Adventures Ahead

Tokyo, Bali, Thailand and off to Laos tomorrow on a three day slow boat. Thought I would borrow Nick's most recent blog entry to get everyone up to speed. ( http://nickmitchelltravels.blogspot.com )
Nick writes:
"It has been a busy couple days over here on the other side of the planet. After leaving Bangkok aboard a nighttrain headed to Chiang Mai our group was greeted by our lovely host (or hostess) named Natalee (pronounced NATAAALLLEEEE with a lady-boy glee) who promptly told me he/she would be taking care of me this trip - just ask for anything I need and she will deliver. Awesome. The nighttrain was pretty nice - we had half a 2nd class car which consisted of pairs of facing seats that after 9PM (or when a conductor felt the time was right) transformed into an upper and lower bunk. I was assigned the upper and was priviliged enough to have an air consditioning duct above me, the door to the next car next to me (which did not close) and a bright neon light immediately near my eyes. Thank you to Advil PM for a sound four hours of sleep. Prior to sleeping we had a marathon game of Uno that took up most of the members of Car 11.We arrived to Chiang Mai to be scooped up by hotel salespersons and escorted to SK House where our rooms were only $8!! With warm water!!! Chiang Mai is in the north of Thailand near the Himalyan (?) foothills and is a mecca for the outdoorsey backpackers with trekking, off-roading, mountain biking, anything possible in the national parks in the surrounding hills. We signed up for a three day two night trek through the southern national park. The next morning we were driven about two hours south to begin our trek with our guides Foo and Pot. They were funny characters and provided many laughs, learnings and guitar for sing alongs the entire way. After a two hour hike through the hilly jungle arrived upon a small waterfall (with the COLDEST WATER IN THAILAND and camp for night one. Dinner was pretty tastey until toad stew appeared in front of me (I immediately converted to a vegetarian after a small bite) and then we sat around the camp fire and played cards while our guides proceeded to get piss drunk off "Thai water" (rice whiskey). That night was perhaps the coldest sleep of my entire life. 10 degrees celcius (about 49 farenheit - celcius to appease my NZ friends with the unfortunate luck of living with both the metric and celcius system of measurement) I was literally shivering in a ball with the covers over my head. My feet spilled out of the sheets for a couple hours and were numb when I brought them back to sheets.The next morning we headed out for a six hour hike and while walking through a rice field a farmer passed us atop his elephant strolling through the forest. Very random. Foo went on to explain that some farmers use elephants, others use water buffalo and others use something called a machine - and machines are better because they don't eat or sleep. Useful life lesson. After what seemed like ages we arrived at a village to sleep the night and had a rowdy night of singing and drinking Thai water around the campfire with Pot's stirring renditions of Thai popular songs.Our final day of Trekking had a 2 hour hike out of the valley where the village was located and a short ride to the elephant trek. I shared an elephant with NZ Nick named Tokia with our driver and we headed off to the hills. Elephants do not provide the most comfort but the view sure is good from atop and Tokia, although stopping every minute to reach aruond with her trunk to request a banana from NZ Nick, was keen to pick up any object thrown from atop her to the ground and return with her trunk. Shoes, water bottles, anything.Next adventure was riding a bamboo canoe down a river captianed by a 10 year old Thai boy nicknamed by his patrons "Short Round" - as he was a spitting image of the Indiana Jones character without humor and more Napoleon-like character. I have not been yelled at so much in so short of time in my entire life, let alone my a three foot midget kid. "Hey you, hey you, NO NO NO NO" or "hey you, hey you, SIT SIT SIT" where echoing off the river valley our whole trip. One would think after Short Round fell off the raft twice and had to be scooped out of the water by me and thrown back to safety there would be some appreciation. None, only harsh glares when I was out of line (this I cannot figure as I was standing still not moving an inch, but was still lashed with a "hey you hey you NO NO NO")....Back in Chiang Mai town last night our team of ten went to a hearty Thanksgiving feast at a Mexican food resturaunt where margaritas replaced wine and Chang beer replaced the turkey. As Gabe and I were the only Americans, we taught the Aussie and Kiwi's about our holiday and we all stood and gave a toast to what we were thankful for this trip (mine being that I met such great travel friends after arriving alone in Bangkok and now am amongst ten people!). After dinner we walked to the reggae district and celebrated Thanksgiving properly. This morning we awoke to an all day mini-van trip to the city of Chang Kong which lies on the Mekong River. I am looking across the river at Laos while the sunsets and tomorrow we board a two day slow boat trip into Laos. We stopped along the drive at a temple Wat Karun (?) outside Chang Rai that can only be described as unique - a white palace created in 1997 by a famous Thai artist that has monuments to suffering one most reach before nirvana. This was almost uncomfortable as one mural had the World Trade Center on fire with a dragon wrapped around and Neo (Keanu Reeves from Matrix) standing watch - very eerie."
Thanks Nick!

Pad Thai

Due to a rapid increase in internet prices and a decrease in time, I've struggled to find time to write. I'm currently in Ko Toa, Thailand, diving in search of the highly elusive whale shark. Yesterday I went on two dives with Ban's. On the first dive I saw a 3meter bull shark. My friend Skye was supposed to be my dive partner but she has an ear infection. I've been travelling through Thailand for the past few weeks with my friend Nick from my Bali adventures, my friend Skye from New Zealand, her bf Nick, his brother Cam, Cam's friend from school Izzy and Skye's friend Brooke from Australia. Did you get all of that? Nick, Nick, Brooke and Cam are all getting there Open Water certificates, so we should be here for a few more days. We arrived in Ko Toa after a twelve hour trip from Railey via a long tail boat, 4 hr bus ride and an rooftop overnight ferry ride. Turned out to be quite the adventure. We stayed just north of Raley in a backpacker haen call Tonsai. Both Railey and Tonsai are a Rock Climbers dream, with hundreds of routhes and rock faces as high as the eye can see. Had I not shattered my toe a few nights prior, I would have attempted a few routes. Seeing as no one else in the group had any desire to climb, we made our trip there a short one.

The last few weeks have been nothing but beautiful weather, aside from a few rainstorms here and there that last for a few minutes. Not a dull moment in this group. Especially the four days we spent in Koh Phi Phi. A typical day would consist of waking up early, chartering a long tail boat to some remote island or beach, a few games of UNO, frisbee, snorkelling, lounging around, some pb&js, a hike up to the viewpoint for the sunset, dinner, and then some "buckets." "Buckets" are...well they are just that ...."Buckets" of booze. Most of the bars offer free "buckets" from 10-10:10, 1-11:10, and 12-12:10. Cam and Nick had the system down! Get to bed around 3am and do it all over again.

Gotta run, we are headed north the Chang Mai in a few days for elephant rides and a little meditation. Enjoy the pics!