Thailand was an amazing place. My adventure was a short one. I finished work at 9pm on Wednesday and had to be back at work again the following Tuesday at 1pm, well at least I was suppossed to be there at 1pm as usual things in life don't always happen as we plan them. We left Gumi at 2:30am on the night bus to Inchon Airport in Seoul, its a 4 hour bus ride. I slept most of the way, my traveling companion Mike slept the entire time, for that matter he slept the entire time on all buses, trains and planes that we took on our trip, I'm happy he was able to sleep so easily, I wish I had the same ability. We arrived at Inchon Airport 3 hours before we were to board our plane so we had a lot of time to kill. We couldnt get there any later because the next bus didn't leave Gumi until 4:30 am and this would have been to late. So we ate some breakfast, exchanged our won(Korean dollars) for baht (Thai dollars), then we started the line to wait to check in, we waited a minute for the Thai Airlines staff to be ready then we checked in, their was some problem with our e-tickets so our extremely tall(6 feet) and gorgeous Korean attendant took us to another line and sorted out the issue, after about 15 minutes we were checked in, we then went through security and went to our gate.
We boarded a very large plane, it was probably a 747, but i never checked. Royal Thai Airlines has 1st class service, they even had 30+ options for in flight meals, I got the ovo-lacto vegetarian meal and mike got the fish meal.(he's Jewish and he wanted to make sure he wouldn't get any pork) The flight was only five hours and it wasn't very crowded so i grabbed a middle row of three seats and slept the entire way besides the first and last 30 minutes.
Once we arrived in bangkok, Thailand's capital city, we tried to catch a train or bus, but it was too confusing so we grabbed a cab and headed downtown to the train station were we bought train tickets on the night train to Chiang Mai, Thailand's main Northern City where all their adventure sporting and jungle touring is based out of. We had about 5 hours to kill before our train left Bangkok so we grabbed a Tuk-Tuk ( like a golf cart but faster) and we had the driver take us to a suit shop( The Brioni Shop). It would have been better if we new one in advance but we didn't so we took our chances, the tailor he took us too made very nice clothes but it was a little pricey but still way cheaper than US department or suit shops. Mike had 2 suits made, I just got 1 short sleeve button down shirt made, I cant get shirts in Korea very easily because my belly is just to big for them. After the fitting we paid and were off to get some authentic Thai street food, so after a quick stop for some supplies we headed to a street vendor that our driver recommended and we had some delicious pad-su-u (I'm sure this isn't how its spelled but it is how it sounds to me) its a thick noodle with a semi-sweet glazed sauce and vegetables, it was really good!!! Then we drove back to the train station wrote a few emails, mostly too our mothers saying we were alive and well.
Then we got on the night train around 7pm and headed off for our 12 hour train ride to Chiang Mai, we had 2nd class sleeper seats, which basically means we had fold down beds and a curtain for privacy, it was very comfortable and we met some cool people who work for a Thai non-profit company that runs a barge that goes up and down the river in Bangkok and they have children come aboard and they teach them about environmental education.
Once we arrived in Chiang Mai we checked into our hotel the Pagoda Inn (email: pagodainn2003@yahoo.com), its a really cool hotel, it was like $12 a night with air con( thats Asian for air conditioning), it was like a mix between a hostel and a hotel, it had very nice rooms with all the luxuries but it had that small traveler feeling, it had little areas to meet and talk and a small cafe, I would highly recommend it to anyone going to Chiang Mai.
We then got picked up by Jason who owns Siam River Adventures (Siam River Adventures Website) , he took us to the Siam River, pretty far upstream 1 1/2 from Chang Mai, we had to go on a dirt road to get to the village his base camp is based in, it was really cool, we found this company in the national geographic explorer magazine so it was very hardcore and expensive, but as Jason said he is the most expensive for a reason. It was totally worth the money, it was a great trip, we rode elephants on the way to the camp and then we rode the river back, it was a very good rafting trip 7 class 4 rapids and a lot of class 3's. Then we went out in Chang Mai. Then we went shopping in their night market and bought all sorts of cool things.
The next morning we went Mountain Biking down a mountain in the Suthep National Park, it was 1200m downhill, it rocked! We went with Chiang Mai Mountain Biking , we found this company in the same national geographic explorer article. After mountain biking we got massages at the most expensive and according to Jason the nest herbal massage shop in Chiang Mai. It was called Kradangnga, its located next to the Sian River Adventures Restaurant/Shop. Now when I say it was the most expensive it was but it still just cost us $15 for a 2-hour full body massage, I love south East Asia!!!!
Then on Saturday night we hopped on the night train again and headed back to Bangkok. When we arrived in Bangkok we stayed on Khaosan Road, the most famous street for backpackers to stay on in bangkok, its a street thats also a market and bar strip. it was one huge party 24/7. We stayed at the 3 son's Inn, it was cheap maybe $18 dollars for a room with 2 double beds and air con. We shopped and got 3 more massages in bangkok, in all we had 8 hours of massages for like $70 US. While in bangkok we also saw a few temples including the famous Wat Po where the worlds largest laying Buddha statue is located, its 50 feet tall and 350 feet long and bronze, it was ridiculously huge. We also saw a Muy Thai Kick boxing Fight actually we saw a whole card full of matches, 6 of them. We did a lot more shopping too.
Then we headed to the airport and flew back to Korea. We left Bangkok at Midnight on Monday and got back to Korea (45 minutes late) around 8am on Tuesday, we then hopped on a bus and got to Gumi (45 minutes late again) at 1:15pm, we had two 45 minute delays both our plane and bus were 45 minutes late so of course we were late to work and our bosses weren't happy but whatever.... It was a great trip
