The Freeds

So we decided on Sint Maarten this year for our summer holiday. We have been to several islands in the Caribbean, but we have never landed here. Check it out on Wiki Travel (http://wikitravel.org/en/Saint_Martin) if you want more info on the island. This trip we are traveling on paid tickets, so it really takes the adventure out of getting there. It was nice to relax at the USAirways Club during our lay over. Not quite as nice as Bangkok Air's Club, but pretty cushy non the less. So the flight from Charlotte was uneventful, until it was time to land. We had to hold for about an hour because of a storm at Juliana airport. We finally made it, picked up our little car and made our way to the hotel. Flamingo Beach Resort is on ... read more

These past two days here at Haad Tien have been serious chill. We basically were beach bums soaking in the rays, reading and snorkeling. The snorkeling has been some of the best I have ever experienced. Not only was the reef loaded with soft corals and tons of fish, it is also inhabited with 5 to 6 foot black tip reef sharks. I could not help but feel like a Tetra fish food flake as we were peering down on the circling sharks. I guess there were not hungry as they left us alone. As we were hanging on this quiet beach, we started discussing how many modes of transportation we have been on in the last few days. We have traveled on trains, subways, airplanes, tuk tuk, taxi car, motorcycle side car, scooter, cable car, ... read more

So today we got an early start when we were picked up for our elephant trek, a one hour hike to a waterfall, river rafting and visit to the Kaka (sp?) people. The first stop was a people group that originally came from Tibet. There are about 150 of them in Thailand in this village. They do not speak Thai and live in a pretty primitive area. The condition for them in the past few years has improved because the King of Thailand (Long Live The King) now subsidizes their existence a bit. The people mainly work in the rice fields and do other manual labor. A couple interesting facts are that they are Catholic in a nation of 90% Buddhists. The other interesting fact is that they eat dog in the winter. Only black dogs, ... read more

Chiang Mai (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiang_Mai) is located about 435 miles north of Bangkok in a mountainous area of the country. The population of Chiang Mai is about 1 million. We are staying right in the middle of Chiangmai City which was established in 1296 and it is a city with a wall and mote around it. Our accommodations at the Awana House (www.awanahouse.com) are perfect for location, comfort and excellent helpful staff. The place only cost 22 USD/day so it really is reasonable as well. The guy who runs the place came from Holland five years ago to try something new. I would highly recommend Awana House when you come to Chiang Mai. We rented motorbikes (6 USD/day) to explore a few areas. Fortunately Jeff had visited this area before so we knew a couple of places we ... read more

So we started the day very rested with a big breakfast at the Buddy Lodge. We headed for the Grand Palace but still could not get in because they were only allowing Thai’s in until a certain time. It was the same way in some of the temples as well, Buddhist only. It didn’t bother us at all because this is their country and their national religion, but can you imagine the hay day the ACLU would have in this country? Somehow I like the Thai sense of national and religious pride and admire their resolve. So we decided to take a back alley long boat tour of parts of Bangkok to see that aspect of Thai life. That was awesome and it dropped us off at a market where we ate and browsed for awhile. ... read more