Making new friends

So much has happened since I last wrote.  Over my first three days in Chiang Mai, I walked around a lot, explored the temples and night bazaar, went to a Muay Thai (kickboxing) fight, and took a cooking class.  I ended up staying in Chiang Mai an extra two nights after that (for five nights total) before leaving on my trek.  I hadn't intended to stay so long, but the night before my trek was scheduled to begin, I started having a sore throat, and the next morning, my breakfast threatened to reverse my digestive system's standard mouth-to-stomach route, so I thought it wise to hold off until I was at least sure I wasn't going to get any worse.

After two days spent mostly in bed, drinking water and watching Mad Men on my laptop, I went on a three-day trek into the hills around Chiang Mai.  It was a fantastic experience, including 3-5 hours of hiking each day, bathing in waterfalls, riding elephants, floating on a bamboo raft, sleeping in bamboo huts, singing Eric Clapton songs (poorly) by campfire while accompanied on guitar by one of the guides (whose singing was just as bad as mine), and eating meat from a cow that had been walking around earlier that day.  My ten companions were two guides from the Karen hill tribe, a recently-engaged Polish couple, middle-aged British and German couples, and a pair of German girls about my age.  They were a great group to trek with, and for the first time on this trip, I felt like I really connected with other travelers.  I guess three days of forced contact is good for building bonds and getting past the standard "where are you from/where are you going/where have you been/how long do you have" questions everybody asks each other when they meet.

We returned from the trek to Chiang Mai on the second night of a huge three-day festival.  Janina and Carola, the German girls from the trek, invited me to join them in venturing to the waterfront to explore the festivities.  While I can't tell you the name of the festival or its meaning, I can report that I have never experienced anything remotely like it: thousands of lanterns flying into the sky, fireworks everywhere, and candles floating down the river in small boats made from banana leafs.  I'm trying to upload some photos and video, but the connection at this cafe is extremely slow, so I'll probably just go back and add them to this post when I get somewhere with a speedier connection.

The next morning, I took a bus to the Laos border and spent the night in Huay Xai.  The next morning, I crossed the border and boarded a slowboat to Luang Prabang.  The two days on the boat and the night in Pak Beng not only gave me the opportunity to see some spectacular scenery along the Mekong, it also provided the opportunity to learn some new card games and meet up with plenty of like-minded backpackers from the US, the UK, Germany, Canada, Israel, and elsewhere.  Upon arriving in Luang Prabang last night, 14 of us (mostly from the UK) decided to all check into a guest house together.  Trying to make decisions and coordinate plans with a group that size is certainly quite different from the "Do I feel like doing this? Yes!" process I'd been following up until now, but so far I'm really enjoying their company and plan to stick with them for at least another day or two.  This trip has been great at teaching me how get along by myself without any significant social interaction for days/weeks at a time, but it has also reminded me that--for me--being able to share my experiences with others, whether old friends or new acquaintances, is often the ingredient that makes those experiences truly special and memorable.