Sydney-Bangkok-Chiang Mai

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Alright, so I know it's been awhile since I last updated but internet access has been relatively limited lately. After vanuatu I went to Fiji and completed me scubar diving certificate. It went well. there were a few hiccups along the way but that's a story for another day. After Fiji I met back up with Sarah and Nora and another girl named Lizzy, who has decided to do the southeast asia tour with us, in Sydney. We spent a few days in the city and they were all supposed to leave two days before me for Bangkok, where I would meet back up with them. However, Nora realized she had lost her passprt a few hours before the flight and we didn't find it in time. It was found eventually though. When Sarah and Lizzy were going through customs in Thailand, Sarah found it in her planner. Long story short, Nora and I spent a few days in Sydney together and since she had lived there for 6 months, she was a good guide.
So we landed in Bangkok on the 18th and spent a few days there with everyone. Bangkok was awesome. It's definitely the most interesting and different city I've been to on this trip. We spent a few days there and then we headed north to ayuthia (sp?) where we rode on elephants and caught the train to Lap Buri (again sp?). We spent the night in Lap Buri and the following morning went to go see the monkeys. I was expecting monkeys kept in some sort of animal reserve...nope. Apparently the monkeys live in a ruin on the cities edge and they just kind of hang out and mingle with people. By mingle, I mean that they jump on you and steal your water bottle and try to get into women's purses. Their novelty wore off very quickly.
We hopped the train and went to meet Nora's friend Erin in Kohn Kaen. Erin teaches at the universtity there and we spent 3 days meeting the fellow american teachers. Having a translator was amazing. They ordered the food for us, which was awesome, and got us around town. Kohn Kaen is by far the least english speaking city we've been to so it would've been real hard to get by without them.
We got the bus to Chiang Mai last night from Kohn Kaen. The double-decker buses are driven like nascar cars. If it weren't for sleeping pills I might have had a heart attack.
So now I'm in Chiang Mai and everything is good. We're gonna do some trekking before heading east into Laos. I'm trying to get everyone to do a day trip to Burma but I guess it depends on what happens in that country over the next few days that will determine if we do. Anyways, that's all for now but I'll make sure to update in less time than it took me to do this one.
I hope everyone's doing well.

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Comments

[Kate]

monkeys
I'm surprised you didn't like the monkeys.