Day 13
Angie Grabowski '03
Maple Grove, MN

With 3/4 of our trip over and 1/4 left, today marked the beginning of my last journey in Thailand. After traveling and seeing the sights of Bangkok, Chiang Mai, and the Karen village, I look forward to the beach ambiance of Pattaya Beach and the private island (Koh Lan). Our group designated today as a travel day.

My travel day began as I begrudgingly woke up before the crack of dawn, 5o’clock to say goodbye before we left the village for Chiang Mai. The wakeup call was by far earlier than I wake up during the school year for 1a classes and I think waking up for 1a class is heinous! I guess this is what vacation is about. All of us Carleton people thanked the people of the village and communicated our last good-byes. The children whom at first seemed distant and shy offered us many hugs, handshakes and smiles. At 6 o’ clock a.m., we hopped in the seelahs and watched our new friend’s faces slowly disappear in the dust. For once we followed our scheduled time of departure.

In the next 5 hours, the 44 of us were crammed into our vehicles, the seelahs, which do not feel foreign to most of us now. Our caravan of Carleton people took 2 rest stops as opposed to the gazillion taken on the trip up. Any more stops and we all risked missing the train ride back to Bangkok. I believe some people were more eager to leave than others were. During these 5 hours everyone in our group anxiously awaited a shower. We spent 5 days in the village and did not take one shower. The closest thing to a shower we had was 1 rain shower and 3 lake baths.

We arrived at Chiang Mai University Hostel with 3 hours to take a shower and lounge around. A person might have thought we would take our time, but no. Immediately all of us stampeded out of the 4 seelahs and evolved into a herd of dirty people running toward two cluttered rooms we had reserved. After our showers, I noticed many relieved faces. I thanked the world for modern showers and kept thinking happiness is a shower. I know more than a few of us echoed that sentiment. The hostel showers will never be the same with dirt remnants of the village there.

The next few hours I gradually weaned myself back into civilization. I ate lunch and walked to an Internet shop with a few others to check my email. It’s amazing how deprived I felt not checking email for 6 days. With less than one hour of free time left, a few of us walked to 7 Eleven to get snacks for the train ride ahead but were interrupted by the Dairy Queen on the left o we bought blizzards, 33 baht for a medium, which equates to 58 cents. We brought all our goodies on the train and we left Chiang Mai for good.

The train ride bringing us back to Bangkok was a completely new experience for me. I had never been on a train before. I had no idea what to expect, which is not a surprise. My trip in Thailand so far is reflective of this. All I had been told was that we reserved one whole car for our big group and it had air conditioning. Thank heavens for air conditioning considering the train ride is usually 13 hours to Bangkok. During the ride, I watched the sunset as I munched on my snacks, played a round of 500 rummy, took frequent walks, and read a few magazines before my beauty sleep. I jumped up to my top bunk in the train rather early and fell asleep hearing Larry Tompkins and Jim Seegers sing famous cowboy songs.

P.S. To my family: I’m glad you all came with and experienced the country of Thailand with me. Thank you.