Blast from the past: Some picture of Buenos Aires / I can't really think of anything witty

My blogging app had saved Un unpublished post from FIVE YEARS AGO, when Andy Frolich, CJ Capuzzi and I spent a month in Buenos Aires. I felt like posting it. The pictures are kind of artsy, no?

Day 3: We Arrai in Chiang Mai

Spoiler alert: We escaped Bangkok. That travel agent was not a fraud. We left Lamphu Tree and the feces canal early Tuesday morning and flew north to Chiang Mai, "The Jewel of the North" (a name I just made up). 

A quick aside: the airports have weird food here. There are mainstays, like McDonald's and Starbucks, but with a Thai twist. Here are some examples

Dried durian chips

Seaweed Pringles!

McPorridge from McDonald's!

Dried fish!

Enough of that. Did you come here for airport blogging? No! On to Chiang Mai. 

Chiang Mai is legit great. The air is cleaner, the streets are less crowded, and the canals are less fecal. 

We are staying in the Old City, which warrants a comment, because it is cool. The old city is a square area surrounded by a moat and a wall (the wall has since fallen into disrepair, but it's still there). 

The wall. 

The Moat. 

 

This moat-and-wall setup used to keep out invading Laotians, Khymers, Andals, and White Walkers; now it is just pretty, as everyone knows White Walkers are not real...

Our hotel here is called 3sis, which is kind of a spicy name. It's much nicer than Lamphu Tree, and the employees actually speak English! 

We had a great lunch in the Old City at a place called Huen Phen. 

Then we booked some adventures (we are on the way to one right now but I'll keep you in suspense as to which [it involves elephants]). 

We then napped. And in the evening we had a great cooking class! It was led by this cool chick named Miw. The tour started with a trip to a less slummy market, which still had some choice selections. 

That's Miw

Pink eggs

A pig head. 

A crab. 

Then Miw took us to her home and taught us how to make eight different things. 

I even made an spring roll. 

It was a lovely time. Thanks Miw!

Some of the cookers were from Montreal, but they didn't know my Canadian sister, Alyssa. 

This post wasn't that funny, I guess. But it was more of a wholesome day. No bloody johns or slums or tuktuk abductions. Maybe the next post will be funnier. Hasta la vista, baby! 

Day 2: Logistical Hurdles, Wats and Prostitutes

I feel like Sarah Koenig, seeding hints of what's to come in past blog posts. Previously, on GartThai, "we encountered some logistical challenges." 

Said challenges: the plan was to on Tuesday do a (prepaid, non refundable) boat and bike tour to the former capital of Thailand, Ayutthaya, followed by an overnight train to Chiang Mai in the north. 

Stock photo because we aren't making it to Ayutthaya. We learned on Monday morning after Slumdog Walkionaire that the train was SOLD OUT, despite what Google had told me ahead of time. This led to a major quandary: we had no way to get to Chiang Mai, and we're already kind of over Bangkok. 

After being legit kidnapped by a tuktuk driver, we wound up in a semi-sketchy travel agency (everything is semi-sketchy in Bangkok), and met with a fellow who advised us that we could book a flight--through him. We did--and paid in cash, received a one page fax, and departed. Wise Erica then commented that the whole transaction could have been a scam. 

Hmmmmm. 

Anyway. We had Wats (temples) go visit so we put that to the back of our minds. 

Oh wait! First we saw a pair of giant water monitors swimming in the feces canal!

That was cool. They were like 5 feet long. 

Anyway, the first Wat we went to was called Wat Arun or the Temple of Dawn. That's the one Erica is pointing to above. It was super cool and we climbed to the top of it. 

That's me and a fat golden Buddha, in case you couldn't tell. 

Next, we took a longtail boat across the river, and headed to the Grand Palace, where the King used to live. The Thais loooove their King, and there are pictures of him everywhere. 

You can be arrested for badmouthing him. Does that extend to online posts? Or blogs? Should I test it?

I guess not. 

The Grand Palace was cool but a total zoo 

Maybe the best part of it was that I had to rent pants to show respect!

Next, we walked down the backpacking Mecca of Khao San road and had a Thai massage. 

Afterwards, we had a beer and saw a really drunk drug addict and a really old Thai prostitute doing their eternal dance of groping and bleeding all over the floor from random gashes. The prostie almost picked a fight with Erica, but we begged off. 

We then returned home and promptly fell asleep, and slept through our dinner reservations. I had to be up for an 11pm work call, which I rocked, and then we had dinner at the Rolling bar up the street. 

Lastly, here is a crazy sign. I feel like CJ Capuzzi will appreciate it. 

Did Dave and Erica ever get out of Bangkok? Tune in next blog post. Boop boop boop boop [serial music]. 

Meat Market

A lot of you have been asking for some video evidence of those infamous slum meat markets. Ask and ye shall receive. 

http://youtu.be/vJ309ax-4XM

Slumdog Walkionaire

Good title. Erica felt less lagged this morning, so after a wholesome breakfast at our hotel, we went for a walk around the block. 

And what a walk it was! I semi knew this from a pretrip Google Street view, but our hotel --while centrally located and pretty nice --is legit in the slums. Fortunately, slums are cool. (like bowties #doctorwhoreference #onlyhumphreybrogartgotthat). 

For example, here is one of dozens of abandoned cars parked along the street. 

And here is a street market, where the locals peddle their wares. (I feel like the only thing you can in good faith peddle is wares). 

Said wares include chicken heads. 

There were some random shrines. 

And even a chess board, not including chess pieces. 

And a caged bird who did not know how to sing (I do not know why). 

Eventually, we looped back to our block and walked along the feces canal, where we met some chickens and even a caged bunny. 

Some of you may be shocked to hear this but Erica was really into the slums. Not in a poverty tourism kind of way, more just curious about the lifestyle, so we continued further to some new slums! This time, we came upon an open air butcher market, which smelled great. 

Fortunately, our patron saint, the Mouse of Mickey, watched over us and kept us safe. 

Later, we encountered some logistical challenges.