I went for a few day detour outside of Chang Mai headed towards Mynamar. Walking out of Chang Mai it took way longer than expected to get to a place where I could start hitch hiking, and the city map I had wasn't exactly perfect. I would ask for directions walking out of town; when the locals actually found out what my intentions were (to hitch hike) they laughed and tried to convince me to get a bus. Eventually after an hour of walking and an ice cream cone, I took a tuk tuk out to the highway.
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| Back in my home (the back of a random truck) |
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| Out on the side of the highway in the hot sun! |
Being left by the driver on the highway I got picked up quite quickly, although it was only about a 20 km ride out of town by a Thai guy who owned some ATM machines in Chaing Mai and lived on a farm out town. Sounds like he has an awesome life, lives on a farm, owns ATM's and lives in Thailand!!!!
So the next person that picked me up (took about 20 minutes smiling and waving and nodding to vehicles as they drove by, that I met my soon to be new friend Agu! He pulled up on the side of the road with about 5 people in his truck. He asked me where I was headed in broken English and I showed him on a map. He signaled to jump in the back of the truck bed, and so I threw my big bag in the back and jumped in the back of the bed. Now I wouldn't say Agu works for the FBI but he drives like it. Thank god I couldn't see the speed odometer, but he was passing all the other traffic including buses full of tourists that I would wave to, and some took pictures of if they were paying attention :p After about an hour of driving Agu pulled the truck over to stop for gas. At this point he offered to bring me to his farm in some village that I had never heard of. I couldn't get much information from him because of the language barrier, but being on an adventure and no one to tell me otherwise I graciously accepted his offer.
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| Agu's Grandma |
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| Some lucky babies crib |
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| Eating dinner in Agu's parents village |
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| This dog was obsessed with biting my shoes |
We drove for about 4 more hours, stopping for good Thai food and dropping off his grandparents in their village. We arrived at Agu's house after dark, so didn't see much of the village at night. Agu showed me where I would sleep (a mattress laid out on the floor in what I would describe as a living room). I rolled out my sleeping bag on the mattress and used my hoodie as a pillow. It was quite dark outside and inside as everyone in the village went to bed quite early and got up early as well. The next morning Agu took me on
trip to the grocery store in a bigger town to get some stuff for his house. Later on he took me on a tour of his farm:
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| Grocery shopping with a friend of Agu's |
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| Agu's farm |
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| Duck run |
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| one of my favorite meals! |
Over the few days I spent on the farm, many people invited me into theirs homes, and I was even shown around other parts of the area. A great adventure, that really shows the warm hearts the generosity of the Thai people! Thank you Thailand, I had a great time!
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| Rice field |
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| Tasty bugs to hold me over til dinner |
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| Making brooms on the side of the road |
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| One of the great meals a family in the village prepared for me, things like this have made me try to me as generous and nice to people as possible, as I learned from the Thai's that guests in your home are king! |
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| Laos across the river |
After a few days I ended up hitch hiking back to Chang Mai. I got a ride on the back of a scooter for about 100km, at which point I was getting tired and scared over going 80km plus on the highway on a small bike with a back pack on. So I got off and got another ride in an SUV the rest of the the way by a great family!
