Thai photos

https://picasaweb.google.com/100484662617211312075?authkey=Gv1sRgCN7Inp7vnKvyRw

Link for ALL the Thailand (and Cambodia) photos. If you want captions (and all the bad and duplicate photos removed), you'll have to hit up Anna's FB albums.

Back home

2 boxes downs, 8 to go. I'm just now beginning to unpack the boxes of papers, binders, and books from 822. It's amazing the amount of memories stored it an unorganized pile of receipts; I've got a stack of receipts detailing trips to grocery stores (party beer runs), restaurants (dates over the years), and other purchases over 4 years of college, and I'll have to bring myself to throw them away tonight.

Traveling ended abruptly. We returned home on a Friday, and I spent the weekend at home as it was the first time all 5 of us had been together since Easter (my sister left for France before I came home from ND). By Monday, I felt like I had been home forever, not missing a beat (2 weeks home, and Gina just observed we changed one of our outside lamps. These are the changes I don't notice, so perhaps that why everything seems the same).

It's been strange; I don't feel like what I did this summer has really sunk in. My memories are a blur; doing 2 trips back to back, with no rest between because of the passport debacle, certainly didn't help. Sometimes, I'll be telling my friends here in Carmel what I did, and traveling around the world like I did is almost unfathomable for them, while for me it became the new normal, and I can feel the disconnect. My cousin, who had a similar summer, insists the magnitude of what I did will sink in over time. I certainly hope so. I do feel like I learned much more about the world on this trip, and I certainly have a nice cachet of stories to tell. The pictures are still just a pile of things to captions, but I was looking through my photos from my travels while at Oxford, and they brought up nothing but warm memories.

The adventures are certainly not over. I think I will continue to blog, sporadically. But let's look back at the memories:

Boldest thing I did: Go out on a limb, trust my friend Edo, and take a bus down to Prijepolje. Aside from a tense hour waiting at the bus stop, it was a complete success.

Biggest disaster: Losing the Passport. No questions. And, in theory, it's still in Bangkok, in the hands of the State Department. Arg!

Biggest near disaster: Dropping all of Anna's and Sam's valuables off a cliff in a dry-bag. Oops...

Greatest regret: No Tigers. Didn't pet one, didn't see one.

Most frustrating cultural disconnect: Toilets. I don't want to pay for it, and if I'm going to pay for it, don't make me fish through the trash can for paper products.

Most confusing cultural disconnect: No, Turkey, I'm not on my honeymoon. Especially not with my little sister.

Greatest surprise: Taxi ride to Sarajevo. And the beauty of the Balkan mountains in general. 3 straight hours of staring out the window, mouth open in awe, and knuckles white with fear.

Most surprising non-surprise: Couch surfing in Krakow. It was ... easy... and nothing happened. I was almost disappointing nothing strange/unexpected happened.

Greatest discovery: Motorcycles. And how much fun they are to drive.

Greatest food market: The one in Chiang Mai where we bought our ingredients for our cooking class. Home of the Greatest Snack Food Of All Time (GSFOAT), crack peanuts, and the best smoothies I've ever had.

Best decision: Biking around the Angkor complex. Full credit for this one goes to Anna.

The best trip improvisation was the taxi ride and the whole side-trip to Bosnia, but that decision was actually made against my will.

Best decision that sounds like a bad decision: Chiang Mai women's prison. Great full-body massages. [I don't think this made the blog, but Anna and I went 1 day, and Sam another morning]

Strangest food: peanuts. Fresh, raw, moist peanuts straight from the ground, in the hills of Thailand. Banana worms were a disappointment, and none of us had the courage the eat the much larger bugs.

Best Hostel: Hiker's Hostel, Plovdiv.

Worst Hostel: Oriental Hostel, Istanbul. Didn't have a problem, but I never trusted the men at the desk.

Best tour guide: Huan, or whatever his name was.

Best cook: In the hills of Thailand. Spoke no English, no Thai, drank hard alcohol constantly, and cooked on an open fire in a wooden hut. What's not to like?

Best form of transportation: Trains. 2 reasons, smooth ride and free toilets.

Worst form of transportation: Buses. Or maybe bus stations meant I was always grumpy whenever I rode buses.

Most consistently frightening form of transportation: Taxis.

Best nationality: Canadians. Gotta love 'em.

Most Postcard Perfect Location: Koh Nang Yuan. Yes, the beach between the 2 knolls looks exactly like the pictures.

Favorite moment: Sitting on the shores of Srah Srang, looking across the reservoir to the jungle as Cambodian boys splashed around at the base of the platform.

Ayutthaya, and the day I spent running around Bangkok

Ah yes, this day.

I believe this is the day my blog skipped,so with a hazy memory and a lot of downtime in OHare with a delayed flight, let us begin.

We arrived in the south train station really early. This was probably the only morning of the trip when Sam was more perky than Anna right after wake up. Since Anna's appetite had kicked in at this point on the trip, the first order of business was breakfast, but I think we gave up after an unsuccessful wanderabout.

Taxi to the US Embassy (it was either here or with the mototaxi I took later where i had to resort to the guidebook dictionary and point to embassy in Thai). Arrived right as it opened, and spent about an hour navigating beaucracy. Had to run out to get photos taken of me, at which point Sam and Anna fed themselves. I was so busy I made it all the way to dinner surviving on a bag of sugary popcorn i had purchased the privious night before the train.

By ten we had established that I was going to have a passport by one that day, but would then have to deal with Thai immigration. Not wanting to inconvience the girls further (and worried Anna would snap and kill me on the spot), we agreed to split ways. We taxied together to the N bus station with the expectation of finding a hostel for easy exit the next day to Cambodia.

No hostels at the bus station. Quick powwow determines the girls will leave now for Ayutthaya, and Ill head back to the city to find a hostel and emal the the

name. The girls buy their tickets and BAM they are wooshed away by some very hurried Thai men. We shall return to them later.

I take some time to compose myself and leaf through the guide book. I pick Siam Square has the site of our intended hostel, and sally forth to do battle with Bangkok mass transit. Taxi are pretty cheap group travel because they do not charge per person, but since I was traveling solo I wanted a new experience.

Things started off poorly, as the public citybus station was difficult to find in the massive spwarl of long distant buses and private vans. Eventually i found my bus. Thai buses have two people, one driver and one ticket person, but were otherwise no different. I paid an unknown fare to the nice ticket lady (i think just a few Baht but i didnt bother to count themess of chang she gave me after i paid with a hundred bill), and either i spoke enough Thai or she understood my butchery of her beautiul language enough so that she old me which stop to get off at. I tranfered to the skytrain, Bangkok's brand new elevated rail, took it to the hostel, and checked out a room.

I then made the short walk to Jim Thompson's house, checked it out for an hour, and flagged down a motorcycle to them embassy. As I weave through the streets of Bangkok clutching the back of a motorcycle, let us return to the girls.

When the girls bought their ticket, Sam noticed the clerk hand cash to a thai man standing there right as the girls stepped away from the desk. That man immediately began rushing the girls to their 'bus'. They siad godbye to me and soon found themselves being herded onto a large van. Hmm. The man barked at some thai to move to give the girls good seats. At some point they started moving, but often the bus would stop, the man would jump out, and herd more people into the bus, which soon became preposterously crowded. Anna and Sam began to wonder if they would ever make it.

But fear not,through the aggressive driving f thier van they ended up making it in roughly the amount of timw the legit bus they took back that evening. So they hopped out and began marching in the heat with full packs. I was not there but the girls would like to stress how HOT it was. After a ruin or two (ayutthaya is an old capital) they staggered into hostel, where they dropped their packs and rented bikes for the rest of the day. They checked out some more ruins, sweated away their body weight, checked email for my message, jotted down the address, and caught a bus back to Bangkok.

At this point your dear narrator has his temp passport and is in a taxi in search of "Government Building B." I had directions in thai that the embassy gave me,but after an hour of working north,my cab driver became increasingly concerned, as we were clearly in new territory for him. Around the old airport we began to encounter some enormous official looking office buildings. A few other taxi drivers, bystanders, and security guards later, we found my building. Inside I navigated beaucracy again, which took time but was refreshing professional and impressivly complex.

I taxi, skytrain,and subway to chinatown. I exlore that and feed myself (birds nest soup with great tea, and the china town equivalent of pigs in a blanket), and get caught in a rainstorm. I make it back to the hostel after dark to meet up with exhuasted Anna and Sam, who had only written down my address and ignored my excellent directions, and required the assistance of 25 taxi drivers and one friendly bystander to find the hostel.

That was the day. my flight is still delayed, but my wrist hurts now so this is all she wrote

End of Chapter

Dear Readers,

I may put up one more post on Thailand, for a day that I missed, and check back in later when I'll have a link for you to our photos, which Anna has been generously working on pulling together.

But I'll be switching now to the next leg of trip, Europe. So to all of Sam's and Anna's family and friends - thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it, and feel free to keep following.

And for the rest of you, stay tuned. I fly out of O'Hare in 5 hours. Currently trying to decide if I will book a hostel now or just wing it when I get there.

Cheers,

AJ

Angkor

This post was written after we returned to the states.

Angkor Archeaological Park encompasses a sprawling area that was the heart of the ancient Khmer empire. Angkor Wat is the jewel of the park but it merely the largest of dozens of temples and other ruins left by the Khmers. Angkor Wat was maintained by Buddhist monks after the fall of the Khmers, but other temples are in various states of disrepair. Most were entirely swallowed by the jungle,but in the twentieth century the jungle was peeled away and many of the ruins were reconstructed using anastylosis, which is a process that basically involves tearing down a temple and then rebuilding it using mostly original pieces.

The breathtaking pictures of Angkor Wat you often see require a bit of elevation or really good lighting. In person it was like the Grand Canyon- very cool to see but not as impressive as the postcards. I like several of the temples we saw on the second day better, though that may have been more because we were able explore those at our own pace.

For the first day, we rented a guide and a tuk tuk and checked out the biggest and most famous of the temples - Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, and Bayon, Baphoun, and the Royal Palace inside of Angkor Thom. Angkor Thom is much bigger than Angkor Wat, but it's technically a city with mutiple temples, whereas Angkor Wat is a single temple, designed and built in one burst.

Our guide was good; he was a really short 27 year old, and he spoke decent English. He gave us oodles of information, but we moved pretty slowly through the temples. It would be like going through an art museum and being about everything. Sometimes you want to just wander quickly through and check out only the prettiest pictures.

On the second day, we rented bikes. Sam and I paid $2 each for the whole, while Anna splurge and spent $3, which she got extra perks like functioning brakes and gears. Sam's bike didn't really have brakes, and my bike was never able to shift gears; it also had only 1 and 1/2 pedals. But bikes were a great way to navigate the park. It's only 7km from the north side of Siem Reap to the entrance to park; you pedal furiously to minimize the amount of time on the busy roads, but especially in the afternoon (and especially in the monsoon) we nearly had some of the more distant ruins to ourselves.

We started at Banteay Kdei and Srah Srang, an artificial reservoir that is still full of water. My strongest memory of Angkor might be sitting on the stone remains of the pier, looking out on Srah Srang and the jungle beyond it, as 4 rambunctious Cambodian boys played next to me, pushing each other into the water. Also at Srah Srang we chatted with some little Cambodian girls - like every ruin, they are running around trying to sell you cold water, postcards, ornaments, and other trinkets. These ones spoke pretty good English, so we humored them and bought water from them. My girl, I think she called herself "cherry," started out:

Cherry: "Hello! Where you from?"

AJ: "America"

Cherry: "Oh, America! Capital Washington DC. Biggest city New York!"

They are well trained, I'll give them that. They also had some gems. When Anna refused to buy water from her girl upon exiting the temple, after brushing her away with a "maybe" twenty minutes before, she said, "You not like other Americans. You no keep your word!" and ran over to Sam and said, "Your friend not very nice"

We biked over to Pre Rup, and then biked out to Banteay Samre, the farthest temple on our agenda. It was a good 5 km east of everything else, but we somehow missed the turnoff and went a good klick too far. Amazingly, I was able to use the map on the inside of my Ancient Angkor book I had purchased to ID a hill and river to figure out where we were. We found it, and biked back to Pre Rup for lunch at a touristy place (only place we could guarantee vegetarian food for Sam). If I remember correctly, we then jogged up to East Mebon, and then it started to rain so we scratched Preah Khan and backtracked to see Ta Keo and Ta Nei. En route the rain transitioned to Monsoon, and with the wind whipping up off of Srah Srang we sought shelter in another restaurant, where we ran into our guide from the day before, at the head of a group of 26 Canadians. We waited out the rain, had banana smoothies and sticky rice with Mango (hey, why not?), and then hot tea b/c we were soaked and were getting cold.

Eventually the rain slackened and briefly lulled, so we headed back out to Ta Keo. Ta Nei was supposed to be a "nice jungle walk" away, and Anna had her mind set of giving it a try, so we followed what we thought was the correct walk; after a good 30 minutes of walking Anna enthusiasm disappeared, but I was insistent on find this temple because we were so committed. We encountered a few crossroads, so I would run ahead to investigate, with the curving jungle road either petering out or ending in a sketchy clearing (one of them looked like a lumber mill...). But on the last possible run Sam and Anna were going to allow me on, we found it! Triumph.

We backed back through Angkor Thom and by Angkor Wat and arrived back around dusk.

Went to a dinner w/ a free traditional show. We went out to the oldest pub in the hip area of Siem Reap, "Angkor What?", where I mistakenly ordered a pitcher of some girly mixed drink instead of a pitcher of the beer I wanted.

On day 3, we rented a car and driver for $45 and drove out to Beng Mealea and Banteay Srei, 2 ruins far from central Angkor. They were much farther than we expected, but were cool to see. Beng Mealea was super ruined, and we paid a local $5 to show us how to walk around the ruins without killing ourselves on unstable rocks. At one point I nearly walked through a huge web across a doorway, in which case I think our large spider friend would have bit me and I would have died on the spot, given the size of the spider.

We also visited a Landmine Museum, which was in honor of Aki Ra, a former child soldier and now minesweeper that you may have heard of.

We did a lot of shopping in Siem Reap, and I bought multiple "elephant pants," as we took to callig them. Sam bought similar "fat pants," and Anna bought some fisherman pants. Sam bought a knock-off backpack for her dad, which looked legit except for the fact that the brand name on the backpack cover didn't match the rest of the pack. Oops.

I wore my elephant pants out the last night, when we frequented our favorite sticky rice establishment. On my way over I was heckled by one of the tuk tuk drivers:

You want a tuk tuk? pause Or new pants?

America

Home.

I have had six meals already on this long day. Anna expects to eat nine by time she goes to bed for good.

Things we are thankful for:

Toilets.

Toilets we can flush. Toilets we can sit on. Toilets that have toilet paper. Toilets that you can put toilet paper into. Bathrooms with soap. And sinks

Water. Tap water.

Feeling like you are not getting scammed constantly. Related, knowing what is going on.

Not being aggressively propositioned by shopekeepers. Or those darn cambodian children Sam was unable to resist.

Being able to order vegetarian. Related, knowing what is in your food. Or what you even ordered.

Not sweating all the time. Related, not being ashamed to be in enclosed spaces with other people. And then having your shower be the highlight of your day.

White shirts that are actually white.

Anna suggests we should mention something about our families. But mostly we are thankful about toilets.

On The Road, Again

In Guangzhou. If we did our math correctly, today is a 38 hour day. We started our day on Bangkok time, and we will end it after flying out of LAX on Pacific time,much later but still June 15th. Then red eyes to our respective homes.

This morning I decide not to visit the Embassy to retrieve my passport. I will be very upset if they simply destroy it,but i didnt have faith in my aility to navigate to the embassy by myself* and make my flight as my margin of error for getting lost was small. This passport has caused me much agnst and i just want to get my hands back on it. Now i must wait for the red tape of the State department run its course.

*To get from our hosel to the ferry involved two back alley shortcuts. and after that it was pretty much all new territory for us. And it is just nerveracking to travel solo with a ticking deadline,instead of the «well we will certainly get there at some point» of backpacking.

Following the advice of some fellow backpackers we tookthe river ferry to a skytrain station, which was a roundabout but senic path, and skytrained to the airport terminal and took the thiry minutes train that wisks you direct to the airport far out of town. We commended ourselves for mastering Bangkok public transit, as we had no mishaps or delays. Except at the counter, where once again China Southern tried to tell Sam there were no seats left, and once again Sam had to get fiesty. Poor girls got the backrow and not a happy flight. I had an empty seat next to me :)

Last night was good. We walked north of Kho San and watched river as the sun set and watched a bunch of old Thai ladies doing their outdoor dance excercise class. We tied to hit up our favorite foods one last time,snagging banna shakes, Pad Thai, late night roti, Papaya salad, and a surprisingly good Tom Yum in fried rice. The girls did some more shopping on Kho San Road, with Anna getting yelled at by a shopekeeper for attempting to bargain (still got thirty baht off the shirt she is wearing now). We ended the night at a classy rooftop bar listening to live music.

***

The girls seem bored out of their minds currently, which is not good given the amount of traveling we still have ahead of us.

Sam has discovered the fist of the communist party and is unable to access Facebook. I've tried to nap a bit, as it is night in America right now, and had a nice snooze but did not sleep. Sam said I looked ridiculous laying on the floor with my eye mask on (Note that sam is currently alseep on the floor, albeit looking more tranquil than ridiculous). The international wing is not all that big and it is nice and familiar at this point. I feel the world is at your fingertips when I look at the Departure board or walk among the gates. Colombo, Singapore, Kathmandu, Melborne, Brisbane, Nairobi, Kuala Lumper, Doha. Guangzhou is the China Southern hub and flies direct to Vancouver, Chicago, LA, and NYC.

We have been approached by a representative of the Tourism Authority of Guangzhou to ask about what we thought about the city. All I'ediscerned from the China Daily i read on the first flightwas that it is mentioned in the same breath as Bejing ad Shanghai; we told him we haven't left the airport. He tried to talk to Anna twice in different parts of the airport - all those tall blonde white girls look the same, I suppose.

Anna and Sam are optimistic that this transpacific flight will be on a much better airplane than last time. Our Bangkok airplane was very nice, but I'm not optimistic. Off to find dinner, Anna's appetite is back.

Back of da Bus

We are in the back of a minibus. it is quite hot and cramped, but hey, we are back in Thailand and that is good. Poor Anna has been battling the fish she ate last night but has been a trooper and I think she will survive the car ride unscathed.

News:

My old passport is back in Bangkok. Now how to get it back between now and my flight...

No bribes or blckmail this time,but westill felt like cattle at the border crossing, and were probably more confused this time.

The Mavericks won. That is good. Once we got into Bangkok's Edge and then 3G range, I started getting caught up on my Bill Simmons.

You can only get Cambodian stamps at THE post office. So all yall that wanted a postcard from Cambodia will have to settle for Cambodian postcards (purchased from adorable cambodian children for the coplete experience. 13 for a dollar) stamped in thailand.

A bag of fresh raw peanuts is soggy and unsalted but still a good traveling snack.

But cliff bars, no matter how travel worn, are always the most delectable emergency rations, emergency or not.

We are hoping to stay in the same hostel we spent our first night. I find that wonderfully symetric, don't you, dear reader?

Don't worry

We are alive.

Just finished 3 days of touring the Angkor Archeological Park and its environs. I'll put up a more detailed post on that tomorrow, as we will be traveling and I will have lots of down time to type.

Picking a hostel out for tomorrow in Bangkok, online. Then out to eat for dinner and perhaps a night out in Siem Reap.

Cambodia

We made it. In a rather hot internet cafe right now (11pm), which is unfortunate because I just showered. We are staying in Popular Guest House, Siem Reap, Cambodia, for the next 4 nights; the Angkor Wat temple complex is just a few kilometers away. The girls are upstairs, showering themselves.

Yesterday was very hectic. Today was slow, but oddly far more stressful. Heading to unknown territory will do that. Approaching a border crossing after reading the 4 entire pages in your Lonely Planet guidebook about how you are about to be scammed, misguided, and generally taken advantage of will also do that to you.

We spent last night in Siam Square, a happening, modern part of town; breakfasted with banana smoothies and took the Skytrain then taxi to the bus station. With relative ease (compared to the zoo that was yesterday in the bus terminal. Anna or Sam will have to write about that soon) we purchased our bus to Aranyaprathet, Thailand. Bus was 212B (or like 6.50), and a good 4 hours. Upon arrival, we stuck to our Lonely Planet guns, avoided the official looking Thais offering to stamp our passports, got our passports stamped by real officials*, fended off the Tuk tuk drivers, and walked on foot to Cambodia. After around 5 minutes our motley group of foreigners arrived at the border. Once there we were ushered along by Cambodia security, who disconcertingly didn't look all that official. But we filled out some paperwork indicating we were healthy, submitted it, and moved on to get our visa (moving from one dilapidated building to another, none of which look particularly governmental).
*and here confirmed my new passport works!

At the visa desk, the girls paid the expected $20 plus 200B because they didn't have any photos to attach to their application. Did they then get their photos taken? Nope.
I then approach the desk. I whip out my passport, completed form, and a photo. $20 and 100B, they say. I point to the sign above the desk indicating $20 for a tourist visa, and hand him everything with the twenty but no Baht. A brief back and forth ensues, I hold my ground, and he finally just slides my paperwork to the side of the counter.
Alrighty, I'll play ball; I hand him a 100B note, he smiles and takes my paperwork, and a few minutes later I had my visa and was on my, having successfully bribed my way into Cambodia.

We took the free shuttle to the bus station (actually not a scam, as Lonely Planet warned us), warded off the active bus agents, and grabbed a famished lunch (nearly 3). After lunch we tried to shake the bus operators and hail a taxi, but they followed us out of the station and on to the street. A friendly Korean has told me he paid $25 for his ride to Siem Reap, but with the intimidation of the bus officials we couldn't negotiate w/ the taxi driver and settled for $30 for the 160km (I think) ride to Siem Reap. We watched the taxi driver hand the bus dude cash once we got in the car. Anna was furious we were so blatently taken advantage of, but hey, what's a few extra dollars if it gets you where you need to go.

Cambodia is far more 3rd world than Thailand (though the part of Siem Reap where we are is happening). Driving is also more frightening. My motorcycle drive through downtown Bangkok was exhilarating, but at least in Thailand the chaos is organized chaos, and the even if the de facto rules of the road are crazy and illegal, at least you get the impression everyone is on the same page. Much less of that here. I sat up front w/ the cabbie (back to right-handed drive here, as a former French colony), and it was stressful at times. The road was never more than 2 lanes with no median, but boy did it have lots of lanes. We say at one point 3 motorcycles and 2 bikes abrest, in a single lane. The shoulders are used as the slow lane, for all the bikes, tractors, and trucks. Sadly the herd of cows we weaved through didn't really obey this rule. The center of the road was for passing, and we did lots of it. Our cabbie honked often. Often. Never really figured out why. Perhaps to signal he was passing cars and bikes (so said Lonely Planet), which looked reasonable but there wasn't a clear pattern. He also aggressively used his turn signal, which was odd because I'm not sure if we ever turned once we left Poi Pet.

Upon arrival we snagged a free tuk tuk into the city, avoided his favorite hostel, booked one here, ate a sumptuous dinner (I had amok, a traditional Khmer (Cambodian) dish; it was basically yet another type of curry, or goop on rice as I like to call it. Deeelicious, and at a nice sit down restaurant I paid the high price of $3, plus $1.50 for 1.5L of water), went to another restaurant solely for sticky rice and mango (win), went shopping at the night market, where I bought elephant pants and a dorky straw hat (double win), and back to the hostel for the night.

8am departure w/ our guide and tuk tuk tomorrow. The AC here is not working. Goodnight.

I left my heart in Angthong, and my passport in Koh Tao

Well, Koh Nang Yuan, to be specific. But Koh Tao was close enough.

I loved being on Ang Thong. It was a bit slow for our travel style, staying there for a full day, but it was sooo relaxing to spend time with not much to do on an island that was an outrageously stereotypical island paradise. I didn't like the main islands as much - they were pricey, hard to get around, and they ate my passport.

***
In the past 30 hours, my travel devices have been: Long Boat, motorcycle, catamaran, charter bus, train, taxi, taxi, city bus, skytrain [elevated train], motorcyle, taxi, taxi, underground rail, underground rail and skytrain, and much much walking.
***
The ferry schedules were not convenient in the island, but we were able to jerry-rig a schedule that actually worked out quite well. We took the early ferry (8am) from Koh Samui to Koh Tao, a 2 hour cruise north. On Koh Tao, famous for its Scubaing, Anna and Sam walked into a random tourist shop* and rented a long-tailed boat for the afternoon (300B total). The boat took us to Koh Nang Yuan, were we snorkeled from 11 to 1. And somewhere in the coral reef there, my passport, which I always have on my person (and did for the 2 days of wearing my swimsuit in Angthong), drifted out of my pocket**. The water was clearer than Angthong, and there were a staggeringly large about of fish, some of which tried to eat my feet. Anna had a lovely time snorkeling, and I would have too if I hadn't discovered my passport was missing 20 minutes in.
*We do this sparingly, but to high success.
**Yes, I went snorkeling with my passport. No, I will not make any further attempt to defend myself in this blog. As the official in the embassy said with the perfect balance of incredulity and scorn, "You went snorkeling with your passport?"

Upon our return to Koh Tao, we had 45 minutes before our ferry left. We quickly gained internet access to figure out what I needed to do, and ascertained that I needed a police report. With Anna and Sam at the ferry terminal ready to leave without me, I hopped on a motorcyle taxi and sped to the local police station. Filing the police report was a strange experience. The officer said very little to me, in Thai or English; he showed me a completed "lost passport" form, I wrote my appropriate answers in English on a blank sheet of paper, and he copied my answers over in Thai into an official form. I then took that form with me, leaving no copy at the police station. I found this very odd, but sped back to the ferry terminal and got on the catamaran with a few minutes to spare.

We had purchased a joint ferry-train ticket to Bangkok at the tourist office. The catamaran cruised to Chumphon. In was a 3 hour drive; I fumed at myself, Anna fumed at me (I assume, the girls have been good at not saying anything), and Sam slept. In Chumphon we caught a bus transfer to the train station. In Chumphon we paid 20B each to shower (gloriousness!) and went to town on food at the nigh market (Loss on the dry dougnuts, win on the banana muslim roti and the 10B sugary popcorn [my breakfast and lunch today]). Astonishingly, the train left exactly on time.

A few hours too early we rolled into Bangkok. We walked out of the train station, looked for breakfast, failed, and hailed a taxi to the US Embassy. We arrived right as it was opening at 7.30am.
And hence began a long day. Which will be explained later, perhaps on my long bus ride to Cambodia. But worry not, I have a new, valid passport in my pocket, and we leave tomorrow morning for Cambodia, Siem Reap, and Angkor Wat. Wish us luck.

AJ

Ang Thong MNP

This blog was mostly written yesterday on a ferry, but just finished it up now, evening of Thursday, June 9th. We were in Angthong Monday and Tuesday.

We spent the last twp days at Ang Thong Marine National Park,an archipelago that runs parallel to Koh Samui.

We paid for a full tour of the islands as that's really the only way to get there, and then we just spent the night on the island and caught the next tour group back.

The boat first stopped at an island with an interior salt lake, so we climbed some precarious stairs to reveal the hidden lake. At the top, i set down our dry bag of valuables (you know, like Anna and Sam's passports, credit cards, etc) turn to say something to Anna, and watched the dry bag tumble down through the security barrier. Oops.

After attempting to communicate with a worker ("You have no idea what I'm saying to you, do you?") I clambered over the barrier onto the rather sharp rocks below and retrieved the bag from a bush it was thankfully caught in. Upon my return Sam took the bag from me and hit me several times.

After that adventure we returned to the boat, drove to another small island, and kayaked. We took a three-man kayak, but they only gave us two paddles with the middle person supposed to just chill and take pictures. Since I had the waterproof camera and the bum wrist I was put in the middle, which was rather emasculating. The Thai guys loading the boat were like,"really, you are putting the guy in the middle," or whatever that would be in Thai.

We then had lunch on the boat and drove to the main island. We rented a bungalow, which was a delightful thirty percent off on Mondays. We took the six-man bungalow, which was still the cheapest night we have had in Thailand by a few hundred Baht, and we got six complementary water bottles instead of three.

We went snorkeling in a heavily trafficked reef on the main beach. The visibility was atrocious, but Anna and I entertained ourselves. Sam, disgusted by the ocean, was bored on the shoreline. Then, off to the Bat Cave! One of the two main hikes was to a large cave whose roof had partially collapsed. No bats, but we enjoyed ourselves clambering about.

Dinner at the onsite restaurants, followed by a healthy airing of grievances. We established that Sam has regular mood swings, getting unnecessarily perky about an hour after dinner right as Anna and I are wrapping up the day; I am apparently "needy" and talk to much; and Anna has no discernible flaws. Sam and I also explained to Anna (ever the attentive listener) that you can, in fact, not listen to most of the random things that I say.

The following morning I slept in much longer than the girls. After breakfast (pancakes!) we hiked up to the overlook. The hike was very difficult, at times clinging to a singe think rope as you go up and down some very sharp rocks. The was a breathtaking view of the whole park at the top.

We were unfortunately not able to kayak when the tour boat returned, so we tootled about the island until we headed back with the full group. Back in the hostel we game planned for our last day in the island (next post), and headed to Bo Phut, a fishing village the next beach over.

Bo Phut was a happening place, but as much a fishing village as a lovely collection of stores, resteraunts, and bars. We had a deeeeelicious Indian dinner, nice to break up all the Thai food (though Anna still got rice, whereas Sam and I went to town on some Nan). After dinner we walked around Bo Phut and found beach access through a Bob Marley themed bar. We snagged beach recliners from the hotel next door and relaxed on seats we didn't pay for, listening to music from a bar we didn't buy drinks at, and watching sky lanterns* paid by other beach goers drift by. Epic win on our travel style. We all nearly fell asleep on the beach before we headed back.
*flaming bags of plastic. Google image Thailand Sky Lanterns.

Arrival in Koh Samui

We had a nice plane ride on Bangkok Air,much nicer than China Southern. We negotiated our taxi to the hostel for 400 baht from 600 but probably still got ripped off. Our hostel is very nice but basically empty, and we lounged om the beach and then pool upon arrival before sorting out what we will do here. But on this island paradise you just...want...to ...slow...down and do nothing and just relax.

Because of time limits we will not try to visit Koh Tao. We are heading to Ang Thong NP tommorrow and intend to spend the night.

The owner/operator is named Sugar and she is quite nice. We will probably book most things through her while here.

Dinner BBQ:we wlked slighty inland for dinner and, as per usual, trie a random restauant. This one was far more confusing than most,and it took us twenty minutes to figure out that we collected raw food from the buffet and grilled/ boiled it ourselves at our table above hot coals. I thought it was brilliant, and Anna thoroughly stuffed herself, but bc we didn't anticipate shared cooking, my raw meats impeaded sam's ability to eat. But the night ended in a win when Sam successfully boiled two eggs in the half inch of water avaliable for cooking.

Watching the French Open now with Sugar. Both rooting for Nadal. Will shower once Anna and Sam are done. Played Go Fish and an atrocious game of pool before. Raining now.

Wrapping up Chiang Mai

In the airport waiting for our noon flight to Ko Samui. Have AC.

Between trekking and biking,we took a day long cooking class. it was very interesting and incredibly helpful after the fact in iding stuff in the markets, watching the food vendors,and figuring out what the heck we were eating. The was a tour of a marketplace included, where we found a smoothie maker who we have returned to several times now, including breakfast today.

We shared our class with some teenagers from Quebec. Had good conversation with them. Talked about differences in educational systems and drinking ages.

That evening we went to a temple for some more Monk Chat and had a meditation practice with a very intense monk. Afterwards we stumbled upon a big city festival at a wat. Saw little monks holding carnival prizes.

Two nights ago we went out and successfully made friends with some Thai engineering students. or at least Anna and Sam did, I was a bit out of it. They cheered a about everything Sam said. (you study engineering? Cheers yaaaaaa). We taught them the English words Drunk and Sober. Hopefully they remember meeting us.

Yesterday was a lazy day. We splurged on lunch,meaning we spent around three dollars on a river front restaurant with nice atmosphere and lots of cats. Wrote our first wave of postcards. We then IDed Love at First Bite in our travel book and successfully foumd it without getting lost or sidetracked,a first for us,and treated ourselves to some banana cream pie,key lime pie,and brownie. We went to Saturday Walking street,the big weekend market,and did a fair amont of shopping and buying. The national anthem played at six, with everyone standing and quiet for the duration. A little freaky and automatonic in my book. The night ended with a huge rainstorm blowing in. Everyone scurried for cover, and we sheltered under a street vendor's table. We ordered dinner and waited for the rain to come. It took a bit before the black clouds and lighting unleashed their rain, but boy did it rain. Every five minutes we turn and say "I think it is raining harder now. It cant possibly rain harder." After awhile we gave up, bundled our purchases up, and walked home in the rain.

The Trek

This post was written on Saturday, June 4th

We traveled from Bangkok to Chiang Mai on a night train (night of May 29), which was both slow and late. But it was air conditioned, and I spent most of the time chatting w/ the 4 English girls* in the compartment and generally failing to sleep (which has been true every night in Thailand until this past night, June 3rd). We had breakfast** in food cart (not air conditioned but nice views of the beautiful countryside), and there we met a friendly, gangly fellow American named Kevin and his friend Andre. They are fellow recent grads traveling before work starts. They gave us their hostel name and suggested we try to meet up while in Chiang Mai.

*Most of the European or Canadian gap year-ers that we have met are between high school and college, so they are all 18~19 years old. Crazy. These girls were all 18 except one 23 year old older sister. They were an attractive lot, and we exchanged card games; they seemed to enjoy Egyptian Rat Screw.

** I'm using Anna's diary to make sure i don't forget anything. Here it says "gross breakfast in train"

As veteran travelers, we arrived in the Chiang Mai train station, got out, looked at each other, and said, 'well, I guess we walk towards the city.' After 15 minutes of very hot walking (~noon), we yielded and hailed a tuk-tuk. After some confused negotiated, we got a price we were happy with and hopped on. Soon we got to the city walls and the East entrance of the old city, and our driver pulled over to talk w/ some men on the side of the road. It quickly became apparent our driver had no idea where he was going, had never heard of our hostel, and couldn't read English. Eventually, one of the other men said to Sam, "You read, I know." So Sam tried to pronounce the name of our hostel (mind you Anna wasn't even sure if she had interpreted Kevin's handwriting correctly in the first place), got some glimmer of recognition, and off we went. Incredibly, our tuk tuk them made it's way to our hostel, Gongkaew, on the NW side of the old city.

We walked into the city center that afternoon to check our treks, but after consulting with Eric and Ryan (see below), we decided to do a 1-night trek, and we booked whatever our hostel recommended so that we would be trekking with Kevin and Andre, as the guidebooks had said that the key to a good trek was a good group.

That evening we went out to the east side of the city and the Night Bazaar with Eric and Ryan, 2 brothers from Minnesota we met in our hostel who had been traveling for a while. Sam had a hoot with the 2 guys (hopefully her first friends in Minnesota when she moves out there in a few weeks), so Anna and I wingmanned for most of the evening. Our dinner was a bit touristy (the night bazaar sits beneath all the Western hostel towers on the east side of the city), and Anna's was super hot. We then went to a few bars and, well, saw lots of prostitutes. Lots. At our primary bar we played pool, and the prostitutes enjoyed watching the white people makes fools of ourselves.

***

The following morning (Monday, May 30), we got picked up by a songtheaw in our hostel, made a few unexplained stops along the way (spending 20 minutes idling in a mechanics shop is a bit disconcerting), and stopped by a police office to drop off copies of our passports (never saw those again, had to make new copies yesterday). We picked up 4 Frenchies, and between them and the 5 of us it was quite cramped. Anna and Sam were wedged up against the cab and had a rather miserable drive out of the city, an hour-ish.

We separated from the Frenchies upon arrival, so our trek was just Sam, Anna, Kevin, Andre, and myself, plus our guide, Huan. Or Han. Or perhaps Pao. Never did sort that one out. A 10 minute walk to the elephant camp, and then immediately hopped on an elephant.

Our elephant's name was Leroy. Or at least that's what we decided. Asian elephants are not nearly as large as African ones, but he (she? Anna's journal notes that Leroy was a year into pregnacy) was still large enough to not seem bothered by me straddling his neck, with my knees tucked under her ears, and Sam and Anna sitting on a steel and wood bench strapped to his back. Leroy had quite dry skin, just kinda plodded along, and liked to eat. Other than that, not much to report. The ride was slow but surprisingly smooth and pleasant, and we ambled through the middle of a creek for much of it, which was very scenic. Andre and Kevin followed behind on another elephant; their guide was far livelier, he showed us leaves that would dye your hand red, demostrated how to blow bubbles using a leaf's stem and juice, would shout "Oh my Buddha" whenever he slide on and off the elephant. He would also sing songs which sounded vaguely American.

After riding Leroy, we had Pad Thai and Sam played with a super cute puppy, and we fed the elephants bananas. We then left on foot and marched up the valley, walking along rice paddies and fields of cabbage, papaya, and corn, which our guide would point out to us. We then cut up the mountain side, which was quite steep at times (didn't encounter switchbacks until our motorbike ride up Doi Suthep). We stopped by a bat cave, which freaked out everyone, especially Anna, but I thought it was super cool. Couldn't really get pictures of the bats, but you could hear then and seen them as they buzzed around your heads.

Rest of this post was finished early morning, Sunday June 5.
The rest of the afternoon was spent marching uphill. Our guide did a good job of stopping to show up various plants of interest as we walked by. We had a raw peanut, which was pale w/ a bit of purple, and basically tasted like a peanut if you stripped away all of the salt from roasting; it was moist and slightly crunchy. I was the only one brave (stupid?) enough to bite into a chili, which was painfully hot and gave me a strong case of the hiccups. We were taught how to "pop" leaves, where you take a fresh leaf and place it into your slightly clench hand, and smack down w/ the other hand, causing a sharp crack. Anna excelled, and appeared to have discovered a new party trick for herself.
Eventually, we hit a ridge line which we followed for the last thirty minutes or so. The ridge line had gorgeous views. Our guide cut us some fresh sugar can to munch on as we approached our village. We passed the spirit house for the village and entered the village. After dropping our stuff in our hut for the night, we wandered about the Hmong village and saw many cute children, chicks, and piglets. The village was not that big, and apparently everyone lets their animals roam free, and each household simply remember whose is which animal. Not that one black piglet looks different than another. We tried out our token Hmong word, "abuyya," hello/thank you, to minimal success.

Our sleeping quarters was a bamboo hut situated at the bottom of the village, affording stunning views of the valley below, especially when a rain storm blew in and you could hear the rain crescendo at it approached. The floor and the sides had enough gaps for you see through, to toss scrap food out, and for Andre to occasionally fall through, but amazingly the roof did not leak, including under a downpour. We slept on wooden pallets; no one slept well, which meant that I slept like normal.
Dinner was cooked inside of the wooden hut, which was initially alarming. We were led by a local village, a young man who we think was deaf, and would be constantly grunting and hooting. He was incredibly expressive, waving his hands about and making noise, and he had a few hand signals that he and the guide understood. It took a bit getting used to, but eventually Anna and Sam were able to follow his instruction to make our dinner, cucumber soup (served hot) and stir fried veggies w/ egg. We also marched our way through 2 bottles of rice whiskey, which our cook was constantly offering to us, and he was quite tipsy by the time it was done. We played some mind games using twigs with our guide, and then after we were alone we played a round of 21 with Chang, the local beer [Chang = elephant. Chang is the cheapest of the few local brands, and given that, it is quite good. Knowing his clientele, the last thing the villagers did when they left us was restock our Chang supply.

The bathroom, oh the bathroom. [Anna's journal: "Bathroom = tragic"]. Obviously minimal running water at the top of the mountain, so no showering. The toilet was a standard Thai squat toilet, but we had to bring our own toilet paper; Anna and Sam dropped the tp in the water in their first trip to the bathroom, but thankfully Kevin and Andre were able to bail us out. The bathroom was wet, dirty (dirt floor), and had a profusion of spiders and ants.

In the morning, Sam made breakfast (scrambled eggs with carrots, onions, and pineapple, plus toast) under the cooks guidance, and we headed off the mountain. Hike downhill was worse, and I developed blisters on the top of my feet. At one point Sam slipped and may have gone all the way down the mountain if she had not caught herself at the feet of Kevin, with Anna standing helplessly above, "Kevin! Stop her!"
Near the bottom we arrived at a waterfall which we were able to swim in, including sliding down the main fall, incredibly refreshing. We then hopped into a pickup truck (not ever converted to a songthaew) for a bumpy ride to the beachhead. We suited up for white water rafting, and Anna had her first rafting experience. The rapid were not difficult but were challenging enough to make it fun. We actually spent most of the time on the river out of the boat floating on our backs down the river; Anna kept falling behind because her skort would fill up like a parachute. For me, rafting down the river with the jungle flowing past was another one of those Indiana Jones / wow I'm in Thailand moments.
We finished with bamboo rafting; the raft was a single, long craft made entirely of bamboo and mostly submerged when we all clambered on. Not particularly exciting, or comfortable. We had Pad Thai for lunch, then a far more comfortable songthaew ride back into the city (~1 hour); on that ride we met a girl who had been traveling for 8 months, mostly solo.

***
When we got back we showered (glorious), for the rest of the evening see http://ajstravelingadventures.blogspot.com/2011/06/chiang-mai-morning.html

We rented motorcyles.

Aw yeah. Well, mopeds. Green ones, specifically. But they were quite large and difficult to handle when not moving, as Anna found out the hard way this afternoon. Thankfully in her nasty tumble she lost little more than her dignity.
2 brothers that we met at our hostel, Eric and Ryan, had recommended to us to rent mopeds and cruise up Doi Suthep, the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai. The mountain has a famous wat (temple), Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep, that one can take songthaews up to. But why take sketchy converted pickup trucks (which we have done at length) and have your life endangered by a driver you don't know when you can do it yourself? My thoughts exactly.

My day started at 720. I got up, went to the bathroom, ate some toast, went to the bathroom*, and returned to our room as the girls got up around 8. We walked over to the market where we bought our food for our cooking class yesterday (I'll catch up soon, I promise) and grabbed breakfast and headed over to Mr Beers**, our rental location. 600 Baht, 3 signatures, and Anna's passport later, we had 3 mopeds at our disposal (and car insurance w/ a 2000 Baht deducible!).
*Yes, twice. I'm having some mild GI problems that manifest every morning, but aside from Sam getting eaten alive (expected) and some feet problem, we have had no medical issues. Street food gets 2 thumbs up.
**No, I have no explanation.

Driving scooters in Thailand is about as dangerous and super fun as you would expect. Given the general lack of traffic cops in Thailand, they are a preferred method of transport in the cities. They swarm, dart in and out of traffic, are themselves traffic, and generally get around very efficiently. It is not uncommon to see people carrying their groceries, dogs, small children, or entire 4 person families on 1 moped.
In the cities, it is like go-cart racing. I actually had to repress my go-cart reflexes, because presumably spinning out in a scooter is different than in a go-cart w/ a roll-bar. At one of the red lights in the old city on the way back, as all the bikes weaved their way to the front, engines humming in anticipation of the light change, I turned to Anna and Sam and said, "I feel like I need some red shells" to clear out the traffic. Traffic lanes are seen as a recommendations by everyone, including the cars. Turning is also optional in turn-only lanes, which I must admit seemed to work quite well. I must also note that the Thai drive in the left lane, British style, but I thought we didn't have any problem with that transition. Thankfully, the car generally drive far more defensively than the scooters, and no one ever seems to have road rage or try to shoulder people out of the way.
It is, however, much more difficult to navigate, mostly because we are not able to stop and check our map and compass (yes, I brought a compass, thank you very much) every intersection, like we do on foot. Anna in particular was quite stressed, but Sam and I think that perhaps she should have driven more aggressively.

Mountain top driving was a beautiful experience. Cruising up and down switchbacks, leaning with the turns, is exhilarating, and Sam especially enjoyed herself. And by enjoy, I mean at times I could hear Sam cackling to the wind.

***
So what did we actually do? After an awkward exchange with our renter as I struggled to start by bike [Thai: You drive scooter before?, AJ: Uh, not really AJ guns the engine and quickly drives away], we cruised out of the city and headed straight up the mountain to Wat Doi Suthep (see http://wikitravel.org/en/Chiang_Mai#Wat_Phrathat_Doi_Suthep). We wandered about the Wat* and had some nice views of the city and valley below, and had lunch in one of the restaurants outside. We killed some time shopping, and I discovered that actually not wanted to buy something is an incredibly good bargaining technique; I purchased a shoddy metal elephant because I was so impressed with my ability to negotiate it down from the 850 listed price to 150B ($5). I'm still looking for some awesome elephant trousers, but I think I'll do most of my clothes and trinket** shopping in Cambodia.
*I'd tell you about the Wat, but who am I kidding - they all look the same. We also have no idea what any of the stuff means (partially true), or why there are so many freakin' Buddha statues (very true). All I've learned from the many signs we have read is that Thai script is very pretty. In a later post, I'll have to tell you about our conversations w/ monks on earlier days, and our practice mediation session last night, but nothing exciting to report from Wat Suthep, aside from a particularly shinny gold Chedi.
**Almost everything has "made in Thailand" stamped to the bottom of it, which in most countries would be a major turn-off, but I suppose goes with the territory here.

After the Wat, we decided to push further up the mountain to some Hmong villages. After the Royal Palace (Phra Tamnak Phu Phing, which had awkward opening hours; we hit it up on the way down), the road transitions to a one lane, paved, and the vegetation. As the responsible 22 year old of the group, I took pictures while driving, so you can check those out when we get back. The village was neat, and shanty-town-ish, aside from the solar panels every hut had (and a wind turbine for the school). The school was nice, and was swarming with adorable children. We didn't buy anything in their coffee or drink stalls, which I felt kinda bad about, but the town was pretty sleepy and no one seemed to mind us being there. On the way back from the village, Dan Kun Chang Kian, it rained, which made for some nervous driving, but cruising through the jungle in the rain was another one of those "wow, I"m really here" type moments.

On the way back we visited the winter palace for the royal family. As non-Thais, we had to pay 50B each, and I had to whip back out my smart pants. It was very pleasant to walk through, and at times the vegetation was so thick around the nicely laid paths that is seemed like I was ambling through Jurassic Park.

The last place on the mountain we stopped at was Nam Tok Wang Bua Bahn, a big fancy name for a nice waterfall. Unless you require your waterfalls to actually fall, in which case it was a very steep, short, and picturesque rapid.

***
Currently, Anna and Sam are researching hostels for Ko Samui, where we head on Sunday. While showing up utterly unprepared, like we did here, worked out well before, we are going to try to avoid it in the future. Then, we will head out to find some bars w/ live music. Wish us luck, as we've failed the last 2 nights (though we did find a sweet carnival).

Chiang Mai, morning

It's 830 in the morning, at our hostel in Chiang Mai. We are on the SW side of the old city, within the city walls. It has a very nice courtyard with seats and computers, where I am now. It is very near a school, which is quite noisy (in the afternoon the band practices the same song over and over, much to the chagrin of our owner), but it otherwise quite peaceful. Not many roosters crowing this morning, which is a nice change (or perhaps I'm just learning to sleep through them, which would be awesome).

The girls are not getting up until 845. I would write a longer blog post, but the sun was shining on the computers and was rather hot, so I spent 8 to 830 reading a copy of the International Heral Tribune (global version of the NYTimes) in the shade. Nothing to report, just relaxing to peruse the business section.

Goooooooaaaaaaaal! Santos just scored on Cerro Porteno, which is very good for our friend Andre, who is from Brazil and is watching his club play in the South American Cup semifinal on the computer next to me.
***

The last 2 days and night we spent on a trek. I'll put a long post up on that later - everything we did we wrote down in Anna's journal. After we got back, we showered (dirtiest Anna and Sam had been in their life. Perhaps 2nd for me, behind my week in the Fl Keys w/ Boy Scouts, no showering for 5 days). I discovered that our hostel had a laundry machine, so we splurged on that (40B, or ~$1.30) and washed everything.
After laundry we struck out to explore the west side of the city. We got lost (a very confused schoolgirl gave us bad directions. Or she was trying to get ride of us and we interpreted it as directions), so we explored some of the SW side of the old city outside the walls, which was not very interesting. We were looking to get to Nimmanhaemin Road, which is near the university and supposedly hopping. We eventually got there, but the group was very grumpy* (we ate too late), so we dived into the first restaurant we saw. Unfortunately, we were unable to order vegetarian food, so Sam abandon us and ended up eating 2 doors over (they had tofu). Both restaurants were pretty legit. Ours had English on the menus, but our waiter most definitely did not understand a single thing we said, in English or attempted Thai. Sam's had no English, so she went with the more traditional "go to the kitchen and point at ingredients to construct your dinner" technique.
*Both Anna and Sam just stop talking when they get tired, hungry, etc. It's nice that they don't complain, but it also means I actually have to pay attention to them. Anna says it's a good learning experience for me.

After dinner we tried to find some bars. We were generally unsuccessful, so we drank at this super classy outdoor establishment, which meant my beer cost $2.50 instead of .50, and our pitcher of Kamikaze was $3. So the 3 of us drank alone and bonded, and wandered back to the hostel and drifted to bed around midnight.

Nearly 9 now, and we are getting picked up at 930 for our all-day cooking class, so I've got to get ready.

Bangkok

You should be able to make comments now, just changed the settings. Typing on a real computer now in our hostel, killing a bit of time before we have to head out to pick up our tickets at the train station. Then, dinner in Chinatown and an overnight train up to Chiang Mai.

To save time, I'm going to throw up an email written by Anna, edits by me. My take? Bangkok is hot. And awesome. Mostly awesome.

Anna:

I'm here, I'm alive, and I'm hot! After 36 hours of travel (although that included 7 hours of sleep so it was much more manageable than I was planning on!) we made it! We legitimately nearly didn't, Sam and AJ came up to the gate in LA at a dead sprint and I was considering whether I should go to Bangkok alone at the time! Sid, AJ's friend, picked us up from the airport which was amazing and took us out to a fabulous lunch- definitely the nicest we'll have while here! We also went to a history museum with them and got some background on the city. They dropped us off at our hotel, which I did a great job picking out. We poked around the Khoa San Road area, bought sarongs, and stumbled upon a vegetarian buffet for dinner. In bed by 8!

*Editor - AJ started waking up around 4.30. Anna managed nearly 11 hours of uninterrupted sleep. We all woke up naturally a bit before our alarm.

Today we got up just before 7, checked out, and took a tuk tuk to the Grand Palace.* We spent the whole morning there and then walked down and did about half of Wat Pho (for free mysteriously! Editor: We knew exactly what we were doing. Security was far for lax than the Grand Palace). We got some pad thai for lunch, finished Wat Pho, and took the boat across to Wat Arun. We climbed up quite high on the temple and got a great view of the city. We headed back across the river, got some dragon fruit juice**, and walked through an amulet market and back to the hotel. It's about 5:30 here now and we're using the computers at the hostel to connect with the world! After this we're going to hail a taxi to the train station to pick up our train tickets and then we'll have an hour to go grab dinner before our night train to Chiang Mai.

*Editor - Tuk Tuk are 3 wheeled taxis. The difference is taxis are car, with nifty things like windows, doors, and meters. For Tuk Tuks, you agree on a set price before you leave. We got our hostel to the Grand Palace for 50 Baht, for an 8ish minute drive.

**Editor - a type of fruit, not a type of dragon.

It's hot, really hot, but I'm just accepting that I'm in a constant state of being disgusting!* We're hoping that there are showers on the train tonight! The skirt and capris have worked out well, I just used the sarong** at the Grand Palace. Unsure how you lost weight here- all of the food looks sooooo good! Its a bit overwhelming trying to figure out what to get at the markets, but with three weeks, I'm sure I'll get better and figure out what I like- I've definitely figured out that pad thai is still delicious! Papaya salad and dom sam are on my list next! And who knows what we ate with Sid- they ordered maybe 10 dishes and we just kept eating!***

*Editor - I accepted this a long time ago. Sam and Anna are having a bit more difficult transition. But yes, we are quite disgusting. I'm not sure if I've ever enjoyed a shower as much as the one last night.

** For our male readers, A type of clothing. From what I can tell, a fancy name for a rectangular sheet a fabric. Anna's has elephants, which is pretty awesome. I use my zip off trousers, and just add the pant legs whenever we enter a Wat (Temple). At the Royal Palace, I was stopped by security, and when I whipped out my pant legs to put on, they said, "Ah ah, smart pants!" in English.

***Correct, we have no idea.

Day 1

Or is it Day 3? We are back in our hostel,Lamphu House, workimg our way through the token shower for our first bath in three days. We also have AC,which is glorious. The hostel is set back fromfdrom the main drag and is wonderfully quiet. we have only two beds,which will likely be a common occurance. As the gentl man i offered to take the single, but the girls would have noe of that. we'll be rotating throughout the trip.

Sid, my moms Thai friend from college, picked us up right on tme. She was with her huxband Bee and their daughter Lisa (AKA Bimp. Or bamp). they picked us up in a hired car and drove us into the city. traffic flowed well until we hit downtown, but even then it wasnt worse than anything i had seen in chicago. They took us out to eat at a nice restaurant facing the Democracy Monument and threw lots f good thai food at us. Afterwards we walked over to a museum next to Wat Ratchanaddaram about the history of Bangkok. It was incredibly pwo royal famiky but was a great orientation to start things off.

ok the girls have gone to bed so this is all for now. I was struggling during dinner tonight, so eleven hurs of sleep, here i come.

Happy Birthday Mrs Miller

Sam wishes happy birthday to her mom,as it is the 28 here in Guangzhou. Anna thanks her mom for the note, and is being careful.

The airport was absolutely dead upon arrival. Admittedly it was six am. The airport also looked the exact same as any modern airport,except the signs were in chinese. Reminded me of Japan in that way.

Not much to report. The sun was a hideous shade of orange as dawn broke and you could see the smog in the air, but we did not venture outside. Had a second breakfast in the airport, after we looked online what the currency echange rate was. And the currency,for that matter, as we had done no research on china. But no matter,as we sit on our airplane that will wisk us away to Bangkok. Adieu.