Thailand/China Trip

Here is a brief report of my adventures in Thailand with my friend Mandi Powell.

We started with a great day in Hong Kong (and will have five more days coming, with Mandi's friend Brandi). Then flew to Bangkok. Unfortunately the trip started on a bad note as Mandi's money got stolen from the taxi ride from the airport. In the 2 Bangkok days we were able to see a lot of temples, while dealing with the stolen money problem.

In Thailand we did 3 different days of rafting: whitewater rafting, bamboo rafting and bumper boat rafting.

After Bangkok, we headed to Chiang Mai. Great place. First day we did a great Class IV River called the Mae Taeng. 10 kilometers, we got to R-2 along a commercial trip. About 4 or 5 nice Class III drops. The highlight was at the biggest rapid, Dragon.  We scouted the rapid before the commercial raft got there.  They ran the rapid first, going over a real nice vertical (about 7 feet).  After the vertical the desired run is to immediately get left, but this was much harder than it looked.  Their raft ended up on the right side of the river, nit too pretty as they jammed it between a couple of rocks, but got through finally.  We went over the drop...sweet drop!, then also tried to get left but couldn't.  But we made a great save by making a hot move to the left after the next drop, to get back on track and miss the rock jam.  We had a pretty smooth day on the Mae Taeng.  The second day in Chiang Mai we went to a national flower festival for the King (King Rama dude the ninth). Real impressive World's Fair style/quality exposition. The next day was a combo of visiting tribal villages, a hike, a waterfall, elephant riding and bamboo rafting.

The elephant riding was OK, but we didn't like how they treated the elephants. The bamboo rafting was cool, did a bunch of Class I stuff, the guide is in the front with a pole and one of the guests is given a pole in the back while other people sit in the middle. Mandi and I each got to pole a boat from the back. They then stopped to walk the people around a Class II, but I whined and they let me (and Mandi) ride through. No PFD.

Next we headed to Phuket, an island, the main beach destination in Thailand.

The first day here we did bumper boat rafting.

Bumper boat rafting: The activity where outfitters own their own pond next to a small creek. At precisely 11 a.m. all outfitters together let water out of there ponds to make enough water in the river to whitewater raft (Class III). There is only enough water in these ponds to last about 15-20 minutes creating a very short bubble. Being near the tourism beach destination, there are many rafts (about 40) that all leave together when the water is released, Each raft has a guide in the front and a guide in the back, both primarily to push off other rafts with their paddles, but sometimes to get the rafts off of rocks or logs they pin on (pushed into by other rafts). 4 guests are in the middle compartment paddling if they want. There is a rope lengthwise down the middle of the raft, but none on the sides. All rafts try and stay on the bubble for 3 miles (about 45 minutes) to the take out.

Mandi and I R-2ed, it was hilarious trying to maneuver out of the way of the entourage of rafts. The trip leader of the company I got the raft from was not too happy that we got to paddle our own raft, so he kept yelling at us to stay in front of him, then he would proceed to try to push us off course, which added to the challenge. After a while we ended up eddying out and stayed behind him. Pretty funny to see rafts end to end, side to side through the fast continuous whitewater.

The last day was very relaxing on the beach and then we flew to Hong Kong to begin our 5 day China adventure.

The first full day back in Hong Kong we headed to Guangzhou, China.  Mandi was real sick with a bad stomach virus, but was a trooper and made it to mainland China.  Four us, Mandi, Brandi, Ellen, Brandi's roommate and myself, made the venture by train across the border.  We got to Guangzhou and Mandi. pretty much passed out for the evening.  Ellen, Brandi and I proceeded to Northern (a restaurant), met some of there friends and had what I thought was my best meal of the trip.  Real Chinese, many plates, my favorites being an eggplant dish and a tofu and rice dish.  Heavy on the garlic.  That evening, Brandi, being the gracious host asked me what I wanted out of the Guangzhou trip and my answer was "culture".  We took off by motor taxi (a taxi riding on the back of a motorcycle).  I must say that I am not a big motorcycle fan and this city driving (Guangzhou is China's 4th biggest city) was probably way more dangerous than normal motorcycle riding, but it was wicked fun!  We went to a boat parade, with boats lit up in the evening, played games with vendors along the river, Brandi winning prizes while I struck out.  We continued by motor taxi to a number of squares, where there we varieties of dancing and at one square guys ere even boxing.  The people were great and loved it when Brandi and I joined in on some of the dances.  We went visited a market where they were selling live snakes and turtles.  That cultural evening was one of the highlights of my trip, thanks Brandi!

The next day, Mandi rebounded and the girls (including some local friends went shopping at several markets.  Being the only guy, I lasted to lunch, but then decided to walk back to our section of town (a long ways).  Great walk with more culture.  It poured rain at one point so I took shelter in a market which then flooded, so I helped vendors move their goods off the floor.  We headed back to Hong Kong late that night.

Monday, everyone was wore out (except me of course), and Brandi was now sick, so I took off for Macau on my own.  It was an hour on a high speed turbo ferry.  Another border crossing, then I spent the day, walking and visiting tourist attractions, temples and churches.  I ended the day with a great Portuguese meal at a well known restaurant on Hac Sa Beach, called Fernando's.

The last two days in Hong Kong Mandi and I hit a few major attractions including a cable car ride to the Giant Buddha; a walk along Kowloon's Avenue of Stars and to its clock tower and a tram ride up to the Peak above Hong Kong.  The last night Brandi met us in the city for drinks and we took the ferry back to Kowloon to watch and amazing light show put on by the city's skyscrapers.

It was a great trip.  I loved Hong Kong for its user friendliness, safeness and cleanliness (for a big city).  Guangzhou was great to see the Chinese culture and in Thailand I got the adventures I was looking for.  Thanks to Mandi for trying to keep up with me and thanks to our great hosts Brandi and Ellen.