3 ... 2... 1... BUNGY
Yep thats right I went and threw myself off a perfectly good structure with only a cord tied around my ankles again but boy was it fun! I got up pretty early today and had nothing to do so I decided it was my last chance this year to do something stupid and so I went bungy jumping! I got picked up and there were two couples already in the truck, all of them going for their first time so they chose me to go first which I was planning on donig anyways but don't tell them. When we got to the place all of us looked up at the tower and said it didn't look that high and it wasn't anything compaired to the first time I went. It was only 50 meters high and really didn't look bad from the ground. Anyways we went and signed out lives away and got out free tshirts, woo hoo and then went over to the side to wait out turn. There were a lot of people sitting around waiting so we figured it would be a good 30 min wait but not 5 mins after we got there I was sitting getting strapped up. Included in the price were 36 pictures so they were taking photographs every step of the way. Once I had on the harness I hopped over to the car and up I went. Well let me tell you, from the ground 50 m may not look that high but from up in the air, well it looks really high. I of course had to look down, which is the worst thing to do but it was really cool looking down on and it was even nicer looking around. There was beautiful country all around me and right behind was a nice mountain range. I took in the sights for a few seconds once we got to the top and made my way to the edge. The jump master snapped a few more photos but I was ready to jump and sick of smiling for the camera. When I got to the edge I looked down and scared the crap out of myself but then before I jumped I just looked straight ahead. He counted down 3.. 2.. 1.. BUNGY and I just jumped straight out and spread my arms into a nice dive unlike the last time. I think it was scarier jumping without looking down b/c you just jump striaght out and have no idea how far your about to fall. The free fall was much shorter then last time and the harness wasn't nearly as comfortable. Over all it was lots and lots of fun but no where near the first time. I can't wait until next summer to go again back there the extra 50m makes a huge difference. After my jump I watched the rest of the group go and we had to encourage the ladies to jump. Every girl that went had so much trouble jumping and almost gave up and came back down but we all were yelling and helping them from the bottom. And eventually they all jumped but all of them said they'd never do it again. The guys all took off as soon as they got up there and loved it and can't wait to go again. I guess that tells you a lot about the different sexes, altho we all knew that before anyways. After that I went to the shooting range and shot off 30 rounds on a .38 hand gun. The instructor was really funny and made me pose with the gun in a bunch of different ways. I was pretty good, never missing the paper target! I hit inside the circles a few times but usually I was just on the outside. For my last 6 shots he set up these metal targets 20 m away and I picked off 5 in a row, 2 big ones and 3 smalls ones. Then with my last bullet I tried the small circle target but missed it. It was pretty cool shooting off the gun and I thought about getting 10 roudns with a shotgun but I had already spent enough money today, maybe another time. When I was leaving that place the taxi drive pulled over right outside of the gates. It turned out that his friend was out driving drunk on his motobike and fell asleep and drove it into the wall. The bike was brand new and pretty messed up so they threw it in the back of the truck and we dropped him off at a repair shop along the way. The guy looked really drunk and I couldn't beleive he had been driving but he didn't have a scratch on him. The taxi driver was laughing his ass off at his friend like it was a big joke. Tonight I'm meeting up with the people from my cooking class and going to a bar, hopefully to meet up with the people from the bungy place. It should be fun. I hope your last day of 2004 was as enjoyable as mine. Happy New Years!
Happy New years
Well yesterday I had a wikkid thai cooking class, not that I'll be able to recreate those great dishes I had yesterday but it was just so much fun all day. It started off at 8am when I'm sitting in the restaurant having breakfast and these two large older ladies walk by and the women working there tells me they are in my cooking class. When I signed up the day before I was told 3 other people had also signed up and the other one was a German guy. So I started talking to these ladies and they are hilarious, whinny and annoying and nosy as can be but I just had to laugh. So around 9 we are meeting up at the front and I see a group of 5 other people, and luckily they were all on the course to so a sense of relief washed over me. We got into the pick up to go to the market and one of the ladies first can't get in and then as soon as she does shes going person to person introducing herself and her sister is sitting there hacking up a lung. We get to the market and its really busy and they takes us to a bunch of stand showing us the different fruits and veggies and letting us try some different foods that were all really good. At one point one of the older sisters gets lost and we kept on going without her until her sister noticed she was missing and then left to find her without telling anyone. Luckily someone saw her leave and then the ladies leading the course chased her down. One of the guys in the group made a comment about how it wouldn't be too hard to find her in the crowd but it took them a few minutes. It was good fun in the market b/c both of the ladies leading us were joking around a lot and just tones of fun. I think our market tour got cut short after losing the big sister but it was so busy there and one of the ladies kept yelling us to watch our bums b/c cars would drive right down the middle of the busy market. We went back to the cooking school and had some tea and coffee and chatted for a bit before making some green curry. They had all the ingredients set out for us and then we just chopped everything up and started pounding away in the mortar. They warned us to be carful b/c sometimes it flies out and then you get "spicy eye" and not to long after that one of the instructors got some in here and started laughing and saying she had spicy eye. I had a close call but luckily it hit me right above the eyebrow. After the paste was done we made some sticky rice and sweet coconut thing for dessert to be enjoyed with Mango, which surpisingly was really really good. Then we made our green curry chicken and sweet and sour chicken. It was really easy to make these dishes but they already set everything out in cups for us so we just added things when they yelled at us to. The older of the two instructors called everyone "mister" and gave people the funniest looks when they did something wrong. After making those two dishes we had lunch altho I was still full from all the stuff I had at the market but the food was so good I ate a tonne. After lunch I could barely move and luckily they gave us half an hour to sit around b/c if I had to cook again right then I would have lost my lunch for sure. After lunch we made some great phad thai and then the best part of the day was the spring rolls. I was so impressed at how they turned out altho I doubt I could redo it at home it was still so cool and they were so good. I don't know how I ate more but I had half of my phad thai and two of the spring rolls. The last dish we made was tom yun gon (spicy shrimp soup), which I've never liked the taste of but it turned out really good and I just picked out the shrimp. After that I went back to my room to sleep off all the food. Also all the food we didn't' eat they packed up for us to take back to the guest house with us so we could reheat it later. Around 7 I met up with on of the couples for dinner and had the rest of my phat thai and my spring rolls. The German guy came down a bit later and we all went to watch some muay thai together. It was lots of fun but most of the fights were kids, and they kicked the crap out of each other. It was crazy to watch these little guys fighting but the most entertaining part was the crowd yelling. When ever the guy they were cheering for got a good hit they would yell "Oye" so when they boxers were trading shots you'd hear oye, oye back and forth across the stadium like the crowd was having a yelling match. All in all yesterday was a full day of hilarious entertainment and tonnes of good laughs.
Half way
Half way there, yesterday was the half way point and now the days are ticking down faster and fast until I return home to the freezing cold weather. Woo hoo. I think I left off on monday, before I went to the night market. I spent the night at the famous chiang mai night market. First I stopped in the food court and got a pot of tea and watched some traditional thai dancing, no comment. After that I wondered arounnd the actual market and other then the amazing artist it was nothing special. When I was heading back down one street, out of the corner of my eye the golden arches caught my attention and dragged me in for a double cheese burger meal and there was a haagen daas across the street that I managed to get away from. Then I watched a muay thai (kick boxing) fight, which was pretty crappy, they were amatures but the best part was when one guy went for a head kick and the other guy ducked and he went right over the top rope. And now for high light of my night, an hour foot massage!! After walking around all day my feet were killing and it was sooo good and relaxing, I basically floated home after that.
Now for yesterday, in the morning I went to Doi Suthep, which is 17km out of town so you have to take a minibus/taxi there but since I'm alone no one would take just me so I ended up waiting for 40 mins until enough people came to fill it up. This wat is at the top of 306 stairs and I was told you haven't seen thailand until you've been there and that it was good luck to walk up all those stairs blah blah blah. But I did it anyways, which wasn't that bad but wasn't exactly fun. The temple at the top was umm nice, very similar to the other 10 I saw last week and there was a nice view of the whole city if you could see through the fog. When my legs where ready I walked back down the stairs and then to another taxi over to the chiang mai zoo. Now my legs were already tired from the day before and all the stairs but the zoo, the zoo was a killer! Its spread over 200 acres and its all hills, plus the signage is horrible so I was just wondering around most of the time not even seeing animals. It was a very nice zoo but something I'd like to see with a golf cart, which they had but it was at the front and I wasn't going all the way back to get one. I spent most of the afternoon there and then when I felt like i couldn't move my legs anymore I just came back here and crashed. I had a good nap but woke up with a killer headache so I stayed in bed for most of the night.
A sad day in SE Asia
Well I'm fine and safe hiding up here in the north far away from the disaster in the south. The tsunami which generated waves as high as 10 meters (33 feet) hit the southern islands yesterday morning killing at least 839 people and injuring 7,261 more. This occurred in places I had visited only a few weeks ago and my heart goes out to all of the friends and families who lost loved ones. Life seems to be carrying on as normal up here but I have seen many people huddled around their TV sets watching the disturbing images and I have spoke to a few who lost a friend or family down there. On the morning news I saw the news caster break down into tears and one of the guys working here told me lots of people are in shock because nothing like this has ever happened here. I'm keeping an eye on the news to see what else is going on with it and wish I could go down there and do something to help but I don't think there is anything I can do. When I saw the people sitting around watching the news it reminded me an awful lot of 911 and it makes you think about how every second we are alive is precious and can be taken away from us with no warning. Death gives no warning and we need to just enjoy every second we are lucky enough to be on this beautiful planet.
On to a lighter note, I ate bugs *barf* I can't believe it but I did it, I've always said I have to try everything once and sitting there with those bugs it took a lot of courage to do but I did it. They were deep fried and that was all I could really taste. It wasn't that they tasted bad just the thought of it was bad enough, the little meal worm things weren't that bad but the huge grasshoppers, well just wait until you see the pictures and you'll understand what I mean. Luckily I had a huge beer to wash out the taste and I didn't barf. I tried one of each and then threw out the rest. I took a few pics altho none of them are as good as the chicken feet ones but they'll do.
And now for my wonderful day today. I walked around the town and stopped at a few wats. spent a bit of time talking to the monks there. It was good talking to them and I think I will have write a whole other whole post on religion when I have more time. After visiting the wats I went to the city park which was amazing, nice ponds with fountains and bridges and beautiful flowers. Garbage cans every two feet so it was nice and clean. I sat on a bench over looking one of the ponds with this old dude and read a book for a while. Then I went out to the street and got two bbq polkas and a bottle of naam (water) for under a buck and went back into the park and watched these guys play a game similar to hackysac but there was a three sided net suspending about 20 feet above them. They used a larger ball and were smacking it around pretty good. I took some pictures b/c its hard to explain so I'll post them next time I have access to a card reader. After that I went and sat and read my book some more but stopped to watch a lady and her litte girl feed the fish in the pond. I was amazed at how big the fish were and it was so nice to see the joy on the little girls face as they came up to grab the food. After that I took a sawngthaw (a converted pick up taxi), they run all over the city and if there is someone already in it they will take you if its on the way to their destination if not you wait for the next one. In the back was a Muslim couple with their kids and they were singing me Christmas songs the whole ride. They were so cute and I just didn't have the heart to tell them I was Jewish. LOL Now I think I'm going to get a massage and then pick up some beer and relax on the patio with my book and some good music.
R.I.P Kermit and Miss. Piggy
Finally made it to Chiang Mai! I was originally planning on coming up here last Monday but I decided to really see Thailand and stopped as many times as possible on the way up. I'm so glad I did too even though I had to struggle with a huge language barrier in some cities and using the public transportation helped me work on my patience. Anyways I'm sure you are all dying to hear what I had for my wonderful Christmas dinner!! Last night I went out to see the night market and it was all rip off designer cloths and useless crap and no food. At the end I found an out door restaurant over looking the Nan river and I got a seat right beside the river. There was a brige not to far up the river covered in Christmas lights and it was a nice night out. Luckily they had a menu in English and as I was flipping through I couldn't decide what to have. Then when I was about to ordered fried veggies I saw at the bottom Fried Frog and veggies and without thinking I ordered it. When the waitress walked away it hit me what I just ordered and my mind started running and my stomach started dropping. I was worried they were going to bring me a whole frog or something I had no idea what I just got myself into. When it finally came out it was in a red sauce mixed in with the veggies. It was chopped up into little pieces and it was mainly bones but the meat that I did manage to suck off was delicious. It wasn't until I put the last bit on my plate that I noticed the arms with the hands still intact. That took me by surprise and almost stopped me but they turned out to be the best part. After that I got a big beer = 3 reg bottles for a buck and a half and went to my room to read and relax b/c I had to be up early this morning. At 2:30 last night I woke up to the two ladies having a nice load coversation in thai outside my room, I don't know if they just got home or where just getting up but it wasn't pleasant and they were there for quite a while. Finally 6am rolled around and I was already up to hit the alarm at the first beep, I've come to hate the sound of that alarm more then anything! I got up showered and re packed my bag before heading over to the bus stop. I took the city bus to the main bus terminal where I was trying to catch the 7:20 bus to Chiang Mai, when I got there they informed me the next bus wasn't until 8:10 so I bought a news paper and waited. The bus ride was a long long 7 hours but when the sun wasn't coming in on my side of the bus there was a beautiful view of the mountains we were flying through. I managed to read a whole book and sleep a coulpe hours on the bus. When I got here I found a nice guest house and got some lunch, well actually it was breakfast if you don't count the bag of chips I had on the bus. Now it turns out that I'm very attractive to the northern thai people, especially one of the guys working here. He's really funny and when I told him I had a girl friend he got all upset and told me I couldn't talk to him anymore. Later he came to my room and asked me to pretend to be his b/f b/c there was a french gay guy here who he was interested in but he just showed up with another guy and he wanted to make him jealous. I politely declined! At round 5 I headed out to check out the city while it was still light out but right down the street from my place I came across a Wat that they recommended I visit so I stopped in. I got there right as the monks started chanting so I sat at the back and listened to them for a while. The wat is the oldest one in town, over 700 years old and its amazing to see them in there chanting and imagining that this has been going on for 700 years now. Altho I doubt they had cell phones and tvs back then, when I left the main building I walked around the grounds and saw the door to a smaller building that was chained closed before had been opened. So I walked up and entered to find two monks laying on the floor watching tv, I looked around at the amazing murals painted on the walls and then left them with the news. After that I walked to the Sunday market which was huge and had tonnes of crap. I walked around for an hour before coming across a lady selling bugs, I had to do it so I bought two bags, altho I'm not sure of what, I think one was grasshoppers and the other i have no idea I couldn't look at them that long. They are sitting in my room waiting for me, anyways after that I went and got a 30 min back and shoulders massage, which was just what I needed. The girl who was working on me also seemed to have a crush on me but I don't know enough thai to know what she was saying to the other ppl working there but it seemed pretty funny to them. After that I was nice and relaxed and picked up a orange and beet juice which was surprisingly good and a pork sausage b/c I didn't want to eat too much incase the bugs didn't agree with me. Then I walked back to my gh and stopped at 711 to pick up a water and a big beer to help me deal with the bugs incase they don't stay down. Well I'm going to work up the corage to go eat them and I'll take lots of pics of whatever happens.
Merry X Mas from Phitsanulok
Well I'm back in Phitsanulok, not like anyone would know where that is but either way I'm here. Today I woke up in Sukhothai and decided to make my way over to Phitsanulok after a great ham and cheese omlet. I caught the local intercity bus here and then the local city bus from the main bus terminal into the city to find a place to stay tonight. I was the only farang (foriegner) on both of the buses and they were so cheap the intercity was a buck and the aircon city bus was under a quater. I went to check out the guesthouse from my travel guide but when I walked in they had no idea what I was saying and then this really old short guy came in after me and took me to his place. It turned out that he didn't speak a word of english and was also deaf so we used some hand signals and head shakes and I got a nice room for around 7 bucks with a tv and heated shower. After that I headed out to the TAT (Tourism Authority of Thailand) office, to get a copy of the bus scheduals and a map of the city plus whatever other information I could get. The guy that worked there spoke some broken english and the info I needed so I headed out to find some lunch. I stopped at the local market and got what I beleive was pork on steamed rice and a bowl of soup. The lady working at the stand didn't speak any english either so I just pointed and shook my head again and ended up with a great lunch for only yee-sip baht (20) or 65 cents with a liter bottle of water. After that I walked down along the Nan river over to Wat Phra Si Rattana Mahathat, aka Wat Yai and walked around quickly but didn't really enjoy it. It was very crowded I guess b/c of christmas and it seemed more like a market then a religous site with people buying crap all over the place and most of the people in the temple weren't actually praying but sitting on the ground taking pictures with their camera phones of each other infront of the main buddha statue. After that I walked along the river a bit more and came across people selling bags of living fish and eels and also very very cute puppies. I spent some time sitting at the edge of the river reading all the info I picked up at the TAT office before heading back. On the way back I stopped at a book store to pick up a Learning Thai-English book so that I can try to talk abit more with people here. And if they can't understand what I'm saying I can just show them the book and it has it written in Thai so they can help me pronouce it properly or at least try to. I'm still having trouble with Ayutthaya and for some reason Phitsanulok keeps slipping out my head. Tonight I'm going to check out the night market which looks huge and try to get to sleep early b/c I'm going to catch the 7:20 bus to Chiang Mai which takes 7 hours. That means I have to catch the local bus by 6:45 to get to the main bus terminal in time. Woo hoo that will be lots of fun!
Sukhothai - hotha = Suki
Well today was another great day! I slept alright last night except for waking up and being cold a few times but when I got up this morning my cold wasn't as bad. The shower was soooo cold it was like ice water and it literally took my break away, literally. I headed over to the guest house where Matt and Angie were staying b/c we were supposed to meet for breakfast at 8:30, neither of them were there so I sat down and got some breakfast. They both showed up eventually and we caught the public bus over to old Sukhothai and rented bikes to explore the ruins. First we stopped at the museum which had tonnes of artifacts and lots of information, I also spent some time following a tour group listening to the guide and learnt so new interesting things about Buddhism. After that we jumped back on our bikes and heading to Wat Mahathat which was the nicest one I've seen so far and we spent a while walking around amongst the ruins and the many large Buddha statues. After that we rode over to a little restaurant and hid in the shade from 12-1 and had some lunch. After lunch we biked around the rest of the wats stopping at most of them and then just headed back to the first one where we sat around for a while in the shade. They were trading traveling stories and I was listening in awe. They are 30 and 39 so they have seen a lot more of the world then me and it was great because I learnt a lot. After that we took the bikes back and got on the bus back to the new city. On the bus we met another lone traveler and so the four of us are going to meet up for dinner later on. Tomorrow I'm going to head back on the road although I haven't decided where I'm heading I think I'll go to Phitsanulok and maybe spend a day there.
Sukhothai
Well I woke up this morning feeling like crap but decided to head out b/c staying there wouldn't change anything. I wanted to catch the 7:45 train up to Phitsanulok so I was up and out of bed at 6. I took at Tuk tuk to the train station instead of walking cause I was lazy and at one of the lights the idiot driver almost slammed into a motocycle with 3 girls on it. He slid to a stop about a foot away from them and I went flying into the front wall. That was a nice wake up call! I got to the train station just after 7 and got my ticket, specifying that I wanted a second class seat not standing b/c this ride was over 5 hours. Right before getting on the train I got some vegie fried rice and a bottle of water for breakfast and ate it on the train. I slept for a bit but most of the time I watched the fields fly by trying desperatly to breath. When we finally arrive at Phitsanulok I met this guy Matt and we took the local bus to the main bus station where we took an hour long bus ride to Sukhothai. There we got in a tuk tuk and went to check out a guest house. It turned out to be in the middle of nowhere and you had to walk across some crappy 2x4s behind someones house to get to it. We decided to check out another place that was closer to the main city, which was really just a 10 min walk away. This place was alright but there were 8 rooms sharing one bathroom and the private bungalow looked like crap so I decided to check out on more down the street but Matt stayed there. I found a much nicer place down the street with a private bath and friendly staff and a bonus it was cheaper. The only problem is the manual flush toliets which I've been lucky enough not to have for the last week. After I got my room I went back to Matt's place to have lunch with him and he was sitting there with a nice lady from Toronto. I sat there chatting with them for a couple hours and then Matt went to crash and we came into the city to use the net. Tomorrow morning we are all going over the see the ruins in the old city and spend the day there. I'm sure there wont be much to report about other then maybe a new history lesson.
Mokey Tales
Well today you all are getting a treat, a one day pass to my travel
journal. I'm just so tired that I can't even think and I spent close to
an hour writing about my day earlier so I'm just going to mindlessly
type it in for you all to enjoy and I know you will. So please dont
mind any stupid mistakes I make now b/c I'm half asleep and might just
fall asleep while writing this.
Today I planned to take the train to Lop Buri and spend the day there
and then take the overnight train to Chiang Mai. But I was up tossing
and turning all night with a sore throat and was congested to hell. I
knew that this was coming, it was only a matter of time before it hit.
So I stayed in bed until 10 to get as much sleep as possible and then
decided to just do Lop Buri as a day trip b/c there was no way I was
sleeping on the train tonight. So I threw together a day bad, stopped
on my way out to pay for one more night and walked over to the ferry
to get to the train station. The ferry takes about 30 seconds to cross,
costs 2 whole baht and doesn't quite dock but actually just rams into
the floating dock while everyone runs off. When I got to the station I
got a ticket (13 baht) and had a good 20 thai mins (30 mins in our
time) to wait so I grabbed a can of coke and a container of pringles
(sour cream & onion), which came in handy later. When the train finally
arrived there were no seats left on my car, which was fine with me b/c
I sat on the stairs with the door open eating my breakfast and
admiring the scenery as it flew by. The ride was under an hour and I
read some Tom Robbins along the way. When I arrived in Lop Buri I got
off the train and visited the wat right across the street called "Wat
Phra Si Ratana Maharat" and snapped some photos before my last
batteries died. So I headed back to the train station and picked up
some new ones for 30 baht that died with in an hour. Then I got a ride
in a bike/rickshaw type thing to the TAT office, which was two seconds
away where I got a map of the city and found out where the monkeys hang
out. I headed straight there and about a block away out of the corner
of my eye I noticed something moving on top of the street sign. There
was a big old monkey just chilling up there and then I found another
one at the stop sign at the end of the street. Then I made it into Wat
Phra Prang Sam Yod paid my 30 baht foreigners fee and experienced
something beyond anything I could have ever imagined. Now I'd like to
crate a little list titled "Monkey Tales" about my time at Wat Phra
Prang Sam Yod. I'll try to keep it in sequential order.
Monkey Tales1) One monkey came around behind me and climbed up my legs onto my
backpack to distract me. Then his accomplice came up and grabbed my
bottle of water and ran of with it. The smart little thing popped off
the top and drank the whole thing without even offering some to his
friend.
2) I was kneeling down to get a close up of a little guy when I noticed
two other guys approaching from the left. When I stood up I found
myself being circled by the little creeps. They were slowly closing in
on me from all sides, 6 of them. I just took one step at them and they
all ran off.
3) I had two cute babies infront of me so I found a stick on the ground
and started playing with them. One of them grabbed on to the stick and
I lifted him up into the air. Apparently the mother didn't like this
and ran over and grabbed my leg and started to climb me until I left go
of the stick and they ran off with it.
4) I was inside the wat where they installed metal bars so you could
feed the monkeys and get close to them without having them jump all
over you. I was squatting right near the bars and I put out my finger
for the baby and he grabbed it and held on. Then a few others reached
out and grabbed on too.
5) While sitting there in the wat I watched the monkeys and observed
many strange behaviors that I'll add on as a sub list.
a) First thing I noticed was how caring and gentle they could
be with each other while they were grooming.
b) Then I witnessed how nasty they could be. I saw a larger
monkey grab a smaller one by the testicles and fling him around for a
while. He proceeded to bite the poor little guy all over including his
testes. This was disturbing to watch but the worst part was everytime
the little guy escaped from the big guys hold he'd come charging back
only to be picked up by the nuts again.
c) Some one gave them marbles which they would carry around in
their mouths and then play with in between the bars. One little guy
dropped his and it rolled away so I pushed it back to him. when his mom
saw me touch it she screeched at me and grabbed the marble and then
just stared at me with her mouth open. I screeched back and she left
with the marble.
d) Monkeys pee where ever they are sitting and then just stay
there as if they didn't notice it happen and weren't sitting in their
own pee.
e) They smell! Every once in a while you'd get a whiff of hot
monkey that would just take your breath away.
f) Monkeys like hard candies, the Thai peope where giving them
what looked like strawberry hard candies and they would just suck away
happily. Then I noticed a few of them would lick the walls which
sucking on the candies, I never figured out what that was all about but
it was only the ones with candies licking the walls.
6) After watching the monkeys from inside the wat for 30 mins I
remembered I had some left over Pringles in by bag. I had 4 little guys
and a mommy reaching through the gate and I broke up the chips and they
were grabbing pieces faster then i could break them off.
After all that great time observing and interacting with the monkies I
left with a huge smile on my face and a feeling I'd be back here some
day. After that I picked up some more batteries and this time they
place had real ones. Then I just wondered down the street a bit and
stumbled upon Phra narai Rachanivaj. This is the ruins of a palace
built in 1665 by King Narai. It was huge and I just wondered around for
a while in awe of all the history I've taken over the past two days.
Growing up I never had any idea about Asian history and its amazing to
learn about it while standing amongst large pieces of it. After
wondering through the ruins for a while I walked back to the train
station, passing through what would be the night market। It was cool to see it coming together like that in the middle of the street.
Ayutthaya aka Zach
Well I'm in Ayutthaya now, I got up nice and early and took the train up here, its about an hour and a quater north of Bangkok and it used to be the capatol of Siam for a really long time. There is so much history here and I spent the day walking around looking at old ruins and wats. The ruins were amazing to walk through and I saw the biggest buddha statues I've ever seen in one of the wats. I took a bunch of pictues which I'm trying to get back home asap as soon as rob gets the ftp working again and I have a good internet connection there will be lots to look at. I also took a few videos the other night at the jazz festival and one at the zoo so I hope those come out alright with sound and all. I'm so exhausted from walking around in the blazing hot sun today (heh ;) ) that I'll probably be out before 12 and thats good because tomorrow I'm planning on catching the train up to Lop Buri and leaving my bag at the train station while I wonder around the city chasing monkies and then at night I'll get back on the train for the othernight to Chiang Mai. That is of course the plan as of right now but we'll see how tired I am and how much my legs are killing when I get up in the morning. Oh I almost forget to write about the great lesson I learnt today. When buying a ticket for the train you must specify that you want a seat, me and 5 other tourists ended up standing at the back of the train cramed into a 3x2 little space because we all bought standing tickets. I'm glad it was only a one hour ride and not the 15 hr ride up to chiang mai. I really enjoy riding the train b/c you get to see the most beautiful scenery, today I saw lots of rice paddies that were so green and lush, just amazing compared to the dirty city of Bangkok I was leaving. The cool thing about Ayutthaya is that you have people living amongst those old ruins, its just a normal city around them. Also it is a man made island, the southern point is where two rivers meet and they connected them at the top for protection a long long time ago. Well there is tonnes more history about this place, a lot of which I'm oblivious to but one last tid bit before I go, it was home to 33 kings of Siam. History lesson over for the day, if you want to know more open up your google and do some reading on your spare time.
New Layout
Well I decided to change the layout so that my best friend Zach could keep up with me because apparently he was having trouble reading the white on black so I assumed the rest of you were having the same problem but being good Canadians were too polite to say anything. I hope you like this one but if there are any problems with it let me know b/c there are so many different templates to choose from. Anyways today I spent 5 hours at the Dusit Zoo in Bangkok, it was a great day walking around relaxing and getting away from the craziness that is Bangkok. I took tonnes of pictures, probably over 150 so when I get back you can see basically every animal in the Zoo and multiple pictures of the cutest monkies and tigers every. Now I'm off to do some laundry and chill out with a book. Tomorrow I'll be back on the road heading a few hours north of here by train, the name of the city escapes me right now but I'll let you know what I get there. Brandon
Brandon a buddhist nun?!?!?!
Good morning, I woke up nice and early so I could come and write about the Jazz festival before I head off to the zoo for the day. First the line up for those of you who care. Sat night: C.U. Band, Minaswing, Koh Saxman and All Stars, James Taylor Quartet, David Sanborn and Al Jarreau. Now they were all amazing but Al Jarreu stood out above the rest, he was great and really kept the crowd going even after being there for 6 hours. On Sun night: Mahidol Jazz Ensemble, URB, Infinity and all stars, Sadao Watanabe, Mindi Abair. The music was also great all night long and The Crusaders closed off the festival with the Ghostbusters theme song. Now back to what I did yesterday during the day. Well after sleeping in until 11 I got up and came online to write my blog for the previous day then ran into 711 to grab some breakfast. I jumped into a tuk tuk and headed over to Wat Mahadhatu to the Vipaddana Meditation centre, when I got to the Wat I walked in the first gate and had no idea where I was going and there were no signs in english so I asked someone and they pointed me down the street to the third gate. I went in and found the right building and went in, there was two other westerners there and I sat down on the floor with no idea what was going on. This girl from BC came and sat down beside me and we talked a bit before the class started. One of the nuns came up to me and handed me a book then pointed to a mat on the floor so I went and sat at the back behind the monks and tried to follow along with the Pali chanting. I was a little confused about what was going on but I went along with it b/c it was an interesting experence seeing buddhism in practice. After 5 minutes of chanting and bowing we got up and before handing the book back to the nun I saw what it said on the cover, it was the book for ordaining a buddhist nun. Later I found out that inorder to take place in the meditation classes everyone must take the precipt of a nun for the day. Then the three of us were led over to another section of the wat with the nun and we sat on some mats while she talked about meditaion for a bit. Then we practiced walking meditation for 30 mins and then sitting meditation for what felt like forever but I have no idea how long it really was. It was a very interesting experence to say the least but I definatly the last time I'm going to go to any meditation classes. Its such a waste of time when there are so many amazing things to do and see here. After that I stopped in a small market to get some lunch before heading over to the Jazz festival.
A Lession in Taoism from the wise Bangkok
Well I'd really want to write a huge blog entry all about yesterday but my time is limited because today I am really busy and have to get on the road soon. So to begin I must say how different a city like Bangkok is, by noon I was ready to say forget the Jazz festival and leave right then and by 3 pm I decided I need to stay an extra day or two before I move on. I woke up at 8 am and headed out to check some emails and got lucky catching some people on msn then I went and got some breakfast before heading to my first destination. When I went to get a taxi/tuk tuk to my first destination they all tried to rip me off, charging me 3 times as much as I should have paid to get there so I decided to go back to my room and check how far it was on a map. It turned out to be really close, maybe a 20 minute walk so I decided to try my luck but after and hour of wondering in a figure 8 I realised Bangkok isn't like anyother city I've been to. Normally I'm really good at finding my way around but here I think it is impossible. I stopped and asked 2 two different people and they both gave me two different sets of directions, on included taking a bus that I waited for 10 mins for but never showed up. So I decided I need to take a tuk tuk and flaged on down. Now the problem was that he didn't speak or read english so he got off and took the address to another Thai who gave him some directions and then we agreed on a price and were finally on our way, so I thought. About 5 mins later he pulls up to some random buildign and looks at me like "is this it?" I shoke my head no and he got out and asked another person for directions. That guy seemed to know where it was and the tuk tuk driver seemed really excited when he got back in and we were off again. About 3 mins later, he pulls over again looking lost and asks one more person where it is. After a minute of looking at the address and thinking about it the guy points up the street and the drive gets back in and fires up the tuk tuk and we are off again. Then two seconds later we are there, it was actually just on the next block. When we see it we both laugh and I pay and get out. After that I had to go to a Thai Ticketmaster to get tickets for the Jazz Festival so early I had made a list of all of the locations and so I jumped in a taxi and asked him to take me to the closest one. Now I lucked out and got a taxi drive who not only spoke a bit of english but was also hilarious. He told me about his beautiful children and his fat wife and many girlfriends, he pulled out one of those brochures for the "massage parlours" and told me how he likes to go there and get the big bretheted ladies. He made me laugh the whole way there. When I got to Central Chit Lom I was amazed when I walked in. It is a 7 floor huge deptment store/mall with amazing stuff. Anything and everythign you could want they had there and all of it was good quality not like the crap you see all over the streets here. They also had a huge christmas tree, I think it was about 5 stories high. So all of you who know me well know how much I love shopping, ha so I went directly up to the 6th floor to get my tickets but I found out I had 4 hour to kill until the Jazz festival started so I decided to try to kill some time by walking the mall. I walked around for a long time, it felt like at least 2 or 3 hours to me but when I went to check the time it had only been 45 mins so I bought a magazine and went to one of the Star bucks in the place. Its good to know that that place is a rip off all over the world, normally I get a 1 leter bottle of water for 5 baht and there I got a 500 mL bottle for 45 baht. I sat there for I think a half an hour and then decided to go walk around and see what was around the mall. I think I was in the buisness center b/c there lots of nice hotels there and I still need to kill a few hours so I thought about getting in a cab and heading to Lumphini park to relax or getting a hair cut. I walked down this one street for about 20 mins and decided after the next convence store I'd get some thing to drink and hope in a taxi to the park. Well as I kept walking I started to recongnize the street and realised that I was right at Lumphini park and as I crossed the street I noticed a little hole in the wall barber shop. It was just two chairs and a bed in the room, which the barbers wife was sleeping in. He was cutting some old mans hair when I walked in an he motioned for me to have a seat. It was very interesting watching him cut the guys hair, it seemed very random and at the end he cracked the guys neck. Then it was my turn, now he didn't speak any english I doubt many foreigners go there but I just sat in the chair and he pulled out the clippers and went to work without a word being said. So now I'm nice and bald again and it only cost me 2 bucks this time plus I got my necked cracked. After that I went next door and got a red bull and a bottle of water and went into the park. I spent about an hour sitting there reading my mag before headin over to the Jazz festival. The ride there took about an hour and it was only 10 k away, you've got to love Bangkok traffic! When I got there I was very surprised at how big it was and how nice the set up was. It was very well organized with two huge stages bands came on one after another and it was so funny to watch the people in the front run from one stage to the next. The only had one bathroom so the line up for that was huge and something confused me the whole night was there were no garbage cans, the only one I found was right beside the washroom and yet the place was soo clean. The had a food tent set up selling all kinds of things that I don't know what they were, I ended up with some wonton soup w/ bbq pork and a phad thai luckily. The festival was sponsered but heinekien so the beer was really cheap about a buck and a quater per can. All the bands were great and the last guy was just amazing, I was soo tired I wanted to leave but I just couldn't. Well I'd love to give some more details about the night and the line up but I must run to start my day, hopefully I'll wake up earlier tomorrow to be able to write all about today before starting off the day.
Adeena
Well last night I met up with the Lady I met on the bus and she took me to see one of her friends playing at the Hard Rock Cafe. There were really good, doing all covers of American pop music and there were some crazy looking Lady-boys in the crowd dancing around. Also sitting beside me at the bar was this 40+ year old Thai lady with her own bottle of Whiskey and chain smoking the whole time, I know thats not really interesting to any of you but I found it very odd. After that we went to some other club to see if her friend was working but she wasn't and the place sucked so we end up at a club called the Q bar. It was a very nice club and they had every type of alcohol known to man, they even had a few different bottles of Absynth. When you pay cover at the door, they give you two free drinks so I had a CC and coke and a beer. Then I headed back to my place but it took me about an hour to get back b/c the cab ride was 30-40 mins and he dropped me off at the wrong street so it took me 20 mins to find my way back to my place. So I finally got in at 3ish and I had to get up at 6 for the tour I went on today. So I got up nice and early this morning and had a nice hot shower, wow I forgot how nice that felt. I then headed out to meet my minibus for my day trip which was supposed to be there at 7, at 10 after some guy finally came and got me and two other people I was standing with. But then we went to get in the minibus and he made the two other people stay there and I got into the bus, there was one girl and then we drove to the next street where she had to get out and into another minibus, basically after an hour everyone had switched buses and then we were on the road. I don't know how long the bus ride was, maybe two hours and when we got to Kanchanaburi we stopped at the WW2 museum. After walking around for about 10 mins I ran into the two ppl who were standing with me first thing in the morning. It was so messed up and unorganized. After that I went and walked across the Bridge over River Kwai and then went for a nice train ride on the famous Death Railway that was built by POWs during WW2. After that we stopped for lunch, which was very good, they brought out 4 different dishes for us to share. After that we went Elephant treking, which wasn't as fun as the last two times I did it. And then we went bamboo rafting on the Mae Khong river, which was very nice and relaxing and I sat talking with the guide for most of the ride. He was really nice and we exchanged addresses b/c he wants to write me and he also invited me to stay with him and his family next time I'm in Kanchanaburi. Then we stopped at the Sai Yak Noi waterfall for 30 mins before heading back to Bangkok. While at the waterfall I went with the guide to the market and tried some cool foods. I ended up buying a bag of fried Taro, which was like very thin french fries and very tasty. Then I basically slept the whole ride home and I'm ready to go back to sleep now.
17 Hour Train ride
Well yesterday I left Trang around 1:45 to return to Bangkok, I was in a second class car, which has a fan not air con and I had my own bed. The first hour or so I just listen to my new cd and slept a bit, then I spent the next hour or two just staring out the window at the mountains to the east. It was so beautiful, I could spend the next week just riding on the trains staring out at the countryside. At around 4 one of the guys working there came to get my order for dinner and another guy came and sat with me. We chatted for a bit about where I came from and where he comes from and basically had the same conversation I've had with about 20 other thai people. Then this Thai lady, who is a Stock Broker in Hong Kong came and sat across from me. She was really funny b/c she hates everything thai, so I spent the rest of the evening listening to her tell me what she doens't like about thailand and the people and I read my book. Then I tried to sleep, now this was very interesting b/c the train was loud, very loud and jerky. I felt like I was trying to sleep on the subway except the volume was turned up to maximum. We finally arrived in Bangkok around 7:15 and I went to grab a tuk tuk to Khao San road but the guy wanted to charge me 200 Baht and as I was bargining with him, which is hard to do after no sleep, the Thai lady drove by in a taxi and offered to give me a lift. So she dropped me off infront of the Khao San Palace, which i've heard good things about and I got a room with a Tv and HOT SHOWER!!! But I had to wait until 9 for the room to be cleaned so I wondered off down Khao San Road and 99% of the places were closed so I just ducked into an internet cafe for an hour, then had a burger and fries for breakfast before going and taking a hot shower!! I can't remember the last time I had a hot shower and it was great. Then I passed out for a while and now I'm going to get some lunch and probably go back to sleep!
Waiting for the Train!
Its noon and hot as hell out here but I'm dressed in warm clothes b/c I'm about to take the 16 hour train ride up to Bangkok from Trang and I know it will be cold at night, I just have to sweat it out until then. Theres not much to report on just trying to kill some time before the train leaves at 1:45. Well I guess I'll leave you with some 'interesting' things I've seen, first off while flipping channels last night on my tv I saw some funny Thai shows and wierd game shows where they were running around like fools and eating silly stuff. Then I saw this crazy cartoon that was in English and the main female character's name was Suki. And then I can across what I beleive was a news channel and they showed a dead body floating in the water and the police pulling it on to a raft and dragging it away by a canoe. The body was blurred out but it was still very disturbing and then this morning I was flipping again and saw another dead body in a field, also blurd out. That has to rank some where up their with wierd things I've seen so far but not too high up there. Also the night market last night was very cool, tonnes of very interesting looking foods and so many amazing smells I had to walk around three times before deciding where to eat and I ended up having dinner for about 65 cents and it was great! Then I was walking around a store and was hit on by one of the girls working there, it was very interesting b/c she didn't speak English and kept trying to talk to me in Thai. Luckily I had been listening to a lot of "Faen Ja" before I left and knew that Faen was girlfriend and she was asking me if I had one! Well thats all for now, I'll write again when I get to Bangkok if anything interesting happens on the train ride there.
We're not in Kansas anymore Toto
Well I got up nice and early this morning (6:30) to catch a minibus over to the main land and I'm currently in Trang. I'm back in thailand now, actually I feel like this is the first time I'm actually in a different country and can really feel it. I mean bangkok is a whole other world by itself but everywhere I've been its been 90% tourist and all the thais spoke english and everything was catered to the tourists. Here I've seen maybe 4 or 5 other tourists all day and everything is actaully thai. Its great but I don't think I'm going to stay here for the 3 days I orignally planned, theres just nothing for me to do unless I want to rent a motorbike and drive to the caves or the waterfalls by myself. Tomorrow I'm thinking of heading up to Bangkok on the overnight train for the Jazz Festival coming up this weekend. I've been walking around for about an hour to find an internet place b/c the one right across from my place was full with thai students doing homework! I'm back here now and it is unreal sitting here surrounded by about of thai students, I get wierd looks everywhere I get but if I just smile at anyone they smile right back. Its so much nicer then everyone looking at you as a walking dollar. Tonight there is apparently a nice night market that has really good food so I'm starving myself until then! Also I saw a truck driving around with a poster in Thai but a picture of a Rooster on the side so I'm thinking there might be cock fights tonight, I just have to find out where and I might go check that out. The place I'm staying is nice, its good to have a flushing toliet again and for an extra dollar a night I got a tv in my room with 150+ channels, altho 98% of them are thai. The room in total is costing about 7 dollars a night and it is bigger then most rooms you'd get in north america for $40-$50.
It’s late in the evening ;)
Well theres not too much for me to update about except for my change in plans. The last two day I've done nothing but sit on beaches reading, waiting for the clouds to pass over, yet they still haven't. I spent most of the day with two South African guys yesterday and one of them is supposed to be getting a bamboo tattoo today which should be really interesting to watch. Tomorrow I am heading out with them and one of the guys who works at this place to go over to Ko Tao. The guy that works here is driving there so we are just catching a ride with him, the place we are going is supposed to be the best place to snorkal and dive so I hope the weather is nicer there. I also found out about a Jazz festival in Bangkok on the 18th and 19th so I'm going to fly up from Koh Samui for that weekend. Well I'll post again when I get to Koh Tao and hopefully I'll have someting more interesting to write about then.
Koh Lanta Elephants
Well I was wrong yesterday when I would be relaxing and not donig anythign exciting this week. Last night I finally met up with my aunts friends son and although he was staying somewhere else we decided to go on an elephant trek together today. He booked everything from the other place and they were supposed to pick me up here at 9:30. So I was up and having breakfast by quarter to 9 and then I just sat there watching tv (will & grace and then 8 crazy nights) man do I miss tv!! But surly 9:30 rolls by then 9:45 and at 10 I just gave up and decided to go check if he emailed me but the net wasn't working so I sat on the beach reading. Then around quater after I hear him calling my name, he had to come back here with them to get me for some reason no one understood. Then on the way to the elephant treking place we stopped to get some gas but our driver tried to pay with a counterfit 1000 baht bill and they started yelling at each other. It was quite amusing. Once we finally got to the place we got on to the elephants and started our trek towards the tiger caves. This was a much longer ride then the first time but after about 10 mins I climbed out of the seat and down on to the elephants neck again, I find it more comfortable there. It was a lot more fun this time b/c we were going up and down hills. When we got off the elephant we hiked for about 10 - 20 mins, I'm terrible with time and then we arrived at the tiger caves. We climbed down some interesting ladders and crawled through tiny holes in and out of these amazing caves. We all got really dirty and were sweating like beasts but it was so much fun. Then on the hike back to the elephant we stopped at a natural pool to swim for a few minutes. Right before we made it to the pool I picked up a nice little hitchhiker, he was such a nice leech! It really didn't hurt and I just ripped it off and it scabbed up very quickly. After that we rode back on the elephants and then I went back with them to hang out and have lunch. It was lots of funny chilling with people from back home, I can't remember the last time I heard someone say they were "shivitsing". We played cards and had lunch and then I had to find a way back to my place. The guy working there said a taxi would cost 1400 baht which is almost 3 times as much as it cost me to get from Bangkok down to Ko Samui so I just walked down to the main street and flaged down a local pick up who was heading up to the main port and they dropped me off on the way. It was such a nice ride to see more of the real thailand, I saw kids walking home from school and they all smile at you when they see you. So yeh I guess tomorrow will have to be more of a beach day if the weather gets better. Today it was very overcast but it was perfect for what we were doing now its very windy and looks like its going to rain tonight. That should be lots of fun in my room b/c the walls aren't exactly what we would call walls back home, more like mats stapled to 2X4.
Ko Lanta
Well this is the part of my trip that actually is more of a vacation then an adventure but I'll still try to do some exciting things from time to time to give you guys something to read about. Where I am is off the beaten track so there aren't hundreds of tourists everywhere and people trying to sell you anything bothering you every two seconds. This place is going to be one of those very popular destination in a few years I'm just happy I'm here now. Anyways I have a nice little bungalow two seconds from the beach and am paying next to nothing for it. The restaurant also faces the water so you get to enjoy the amazing sunsets during dinner. Very nice! Today I went on a tour of four islands and went snorkaling 3 times and now I'm going to relax and read for a bit before dinner.
Watch out Shark!!
What a rough two days. Well yesterday I spent most of the day reading in the shade down on the beach and relaxing. Then I found a new place along the beach with a bunch of restaurants that look out to the water and server fresh sea food. The first one I found that had Shark steak I ran into and sat down right by the water. It was very nice and romantic with the candel light and the waves crashing right beside me, good thing a stray cat came and sat with me. The Shark steak was probably the best thing I've ever eaten in my life, the meat was some where betten fish and chicken and the taste was incredable, just too good for words. After that I wondered around for a while before heading back to my room to try to figure out where I'm heading next and what I'll do when I get there. This morning I went and got two new books and headed down to the beach but wondered all the way down to one end away from the 60 year old topless europian ladies. There were lots of local thais their because today is a national holiday, the kings birthday. I tried to hide in the shade most of the day but I still managed to get a little bit burn on my arms and back. I climbed up some rocks and just sat there staring off into the water and reading for most of the day. When I noticed that I was getting burnt I headed back to my place and sat on my porch reading and listening to music for a while. Then I headed out for my dollar dinner of phad thai and water and took it down to the beach to eat and watch the sun set. Now I'm so tired from all the sun and so relaxed from watching the sunset. I think I'll head back to my room and start reading my next book before falling asleep early. Tomorrow I think I will be catching a boat to Koh Lanta Yai but I havne't booked anything yet so maybe I'll do that on my way back to my room now.
Koh Phi Phi
Well I officially hate this site! I just wrote all about my adventure to Koh Phi Phi and lost it all, grrrr So I guess i'll start again. Two days ago we went on a full day tour of Koh Phi Phi, we left at around 9 am and headed over to the Ao Nang Princes 1 for the 2 hour ride to Koh Phi Phi Ley. They took us around the island and pointed out some things of interest, although I don't know who they were interesting to. Then we got to snorkaling in the bay where the movie "the Beach" was filmed. It was my first time ever snorkaling and it was lots of fun to swim with the fishes I've seen at Big Als so many times. I saw so many sea urchants and couldn't stop thinking about the feast my dad could have here, Uni for everyone. Then we headed over to Koh Phi Phi Don for some lunch which made me sick, it was awful and we walked around for an hour. I wasn't planning on buying any gifts until the end of my trip b/c i'm already carring around too much weight but I saw something for Zach that I had to get and it was small enough that I don't mind carrying it around for him. Then we got back on the boat and headed over to Bamboo beach for some more snorkaling but the mask I had sucked and I was taking on water so I headed back to the boat after 5 or 10 mins and just relaxed on the deck. I did get to see a nice dog faced puffer for two seconds before he ducked back under the coral and my mask filled with water. When we got back from the tour we headed into town for dinner and to get Grahams pictures put onto cd for me. After that we ran into some people from our place and went to a few bars with them. Then headed back at 1 but the guy wasn't there so I woke up someone on sleeping on one of the long tailed boats and paid him to take us back. Then we hung out with a bunch of the guys who worked at the resorts on the beach, it was lots of fun and one of them had a dog name "alien" that I played with for a while. That just reminded me when I was on Phi Phi Don, I went in to a small shop adn there was a lady helping her baby daughter to stand and the baby was kickign a beach ball around so I kicked it back to her. I stayed there playing kick ball with her for a few minutes, she was smiling from ear to ear every time she hit the ball back to me. Anyways so now I'm on yesterday, well I woke up at 7:30 and couldn't get back to sleep so I went and had breakfast and read the paper then Graham came out aroudn 12 and we had some lunch before he left. After he left I came into town and then grabbed a taxi boat over to Rai Ley beach about 20 minutes away. I was looking for a place to stay for tonight but it was really crowded and not what everyone made it out to be so I came back to Ao Nang and went hunting for a Tom Robbins book, with no luck. Instead I got two new Patterson books and then grabbed some dinner at a street booth, which is basically a motorcycle converted in to a kitchen on wheels, of course I had the phad thai and it was very good. While I was eating a little kitty came by and I played with him, he was so cute and made me miss my logan. After that I headed back to the Andaman Inn and got a pot of tea and read my book for a few hours before heading to bed early. I got a good 8 hours of sleep for the first time since Koh Phangan and then got ready to leave. It took me a while to pack up my stuff b/c I had been there a few days and all my stuff was everywhere. Then I grabbed a quick breakfast and checked out. I came over to Ao Nang and started wondering the streets looking for place to stay tonight, after about 10 places I found a nice one and took it. Now I'm going to grab some lunch and head to the beach to finish reading my book. Oh yeah I got smart this time and instead of writing this in a browser I opened notepad and typed it there so no more disappearign acts for all my long blog entrys!
Krabi
Oh man, wow this sucks, I just wrote the longest entry yet and it got erased. Well lucky you don't have to read about my crazy day of travelling yesterday b/c there is no way i'm writing all of that again. Basically I left Tanouy Graden in Koh Phangan at around 9:30am and ended up at Hat Nopparathara around 7:30 pm after taking 2 boats, 3 buses and 3 song thauws. The place we are staying at now sucks so I might leave a bit early and find a better place, there is nothign around it and you have to take a boat to get to the nearest city which stops running at 7 pm. I'll write breifly about my day today, I woke up really early and headed into town around 9 and spent sometime talking to loved ones back home, which was a big help after the day of travel and crappy night of sleep. I then went to McDs for some breakfast and headed back to my place and down to the beach after booking a day trip to Koh Phi Phi tomorrow. Okay So I just wrote a whole bunch more and it got erased too so I'll leave you with this and tell you about my cool trip tomorrow. Have a great day, I did, Thanks
