"You really DO need a stick": The monkey attack

Today was our first free day, only one of two during our time in Mae Sai. We did a little bit of everything so this is going to be a long one... Our Thai project leader Ava was good enough to completely arrange the day for us and take us on a little tour of the area. I think she sensed how uncomfortable we felt not being able to communicate in any way here, not even read signs. So she got us a van for the day and took us to a few spots the locals recommended. It ended up quite the eventful day.

We left bright and early at 8am for a famous local temple. Most Thai temples are amazingly ornate and colorful, topped off with gold leaf everywhere. This temple was different, it is by a contemporary artist and it was all white and mirrored. It was stunning. Then we found this equally ornate all gold building, and in the process of taking pictures of it we realize it's the bathroom.... prettiest toilet ever.

We spent an hour or so there sneaking pictures in the "no photos" temple and taking jumping group shots out front. Finally there were these Christmas tree looking structures made of metal leafs. I asked about it and apparently you can buy a little ornament and write your name on it and hang it up, ensuring you will go to heaven. We bought a leaf for the group and wrote everyones' names on it, then Ava wrote them all in Thai on the other side just in case Thai heaven can't read English. And since they were only 30 Baht (less than $1. I love this place) I bought one for myself as a gift and asked Ava to write on it for me--the rest of the group thought this was a brilliant idea and proceeded to follow suit. She ended up with a line of us waiting for her to write in Thai for us. I was rather proud of creative self.

Following the temple we went to a local mall for easy Thai lunch. It turned into finding a food court that served phad thai and topping it off with Dairy Queen. First Thai phad thai was ok, a little salty. But phad thai is not even really Thai, which is no surprise because at the rate things are going I probably wouldn't like it if it was authentic Thai. Afterwards we stopped by a local open air market where the poorer locals shop. It was pretty gross, raw meat sitting out in the open and flies everywhere. It reminded me a lot of a market in Mozambique, same sounds and smells.

First phad thai (only 11am and already so sweaty)

After the markets we drove down the road a ways to yet another temple, a major contrast to the earlier one. This one was done by another local artist and was a black temple to all things dark. There were longhorn skulls and bones everywhere, and he had made sort of a park of black temples and dark art installations. To our surprise as soon as you walk in the entrance to the main temple there is a long table, and stretched across it is a giant boa constrictor just chilling. He apparently doesn't do much all day because as far as I could tell he was pretty fat.

Ok, here's where it gets good! From the temple we went to something Ava referred to as a "monkey cave," basically a place for tourists to go ruin the local monkey population. She said there would be crocodiles and monkeys to see there. Then she explained that we would get sticks to beat the monkeys away if they got too aggressive, and food to give them. Sounded really contrary to me. This stuff would never fly in the states.

When we got there is was basically a parking lot at the base of a jungle covered mountain. There were a few monkeys sitting on buildings and in a tree while people gawked and photographed them from below, waving peanuts at them. I meandered over to the crocodile area which ended up being a fenced pen with a dirty wading pool in the middle. 3 or 4 anemic looking crocodiles were sitting motionless around it; it was pretty pathetic. Then we discovered stairs going up the mountain and decided to climb them to the supposed cave we'd been told about. I suggested we get the sticks that we were promised before climbing them since we could see monkeys swinging in the trees around the stairs. But half the group hiked on while my half fell a little bit behind, nervous about potentially aggressive monkeys. This is when a family of monkeys got in between us and separated us on the stairs. We started to get a little nervous because 3 adolescent monkeys were being rambunctious in the trees next to our group and the family blocked us up ahead. The group on the other side of the divide then attracted a few curious ones that decided to grab Molly. Harry half-heartedly tried to shoe them away with a broken vine but they were difficult to intimidate.

At this point myself and a few others decided it might be time to leave, and right as we are turning to trek down a huge  chaos erupted behind us. Monkeys were screaming, we were screaming, and my group is literally stumbling as fast as possible down the stairs. I just keep thinking "rabies, run, rabies, run!" We thought they were chasing us so none of us turned back to see, just ran, but we heard the other group yelling too. Then when far enough away we finally look back to see them hustling down the stairs too. Apparently some outsider monkeys had come into their space on the stairs and the monkey family was not having it and attacked them. And here we were thinking they were coming for us. We were terrified. Got some great photos and video of us running down the mountain screaming though.

After our ordeal we opted to go get Thai massages. One hour massage for 200Bt, or about $6. Everything here is cheap, everything. You can get full meals for under a dollar, services for 3 or 5 dollars, etc. Anyway, we didn't know what to expect or do for our Thai massages, turns out they give you a cotton shirt and (huge) cotton drawstring pants and the masseuse climbs on the table with you and does her work. It wasn't rhythmic or continuous like American massages, it was more applied pressure at every point of your body. It was like this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVpOeRrZBFo). I burst out laughing when every one of my toes cracked as she massaged them.

To wrap up we all went from massages to a place for Thai bbq for dinner. It was just like Korean bbq where you pick out all sorts of raw meats and grill them. However this one was a buffet so I tried a little bit of everything. I don't think I'd do it again, too much work, but it was worth trying. While we were grilling a stray dog found his way to our table and camped out next to me hoping for scraps. I knew if I fed him he'd never leave so I resisted, but I really wanted to. To keep things interesting Ava suggested we have a little competition at the end of dinner to see who could make the best dish. Iron chef Thailand if you will. The grilled pineapple won. Right as this was happening the rains came, and the sound of the downpour on the corrugated tin roof was deafening.

It was quite the day, we were exhausted by the end. And the jetlag didn't help, we were in bed by 9 and will probably be awake by 6 again. Tomorrow we start at the school, I didn't sign up to teach the first day so I'll be working on the wall all day. I'm not doing well with this heat/humidity, I have never been so sweaty and disgusting in my life. Words really cannot describe the feeling. I can only imagine how I'll feel after working outside tomorrow.