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Published: October 29th 2006
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Moria playing at the Siam Center in Bangkok
For some reason, crazy, creepy eye monsters were everywhere, and Moria had to join the kids in the fun. Health Update:
I am glad that the only people concerned about my vomitting spell were my mother and Julia so thanks everyone for taking Moria's words with a grain of salt. I must say it was ugly. At the weekend market in BangkokI had meat on a stick, because I can't say no to that, then felt funny. On the bus home I made Moria get off the bus early so that I could vomit in an alley for about fifteen minutes. The next few days were ugly, actually the whole week. On Thursday I had a rash on my hands and was told it was scavies and after using lice ointment for four days and having no relief, not to mention the stomach issues I had my first trip to the hospital. Luckily, the doctor thinks that my hand problem isn't scavies at all but some form of dermatitis. He has also ruled out it being a skin fungus which is a relief. The bad news is I have a distended intestine or something to that effect and if the cipro doesn't work it means I have e coli, a parasite or an ameoba. Pretty exciting stuff and I will
keep you posted.
Bangkok:
Pretty great city. Everything is efficient and easy. Tons of tourists everywhere. We went to a mall and found myself a backpack so hopefully the third one will make it till the end of the trip. I will say we haven't been eating the food because both of us have been really nauseous and I have a huge fear that I will never be able to eat Thai food again. I hope that isn't the case but right now anything that looks or smells like Thai food makes me want to ralph.
Iris and Bernie:
So for those of you who have been to Thailand you boast of backpackers and how much fun you have meeting them, scoring them, etc. Moria and I decided to do a trek in Kanchanaburi in an attempt to meet these so called backpackers so many of you have told us about. Our van came and picked us up promptly at 8 am then our guide Joon (Moria's Thai crush #1) tells us we have to collect the other people that are coming on the trek. Well we were delighted at the prospect of two strapping young fellows hiking
with us in the forest and taking us on a bamboo raft. We were even excited if it was two other girls so that we would have other people to chat with, but we were not prepared for who came on our trek.
As the van pulled around the cul-de-sac of a resort we saw a couple that reminded me of my parents approaching us and realized that these were to be our companions. We had the pleasure, no the privelege of walking through the jungle with Iris and Bernie, a couple in their early sixties from Winnepeg, Manitoba, Canada. After our introduction we chatted away and learned all about this adventurous couple and their three month journey through Asia. We learned about their sons Greg and Geoff who teach English in Taiwan and Korea respectively, their hiking club, love of JIF peanut butter, and other anecdotes that had us in stitches for two days. We had a ball with them. They truly enriched our trip.
As for the trek, we got to see some falls, the Hellfire Pass [This was very interesting as we both knew so little about the Asian side of WWII. Hellfire Pass is
a section of the Death Railway that the Japanese built from Thailand to Burma so that transport of war materials would be time and cost efficient. For every tie of the railroad one POW died. Needless to say it was a pretty haunting experience.], had lunch that I was unable to keep down, then we trekked through the jungle with our man Noi. He was awesome. He was dirty and rude when we met him. His gruff manner, scarface, and cigarette dangling from his lips made us all a bit weary as we left nice, friendly Joon. But he turned out to be wonderful. He nearly ate a poisonous spider. I would have done it myself if my stomach wasn't acting so funny. Then he showed us all the animal tracks in the jungle with the excitement of a three-year-old at Christmas. The other guides: Dom, Tum, Num and Noi allowed us to partake in their Buddhist ceremony. The Thai faith in Buddhism and their unconditional love for their Royals is such a beautiful thing, I don't know how else to put it. Then we did a little night trekking and finally made it to our Karen village camp. We
had a Thai feast and Noi taught us how to prepare the meal ourselves. All Moria could eat was wild fern and rice, which were delicious, but we had no idea how much meat was in Thai food. I ate a little bit of everything but it really was a pity we couldn't enjoy more.
The next morning we left the jungle, rode on Joey our young male elephant-I must say the elephant ride was an experience and the two things that surprised us were the amount of hair on the elephant and the size of it's private parts, then we went bamboo rafting where Moria collected her second Thai crush in the form of Num (a martial arts expert who had a stomach that Moria wanted to wash her laundry on). After a quick stop for lunch we headed off to ride the Death Railway and see the bridge over the river Kwai. It was a great two days altogether, a bit difficult to bid farewell to Iris, Bernie, Noi and Joon but it had to be done. I hope our next travel companions are as much fun as they were.
Creepy People that Stay at Budget
Our Bungalow 8
This is where we slept on our first trek, enjoying the jungle symphony. Accomodation:
So last night at our budget guest house which cost us about $4.50USD a night I was sick in bed and heard a gentleman's voice and was really confused as to why Moria was talking to a random man. Then when I heard the man say in his smoky baritone voice "I miss you" I got thoroughly creeped out. Moria thought for an instant it was me and then we realized that it was the man next door talking on his cell phone. It was not a conversation that either of us wanted to hear with phrases like "I wish I could kiss you" and "When I come home we are going to spend all day in bed" but who could forget the gem that was "Yes you should start taking your pill because I will be home on the fourth and have missed you so." I just thought you all would enjoy the story of the classy people who are staying in our guest houses, hopefully we will collect some more stories like this along the way.
Comments:
I would like to thank everyone who has posted a comment on the blog, we love the feedback. And
Kate afraid of elephants
Joey was scary at first. to those of you who haven't get your act together!
Up next: the Grand Palace, Emerald Buddha and Cambodia...
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Kimberly
non-member comment
Kate This sonds like quite a trip. Are you having fun??