Trifter

Thailand is the most exotic place you will ever visit. I’ve been twice – it was worth a repeat. It is a kingdom, literally, (they have a king) in Southeast Asia. The people are most probably the warmest, nicest people on earth. Bad Thai food is still some of the best food around, but good Thai has no equal.

Bangkok takes exoticism to the extreme. This is a town open to all humanity: nightclubs, restaurants, tourists’ spots, great suits made on the cheap, again the fantastic food and everything else. The entire time you are there, you realize there is no other city on earth like it. There is never a moment there that you forget where you are.

But, it isn’t all good. The city/nation has a real issue with the exploitation of its children. I will not make an obtuse statement and claim the government there isn’t trying to do anything to rectify the situation – but, I never got the impression they were (I’m sure I could be wrong – and I truly hope that I am.)

We left Bangkok and headed up to Chiang Mai. This is a small town, really, but what fun. We agreed to do a trek through the jungle up near the boarder of Burma (now called Myanmar.)  It was a wild trip; sleeping in the woods in two really cool huts.  Out of no where, in the middle of the night, came an old man – as if he were floating – to approach the huts. The tour guide knew him – and, after a few seconds – I knew his game. This guy was selling drugs. I was with a group of Europeans, Israelis, Japanese and maybe one person from South America (I think.)  Well, we were divided into two huts….the “other” hut bought his goods (I think it was opium). Let me tell you – no good deed goes unpunished – because the next day, when they woke up, they realized they were out of more money than they could remember.

My hut wasn’t down with that. Drugs aren’t my bag.

As the new day moved on, it was time for the next leg of the journey – this time on elephants. My buddy Manfred, from Germany, was a bit more scared of those elephants than he wanted to admit. The elephants slipped a bit in the mud. I remember saying to Manfred – “dude, have you ever seen an elephant fall? That never happens.”  Well……..

These ladies are from England. Right before the British finished crumbling up their empire and handed Hong Kong back to China, these ladies, like many young Brits, were nannies in Hong Kong.  Remember what I said about elephants never falling? Ha!  Theirs’ did. That poor elephant slipped and fell over.  We all jumped off the other elephants as fast as we could – one, out of fear – two, to see if they were okay. They were, obviously, very shook up, but all ended well. I told them “years from now, we’ll all laugh at this.”

Ladies, if you are reading this Blog…..I hope you are smiling.