Blogs from North-West Thailand, Thailand, Asia - page 475

Yesterday, after I wrote, we went back to the guest house and I took a much needed shower and a nap. Then I had the BEST croissant with salami and cheddar cheese and french fries for dinner. Yum!!! I needed that! Finished book number one and hung out at the guest house until it was time to board the overnight train. We gathered everything up, got on the train where they has these little berths for each of us. It was luxurious almost - pillows and everything. And they brought us a Singha beer as soon as the train started. We went to sleep pretty early and slept most of the way to Chaing Mai. THis trip has made me really grateful for flush toilets, hot water and US sanitation standards. I'll never baulk at using ... read more

Yesterday was very interesting. In the early evening I went to a wat where they had a gathering called "Monk Chat." Farangs(foreigners) have a chance to talk to monks in an informal manner. It is good for the farang because it gives you a chance to meet and talk to the monks. The monks get to practice their English. It's a win-win for everyone. I learned many things about Buddhist monks. First, they are not necessarily monks for life. They are always free to leave the wat and many do leave after getting their education. Poor families often send their sons to the wat because the wat will provide their education, including their college education. The monks I met yesterday all were attending the university. Two were studying English and the other was studying psychology. The ... read more

Yesterday I took a local bus to Lumphun, a town about 6k south of Chiang Mai. There are two very famous wats there that i visited. Also went to a great vegetarian restaurant for lunch. This was one of the best meals I had in Thailand. I received 4 vegetarian dishes with rice and soup, all for 30 baht, or $0.75. The restaurant was written up in the Lonely Planet guide to Thailand. There was no name on the restaurant, and it was just called Thai Vegetarian Restaurant in the guide. I met two men from Singapore who were searching for the same restaurant, one a Brit. They were survivors the last years' tsunami. They were in Krabi when the tsunami hit. The one year anniversary was commemorated on Dec. 26th. There were many stories in ... read more

I didn't write a blog entry yesterday because I went on an all day tour to the golden triangle area. Left at 7am and didn't return until 8:30 pm. This is the area north of Chiang Mai about 3.5 hours by tour van where Myanmar, Laos, and Thailand meet. I went on a longboat tour on the Meekong River and we saw a gambling casino on the Myanmar shore and went to a small tourist village in Laos. I also saw the hill tribe peoples, in particular the Karen people. The Karen women have these brass rings around their neck to lengthen them. The longer the neck the more beautiful they are considered. I have a pic included. On Christmas Day I went on tour of a wat on the top of a mountain here. These ... read more

Again, apologies for the lateness of this blog.....time travel back to Dec. 25th..... Since I couldn't be with my family this Christmas day, I wanted to plan something completely abnormal to avoid any homesickness. This is my first Christmas away from home. A trek in the jungle sounded perfect to me! Bright and early Christmas morning Tony our Thai tourguide (tongue-twister?) arrived at our hotel with the pick-up truck. Our trekking group included 2 tour-guides, 2 people from Denmark, 2 from Australia, 1 from England and 1 from France. We rode in the back of the truck for about an hour, taking us out of Chaing Mai and into the country-side. Our first stop was the elephant farm. Riding the elephants was an awesome experience! It turned out to be much more challenging than I expected! ... read more