去哪兒玩?泰國清邁 奢華曼谷(多圖)

Escape the chaos of Bangkok in Chiang Mai, Thailand

泰國清邁，逃離曼谷喧囂

Bright flashing lights of Bangkok city.曼谷城閃耀的燈光

I WAS in Bangkok and less than enamoured. The night-life is chaotic, as are the crowded streets, the tourist-laden temples and the city itself, so overflowing with skyscrapers and malls and concrete that it seems about to burst. It was an impression based on a short, first-time visit, to be sure, but I felt the need to escape.

我曾遊覽曼谷，卻不因它而迷醉。喧囂充斥着這裏的夜生活，充斥着擁擠的街道。遊客擠滿了這裏的寺廟，擠滿了整座城市。滿眼是摩天大廈、商場和鋼筋混凝土的建築，擠得城市似乎要突然爆炸。雖然這是我首次遊覽曼谷，停留的時間也很短暫，這足以給我一種要逃離的衝動。

I contemplated hopping a shuttle van south to the beaches, but they can be just as overcrowded. Looking for peace in Pattaya is like looking for a sober person at a uni party.

我想跳上一輛汽車或卡車南行到沙灘，但我知道那隻會把我帶到另一個擁擠的地方。在芭堤雅尋找安靜就像要在瘋狂的大學派對中找到一個清醒的人一樣困難。

Bangkok has a reputation for a wild nightlife.曼谷因狂野的夜生活而聞名

So I veered north instead toward an ancient city called Chiang Mai, because I’d heard there would be waterfalls and elephants in the nearby countryside, and a chance to get at least a little closer to another side of Thailand.

所以我北行到了一座叫清邁的古城。因爲我聽說那裏的鄉村有瀑布和大象。並且這也是唯一一點點機會，去尋找泰國的另一面。

From Bangkok I jumped onto an overnight train and stretched out on the vaguely comfortable bunk beds that folded down from the walls. When I woke up the next morning and saw only countryside through the windows, I knew I was close.

我搭上了離開曼谷的夜間火車，在摺疊牀上平躺下來。牀多少還是有些舒適的。第二天早晨，當我睜眼看見窗外的鄉村景觀時，我知道我找到了泰國的另一面。

Chiang Mai is a manageable city of about 200,000, a relief compared to Bangkok’s nine million. There are leafy parks, inviting art galleries and little children wandering around in school uniforms.

相比曼谷這個九百萬人口的城市，人口二十萬的清邁更容易應付，那裏有樹木茂盛的公園，引人入勝的藝術畫廊和穿着校服四處亂跑的小孩兒。

Chiang Mai is a world away from the lights of Bangkok. 在清邁看不到曼谷的鎂光燈

This is hardly a place, though, where time has stopped.

Motorbikes zoom around stuffed with three people apiece, some texting, some clutching kittens, some reading books. The place is dotted with 7-Elevens, the footpaths crammed both with backpackers and businesses meant to cater to them. Rent a bike from a stand on one side of the street. Wash your clothes at a Laundromat on the other.

三人一輛的摩托車疾馳着來去。有的人在發短信，有的人在撓小貓，有的人在讀書。這個地方到處有7-11便利店，到處都是揹包客的足跡和盡力討好他們的生意人。你可以在街道的一頭租一輛自行車，騎行到街道另一頭，在自助洗衣店清洗衣物。

There is also an abundance of trekking companies in Chiang Mai, all offering what seem like similar packages, so we picked one, Buddy Tours, that was cheap, with an easy-to-navigate website that we’d looked at while we were still kicking around Bangkok. We signed up for what was described as a two-day, one-night jungle hike.

清邁有很多短途旅行公司，提供類似的服務。我們選取了一個“夥伴旅程”，價格便宜，附帶有一個我們在曼谷時就用的導航網站。我們簽約參加的旅程是一個兩天一夜的叢林遠足。

The beautiful elephants of Chiang Mai. 清邁漂亮的大象

The tour company picked us up in a van in town the next morning, and we met our companions: three Canadians celebrating their recent college graduation, and a retired couple from Belgium. Eventually our driver deposited us in the bend of a hilly road somewhere in the Mae Tang valley, and we set out with our Thai tour guide. The tropical woods that we hiked through were loud with the shrieking cacophony of insects, but it was tranquil all the same.

第二天早晨，旅遊公司派出卡車到小鎮上接我們，我們也見到了我們的旅伴：3個正在畢業旅行的澳大利亞人和一對來自比利時的退休夫婦。最後在美塘（Mea Tang）山谷裏，司機把我們丟在曲折的山路上，我們開始和我們的泰國嚮導上路。我們穿過的熱帶叢林裏嗡嗡的昆蟲聲不絕於耳，但卻一直感覺很靜謐。

We played in waterfalls, ate fried rice packaged up in banana leaves, packed away our watches because there was no need for them. Our guide knew the woods like someone who had been in them his whole life, picking herbs, spotting a stick bug that was all but invisible to me, trying to coax out a tarantula when he ran across its hole.

我們在瀑布裏玩耍，吃包在香蕉葉子裏的炒米。我們打包時沒有帶手錶因爲根本就沒有必要。嚮導時不時地摘摘草藥，指給我看我完全忽略掉的蝽甲，經過狼蛛洞穴時試圖把它引出。他對這裏熟悉到就像一生都在這裏度過。

Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai, the highest mountain in Thailand. 因他農山國家公園，清邁，泰國最高的山

That evening we stayed in a one-room cabin in a hill-tribe village, a place with a tiny school and maybe a few dozen houses and not much else.

那天晚上我們住在一個山村聚落的小屋裏，只有一個房間。這裏有一個很小的學校和十幾戶人家，然後別無它物。

Kids wearing shorts and T-shirts chased each other around their yards, water buffalo meandered on the single street, and in the evening, after our guide cooked dinner, we built a fire and some of the villagers stopped by to see us — some to sell handmade bracelets or bottled water and beer, but some just to see the farang — the Thai word for foreigner.

孩子們穿着T恤和短褲在院子裏相互追逐，水牛在唯一的街道上漫步。晚飯後，我們生起火，有當地的村民來看我們——有的是爲了賣掉手工的手鐲或瓶裝的水和啤酒，有的僅僅是爲了來觀看farang——泰語裏指外國人。

The bathroom was an outhouse, which I got used to, and bed was a blanket on a wooden floor, which made my back ache. The next morning, our guide cooked eggs, and we hiked again and cooled off in more waterfalls. A pick-up truck took us to the Huay Poeng Elephant Camp, where we rode elephants and bought them bananas, and then to a river where guides rowed us along a lazy stream in bamboo rafts.

廁所在屋外，這個我還能適應。但毯子加木板做成的簡易牀讓我的背很疼。第二天，嚮導煮了雞蛋，我們繼續出發，對於沿途的瀑布也冷靜了不少。後來一輛卡車接我們到華彭（Huay Poeng） 大象營。我們在那裏騎象、給象買香蕉吃，然後去了一條河流。嚮導在緩緩的水流中爲我們劃竹筏。

I’m keenly aware that going on a trip like this requires you to wrestle with the ethics of your visit. The elephants we rode seemed like they were treated fine, but that doesn’t mean I don’t have deeper questions about the morality of keeping them in captivity just for tourists like me to ride.

我很喜歡這種能夠親身體驗當地生活的旅途。這裏的大象似乎都是在不錯的條件下馴養起來的，但我仍然質疑剝奪大象的自由、讓它們一生爲像我這樣的遊客服務是否合理。

Take a river cruise and visit quaint villages. 河上漫遊和參觀古雅的村莊

It bothers me when people use words like adorable or quaint to describe a village like the one we visited, which might seem like praise but just comes off as condescending. And I don’t pretend that this wasn’t a tame way to rough it. Occasionally you feel like you’re in the middle of nowhere, and then you happen upon a roadside stand selling popsicles and a house with a satellite TV dish.

當別人使用迷人的、古雅的來形容我所去過的村莊，我總是會感到不安，因爲它雖然聽上是一句讚美，卻讓人感覺像是一種居高心下的施捨。我也不會假裝過簡單的生活沒有它的乏味之處。有時候你感覺自己在一個無人之地，然後路邊忽現一個賣冰棍的小攤，或是一棟裝着衛星電視的房子。

Still, I’d do this trip again in a minute, and would go for more than one night if I had the chance. I feel lucky that I went, and was happy to ditch the disorder of the city for the playground of the jungle.

我仍然願意再來一次這樣的旅行。如果有機會，我會待上更多個夜晚。我很慶幸我去了那裏，也對我放棄城市喧囂、投入叢林懷抱的決定感到滿意。