I curse the day I saw you, Meat on a Stick.

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Everywhere I go in Thailand they have these food vendors. The vendor people cook up mass amounts of meat on a stick (trust me, of just about every shape and colour imaginable) and leave them out for the flies to land on, and then try to sell them to you.

As you all know - eating meat is one of my favourite things to do. Scratch that, eating in general is my MOST favourite thing to do. While the meat is unquestionably questionable, the fact that my tummy rumbled everytime I saw it is not. I gave it. I ate the meat on a stick and I sure paid for it.

I have never been so sick in my life... and will never eat meat on a stick again. Well, I probably will. I will probably try not to pick the most remote place in the mountains of Thailand on the way to Burma to eat it. I think that might have been my fatal error.

Anyways...despite being sick, travelling is going exceptionally well. I can't remember when I left off in my last entry and I'm too lazy to check.

We stayed in a very small town called Pai (pronounced "bye".. just aspirate the p). Its kind of a travellers Mecca.. lots of cute little bars and shops will the wares of the hilltribes. Lots of really good food too - look up Sabich on the internet and try to make it at home, you'll love it.. and if you don't, I'll eat it for you when I get back.

While in Pai, we decided it would be a good idea to do some more elephant riding, this time bareback. LET ME TELL YOU, that whoEVER told us it was a good idea was sadly, sadly mistaken. My butt has never been so sore in my life. An elephant has a VERY POKY spine and we were not provided with adequate cushioning. Ouch.

We took the elephants bathing in the river, and at one point, the thing threw us off!. I managed to get RUGBURN from his hair. LOL. Good God. After the bath, I rode up behind his ears back to the elephant camp! That was a crazy experience. Elephants in Asia are not quite as big as the ones in Africa, but trust me they're big enough.

We travelled to Chiang Mai afterwards and have been here for one night. I'm staying in the guest house that once was the safehouse of a powerful opium war lord! No worries - the place is clean of criminals these days. But - not of cockroaches. Amy found 7 in the first room they tried to make us stay in. None so far in the one we took after rejecting that one outright.

Tomorrow we trek into the hills to visit some of the traditional hill tribes. On one hand, its nice to bring their economy some extra padding...on the other hand, there are ethical questions about exposing their traditional ways to our western ways. its an interesting dilemma, but the nerds are for the nerds, and tomorrow I go!

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Comments

[Andy C.]

oh man
lol meat on a stick. I love the fact that even though you kind of knew it was going to be gross, your adventurous and exploratory nature got the better of you and you HAD to eat one. I may not know you very well Kim, but that seems like such a Kim character trait. I hope you took a camera with you because there's a lack of pics in this travel blog.

[ben]

traditional
hill tribes sounds like some adventure times.

[Gia]

oh man
who would think you would get rug burn from an elephant? And I am totally not surprised you caved into the meat on a stick haha especially after watching you get the Extreme Burger at Moxies hehe

[Perogie]

NOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! That was not the real authentic meat on stick.. but it was an evil avenger to try and combat you from your weakness of loving meat on stick.. Once you get back to Canada my friend, we will find you the best meat on a stick on the entire island.. just for you. I completly burst out laughing when i imagined you two on that elephant ride and that you had rugburn from an elephant!! Omg Nagle.. you just made my day!! <3