Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 2911

Back to friendly Thailand and familiar Khao San Road. We had our much-anticipated reunion with Chris and, of course, many beers were had we caught up on the gossip from home. Too many more were had during a crazy night out to Nana Plaza to see the sex shows (!!) with an international group of insane people. What fun! And best of all, the dancers all seemed like they're actually having a good time. Not the desperate, coked-out brand of sex entertainer you see elsewhere but people who are just enjoying themselves and aren't taking work too seriously. I love it! The women here are like the trees that hold the sand on the beach. From a young age they can travel by themselves, ride a motorbike, work at manual labor, flirt with men and run ... read more

Fantastic to see the natural beauty of Thailand: the pale and elegant greenery of the bamboo forest, views of the mountains that border Burma, the rice fields, banana plants and fully-forested hills! Best activity: riding the neck of an elephant, big ears flapping over my legs and holding onto the soft brown head. Next best: river rafting on bamboo platforms then touring a damp and eerie cave. It turned out to be home to a large snake, a massive spider and insects you could put a saddle on and ride. Also numerous smelly bats. Fantastic! The food was terrible but our guides, Nai and Pairo, were fun and enthusiastic. Staying in the Lahu and Lisu villages was about as contrived as I feared but the chance to teach two little girls "Stop In The Name Of ... read more

16 May, 2001 – Bankok, Thailand So, We're in Bankok. Since we were not able to find local activist/organizers to link up with for volunteer work, we're only staying a short time and so have been in the heart of the city downtown. Bankok is fascinating, fabulous and fierce. It's spiritually enlightened and humbly devout. It's also horribly unjust and economically exploitative. Nearly everywhere you look is an exquisite temple, filled with people from may walks of life (so it seems) making devotions and meditating. so much so that when we'd ride past some awesome-looking edifice and ask the "tuk-tuk" driver what it is, the response was often (essentially) "oh, just another temple". There are more than 400 in the city. Truly astounding. Then, a few blocks away, many people are living under bridges. The tuk-tuk ... read more

We spent around 5 days in Bangkok before heading to Phuket where we stayed at a beach resort. I got severly sunburnt reading a book cover to cover on the beach.... read more

Geo: 17.8841, 102.747We have been travelling since 25 January. We justspent the last three days in Chiang Mai, NorthernThailand. The pace there was quite hectic but weenjoyed the experience. We overdosed on consumerism ie shopping, eating anddrinking. Chiang Mai is at the base of the Himalayasbut the hills were shrouded in smog. We took a hairraising trip up the hill in a Salom (taxi/ute type... read more