6/15 Final Post
Well, I have plenty of time to reflect now on the last days of my trip. I am currently waiting at the Phuket airport to board my flight to Bangkok. Only 31 hours, if my calculations are correct, until I arrive in Portland. At that point Jeff will pick me up and we'll drive straight to Lewiston, Idaho to see grandma and start our Dworshak camping trip. That should be a seven hour drive, so that puts me at 38 total travel hours approximately. Luckily I'm only 6'5" so planes are very comfortable for me. Spending the night in the Bangkok airport tonight is a generous portion of that time.
I'd be lying if I said the last days of our trip went smoothly and as planned. I last left off on my blog saying that we were planning an elephant safari that day. Those plans were first foiled when poor Chris woke up sick and rested that morning in bed postponing our trip to the following day. However, we all felt up to riding scooters to a nearby waterfall that day. Unfortunately a loose pile of dirt on a downhill curve had it out for Chris on this particular day. Chris's tires hit the dirt and slid the scooter out from under him. Chris broke the fall with his chin, which I think he would recommend against at this point. So you all don't worry tremendously throughout the rest of the story, let me tell you that chris is on his feet now and traveling with Zach and Rachel, and still plans to go to China afterwards as far as I know. Long story short, we got Chris to the hospital in Pai and they stitched him up and sent him to a better hospital in Chiang Mai. We bussed to Chiang Mai as well and spent our time there while he waited for his surgery. Chris was a brave lad throughout the whole endeavor! They finally did his surgery after a couple of long days. His mandible was broken so his jaw is wired shut for the next couple weeks. He consumes his necessary nutrients through Chang, our favorite Thai beer, and any other liquid. Chris insisted that we continue with our fun while he waited it out in the hospital. So we had our fun in Chiang Mai and visited Chris regularly.
Our first full day in Chiang Mai we visited the Tiger Kingdom. Oooo Ahhhh. It was pretty awesome I must say. The story is told better through pictures which I've posted on Facebook. Even more of the photos are posted on flickr.com on my page chad0304. I've never used flickr so I hope it works out okay. Basically we spent time with both baby tigers and very large year-old tigers. The experience was incredible. I had to keep an especially close eye on Rachel for fear that she might slip one of those babies into her bag. Surprisingly no one felt any sense of fear with the large tigers, even whilst spooning them. We were the big spoon though, it might have been scary to be the small spoon. I hope that paints a picture. The pure joy and excitement takes over when you're with the tiger and fear isn't even an afterthought for me. We had a professional photographer with us so the photos are really excellent. I encourage you to check them out.
That night Zach and I went out to experience a Muay Thai match. For those of you who are unaware, Muay Thai is a type of martial art and is Thailand's national sport. We had an absolute blast watching eight matches throughout the evening. Most of the fighters only weighed as much as my lower body, but they were extremely athletic. The dance they perform as a ritual before the match is also nearly as entertaining as the match itself. There was one large white boy, from England, who quite literally got his ass kicked by a much smaller Thai opponent. The obviously more experienced Thai fighter was probably 6 to 8 inches shorter. The English chap could not defend the Thai's kick to the left hamstring, which by the end of the fight was all shades of red, blue, and purple. After the matches we met up again with Chanon, who's name we discovered is actually Tanom. Anyhow, he took us out for "just one beer" again and we had just a slightly less crazy night. I was a good boy though and made it back to the guesthouse by my curfew :).
The following day, after checking up on Chris, we departed for an elephant trek just outside of Chiang Mai. On the trek we floated down a river on a bamboo raft, road an oxen-pulled cart, watched an elephant show, road an elephant through the jungle, and finished off by visiting a famous orchid farm. The elephant show was quite impressive, my favorite part featuring an elephant shooting a soccer ball. Obviously the highlight of the day was riding the elephant, which might even take the cake on the coolest thing I did during my whole trip.
Rach and I flew south to Phuket late that night. The following day we checked into a nice resort just minutes by foot from Kata beach. Our first days in Kata were spent enjoying the sunshine and beach. I managed quite the sunburn the first day even though we were only out for 2 hours and I applied sunscreen more than once. I suppose I'll never learn that I'm a fair skinned red-head.
Chris and Zach made it down for my last two days in Phuket. We chilled again on the beach together the first day. On my final day we took a tour of Phang Nga Bay, famous for being the location of James Bond Island from Man With The Golden Gun. The tour consisted of a fairy ride that took us to wonderful islands and limestone caves which we then explored by sea canoe. It was a tremendously fun last day.
I'm wrapping up this final post while waiting on my last flight from Vancouver to Portland now. The traveling has been less exhausting then expected. Hope anyone who read my blog enjoyed it, because it was a chore to write :). Hopefully I'll look back on it someday and appreciate that I took the time. It was an extremely memorable vacation and one that I'll want to remember every detail of. I'm very thankful of the people I traveled with and am glad we'll have these memories to share forever. Sorry for the sappy stuff. That's all.
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Wednesday, June 8, 2011
6/9/11 Temples, Spicy Discos, and Scooters
Considering it's been a number of days since my last blog I have an overwhelming number of things to write about. After our short stint in Bangkok we hopped on a shared van to the border of Cambodia. We got to the border without much issue, although we had to deal with a lot of "help" from the locals who all wanted to assist us with our travels in hopes to earn a little themselves. Nearly any time someone is showing you the way or giving you advise voluntarily it will likely result in them getting some sort of cut from whatever taxi driver, tuk tuk driver, or hotel they are taking you to. We have been forced to become very savvy travelers in a hurry and have avoided getting ripped off too badly (although getting ripped off here is still better than paying a regular price for anything in the States).
From the border of Cambodia we got a taxi to the City of Siem Reap, which has become a popular lodging point for tourists wishing to see the nearby Angkor Temples. We found lodging without issue and it was a nice enough place to stay for a few nights while traveling to the temples. All of the temples were magnificent and diverse. There is really so much to say about each one of them. Angkor Wat, the most famous one, was the most impressive obviously, but each temple had something different to offer. Some were smaller, but had more intricate carvings and were well preserved. Angkor Wat itself was well preserved and absolutely massive and best viewed during a stunning sunrise. My personal favorite was an outlier temple, called Beng Melay, that was very different from the others in that it was actually more "ruined". The piles of heavy stone allowed us to climb around all over the temple which gave it a less guided feel. Exploring Beng Melay felt more like an activity, which was quite refreshing after 3 days of walking through temple after temple. I also enjoyed learning more about Hinduism while exploring each temple, I really find it to be a very fascinating religion. Our tuk tuk driver, Jontao, was absolutely wonderful. His smile lit up the world and he was so kind, always having cold water waiting in his tuk tuk after we walked out of each temple.
Riding around in Jontao's tuk tuk was an experience in itself, as we traveled through Cambodian villages around the temples. Their way of life here seems so primitive compared to our pampered lifestyles back home. I wish I would have written down all the crazy stuff we saw as it happened, because I would have quite the list. It was not uncommon to see families of four riding together on motorbikes, infants sleeping in baskets on the back of motorbikes, or pigs and chickens piled high and tied down to the back. Children are given free reign, and for this reason they are very intelligent in ways kids in the States are not. They seem so impoverished here, yet all very young kids are extremely savvy salesmen, mathematicians, and linguists. Every child knows at least English and Khmer(the Cambodian language). Kids were beginning to be so persistent and bothersome about selling bracelets, postcards, small instruments, etc that I once resulted in pretending I only spoke Italian and not English. In response to this a child began speaking to me in Spanish because she knew it was similar to Italian! All this really made me a little disappointed in our well funded schools that don't teach as much as these unfunded school huts these kids learn out of. I could go on and on about Cambodia, but much to do today, much to still write.
We arrived safely back to Bangkok by taxi and caught our flight up to Chiang Mai in the north without any issue. The plan was to spend one night in Chiang Mai then catch an early bus to the nearby city of Pai the next day. We got to a guesthouse around 11:00 and were all going to go check out the famous night market until Rach and Chris got too sleepy and decided to stay in. Zach and I went to the market without them just to check it out. We went out with a young Canadian couple, Alex and Amy, whom we had met on the plane. We were only at the market a little while before Zach realized how sleepy he was and we decided to head back after one innocent little beer with our new Canadian friends. As we finished up our beer we met Chanon, a local who sat down with us and chatted as he and his coworkers closed shop. Chanon was super friendly, and after a good chat talked us into going to one of his favorite spots for one more beer. After arriving at the SPICY DISCO, Zach, Alex, Amy, Chanon, and myself ended up having a little more fun than we intended :). We danced and drank the night away, while Zach and I fended off the persistent approaches from the scantily clad local Thai women. It's safe to say Zach and I had a hell of a night, quite unplanned, and made great friends with Chanon, Zach, and Amy. Although we had a great time, in the moment, I do regret that we certainly worried Rachel and Chris, who never expected that we would be out drinking and dancing till after 4:00am. They were worried that something might have happened to us, so I am very sorry for that. However, they probably should have partied with us instead of being sleepy little Ewings :) Kidding!! Those two just get SOOO SLEEPY some times!!
I battled a mild hangover the next morning while we road on the bus through the twisting narrow roads on our three hour drive to Pai. Pai is absolutely perfect, so tranquil and pleasant. Yesterday we rented scooters (motorbikes) for 24 for hours, which cost us a whopping three US dollars. Rach and I rode to a beautiful waterfall, while Chris and Zach tended to Zach's flat tire that happened shortly after we rented the scooters. We are staying in small bamboo bungalows. Pai has tons of activities that we are planning on doing today and tomorrow. We had scheduled a tour today that included elephant riding, playing and bathing with the elephants, floating a bamboo raft down the river, and enjoying the nearby hot-springs. Chris, unfortunately, woke up a little sick this morning so we've postponed those activities until tomorrow. Today we might go find some more waterfalls or hot-springs on scooters or even try some nearby zip-lines that are very highly talked about. Pai is such a quaint beautiful village and I wish we had even more days here. We have all of today, tomorrow, and most of the next day until Rachel and I return to Chiang Mai to catch our flight south to Phuket. The boys will stay in Pai a little longer and meet us in Phuket later. Can't wait for all the fun stuff we still have left. Love everyone back home and miss you!
From the border of Cambodia we got a taxi to the City of Siem Reap, which has become a popular lodging point for tourists wishing to see the nearby Angkor Temples. We found lodging without issue and it was a nice enough place to stay for a few nights while traveling to the temples. All of the temples were magnificent and diverse. There is really so much to say about each one of them. Angkor Wat, the most famous one, was the most impressive obviously, but each temple had something different to offer. Some were smaller, but had more intricate carvings and were well preserved. Angkor Wat itself was well preserved and absolutely massive and best viewed during a stunning sunrise. My personal favorite was an outlier temple, called Beng Melay, that was very different from the others in that it was actually more "ruined". The piles of heavy stone allowed us to climb around all over the temple which gave it a less guided feel. Exploring Beng Melay felt more like an activity, which was quite refreshing after 3 days of walking through temple after temple. I also enjoyed learning more about Hinduism while exploring each temple, I really find it to be a very fascinating religion. Our tuk tuk driver, Jontao, was absolutely wonderful. His smile lit up the world and he was so kind, always having cold water waiting in his tuk tuk after we walked out of each temple.
Riding around in Jontao's tuk tuk was an experience in itself, as we traveled through Cambodian villages around the temples. Their way of life here seems so primitive compared to our pampered lifestyles back home. I wish I would have written down all the crazy stuff we saw as it happened, because I would have quite the list. It was not uncommon to see families of four riding together on motorbikes, infants sleeping in baskets on the back of motorbikes, or pigs and chickens piled high and tied down to the back. Children are given free reign, and for this reason they are very intelligent in ways kids in the States are not. They seem so impoverished here, yet all very young kids are extremely savvy salesmen, mathematicians, and linguists. Every child knows at least English and Khmer(the Cambodian language). Kids were beginning to be so persistent and bothersome about selling bracelets, postcards, small instruments, etc that I once resulted in pretending I only spoke Italian and not English. In response to this a child began speaking to me in Spanish because she knew it was similar to Italian! All this really made me a little disappointed in our well funded schools that don't teach as much as these unfunded school huts these kids learn out of. I could go on and on about Cambodia, but much to do today, much to still write.
We arrived safely back to Bangkok by taxi and caught our flight up to Chiang Mai in the north without any issue. The plan was to spend one night in Chiang Mai then catch an early bus to the nearby city of Pai the next day. We got to a guesthouse around 11:00 and were all going to go check out the famous night market until Rach and Chris got too sleepy and decided to stay in. Zach and I went to the market without them just to check it out. We went out with a young Canadian couple, Alex and Amy, whom we had met on the plane. We were only at the market a little while before Zach realized how sleepy he was and we decided to head back after one innocent little beer with our new Canadian friends. As we finished up our beer we met Chanon, a local who sat down with us and chatted as he and his coworkers closed shop. Chanon was super friendly, and after a good chat talked us into going to one of his favorite spots for one more beer. After arriving at the SPICY DISCO, Zach, Alex, Amy, Chanon, and myself ended up having a little more fun than we intended :). We danced and drank the night away, while Zach and I fended off the persistent approaches from the scantily clad local Thai women. It's safe to say Zach and I had a hell of a night, quite unplanned, and made great friends with Chanon, Zach, and Amy. Although we had a great time, in the moment, I do regret that we certainly worried Rachel and Chris, who never expected that we would be out drinking and dancing till after 4:00am. They were worried that something might have happened to us, so I am very sorry for that. However, they probably should have partied with us instead of being sleepy little Ewings :) Kidding!! Those two just get SOOO SLEEPY some times!!
I battled a mild hangover the next morning while we road on the bus through the twisting narrow roads on our three hour drive to Pai. Pai is absolutely perfect, so tranquil and pleasant. Yesterday we rented scooters (motorbikes) for 24 for hours, which cost us a whopping three US dollars. Rach and I rode to a beautiful waterfall, while Chris and Zach tended to Zach's flat tire that happened shortly after we rented the scooters. We are staying in small bamboo bungalows. Pai has tons of activities that we are planning on doing today and tomorrow. We had scheduled a tour today that included elephant riding, playing and bathing with the elephants, floating a bamboo raft down the river, and enjoying the nearby hot-springs. Chris, unfortunately, woke up a little sick this morning so we've postponed those activities until tomorrow. Today we might go find some more waterfalls or hot-springs on scooters or even try some nearby zip-lines that are very highly talked about. Pai is such a quaint beautiful village and I wish we had even more days here. We have all of today, tomorrow, and most of the next day until Rachel and I return to Chiang Mai to catch our flight south to Phuket. The boys will stay in Pai a little longer and meet us in Phuket later. Can't wait for all the fun stuff we still have left. Love everyone back home and miss you!
Friday, June 3, 2011
6/3 180 baht= 6 dollars= 1 hour Thai massage
We had such a successful day yesterday, and really made the most of our limited time in Bangkok. We caught a cab early in the morning from our hostel into the center of Bangkok. Cabs here are so cheap, I actually pay more per mile for gas at home, especially since we're splitting everything four ways. When we made it into town we set off on foot to find a place to stay. We found this sweet backpackers villa in no time and dropped off our packs to "paint the town red".
We were in a definite tourist area as we set off to see the golden temple complex here in Bangkok. And apparently we all have gullible tourist stamped across our foreheads. Nearly everyone we walked by wanted to "help" us with all sorts of information or tuk tuk (little mini taxis) rides to the temple. We however had read about these peoples tactics and made our way on our own while saying Mai chai (no!) to everyone.
The temples were absolutely stunning! The outsides of the temples were highly decorated unlike anything I witnessed in Italy. We walked around the massive temples for a couple hours then headed to one of Bangkok's many markets. Rach and I devoured some delicious pad Thai while the other boys hit up some curry. Adjacent to the market we headed down to the dock to depart on a boat tour of Bangkok on the Chao Prya river. The tour guided us through narrow waterways that act as streets to many small family huts supported precariously by thin vertical logs coming out of the river. We saw a number of huge lizard-like creatures that I had no desire to swim with. We also bought some beers off a canoe that paddled along beside us. Other canoes had small charcoal grills cooking up different meets on sticks!
Before dinner we all got thai massages near our guesthouse massages here are so awesome and ridiculously cheap it wont be my last massage of the trip We ate a delicious dinner including grilled snapper, different curries, and a drunken noodle dish. Another highlight of the day was picking up a pair of knock-off raybans for 4 dollars US. Great success for our first full day in Thailand.
This morning we hopped on a charter van to Cambodia where we will be visiting Angkor Wat. I encourage everyone who doesn't know about Angkor Wat to do a little research. I'm on the van currently writing this post that I'll put on my blog next chance I have Internet. Nap time!
We were in a definite tourist area as we set off to see the golden temple complex here in Bangkok. And apparently we all have gullible tourist stamped across our foreheads. Nearly everyone we walked by wanted to "help" us with all sorts of information or tuk tuk (little mini taxis) rides to the temple. We however had read about these peoples tactics and made our way on our own while saying Mai chai (no!) to everyone.
The temples were absolutely stunning! The outsides of the temples were highly decorated unlike anything I witnessed in Italy. We walked around the massive temples for a couple hours then headed to one of Bangkok's many markets. Rach and I devoured some delicious pad Thai while the other boys hit up some curry. Adjacent to the market we headed down to the dock to depart on a boat tour of Bangkok on the Chao Prya river. The tour guided us through narrow waterways that act as streets to many small family huts supported precariously by thin vertical logs coming out of the river. We saw a number of huge lizard-like creatures that I had no desire to swim with. We also bought some beers off a canoe that paddled along beside us. Other canoes had small charcoal grills cooking up different meets on sticks!
Before dinner we all got thai massages near our guesthouse massages here are so awesome and ridiculously cheap it wont be my last massage of the trip We ate a delicious dinner including grilled snapper, different curries, and a drunken noodle dish. Another highlight of the day was picking up a pair of knock-off raybans for 4 dollars US. Great success for our first full day in Thailand.
This morning we hopped on a charter van to Cambodia where we will be visiting Angkor Wat. I encourage everyone who doesn't know about Angkor Wat to do a little research. I'm on the van currently writing this post that I'll put on my blog next chance I have Internet. Nap time!
6/2 Safe and sound, mom
Sa-wa-dee khrap! Hello! And welcome to my thailand vacation blog. Let me first off apologize to everyone for the number of errors and the lack of effort I'll likely be putting in to this. You may have read my South Africa blob and are expecting something similar, but in all reality I will very likely tire of typing out long entries on my phone, especially with the number of errors I make with these summer sausages I call thumbs.
First off, let me introduce the crew with whom I am rolling on this Southeast Asian adventure. Rachel (you may have heard of her), Chris (Rachel's brother), and Zach (let's just call him Rachel and Chris's stepbrother-ish). I'm quite excited about traveling with these kind folk and I'm certain we'll have one hell of a time.
There's not a whole lot to tell in regards to our day of travel yesterday. We had to sprint to not miss our flight to japan after a little delay in our Vancouver flight, but besides that everything moved along without any hiccups. Zach, Rachel, and I met up successfully with Chris in Bangkok airport. Chris had been traveling around in Australia already. He already had a place lined up for us to stay, a yha hostel near the airport. We easily caught a cab and checked in. Currently it is 6:39am and I just woke from a relatively descent night's sleep thanks to the assistance of a powerful purple pill fighting off the effects of my jet lag. Thank you to my supplier, Kathy, for hooking me up with those drugs before my departure, you deal real quality stuff. Today we're going to pack in as much of what Bangkok has to offer since we're only here for one full day.
First off, let me introduce the crew with whom I am rolling on this Southeast Asian adventure. Rachel (you may have heard of her), Chris (Rachel's brother), and Zach (let's just call him Rachel and Chris's stepbrother-ish). I'm quite excited about traveling with these kind folk and I'm certain we'll have one hell of a time.
There's not a whole lot to tell in regards to our day of travel yesterday. We had to sprint to not miss our flight to japan after a little delay in our Vancouver flight, but besides that everything moved along without any hiccups. Zach, Rachel, and I met up successfully with Chris in Bangkok airport. Chris had been traveling around in Australia already. He already had a place lined up for us to stay, a yha hostel near the airport. We easily caught a cab and checked in. Currently it is 6:39am and I just woke from a relatively descent night's sleep thanks to the assistance of a powerful purple pill fighting off the effects of my jet lag. Thank you to my supplier, Kathy, for hooking me up with those drugs before my departure, you deal real quality stuff. Today we're going to pack in as much of what Bangkok has to offer since we're only here for one full day.
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