Saturday, February 25, 2006

Cambodia Pictures

Angkor Wat

There were just a few steep steps...and I thought Cambodians were a lot shorter than me!

The Bayon Temple - Temples of Angkor

Cambodia

I fell too much in love with Laos and spent more time there than I had planned. As a result I pretty much ran through Cambodia. It's alright though, it gives me a reason to go back, which I plan on doing next year. I only ended up spending 5 full days in Cambodia, only hitting up Siem Reap and Phnom Penh. Cambodia isn't nearly as bad as some people imagine it to be. Yes, there is povery - a lot of it - but it isn't too overwhelming if you have a thick skin. The Temples of Angkor were fantastic. I bought a three day pass and although that was quite enough since my feet were sore by the end of it, there was still so much more that I didn't get to fully see.

I arrived in Siem Reap around 9am. I had been told about the aggressive taxi/moto drivers in Cambodia so I was semi-prepared for the barmbardment that I recieved as soon as I exited the airport. Cambodia is wonderful, I loved it and I want to go back. It is, however, very draining. There's no other word to describe it. I was only there for 5 days and by the end of it I was mentally and physically drained. People are ALWAYS trying to get something from you. I was constantly being hounded by drivers if I wasn't already with one, the begging was never-ending and the children, although cute, got really annoying after awhile. I thought a lot about a phrase my parents used to say to me when I was a child asking for money - "Do you think I'm made of money??" I remember when they used to say that, that I'd think "well, ya...you're my parents, YES you have lot of money, obviously!" Aahhh, blissful childhood ignorance. I now understand how annoying it must have been for them. If I tried to barter with people, explaining that the price they wanted was too much, I was often told that I was a tourist, I could afford it. It's generally assumed that we're well off and are, quite literally, made of money. Granted, I do have a lot more money than they do and live really well, but I still need to be careful with my money. That, sadly, involves NOT giving $1 to EVERY child I see.

I pushed through the crowd to the tourist desk and hired a motorbike to drive me into town. Yes, a motorbike, with all of my bags. It worked though, I'm pretty relaxed on a motorbike, and it's a good thing. I ended up hiring my motorcycle driver for the next three days. It was perfect, it cost me $40 and everyday he picked me up at 9, drove me anywhere I wanted and dropped me back at home after dinner. The Temples of Angkor are really spread out. It's a huge area, I was glad for my driver. By the end of it we were pretty good friends. He took me way out into the country, the "long way" to some of the temples. He explained that around the major temples, the government's worked really hard to make it look like Cambodia really isn't that poor. They've done a decent job. Around the major temples there are a lot of huge trees and everything is absolutely beautiful. There are a lot of beggars, but mostly they are children selling things. It's not, however, actual Cambodia. When he took me out on the back roads I saw real Cambodia. The roads are extremely rough and have only been built within the past 20 years by UN workers. There weren't really any roads out in the country before. The UN workers built roads so that people would know exactly where was safe to walk (free of landmines). There are also NO trees. Deforestation is wide-spread and the loggers under-educated. It didn't help either that Cambodia was carpet bombed during the wars. It also doesn't help that there are still thousands of land mines scattered around that tend to create huge craters when detonated. The Cambodian countryside reminded me of pictures I've seen of the African plains. Very barren and brown.

We rode through remote villages, full of people missing limbs and scarred, although not begging. That really brought it home. The ones who are in the cities begging, although I already knew this, aren't the only ones who've been hurt by war. The country really is full of horror stories that continue to happen as a result of land mines.

I didn't go out at night. I knew better than that. Although I felt relatively safe in Siem Reap I still didn't want to chance anything. It's a major Cambodian city, but street lights are pretty much non-existant and after dark it gets pretty sketchy really fast. I was tired anyways, I did a LOT of walking during the day. At the end of my time my driver suggested that he give my name to his friend down in Phnom Penh so that he could meet me at the bus station and take me to a hotel. I didn't really want to at first, but he kept insisting that it was a good idea. I'd been pretty self-sufficient this whole trip, finding my own way around major cities. I can take care of myself in the vast majority of situations and have never felt unsafe this entire time. I knew that Phnom Penh was going to be different, but still didn't really want to give up my independence there before seeing what it was actually like. He kept insisting though, explaining that "people in Phnom Penh aren't like people in Siem Reap," and that he knew I could take care of myself, but that it'd be a good idea to have someone waiting for me at the bus station...just in case. I finally relented.

I'm so glad that I did.

I caught the bus to Phnom Penh. There were a few other foreigners on the bus, all male, but the majority were Cambodians. All us travellers were ushered to the back of the bus and we settled in for the ride. When we arrived in Phnom Penh I realized what my Siem Reap driver had been talking about. The bus had been swarmed by drivers waving signs for different hotels. We all looked at eachother, debating what to do. There were at least 3 times the amount of drivers than there were in Siem Reap. A minute or so passed and we realized that we, obviously, had to get off the bus. So, we pushed. Our bags had been tossed on the ground in a pile. People were yelling, I do ok in crowds but get very irritated, very fast. I was getting VERY irritated. Being the only girl I was getting a lot more attention. I managed to push through and get my bag, but as soon as I had my bag, the drivers realized that I was now ready to go, so they kept trying to "help." Helping means that they kept trying to grab my bag from me and throw it into their tuk-tuk. People were pushing papers with different hotel names on them in front of me and yelling at me. It was, truthfully, kinda scary. Well, not really scary, but definetly overwhelming. I was so relieved when one of the papers shoved in front of me had my name on it. My new driver knew exactly what to do. He grabbed my bags, grabbed my hand, and we literally ran.

My new driver was just as awesome as my one in Siem Reap. I was so grateful for him. He ate lunch and dinner with me. Each time taking me to some out of the way, non-touristy, Cambodian restaurant. Everytime he dropped me off somewhere, when I came out, he was right there waiting for me. That was an excellent thing because all over the city I was constantly being hassled. Tuk-tuk drivers were everywhere wanting to "help," and, as a single girl travelling alone I apparently needed much more "help" than the next person. I went to the killing fields at Choeng Ek, to the S-21 museum (yes, I, Krista, went to a museum of my own free will), and to the Royal Palace. Choeng Ek and the S-21 museum were pretty heavy, but I was expecting it. In general, Phnom Penh is pretty heavy. It's much more sketchy than Siem Reap. I did manage to have a pretty good time though, all thanks to my driver (Sopheap). He's an English student so we did a lot of extra things, like went out for coffee and such, and we practiced his English. It was a good trade-off. I wasn't alone and he got free lessons.

My last morning he met me at my hotel (actually, he slept outside of my hotel so he could pick me up at 5:30) and drove me to the bus station. I have both of my drivers business cards and will definetly call them next year when I'm back in Cambodia. Anyone else who plans on going to Cambodia let me know and I'll give you their emails. It's totally worth it.

I'm now in Vietnam. I've had 2 days in Saigon and spent 2 days travelling around the Mekong Delta with a tour group. The Delta was beautiful and my group was great fun. I won't update about that right now cuz I want off of the computer, but I will in a few days. I leave Saigon tomorrow and am heading up to Mui Ne for some serious beach time. After that I head onto Nah Trang where I'll have access to good internet again. Look for the first Vietnam update in about a week. Take care everyone and, guess what??? I'll see you soon!!!

Pics from Vientiane and Pakse / Tadlo Falls

Lao Airlines...don't listen to what people say about it. It was fine.

Lao kids playing in the river at Tadlo Falls

Chickens and Ducks on the bus

Tadlo Falls, Laos

Sunset from Vientiane, Laos, looking over the Mekong River to Thailand

They love their water features in Vientiane...actually makes it look like a somewhat modern city. If anything they're fabulous to sit beside and cool down for a second.

Buddah Park

Buddah Park - 1 hour outside Vientiane

Tuk-tuk drivers lined up in Vientiane

Thursday, February 16, 2006

the past few days

I was stranded in the middle of nowhere for the past few days. Literally. The. Middle. Of. Nowhere.

For your information, Nowhereville is beautiful, serene, has an overwhelming abundance of livestock (I saw too many "chickens pecking the ground" and had permanent Trisha Yearwood in my head the ENTIRE time), and is also pretty boring. This is going to come across wrong, and those of you working right now will hate me for this, but here goes. I'm tired of sitting on my ass. It was all good in Vang Vieng. I can do my fair share of ass-sitting. Truth be told, I'm fairly good at it. The difference is that Vang Vieng had a fun river and caves and stuff. There were multiple cafes with televisions that only played "Friends" episodes. There were a lot more foreigners. There were fewer pigs, cows and goats. There was, in general, more to do WHILE sitting on your ass.

I had finished all my books by the time we left Vang Vieng and so hit a bookstore to trade stock immediately upon arrival in Vientiane. I found a new one by Ann Rice, "Every Breath You Take." I recommend it, it's awesome. It occupied most of my time while in Laos' capital city. There wasn't much else to occupy my time with...

well no, that's exaggerating. A bit.

I was only in Vientiane for 2 full days. In those 2 days I managed to visit 2 important Wats (temples), see the Presidential Palace, browse the massive Morning Market (Yes, Rachael, we did mistake that smelly, disgusting market on the first day for the actual market. The real Morning Market has a lot more fabric and fun stuff, less smelly fish), and get my butt 25 kms out of town to the "Buddah Park."

Buddah Park was pretty cool. As I remarked to two other Canadians I met there, "this place would be a photographers wet dream." (sorry mom) It was beautiful. Hundreds of stone and concrete scuptures, some centuries old, surrounded by a myriad of beautifully colored flowers. The most dramatic being a massive laying down or "reclining" Buddah. It was well worth the hour-long dusty and bumpy Tuk-tuk ride it took to get there.

So, that sounds like a lot, but it's not. Wats are cool and the first one I went to, "Talat San," was remarkably calming, with hundreds of miniature buddah sculptures set into the walls. But really, once you've seen one Wat, you've gotten the jyst and pretty much seem 'em all. I don't spend much time in them, especially considering most writing describing things is in Lao and/or French.

Anyways, all that stuff I just said took up ohhh, about 6 hours of my first full day in Vientiane. I spent the rest of my time sitting at the Mekong River-side bars reading and people watching, walking around, eating at this fantastic Scandanavian Bakery, and again, doing pretty much nothing.

Vientiane's not exactly the bustling metropolis we'd usually expect from a Capital City. A vast majority of the roads are unpaved or really rough. I only saw a handful of buildings over 3 storeys. I saw more chickens downtown that I'd ever seen in Campbell River. Few stop-lights were 4-way, most were just 2, however that didn't seem to pose much problem since the traffic flow was so light. So, point made, it's small. It's ok though. I was rarely bored. I'm one of those weird people who actually likes to be alone with her thoughts. I wandered all over Vientiane (not hard to do), saw random stores and buldings and found old, forgotten about temples. I passed numerous young Monks. Most said nothing as they passed, some smiled and said hi, and some hit on me. THAT is somethimg I will not get used to.

On my first night in Laos, spent in a random village halfway through my two-day boat journey from Chaing Mai, it was young Monks who first approached us with offers of opium and weed.

Thought that was kinda odd.

Then, in Luang Prabang, a young Monk winked and definetly said hi with a different tone. Strange.

THEN, a girl I met told us how a Monk she had been talking to had grabbed her and kissed her!

Monks in Laos are weird.

Sorry, I digress. Back to topic. I'm ok with being alone. However, sometimes too much of a good thing is not so much a good thing.

I headed to bed early on Tuesday because I had to be at the airport the next morning at 5:30 for my flight to Pakse. Pakse's in Southern Laos. I had absoutely no intentions whatsoever of stopping here, but I had a 1.5 DAY layover before flying onto Siem Reap. Kinda sucked, but I figured hell, happy surprise right? There's this huge waterfall 1.5 hours out of Pakse that I'll go check out. More sitting on my ass can't hurt. Wrong.

I wake-up, get to the airport, fly for a tense hour and a half (Lao Airlines isn't exactly known for its superb no-crash rating), get to Pakse, get on a bus (it's very old and dirty and there's a cow standing in the middle of the dirt bus terminal - bad sign), and drive for 2.5 hours (grrr) to the. middle. of. nowhere. Just so you really get the picture. I was wearing a white top that had just been washed in Vientiane. It was definetly not white after the ride - ew.

The bus randomly stopped on it's dirt path beside a bridge and kicked me and a few other travellers off. Luckily, there were Tuk-tuk drivers ready and waiting to drive us to Tadlo Falls. I was excited, what a FUN ADVENTURE...(note: sarcasim. At this point I was starting to have major doubts)

We drove further up a different dirt road before stopping at a row of guest houses. The first one we stopped at, "Tim's" was listed in Lonely Planet. It only had one room left, with two beds. I shared it with an American girl, Amber, who was on the bus with me. $1.50 for the night, not too shabby. I dumped my stuff and headed for the falls. I was sweaty and dirty. I needed a swim. Despite all of my travelling that day (I had covered about 600 kms) it was still only noon.

I walked the 5 minutes to the waterfall and yes, it was beautiful. And, I was lucky. Another traevller told me that just the day before the waterfall had been a trickle due to a dam upstream, but that today they had opened the dam. My informer also told me that the swimming had been great yesterday, but the pictures lack-luster. However, today the pictures would be way better. We couldn't, however, swim. We COULD get in the water and try to stand still, bracing ourselves against the many rocks under the water. I tried that, I almost got swept downstream. So, still dirty and sweaty, great pictures though. There were some places that you could sit down, where the water was extremely shallow (1 inch) and cool off. I settled on having a semi-bath and some tanning. It seemed like a long time had passed, I was bored and hungry. I didn't have my watch so I headed back to the guest house for what I figured would be a mid-afternoon lunch.

It was 1:30. dammit.

It's ok, I figured. I had finished my book on the plane, so I'd just exchange it for another at the guest house book exchange. It was a fabulous plan, except that for some reaosn the guesthouse had an impressive selection of German and Dutch books and a sprinkling of English titles that interested me. And those I had already read.

dammit.

Alright, I'll just go take a walk through the village - take in some true Lao living. I saw a lot of dirty babies - all smiling and waving - dirty, but cute. I saw baby goats playing with a puppy, then chasing piglets, also cute. I walked for awhile. It was interesting. While Hill-trekking I'd been through villages and stayed there, but it felt almost like a show was being put on. This was real. I walked around for what felt like quite awhile. I got back, and it was 2:30.

DAMMIT

Okay, back to the waterfall I go. While sitting on my butt there, being sufficiently bored, I met an Aussie girl, Nicki. She'd been here for a few days and was loving it. We got to talking and she brought me upstream to an even bigger waterfall (definetly no swimming here). We met up a bit later for some dinner. She was also exchanging books. I discovered a Patricia Cornwell title I hadn't read yet. Sweet, got myself a book. After dinner we separated for a few hours and I wondered what the heck I was gonna do now. It had been an early dinner, eaten mainly cuz there was nothing better to do. It was then that I decided to update my blog - sans PC. That's right everyone, this update was hand-written first and then copied onto the net. That's just how bored I was.

I sometimes forget how much I love to write. I blame it on Univeristy working the love out of it for me. It relaxes me, I've always done it. I recall writng "novels' (in felt pen!) when I was in Elementary School. Even then they were suspensful, investigative stories. Funny. This entry took up the rest of my evening until I met up with Nicki and Amber for some good Lao Beer drinking (love the stuff) and an early night.

I woke up early the next morning (roosters'll get ya every time) and read a bit of my book. The plan was breakfast with Nicki, a quick semi-swim in the river, and get my ass on the bus back to Pakse. Nicki was still sleeping so I headed to the falls first for a cool down. Southern Laos is a LOT hotter than Northern. It's humid here and nasty. I'm not really used to it yet, I'll adjust. I was pleased to see that the dam had been re-instated (i don't think that's the right word...) and the river was swimable. I was almost ready to strip down to my suit when I heard cat calls. In Vang Vieng, a major tourist hub, we swam in our bathing suits and tanned no problem. In Tadlo Falls, however, the tourist boom was slow to develop and relatively new. The locals didn't really know how to behave around us and our versions of bathing suits and clothing are definetly different from theirs. Apparently they take this to mean that they can stare, touch (a group of kids had grabbed Nicki's chest as we were walking), and yell as much they want. We should blame it on our movies and MTV I think, portraying us as far too easy. So, needless to say, no swimming (AGAIN) for me. By this time Nicki had woken up and we had breakfast. I packed my bags and headed for the bus.

Long story with a short ending...the bus came, it was full of ducks and chickens (Bianca - you would've FREAKED). I tried not to think about bird flu. It wasn't nearly as full as it had been going to Tadlo Falls and I had my own seat. The previous bus trip had left me sitting beside a Lao man who kept falling asleep on my shoulder. I kept pinching him to wake him up, much to the humour of the British guys sitting behind me. I met a French Canadian woman and her son who currently live in Bangkok. We spent the whole ride comparing living-in-Asia stories. They were remarkably similar.

I'm now in Pakse. It's a small town, WAY bigger than Tadlo Falls mind you, so it's good. I have an actual hotel room (no mosquito net!!) and an ACTUAL shower, which I made use of exactly 1 minute after shutting my hotel room door. I fly out to Siem Reap tomorrow and hopefully will make it to Angkor Wat tomorrow as well. My flight's in the early morning so I should be all settled into a hotel by noon. That's plenty of temple time.

That's all for now! Take care everyone!

Saturday, February 11, 2006

still in Laos, and more pictures, you lucky readers

Pictures for your enjoyment. Enjoy, and hey, isn't it like, cold and stuff in Korea and Canada?

Swimming in my privage lagoon :) it was awesome, Rachael and I had it all to ourselves. Marvelous things happen when you wander away from the masses and down random unmarked paths!
Jess ordered tuna salad. This is only one of the cats that wouldn't leave our table alone as a result. too funny, and too cute.

Budda images in a cave - Luang Prabang

I swung off that :) got good video too, although there's no way I'm gonna try to load THAT on here with this connection

I got a great sunset picture after climbing up this little mountain (see my favorite sunset pic below)...so it was worth the climb


view of tubers from one of the river-side bars

My favorite sunset picture


I know it's sideways....but this stupid program won't let me delete it right now, so, deal.

doing a whole lotta nothing

Vang Vieng, Laos - under construction

This update is JUST for Traci ;)

so....I had a big chunk of this blog entry finished and then the power cut out in the whole bloody city. I lost said blog entry. I was mad. I drank good Lao beer (Beerlao). I'm less mad.

I should get used to power outages, they've been happening here. I'm just guessing, but it may have something to do with the fact that the ENTIRE city is under construction. I use the term "city" loosely. Right now I'm in the town of Vang Vieng, Laos. It's a dirt road village that reminds me a lot of Woss, BC, with more stores, less loggers. The scenery is just as striking except quite a few more Limestone cliffs, and palm trees...oh, and it's hotter. It seriously is completely under construction.

I was talking to someone who had, apparently, talked to a local about this and they explained that, instead of building quality houses and roads, they built shotty stuff because it was cheaper, then just replaced everything every 5 years or so. I happened to visit on the odd fix-it year. I threw it out there that possibly it would make more sense to build quality buildings and roads, just an idea. Alas I was shot down. This is SE Asia, you can't change it, and really, it makes for better stories.

Anyways, stories. I'm in Laos, in a city called Vang Vieng. I was in a MARVELOUS city called Luang Prabang for a few days. I. Love. Luang Prabang. It's so beautiful, so chill, so...easy. The buildings are all old French architecture, punctuated by palm trees and beautiful sunsets. We did a lot of nothingness, rode our bikes around to the beaches, drank and tanned, went and visited beautiful waterfalls, swam in the crystal clear lagoons under said waterfalls and planned our evenings around the sunsets so we could ensure picture perfect moments. It was awesome.

After a few days we took a bus to another city, Vang Vieng, where I am right now. Vang Vieng is definetly a tourist oriented town. In Luang Prabang, although there were a million tourists there, you couldn't tell. Everyone just kinda blended in, it wasn't obvious. Here though, ya, I feel like I'm on Spring Break. It's ok though. I've tubed down a river, kayaked down a river, ziplined and swung into a river, seen a cave, gotten attacked by a swarm of wasps (not so much fun), got burned (again, not so much fun), but over all had a lot of fun ;) . Every night there are huge bonfires down on the river at the various bars that are down there. The same bars also pull you in with bamboo poles while you're floating down the river on your tube during the day. It takes forever to get down the river that way, but you have a LOT more fun. Veeerrrrry Spring Break-ish, but it's all good.

I don't really know what else to say beyond that. I havn't done much exciting, just done a lot of nothing. I have good memories, my tan is progressing quite nicely and I've met a ton of cool people. I continue onto the Laos capital tomorrow, fly outta there on Wednesday to head down to Pakse in Southern Laos. I fly out of Pakse and into Siem Reap on the 17th. I hope you enjoy the pictures, really you have no idea how much of a pain in the ass it's been to upload them tonight. Internet in a city completely under construction is...shall I say, less than stellar.

Take care!

Sunday, February 05, 2006

random pictures for your enjoyment


Here are some pics...they're horribly out of order. They go from when I left Thailand to when I get to Thailand, then I throw in some Laos at the end. Sorry.

Side note: I'm sitting in the internet cafe...beside a Monk checking his hotmail
Sunrise. Taken from Thailand looking over the river into Laos.
Me, Philip and Ben - crammed in a Tuk-tuk with Bianca taking the pic

Dinner time at the waterfall camp

Mr. Dong, Naja, and Philip - tired on the second day

The cutest boy EVER, albeit it a little dirty...Karon Hill Tribe - Chiang Mai, Thailand

Taking a break on the first day of trekking

The famous Floating Market - Thailand

Pic from the Grand Palace - Bangkok

Bangkok view from the Golden Mount...mmmmmm...smog

Moon out the plane window - Seoul to Bangkok
The boat on the FIRST day...not as crowded as the second day, picture twice as many people

I thought I'd get out some Laos Kip...just a little bit, instead of only using US $. Figured it'd be easier for all parties concerned. I decided that since I'd be in Laos for 2 weeks, that $300 US would be enough spending cash. I handed the teller 3 $100 bills, and she handed me back this stack. I tried to exchange it back exactly one second later, but she would hear nothing of it, "You're in Laos, you use Laos money!!" She had a point, but seriously...what am I supposed to do with all of THAT??

Sunset over the Mekong River - Luang Prabang, Laos

Laos and stuff

Hey all so I made it into Laos. It only two two days of travelling by boat. My butt hurt SO much afterwards. The first day a whole pile of tourists were hoarded onto two boats (wooden benches) for the 6 hour journey to some random Lao village. We had been warned about the wooden benches so most of us had brought things to sit on, still uncomfortable though. It was beautiful regardless and relaxing. Reading, looking out at the scenery, talking. I met two girls from New Zealand, Rachael and Jess on the bus from Chiang Mai to the border who were also going to Luang Prabang. We talked on the bus, hung out the night before heading into Laos and are now sharing a room in Luang Prabang. The whole journey took 3 days!!! On a map it's not far at all, maybe 700kms - 3 days is really long for how far we all travelled.

The second day on the boat was worse than the first. The first day was like an adventure, we didn't know what to expect. We knew our bottoms would hurt, knew that the bathrooms would be scary, but it was still fun. The second day...

the second day the two boats we had been on had transformed into one. Not a bigger one, nope, the same size, just minus a boat. All of us had to fit onto it. So, when the previous day we had had a bench each to ourselves, we now had to share. The boat was a lot lower in the water and we were all generally crabbier, some people seemed pretty freaked out about it, but it was all good. Still an adventure, still glad I did it, makes for great stories...whatever.

I've found a way to put pictures on here, however I won't be doing that right now....tomorrow maybe. Everything's still pretty up in the air. Tomorrow the plans to go see a cave with a lot of buddas in it then visit a multi-tiered waterfall for a picnic. Throw in some white-water kayaking, bike riding, tubing down a river, and more shopping somewhere in the next few days and you've got the makings of a pretty good trip. I plan on being in Laos for a bit longer than I had previously thought. I love it here. It's so relaxed, so beautiful. I didn't know what to expect before coming to Laos. I'm so glad I did instead of going to southern Thailand. I can go to beaches any time and I will next year end of contract, but Laos, this is fantastic! I'll be in Cambodia by the 15th at the latest. I'll want to spend about a week there before heading into Vietnam. Time's flying by!!

Love you all, take care and be safe wherever you are.

Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Trekking and Chiang Mai

Advice for anyone going to Thailand: spend no more than 2 days in Bangkok. Do what you need to do there, then get the hell out. I don't care where you go from there, go South, sit on a beach, go North, go trekking and see hill tribes, but get out of Bangkok.

That said, I'm so glad I got out when I did. I spent 4 days there and it was far too much. I ended up in Chiang Mai, a smaller city in the far North of Thailand. Trekking was awesome. I spent 3 days and 2 nights walking through the jungle, reveling in the beautiful scenery and hanging out with the hill tribes, specifically the Karon, at night. Along with my two guides there were 10 other trekkers. I was the only Canadian. One thing I've noted is that I seem hard pressed to find any other Canadians travelling. It's quite odd actually. On my trek were two Americans, two aussies (awesome people by the way), a german, danish, two scottish girls, a dutch and a Russian. Another notable occurrence is how EVERYONE I've come across speaks remarkably good English. It really shouldn't be that surprising, but it's just interesting to me for some reason.

Anyways, our guide was Mr. Dong hehe (funny only to those who live in Korea). He was awesome. Very funny and good English as well. Some random quotes that I find funny however you probably had to be there for are...

"look out for the she-males. the ones with the be-u-ta-ful co-co-nuts and the hanging ba-na-nas" - Christa...you can add that one to your fruit/body part quote collection, I thought of you instantly!

"I no push the bum anymore"

The first day we walked for probably a total of 4 hours. It's called trekking, but really it's not that strenuous. We were however, pretty sweaty and dirty. We stayed our first night with the Karon tribe on top of this mountain. It had such a beautiful view. No pollution, so far away from everything. I saw more stars in the sky than I'd seen in over a year. It was so refreshing. I love the mountains, I don't regret choosing Northern Thailand over the South at all. I'll sit on a beach in Vietnam and hit Kho Pha Ngan another year...next year perhaps ;)

The food was so good, I ate better than I had in a long time. We were actually turning food away, there was too much of it!! That night we hung out with the tribe around the fire, drank good beer, told funny stories, sang a bit - "elephant, elephant, elephant...it is very big..." and generally chilled out. Most of us slept in the next morning. We said good bye to our two Scottish and two American friends as they were heading out earlier than us, only staying int he jungle for the one night. One girl, Laura, is also travelling to Canada, she'll be in Van the beginning of April...small world, we're gonna meet up again.

We got up, ate too much breakfast, and headed back out into the jungle. We stopped in at a random hill tribe village school, played soccer with some kids and continued on to our waterfall camp. The second night we didn't stay in a village, but on the outskirts at the base of this waterfall. So pretty. Again, ate too much, drank a bit, more songs, more star gazing and a lot of total darkness when the fire died.

Third day - not so much alone in the wilderness and a whole lot of touristy goodness. We made our way back into some sort of civilization and rode some elephants with a million other people. We then continued on to ride a bamboo raft down a river for a bit. Still really cool and fun, but a change from being so secluded.

Back to total civilization. We headed back to our respective hotels, got cleaned up, put our laundry in to be washed and headed out to the Chiang Mai Night Market, a variable plethora of things to buy. It's astounding. I like to shop, it was dangerous. I met Philip (german), Bianca and Ben (Australian) from my trek for dinner and drinks. We had a lot of fun, drank Thai beer and ate, went and got well deserved Thai Massages, and headed back to bed early, utterly exhausted.

So, now it's today. I took a Thai cooking class all day, ate too much again, went back to the hotel, took a nap, and am now wandering around the night market again before heading back to the guest house. I leave for the border tomorrow, spend the night at the border, then sit on a boat for two days as I head into Laos. it's SUCH a short distance on a map, but travel isn't exactly stellar.

That's about all. I wish I could put pics on here. I'm thinking of burning some of my pics onto a CD so I can do just that, but then I'd have to cart the CD around with me and really, that's a lot more hassle than it's worth.

I'll be MIA for a few days. That's all for now. If you ever come to Thailand, don't forget the North. It's awesome up here.