Where are We Going Next?

Home At Last!

traveling_jungs — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:41:00 GMT

Thursday, November 13 7:28 pm US

Our flight from Taipei to SFO took 11 hours and Ryan and I ended up watching mostly movies during that time. We saw "Tropic Thunder," which Ryan kept laughing out loud at and bothering all the sleeping Taiwanese people. j/k And we saw "Wall-E"... well I watched out and Ryan sorta watched it. Anyhoo, we pretty much only slept about 2 - 3 hours total so we're kinda zonked right now.

But we are happy to be home right now. Guess what we ate first? Usually we make a straight line for the nearest Chinese restaurant. Not this time since that's too close to Thai food. Hee hee, MEXICAN! Yummy! Tamale, enchilada, and burrito in our bellies.

So this last entry is more or less a conclusion for our entire trip. First off, the people we met along the way:

1) Nok, our guide in Bangkok: She lives 32km outside of Bangkok but was born to a farming village. She attended secondary school and then went on to the university school where she learned more English. However, she decided to not go on to further study English as a lot of the other guides do. She was working as a human resource for a construction company but had to leave her job when the economy went downhill. So now she has been touring for a few years.

She was definitely one of the nicest guides we had in Thailand. She often took us to markets to teach us about foods and also tried to teach us some Thai words (sorta worked). Also, when we were taking the train to Chiang Mai, she stayed until we boarded the train to make sure that we were on the correct train. Not many guides would have done that!

Lastly, she was the most courteous person we met! She thanked EVERYONE, Thai or fa-reng (foreigner) and always willing to learn things from us (ie how to pick out a good laptop, English words for certain things - we hope we taught her the right words) and she always thanked us for teaching her. She even remembered the donuts we gave her for her birthday and she thanked us again for them on our last night in Chiang Mai. Oh yeah, she's rooting for us to have a baby soon! No pressure, eh?

2) Phong, our guide in Chiang Mai: he was born to a poor farming family that grew ganja (he said he never tried it, though) and legal crops too. He was always hungry so he joined the monkhood cuz he knew he'd get free room and board (hey, he said it; we didn't make that up!). He stayed in the monkhood for 3 years and told us that he had to wake up at 4:00 am every morning and he was sooo sleepy while doing his morning chants. He also wanted to become a monk because their English was so good and he wanted to be like that. He'd practice on the visiting tourists. He finally left monkhood because he wanted to do other things, but plans to become one again when he's old. Oh yeah, he also left because the other monks said that he's too lazy to be a monk. Ouch!

He eats SUPER FAST... we mean, he literally inhales his food and doesn't look up at us at all. And he eats a lot even though he's super-duper skinny. His favorite food is fish... no wonder we ate that almost every day! Because of his farming background, he knows about every fruit and tree in Thailand and often picks fruit off trees for himself and for us. Pretty cool huh? Ryan and I think that he'd be able to survive anywhere! Also, he loves to trek in the rainforest! Dude, he treks in regular sandals and manages to keep his balance while walking downhill on slippery rocks and mud or when we have to hop across rocks to cross streams!

His dream is to travel abroad but he reported that other countries require Thai citizens to have at least 100,000 baht in their savings before travelling. He always asks us about America and how much things cost. Probably because he's a master bargainer too. He loves going to local markets and flea markets to bargain hunt there. And to buy more food... his other favorite food is sticky rice cooked in bamboo. He bought us so much that we can't eat sticky rice for at least a month.

LOL oh yeah, we love his expressions. Here are some examples: lady-boy, lonely man karaoke, lion-dog, tiger-dog (or -cat), "good taste, good taste". And he loves all animals, but especially dogs and cats. He always whistles to them and calls them over so he can pet and feed them. Must be from his monkhood.

3) Somyot, our driver in Chiang Mai: he is super funny and really nice. His hidden talent, even from the owner of the tour company, is his skill with origami! He made us fishes of banana leaves (he even made 2 fish mobiles for us from dried banana leaves; we're going to hang them in our house); stars of plastic straws; hexagonal ball of paper; and paper cranes. Apparently his next love is movies, especially Rambo, Indiana Jones, and Predator. Seems like Arnold Schwarzenneger is his fav actor. But hates Harry Potter because the plot is too predictable! LOL.

His favorite line to us is: "Mind your head" as we enter/exit his van. We were really good at that except for me one day. He had put up the mobiles and surprised us and I happened to look up at them as I entered the van. Oh man did I hit my head hard on the ledge of the van! He doesn't speak much English but he has the greatest one-liners: "I'm a chaffeur" as he drives; "I'm a maid" as he swept our bamboo veranda in the Karen village with a bamboo broom; "I'm a bellboy" as he carries our bags (he never lets us carry our bags EVER); "spicy" as he scoops a teaspoonful of Thai chilies into his food or tries to put it on our food.

He also collects stamps so we'll be sending him a postcard from home and some US stamps for his collection. If we run across Thai-subtitled movies, we'll send them his way.

4) Randy, the owner of the tour company: we got to hang out with him all night during the launching of the Khom Loi balloons at Mae Jo University and he's pretty interesting. He's an American, raised in Texas and had been stationed in Thailand during the Vietnam War. After returning to the US after the war, he was spat at and treated poorly as a vet. He then had a messy divorce where his ex took A LOT of the money that he had made with his river boat cruise business. He then turned to Christianity and volunteered in various countries. He then was offered a position to teach at a university in Thailand for the AV department. And now he's lived in Thailand for 20 years. He has returned twice since then to the US (Texas and Oregon) and cannot stand the bland culture of the US. As he put it: "The people are still the same and doing the same things. They don't experience anything new in life."

He personally experiences all the trips, treks, and activities in his tour programs. In fact, he did the zip line when it first opened about 1 year ago and he was scared to death of it. He wanted to get down at the 2nd platform but the guides said it wasn't possible. So he finished all the platforms AND then the guides told him that they could've gotten him down but they wanted him to finish the course.

Our final overall impression of Thailand:

We loved the Thai people! They are truly nice and genuinely enjoy talking with fa-rengs. They are crazy-ish drivers but somehow they don't get into any accidents as they are courteous to each other and never have road rage. In fact, we never saw any Thai person get angry or yell others. We never saw angry faces on their faces either... even Nui or Ning when they had to book our last-minute flight back to Bangkok. Also, it's true that the Thai people are conservative. We never see anyone holding hands or displaying PDA on the streets. In fact, the Thai people frown upon that and Randy even had to politely tell an American couple to stop kissing and grabbing each other's butts in public because it was offending the Thai people standing near them. Oh yes, as for clothing, rarely did we see Thai women in tank tops or shorts and that's why you'll see me in only T-shirts and pants of some kind. We only wore shorts once or twice even though it was hot! Plus, we visited so many Buddhist temple grounds that we had to wear long pants.

The food is amazing! Everything is super fresh and organic. And, of course, super CHEAP! The portions are just right (about half of what Americans eat) but they eat often since there are a million vendors everywhere. The amazing thing is that, despite the massive intake of food, we didn't gain any weight. We think it's because the food's not as processed (more organic) and we walked a fair amount. The fruits are super good, especially if you go hiking in the jungle. We ate fruits on the plane and they tasted HORRIBLE! We don't know what we're going to do since we're spoiled on that yummy fruit!

Bangkok is definitely dirty, congested, and hectic but Chiang Mai is more relaxed and feels less touristy. Thaton was one of our favorite towns since it's WAY away from tourists and our favorite lodging was there. But it's just peaceful and nice to get away.

Our favorite experience is definitely the stay with the Lisu hill tribe, a good experience for "spoiled Westerners". Next would be all of our trekking since it was so calm, peaceful, and beautiful! Plus, the fruits were to die for (as mentioned before).

Final count for our trip:

Clothes: 4 T-shirts each for Felicia and for Ryan; 2 pairs of shorts for Felicia, 4 pairs of shorts for Ryan (he only wore 1 pair once);2 pairs of pants for Felicia (1 long pants, 1 capri), 2 pairs for Ryan; 2 pairs of shoes for Felicia (running shoes and ballerina flats), 1 pair for Ryan; 2 jackets for Felicia (1 hoodie, 1 outer jacket), 1 jacket for Ryan; 2 pairs of wool socks each for Felicia and Ryan; 1 long-sleeve shirt each for Felicia and Ryan

at least 20 Wats visited

20-ish times of squat toilet use for Felicia, 0 for Ryan

at least 12 visits to the Internet cafe for our online travel blog

12 mosquito bites for Felicia, 16 bites for Ryan

6 boat rides In Thailand

3 jungle treks

3 times of stepping into a stream for Felicia (always the left foot), 2 times for Ryan

3 times almost getting hit by a car/motorbike

2 Khom Loi balloons released by Felicia and Ryan

1 krathong made each by Felicia and Ryan

1 14-hour train ride to Chiang Mai

1 flight to Mae Hong Son

1 elephant ride

1 mini-car accident

1 bamboo hiking pole each for Felicia and Ryan

1 jar of Tiger Balm bought at Night Market

1 First-Aid kit brought from home

0 bugs eaten

0 bouts of food poisoning

So, yup we had a really good time in Thailand despite some homesickness and are glad that we did it together! Look at for newly posted pictures in the gallery (and not to worry, we'll be sending out an official online album later on)!

(oh yeah, right now I'm in my flannel pjs cuz it's a "freezing" 71 degrees out here. LOL Ryan refuses to turn on the heat and who can blame him?)

Loy Krathong..... and then on our way home

traveling_jungs — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 17:55:00 GMT

Thursday, November 13 6:36 am Thailand / 4:36 pm US

(We are sitting in the Chiang Mai airport waiting for our flight to Bangkok, which was booked yesterday evening.... more on that to come).

Yesterday we headed out and toured a couple more temples. Ond of the temples we visited was Phong's old stomping grounds where he lived for 3 years while he was in monkhood. He even got to meet one of the dogs that he used to take care of. His name was Pui and was described by Phong as a "lion" dog because of the shape of his hair (he was a hairy golden retriever). I reached out my hand to pet him, but Phong quickly yelled at me not to touch him because "he's a naughty, dangerous dog and bites everyone, including tourists!" Yikes!

We then headed to lunch where we had curry soup noodels and satay. Now Felicia and I know the proper way to eat satay. We're supposed to mix in the cucumbers and chili peppers that they give us into the peanutty/vinegary/coconutty sauce. Then, we're supposed to eat the meat with cucumbers and sauce all together. Felicia always wondered what the cucumbers were there for. We liked the new way a lot better!

After lunch we hit Chinatown (one of 2 in Chiang Mai)! This was more fo the same stuff, but this was also the place where we saw ROASTED BUGS! We saw huge flying ants, bamboo worms that looked like maggots, poisonous ants and their "honeycomb"-looking homes; and crickets. Umm... we didn't try them out though. Felicia chickened out after seeing them in person. We also met some random dude from LA who just started talking to us. He told us that his brother lives in Saratoga and, when he was in the States recently, he had blood work done and something was wrong. He then returned to Thailand and, after eating the foods in Thailand, he had his blood work done again and nothing was wrong. Must be all the organic foods and fruits and all the walking!

We were then supposed to head off to Nui's (tour company manager) house but she wasn't home so me and Felicia went and got another Thai massage. This time for one hour. For this massage, we had to change into PJs-type clothers. The only problem was that my pants were like XXXL and they had a waist-string thing which I incorrectly tied in the front. My knot was about the size of a tennis ball. So the massage starts with us lying on our backs and all is going well until the second part, where I flip onto my stomach. Remember that tennis-ball sized know? I'll just say it was uncomfortable! Did I also mention that I was chewing gum during the massage? Well I was, and chewing gum produces lots of saliva so I spent 50% of my energy trying to relax and the other 50% trying not to drool! The rest of the massage went well, though. Those 2 little old ladies sure know how to twist us and poke us and stretch us out! And the massage costed us 380 baht total including tip so that's a little over $10 for each of us!

(We just boarded the plane for Nok Airlines, a domestic airline, and the flight attendants look good!!)

After our massage, we arrive at Nui's house to make krathongs, which are boats made of banana leaves and are supposed to look like lotuses. They are used by the Thai people to wish for good luck and prosperity and to apologize to the river spirits for any evils done to the river. The process of making one involves decorating a circular piece of banana tree trunk (about 6 - 8 inches in diameter and about 2 inches in height) with banana leaves and some flowers, and A LOT of folding. This is a big deal for the Thai people and it quickly became a big party at the house as more people/friends arrived, including our Bangkok tour guide, Nok, and her current client, Michael from Florida. It was nice to see her again and she brought us pictures of us from Bangkok!

Now the "suay" party begins! In Thai, "suay" (pronounced SOH - WAY, not SWAY, which means unlucky) means beautiful. Everybody was commenting on each other's krathong's saying "suay" to each other. They probably were just being kind to me and Felicia's krathongs. If you have ever seen "Finding Nemo", then you probably remember the scene with the seagulls repeating, "Mine, mine, mine." Just replace "mine" with "suay" and you get the picture at the party!

After finishing making our krathongs (mine looked like an artichoke and Felicia's looked like a cake), we asked to confirm our flight back to Bangkok and Nui's response was, "You no have ticket?" At first, we thought she was just joking, but she really didn't know of the ticket/confirmation (even though we had asked Phong before and he said she'd know). Both Nui and Ning (another tour guide/manager) and Somyot (we found out the correct spelling of his name!) headed into the house, making calls to the airlines. PARTY OVER! Oops! Me and Felicia hung out outside, eating pork rinds with chili paste, which is their version of chips and salsa. Ning does find an open flight so we're off to purchase our tickets at ........... 7-11! WTF?! 7-11 really does have everything out here! They let us know that, after landing in the airport at Bangkok, we'd have to take a taxi to the International airport about an hour away. Uh okay.... grrrreeeaaatttt.

The last stop was at the Ping River to float away our krathongs. The streets were packed with people and vendors and difficult to get through. It was like New Year's Eve in Times Square! Absolutely crazy mayhem! Fireworks (from regular kids and people... not part of a show!) were firing off often and everywhere! We eventually get to the river, lit our candles and incense (after several attempts), wished for good luck and health, and floated away our krathongs simultaneously. Phong had said that, if a couple floats their krathongs away at the same time, they'll have eternal love.

We returned back to our hotel and packed for an hour. Wake-up time will be 5 am. At least that's better than the 8-hour car ride to Bangkok if we couldn't get a flight! Needless to say, it was difficult to sleep because fireworks were exploding throughout the whole night and could be seen and heard through our windows. Felicia had to pull out her ear plugs and eye mask to sleep.... and it worked for her!

Thursday, November 13 10:26 am Thailand / 8:26 pm US

(We have safely arrived at the Bangkok International Airport and now I'm finishing our log.)

The 5 am alarm went off and it's time to get up. Felicia asked for 10 more minutes, as usual for early wake-ups and every workday. After, we got up and double-checked our bags and checked out at 5:50 am. Sure enough, Phong and Somyot were already waiting outside and looking freezing cold, like at the Karen village. Somyot, though, was wearing a fleece beanie instead of his towel. Hmm... did I do that? The airport was 15 minutes away so, before checking in, we got Somyot's business card and Phong's phone number. Then we said good-bye to Somyot and thanked him for driving us away. Phong helped us check-in and then we thanked him for making our tour fun. We'll miss the both of them.

Now we're just hanging out at the airport. It's such a contrast to the cities we've visited. It's so open, bright, and sterile, whereas all the cities have all the grit, dirt, crowdedness, people, smells (good or bad). I feel back in my comfort zone and more at ease as I hear more people speaking English. In Bangkok or Chiang Mai, I was always wondering what people were saying or thinking and always guarding my backpack. Only 8000 miles still we're back home!

[All typed in the Taipei Internet stop.... LOL we've come a full circle to our 1st online journal entry!]

Thai Cooking Class

traveling_jungs — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 22:13:00 GMT

Tuesday, November 11 9:43 pm Thailand / 7:43 am US

Yesterday night we had a good time at the Khantoke dinner. We got to sit on the floor and eat Northern Thai cuisine: deep fried pork rinds, fried chicken, fried bananas, Thai "adobo" with pork, tomato sauce with minced pork, stir fried vegetables, sticky rice, fruits, and deep fried rice cake. We also got to see all the different styles of traditional Thai dancing. My favorite was the knife dance where the guys had to balance 8 knives on his neck with 2 in their mouths and 1 knife each in between their toes and behind their knees; they then did a pirouette! That's what you call good balance! We also got to see hill tribe dances and the coolest one was a fire dancing, very similar to the ones that the Polynesians do.

We then called it a night because we had to wake up early for our cooking class. So we got up early and barely had breakfast cuz we were so tired. 8 am was pick up so we got there with 1 minute to spare. We're sitting, sitting, and sitting. "Where's the car?" And we don't see a "bald, short Thai man" (Phong's description of the cooking instructor) anywhere. We waited for half an hour and then I called Phong. I must have woken him up cuz it took him half a minute to realize who I was. He then called the school and they said 9 am was pick up. Okay, so it was 8:53 am by the time I finished that call. No problem... 7 minutes is doable (even though it was chilly in the air. Thai winter was finally setting in!). Then we get another call from Phong and he said that the car was going to pick us up at 9:30 am! Acck... we could have slept in!

So the car finally arrives and there is one other couple and a single woman in there. We pick up another couple and, lo and behold, we're the only Asians in the car. Oh yeah, and our driver was younger woman who hit the pillar of one of the hotels as we pulled up! Oopsy, our first Thai car accident.

We get to the school and we have to make a choice: 1) go the market for an hour or 2) make curry paste from scratch. Easy choice: curry paste! The instructor (which actually was a female and later on, 2 other women taught us other dishes) explained all the ingredients and demonstrated how to pound and grind the ingredients with a granite mortar and pestle! Cool.... Ryan and I haven't ever grounded stuff before! LOL it was really, really hard work. Ryan had to do extra grinding and pounding (oh, that doesn't sound so G-rated!) cuz his wasn't pasty enough. Then, after adding in the fresh ingredients, I had to pound mine more because it wasn't smooth enough. This British man next to me did really well - his looked like the instructor's and somehow he ended up with a 1/2 cup of paste. We only had about 1/4 cup???!!

We got to use the paste to make paneng curry with chicken (both of ours were good: mine was spicy and Ryan's was sweeter). Then we made deep fried fish (they made that part, probably didn't trust us foreigners to not injure ourselves while frying) with sweet & spicy sauce - good taste too; Chiang Mai curry with chicken (mine was too sour and bland so the instructor had to add more palm sugar and tamarind sauce; Ryan's was perfect!); minced pork with glass noodle salad (both of ours turned out well); sweet & sour vegetables (yummy!); and black sticky rice pudding (I didn't care for it since the instructor made mine too sweet; Ryan liked his). By the end of the class, we all were about to fall asleep. That was more food than all of us usually ate! But we really enjoyed it and one of the best parts was that we got to meet and chat with people from all over the world, including LA/Santa Barbara! We now have a contact in Vancouver when we visit Canada!

We returned back to the hotel by riding in one of those truck taxis. Ryan and I were the only ones that actually fit in there since everyone else was so tall. LOL for once it paid to be short!

I think we must have ate way too much because we both ended up napping AGAIN! I haven't taken this many naps in a long time. But we got up refreshed and wandered the night market again. I had a feeling that something big was going to happen tonight since we saw a stage being set up in the middle of the street. Sure enough, the street was blocked off and a parade celebrating Loy Krathong started down it. Man, that was the SLOWEST parade ever! We don't know why but they would stop for at least 5 - 10 minutes at a standstill. In fact, they were so slow that we just walked the whole way down the line, took our pictures, and left. We accidentally found a whole area of carnival-like festivities for Loy Krathong! We saw lots more Khom Lois and got to try some more interesting foods (custard and chocolate-filled fish puffs; a sausage-looking thing on a stick that was filled with seasoned rice; round balls that looked like fish balls or meat balls but were filled with seasoned rice as well); Thai-style dim sum (shrimp dumpling and pork dumpling - they make it with something like a fish or meat ball texture. Ryan thinks it tastes the same like home, though);and Thai smoothie (dragonfruit, watermelon, papaya, pineapple).

After we wandered for about an hour, we walked back to the parade area to get back to our hotel. LOL the parade was almost where it was when we left! We felt so bad for the guys and girls in it. Most of them were sitting on the ground or talking on cell phones while waiting. And then random people would pose with them while taking pictures.

Speaking of taking pictures, we had to take one with the "Tif-phony" & Co. jewelry booth! Haha....

Anyway, we finally fought our way through the crowd and ended up at the Internet cafe. Whew, it was crazy out there, but fun! Tomorrow's a late wake-up call (11 am!) and then we get to make our very own krathong (banana leaf boat) to sail on the river to celebrate Loy Krathong! Cool beans!

Brrrs...It's cold

traveling_jungs — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 19:08:00 GMT

11/09/08 9:31pm / 7:31am US

We started off the day with a two hour drive to Doi Inthanon National Park which is the highest point in Thailand. Naturally Felicia fell asleep after driving for 20 minutes. On top of the summit is a military satelite station and the usual gift shops. The second coolest thing up here besides the view was a "No Pissing" sign showing a stick figure man with dribble dots coming from "you know where". I should have taken a picture!

After the summit, we headed down the road to see the King's and Queen's temples which look to have been recently constructed. We thoroughly enjoyed the escalator (which are intended for elderly and children) rides up to each pagoda. Again the views from here were spectacular.

Off to lunch in some side restaurant where we had some deep fried fish, local veggies (forest veggies, which looked green and had swirly vines), omelette stuffed with pork. The funniest part of lunch was our driver performing magic tricks, and matchbox games. He also tried to have Felicia shoot rubber bands at the matchboxes where all her shots ended up in the rain forest. We then stopped at the Hmong market where we tried lots of different dried fruits: kiwi, cherries (red, green, yellow), plums, longan, & strawberries. We ended up getting dried kiwis and dried plums.

After the pit stop, we then visited one of the royal projects (a government sponsored project where the king and queen give the seeds, tools, and other equipment to the hilltribe so they can sustain themselves) which was a beautiful landscape consisting of many flowers, vegetables, ponds and fish. These grounds are maintained, but never sold for profit.

It was now off to our village bungalow with a 2 hour jungle trek. This was a lot easier than our other trek. On our way down, we encountered some little kids hauling bags of fruits and veggies on their backs. They learn to work early out here. After about 20 minutes of hiking down, we ran into a bunch of teenage boys that looked drunk. One particular guy looked really drunk and kept offering us their BBQ to eat. After many "no thanks", we got the hell away. They seemed like trouble to us. I just kept looking back to make sure they weren't following us. On our way, we reached some cool bamboo covering. It felt like a roof of a house to Felicia. To me, I was wondering "why is this trail covered? Is this some kind of camouflage to cover a drug smuggling operation?" After several waterfalls and bamboo bridges, we ended up in the rice fields. Both me and Felicia had the feeling our guide was lost as he kept stopping and looking / surveying the land. Sure enough, we're headed the wrong direction and start back-tracking. At least he realized sooner rather than later. "We missed the intersection" according to Phong. WHAT INTERSECTION???? Where's Bear Grylls when you need him.

We finally reached town and there's so many piggies and doggies! The Karen village here is a lot more modern and "rich" than the other villages that we've visited. There are 400 people here and they get donations from Christian missionaries, including irrigation system. Off we go to our private bamboo bungalow by the river. Eh, it's not very nice compared to the Lisu one. This one slants downwards toward the river and it feels more dirty to me. At least we have a Western toilet but, to take a shower, we have to use an indoor hose. I decided to shower after the trek and it was FREEZING cold! Plus I didn't have a towel so had to use my dirty clothes to dry off. I told Felicia, "Don't bother. Just use your Dove wipes!" By that time it was about 60 degrees and we could already feel the chill in the air.

Phong hung out with us before dinner and he told us about trekking in Thailand and seeing tiger claws on trees. He also said that he wanted to visit abroad, but all countries want to see how much money each Thai traveler has to make sure that they return to Thailand and not stay in the new country (they have to have at least 100,000 Thai baht in their accounts).

Dinner was outdoors and it was really, really cold (about 50 degrees). We ate as fast as we could but the food got cold fast. The tom yum soup was super spicy! We got a taste for Thai spiciness finally. We each had 2 bowls cuz Phong couldn't eat it since it was so spicy! Then cats kept coming up to us and we fed them our fish bones. I guess they don't have spicy taste buds cuz they ate it all up... bones & all.

After dinner, Phong and Samyuet hung out with us for about 2 hours. Oh yeah, I had on a fleece pullover, a long-sleeved T-shirt over a short-sleeve T-shirt, wool socks, and a cap to keep warm. Felicia had on a t-shirt, hoodie, zip-up jacket with a hood, and wool socks... and she had both hoods on. It was still cold! But we had a great time picnicking outside: we had corn puffs with cinnamon, shrimp chips, and wild bananas and just talked with them all night. Amazing how we had many things in common: they listened to some American music and watched movies (Jet Li, Arnold Schwarzenneger, James Bond, Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings for them and "The Protector", a Thai movie, for us). We even found out that Samyuet "met" Rambo - they were taping Rambo IV out here and Sylvester Stallone opened Samyuet's van by accident, thinking it was his van. His rep then told him that he was supposed to use an Air Force one. Cool story! Also, seems like Samyuet is a big Rambo fan - he was able to tell us all the storylines of all the Rambo movies. The funniest one of the night was that we found out that, when Samyuet goes to southern Thailand, he doesn't know anyone down there and gets bored. So he buys postcards, writes a message, and then sends it to himself!! LOL His wife sometimes sees them and gets angry at him. Now we'll have to send him one from the States so he won't be receiving cards only from himself. Oh yeah, and sometimes he forgets that he sent himself a card and, when he gets one, he wonders, "who's sending me a card?" And then he realizes that it's from him.

Time for bed. And "bed" is a flat mattress with dirty sheets and pillowcases. And no mosquito net. Not a good thing! I shook out the blankets cuz Felicia was worried about bugs on them. We decided not to use the pillows cuz they looked gross. We sprayed ourselved down with mosquito repellent and covered every inch of skin up the best we could: we pulled our wool socks over our pants to keep bugs from crawling up our legs; I used clean socks as hand mitts; Felicia put on both her hoods and pulled her jacket sleeves over her hands.

Then off to bed and it was FREAKING cold! We had 2 layers of blankets - not enough. We needed a down comforter, flannel sheets, flannel pjs, and a space heater! We tried to huddle together like Bear said to do... didn't work! We still felt the chill cuz the wind came through the cracks in the hut and the space at the roof. Needless to say, it was rough night.

Monday, November 11 7:00 pm Thailand / 5:00 am US

We woke up at 6 am even though we were to leave at 8am. We wanted to get the hell back to our warm hotel! We had a nice hot breakfast at a nearby restaurant, trekked for 30 minutes to a HUGE waterfall (definitely worth it even though we were sleepy), and then a buffet lunch. Felicia was sleeping for most of the way back after Samyuet took out his American love songs CD. Phong offered to stop at several markets but we said no. Too tired.

Once we re-checked in to our hotel, we took a HOT shower and used a nice, clean Western bathroom with toilet paper and soap. Felt so good! Then Felicia took another 2-hour nap and I slept for an hour. So here we are - typing at the Internet cafe and killing time before we go to a Khantoke dinner (traditional Northen Thai food with traditional Thai dancing).

Tomorrow is Thai cooking class! We get to go to the markets to buy ingredients and then learn to cook 6 dishes. Hopefully, we don't food poison ourselves cuz we've been good so far. That would suck.

Today was an Amazing Day!

traveling_jungs — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 18:26:00 GMT

Saturday, November 8 9:50 pm Thailand / 7:50 am US

Our day started out with an easy 60 minute jungle trek in Maekampong, about 1 hour & 10 minutes north of Chiang Mai. We were able to learn about the village's ability to make tea from the trees and to see Arabica coffee beans (only found in Thailand, Burma, and Laos). We then climbed up stairs by the Maekampong Falls. There are 7 levels but we only made it up 4. Samyuet even came with us(he usually stays in the van or chats with the other drivers), but he was pooped by the 4th level. On our way up, we got to try some wild apple-thing - not quite sure what it was. But the rind was 1/4" thick and the fruit inside resemble a squishy orange with a large seed (tasted super sour but pretty good). We then took a break and luckily Ryan and I brought water with us because we were pretty toasty (the stairs were pretty steep and we were in altitude). We felt bad for Phong and Samyuet so we offered them some water. Samyuet declined, but Phong accepted. Since he didn't want to drink directly from the bottle, he tried to pour water into his mouth. He got half of the water on his shirt instead of his mouth and I was laughing so hard that my sunglasses slipped from the top of head and fell about 30 feet down into the valley. Our poor tour guide had to climb down and rescue the foreigner's sunglasses. Only I would have something like that happen! On the way back to the village we switched to a concrete road with downhills as steep as Fillmore street according to Ryan. Our quads (thighs) were definitely tired by the end.

Thank God for zip lining with Flight of the Gibbon next! We were fitted for our harnesses by our 2 guides, Chai and Oh. We drove 5 minutes to our 1st platform where Oh gave us all the safety instructions (ie feet up when you near the platform so you don't hit your legs on the way in; "brake" = use the hand-held bamboo stick which they initially joked was to hit nearby monkeys with; and DO NOT unclip the carabiners at all- only they can do it for us). We had 18 platforms (9 zip lines); 2 cross bridges; and 3 areas where we had to be lowered down by ropes to conquer. It was SO fun!! Chai was the crazy guide who'd shake the bridge to scare you as you were walking; fake-start you as you started out so you end up hovering above the rainforest; or fake you out by clipping you to him while he pretended to zip off! The most scary parts were being lowered down by the ropes, especially the first one where we had to go stomach first (Spiderman-style) cuz the rope was attached to our backs! We also got to zip line together which was fun except for a bad landing. No injuries though! The last platform was SUPER high up and we had to be lowered down whatever way you want- it was totally fun too (but scary cuz the ground was WAY down there!). I went wimpy style: seated and then lowered, but Ryan was a daredevil and went belly first! That was a great experience for us both and we'd do it again except tell the guides to push us harder so that we'd go FASTER!!!

We then returned to our hotel for a quick shower and rest before driving to Mae Jo University to enjoy the launching of thousands of Khom Loi balloons. These balloons were from 2 feet tall to 4 feet tall and were made of white crepe paper on the outside. To get them to float, you light the inner fuel area (tissue paper dipped in cooking oil) over a candle and wait until the hot air fills up the balloon enough to fly away. The reason for this celebration is to wish for good luck and to float away the bad luck or evils in your life. This marks the beginning of the Loy Krathong festival in Chiang Mai (a HUGE celebration, like New Year's Eve in the States). When we arrived at the university's temple grounds, we already saw hundreds of people. After we ate dinner, there were at least 10,000 people gathered on the lawn! We then waited as the festivities progressed (traditional Thai dances and then Buddhist monks chanting and praying). And then all the candles on the lawn were lit and we were allowed to fill our balloon (a huge 4-footer!). On the signal from the presiding abbot, we all released our balloons. We could see thousands upon thousands of balloons float up into the sky and we felt lke we were in a cloud of balloons. It was SO amazing! On top of that, fireworks were set off and still are continuing right now. And will be until the end of Loy Krathong (our last day here: 11/12). What a great day today was! Tomorrow off to Doi Inthanon National Park where it will be 40 degrees at night. A huge change from 80 degrees in Chiang Mai!

Back to Chiang Mai

traveling_jungs — Fri, 7 Nov 2008 20:24:00 GMT

Friday, November 7 8:05 pm Thailand / 6:05 am US

LOL we checked out from the hotel on time (before 9:00 am) but then the receptionist gave us 2 vouchers for breakfast! Well, we couldn't waste it so we ordered breakfast (2 Thai-style breakfasts: boiled rice with pork; tea; ice water; and orange juice), which made us 15 minutes late. Yeah, even overseas, I still run on Chinese time. Afterwards, we visited the day market where we saw a butchered rat (eeewww!! Guts spewing out and all!) and lots of fruits, chickens, fish, and clothes. Then off to 2 more temples (yeah, we're tiring of the temples unfortunately.) We ended up at the airport an hour and a half early so we did what anyone else would do: SNACK!! We got 2 ice creams (1 oreo-lookin Drumstick and 1 almond bar; nori seaweed flavored Lay's chips; and gummy colas!). Haha... boy did our snacks hit the spot. By the time we finished our snacks it was time to board the plane, which we had to cross onto the runway to get to.

Once we got to Chiang Mai, we missed the weather in Mae Hong Son (it was about 80 degrees there) because it was 90 degrees here in Chiang Mai! Rested a bit at the airport before we headed to Pantip Plaza, the same computer city as Bangkok, except here it was less crowded. The majority of the crowd seemed to be Buddhist monks! And we saw an Office Depot and Burrito House (Mexican restaurant). Ahhh, felt almost like home!

Off we ventured down the road along the night market. Then BOOM! The snackies hit us! LOL we went straight to McDonald's!! We got 2 cheeseburger meals and it's funny because the lady said she'd personally bring the burgers to us. So we're at our table, sitting and munching on fries. Tick, tick, tick, 10 minutes pass by. "Hmmm... they must be making the burgers fresh!" But everyone else got their orders. So Ryan goes up to the counter to ask about the burgers and the manager looked totally shocked that we didn't get our order. Immediately he gave Ryan one burger and said the next one will be coming soon. A girl later gave us the other burger AND a strawberry sundae AND a chocolate sundae courtesy of the manager!! Cool beans! We should go there every day and just order fries and a drink and pretend we didn't get our orders! j/k Oh yeah, and they have delivery from McDonald's: it's a guy with a HUGE square backpack, the type that looks like it has insulation in it to keep the food warm. We might have to try that out too! =P

Afterwards we decided to finally get a massage. Since Ryan gets too ticklish, we settled on half-hour foot massages for each of us. Oooo, did our feet feel good except for Ryan's left calf which got sore. Total price with tip: 200 baht ($7.00 USD)! I can't wait for my next massage!

Off to the food court for a small dinner: crispy fried noodles with gravy & pork and curry noodles with chicken. Then for dessert: roti with bananas and chocolate. Total price for dinner and dessert: 100 baht ($3.50 USD). Forget the restaurants!

Oh yeah, and our haggling for the day: DVDs, CDs, and a "North Face" backpack. We got everything for almost half the original quoted price. But you know that they're still making some profit or else they'd have given the face and ignored us (that happened to me yesterday when I wanted to buy a T-shirt for 70 baht or $2 USD. Got too greedy with my low-balling!)

So that's it for today. A really chillaxing day which we need because we've got an early start for tomorrow. 8 am pick-up to go ziplining! Woo hoo!!!

Tiger Balm Twins

traveling_jungs — Thu, 6 Nov 2008 19:10:00 GMT

Thursday, November 6 6:55 pm Thailand / 4:55 am US

As you all can tell from our title, Tiger Balm is the miracle drug! Ryan and I have officially stopped itching thanks to this wonderfully, smelly balm. Oh yeah, and it somewhat cleared Ryan's nose. Woo hoo! Too bad for all the folks on the plane with us.

We arrive in Mae Hong Son at 10:50 am. Mae Hong Son is the northwestern part of Thailand, super close to the Burmese border. After arriving, we drove for 2 hours to get to the Tham Tod cave where we saw stalactites, stalamites, helatites, sinkholes, and limestone dams (I just learned most of those terms today!). And we can't forget the wonderful scent of bat poop in the last cave! Yums. =P The tour was pretty cool though because our tour guide had to use a gas lantern since the caves were in total darkness. We also could hear and occasionally see bats in the cave. To get to each of the three cave sites, we rode on a bamboo raft. So we have decided that our raft driver currently holds the title of "Worst Job in Thailand" because he had to stand in the water and drag our raft with us and our 2 guides upstream back to the front of the cave. Twice we got stuck on a sandbar so our cave guide had to jump into the water and push the raft while the raft driver dragged us out. It took about 10 minutes to travel 70 feet! No wonder our raft driver had quads and calves like a soccer player or bicyclist!

After that, back to Mae Hong Son. But we did stop at a lookout point and the views of the valley below were the prettiest we've seen so far! We had some tribal villager kids beg for money but they were kinda scary looking because they had some white drool dripping from their mouths. But that wasn't why we didn't give them money - our wallets were in the van.

We arrived back in town in time for the night market across the street from our hotel. The first thing we hit was FOOD! I was starving as usual. So we bought fried chicken, papaya salad with salted prawns, Shanghai noodles- thing (looked like tofu but mushier and was in a spicy sauce - good stuff), and a chocolate & banana crepe for 70 baht (~$2.00 and some change USD)! That's less than what this online log will cost us tonight! We don't know how people who don't want to try vendor food survive out in Thailand. There are very few "Western" food places (ie super-duper clean restaurants with Western toilets and great service). The majority of food places are open-air restaurants or vendors with carts. And their food tastes so much better than the restaurant food that we've had so far.

So that's it for today. Tomorrow we're to visit temples and markets in the city before heading back to Chiang Mai. Hopefully, Ryan won't get nauseous on the plane. Today he did but it passed until he used the nasty-ass toilet by the cave. He said it reeked so badly that he got even more nauseous than after the plane ride. Gross!

Cabbages & Condoms!

traveling_jungs — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 20:55:00 GMT

Wednesday, November 5 8:36 pm Thailand / 6:36 am US

(Congratulations, Barack Obama! We just found out about 2 hours ago.)

This morning was another late start (8:30 am) and we got to eat at a local restaurant. Haha, we ate fatty pork (cow yook in Cantonese; Thai style) with pickled veggies; salty egg; curry catfish; and soy sauce eggs for breakfast! The breakfast of champions!! =D Then we got to walk around the street-side local market that was filled with Chinese goods. Felt like Clement street. Chocky (aka Pocky) was a hit. Pringles but with a Mexican Mr. Chip on the front was pretty popular too. Their Asian pears are humongous, about the size of a softball. And Phong bought 2 packages of seasoned seaweed; he even haggled for it. We think he's taking us to all these markets because he likes to shop for himself!

Then we were back in the van for an hour and a half ride before lunch at... Cabbages & Condoms! What a great name for a restaurant! Yesterday we thought Phong & Samyuet were joking about a condom restaurant. Nope, it's real. The story behind it is that 20 years ago the Thai prime minister wanted to limit the number of children to 2 per household so education on birth control was started. The restaurant was started by a famous Thai doctor and, even though there no longer is a limit on children, the restaurant's proceeds go toward the rural poor. Good food by the way! We found out that ong choy (Chinese spinach) is called morning glory in English! And we had a hot (as in warm) and sour salad with seafood.

Back into the car we go for the remaining 1.5 hours back to Chiang Mai. Yeah, I slept about 75% of the way. I can't stay awake for longer than 30 minutes but Ryan was awake and he said that he saw lots of greenery! Better than I-5! =D

Once back in Chiang Mai we ventured out to the largest night market in Chiang Mai, which is only 1 block from our hotel. Yippee! What did you have for dinner, you ask? (As you can tell, we love to talk about food.) Well, we had..... SUBWAY! Haha, after a week & a day of Thai food for breakfast, lunch, & dinner, we needed a break. And boy was that Italian BMT good: wheat bread with all the fixings (lettuce, onion, tomatoes, olives, pickles, jalapenos, & carrots - yeah, the Thai put carrots in the sandwich). LOL I'm salivating just thinking about it again. We then wandered over to McDonald's just for the hell of it. They had a Double Big Mac (4 meat patties total!) and a deep-fried prawn cake burger! I love looking a foreign McDonald's menus!

At the night market, we got harassed of course since we are foreigners. Ryan got his first taste of low-balling haggling and did well. But I got my Tiger Balm which kills the itching from the mosquito bites. Samyuet had drained the one from my elbow and I put some Tiger Balm on with Lampacort and it felt sooooo much better. So now I'm going to do it on my own.

As for Ryan, he's feeling homesick and worn out from all the traveling. He misses his own bathroom (I concur); the cooler weather (I concur); clean air; and speaking English to everyone. I'm not quite homesick yet but I am tiring of Thai food and squat toilets (I'm up to 6 uses now, including having to bring my own toilet paper and use hand sanitizer).

Tomorrow's agenda: we're flying up to Mae Hong Son and will be visiting the long-necked Karen villagers (famous for the brass rings around their necks. Weird!) So we'll probably back-post our log again. Wish us luck with not getting any more mosquito bites!

Welcome to the Golden Triangle!

traveling_jungs — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 20:36:00 GMT

Tuesday, November 4 8:34 pm Thailand / 6:35 am US

(Sorry if this log doesn't make much sense because we're trying to write it while watching a Thai soap opera. We're making up the dialogue - eh, all soap operas have the same plot so we're making it more interesting! =D)

Today started off with a 30-minute speed boat ride to Chiang Rai. On the way, we saw rice fields, fishermen, rock-gathering men, orange fields, trees, muddy water, and how erosion has damaged the land. Afterwards, we had the chance to visit several hill tribes: the Shan (famous for their cotton weaving; I got chance to weave 2 rows - with lots of guidance; the Akha (where 7 adorable little boys lined up for coins from us); and the Lahu (where we saw souvenir after souvenir shops and lots of elevated bamboo huts filled with dried corn). The difference between these tribes and the Lisu is that they live in a modern society. Some have bamboo huts but all have electricity (some even with satellite dishes and TVs)! Ryan saw an old woman smoking an opium pipe but smoking tobacco. He tried to take a picture of her but heard her say, "money for photo." So no photo.

Afterwards, lunch: catfish salad with sour mango (our new favorite dish!), omelette stuffed with veggies, and another type of fish soup.

We then rode a speed boat on the Golden Triangle, which were Burma, Laos, and Thailand meet together. This area is known for the opium trade and many drug smuggling routes through Burma and Laos. So essentially we visited 3 countries in one day! =) But we actually stopped in Laos to shop for an hour and it was hotter than Thailand! And we found out that the Laos women drink some hard-core whiskey. We also saw whiskey with cobras, scorpions, and both combined. Yuck!

Back to Thailand on the speed boat and, to escape the heat, we went to the Museum of Opium. New knowledge of the day: ganja is a Thai word. We both didn't know that... we thought it was Rastafarian. Oopsy! And we found out that Phong not only was a Buddhist monk, he and his family also were ganja farmers! Crazy!

We decided to walk the local markets after checking into the hotel since we had time to kill. Plus, I wanted to buy baby powder. Why? Cuz I learned from Nok that that stuff totally keeps the shine off your face in humid weather! My oil papers blot but doesn't matte my face. Phong and Samyuet graciously came along with us... we think they want to make sure that we don't get lost or killed by a car (we tend to look the wrong way). Phong found a local flea market and perused their goods. HE bought 2 pants and 2 shirts there; a master haggler by the way! And we ended up buying another favorite dessert of ours: beung which is like a folded-up fortune cookie (in the shape of a taco) with coconut milk and shredded coconut inside. We ended up walking for almost 2 hours (there goes our leisurely walk!) before dinner where we ate a local restaurant with lots of flying buggies that we kept killing. But the food was really good: gravy chow fun with chicken and dry chow fun with pork (each 25 baht = about $0.80 USD!).

We got to talk to Phong and Samyuet about American food. They didn't understand what peanut butter is and Samyuet's never had a hamburger before. They also couldn't believe how much Thai food costs in the US. Samyuet offered to be our chef if we opened up a Thai restaurant. Haha!

We were hoping to catch news on the election but ended up with our soap opera. It's funny that we've been watching so much more news about the election out here than we ever did at home. Partly it's because people ask us about it. Anyway, another early night for us.

By the way, our mosquito bite counts have gone up: Ryan = 7, Felicia = 4 but with one HUGE ass swollen one on her thigh thanks to her continuously scratching or sitting on it!

But still doing good on the no food poisoning area. Bummer on the Ryan sinus infection cuz he now has a dry, scratchy throat but no nose congestion.

Easy Ride to Thaton

traveling_jungs — Wed, 5 Nov 2008 20:12:00 GMT

Monday, November 3 9:12 pm Thailand / 7:12 am US

We left the Lisu village this morning and left for Thaton. First we drove to the Chiang Dao Cave shrine and, on the way, ate sticky rice with coconut milk and beans cooked in a stick of bamboo. The cave was pretty interesting as it's natural (~5 million years old) and the Burmese put many Buddha images within it. 1.5 hours into the journey, we had lunch at a roadside cafe. All of a sudden, we heard a car beeping and then a thump. Ryan turned around and saw that one of the stray dogs got hit by a car and was pulled underneath it. The dog got up and ran off, but, 10 minutes later, a man carried him away as he had died. Everywhere we've been we have seen lots of stray dogs and cats. But the people in Thailand take care of them. Phong and Nok both told us that people often leave their dogs and cats at Buddhist temples since the monks will take care of them. Phong was a monk for several years and he said that he often had to feed 20 dogs a day! And a woman who lived near the temple would make tuna and rice daily for the dogs.

For lunch, another version of Pad thai; chicken with cashews; and a sour & spicy fish soup (very yummy and we'll have to try to find it in the States).

We then saw 2 more Wats along the way and finally arrived in Thaton, a very small fishing town without tourists. It is perfect for us to relax finally. Our bungalow is on the riverband and we have a porch that overlooks the Mekong river. Today will be our first day of just relaxing and sleeping in (thanks to us doing laundry and needing to make sure that our clothes are dry before we leave Thaton).

Oh yeah, remember the dragonfruit (red and horned)? Well, we got to try it tonight and it's good. Looks like a beet but tastes sorta like sweet papaya. And we tried some Thai-Chinese medicine that smelled and tasted like dried plum. Phong has been feeling sick and he said that medicine helps him to breathe. Ryan currently has a sinus infection and he tried to medicine to see if it helps. As for me, I tried it because Phong told me to. We'll see how we react to the medicine.

How to Describe America

traveling_jungs — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:44:00 GMT

Sunday, November 2 9:30 pm Thailand / 7:30 am US

Yea! Today's elephant camp and Lisu village day. But first we got to visit an elephant dung paper-making "factory". Very cool process and I now love poo paper! Don't worry, no bacteria or stinkiness is left on the paper! =P

Okay, onto the Mae Teng Elephant Camp! Holy moley, what a bumpy road! We were pretty much off-roading in a Toyota van but the road is still a paved road. Talk about massive potholes... maybe more like sinkholes! We finally arrive at the camp and we see about 80 - 100 elephants! Soooo cute, poo and all! Phong said that we'd get to ride an elephant first! Woo hoo! We buy some sugar cane and bananas for our elephant (their favorite snack) and climb up a platform to get into the seat. Our driver, who's sitting on the elephant's head, kicks him and off we go. Super bumpy ride and scary downhills cuz it feels like you're going to fall out of the seat. But Speedy (my nickname for our elephant because he's young and passed another elephant or two) was fun to ride and we got to feed him for a photo op. Our ride back to the camp was in an oxcart - not so fun but still different. And we rode down the river on a bamboo raft... Ryan got to paddle the boat for a bit. Photo op!

Next stop: Lisu tribe hillside village (15 people in this village). It was a 20-minute off road drive through the jungle and then we walked 100 yards to the village by foot. Once we arrived, we got to see our first-class accomodations: a 12x12 bamboo hut that was empty of everything but the grass roof. It was handmade by the villagers... their home, though, has a dirt floor but ours had the luxury of a bamboo floor. We then got to try sugar cane, which included us using a knife to cut and peel the cane. Yea, we think the villagers were taking a pool to see if we'd cut ourselves cuz they were laughing at us and watching us pretty intently. The sugar cane was like chewing on dry hay soaked in sugar water. Yum! (And it was really yummy!)

Next was a 2-hour jungle trek and boy was it a trek! The men had machetes and Phong brought his brand new 1-foot knife. We didn't have anything! First it started on a trail... not too bad; we could do this! We saw rice fields and lots of grass. One of the men then climbed up a tree and got us fresh papaya and bananas! So good! They were buttering us up for the next part of our trek! Freakin' A- we were trail-blazing through the jungle. NO trails, NO rails, LOTS of slippery mud. The funny thing is that Ryan and I are slipping in mud whie walking in our tennies and using our freshly-cut bamboo walking sticks and the men are just walking along in their flip flops, no problems at all! We had to cross streams: Ryan jumped across twice, me: jumped once and stook my foot in the water for the other. How many times did I lose my stick? Twice and the men laughed at me. Oh yeah, got a nice lil reaction on my hand from some bush but one of the guys got it too. But the waterfall that we finally made it to was worth it. On the way back, the men pretty much helped me across every waterway and were waiting for me to fall in if they didn't. So fun, though!! =D

Ryan then got to try out a wooden crossbow that they used to go hunting. The chief was able to shoot 10 feet away from the target (a papaya on a beam) and hit the beam right above the papaya. Ryan first shot off to the side but, by his 2nd shot, he managed to hit the wooden beam about 1 foot above the papaya. As for me, I was REALLY bad! All three shots were wide and into the jungle. I then realized I was shooting from the left side but using my right eye. Haha... After I switched eyes, I grazed the target finally! Woo hoo!

That night we joined in on their traditional dance around the campfire and that was really fun, even though we had no idea what we were doing. Afterwards, we sat on benches by candlelight and Phong translated their questions for us. One of the men told us that he used to deal opium that he grew in the hills and that he often got shot at by the po-po (well, of course he didn't say that word!). They asked us about snow and if you could eat it. They also asked about America and where it snowed, what we grew in America, if there were trees in America, how to get to America (how much it was, what it felt like to fly, how far was it to fly, how many meters up is the plane, what happens if something went wrong with plane), and what they would do if they lived in America (ie what crops they would grow). Can you imagine trying to explain America to people who have no idea what America is like? Or how your home is to someone who doesn't have electricity? Or to someone who only makes 200 baht ($7 USD) per day and explain to them that your flight ticket cost about 40,000 - 50,000 baht? That was a culture shock to us and definitely made us more grateful for all that we have. Yet, their lifestyle is so gratifying because they take care of each other and talk to each other every night. All the adults help to take care of the baby and little boys and they seem so happy in each other's presence. Also, they loved to talk to us and ask us questions. By the time we were done, it was about 9 pm and we had to walk back to our hut. The chief of the village walked us personally there to make sure we didn't get lost. We don't know how the villagers can walk in the dark without using a flashlight and not fall in a pothole or get lost!

Our "bed" was set up: 1 cotton mat on the floor with a huge mosquito net above. It was so dark that we couldn't tell if our eyes were opened or closed! We also hear never-ending crickets chirping and frogs croaking outside our hut. But it was a good night's sleep until the roosters crowed at 4 am. I thought they were supposed to crow only when the sun came up! Not these cuz they kept crowing until 7 am.

No bugs or snakes seen (even though the chief said that he killed a lot of the snakes, including king cobras, when he was setting up the village). Bug bite count: Ryan = 6, Felicia = 2.

To thank them for their generosity, we gave them some of the new clothes we had bought in Bangkok, some money, and the new wind-up flashlight we had brought with us (the women were amazed with it and couldn't believe that it cost 350 baht / $10 USD for it).

This was our best experience yet in Thailand! We are off to the small town of Thaton, a fishing town by the Me Kong River.

Days without food poisoning: 6 days (we think...)

First Day in Chiang Mai

traveling_jungs — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 17:13:00 GMT

Saturday, November 1 10:02 pm Thailand / 8:04 am US

We arrived in Chiang Mai 2 hours delayed. We don't know how that happened since we were only 20 minutes delayed in Bangkok. And we were wrong: the train ride was supposed to 12 hours long but, with the delay, took 14 hours! That's the entire duration for our flight from home to Bangkok! Crazy! Apparently, this is a common occurrence too! And we though BART sucked!

Our guide is now Phong ("Pong") and he's just as nice as Nok but speaks a million times faster! Our driver, Samyuet, is pretty funny too... he's already joked that he's for McCain (apparently, Thailand is for Obama) and he jokingly asked if the mints we offered him was poison (how would we get back to our hotel if we killed him?). We were correct about Chiang Mai - it's a bit cooler (~75 degrees) and it's less crowded. In fact, it reminds us of Hawaii! Our hotel room also is much nicer since it's cheaper out here, yet we see more tourists.

Thanks to Nok and our train delay, today is a relaxing day. We first went to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara, which overlooks the entire city. In fact, it is so high up that they built an elevator that ascends to the top of the Wat (but at a 45-degree angle - reminded me of the elevator in Willy Wonka's factory.... the original version of the movie) for foreigners as Thai people walk up the 400 steps. No wonder they're so skinny! Once we got inside the rain poured! We had to take off our shoes out of respect for the Buddha and luckily we took off our socks too because we were walking in ~1 inch of water on marble flooring. Fall hazard! But the murals and the view of the city below was worth it.

We then had the obligatory factory tours... ha ha, too bad for any workers who got us because we never bought anything. In fact, I really wanted to purchase a teakwood carving and haggled it down from $90 USD to $50 USD. But, on second thought, I thought it was too pricey after the guy okay'd it. So I asked Phong if the price was high and he said yes (secretively, of course). I then broke a cardinal rule of haggling: I walked away from the final agreed-upon price. Oh boy was the guy mad - he snatched off his glasses & didn't say bye to us. Ooopsy, my bad! But I sure was glad that I didn't buy it especially since we found a similar one at the night market for ony $15 USD!

Our final stop was the night safari. I thought it was going to be outdoors in the wild, but it turned out to be at an amusement park-type place (like Animal Kingdom but no rides). It was fun but the best part was that Ryan and I got to hold baby tiger cubs and take a picture with them! It was scary for me because mine kept screaming & squirming and I got worried that it was going to claw me. Yeah, me and cats - not a good combo. But, after 3 tries, we got our picture & it looks pretty cool! =D I never thought I'd actually get to touch much less hold a cub! But that poor cub is probably traumatized by me!

Tomorrow: off to Lisu Tribe hillside village. No electricity = no Internet = no log until the next day if the hotel as access in Thaton!

Chooo, Chooooo!

traveling_jungs — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 16:53:00 GMT

Saturday, November 1 6:46 am Thailand / 4:45 pm US

Sleeping on the train was actually very comfy! Thanks to my ear plugs & the rocking motion of the train, it felt like I was being rocked to sleep... except for the occasional lurch of the train when it stopped. Bathroom adventures: 1 each for Ryan & me. I held on for dear life especially since I happened to pick a rocky time for my potty break. Thank God for strong quadriceps & a great grip! =) So we both survived the night until our fellow neighbors woke up at 6 am and hollered out to their friends, "How'd you sleep? Har, har, har!" The ear plugs are definitely NOT sound-proof! So we're up again at the crack of down with ~1.5 hours before arriving at Chiang Mai. Already the scenery is completely different: Bangkok - dirty, hectic, city life with 10 million people crammed into it; Chiang Mai - green trees, rivers, and mountains around & we see clouds and possibly FOG! (yea!! Who'd have thought we'd welcome it back? But after yesterday, we need a reprieve from the heat for a bit!) We're going to love it here. I just know it and Ryan has already said he's having more fun than he expected! Yea!!

Checking out the Ruins....

traveling_jungs — Mon, 3 Nov 2008 16:41:00 GMT

(Sorry for the upcoming late entries! We haven't had Internet access until now. Or, if we did, we didn't have time to use it. So everything has been handwritten and now will be transcribed by us. Haha.. no outsourcing!)

Friday, October 31 (Happy Halloween! No Halloween out in Thailand, though!) 8:27 pm Thailand / 6:30 am US

Today we visited the ancient capital of Ayutthaya, about 45 minutes away from Bangkok. Our 1st stop was Bang Pa-In, the summper palace for the king. It was such a beautiful place with canals, manicured lawns, and Italian (yup, we wrote Italian) architecture. Kinda reminded us of Disneyland, sad to say that in Thailand! The main attraction, of course, was the palace itself which was decorated from roof to furniture to paint colors in Chinese decore since China gave this palace to the Thai king for prosperity. Lucky guy! Sorry, no pictures were allowed so you'll have to check it out online. =D

1st food adventure of the day: we tried a mangosteen which looked like a hard old plum but tasted like a lime to Ryan with a lychee texture for me. And we got it for free! Woo hoo! Thanks to Nok and us ordering 3 fruit juices. And another parting gift: free pomelo (it's like a grapefruit but it's super sweet out here!)

Onto the ruins next and boy were they amazing! We climbed to the top of Wat Yai Chai Mongkol (more steps for us - our glutes are gonna be rock hard!) where there is a temple for the Reclining Buddha. Seriously, though, words cannot describe how beautiful the ruins are. As Nok said, "You'll have to imagein how beautiful this was. The king said Ayutthaya was more beautiful than Bangkok." Unfortunately, it is all left to our imagination since Ayutthaa was left burning for 7 days and nights by the Burmese and all the treasures including the Buddhas were either destroyed or stolen.

Lunch was next and we ate at a street-side restaurant (an open cafe where young boys no older than 10 years old were taking our orders and cleaning our tables). We had a tapas-style lunch with mini bowls of Thai soup noodles with pork, rice noodles with pork balls & soup, and Pad Thai (Ayutthaya style with crispy chips on the side). Don't worry - the parents cooked for us! =)

Onto the ruins of Wat Wat Chai Wattanaram where the Buddhas were left in their original state: burned and decapitated. Here we got a really good idea of how much devastation the burning of Ayutthaya caused and it saddened us both. Throughout the touring of the ruins, we could tell how deeply affected Nok was and that, in turn, made us realize how connected she is to Thailand and its history.

We also visited Wat Phra Si Sanphet, famous for its 3 spires of the Royal Temple and the walls of the Grand Palace, and Wat Mahathat, famous for the Buddha head in the Po tree that grew around one of the ruins.

Our next adventure happened to be the street market of Ayutthaya called Chao Phrom. It wasn't quite on our itinerary - we were tired of walking since it was ~90 degrees today and we were sweating like pigs! Here we got a true feeling for shopping Thai style. We encountered everything under the sun: from exotic fruits that looked pretty scary (black buffalo-shaped fruits that tasted like chestnuts; red horned dragonfruits; red colored rose fruit) to live frogs & eels to pigs, rats, and porcupines for sale! Of course, we had to try/eat some desserts: grass jelly drink (freshly made) and my new favorite snack: deep fried potato balls (glutinous rice with potato flour).

Today's most exciting adventure, though, is taking the train to Chiang Mai. First of all, the train station is a covered platfore in the middle of nowhere (no nice concrete building, no windows, no ushers, no turnstiles). There are geckos on the walls and people just sitting and eating/staring off into space/sleeping on the bench. The, after waiting 1.5 hours, we find out that our train is delayed by 20 minutes (should arrive at 7:40 pm instead of 7:20 pm). No worries - another food adventure: Indian roti cooked Thai style with egg and banana - hot & fresh off the grill! Yummy! Oh yes, and an order of fried rice with chicken to go & a pomelo for dinner courtesy of Nok. (I think she's trying to fatten us up!). Okay, our train finally arrives at 7:40 pm and yea!! we're in 1st class, which brings us to the most exciting part of our train experience (my 1st time on any train, by the way). You would think that 1st class means 1st to board nearest the front. NOPE! Nok led us off the platform, into the gravelly area of the tracks. And it's totally dark! We are literally standing 5 feet away from the train as it arrived at our stop (yes, we stayed safely behind the dotted line, but my hari was still flying all around from the draft of the train!). Wow, that was the closest I have ever stood to a train! The cabin is clean - bunk neads and our own sink. The toilet is... um... interesting. A stainless steel hole with a cap-thingy and hose to wash down "stuff". At least, you can flush it (China's toilets didn't do that) and there's 1 bar to hang onto. The train ride is ~12 hours so I know I'm going to have to go sometime, but I'm trying to put it off as long as I can. And tha'ts why I'm journalling right now. =) Wish me luck with the toilet situation (definitely no #2's!) and lucky Ryan : "I can just pint and shoot!"

And it was a monsoon!

traveling_jungs — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 21:09:00 GMT

Thursday, October 30 8.31 pm Thailand / 6.30 am US

After our monstrously huge breakfast, we caught up with Nok, our tour guide. And I mean that literally because one minute she was in the lobby waiting for us to finish our online log and the next thing we know, we LOST our guide. And she's not even 5 feet tall!! Don't ask us how but we did. We walked inside and then outside the hotel, looking like crazy lost Americans. And lo and behold she popped out of the blue. Hee hee, she was in our tour van. =P

Off we go, oh yeah, the tour's going to be a private one for us since most of our supposed tour companions had cancelled due to the coup (aka "the mob" or "anti-government" according to Nok and the Thai residents) that is taking place right now (we found this out later at lunch with Nok). Our 1st stop was Wat Pho (or Phra Chetuphon) and the Reclining Buddha. It was AMAZING to see how gi-normous the reclining Buddha was (according to Ryan: "It was one big ass Buddha!"). It's 150 feet long and 49 feet high. I knew it was going to be big, but I didn't expect it to be THAT BIG. Plus the temple was beyond our imagination as every piece of colored glass, mother of pearl inlay, and porcelain was hand-crafted and placed. In addition, the walls were all hand-painted! It took 3 years to build the Buddha and his temple - we're never going to complain about our jobs again.

We saw 2 more temples: Wat Arun (or Temple of the Dawn) and the temple where the Emerald Buddha is kept. Wat Arun required us to climb up a really, really, really steep staircase ie we had to hold on to the railing with both hands to ascend and I was pretty much scooting down each step since my legs were so wobbly from fear on the way down. It was totally worth it! As for the Emerald Buddha, no pictures were allowed but he's made of jade and not emerald.

Oh yeah, the monsoon.... we were caught in a torrential rainstorm while we were visiting the Emerald Buddha. We had to duck into all the alcoves and niches on our way to the Grand Palace. But we got a first-hand experience of the friendliness of the Thai people: we (meaning all the tourists) were stuck at the temple for the Emerald Buddha since we all didn't have umbrellas. The security guard then took off one of the large umbrellas used for outdoor seating and walked us in individual groups across the courtyard so that we could continue touring the palace grounds. I don't think any American security guard would have done that! What do you think?

We saw the rest of the Grand Palace grounds (only part of the 6 acres since people are only allowed in the "outer" grounds) and consisted of the palace (made of Italian, English, and Thai architecture). We saw the viewing area for the King's sister as she passed away earlier in the month and the Thai people are mourning her passing. We weren't allowed in since we weren't appropriately dressed in all black.

Lunch time: S&P Bakery was our stop and we had another huge lunch. Guava freeze drink, papaya salad with seafood, crispy noodle in chicken curry, Thai fried rice, pad thai, and fresh fruits (watermelon, papaya, and pineapple)! Another winning set of food!

Tour of Vinamek (?) Mansion... eh, we could've done without it. It was a huge 81-room mansion, but all mansions look alike after a while. =P

Ooo, the Chao Praya river tour was fun, though. We got to see first-hand how the Thai people live along the rivers. Really interesting as we saw really nice-looking houses interspersed with broken-down waterfront houses. We also got to feed some "Thai catfish" near a Buddhist temple. Man, were they aggressive! They were jumping onto each other just to eat a piece of bread. As Nok said, "We can't eat these fish since they're in front of a Buddhist temple. So these fish stay here since they know that." Smart fish!

That was it for touring! Off to MBK center and it is a crazy house of shopping there. It reminded me of the Hong Kong markets except 100 times bigger! We lasted 2 hours before we both got shopped out and were ready to return to the hotel. But not before we got another taste of Thai food: spicy fried rice noodles with chicken and rice noodles with soup (octopus, tofu, veggies, squid). And it was 80 baht total ($3 US). And we found DONUTS in Thailand! The store is called "Mr. Donut" and they were yummy: old-fashioned with chocolate and almonds and a Bavarian cream-filled donut. They were good enough to convince us to buy a box of chocolate-filled donuts for Nok since today was her birthday and she didn't tell us until our tour was almost at the end. We'll surprise her with them tomorrow since it'll be our last day with her. =( She won't be continuing on with us to Chiang Mai after we tour Ayutthaya with her.

The taxi ride back to the hotel... ack, we almost got into a fender-bender!! So close that the taxi driver even screamed, "EEEEEeee- Waahhhh!" Not a good sign and definitely a scary moment for us passengers! But we made it back safely enough. We are definitely not going to miss the traffic and taxis of Bangkok!

So tomorrow we'll visit the ancient capital of Ayutthaya and then take an overnight train to Chiang Mai. Hopefully we'll have Internet access there!

Days without food poisoning: still 2!!

Oh yeah, days with Felicia feeling like she's rocking on a ship (like in Australia): 2 (this sucks!)

Sleeping In Bangkok... Don't worry - It's G-Rated!

traveling_jungs — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 08:50:00 GMT

Thursday, 10/30 8.38 AM Thailand / 6.34 pm US

Boy, this hotel needs some double-paned windows! The whole night we could hear the motorcycles vrooming through the city and all the horns blasting from cars. This city does not have a time when there's no traffic! And we thought L.A was bad with its traffic. Thank God we were wiped out from the flying and our excursions to the shopping areas of Bangkok.

I was wide awake at 5 am today thanks to our wonderful neighbor who decided to use his electric shaver with his door opened. If you don't know me or never had an overnight trip with me, I'm a SUPER light sleeper. So today I'm going to try out my ear plugs tonight. Ryan slept like a log... until I went to the bathroom <ha, ha>. But he fell asleep after about 2 hours and then he slept like a log again. Lucky guy!

Oh yeah, and we're spoiled with no smoking the States. I always forget about that! Our pillowcases and room smelled like cigarette smoke. Yuck! It didn't reek until the middle of the night and I thought someone was smoking outside our room. Nope, I was wrong... it was the hotel stuff.

Yumms... our breakfast at the hotel was buffet style and not entirely all American food. They had this sticky rice with raisins that tasted like tomato beef aka like ketchup with rice! Yummy! And some fried ramen-like noodles. The meat products were a bit on the pale side, kinda looked like tofu hot dogs and ham. Ryan said they tasted boiled but he still ate it. Oh yeah, and the fruits here are super sweet! Hmmm... rivals Hawaii.

After breakfast, we calculated how much we spent so far. Yeah, yeah, we're nerds! =P Drum roll please...... if you include the refundable deposit for our hotel: 1509 baht <$51 US>, but minus the deposit: 509 baht <$17 US> CRAZY CHEAP!!!

Okay, off to touristy stuff today. Thank God it doesn't feel as hot. Maybe 80 degrees and cloudy <yesterday was 85 degrees>.

Days of not being food poisoned: 2

Our 1st Afternoon in Bangkok

traveling_jungs — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 18:30:00 GMT

6.13 pm Thailand/ 4.13 am US

We have arrived finally and it's pretty freakin' humid out here! We decided to talk a mini walk around the block. Umm.... first of all we didn't know how to cross the street since the cars drive so freakin' fast and don't stop for anyone or anything. So we pretty much walked around in a square. We got tired of that pretty quickly and realized that you have to look quickly and RUN across the street and pray to God that a car won't be careening around the corner while you're in the street. But our walk was pretty boring since all we saw in our neighborhood were jewelry stores, jewelry stores, jewelry stores, Indian Hut <ironic huh?>, KFC, 7-11 <which happens to be like ABC stores in Hawaii>, and more jewlery stores! But our tour guide, Nok, was nice enough to take us around Bangkok even though it wasn't part of the itinerary. Our first stop, other than the hotel, was Pantip <we'll have to check the spelling> Plaza aka "The Computer City" - electronics galore! There were real laptops there for only $400 US! Very tempting but, Ryan, being the rational one, said, "It'd be hard to return something if it doesn't work right." Touche and point taken! Lots of knock-off DVD, MP3, and CD games. And IPods for $30... Hmm...probably not real.

But we did get our first taste of authentic Thai food. It's in a sort-of food court where you order rice and get to pick 1 - 3 dishes. We got water sprouts with pork and bamboo shoots with chicken. Fairly spicy until the last few bites and that's when our noses started running. Even Nok said the dishes were spicy. Oh yeah, and we had beef noodle soup and the broth was one of the best I've ever had.

Off we went to the Bangkok side-street markets. And they were crazy! Motorcycles are driving through them even though pedestrians galore are walking. Tons of clothes, purses, pjs..... you get the point. And then we went into an underground shopping area and got totally discombobulated down there cuz all the vendors look the same! We had to get outta there ASAP cuz we were shopped out from browsing. We managed to catch our 1st Thai taxi by ourselves and it was one CRAZY ride. Talk about close calls in a car. Half the time I couldn't tell where the lanes were and Ryan said he was clenching his toes for the whole ride! Yeah, scary! But we made it back and it was only $4 for the whole experience! Totally worth it!

Anyway, that's it for today. We're off to the Grand Palace and Wat Arun tomorrow! Maybe another adventure for shopping! There's a mall with 500 stores!! We'll see if Ryan lasts there with me. =D

Our Flight

traveling_jungs — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 06:48:00 GMT

So right now we're in Taipei, Taiwan (6:30 am) waiting for our flight to Bangkok. Ryan made it through the 13 hr, 50 min flight with no problems at all since he slept for half of it. I didn't sleep as well but managed to watch "The Incredible Hulk", "Baby Mama", and "Get Smart." Couldn't finish "Hancock" though cuz I fell asleep. Ooo, EVA Air is one comfortable plane! Tons of leg room and head room. And the food was yummy! Dang, they give a lot of food that's actually decent: for dinner we had curry chicken with salad, a sweet roll, fruit, & Oreos and for breakfast, Ryan had a cheese omelet w/ hash browns (fruit, sweet roll, & yogurt) and I had rice porridge, tofu (fruit, sweet roll). Yeah, I'm all about the food.

Now it's onto the 2nd leg of our flight... just 3 hours to Thailand. Oh, and the Taiwan airport is pretty cool. There's a Sanrio waiting area with slides and a stage. Umm.. yeah, I was tempted to play there but didn't want to embarass myself too much (yet!). We'll have to take a picture of it for all the Hello Kitty fans! Well, that's it for now. Nothing too exciting yet!

Gallery: Thailand

traveling_jungs — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:38:00 GMT