I'm leaving for Laos today assuming my passport makes it back from Bangkok in time. Today we take a minibus to the border, then I get to spend 2 days on a boat heading to Luang Prabang. Its been getting crazier and crazier in Bangkok. On thursday night, while we were on our trek, our guide came and told us that one of the leaders of the red shirts had been shot and a few others too. He said that it looked like things were going to get worse before they get better, and they have. Since that incident, 33 people have died some of them civilians (media, emergency health workers). And today I just read that the government has turned down the protesters offer to begin talks which makes me think that things will continue ... read more

I spent the last three days on a trek in the hills near Chiang Mai. The first day started off a bit slow: we left late, picked up a bunch of people who were all signed up for different treks, stopped at the orchid farm, snake farm, longneck village and the market. We didn't actually start at hiking until nearly 3pm. We started walking uphill on what was supposed to be a gruelling, painfully hot 2.5 hour hike but the gods must have been smiling upon us cuz as soon as we started it got cloudy and even sprinkled a little rain to take the temperature down a solid 5 degrees (down from somewhere around 40 degrees celcius). Our group was mainly young fit people and we managed the hike in 1.5 hours so we got ... read more

Yesterday's tour proved to have its ups and downs. We started the day with a trip to the Erawan waterfalls which were incredibly beautiful. THere are 7 tiers of falls each a few hundred meters from the next so you can hike your way to the top by stopping and have a swim in each one to cool off (I never would have made it to the top otherwise). The water was soooooooooooooooo nice and cool and the colour in the top fall was an icy blue. Plus, I learned just how friendly Thai people can be as I made a few Thai friends throughout my hike. Next we headed to the elephant trekking which ended up being a walk on the elephant while sitting on a seat on its back through a path. Not terribly ... read more

I've been in Thailand for two days and I'm already loving it. After meeting up with some other travelers I feel like I am starting to get more comfortable here. Yesterday I spent the day driving around in a tuktuk to see some of the city and shop. We even went by the red shirt demonstrations which were very peaceful and calm possibly due to the large military presence. I didn't realize it until then but the hostel I'm staying at is only a 10 minute walk from where the chaos was a couple of weeks ago. In the evening we went to a night market with every fake designer item I could want!!!!!! Ray Bans (already bought my first pair), Chanel, Prada, Pandora's bracelets, etc. I didn't buy anything except the sunglasses but I am ... read more