There we are in Bangkok, Thailand for our first debrief and all the while
knowing that we are going to Chiang Mai in just a few days. We are being
told by everyone who has ever been to Chiang Mai how wonderful it is and
how easy it is to have the comforts of home…blah blah blah. You get the
idea, it is being built up to be this awesome modern city but still with
the Thailand feel to it. After a 12 1/2 hour bus ride we find out just how
true none of those expectations they built up are.
So this 12 1/2 hour bus ride is on an air conditioned, double decker bus
that gave out blankets and served a meal. Pretty awesome bus ride by any
standards. At the end of this bus ride there is a little Isuzu pickup and
an older Thai man waiting to take our packs to the orphanage. Also there
was Ning, our contact and translator for the month. By the way, we should
send our children to other countries to learn how to speak English because
Ning speaks the most beautiful and accurate English out of anyone I have
ever heard. 2 points for Thailand. Anyways, she informs us there is a van
coming for us since we filled the truck with our packs. We still don't know
exactly where we are or where we will be staying. Ning tells us we will
stay at the orphanage which actually sounded kind of fun. Remember, we all
think we are somewhere in or near Chiang Mai. We climb in to this van and
take off from the highway out onto these dirt roads past all the rice
patties for about 30 minutes. Not looking good for those thinking the city
is close by, aka all of us. We eventually turn into the orphanage and get
situated with our packs thinking we need to go inside and fine our rooms.
How wrong we were!? We are walked out past the end of the orphanage and
shown these four Bamboo Bungalows! Three 2 person bungalows and one 8
person bungalow. I'm not sure if awesome is accurate enough but it is
totally cool that I get to share a bamboo bungalow with my brother Phillip.
There was about a 10 second grieving period when we were told that the
actual city of Chiang Mai is about 2 1/2 hours away. Unlike in the united
states, saying you live in Chaing Mai can actually mean living 2 1/2 hours
from Chiang Mai. But here is the kicker, it is actually still considered
Chiang Mai. It is not one of those, "well that's the closest city so that's
what we will tell the foreigners who only know where the big city is."
Crazy huh?!
Thailand continues to surprise me every day!
As He leads me,
Jason
