Hi guys!
So, some new faces....welcome to the world of my really long emails ~ Laura, Braunwyn, Jeff, Pam, and Bill....
And so we begin...
I'm currently sitting in an internet cafe in Mae Hong Son, which is a small town fairly close to the Myanmar (Burmese) border. From what I can tell the name means 'town on a river where elephants are raised' ~ or something to that effect. Thats pretty much how this place came to be....its so far into the jungle that it was a great place to catch wild elephants to bring all over the rest of the country for labour...and they, of course, trained them here first. Crazy mahouts.
I've arrived here from Pai, my last stop, via inflatable rubber raft....I did a white water rafting trip down the Mae Nam Pai ( Pai River) which took two full days, so I slept out in the jungle one night. Amazing....literally bamboo huts on stilts, mosquito nets, right on the banks of the river. We had two rafts, each with one Thai guide and 4 tourists. Along the way, we saw huge lizards, gibbons, and MASSIVE bugs. Dragonflys, praying mantis, etc. Crazy. The guides cooked for us for lunch, dinner, and breakfast, which was great super spicy thai stirfrys and rice, usually. Also stopped at natural hotsprings, a couple waterfalls, and swam down a few rapids as well.
My raft had a single British girl, and a German couple. So nice...there was a lot of down time on the river, and I ended up getting an impromptu German history lesson, and tips on what to see once I make it out that way! (don't worry, thats not this trip!!) I asked him if he thought 'Sanin" sounded Italian...and he figured the name has been changed along the way. Like we already figured. So far, by the way, I'm the only Canadian I know around here! Everyone I meet, however, says they meet scores of them, so its only a matter of time I guess. At any rate, I'm sunburnt, tired, and happy at this point.
On the bus up to Pai, I met a British couple who were headed there for the rafting trip; thats how i heard about it. I had planned a couple nights in Pai, but ended up leaving the very next morning. We did have an afternoon there however, and took advantage of it by renting motorcycles (if you can call them that...little 125cc Honda Dreams .......I can hear dad laughing from here@!!!!!) and riding around til it got dark. They took us out to an isolated strip of road and gave us a quick lesson, and then set us off! So fun, and pretty easy. It took me a bit to get the hang of right hand turns...(????) Dunno why. But I kept accelerating when I meant to brake....I know, I know,...bad mistake. Thankfully I made the mistake when the consequences were't dire, just ended up on the shoulder of the rood. It only costs about $5/day to rent them, with insurance...and about $2/tank of gas. Um, I've never had so much fun in my LIFE. The scenery was beautiful.....the roads were hilly and winding and amazing to ride on. One caveat...they drive on the OTHER side of the road here, so that took some concentration....didn't exactly come natural!! But other than that, it was great. I think i'm gonna rent a bike here in Mae Hong Son tomorrow, too. The guy who runs the guesthouse I'm at has maps of some pretty great places to drive to from here.
I'm just waiting for Andre to email me instructions on how to get my pix online, and then I'll send out the address where you can see them. I really think its just that the computers in Thailand are very slow...there might not be much I can do about it. We'll see.
After my free day tomorrow (on the motorcyle!!) I've got a trek lined up for 9am the next morning. 3 days, 2 nights ~ lots and lots of walking and river crossing etc. I'm really looking forward to it. I think most people, for the sake of convenience, choose to trek out of Chiang Mai ~ and as a result, the trekking industry is very commercial and overblown there. You end up with group after group of trekkers through a village in one day....sort of a circus atmosphere from what i've heard. This one, which is about 8 hours northwest of Chiang Mai, will be just me and a French couple, and a native guide. It'll be exhausting, 5-7hours of jungle trekking/day, and waist high river crossings etc, but GREAT. I think. I'll let you know when I get back....there are apparently leeches in the rivers so I'll see how I do with that...yikes.
The tentative plans after the trek....a day to relax here, get a massage etc...then back to Pai. I feel a need to ride an elephant while I'm in Thailand, and they have great elephant camps near Pai, where you go right in the river with them and bathe, etc. As well, Pai is the most beautiful and tranquil place I've seen yet. So green, rural, dusty roads and the people there are so smiley and friendly. I had a foot massage there after the day of riding bikes, and afterward they made me and Ruth (one half of the British couple I'd met!!) a tea, and wanted to sit and chat. How different is THAT from getting a massage back home! Oh yeah, and the difference in price, too...an hour of amazing, professional massage costs 150baht ~ or, about $5. Great. Makes me regret all the times I booked massages at Spa Ethos and paid $120/hour!!!! That money here would get me a weeks accomodation, food, AND daily massages.
Now, questions for you.
Pam and Bill ~ hows Sarah? How's Thomas reacting to her? Has he gotten used to her yet? I show everyone her picture, (its on my camera) and everyone says how beautiful she is. Especially the Thai people...
Laura ~ when are you coming to se asia? will i still be here?
Braunwyn ~ anything posted on your website yet....can you send me the address again...also..why are you leaving HK? heavy workload???
Marky ~ hows school coming along? and how much longer til you're done? i';m looking forward to seeing that grad pic on the wall in the family room when i get back!!!!
Hope everyone is doing great and enjoying the cold weather, haha. WB soon, I miss you all, so keep me posted on the day to day stuff!!!!
xoxo lots of love,
Laura
