Now with added detail!, Part 2

I'm calling this version the "photo quality isn't great, but the story behind it is" version. :-) For part one go here.

The above shot was taken in Prague. I'd met Danilo and Elin, two really cool couchsurfers, and we were all in great moods. If I remember correctly, it was a Friday night and we were ready for a night on the town. As we walked to the meeting place for the CS party that we were going to, I stopped in the middle of the street to take this picture. The light isn't great and the shot ends up looking a little fuzzy and out of focus. I like it, though, because with all the good mood vibes in the air and the excitement of a night out with cool people, I was feeling kind of warm, fuzzy, and out of focus myself.

See those colorful, swirly blobs? Yeah, those are koi fish and in case you didn't know, they are very hard to photograph. (Well, at least they're not running away from you like sheep do, but they're fast and taking pictures through water is hard to begin with.)

I took this shot in Bangkok; it was a jam-packed day of activity and this was taken at the Jim Thompson house. I seem to remember being in a good mood on this day, too, and was so dead set on getting a picture of the koi that I literally spent 30-45 minutes taking shot after shot, going for the perfect one. I never did get it (you can see my other attempts here, here, and here), but I sure had fun trying and I had a big, goofy grin on my face the whole time.

Finally for today, we go back to Muang Ngoi in Laos. You may recall that me and Laos didn't exactly get off on the right foot and it was all downhill from there (I won't link to it because, well, the word 'explosive' should be the only reminder you need). Then I got to Muang Ngoi and all was right with the world again. People were friendly, the vibe was laid-back, and I started to feel like myself again at last.

This shot is terrible because I'm zoomed in super far which doesn't really work so well for a point and shoot camera. I was trying to get a good shot of the moon - if you squint and have a good imagination, you can kind of see it in the top of the shot, towards the left. The rest of the photo is a view of the restaurant that was directly across from my bungalow. I spent most of my afternoons and early evenings in Muang Ngoi laying in the hammock on my porch, watching the night get darker and darker, as I listened to the chatter coming from the restaurant. The peacefulness of it all makes me smile even now.

I suppose this edition of the story behind the photo should have been called the "good moods and happy times" edition. ;-)

* * * * *

In case you're wondering how my friends in Christchurch fared, everyone is fine. Sean tells me that the damage was mostly not as bad as the media portrayed, and most Kiwis just looked at it as preparation for "the big one." I thought 7.2 on the Richter scale was pretty big, but I guess in the en zed it's only big if it's an 8 or higher, lol.

Thai flashback

Not too long ago my friend Zach emailed me saying that he FINALLY remembered to send me some of his Thailand pictures. I really liked Zach's shots and his camera is more expensive and fancier than my point-and-click, so he got shots and angles on things that I couldn't manage.

Anyway, I asked him if I could share some of them here and since I'm in the middle of nowhere diving the Great Barrier Reef for a few days, I figured now would be as good a time as any.

 All of these pictures were taken in Ayuthaya, Thailand.

A monkey bit my ear (and other tales from Railay)

My body apparently was opposed to all of that blissed out happiness because I seem to have a bit of a cold now. I don't feel bad or anything, but I do have a cough that I'm hoping finds its way out of my body sooner rather than later.


Yes, so Railay was quite nice and a great way to finish up my time in Thailand. I had intended to make one other stop on the island of Koh Lipe, but I was having such a nice time that I figured I'd just stay in Railay until my visa expired. So what did I do exactly?


My cheeks actually ache after my week-long stay on Tonsai Beach. It was just such a chill, laid-back atmosphere, kinda like Rastafarians and Thais got together and had a love child. I stayed on Tonsai Beach, but there was also Railay East and Railay West beaches to trek to and explore. There were a number of caves that gave awesome views over all of Railay and hidden little lagoons that gave views of nothing but rising limestone cliffs and warm, blue green water. Rock climbing is HUGE here, so there was lots of that to watch; I wasn't quite prepared for six and seven grade climbs (where the highest and toughest grade is an eight), so I just did some bouldering instead. Bouldering is rock climbing close to the ground so you don't need ropes or other equipment (I actually did it in my bathing suit and bare feet which wasn't so bad except for the parts with super sharp rocks). It seems like it would be easy until you get up there and realize just how difficult it really is.

Are you familiar with Songkran? Songkran this year occurred on 13 April and is the Thai New Year (Happy 2553!). It's also the time for a huge water festival that happens throughout Thailand. I don't really know how it came about, but the day is all about soaking everyone around you with water. People run around with SuperSoakers and bottles of water, spraying it everywhere. Kids would have an absolute blast, but it's great fun for adults, too, especially when the temperature is in the 30's (90's F).


A place called Happy Hut kept the smile on my face. I've already talked about how much I love Thai massages and I couldn't resist getting a couple more this past week. They were the two best massages I have EVER. HAD. IN. MY. ENTIRE. LIFE. Seriously, they were that good. Now if only Laura could learn Thai massage, I'd be able to get them even when I'm back home. :-)

Things like coconut shakes and kittens that I got to pretend were my own for a couple of days were simpler pleasures, but smile inducing all the same.

Even the monkey who bit my ear had me giggling (it still hurt, though!). I'd seen a couple of monkeys that were being kept as pets while in Railay and it gave me two contradictory feelings: 1) Awesome! I've always wanted a monkey as a pet!, and 2) That poor thing should be out in the wild, not leashed to a chair outside a shop. Anyway, one particular monkey was looking for attention and literally threw itself at me as I walked by it. A bit scary, sure, but he was little and not particularly aggressive. He was really interested in my belly ring (and, side note: let me tell you how weird it is to feel little monkey fingers in your belly button!) until he discovered that I had hair. He jumped up to my shoulder and started playing with it, but was apparently distracted by the tasty looking morsel of an ear and decided to take a little nibble. Don't worry! No blood was drawn and I'm pretty sure I don't have any strange monkey diseases, lol!

This past weekend, 16-18 April, was the Krabi Rock & Fire 2010 show, a competition of rock climbers, slackliners (essentially tight rope walking that's close to the ground), and fire spinners. It was really fun and crazy to watch. I have some videos that I'll try to get uploaded in the next couple of days. 

I've even gained a travel partner, a British guy called Rowan. His plan was to skip straight to Indonesia for surfing because he didn't know anything about Malaysia. When he heard that Malaysia was my next destination, he decided to tag along.

So, to wrap up: Thailand was absolutely amazing and I will definitely come here again. It has everything you could possibly ask for. Culture, friendly people, great food, fairly easy language to pick up (and lots of English speakers when you're not quite there yet). It is more expensive and more westernized than other parts of SE Asia that I've seen, but I think when I come back and perhaps get off the beaten track a bit, I'll still see a Thailand that I very much love.

And now? I'm in Malaysia! Pulau Penang, to be exact, which is an island. Rowan and I will chill here for a day or two, let the sickness leave my body. I also read that Penang is the Silicon Valley of Malaysia, so maybe I'll be able to find a netbook. After Penang, I think we'll head to central Malaysia, into the jungle where hopefully we'll find some cool critters and cooler weather.
 

Blissed out happiness

(View from a cave)

 

(Hot and sweaty after a jungle hike)

 

(Limestone cliffs, white sandy beaches, and blue-green water - ahhhh)

 

Need I say more? Well, there's lots to report on, actually, but it will have to wait just a little bit longer.

SCUBA, Part II

Sorry about the jumbled incoherence of my last post. I'd like to blame it on exhaustion from my day of diving, but the more likely story is that I was doing eight million things at once (plus being tired).

So guess what? I love scuba diving! We did two dives on Thursday and two on Friday (today). I felt a lot more comfortable with the gear yesterday and didn't have any trouble breathing normally and steadily and maintaining control of my nerves so as to not panic. The only minor issue I had was with equalizing my ears. If you've ever flown and had your ears pop during take-off or landing, then you already have an idea of what your ears would feel like if you went 10-18 meters (30-60 feet) below sea level. Pressure in your ears is an easy thing to avoid and/or fix, but if you're thinking of a bunch of other things at the same time (like remembering to breathe!), it's also easy to forget about equalizing your ears. I was very proud of myself yesterday and was really looking forward to today's dives.

(Time for a buddy check before we hit the water.)

  

Today I was slightly nervous about the depth we'd be going to - 60 feet!! - but mostly I was just sad that we only had two more dives to do. My dive instructor gave me an Actifed tablet today to help with the sinus and ear pressure so equalizing my ears was no trouble at all. In fact, the last two dives were pretty much perfect. I felt comfortable, not panicky, was able to look around and take everything in, just perfect. Like I'd been doing it for years, lol. We saw all kinds of fish that I probably won't even remember the names of, but some of them included angelfish, butterfly fish, barracuda, and goby fish. The coolest things we saw, though, were stingrays and the LARGEST grouper I'd ever seen before. It was seriously massive.

(Our dive class - James, Katie, Alex, Brendan, me) 

I'm now an official, certified open water scuba diver! My certification is good worldwide and forever. I'm already thinking of where I'll be able to dive next. Malaysia? Indonesia? Australia? All are definite possibilities. Well, except for Australia which is a must. The whole reason I wanted to get my certification was so I could dive the Great Barrier Reef.

SCUBA

I arrived in Koh Tao yesterday and got to the hotel where I wanted to stay only to find that there was no record of my confirmation. It's kind of a long, uninteresting story, but the bottom line is that I'm staying at AC Resort, a hotel associated with the dive club that I'm using, Phoenix Divers. I'm sharing a room with Brendan, a guy I only just met here in Koh Tao. We're in the same dive class so we have an air-con room for free for four nights (and free breakfast, too). 

Dive class started pretty much right away, yesterday at 4pm. First we had to do paperwork and a medical history and such before we moved on to covering scuba diving basics. I started to feel not so nervous, probably because I was getting an understanding of how things work, what to do, and when to do it. We even had homework to do! ;-) And then guess who I ran into? None other than Rhian and Marina! Tuesday night was their last night and my first night in Koh Tao, so James (a guy in my dive class) and I had dinner with them and spent the night hanging out for awhile before James and I scooted out to do homework.

Today we spent more time in the classroom, but we knew that the afternoon would find us geared up and in the water. I still wasn't particularly nervous, I just knew that I was going to have to focus on my breathing and keeping it steady and normal. And, well, let's say I'm still alive to talk about it, but I was definitely the slow kid in my class, lol. For this first session in the water, we were only practicing skills such as finding a lost regulator (the thing that you breathe through), sharing air with your buddy, hand signals, that kind of thing. Basically, all those things that you need to know how to do in order to have a successful dive.


The internet cafe is about to close, so I'll go ahead and hit "publish post" before they kick me out, and I'll try to give me info tomorrow. Btw, the crystal clear water and sunsets are absolutely as amazing as the pictures would make them seem!

Back in BKK

I'm back in my beloved Bangkok, but it's a short stint this time around, 24 hours when all is said and done. I met a girl, Gemma, on the bus from Battambang to BKK and we decided to split costs on a room. Coincidentally, we had all the same errands to run today, too - new belly rings because we'd lost the old ones, new contact lenses, netbook computer purchasing. We were two for three, the netbooks are more expensive here than they are at home! We also stopped at the post office for me so I could ship some things home, and a mobile store for Gemma to get a new cell phone.

I was really hoping to see Sam again while I was here, but I haven't been able to make that happen. Sam, if you're out there, I'm sorry I missed you, dude! I was looking forward to seeing your smiley face again.


I leave in a few hours on an overnight bus to Chumpon and then will take a high speed catamaran to the island of Koh Tao. Wish me luck as this is where I will do my diving certification if I can get over the jitters. I'm encouraged by Gemma, though, who told me that she gets really nervous about snorkeling, too, but she really loved diving. I'll keep you posted.

Getting ready for Laos

I haven't written anything since I've been in Nong Khai, mostly because I haven't really been doing a whole lot. I've been sleeping in, having breakfast in the garden of my guesthouse, reading, and occasionally going on a search for something interesting.

The other day I went to a sculpture garden called Sala Kaeo Ku. Luang Pu, a Lao mystic and artist, is the man behind the garden. The sculptures are made from concrete and some are as tall as seven story buildings. They are quite impressive and have both Hindu and Buddhist influences. Check out my pics here. Luang Pu died in 1996 and his mummified body is in a building on the same grounds. Supposedly, his hair still grows and needs to be trimmed every now and then!

So. The other thing I've been doing is thinking about Laos and a game plan there since I'll be crossing the border on Monday. The last month in Thailand has been absolutely fabulous and I've loved it here, but I want to try to do things a little differently in Laos. I seemed to be firmly on the backpacker path in Thailand - I was running into the same people and/or meeting people who'd just come from where I'd been or were going to where I was headed next. This was mostly okay because I met and hung out with a lot of great people. But it also probably prevented me from meeting more Thai people. In Laos I'd like to ditch the guidebook, stretch the limits of my comfort zone a bit. Perhaps somewhat ironically, this has meant pulling out a guidebook. . .but only to study the maps and get an idea of which border crossing to use into Vietnam.

Tomorrow (Monday) I'll cross the border into Vientiane, the capital of Laos. I will stick around probably for the week because I will apply for my Vietnam and China visas. After that. . .who knows?

Trekkers (NOT Trekkies)

The bus ride from Pai to Chiang Mai on Tuesday was rather uneventful except that we met an American guy named Lloyd who hung out with us for the rest of the night. The four of us - me, Rhian, Marina, and Lloyd - found a guesthouse, plopped down our bags, and went on a search for banana roti (my new fav snack food). Later, after we'd showered, we all went out to the night market to do some shopping since I hadn't made it there my last time through CM.

On Wednesday the girls and I had booked a trek. We were picked up from our guesthouse at 8:15am and an hour drive outside of CM brought us to our first stop, Phutawan Elephant Camp. We went on elephant rides! There was a little bit of unexpected excitement when we first got there. The mahouts (the elephant trainers) were moving the elephants around and getting them in place. One mahout led a mama elephant away from her three month old baby and when mama realized her baby wasn't right next to her, she literally roared and ran back to her calf. It was kinda scary seeing this huge elephant run past you, but we all just got out of her way and were fine. (I didn't get pics of the baby, btw, which is very disappointing. Rhian got a couple, though, that she said she'd send to me). After mounting our elephants we got to ride for about an hour. It's a weird feeling being on top of an elephant. In some spots of the ride, it almost felt like we were gonna fall right off, but then you'd look at the mahout and he seemed cool as a cucumber. Once the riding was over, we got to feed the elephants bananas and take more pictures of them. Here's my favorite elephant shot:

Next was a quick ride to a Karenni village, but this was a White-Cloth village (so called because unmarried women show their status by wearing white clothing), not a Long-Neck village. It was almost more interesting than the first Karenni village because our guide gave us more information about the community instead of just dropping us off and leaving us be. We then trekked for about 20 minutes to a waterfall where we could have swam, but the water was way too cold. We got some nice pictures, though, and at least stuck our feet in.


Another 20 minute trek landed us in a Hmong village. This was a less interesting stop and seemed to me to be more about getting us to buy stuff than anything else. Twenty minutes of more trekking - very convenient chunks of trekking time, btw, as it's enough to give you a taste of things, but not too exhausting - and it was time for a communal lunch where everything is brought to the table and passed around and shared. We had rice, potatoes, salad, chicken and vegetables in a sweet and sour sauce, and fresh pineapple and watermelon. The food was so-so and geared more towards westerners than locals, but after all that walking we would've scarfed down just about anything.

We finished up our day with bamboo rafting which was very fun, but I don't have any pictures to prove it. We had been advised to leave our cameras behind because we (and they) would get wet and that turned out to be a pretty good idea. The raft drivers? pushers? steerers? were having a bit of fun and took every chance they had to splash us or otherwise get us wet.

One hour drive back to town dropped three very tired girls off at the guesthouse. It was the last night the three of us would be together, so we showered and met back downstairs for one last round of fruit shakes, dinner, and card playing. My bus to Udon Thani left at 8pm and was a VIP bus. This meant that passengers were given water, snacks, and blankets. I was also lucky enough to get a ghetto upgrade, so I got to stretch out a bit. Twelve hours later I was in Udon Thani where I transferred to a second (much shoddier) bus for the hour and a half ride to Nong Khai.

I'm in Nong Khai now, staying at the Mut Mee Guesthouse, at the bargain rate of 100B. One of the staff asked me if I wanted to room with another girl who was traveling solo, Cat from France, because we'd both asked for singles and they didn't have enough. All Cat and I really wanted was a bed and we didn't care if it was in a dorm, a single room, or a double room, so we're roommies now. :-) Nong Khai is my last stop in Thailand for this go around. My visa expires on 8 Feb, so I'll be heading into Laos on either the 7th or the 8th, but I will definitely be back for more of Thailand (and it's beaches!) sometime in April.

Bicycles and motorbikes

After the day of doing nothing, Rhian, Marina, and I decided we'd rent bicycles on Sunday and head out toward a waterfall that we'd heard about called Mor Paeng about 8km away from Pai. Gabby had told us that it would take about an hour to get to the falls and then only about a half hour to get back. Remember when I mentioned all the curves on the way to Mae Hong Son and Pai? All those curves also end up meaning a lot of hills, too, so this is why it would take longer to get there than back.

It was probably the longest 8km of my life. We took liberal rest breaks - more than I'd have taken if I were on my own - and it took us 3 hours to get to the falls. We took a tiny little wrong turn at one point and were faced with the steepest hill ever. It was so steep that we got off our bikes to push them up the hill and that was tough. I stopped to take a picture of this oh so steep hill and, Miss Clutz that I am, I dropped my bike. The pedal came down on my right foot, leaving a scratch and an egg sized lump. The handlebar came down on my left leg, leaving another scratch. The bruise on my right foot hasn't shown up yet, but it sure feels bruised. Almost worse than going up a steep hill we didn't have to go up and almost worse than injuring myself was that we had to turn around and go down that very steep hill. It was terrifying, especially since the brakes aren't all that great on rented bikes. The three of us were literally gripping the hand brakes (and maybe praying just a little bit) the entire way down. It didn't seem fair that when we finally had a chance to give our legs a break from the hills that the work switched to our hands and arms. Once we were back on the right track, the waterfalls just couldn't come soon enough. There were a number of times when we had to give up and push the bikes for awhile. Every time a motorbike passed us, we could feel the pity in the riders' eyes, lol.


We did finally make it to the falls and it was quite pretty. We immediately stripped down to our bathing suits, tested the waters (COLD!), and laid out with our books. Ahhhh, relaxation after such a long trip! Even though we knew the return trip would be much better, we still were in no big hurry to get back on the bikes. Eventually the sun started to go down, though, and we had to get back into down. Any guesses as to how long it took? The hints: 1) we stopped once for about 40 minutes for a soda - not because we needed a break, but because we wanted to enjoy the view from high above Pai - and 2) we didn't need to pedal at all the entire time. Needless to say, we were all pretty exhausted last night. We didn't even go out for fruit shakes and cards, the evening activity of choice recently, and Marina and Rhian went to bed at 10:30pm.


Today we wanted to explore a couple of other waterfalls and a hot spring, but this time, we decided to go for motorbikes instead of bicycles. None of us had ridden a motorbike before, so we were a bit hesitant, but when we asked around at the rental place, they said they'd show us how and let us do a few test runs before we decided to do it. Once you get the hang of it, it's really very easy, especially because the rental places have the option of manual or automatic (we went with automatic). What a difference a motor makes! Instead of huffing and puffing and being hot and sweaty, we had a pleasant little drive through the countryside. Being on a motorbike meant that fewer pictures were taken, but I did manage to have one of the girls snap this one of me:

What doing nothing looks like

Pai is so chilled and laid back that all I wanted to do today was, well, nothing. I found a Muslim bakery for breakfast that had coffee and pastries that looked awfully good to me. I'm not much of a breakfast eater, so eggs, pancakes, bacon, and toast have worn out their welcome, and traditional Thai breakfasts of soup/noodles/rice/curry or some combination of them I can only do so often. Anyway, breakfast was followed by wandering around, taking random pictures, and stopping every so often for tea or coffee and reading for awhile.

I ran into Rhian, Gabby, and Marina at lunchtime, so we went to a really good falafel place. Lunch was followed by more reading. When we got tired of that, we moved from the cute little outside terrace we'd found to a restaurant that had an upstairs balcony and played cards and drank fruit shakes. After an internet break, I will go searching for more cute things to take pictures of and I'll meet up with the girls for dinner and probably more card playing.

The next couple of days will probably be action packed, hence today's laziness. Tomorrow we will rent bikes and ride out to a waterfall that we've heard about. There's also a Yunnanese village that I'd like to check out, particularly because Christina told me about this really great food stand. Since Rhian and Marina are as much about food as I am, I probably won't have any difficulty convincing them to go, too. :-) On Monday I'd like to see an emblem of Thailand up close and personal (how's that for vague?) and sometime between Monday and Wednesday I'd like to take another yoga class and get another massage. I'm undecided on doing another cooking class, but that's a possibility, too. When I leave Pai, I will have a very long journey ahead of me - a 4 hour bus back to Chiang Mai, followed by a 12 hour bus to Udon Thani, followed by another bus (only about an hour this time) to Nong Khai - so I want to both get in some cool activities and lots of relaxing time.

Getting to know Pai

Thursday night Christina and I did indeed manage to have a meal without pork. When I got back from the internet cafe, I found Christina talking to man named Andreas and he joined us for the evening. (Aside: Christina asked where he was from and then said that she wanted to guess. She guessed either Germany or the Netherlands and Andreas laughed and said that he was born in Germany, but was now living in the Netherlands. :-) I never woulda figured that out.) The three of us walked to the nearby night market for dinner and then found a bar to chill out in while we played cards. One funny story: Andreas asked how the breakfast was at our guesthouse and Christina said it was good. I commented that all she'd had was toast, how could she judge just based on that? Then she went into her reasoning - three pieces of toast instead of just two, butter that was not too cold and perfect for spreading, and all the jam she could eat, not just a little portion of it. Well! She told me, didn't she? I don't know, it's probably not funny to read it, but the two of us were cracking up and poor Andreas was just looking on like, "huh?" It was an early-ish night because Christina had a 7am bus to Chiang Mai.

Friday morning Andreas and I had breakfast before I got my own bus to Pai. He'd been asking me a bunch of questions about India because he's thinking of taking his kids there, so we exchanged information, I told him to check out my India blog posts, and I gave him my email address in case he had any questions. I don't think he'll email me because he says his written English isn't very good, but hopefully my experiences and writings in India will be useful to him. My bus to Pai left at 10:30am and took about 3 1/2 hours. The road is just as windy and curvy as the road from Chiang Mai to MHS, but this time it was daylight, so I actually got to see it! The countryside really is beautiful and it was a nice trip.

I arrived in Pai at about 2pm and immediately set out to find lodging. I'd heard from Christina that there was a reggae festival happening this weekend to coincide with the full moon. I was worried that this might mean it would be difficult to find a place to stay within my price range, so I walked away from the center of town, thinking rooms would get cheaper the farther away they were. This didn't exactly turn out to be true - the first place had a room for 400B, but the fifth place had a room for 1000B (WAY out of my budget). After about an hour, I was back near the center of town at a place called 1095 (1095 is the highway with all the curves) with a room for 300B. I was hot and sweaty with all that walking with my pack on, so I changed my clothes and went out in search of something interesting.

I walked a few blocks and was approached by two British girls, Marina and Rhian, who had just arrived. They were loaded down with bags and asked me if I had any recommendations for cheap accommodations. Since I had no agenda or plan and since I totally felt their pain after having just walked an hour myself to find a place, I told them that I'd show them a place I went to first that was right in town. It had been too expensive for me, but they were two people so it would be cheaper for them. Now that the introductions were out of the way, lol, the three of us decided to explore a bit and we spent the rest of the day together. We were joined later by Gabby from Switzerland, a girl that Marina and Rhian had met in Chiang Mai. (Another aside: Randomly running into people that you've met in other places seems to be the norm these days. Remember my two run-ins in India? Well, yesterday I was absolutely sure that I saw Wolfgang, a guy I met at a CS party in Istanbul. He was riding off on a bike, so I didn't get to stop him to see for sure, but I will be on the lookout for him today!) The four of us seemed to do a lot of eating and walking last night, apparently a favorite activity for us all. We had noodles and rice and omelets for dinner, banana and chocolate roti for snack #1, and black sticky rice with black sesame for snack #2, plus there were a couple of beers and sodas in there, too.

Gabby leaves tonight - to go to. . .Laos? Chiang Mai? I can't remember - but Marina, Rhian, and I will all be here for the next few days, so I imagine we'll catch up with each other again. Today the plan is to take it easy and take a lot of pictures. Pai is very photogenic!

Day trip

Yesterday I arranged for a day trip to a Karenni village. Karenni is the more appropriate name for long-neck village, and it's one of the primary reasons why I came to Mae Hong Son. The Karenni village was just one stop on the day trip, though, so I had quite the day today.


When I signed up yesterday, I was told that at least two people needed to sign up or the price would be higher (1500B vs 900B), unless I wanted to go by motorbike instead of car and then the price would be the same. By happenstance, I met Christina from Italy at breakfast this morning and she had also signed up for the same day trip. We left just after 9am and our first stop was the Karenni village. We took pictures of the women wearing the heavy brass coils around their necks, but we were both trying really hard not to make the women seem like they were creatures in a zoo. We talked to them and asked about their families. We asked how long it took to make the scarves they were selling and we found out that those coils weigh 5-6kgs. I picked up one of the coil wraps sitting on the table and it was heavy! I can't imagine how they get used to wearing that around their necks.

After the Karenni village we went to a place called Tham Pla, or Fish Cave. A type of carp live in the waters that go through the cave and they can grow to one meter long. I don't know if this is normal for this type of fish or not, but I suspect their bigness is at least partially due to the large amounts of fruits and vegetables fed to them by visitors (fruits and vegetables sold by the park for 20B, of course). Fish Cave wasn't particularly exciting, but is was in a very nice, quiet, and green park, so it was pleasant enough.

Next on the agenda was a tiny little town called Mae Aw, about 40km north of MHS and right on the border of Thailand and Burma. (ToadMama, you can add this to the Shannon Tracker if you'd like. I meant to take the SPOT and totally forgot.) Mae Aw is a Chinese settlement and doesn't get so many visitors, but Christina and I both thought it was adorable. There's this beautiful, bucolic lake and we both felt that we could spend a couple days there. This was also our lunch spot, a lunch which was difficult to order because the villagers speak Thai and Chinese, our driver only spoke a little English, and we only speak a few words of Thai. I managed to order a pork dish and Christina, who was trying to avoid pork because she had it twice yesterday, ordered a soup. She says the soup was good, but it was a "super pork" dish (which had us laughing our heads off) - it had pork bits and pieces as well as slabs of pork fat rolled into little bundles. I'm pretty sure she won't be ordering anything pork related for dinner tonight. :-)

On the way back from Mae Aw we stopped in an area that I'm not sure the name of, but it's popular with Thai campers from the looks of things. Tents were set up everywhere, including in the midst of this little forest next to a man-made lake. Back into the car for us and we stopped in another little village that I don't know the name of, but this one had all kinds of stalls by the side of the road selling souvenirs. After Christina made her purchases, I noticed a coffee sign and immediately perked up - iced coffee was just what I needed! The owner of the coffee shop motioned for us to go out into the back garden and what we found was perhaps one of the highlights of my day. It was two groves of bamboo, but not just any ol' bamboo. These bamboo stalks were the thickest and tallest bamboo I'd ever seen. Really very cool.

You might think that by now our day must be nearly over, but you'd be wrong. Next up was a stop at Pha Sua Waterfall. I knew before I even saw it that it would be a bit of a letdown after the Seven Steps Waterfall in Kanchanaburi (and it was), but it was pretty enough, I suppose. We went to the Pha Bong Hot Springs next where they have various mud spa treatments. Neither of us were much interested in that, but we did want to have a foot soak in one of the tubs. There was a bit of confusion because a woman handed us towels and told us we owed 20B each for the (what we thought was free) soak; it turns out, she was selling us use of the towels to dry our feet and once we figured that out, I let her know (in Thai) that "I don't want" (hey, my Thai's not so good, it was the best I could do!).


After a long day of lots of sightseeing, we finally headed back to MHS. Christina and I walked to the bus station to get tickets for our departure tomorrow (she's going to Chiang Rai via Chiang Mai and I'm going to Pai). She and I will meet up for a pork-less dinner in a little bit and maybe I can convince her to play a round or two of cards.

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My connection in MHS is decent enough for emailing and blog posting, but is horrible for picture uploading. I have about 87 MHS pictures so far and I hope to be caught up and all uploaded in the very near future.

Overnight bus trips. . .

. . .do absolutely nothing for your neck and back. I speak from firsthand experience.

My last day in Chiang Mai was fairly uneventful. On Monday night, Zach and I went out for a beer and a few rounds of cards and were glad that we were safely undercover when a huge thunderstorm hit. I can't remember the last time I'd seen it rain that hard, but it was probably when I was still in the States. The timing of the storm was pretty perfect, actually. I'd just complained to Zach that it was more humid that night compared to previous nights and within minutes the storm came through and cooled everything down.

I slept in on Tuesday morning and when I woke up it was still gray and overcast. I had a late, leisurely breakfast with a new book and then got some internet time in. I tried to get a massage (for the second time) at the Chiang Mai women's prison and (for the second time) they were booked. (Massage training is part of the prison's rehabilitation program. Women get training and any money they earn while they are incarcerated goes into an account for them which they then receive once they are released. The program is supposed to allow them to more successfully reenter society. It seemed like my money would be going to a good cause, but unfortunately I guess it just wasn't meant to happen for me there.) I could've gone to any number of other massage places in town, but by that time it was getting late and there was a YOGA CLASS that I didn't want to miss. I figured I'd have plenty more chances to get a massage, but this may be my one and only shot at yoga; after the fiasco that was trying to find a drop-in class in India, I didn't want to risk missing this one. It was a good move - the class was really good and the instructor was a hottie. :-)

After yoga I chilled out for a bit before heading to the bus station for my 9pm bus to Mae Hong Son (MHS). It was an air-con bus - usually not my first choice because the temp on the bus ranges from freezing to my-fingertips-are-turning-blue - and I got lucky and didn't have a seatmate for the entire eight hour trip. This means I got to spread out a little, but it still wasn't exactly the most comfortable journey ever. The biggest reason for this is that the road from Chiang Mai to MHS is very curvy, consisting of 700+ (mostly) sharp curves. In fact, I know two motorcyclists who would have an absolute blast driving this road! So the curves would be fun on a bike, but when your neck is jammed suddenly into an uncomfortable angle, well, like I said, it's no good for you at all.

My bus was actually on time, a phenomenon that always seems to happen when I'd prefer it to be late. You see, I arrived in MHS at 5am this morning. 5am is early anywhere, but in a small town of 6,000 or so, nothing was open for hours. I wandered around and eventually found a place where I could get coffee and an early breakfast. Initially I was going to have the rice soup with pork and egg, but the soup looked kind of gelatinous, so I asked for banana pancakes instead. Too bad for me as they don't offer pancakes anymore. Back to the soup, then, which turned out to be pretty good, but I didn't eat the egg. I think an egg was cracked and dropped raw into the steaming soup which cooked it a bit, I'm sure, but I didn't feel like it was cooked enough and I didn't want to risk it. More wandering around and it was finally late enough to check in to a guesthouse. I'm at Friend House where for 200B I get a huge bed, a fan, and a shared, hot water bathroom.

I'll spend today checking out all the area wats and then tomorrow. . .well, I know what I'll be doing, but I'm going to keep you in suspense. :-) And if you're Dad or ToadMama, don't ruin the surprise since you already know!

Stuffed

I've just finished a Thai cooking course with Zach and it was amazing! It was one that I found on my own, without the help of Lonely Planet, thankyouverymuch. I chose it partially because it's right around the corner from my guesthouse, partially because it's cheaper than the others (750 baht = $22.73), and partially because it wasn't in LP.

We were picked up from the guesthouse and taken to the Thai Orchid Cookery School. The day started out with coffee and choosing our dishes. In each of four categories (soup, appetizer, curry, and stir-fry), we got to pick one of three. I chose creamy tom yam soup, spring rolls, pork panang, and pad thai. For each course we did the prep work first, chopping ingredients and such at our individual workstations outside. Then we moved into the house where A, our instructor, would first show us the steps involved. She had a totally professional set-up and even had a mirror above her so that we could see everything she was doing. Afterwards, we'd move back outside so that we could cook the dish ourselves. Then came the eating! We had the first two dishes as breakfast and then we took a break to go to a local market to see what the ingredients look like in their raw form.

(A doing her thing)

A showed us herbs, vegetables, rice, fruits, sauces, noodles - basically everything we had used or would be using throughout the day. One particularly, well, let's say interesting, item was the century egg, aka
thousand years egg, aka horse pee egg. Yup, you read that correctly. These are preserved eggs and one myth states that they are made by soaking them in horse urine for 100 days. We cracked one open to see what it looks like and it certainly smells a bit like pee! Probably not something I'd willingly try. A was also very patient in answering all of our questions about various fruits and vegetables that we're not familiar with, so that was nice.

(Concentrating on cooking)

After the market, it was back to the school to prepare the final two dishes. Since Zach is vegetarian, A prepared each dish for us without using meat or meat products (oyster sauce and fish sauce), so that we could each taste both dishes. She also gave us ideas for substitutions for when certain ingredients aren't available or for when we just wanted to change up a dish for variety's sake. Rather than eat dishes three and four individually as we'd done for the earlier dishes, we ate the last two dishes together. Actually, I should say we feasted on the last two dishes. A's assistant had also prepared rice, so we had that in addition to what we'd cooked.

(The feast laid out before us)

As if all of this wasn't awesome enough, when we'd finally finished eating as much as we could possible stuff into our faces, A gave us a tote bag with a bound recipe book inside which included all of the recipes, not just the ones we'd made. It was such a great way to spend the day. Zach and I couldn't stop gushing about how much fun we were having and how interesting and educational it'd been. Let's do it again tomorrow!

Heaven?

I'm really loving Chiang Mai so far. I'm staying at the VS Guesthouse which is right on a main street and in the thick of things. From this location, it's super easy to find bikes for rent, used books, cheap internet access, thai massage, and tons of places to eat and drink - including fresh coffee, actually in abundance in Chiang Mai. Besides that, my room is cheap and has a fan, tv, and HOT water (it's been a few stays since I could say that!). I think I might be in heaven. :-)

Today Zach and I had breakfast and then I found an ATM while he got a shave. We rented a motorbike and headed off to Wat Phra Singh to start our wat tour of the city. Wats are always pretty impressive, especially the more famous or well known ones - the reason they are famous or well known is usually because they have an interesting Buddha image or images. I particularly liked Wat Chiang Man. It's the oldest temple in the city and was built at the time of the founding of the city in 1296. This wat had huge murals wrapping around the inside of the temple that told the story of the life of Buddha. I wouldn't have known this, but Zach actually knows quite a bit about Buddhism, so he walked me around and described the story that each mural was telling. He also showed me the process of merit making - candles and incense are burned and flowers are laid on the altar as you meditate on good deeds, thoughts, and actions for this life and the next life. So it was an educational day for me, but I also got to see lots of cool things, too.

All the walking was making us hot and sweaty and we were both in the mood for massages, so we went back to the guesthouse to shower and freshen up. This massage was even cheaper than the one I had in Bangkok, only about $4.50/hour. Guess what I'll be doing, oh, I don't know, two or three dozen more times before I leave Chiang Mai, lol? Massages were followed by some great, cheap food and some internet time. Tonight we'll go to the Saturday Walking Street, a kind of evening market, on the motorbike.

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I'll be slowly getting caught up on picture uploading over the next day or so. Please bear with me; I know I just wrote a whole post about how much I love Chiang Mai and there's no pictures to go along with it, but there should be soon enough.

10 hours later. . .

. . .and I'm in Chiang Mai. That was officially the longest bus trip I've ever taken. The countryside is very scenic and pretty, but I'm awfully glad to be off the bus. Now I'm off to find food and a guesthouse, definitely in that order because I'm STARVING.

Backpackers unite

I arrived in Ayuthaya yesterday around 2:30pm. I dumped my bag in my room, got something to eat, checked email, and then did a whole lot of nothing for a couple of hours. I decided to grab a beer at the Streetlamp Restaurant and Bar (in the same building as my guesthouse) and ended up meeting Mark from the UK and Jorgen from Holland. Later we met Zach from Texas and the four of us hung out for the rest of the night. We were chatting and talking about our travels and our lives back home as we listened to live music. At one point, Jorgen got up and took over for the musician, so we got to hear him play and sing, too. After Mark and Jorgen called it a night, Zach and I played pool with some Thais before we also called it a night.

This morning the four of us met for breakfast. Mark and Jorgen were off to Kanchanaburi and Zach and I had just come from there, so we were giving them advice (and telling them how much they were going to love it!). It was my first opportunity to give other travelers info on a place (rather than being the one on the receiving end), so that was cool; I was glad that I was able to help them. Zach and I said goodbye to Mark and Jorgen and then we rented bikes so we could more easily see all of the different wats in Ayuthaya. Ayuthaya is a former capital of Thailand, so there are lots of them, but most are in ruins from when the Burmese conquered the city in 1767. Three wats in and we decided to take a break from wats for a bit and ride over to the Portuguese settlement. (Ayuthaya is basically an island and the Portuguese settlement is off the island.) That was the plan, but we never did find what we were looking for. It wasn't a wasted trip, though, because we got to see some gorgeous countryside. Also, we stopped for lunch at a place where no one spoke English, managed to order (Zach even using the phrase that he'd memorized - I'm a vegetarian), and I had the best bowl of noodles and chicken soup that I've had so far in Thailand.

Zach and I parted ways when we got back on the island, but just for a couple of hours. We're both checking email, showering, and taking naps before we meet up for dinner later. And there's been a minor change of plans - my first for awhile, so I figured it was time. :-) Rather than go to Lopburi, I'm going to go to Chiang Mai. The plan had always been to go to Chiang Mai, I'll just be going sooner than planned. I'll even have a travel partner for a couple of days because it's the same direction that Zach is heading. (I mentioned the "backpacker's trail" to ToadMama yesterday - so called because a lot of backpackers go to the same places - and this is a prime example of it in action.)

Also, in case you're wondering, I haven't uploaded pics in awhile. I still have the rest of Kanchanaburi plus all of Ayuthaya to upload. I've had free internet at my guesthouse, but the connection speed is ridiculously slow, so I haven't even bothered to try. Chiang Mai is a university town, though, so connections should be better and I'll be able to get all caught up.

Tigers

A peaceful morning on the river Kwai with french toast and coffee. Then off to the bus station to catch a bus to the Tiger Temple. The monks who live at this temple care for the land and the animals which, obviously, includes tigers. The tigers are the big draw because visitors to the temple can get up close and personal with the big cats and are even allowed to pet them. There's some controversy and rumors surrounding the Tiger Temple; some people believe that the tigers are so docile because they are drugged or even mistreated. It's a 500 baht admission fee to the temple, so I wanted to do a little extra research before I decided whether to go or not. By coincidence, I met a guy at the internet cafe the other day who had volunteered at the temple for five months and worked directly with the tigers. He allayed all my fears and said that the tigers are somewhat tame (but still wild animals) because they are brought up and conditioned around people all their lives. Also, visiting time with the tigers is in the middle of the afternoon, during the hottest part of the day when they'd normaly be sleeping, and after they've eaten and been exercised. (And who isn't tired and sleepy in that same situation?) I was glad to hear this explanation because I'd really wanted to see the tigers.

The temple is located 45 minutes away from Kanchanaburi and then it drops you off about 2km from the entrance. A Swiss couple, Matthew and Yesica, and a German guy, Peter, and I were all headed to the temple at the same time. Luckily for us, a truck pulled up next to us and offered us rides. Remember what I said about it being the hottest part of the day? Same goes for people, so we were happy for the ride. After we paid our fee and signed the waiver - saying that if we did something stupid to provoke a tiger and ended up getting eaten that the temple wasn't to be held responsible - it was all about the tigers. We got to walk with the tigers down to the canyon and then have our picture taken with a handful of different tigers as we pet them. As you can see, they were very sleepy, but it was still super cool being so close to them and being able to pet them.


There were other animals, too, namely water buffalo, deer, peacocks, ponies, cows, and the most colorful, patchwork-looking roosters I've ever seen. Check out these other pics, particularly to see one of me looking awfully wary of the cow that's getting closer and closer to me while I'm crouching next to her. (If the pics aren't uploaded when you read this, they will be soon.)

A few hours later, we'd had our fill of tigers and sun, so headed back to the main road to catch the bus back in to town. We got lucky again and had another ride offered to us. At the main road, we weren't seeing buses drive by, so someone jokingly decided that we should hitch a ride. What do you know, a driver stopped, we offered him 100 baht to take us to Kanchanaburi, and we climbed in. A half hour later we got to our stop and the driver refused to take the money. Pretty nice, huh? At this point it was about 4:30pm and none of us had eaten since breakfast, so four very hungry people headed towards food. I had a very tasty, very cheap, very spicy minced pork dish that probably would have gone great with beer, but I was so tired after the day that I figured it would knock me right out. About the time we finished eating, the sun was about to set, so we headed to the garden on the river to enjoy the day's last rays. A peaceful ending to a day that started out just as peacefully. Except it's not quite over yet. After a shower and some freshening up (can anyone say "get rid of the tiger smell?" lol), I'm gonna meet these same folks out at a reggae bar and enjoy every last second of my last night in Kanchanaburi. I've really liked it here, but if I don't leave now, I may never see any other part of Thailand before my visa expires!