Creamy coconut broth, savory egg noodles, a spicy kick in
the back of the pallet. Crunchy noodles and green onion on top. A squeeze of
lime. This, in the universal language of food, meant “Welcome to Chiang Mai.”
It was my first bowl of Khao Soi, the signature dish of northern Thailand.
It was the first day of my trip to Thailand and Laos, my
first group travel experience that would have me join 13 strangers for nine
days through Flashpack, which organizes similar trips all over the world.
Chiang Mai was ground zero. My eyes were barely open. I’d left home two days earlier
and traveled through Dulles, Istanbul, and Bangkok. Ahead of me was a nine-day
trip through the mountains of Thailand across the border into Laos and then
down the Mekong for two days on a river boat.
Andrea, Shirin, Tatiana Ivy, and Eddie (my roommate for the
trip) had lunch at a popular kitchen where locals and tourists alike were
handed laminated paper numbers to take their place in line. We had many hours
to kill before I could plausibly call it a night so we began to wander around.
The city felt busy without being overwhelming. And it felt
safe. The quieter, cooler and more mountainous counterpart to Bangkok was
founded as a cluster of Buddhist temples that served as the 13th century
capital of the Lanna Empire. Successive kings built walls and channels that in
varying degrees still stand today as landmarks that identify the edges of the
old city.
The steady stream of Italian tourists that might have
annoyed me when I traveled in college seemed more like an affirmation that I’d
chosen the right place. Thailand is reasonably priced for a vacation and
screamingly cheap in comparison to DC.
The Chiang Mai night market offered exactly the mix of
curiosity and trepidation that I expected. Fresh vegetables, exotic fruit,
teeming bowls of curry, containers of stir-fried glass noodles, piles of fresh
sausage and fried prawns beckoned my eyes and nose.
At the same time, stories
of food poisoning and stomach cramps hovered in the background and made me want
to play it safe.
I split the difference, politely demurring on anything that
looked unwashed but agreeing to join Eddie in snacking on some fried grasshoppers on the grounds
that the hot oil would kill the germs. Fried crispy stuff is always pretty
satisfying anyway (this was true, though the legs do get stuck in the teeth.)
We had dinner at a nearby restaurant and I made it back to the hotel, 52 hours
after I’d woken up in my apartment in DC. I was glad to be in bed. I was glad
to be in Thailand.
Now that the trip’s over, I’ve sat down to write about this phenomenal
experience. This is not meant to be a detailed chronological description of the
itinerary and trip highlights - I find video reels are better for this sort of
thing. This is more a chance to think through things that stood out to me. I
find this helps me share my experiences with others. I enjoy writing about
travel as a way of keeping it present. I’ll forget things if I try to do
everything verbally. I know some friends and family will read every word of it,
others likely won’t have time. I’m fine with both. For the occasion, I’m
dusting off my long defunct blog that I haven’t used in eight years.
Part 2 - The group travel experience - Thailand and Laos
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