Ok, so it’s getting much harder for me to
keep up to date on these blogs. I have been traveling every two to three days
and when I’m not traveling I am sightseeing or just plum utterly worn out that
I can’t think straight. Actually,
I am getting use to traveling by bus & boat for 10 to 12 hours a day.
During the actual day or night, it really doesn’t seem that bad. It usually
hits me the next day.
I keep forgetting to tell everyone the good news. I received a message from one of the social workers at CHSFS in Ethiopia where I volunteered that the little two-year old boy (Merituh) who I helped with walking has been matched with a family. I am so happy!
So, I first went to Chiang Mai, which is in North
Thailand. As soon as we crossed the Laos/Thailand border, you could immediately
notice that Thailand is a more modernized country than Laos. Double highways
everywhere with billboards, green exit signs, 7 Eleven gas stations with rest
stop, Mc Donald’s, Starbucks. I felt like we drove back into the US. Chiang Mai
is known for it’s trekking & elephant tours. Since, I am already a trained
elephant mahout from Laos I decided to go white water rafting. We drove for about 2 hours further
north thru some beautiful mountain scenery and then arrived at the gushing
river. Most of the rapids were class 4 & 5, which means you just get down
in the middle of the boat and hold on for dear life! The guide tries &
steers the boat as much as possible or just lets the current take us even if it
means slamming into a big rock and then our boat fills with water. But we
quickly move on and the raft self bales itself and we get a chance to get back
up on the side and paddle. When we were on the calm part of the river, it was
so peaceful listening to the birds and hearing the currents of the water flow.
I kept seeing a really beautiful blue bird that kept flying from one side of
the river to the other. The guide said it was a kingfisher. It was an indigo blue color. Also, as we were going down the river
we would see people riding elephants along the side or crossing the river. It
really made you feel like you were in the jungle!
On to Bangkok, which has something for
everyone. It is a huge city and one would never run out of things to do. There
are so many different areas to explore.
I stayed in the busy backpacker area on the famous Khao San Rd. The
street was full of street vendors that sat up there spot right along both sides
of the street, mainly only open to people on foot except for the occasional
motorbike to whiz past you that you weren’t expecting. It was pretty easy to
get around using the water taxis along the river and the skytrain (which was
spotless). The BART system in San Fran could use a tip in cleanliness from
them. One day, I decided that I had enough sun & heat and decided to check
out one of their malls. It was something else! It was 5 stories high and huge.
I felt like I was back in the US except for being surrounded by Asian people
and being the minority. There is a
lot of money in Bangkok. Another
day I explored several temples. One was Wat Arun, which you will see in my
pictures. There were four terraces each higher than the other depicting Buddha
at the four most important stages of his life: birth, meditation, preaching his
first sermon, and entering nirvana.
Another temple I visited was Wat Pho, which houses the largest reclining
Buddha. The statue is over 7 feet tall, which portrays the Buddha entering
nirvana. The Buddha has a beaming smile that is over 4 feet long and the
bottoms of the feet are black with mother pearl drawings. Then on to the Grand Palace where there
was one ornate beautiful building after another. The royal temple houses one of
the most important icons, the Emerald Buddha. Next, I visited the floating market, which was about two
hours away. We arrived in an area where we took a long tail motorized boat
through some canals where there were houses and small shops set up along the
canal. When we got to the floating market area, we switched to a smaller
rowboat where we rowed amongst all the market boats. The area was full of
people rowing their boats selling fruits, vegetables, stir-frys, soups, and
many more things. Oh, I even remember seeing a boat, which looked, like a
convenient store selling toilet paper and etc. There were also many boats that were non-moving selling all
kinds of souvenirs. I even saw one that was selling Gucci purses. It was all
quite crazy and people were just constantly asking you to buy. – And you just couldn’t walk away – the
boat man was in charge and decided how long he would stay in front of a vendor
trying to get you to buy something. Quite the experience!!
I actually liked Bangkok and could have
stayed a little longer but I only have a 15-day visa (which you get when you
cross by land rather than the 30-day visa you get when you fly in) and I still
want to do some of the Islands. I know a lot of people say Bangkok is really
busy and is a lot to take in but it was nothing like Vietnam! Here traffic actually
drives in the lanes that are provided and obey the traffic signs. I think a big
difference is that there are a lot more cars than motorbikes, which was the
opposite in Vietnam. I was talking with another traveler and she mentioned that
Bangkok is organized chaos compared to Vietnam just being totally uncontrolled
chaos. Next, I went to Ko Samui,
which is one of the eastern Islands located in the Gulf of Thailand. The water
was amazing. So many different colors, clear next to the beach, where you could
look down in see your feet to a beautiful aqua blue that you can still see
through to a deep blue further out. And I believe it was the warmest water I
have ever been in. (Which really isn’t that refreshing because it is sooo hot
outside – sometimes I would feel a current of cool water). So had a few days of R&R on the
beach getting sunburned before I moved on to Krabi, which is on the western
side of Thailand (Andaman Sea). Here I took a 4 Island tour which was just
amazing. We were able to visit 4 different beautiful beaches and snorkel a
little bit. The snorkeling really wasn’t that great but we did get to swim with
a big school of green & yellow fishes. There was one spot where there was a
sandbar that connected three different islands. Next, I’ll be on my way to
Malaysia.
