A few weeks after our eager return to Chiang Mai, Sa, a friend of Sodahead's, invited us to her home, a Lisu village near "the City of Stars", Chiang Dao. We enthusiastically accepted--although Mutti decided to remain behind. Joining us was Sa's good friend, Lek, who was not only pleasurable company but a reasonable translator. Sa, unfortunately knew no English so we could only speak with her in the limited Thai we knew. The initial leg of our journey began with an hour bus ride from the Chiang Mai Bus Depot to a ditch in Chiang Dao. From there we [View Full Entry]

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The tuk tuk is connected to the bus station, the bus station is connected to Phitsanulok, Phitsanulok is connected to a seven hour, 3rd class, non air conditioned train ride to Ayutthaya. To sum up that experience: after three hours I was ready to kill someone--but the eating was good. Despite the agonizing heat it was hard not to marvel at the incredible selection of food! Dozens of vendors carrying trays of fried chicken with basil, beef, tangy pork chunks on skewers, coconut balls filled with gelatin, mango and sticky rice, coconut pita bread, dollops of melting ice cream in [View Full Entry]

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The thrill of market and temple hopping eventually wore off. After about a week-and-some in Chiang Mai, the trio (Sodahead still suffered from his ankle ailment) to my delight made the decision to go south to the province of Sukhothai! We hired a car and driver for the day to take us the four hours to the town. Along the way we discovered that our driver, Boonphat, spoke perfect English and had been more around the United States than any of us! He has founded an organization called The New Life Ministries Foundation, and it has about a dozen projects [View Full Entry]

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My apologies for the dreadfully long gap between entries. Apart from the Taiwan earthquake which knocked out communication across Asia, and the constant hourly outings to unknown destinations on frightening roads, its honestly just been too freakin' hot to work on a blog. And to wrap everything up: we're not in Thailand anymore. Bali, one of over thirteen thousand islands in Indonesia is famous for its scenic beauty, breathtaking culture, and friendly people. The international fame of their culture has brought a heightened sense of identity among the Balinese. They've retained a u [View Full Entry]

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Mental Notes 1. Become a millionare. 2. Stop writing mental notes. Sodahead took the liberty of renting us a jeep for 5 days to travel around to see and experience things outside of the city. Day One-Southern Chiang Mai Province While driving through the roads with no particular destination we made the decision to visit a silk factory for the day. As we entered the building each of us were given a silk flower as a souvenir and complimentary tea and biscuits. Silk originated in China and was a "secret" for over 2000 years before other coun [View Full Entry]

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Mental Notes 1. Never linger for more than a few moments at a market stall or you will automatically be obliged to purchase something. 2. It's perfectly acceptable if you find an ant in your green curry. Farewell 'o beloved Railay. We leave you with heavy hearts and sorrowful spirits. But we've got better things to do, like take a plane to Chiang Mai! My initial impression of the city through the stained window of a taxi was that it was a moat away from being identical to Bangkok, but that's a naive opinion of a naive tourist. After further exploration [View Full Entry]

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Mental Notes 1. Put on 18+ layers of sunblock every five minutes. 1 1/4. If you get a sunburn don't pick at it. 1 1/2. Seriously, don't pick at it. 2. Never leave any form of food or beverage, eaten or not, lying around in a room. It will become a Holy Shrine for insects. We spent the day at an elephant shelter in a location north of Krabi town and spent the entire day on an elephant trek through the jungle! And getting the opportunity to stand less than a few centimetres from a fully mature elephant takes your breath [View Full Entry]

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Mental Notes 1. Learn the the phrase "I don't understand" in the local language. 2. Air conditioning is the only thing that matters. On our final day in the big city we made the trip, this time an uneventful water taxi ride, to Wat Pho, the modern hero of Bangkok's holy temples. It features a host of superlatives: the largest reclining Buddha and the largest collection of Buddha images in Thailand, and the country's earliest centre for public education. Almost too big for its shelter, the magnificent reclining Buddha, 46 m. long and 15 m. high, portray [View Full Entry]

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"We" consist of Muti, also known as The Human In Need of a Sunflower Seed Intervention but if I put HINOSSI, no would know what I was going on about, unless you're like me and spend too much time decoding acronyms. Sodahead, muti's friend. He's apparently knowledgeable in everything but that's up for debate. And me. 9 hour flight to Japan +3 hour wait in Japan airport + 6 hour flight to Bangkok = "hi my name is aggravated and tired." Upon stepping out of the airport I was shocked. It is bloody hot. The air has the humidity of a [View Full Entry]

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