+(Medium).jpg)
Rocky jamming out+(Medium).jpg)
Village dancers+(Medium).jpg)
dancing with the kiddies+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
Ben and Annie+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
Monk smoking a cig and chatting online+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
Monk playing soccer!+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
Swaety amd stinky on the trek+(Medium).jpg)
Soo cute!+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
+(Medium).jpg)
Elephant trekking+(Medium).jpg)
Made it to camp!+(Medium).jpg)
Enjoying a a nice Cuban+(Medium).jpg)
Although a lot more touristy then I would like it and a bit more expensive than expected, Thailand has been proving to be quite an amazing place. In Chiang Mai, we hung around, eating and trying new things every chance we had. I got a bit queasy off the funky looking mushroom and glass noodle soup, but the massive fresh fruit shakes for only 30 cents are a definite thumbs up.
While in Chiang Mai we decided to do a 3 day, 2 night trek into national parks north of Chiang Mai, and opted for the “non-touristic” one. It was amazing. Unlike the other tours we saw going out who were massive groups of like 10-15, it was just us and two French doctors who were here on holiday. It was great, our guide “Rocky” was hilarious and our fellow French trekkers were really wonderful people.
The first day we loaded up into a jeep and headed off to the market to pick up supplies for the next few days. We then drove to one of the Karen tribal villages to have lunch, where we swarmed by children trying to sell little trinkets. Our hike began into “the jungle” which was really jungle at all, it was mostly burnt landscape that had been set a lit to prevent it from burning on its own. It was so hot, and the air so dry that you could easily see it would take no time for everything to sizzle. After a few hours of trekking in the serious heat, and sweating several gallons, we reached our camp. It was down in the valley, with a little stream so the surrounding area was quite green and pretty. Our camp consisted of a giant wooden hut with a table and an elevated slab of wood, which we would lay our mats out on the sleep. It was very simple, it didn’t even have a real floor, but after the heat we just needed someplace to take off our stinky trekking shoes. We celebrated our victorious hike by sitting on rocks in the stream and thanks to Ben, who had carried with him a massive, beautifully crafted, genuine Cuban cigar that he had purchased early on a trip to Havana, passed around the stogie and sipped the “finest” (read: cheapest) Thai rum Hong Thong. It was perfect. By the time the cigar was finished, it was time to eat. We had a candle lit dinner accompanied by some French music, thanks to the portable ipod speakers brought along, and just had a really relaxing evening. After dinner I kicked everyone’s ass in Gin Rummy and then we loaded our selves into our mosquito nets and crashed out.
We woke bright and early the next morning for some breakfast and elephant riding. My elephant was named Ting, and the guide hopped off and let us ride her around on our own. (she actually wouldn’t really listen to me at all, but I never really pictured a career as an elephant mahout anyway!) We trekked with the elephants through the woods, bumping around on their backs and enjoying the scenery from that height. After our ride was done we bid farewell to our giant new friends and continued trekking by foot. We stopped at a waterfall so we could shower, and then continued trekking for several more hours until we reached base camp once again. My knees were aching and shaking so bad going up and down those hills, they had to make me two walking sticks so I could balance myself and keep walking. Even though I was the youngest in our group, I was the resident Grandma. Our walk was serenaded by Ben who is a human ipod on shuffle, and knows the words to almost every song you can think of! We stopped for lunch along the way, our guide had cut us chopsticks from bamboo so we could eat our noodles wrapped in a giant banana leaf. We tried to nap in the woods, but the buzzing of the stupid mosquitoes in our ears proved to be quite a hindrance. Our “shower” didn’t really do much good, because by the time we reached our second nights camp we were all dripping with sweat and covered in dust and dirt. It didn’t matter, we were all happy just to be there and off our feet.
Our second night’s camp was located inside a tribal village, and we were to be joined by 10 other people from another trek. I wandered around the village by myself, taking pictures of the locals and playing silly games with the tribal children. Visited the villages monastery where I encountered a monk, smoking a cigarette and chatting on the internet with his laptop ( a very strange sight, not only because he was a monk, but because the rest of the village lived in bamboo huts and mostly had no electricity!) Back at our hut, we all had a big communal dinner together with the other trekkers, then busted out the Chang beers for sing along to Rocky’s guitar. Ben and I were the only ones who knew any of the words to the songs he was singing, but given the fact that he played the same melody no matter what song it was, it made singing along a little tough. We laughed and tried to sing some more, until it was time for the girls of the village to put on a dancing show. After a few rounds, the white people were invited to jump in and make fools of ourselves, which we happily did. I tried playing a handclap game with a 7 year old girl, who kicked my ass J We all sang and danced and enjoyed ourselves until it got to late and then loaded up into the mats on the floor of our giant communal hut and went to sleep.
The next day we said goodbye to the village and the other trekkers and headed back out onto the road. We passed through another tribal village and then met up at a checkpoint where a jeep picked us up and took us to a rather bizarre saloon to have lunch. After some fish ball soup (blech!) we got onto bamboo rafts for our journey down the river. Our raft guide was a 13 year old kid who appeared to be struggling a bit with the low waters of the dry season, so the boys pitched in and grabbed an oar, or a giant stick rather, to help him along. Although far from the raging rapids of Bali, the ride was nice and our bamboo raft was surprising agile. After it was over we loaded into the Jeep one last time and headed back on the two hour drive back to Chiang Mai. We were exhausted, dirty, and smelly but we had all had a really great time and were happy to return back to civilization and proper showers. We hugged our French friends good bye and picked our bags where they had been stored. Thankfully they let us take some quick showers because that night we had to board the 12 hour bus back to Bangkok.
The bus driver was really hauling and we landed 3 hours earlier then expected. At 3 am when we arrived the bus driver screamed “Bangkok! Bangkok!” and very sleepy and dazed we grabbed our bags and were forced to get a hotel room to get some more sleep. I went back to the Brazilian embassy, with fingers crossed, and was very nervous about the status of my visa. When I arrived I found the woman at the front desk smiling saying that we have got some wonderful news for you. Not only did I get my visa, I was granted one for a whole year! Yeahhhhhh! I was so excited! All of that ridiculousness that I had to go through finally paid off!
The next few days were the Thai New Year –Songkran Festival, which is the Thai water festival. This means you get squirted with water everywhere you go. Everyone is a target. Young, old, foreigner, Thai- it doesn’t matter. Everyone gets wet. Unfortunately I woke up with a huge fever, and massive sore throat- I had the flu. I felt like poop and was in no mood to be shot by water but unfortunately our hotel, where we booked our bus, and dropped off our laundry was all right in the heart of the action so we unknowingly got stuck and could not avoid the chaos. The first day it wasn’t so bad, it even felt good sometimes to get squirted when it was so cold. But on the second day when we had to get on a 20 hour bus to the South, it was impossible. We needed to pick up our laundry, get our backpacks, meet up with our bus company and then walk right through the water war. I was feeling very dizzy from my fever and was in no mood to fend off the water attack, and most of all I did not want all my stuff getting soaked and then molding on the bus. Having no waterproof cover, we decided to take about 30 plastic bags and carefully wrap our backpacks in them, as well as stash an extra dry set of clothes for the bus. The walk through Khao San and Rambutri Rd was vicious- people were showing no mercy. The drier you were, the more they wanted to get you wet. Not only did they not avoid your backpacks, they used them as an extra target. After some careful maneuvering we finally made it to the bus.
After 20 hours on 2 buses and a ferry we finally pulled up into beautiful Ko Phi Phi (pronounced: Co Pee-Pee) the island paradise where the movie the Beach was filmed. We met some really cool people on the bus, 2 English girls, and Argentinean guy, and a Ozzie chick and decided we were all going to room together. Our first night was spent on secluded Hat Yao (Long Beach) where we stayed in tiny bungalows that smelled like pee, but had a beautiful beach. The next few nights we switched to Ludlum Bay where we found a kickass giant room where al six of us stayed together that had air con and a TV. Ko Phi Phi is really beautiful. The island is filled with dramatic hill landscape and green jungle. We took an all day long tail boat trip to some of the nearby beaches and snorkel spots. Bamboo island was beautiful. On monkey island, the damn dirty monkeys were being a menace and trying to be nasty. They had encircled my friend’s bag and were starting to steal shit from inside so I went over there trying to retrieve it back when I was attacked by a monkey! It started hissing and chasing me down, trying to maul my legs. I ran into the water quick enough so it couldn’t hurt me or draw any blood so I was fine. It scarred the shit out of everyone around me, but made me laugh- damn dirty apes. We visited a beautiful lagoon, encircled by cliff face, snorkeled all over and saw some amazing stuff, and visited Maya Beach- the Beach beach. The amazing thing about the South of Thailand is that the water is so warm so it’s really great to swim in. In the shallow end near shore it can get as hot as bath water! At night we saw some really wicked fire dancers. The first night’s show, we were sitting in the front row and were almost set on fire when the bone head dropped his fire stick 2 inches away from us, and the second night, we decided seats farther back were a much safer bet and enjoyed the show much more without worrying about getting burned.
Our group of six that we met got on together so well that we decided to all go to Rai Leh beach together, where I am now. Rai Leh is even more beautiful than Ko Phi Phi and much more laid back. Due to the hug limestone rock faces and caves, it’s a huge rock climbers hang out. The bungalows we are staying in are quite spacious and we found a really good seafood restaurant that plays bossa nova all day that has become our second home (but instead of seafood I get veggies and tofu of course!). Yesterday we spent exploring around and checking out the different beaches and will probably lounge around on the beach today before heading off to Ko Samui tomorrow.
It’s a tough life hopping from one paradise to the next :) Life is good.
Saudades Renan- Less than 2 months!!!
While in Chiang Mai we decided to do a 3 day, 2 night trek into national parks north of Chiang Mai, and opted for the “non-touristic” one. It was amazing. Unlike the other tours we saw going out who were massive groups of like 10-15, it was just us and two French doctors who were here on holiday. It was great, our guide “Rocky” was hilarious and our fellow French trekkers were really wonderful people.
The first day we loaded up into a jeep and headed off to the market to pick up supplies for the next few days. We then drove to one of the Karen tribal villages to have lunch, where we swarmed by children trying to sell little trinkets. Our hike began into “the jungle” which was really jungle at all, it was mostly burnt landscape that had been set a lit to prevent it from burning on its own. It was so hot, and the air so dry that you could easily see it would take no time for everything to sizzle. After a few hours of trekking in the serious heat, and sweating several gallons, we reached our camp. It was down in the valley, with a little stream so the surrounding area was quite green and pretty. Our camp consisted of a giant wooden hut with a table and an elevated slab of wood, which we would lay our mats out on the sleep. It was very simple, it didn’t even have a real floor, but after the heat we just needed someplace to take off our stinky trekking shoes. We celebrated our victorious hike by sitting on rocks in the stream and thanks to Ben, who had carried with him a massive, beautifully crafted, genuine Cuban cigar that he had purchased early on a trip to Havana, passed around the stogie and sipped the “finest” (read: cheapest) Thai rum Hong Thong. It was perfect. By the time the cigar was finished, it was time to eat. We had a candle lit dinner accompanied by some French music, thanks to the portable ipod speakers brought along, and just had a really relaxing evening. After dinner I kicked everyone’s ass in Gin Rummy and then we loaded our selves into our mosquito nets and crashed out.
We woke bright and early the next morning for some breakfast and elephant riding. My elephant was named Ting, and the guide hopped off and let us ride her around on our own. (she actually wouldn’t really listen to me at all, but I never really pictured a career as an elephant mahout anyway!) We trekked with the elephants through the woods, bumping around on their backs and enjoying the scenery from that height. After our ride was done we bid farewell to our giant new friends and continued trekking by foot. We stopped at a waterfall so we could shower, and then continued trekking for several more hours until we reached base camp once again. My knees were aching and shaking so bad going up and down those hills, they had to make me two walking sticks so I could balance myself and keep walking. Even though I was the youngest in our group, I was the resident Grandma. Our walk was serenaded by Ben who is a human ipod on shuffle, and knows the words to almost every song you can think of! We stopped for lunch along the way, our guide had cut us chopsticks from bamboo so we could eat our noodles wrapped in a giant banana leaf. We tried to nap in the woods, but the buzzing of the stupid mosquitoes in our ears proved to be quite a hindrance. Our “shower” didn’t really do much good, because by the time we reached our second nights camp we were all dripping with sweat and covered in dust and dirt. It didn’t matter, we were all happy just to be there and off our feet.
Our second night’s camp was located inside a tribal village, and we were to be joined by 10 other people from another trek. I wandered around the village by myself, taking pictures of the locals and playing silly games with the tribal children. Visited the villages monastery where I encountered a monk, smoking a cigarette and chatting on the internet with his laptop ( a very strange sight, not only because he was a monk, but because the rest of the village lived in bamboo huts and mostly had no electricity!) Back at our hut, we all had a big communal dinner together with the other trekkers, then busted out the Chang beers for sing along to Rocky’s guitar. Ben and I were the only ones who knew any of the words to the songs he was singing, but given the fact that he played the same melody no matter what song it was, it made singing along a little tough. We laughed and tried to sing some more, until it was time for the girls of the village to put on a dancing show. After a few rounds, the white people were invited to jump in and make fools of ourselves, which we happily did. I tried playing a handclap game with a 7 year old girl, who kicked my ass J We all sang and danced and enjoyed ourselves until it got to late and then loaded up into the mats on the floor of our giant communal hut and went to sleep.
The next day we said goodbye to the village and the other trekkers and headed back out onto the road. We passed through another tribal village and then met up at a checkpoint where a jeep picked us up and took us to a rather bizarre saloon to have lunch. After some fish ball soup (blech!) we got onto bamboo rafts for our journey down the river. Our raft guide was a 13 year old kid who appeared to be struggling a bit with the low waters of the dry season, so the boys pitched in and grabbed an oar, or a giant stick rather, to help him along. Although far from the raging rapids of Bali, the ride was nice and our bamboo raft was surprising agile. After it was over we loaded into the Jeep one last time and headed back on the two hour drive back to Chiang Mai. We were exhausted, dirty, and smelly but we had all had a really great time and were happy to return back to civilization and proper showers. We hugged our French friends good bye and picked our bags where they had been stored. Thankfully they let us take some quick showers because that night we had to board the 12 hour bus back to Bangkok.
The bus driver was really hauling and we landed 3 hours earlier then expected. At 3 am when we arrived the bus driver screamed “Bangkok! Bangkok!” and very sleepy and dazed we grabbed our bags and were forced to get a hotel room to get some more sleep. I went back to the Brazilian embassy, with fingers crossed, and was very nervous about the status of my visa. When I arrived I found the woman at the front desk smiling saying that we have got some wonderful news for you. Not only did I get my visa, I was granted one for a whole year! Yeahhhhhh! I was so excited! All of that ridiculousness that I had to go through finally paid off!
The next few days were the Thai New Year –Songkran Festival, which is the Thai water festival. This means you get squirted with water everywhere you go. Everyone is a target. Young, old, foreigner, Thai- it doesn’t matter. Everyone gets wet. Unfortunately I woke up with a huge fever, and massive sore throat- I had the flu. I felt like poop and was in no mood to be shot by water but unfortunately our hotel, where we booked our bus, and dropped off our laundry was all right in the heart of the action so we unknowingly got stuck and could not avoid the chaos. The first day it wasn’t so bad, it even felt good sometimes to get squirted when it was so cold. But on the second day when we had to get on a 20 hour bus to the South, it was impossible. We needed to pick up our laundry, get our backpacks, meet up with our bus company and then walk right through the water war. I was feeling very dizzy from my fever and was in no mood to fend off the water attack, and most of all I did not want all my stuff getting soaked and then molding on the bus. Having no waterproof cover, we decided to take about 30 plastic bags and carefully wrap our backpacks in them, as well as stash an extra dry set of clothes for the bus. The walk through Khao San and Rambutri Rd was vicious- people were showing no mercy. The drier you were, the more they wanted to get you wet. Not only did they not avoid your backpacks, they used them as an extra target. After some careful maneuvering we finally made it to the bus.
After 20 hours on 2 buses and a ferry we finally pulled up into beautiful Ko Phi Phi (pronounced: Co Pee-Pee) the island paradise where the movie the Beach was filmed. We met some really cool people on the bus, 2 English girls, and Argentinean guy, and a Ozzie chick and decided we were all going to room together. Our first night was spent on secluded Hat Yao (Long Beach) where we stayed in tiny bungalows that smelled like pee, but had a beautiful beach. The next few nights we switched to Ludlum Bay where we found a kickass giant room where al six of us stayed together that had air con and a TV. Ko Phi Phi is really beautiful. The island is filled with dramatic hill landscape and green jungle. We took an all day long tail boat trip to some of the nearby beaches and snorkel spots. Bamboo island was beautiful. On monkey island, the damn dirty monkeys were being a menace and trying to be nasty. They had encircled my friend’s bag and were starting to steal shit from inside so I went over there trying to retrieve it back when I was attacked by a monkey! It started hissing and chasing me down, trying to maul my legs. I ran into the water quick enough so it couldn’t hurt me or draw any blood so I was fine. It scarred the shit out of everyone around me, but made me laugh- damn dirty apes. We visited a beautiful lagoon, encircled by cliff face, snorkeled all over and saw some amazing stuff, and visited Maya Beach- the Beach beach. The amazing thing about the South of Thailand is that the water is so warm so it’s really great to swim in. In the shallow end near shore it can get as hot as bath water! At night we saw some really wicked fire dancers. The first night’s show, we were sitting in the front row and were almost set on fire when the bone head dropped his fire stick 2 inches away from us, and the second night, we decided seats farther back were a much safer bet and enjoyed the show much more without worrying about getting burned.
Our group of six that we met got on together so well that we decided to all go to Rai Leh beach together, where I am now. Rai Leh is even more beautiful than Ko Phi Phi and much more laid back. Due to the hug limestone rock faces and caves, it’s a huge rock climbers hang out. The bungalows we are staying in are quite spacious and we found a really good seafood restaurant that plays bossa nova all day that has become our second home (but instead of seafood I get veggies and tofu of course!). Yesterday we spent exploring around and checking out the different beaches and will probably lounge around on the beach today before heading off to Ko Samui tomorrow.
It’s a tough life hopping from one paradise to the next :) Life is good.
Saudades Renan- Less than 2 months!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment