a bottle of cold water.
Luckily the break lasted short and then we were asked to keep up with the guides for some more trekking that took us through a set of suspended bridges over the lush of the forest. Even if walking on those bridges shown to be a very tiring experience, more than walking on regular soil, it was still very nice to be done. While walking I was near one of the guides and I heard him talking to the Asian couple, that revealed that they were coming from Hong Kong. Surely the boy was the nephew of the Old Chinese Man, and that’s way I didn’t like him. The girl was just a deaf Chinese-looking wax doll. She didn’t speak, barely emitted sounds and moved in slow motion. I wonder if she even breathed of was moving thanks to some Chinese copy of a Japanese servo mechanical system. Anyway, I heard the guide singing Chinese songs and saying some Chinese words. Then he confessed that in Thailand are popular some channels from Hong Kong, that’s why he knew so much about Hong Kong. He learnt it all from TV. He looked like being a real TV addicted or a very good student, I guess the first option.
After the short trekking we arrived to the next set of platforms. This second set lasted shorter than the first one and we never had to use the break, that means, they were quite low speed rides. The second set lasted short and then we were again in the top of the tallest tree. From there, we had no more wires. We had descent with the rope and it was a fall of more than 30 meters. As the previous ones, it started with a long free fall followed from a fast slowing down and a landing on a large mattress.
The tour was over but I felt enriched of such deep good emotions that were hard to be forgotten. I definitely loved this trip.
The guides took us some pictures and then took us, first to two pick-ups, and then to the village where we were given a very tasty dinner. It was a range of both vegetarian and meat-based Thai foods. I loved them all.
When we were called back to our van, it felt like too early. It was time to get our stuff back. We were also given the official “Forest Flight” T-Shirt and then we were invited to go to our van where we took back our seats. It was time to go back to the city.
We came back in the city at dusk. I woke up from my sleep that we were already in the outskirts of the city. Then it appeared the moat, and it marked that we were already in the centre. The minivan in this way started its loop to take all the boys back at their hotels. I didn't want to waste more time in that minivan. So, when it stopped to let four of the boys down, I went down too. I said “Bye” to the drivers and the guys too, and I took a random direction.
The sense of being lost vanished in a few minutes when I started to recognize the landmarks and in less that I could think, it appeared the Tha Pae Gate. I went near to it, and without even thinking twice, I entered the Black Canyon Coffee shop. I went along the wall and I sat at a table. Miss Pui came to me and asked what I wished. I told her a tall Black Coffee. She asked if I wanted some milk inside, and I told her that I needed some bitter coffee to wake up for good. Then, while waiting for my coffee, I turned the smartphone on and I logged into the WiFi.
I checked the emails, but nobody wrote a note. Then I checked my facebook profile and it was filled with comments to my most recent posts. Among them, my friend Stefano told me that he was still stuck in Phuket. Good for him. I told him to be prepared because the next night, probably will start the Loy Krathong. Yes, probably.
How was possible that nobody knew the exact days of the festival? I asked to loads of people the days of the Loy Krathong and anybody was telling me different days. I couldn't believe at it. By good luck, I knew that the only certain day of Loy Krathong would be my last day, for this holiday, in Chiang Mai. That was sure. This was the word of the Thai tourism association, or whatever is its name.
I ended my Black Coffee that I felt refreshed. The feeling of being just awaken was just a strange weak memory. Now I could run across all the city and back. So, I went off the shop and I crossed the gate. Now the square was all lit with lanterns of any shape, color and size. Most of them were arranged in stages and had typical shape, but there were even shaped like huge white elephants and Singha Lions, and if I say Singha, I mean exactly the Lion of the Singha Beer, in the exact same pose in which it's drawn on the beer bottles. Then there was also a stage for the Airasia with a huge lantern shaped like an Airasia airplane. I loved this place. It felt like it was telling us that a huge party was upcoming. And I was looking forward for it.
Chiang Mai – The evening in the city
I went back at the hotel, showered and I went again out of the hotel. A relaxing night was awaiting for me. First checkpoint was in the Night Market. Here I had a short stroll around and then I went into the Anusan Street market, where there is the square with all the restaurants that I like.
I browsed the restaurants and in the end I chosen the one where I had been few years before. I remember that food was good, but the personnel had been quite annoying. Anyway, I was attracted from their fish, that was looking quite fresh, and I headed there. This time I was welcomed by a round-faced-cherry-lipstick-wearing-big-smile-showing girl. She took me to a table on a side, where I could have a good sight of the square, and she took me the menu.
I checked it out, and I made my choice. This time it would be a fried snapper covered in a tomato and ginger sauce, with it I ordered some jasmine steamed rice and a small Singha Beer.
Around me were some couples. On my left hand there was a young couple made by Miss. Fit Girl and Mr. Muscle Mountain, then an Italian couple that were wondering what was written in the menù making the typical faces that only Italians make when are browsing a menu in different languages. Behind of me was a table with two girls and a boy, which in the end of the evening will be left alone by the girls. In front of me there was a huge table of Asians, that looked like Thai. On my right, the busy market.
My beer arrived as first and I started sipping it. I kept on looking at the market and at the group of Ladyboys that were promoting their show. One, very tall, was dressed in white with a huge collar of feathers, then there was another with half face as a boy and the other half with a girl make up. Again, there were some boys and another ladyboy dressed as a drag queen.
“Now there is the show!” a voice said from behind of me
It was Cherry Lipstick that had taken the grilled fish to me. She smiled at me when I turned to her.
“They make show!” she said
“Yes, I know” I replied
“You know?”
“It's written on that big board, you see?” pointing my finger out of the window.
I turned and I've seen that I was pointing at a girl, so I corrected my aim at the huge board with written “Ladyboy cabaret! Every night! At 9.30 p.m.! Special offer beer!”
Cherry Lipstick looked at me, like I just spoke something weird, and she said, closing her eye “Velly Good!” with a matter-of-fact voice and made the “thumb up” before leaving my table smiling.
I started my food. The fried fish was really well done. Seeing that the fish was quite big, I was afraid that it could be a little row inside, but then it was really nicely cooked. The sauce was simply fantastic. It was a thick tomato sauce seasoned with a little of ginger. The ginger taste wasn't overwhelming, but it gave a good aroma at the sauce. The taste was completed with the master touch of a little of parsley. I've to admit that it was perfect. The fish wasn't too big, the sauce was enough to cover the fish, the rice had a clear taste and the beer was cold. All was perfect.
While eating I turned to watch at the market and I've seen that the Ladyboys already left. How was it possible? Was it already time to start the show? In that moment I understood that I did something that I didn't do for a long time. I wasn't looking at the wristwatch for almost all the day! That's weird for me. Chiang Mai has this power on me. She leads me to the inner peace.
I checked at my watch and it said 21.45. It was already so late? I felt like I just arrived from the “Jungle Flight”.
I'm late also in Chiang Mai.
Tonight I'll not have the chance to go and see the Ladyboy Caberet, but I decided to go to see it one of the next evenings.
When I finished my fish I was taken some free fruit and then I left the place. From the hangar-looking club was already coming some music. I recognized “Diva” by Dana International (I remember that this song had been a hit on Eurovision).
I browsed the restaurants and in the end I chosen the one where I had been few years before. I remember that food was good, but the personnel had been quite annoying. Anyway, I was attracted from their fish, that was looking quite fresh, and I headed there. This time I was welcomed by a round-faced-cherry-lipstick-wearing-big-smile-showing girl. She took me to a table on a side, where I could have a good sight of the square, and she took me the menu.
I checked it out, and I made my choice. This time it would be a fried snapper covered in a tomato and ginger sauce, with it I ordered some jasmine steamed rice and a small Singha Beer.
Around me were some couples. On my left hand there was a young couple made by Miss. Fit Girl and Mr. Muscle Mountain, then an Italian couple that were wondering what was written in the menù making the typical faces that only Italians make when are browsing a menu in different languages. Behind of me was a table with two girls and a boy, which in the end of the evening will be left alone by the girls. In front of me there was a huge table of Asians, that looked like Thai. On my right, the busy market.
My beer arrived as first and I started sipping it. I kept on looking at the market and at the group of Ladyboys that were promoting their show. One, very tall, was dressed in white with a huge collar of feathers, then there was another with half face as a boy and the other half with a girl make up. Again, there were some boys and another ladyboy dressed as a drag queen.
“Now there is the show!” a voice said from behind of me
It was Cherry Lipstick that had taken the grilled fish to me. She smiled at me when I turned to her.
“They make show!” she said
“Yes, I know” I replied
“You know?”
“It's written on that big board, you see?” pointing my finger out of the window.
I turned and I've seen that I was pointing at a girl, so I corrected my aim at the huge board with written “Ladyboy cabaret! Every night! At 9.30 p.m.! Special offer beer!”
Cherry Lipstick looked at me, like I just spoke something weird, and she said, closing her eye “Velly Good!” with a matter-of-fact voice and made the “thumb up” before leaving my table smiling.
I started my food. The fried fish was really well done. Seeing that the fish was quite big, I was afraid that it could be a little row inside, but then it was really nicely cooked. The sauce was simply fantastic. It was a thick tomato sauce seasoned with a little of ginger. The ginger taste wasn't overwhelming, but it gave a good aroma at the sauce. The taste was completed with the master touch of a little of parsley. I've to admit that it was perfect. The fish wasn't too big, the sauce was enough to cover the fish, the rice had a clear taste and the beer was cold. All was perfect.
While eating I turned to watch at the market and I've seen that the Ladyboys already left. How was it possible? Was it already time to start the show? In that moment I understood that I did something that I didn't do for a long time. I wasn't looking at the wristwatch for almost all the day! That's weird for me. Chiang Mai has this power on me. She leads me to the inner peace.
I checked at my watch and it said 21.45. It was already so late? I felt like I just arrived from the “Jungle Flight”.
I'm late also in Chiang Mai.
Tonight I'll not have the chance to go and see the Ladyboy Caberet, but I decided to go to see it one of the next evenings.
When I finished my fish I was taken some free fruit and then I left the place. From the hangar-looking club was already coming some music. I recognized “Diva” by Dana International (I remember that this song had been a hit on Eurovision).
Dana Iternational - Diva
Yesh isha Gdola meha'haim Yesh hoshim sheyesh rak la Yesh ksamim Veyesh yamim kashim Ubama she'he kula shela Lamalhachim Diva he imperia Al habama Diva he hysteria Vehe kula Shir a'ava |
She is all you'll ever dream to find On her stage she sings her story Pain and hurt will steal her heart alight Like a queen in all her glory And when she cries Diva is an angel When she laughs she's a devil She is all beauty and love |
I left the Anusan Market and I headed up to Loi Khor road to my well known pub, where I ended my night, with the promise to come back early at the hotel as the next day I'd start my three days long cooking school.
I arrived at the hotel that I still felt sober. Pointed my alarm clock and I went to sleep. This day all had been perfect. I was looking forward for the next one.
Good night my dear Chiang Mai, you're the real Diva.
I arrived at the hotel that I still felt sober. Pointed my alarm clock and I went to sleep. This day all had been perfect. I was looking forward for the next one.
Good night my dear Chiang Mai, you're the real Diva.