We would just like to inform everyone that we have safely made it to Thailand!!! Our flight was short considering we slept through most of it, and landed in Bangkok at 10:00am! We were lucky that we had a friend who was also flying in from taiwan at the same time who knew where he was going so we met up with him and took a cab to Khao San Road, where all the backpackers stay. It was alot easier communicating and getting around than we had anticipated and pretty much most people are fluent in english. We found a cozy place to stay for 430 baht which works out to be about $14 split 3 ways!!! The first thing we did after checking into our guest house was grabbing some cold beer from a near by 7-11 (a beer was 26 baht which is less than $1) and walked the streets checking out the market. We were soon interupted by one of the millions of Tuk Tuk drivers offering to show us the sights. We paid the driver 15 bacht to drive us around for one hour (less than .50c!!) We ended the day with a traditional thai meal and our very first Thai massage (which costs about $7 for an hour).
The next day we did some shopping at the big Siam Discovery Center and MBK then decided to buy a bus pass and head to Chiang Mai (a city in northern Thailand). We took the overnight bus and arrived in the city at 6:00am, checked in and slept till noon!!! Later that day we met up with more friends from Saskatoon and started the endless stream of thai beers!! We even had our first Thai bucket!!!
The next day we spent shopping, getting our nails done, going for another massage and checking out the night bazaar, a gigantic night market!
TOmorrow we're heading out on a 2 day hill tribe trek that includes elephant rides, banboo rafting, and a night sleeping in the jungle next to a waterfall!!
Signing off from thailand,
Tanis & Kristin
