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Hello from Pai!

Day One

We are just loving it here. Pai has about 3000 people in it and I swear about half of those are farang (foreigners). When we got off the bus we ran into this very nice woman named Dara (she's from Florida) and it turns out that we were all going to the same guesthouse (Baan Tawan). She's been traveling for the last five months and plans on spending a year away from home. She's got some great stories from her adventures in Europe, India and South Africa. We spent our first day here (the 27th) just relaxing and exploring the town. The three of us had a nice dinner and called it an early night.

Day Two

Our second day in Pai was SOOO MUCH FUN! Dara, Paul and I rented motorbikes (don't worry we had helmets) and toured around the countryside. We spent the whole day exploring. Our first stop was Mor Paeng Waterfall. The ride out there was beautiful and made the not so spectacular waterfall worth the visit. There were some people swimming in it, but we didn't bring our suits. Our next stop was Wat Mae Yen (known in Pai as the "Temple on the Hill"). Paul and I had some problems getting up the hill. We ended up renting a standard bike because they were all out of automatic. Although they showed Paul how to operate the thing, let's just say it was easier said then done. With the two of us on it the bike was too heavy to make it up the hill so I ended up walking. Side Note: We did eventually figure out the whole down shifting thing so I didn't have to walk too much more after that. The Temple was pretty cool, but I think the view was what drew us there. We got a perfect picture of Pai from above. If we ever get the photos uploaded look for one of a painting inside the Temple. It was actually quite violent and depicted people being tortured and killed while Buddha watched over. It was not what I was expecting out of a Buddhist Temple at all.

Our third stop Tha Pai Hot Springs - again without our suits we had to settle for a nice foot soak. At the top of the springs the water was way too hot (80 degrees Celsius), but as you reached the bottom of the springs it cooled down to a nice hot tub temperature. Our third and final stop was one last waterfall called Pam Bok. It was quite out of the way and we ended up doing what Paul called "off roading". The dirt road was full of potholes and we almost fell of the bike once. Once we got used to the driving conditions it was great fun. We reached the waterfall (at least what we thought was the falls) and I wasn't too happy. I got off the bike and walked a bit up the hill and we realized that we could climb 150 metres to what the sign said was the "high falls". We figured since we made the perilous journey out there that we should at least check it out. The 150 m. Consisted of muddy trials, one rickety wooden bridge and lots of slippery rocks. At least the high falls was better then the bottom of it :) I still can't believe I made it across the bridge twice. I guess this trip is bringing out the adventurous side of me!!

That night after dinner we stopped for a drink at one of the local restaurants. As we were sitting there Dara recognized some people she had befriended earlier in her travels through Thailand. They joined us for a drink and we ended up hanging out for a few hours - it was great fun. Duncan and Susan have been traveling for two weeks and aren't planning on leaving until March. We're meeting them for dinner tonight.

Day Three

We got up early and took the bikes for one last spin before we had to bring them back. I tried my hand at driving and I must say I did alright. Never in my life did I think I would be driving a motorbike! Once we reached a big hill I handed the reins back over the Paul :) We got lots of great photos of the countryside. I'm going to spend the rest of the day reading and at some point Dara and I are going to go get Thai massages. We'll probably spend at least one more day here - it's a hard place to leave - and then head back down to Chiang Mai and start our journey to the Laos border. That's it for now. We might not update for a few days. Take care of yourselves. Peace.

We Came we Saw we Trekked

We have finally left Chiang Mai, and headed for beautiful Pai...but before we get into that, lets update you all on our last couple of days in Chiang Mai.

The day after the cooking course was a day just for ourselves. Our Dutch friends went out on a one day trek, so Correne and I had the whole day to do nothing. Correne was feeling a little under the weather so we used that morning for sleeping, and I of course, had no objection. In the afternoon, we scouted out a popular vegetarian restaurant called AUM, that was recommended to us by Christy and John. Thanks guys, it was really good. Correne had some really spicy red curry that had to of killed some of her flu bugs. Later that night we met up with Milan and Arenda and decided to do a 2 day 1 night trek the next day.

The Trek

We were picked up in the morning by our tour guide, and met the other two travelers that would be sharing the experience with us, two guys from California. Our first stop was a local market were we could buy water or any other supplies we would want for the trip. After this we went to a national park and saw an amazing waterfall that was over 20 meters tall. It was really beautiful. The two guys from California went swimming in it, but the rest of us did not want to be wet for the rest of the day.

After the waterfall, we were taken to a food stall and were made really good fried rice, and served fresh pineapple for desert. After that we hiked to a hot springs, and then trekked for about an hour and a half thru the jungle to a local hilltribe settlement. It was really neat to see how these people have been living for centuries with minimal resources(except the solar panels supplies by the government). About another two hour hike later we arrived at another settlement were we would be spending the night on the floor of a hut. Thankfully there were lots of blankets and mosquito nets. It was by far the worst night sleep anyone had ever had, but it was a pretty neat place to spend the night.

The next morning involved another hike to a nearby elephant camp, where we rode on the back of an elephant, and made our way down the river. Correne and I had mixed feelings about the elephant ride. In a way, it seemed cruel to ride these beautiful creatures purely for our enjoyment. Down the river were two bamboo rafts waiting for us. This was the best part of the whole trek.

We got on the rafts, four per raft, and made our way down the river for two hours. We went thru rapids and a couple a miniature waterfalls, and we got soaked. It was so much fun. The only thing keeping us on the raft was our balance, but we didn't fall off. There were a couple of water snakes, but other than that the scenery was unbelievable. Down the river we were served dinner, and then drove back to the city. What a great trip! The night market one more time, and then in bed early. Next day...Pai.


Pai

Since we have only been here for a couple of hours, there is not much to tell. When we have some news, we will surely keep you all posted.

Paul

NOTE ABOUT PICTURES

Hello again everyone. I know I just wrote an entry, but we might have to stop uploading pictures. "High Speed" is a relative term in Thailand we just spent the last hour trying to upload 10 pictures unsuccessfully. If we manage to find an Internet Cafe with a faster connection down the road we will do our best to get more pictures on the net, but until then we may have to stop the process for a while. Again, I am so sorry to everyone who has been following our photo album.

The Chiang Mai Report

Well I'm excited to say that we actually stayed in one city for longer then two days... it feels nice. Although we haven't moved from city to city, we certainly have been keeping busy. The bus ride here with Arenda and Milan (the Dutch couple) was a little uncomfortable. The lady at the bus station told us it was 5 hours and it actually 6-1/2. The air conditioning wasn't working either, but since it was supposed to be an air-con bus the windows didn't open. All and all it wasn't the greatest ride, but we got here none the less.

Day One

Our guesthouse is quite nice. We're staying right across the hall from Arenda and Milan, who we have spent the last three days with. We arrived fairly late in the afternoon so we spent the time reading about trekking trips, exchanging money and later on in the evening we visited Chiang Mai's famous Night Bazaar. The shopping there was amazing. It was nice to see some actual Thai items instead of the western stuff we saw in some of the other cities. We didn't do any buying on the first night, but we ended up with lots of great gifts ideas for family and friends.

Day Two

Our second day was just as busy as the first. It started with a early morning and a walk to the mini-bus station that was to take us to Doi Suthep (you will all have to pardon my spelling on this entry - I don't have the Let's Go guide with me this time). This famous Wat is 16km up a very very windy road. Arenda and I were not feeling very well by the time we got to the top :P One we arrived at the summit we noticed an elephant off in the distance so we thought we'd take a look. Turns out that a Thai gentleman has tied the elephant up for the last 13 years and watched as people paid for baskets of cucumbers to feed to him. It was actually quite sad to see the way he was being treated. It made us think that tourism in this part of the world can sometimes bring about negative results for the people and their animals (another example later on). At this point I was no longer feeling nauseous and we decided to start the 306 step journey to the where the Wat is. I bet you are all wondering what makes this temple so special... well I'll tell you! An elephant actually chose the place where this temple was to be built. The Thai people decided to let this elephant decide the location and he started to walk. He walked and walked and eventually made his was up this mountain. Once he got near the top he dropped dead. The Thai people thought that it couldn't be a more clear sign of where to build the Wat, so they started to build. There were statues and monuments of elephants all over the temple grounds.

The climb up the stairs wasn't nearly as exhausting as we expected it to be. Especially since it was quite cool that high up. At one point I was wishing for my sweater. The temple was quite nice. Milan and Paul both wore shorts that day and they wouldn't let them in with them so they had to borrow a pair of fisherman's pants. It was quite the site since they were both dressed so nicely in pink :) After viewing the temple we went out to the lookout where you had a great view of Chiang Mai - we have lots of pictures.

Note: We are a bit behind in uploading pictures - it's taking longer than we expected - we apologize to everywhere who is patiently waiting.

After we all were feeling better from the ride up the mountain we decided to take our chances with the way down. It was a bit better than the way up, but I still vowed not to step foot in one of those for at least a few days.

We spent the rest of the afternoon Wat-hopping around "the old city" in Chiang Mai. The highlight was one of the only two teak wooden temples in the city. It was quite beautiful and impressive to see what great condition it was in (since it was over 160 years old). We spent the evening shopping for Christmas gifts and did quite well. We are going to save quite a bit of shopping for Bangkok (on our way out of the country) because we don't want to carry all the gifts around with us for the next 1-1/2 months. I will say this though - Paul was on fire!! His bartering skills had the three of us (Milan, Arenda and I) in awe. We managed to get most items for close to half off.

Day Three

Just as a note - day three was today which is November 23rd. Today the four of us took a one day cooking course with a company called Baan Thai. They picked us up at our guesthouse around 9:30 this morning. Our first stop was a local market where we learned loads in Thai vegetables, rice and fruit. It is really nice to be able to identify what you're eating which before today we weren't always able to do. We also shopped for all the ingredients we would be needing that day. It was a really cool experience. We walked back to Baan Thai and our host (whose name is pronounced "Wow") started us off with a Thai Welcome snack. You took this leaf that looked like spinach only bigger and made it into a cone shape. You then filled it with peanuts, lime, ginger, hot chili pepper and this fantastic sauce and put the whole thing in your mouth. Every bite was a different flavour. It was pretty neat. Our next dish was Thai fried rice and I must say I have NEVER had fried rice that tasted so good. We then made egg rolls (from scratch) and papaya salad. At this point we took a bit of a break and got to know some of the other people in our group. The other three people happened to be Canadian as well. After swapping travel stories we started on our next set of meals. We made yellow curry (which was amazing) and fried bananas. At the end of the day we got a huge recipe book filled not only with what we made and ate today, but with at least 10 other Thai recipes to try. We both can't wait to start cooking!

Well that's it for now. Our guesthouse offered CD burning for 50 baht, so we burned almost 400 photos (yes I said 400) so we could delete them off the memory card. If we didn't do that we would most certainly run out of room. Tonight we will probably skip dinner and do some more shopping :) Tomorrow should be a little more relaxing. Arenda and Milan are doing a one day trek tomorrow that we decided not to do, so Paul and I will probably lounge around and maybe visit the Tribal Museum. On Friday the four of us are going to go on a two day, one night trek. It involves hiking to a hill tribe, an elephant ride, a raft trip down the river etc. It should be great fun. We get to spend the night in the tribe's village. We will write all about it when we get back. Love to you all. Thanks for putting up with the lengthy entry :)

So Long Sukothai

For a change, Paul is at the helm on the blog...so listen up!

It seems as soon as we were in Sukothai we were leaving Sukothai. Although we only ended up staying for two days, we really enjoyed ourselves at this quiet little town. We took an extremely early bus out of Ayutthaya (40 minutes late on Thai time) and headed for Sukothai. We arrived at our guesthouse which was a set of charming bungalows set in and around a beautiful garden. The staff were extremely friendly, and we had some of the best food yet. Our favourite by far was sweet and sour Tofu mixed with mango and pineapple, tomatoes, and onions on rice...excuse me while I drool on the keyboard.

Sukothai, much like Ayutthaya is a city full of old ruins and temples. The "Old City" boasts the main attractions, and we were able to see all the sights in one day thanks to a handy little bicycle rental shop just outside the park. One bike, 20 baht (about 66 cents). These Marry Poppins style bikes were quite enjoyable as we cruised in and out of ancient ruins.

Along the way we met a nice Dutch couple that we staying at the same guest house as us. We had dinner with them, and decided to do some traveling together aswell. The next morning the four of us hopped a bus to Chiang Mai, which is where I am writing from right now.

Stay tuned for more tales from Chiang Mai. We are looking into some 2-3 day treks that take us into the villages of the Hill Tribes, and include Elephant rides, and bamboo river rafting.

Gotta go...expensive internet.



Paul

Say Cheese!

Today (which is November 19th) we arrived in Sukothai after a 6 hour bus ride. We haven't been here very long but we both have already decided that we like it here. We're staying at Ban Thai Guesthouse. We have this little bungalow with bath. We're expecting the worst when it comes to mosquitoes because I've already been bitten three times and it's only 3 in the afternoon. Anywho, I will delight you all with stories of the past few days.

Ayutthaya

Wow did we ever like it here. I think this is when we really started to enjoy ourselves here. Bangkok is a very hard city to land in. It's HUGE and crammed full of people and when you're suffering from culture shock (which we were) that was a tough thing to handle. Ko Samet was about getting over culture shock and trying to relax, but once we arrived in Ayutthaya we both breathed a sigh of relief that all cities weren't like Bangkok. The children in this city were funny. They would wave and say hello and once they passed us they would break out into giggle fits. It was actually kinda cute. There were a lot of a stray dogs here as well. Mostly males who didn't seem to have owners of any kind. They look hungry and in some cases down right miserable - it gets hard to see actually because on the same street you'll see people bring home puppies. You just have to hope they don't end up like most dogs we saw.

Day One

We had a very busy first day. We took the train from Bangkok at 8:20 a.m. (on the 16th) and arrived in Ayutthaya just after 9:30. We dropped our stuff off at the guesthouse - which was fantastic - and decided to do a walking tour of some of the ruins. We started at the local tourist information office where they gave us a great map (for free!!) and proceeded to our first wat. Our first stop was Wat Phraram and did not fail to impress. After seeing so many temples in near perfect condition it was amazing to see what hundreds of years of neglect and decay can do to them. We tried to imagine what they would have looked like when they were first built (in this Wat's case - 1369). You should check out the pictures - just be warned, we have lots. The larger cylindrical buildings are called prangs and the smaller someone pointy looking ones are called stupas. Our next stop was Wihaan Phra Mongkon Brophit which is home to the Thailand's largest bronze Buddha. The statue actually suffered lots of damage over the years due to natural disasters - it's head was struck by lightening etc. - so they constructed the wat around it to protect it. The Buddha itself has since been repaired - twice.

After that we walked to Wat Phra Si Sanphet and the Ancient Palace. This one was one of the largest ruins sites we went to and was packed with people but spectacular none the less. A strange thing happened just as we were leaving though. A group of Thai people started to flag us down. At first we thought they wanted us to move because we were in the way and they wanted to take a picture. Quite the contrary - they wanted us to pose in a picture with one of their friends. I guess pictures of white people are good dinner conversation :)

I think our favourite was Wat Ratchaburna - not because the site was any more impressive than the others but because of the feeling of the place. You could actually walk down these very very steep stairs to the bottom of the prang. I had a bit of anxiety about the whole thing and ended up walking down the stairs backwards (they were actually very narrow). At the bottom were remains of paintings that had been there since it was built. At the bottom of the stairs we were overwhelmed by a very powerful and somewhat disturbing feeling. The energy in there was amazing, but I could only handle being down there for a few minutes before I had to make my way back up - followed very closely by Paul. I later read that in 1957 the crypt inside was looted and all 10 thieves died mysteriously. After that rumours spread around the country that the king himself had placed a curse on the wat.

Our last stop of the day was Wat Mahathat. By the end of the day we were tired and kinda cranky (we had gotten lost on more than one occasion), but we were glad that we made our way there anyway. We finally made our way back to our guesthouse, cleaned up and had an awesome dinner at Kwan's Cafe. We probably had some of the best food that we've had so far. The green curry was to die for (and cheap!) and Kwan was a riot to watch. The guy seemed to have the energy of three people.

Day Two

Our second day in Ayutthaya was not a exciting. Our Let's Go guide suggested we check our Wat Chaiwatthanaram which is on the other side of the city. We debated whether we should go or not, but in the end we went with the saying "you're only here once". We paid the hefty 80 baht (which was actually a deal because our guesthouse has special rates with tuk-tuk drivers) to get us there and to be honest, it was pretty much the same as the rest of the ruins. The only difference was that it was bigger. Our new problem was that once we were finished at the wat we had to walk quite a distance before we could find a tuk-tuk driver to take us back (there weren't any waiting outside the ruins). We tried to barter with the driver but he knew we were in a bit of a pickle with no way to get out except through him so we ended up paying 100 baht to get back. Our evening ended up much better. We had our first food stall experience for dinner. We weren't brave enough to try anything other than pad Thai, but my word was it good. We followed that up with a walk down to the night market which was slightly disappointing. It was full of cheap plastic toys and western style clothing - but we were glad that we made the trip anyway.

Well that's it for Ayutthaya. We're going to head to Old Sukothai historical park tomorrow (and probably the next day - it's pretty big). We'll have more stories for you then.

Hello from Ayutthaya

Hi Everyone. I apologize for not writing from Ko Samet but the Internet prices were way to high and we were way to cheap to pay them :) I'll do my best the sum up the last few days.

Ko Samet

We left Shanti Lodge (in Bangkok) bright and early on Sunday the 13th. The taxi ride was crazy. The guy's car said in big letter "I Love Farang - I speak English". The guy didn't speak a word of English except the word taxi. With the help of our handy phrase book we were able to tell him that we needed to get to the Eastern Bus Terminal. From there we took a bus to Ban Phe. We must have gotten on a private company bus because it was cheaper than we expected and only took 2 hours instead of 3-1/2. When we arrived at Ban Phe we had to take a ferry across to Ko Samet. The ferry was nice and relaxing. Man do they ever cram as many people as they can though. The thing was about to burst. Forty minutes and 50 baht later we arrive at Nuan Tip Pier. We made our way to Naga Bungalows. Let's just say that "rustic" came to mind when we saw our room. In hindsight we should have said no and tried elsewhere but we arrived fairly late in the day and we were worried they would all be full (not to mention we didn't really think of it until after). The bungalow consisted of what we think was a mattress (but as hard as the floor), two pillows and a mosquito net. The net should have been our first indication that the next few days were going to be interesting, but we didn't really clue in. This was our first experience with shared bathrooms and they were... well very gross. I don't think they cleaned them often enough and they smelled horrible!! We were too late to hit the beach that day so we relaxed, watched one of the movies that showed and had dinner. Right around 5pm is when the mosquitoes came out. Paul and I were eaten alive! Apparently Thai mosquitoes are immune to Deet because our bug stray didn't do squat. I got 14 bites in one night. It made the evenings very unpleasant. We usually went to bed pretty early and feel asleep right away. We must have been tired because Naga's bar was crowded and loud until the wee hours of the morning, but it didn't bother us at all.

The next day we hit the beach. We got up early and rented two chairs right by the ocean. We spent the whole day down there, mostly reading and sleeping. It was nice and relaxing. Just what we needed to help get over our culture shock. We had some pineapple in a bag - yummy!!Although we were plastered in sunscreen we both spent a bit too much time in the sun and got burnt. It wasn't bad, but bad enough to keep us away from the beach the second day. Instead we spent the morning of day two trekking to a 14m Buddha and the afternoon lounging in the guesthouse common area reading and playing cards. I also got to catch up on some much needed journal writing time.

And now I will write about THE SNAKE!! I figured that this needed a whole paragraph to itself. While we were in the common room minding our own business reading Paul saw a huge snake slither through the lobby and out onto the stairs that led down to the road. He TOTALLY freaked out. I saw the tail end of it and by the looks of it, it must have been at least 5 feet long. It was probably harmless, but none the less Paul looked up from his book every 2 minutes or so to check to see if the coast was clear.

Bangkok (again)

We left Ko Samet (covered in bites but semi-relaxed) on the 16th in hopes of reaching Ayutthaya by the evening. When we arrived at the bus station in Bangkok we couldn't find a taxi that was willing to drive us to the train station and use the meter! They all insisted on a flat rate. Once again, knowing we were probably being ripped off we climbed in a taxi and drove off. Luckily the taxi driver dropped us off at the TAT. We spoke to a guy there and he hold us that there was a full moon candle festival that night in Ayutthaya and that it would be impossible to find a place to stay. Paul and I were pretty upset - the last thing we wanted to do was spend another night in Bangkok. Unfortunately it didn't really seem like we had an option. The guy recommended a hotel down the street - a 10 minute walk from the train station. The cost was a little more than we were willing to spend (600 baht a night), but it included breakfast (a nice big buffet) and didn't involve another taxi ride. We did the math in our head and decided that this was the most economical decision since were weren't really close to any guesthouses that we knew of. So we spent last night in Bangkok's Chinatown in a room with air conditioning and hot water. We took advantage of our free time to do a ton of laundry which had been piling up over the past few days.

Today we got up at six in the morning, showered, packed, had a very nice western style breakfast and walked to the train station. The train ride was pretty cool. It was neat to see the countryside as we made our way to Ayutthaya. The train was full of Thai people. We've already started to get used to people staring at us. I can't blame them - it's not like there are lots of white people in Thailand.

Anyway, we arrived here safe and sound. We are staying at the U.P Inn (formerly known as the P.U. Guesthouse - I guess we know why they changed their name). The room is beautiful - better than the one at Shanti and it's inexpensive. We're not sure how we're going to spend the day today. We already had to go out and buy batteries because our battery charger is broken. We will write about our experience here in a few days. We're staying tonight and tomorrow and then heading up north after that. Peace and love to you all.

Bangkok - second installment

Day Two

Holy cow is time flying already. We actually made it out of the guesthouse yesterday and managed to visit Dusit Zoo and the Marble Temple (Wat Benchamabophit). Both places were pretty neat. If we actually manage to get yahoo working (we're having technical difficulties) we will upload the pictures. The Temple was amazing. I know this will sound stupid, but part of me expected the Temples to be tourist sites - but Thai people actually use them. We saw so many of them come and go. They were praying and lighting incense.

The zoo was nice as well - Paul really enjoyed it. Dusit Zoo is Thailand's largest Zoo. Lots of mother's with their children :) We were surprised to see how close you could get to the animals. Some of them only had a little wooden fence separating the animals from us. It was the closest I have ever been to an crocodile in my life. If I wanted to I could have touched him - but I of course refrained. The weather was sooo hot. I actually had a headache most of the day yesterday and today. I'm hoping that I adapt to this or it's going to be a very long trip!

Day Three

We spent a better part of this day visiting Wat Phra Kaew (Temple of the Emerald Buddha and the Grand Palace) and Wat Pho (reclining Buddha). We decided that the fastest way to get there would be to take a water taxi. We got lost just trying to find the pier and turned down this fish market. The smell was tough to handle and there were buckets and buckets of live fish just flopping around. I just happened to look over when a woman was cutting the head of one of the fish. I promptly lost my appetite!! :) We finally found the pier and managed with some luck to get on a taxi. The ride was pretty fun - a little stressful trying to figure out which stop to get off at but we made it. Wat Phra Kaew was amazing (and packed full of people) - we have tons of pictures. The place is huge and the detail in the buildings is extraordinary. I have never seen anything like it in my life. The Emerald Buddha was really neat. You weren't allowed taking any pictures inside the wat, but Paul tried to get one from the outside - hopefully you can see it. Before you go into any of the temples you have to take off your shoes and hats. I haven't seen this many shoes before in one place (well other than a shoe outlet factory or something). I was really happy to see that everyone respected the customs (well most people) and took off their shoes. There were some people in the temple that were taking pictures - that bothered me a little bit. They had signs posted everywhere so it's not like you can plead ignorance.

After we finished up at Wat Phra Kaew we headed to Wat Pho, which is the temple of the reclining Buddha. On the way there we had three different Thai men tell us three different ways to get there. Our Let's Go guide warned us of this. I still don't understand why they want to lead you astray, but it worked the first time. By the time we hit the building of National Defense we knew we were way off. We knew that you aren't supposed to pull your map out when you're on the street but we had no choice. We checked to make sure the coast was clear and pulled out the map. I swear, out of NO WHERE, this tuk tuk driver came up beside us and started bugging us. He followed us for a bit and finally gave up, but geez - now I know why you aren't supposed to pull out the map. We finally got there and I must say, it was very cool. I didn't expect it to be so big, but its really huge. We overheard a woman telling someone that it was 15 meters high and 49 meters long! We have lots of pictures. On the back side of the Buddha there are these metal pots - there must have been over 50 of them. At the beginning of the line of pots there was a donation box and a little bowl full of coins. We saw a Thai woman donate some baht and take a bowl of coins. She then proceeded down the line of pots and dropped one coin in each pot. As we watched this Paul remembered an episode of The Amazing Race that took place in Wat Pho. He remembered that the bowl of coins had exactly the right number of coins per bowls and if you did it right and didn't miss any metal pots, that your bowl of coins would be empty by the end. We watched the woman for a while, but it took a really long time for her to finish up her bowl so we left :)

While we were taking the water taxi back to our guest house it started to rain - and I mean rain. I have never seen rain like that in my life. We got back to Thewet pier (which is close to our guest house) and we were stuck there for over an hour. Once it let up a bit we decided to brave the 10 minute walk back. We were SOAKED by the time we reached our room. Most of the roads were flooded so we had no choice but to walk through shin deep water. Kinda gross. :P A special thanks goes out to my mom - she convinced me to bring garbage bags and man are we glad that she did. It kept our back packs from getting soaked. Thanks mom!!!

After we dried off we had a nice dinner of stir fry and pad Thai and called it a night. Paul tried some local beer and I had a fairly girly drink (except it must have had three kinds of alcohol in it because I wasn't feeling to great after that).

Day Four

Well here I am to today. We were supposed to take the bus to Ko Samet today , but we weren't quite ready to brave the bus system yet. We also didn't feel like traveling yet. We decided that we were going to take it easy today. We had a lazy morning and right now I'm sitting in an Internet cafe on Khaosan Road (there are lots of guesthouses and tourists here). It actually made us both feel better to see more white people. Where we are staying there aren't very many. Neither of us expected it to be so hard to be a minority as it is. Each and every day we are getting used to being here though. We are hoping to get some shopping done today. My sandals suck! I need to pick up some shoes and some cotton pants (my quick dry pants are too big for me... go figure). Paul is going to try and find a couple of shirts too. I hope our bartering skills are up to par!

Tomorrow we will be leaving Bangkok - for sure this time and heading down south to Ko Samet for a few days. We will write again in a few days from there. Love to you all.

Correne

Hello from Bangkok

Well we made it. After a very very long plane ride - four airports, three take-offs and three landings later - we are finally in Bangkok. We took a risk and had the taxi driver (who ripped us off by the way) drop us off at Shanti Lodge even though we didn't have a reservation. Turned out they had a room. We're stayed there last night and probably for the next two nights. After that we will head to Ko Samet (south on your map) to lay around on the beach.

We started walking to the Dusit Zoo today and got all turned around. We also noticed that there weren't many people walking and NOOO foreigners walking so we decided to turn around and go back to our guesthouse. I think we might take a tuk tuk if we decide to venture out again today. The heat is a little hard to adjust to so we might just take it easy and lounge around our guesthouse today. That's it for now - we're out of time for the Internet, but we will write again later. We will probably add some pictures to the album at some point today too. Peace out.

Crisis Averted!

So... many of you know that I like to be prepared (maybe a little too prepared). I wanted to check with Pearson's website to make sure that our flight was on schedule. When I checked the website they had not posted the flights for tomorrow yet. They directed me to contact the airline. So I went to United Airline's website and searched for our flight number. Search = No Results Available. I start to panic. So I called United's toll free number and spoke to a very useless man who told me that our flight DID NOT EXIST. Now I'm really panicking. I promptly called Pearson and spoke to a much more helpful man who unfortunately told me the same thing - our flight does not exist. If shit flew it would be hitting a fan RIGHT ABOUT NOW. He suggested that I call Flight Centre to find out what the problem is. He told me that I should get on this right away because I am leaving very soon and if Flight Centre closes I'm pretty much up you know what creek without a paddle. So I called Flight Centre in Victoria and told them my happy story. I would like all of you to keep in mind that 25 minutes have passed and I am having a major heart attack at this point. I spoke with a very nice (and useful man) named Mike and he told me....






The flight number has been changed!!!!





He then said "didn't anyone tell you about this?" I of course laughed because if they had I wouldn't be having kittens on the phone with him at that very moment. So long and short - crisis averted. New flight number, slightly new time, but all is good. Our next entry, which probably won't be nearly as exciting, will be from Thailand. How very cool.

30 Hours and Counting

We are back in Ajax after spending the weekend at Adam and Gillian's (Paul's brother and his wife). Pippin went home with Paul's parent's last night. I'm glad that our pets have good homes to go to while we travel. It still doesn't quite feel real to either of us that we are leaving in a little more than 24 hours from now. We're going to stay up as late as we can tonight, sleep in tomorrow and stay up until our flight on Tuesday. We fly out at 6am. Our first stop is Washington D.C. where we change airlines. We then fly from there to Tokyo and from Tokyo to Bangkok. I haven't had much luck sleeping on planes in the past, but I have never been on a 23 hour flight - my fingers are crossed! We still haven't heard back from the Shanti Lodge so we are going to try and call them a little later tonight. Thailand is 11 hours ahead of us here in Ontario (just as mental note for all you readers out there).

I also added a few more links to this site (found to your right). The maps should help you follow Paul and I and give you a good idea of where we are. I'm also hoping to add a link for weather forecasts in Thailand.

I think that's it for now. Crocheting calls :)

The beginning of the goodbyes

Today we went to Wilmot Creek for my grandmother's birthday ( I think she said she was turning 76). It was also the last time we will see them before we leave for Thailand on Tuesday. Uncle Bruno is still convinced that we're going to Taiwan! I'm not sure if it's bad memory or if he's just messing with us - knowing Bruno it is probably the latter. Oma is still a bit apprehensive about the whole thing. Thailand isn't exactly on her list of places she wants to visit so she doesn't understand why we want to go. I guess I can't blame her, but I love that she cares so much.

The Great Baht Hunt

Today we went to the bank to pick up the Baht (Thai currency) that we ordered three days ago. We took a picture of some of the bills - we thought they were pretty. We got enough to cover the cab ride from the airport to Bangkok and the expenses for our first day there. After that we will cash some of our travelers cheques.

We sent an email to the guesthouse that we want to stay at in Bangkok to see if they have any openings for the 9th and 10th of November (fingers crossed). It's called the Shanti Lodge - here is the website : http://www.shantilodge.com/ Once you get to the website click on "Shanti Bangkok" and take a look around. Our friends (hi Christy and John!) stayed there when they went to Thailand and said it was great. Everything we've read about seems really cool. I just hope they have a vacancy for when we arrive. If not we will be in Bangkok again, we'll just reserve ahead of time.

We also added a few more pictures to our photo album, mostly of my family. If you like my sister's hat e-mail me - I can make you one for a modest price :) Peace and Love to you all!

First Post

Well this is the first post on our brand new blog. Paul and I thought that this might be a better way to keep in touch with all of you while we are traveling around Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. We are hoping to update every three to four days, but we really won't know what is feasible until we actually get there - which is very soon I might add. We leave in six days!

Today we took a nice long walk by the lake to test out our new packs - my mom insisted :) We walked from my parents house to the graveyard up past Rotary Park. (For those of you who don't live in Ajax - it took about 30 minutes). I try to visit the graveyard at least once when I'm in town. Something about the energy there... its a little creepy to be honest. I think I keep going back just to make sure that it still feels strange. There are 23 people buried there - most of the are the first settlers to this area. When the leaves aren't on the ground you can actually see where everyone is buried because the ground is raised.

We're pretty much finished looking through our Let's Go guide to Thailand. We have a rough idea of where we want to visit. We don't want to be too rigid in our plans, but it's nice to have a general idea of where things are and where we'd like to visit.

That's it for now. We're settling down for the night. After my sister finishes her homework I'm going to try and hook her into a game of Nerts. We'll write soon.

Lots of Love

Correne :)