Thailand — Odds & Ends: Frisbee, Board Games, and Day Trips
Perhaps my themed posts on Thailand was not the ideal format, as I realized I left lots of little fun bits out of my travels there. I’m currently in Kuching, Malaysia, catching up on my writing at a coworking space (my first time trying one!)
My other Thailand Stories: Food, Temples, Mountains.
The rest of my SE Asia stories can be found here.
Chiang Mai
Frisbee
Chaing Mai in particular had lots of fun activities. The first, and best, was getting to excersise my ultimate frisbee chops with an old teammate of mine, Brandon. Though we only played for one season together at the University of Miami (and he had since moved permanently to Thailand), he welcomed me with open arms to their 3x weekly pickup games at the nearby university. Thankfully laid-back and focusing on fun over competition, it was easy and enjoyable getting back into the groove of things. I had a lot of fun playing and handling for the first real game I had played since my senior year. Thank you to Brandon, Ralf, Jess, Noknoi, Jazi, Kop, Junior, and everyone else who made it so fun!
Board Games
A close, close second to Frisbee was Game Tree Cafe. Brandon invited us to his friend’s board game cafe our first weekend in Chiang Mai, and we quickly fell in love with the hundreds and hundreds of board games there. Stu, the owner, was super helpful and encouraging in helping us learn over a dozen new games in our 3 or 4 times visiting, including Dutch Blitz, Gizmos (I think that’s the name), Survive!, Jamaica, a bluffing game of bringing goods to market, Fireball Island, and more that aren’t coming to my head right now.
The way the cafe worked was that when we walked in each time Stu would ask us what sort of board game we liked (resource management, deck builders, competitive vs. cooperative), so he could make the proper recommendation of game to play. I would respond with “I like board games”, and then he would put a game I’ve never heard of on the table, start setting it up, and explain the rules. We even got to crash Stu’s birthday board game marathon, and Lena ended up winning a T-shirt from board game bingo. Thank you to Brandon, Stu and everyone else we had the chance to play these board games with!
I think the reason I enjoyed both of these outlets so much is that it was so refreshing not to be a tourist and do the whole tourist routine: move to a ho(s)tel, sight-see, eat food, and repeat city-to-city. We got to immerse ourselves into a wedge of life in Thailand, this time blurred between local life and ex-pat life (both Game Tree and Frisbee had a healthy mix of both). It felt like the travel bubble had burst, if only briefly, through getting to know the people who lived there, and especially those not working in the tourism industry.
Day Trips
Elephant Sanctuary
Moving on, we also had two day trips, one to an Elephant Sanctuary and one to Doi Inthanon. I’m torn about the Elephant Sanctuary, as supposedly they are much better than Elephant riding (read: no harming the animals), but not necessarily the best thing for them. We got to feed them dozens of bananas and sugarcane pieces, and even do a mud bath with the friendly giants. But it is still a hugely profitable business, and the elephants appear to have to interact with patrons 3–4 times a day at a couple hours each. Perhaps its better this way, but it’s hard to believe that our money is truly going to the elephants’ best interests.
I’m not going to post any pictures, there are oodles on Instagram if you want to see them. Just, whatever you do, do not ride the elephants!
Doi Inthanon
Less conflicting was our day trip to Doi Inthanon National Park, home to the highest mountain of Thailand of the same name. It felt like a typical day trip (the per-arranged feel of it all, shuffling place-to-place) from Chiang Mai, and we got to go to the top of Doi Inthanon. In reality, we could drive about 99% of the way to the top, and simply walked 50 meters and got our pictures in front of a sign.
We also got to do a beautiful countryside trek by waterfalls and through a marigold field (mountains surrounding us at all times), which was quite charming. And finally, we went to a park that had a statue of a King and Queen, though it was quite cloudy and rainy, and I can’t remember their significance. (After all, we have seen quite our fair share of statues of important people and deities at this point). But overall, it was a good day trip to get out of the city and into nature.
As a bonus, the clock tower in Chiang Rai also deserves a mention. Gold, ornate, and dominating a roundabout marking the center of town, the tower even has light shows all evening, complete with a recorded orchestral piece.
For those of you who know I promised this blog post would be on Laos, it’s coming, I promise :)
