去哪儿玩?泰国清迈 奢华曼谷(多图)

Escape the chaos of Bangkok in Chiang Mai, Thailand

泰国清迈，逃离曼谷喧嚣

Bright flashing lights of Bangkok city.曼谷城闪耀的灯光

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.

我曾游览曼谷，却不因它而迷醉。喧嚣充斥着这里的夜生活，充斥着拥挤的街道。游客挤满了这里的寺庙，挤满了整座城市。满眼是摩天大厦、商场和钢筋混凝土的建筑，挤得城市似乎要突然爆炸。虽然这是我首次游览曼谷，停留的时间也很短暂，这足以给我一种要逃离的冲动。

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.

我想跳上一辆汽车或卡车南行到沙滩，但我知道那只会把我带到另一个拥挤的地方。在芭堤雅寻找安静就像要在疯狂的大学派对中找到一个清醒的人一样困难。

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

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迈的古城。因为我听说那里的乡村有瀑布和大象。并且这也是唯一一点点机会，去寻找泰国的另一面。

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.

我搭上了离开曼谷的夜间火车，在折叠床上平躺下来。床多少还是有些舒适的。第二天早晨，当我睁眼看见窗外的乡村景观时，我知道我找到了泰国的另一面。

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.

相比曼谷这个九百万人口的城市，人口二十万的清迈更容易应付，那里有树木茂盛的公园，引人入胜的艺术画廊和穿着校服四处乱跑的小孩儿。

Chiang Mai is a world away from the lights of Bangkok. 在清迈看不到曼谷的镁光灯

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.

三人一辆的摩托车疾驰着来去。有的人在发短信，有的人在挠小猫，有的人在读书。这个地方到处有7-11便利店，到处都是背包客的足迹和尽力讨好他们的生意人。你可以在街道的一头租一辆自行车，骑行到街道另一头，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.

清迈有很多短途旅行公司，提供类似的服务。我们选取了一个“伙伴旅程”，价格便宜，附带有一个我们在曼谷时就用的导航网站。我们签约参加的旅程是一个两天一夜的丛林远足。

The beautiful elephants of Chiang Mai. 清迈漂亮的大象

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，旅游公司派出卡车到小镇上接我们，我们也见到了我们的旅伴：3个正在毕业旅行的澳大利亚人和一对来自比利时的退休夫妇。最后在美塘（Mea Tang）山谷里，司机把我们丢在曲折的山路上，我们开始和我们的泰国向导上路。我们穿过的热带丛林里嗡嗡的昆虫声不绝于耳，但却一直感觉很静谧。

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.

我们在瀑布里玩耍，吃包在香蕉叶子里的炒米。我们打包时没有带手表因为根本就没有必要。向导时不时地摘摘草药，指给我看我完全忽略掉的蝽甲，经过狼蛛洞穴时试图把它引出。他对这里熟悉到就像一生都在这里度过。

Doi Inthanon, Chiang Mai, the highest mountain in Thailand. 因他农山国家公园，清迈，泰国最高的山

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.

那天晚上我们住在一个山村聚落的小屋里，只有一个房间。这里有一个很小的学校和十几户人家，然后别无它物。

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.

孩子们穿着T恤和短裤在院子里相互追逐，水牛在唯一的街道上漫步。晚饭后，我们生起火，有当地的村民来看我们——有的是为了卖掉手工的手镯或瓶装的水和啤酒，有的仅仅是为了来观看farang——泰语里指外国人。

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.

厕所在屋外，这个我还能适应。但毯子加木板做成的简易床让我的背很疼。第二天，向导煮了鸡蛋，我们继续出发，对于沿途的瀑布也冷静了不少。后来一辆卡车接我们到华彭（Huay Poeng） 大象营。我们在那里骑象、给象买香蕉吃，然后去了一条河流。向导在缓缓的水流中为我们划竹筏。

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.

我很喜欢这种能够亲身体验当地生活的旅途。这里的大象似乎都是在不错的条件下驯养起来的，但我仍然质疑剥夺大象的自由、让它们一生为像我这样的游客服务是否合理。

Take a river cruise and visit quaint villages. 河上漫游和参观古雅的村庄

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.

当别人使用迷人的、古雅的来形容我所去过的村庄，我总是会感到不安，因为它虽然听上是一句赞美，却让人感觉像是一种居高心下的施舍。我也不会假装过简单的生活没有它的乏味之处。有时候你感觉自己在一个无人之地，然后路边忽现一个卖冰棍的小摊，或是一栋装着卫星电视的房子。

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.

我仍然愿意再来一次这样的旅行。如果有机会，我会待上更多个夜晚。我很庆幸我去了那里，也对我放弃城市喧嚣、投入丛林怀抱的决定感到满意。