Kanchanaburi

Ruth and I got back from hiking, quickly showered and ate and made our way to the bus stop. We had to take the bus from Chiang Rai back to Chiang Mai to catch an overnight bus down to Bangkok then catch a ferry and another train to reach our final destination of Kanchanaburi. It was a bit hectic and we almost didn't make it down. From the annoying 3 hour bus ride from Chiang Rai to Chiang Mai that played a Thai game show at a volume level that I'm pretty sure even deaf people could hear to someone giving us incorrect information as to where to catch out bus, it wasn't mean to be. I hate buses. I don't mind short bus rides but given the choice of bus or train, I'm totally a train person. I really don't like overnight buses. I can never sleep on them. For some reason, I'm afraid the bus driver will fall asleep like his passengers and we'll all end up off the road.

When we arrived to our destination- it was only a short walk to find our guest house on the river. We had wanted a riverfront room, but of course they were sold out. We had to settle for a different room but we still had a nice porch overlooking the river - just with the part on the river blocking some of our view. No problem! Since we arrived really early, we had decided to check out a museum. The reason why we came to Kanchanaburi was to ride on the ever famous Death Railway. It's supposed to be one of the most beautiful and scenic railways in Thailand.

We went to the museum which was quite startling and a bit appalling regarding the history of the Death Railway. Prior to going to Thailand, I had done a bit of research on the death railway and learned that it received it's name because of the amount of people who died in order to make it. I was aware most of these people were POW's of Japan during WW2. What I didn't know and wasn't entirely prepared for was the way these POW's and other forced laborers from around Asia were treated. Japan was trying to strategically build a railway from Thailand into Burma during WW2 to assist in their war strategies to get supplies from one area of Asia to another. In the beginning, approximately 60,000 POW's of the Allies were shipped up from other parts of Southeast Asia to construct this railway. The work began in 1942 and was completed 1 year and 3 months later. It is estimated that 16,000 POW's and 100,000 Asian laborers died completing it in this time.

When looking at pictures of the laborers in the museum, the only thing you need to think of are pictures of Holocaust survivors. The ones where the human staring back at you only consists of skin, bones and nothing else. When you see those pictures, you think to yourself, how are they still alive? How is it possible? If someone were to give you a Holocaust survivor photo and a photo of a Death Railway worker, you could never tell the difference between the two. The men constructing this passageway were barely fed and not immunized for the diseases in the Southeast Asia area - such as malaria and cholera. Most died from these these inhumane situations. They were literally worked to death. 38 Allied POW's died for each kilometer of track laid on the railway.

To make it even more of a tragedy, it wasn't even in use for two full years. Once the Japanese surrendered in 1945, the British took over the railway and separated 4km of track to cut Burma and Thailand's easy passageway. It's stories like these that makes me wonder why in America we never learn of these tragedies of WW2. Certainly, we can all recall the events of the Holocaust in Europe, but why not these situations in Asia where the conditions were just as terrible if not worse?

We spent quite a few hours in there and then headed out for lunch. Our first day was just exploring what the town of Kanchanburi offered. It's famous for the war sights that are scattered about the long, narrow town. Pretty much the whole reason to go here is to see the war sights. In the middle of the town is the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery. It is here that most of the men that died were buried. It's kept up beautifully. There are nearly 7,000 POW's that were laid to rest here. The majority of the men that died for this railway were under 25 years old. There is yet another cemetery for the remaining men in another area. If anyone has seen or heard of the movie, "Bridge on the River Kwai"- well, it's here, in this town - that the actual bridge of the actual river Kwai exists. The original bridge had been destroyed twice by Ally bombers in both 1944 and 1945. However, after the war, it was rebuilt and it's still in use today.

The next day, Ruth and I woke up reaaaaaaaallly early and caught the first train out to ride on the infamous Death Railway. In it's entirety - it's two hours one way from Kanchanaburi to the end of the line at Nam Tok. The railway was really beautiful - with certain spots of the river winding beautifully with the river, at other times, going through 30 meter deep solid rocking cuttings. Then there the sections with towering cliffs above you, - this part of the railway, everyone that worked on it, died from the impossible task of creating this part of the railway and surviving it. The landscaping was reminiscent of Japan for me. The rice paddies in your immediate view with mountains protecting them in the distance. Since we got the early train, we not only got to watch the sunrise but didn't have to deal with tons of people riding with us.

When we reached Nam Tok - the end of the line - we had quite a long layover until the next train would come. Nam Tok consists of pretty much nothing. There is this one waterfall called Sai Yok Noi that we spent way too much time at. It's pretty much the only thing to do in this area. We took a lot of photos and were asked to be the foreign celebrities in many others. Somewhere in Thailand, Ruth and I exist in someone's photo album as the foreigner they met that day. I never know to be flattered of creeped out at the thought of this fact.

We went to see where the end of the line actually is. There's an old train just sitting there as well. We climbed up a bunch of stairs to an overlook and walked about up there. There was a set of stairs that led us up to a cave that enshrined a few Buddha's.

After expiring all of our options we decided to try to find the River Kwai from where we were. We spent an hour to two walking around in the noon-sun finding nothing but stares from the locals. Finally, it was time for the train to come. But as it was Thailand, it arrived easily 45 minutes late. We rode the train back with herds of people all cramming on to see the sights. After riding on the train, we went to see the River Kwai bridge up close and not just by riding over it. We walked across the famous bridge and took a bunch of photos.

Our evening consisted of drinking beers and watching beautiful sunsets over the river on our front porch. It was technically our last night in Thailand - at least our last comfortable night with a bed. The next day we headed back into Bangkok and caught the bus to the airport where we spent the night. My flight left before Ruth's. Thus, we departed ways at about 5am and I made my way back to cold, dark Japan.

Thailand was great. Thanks Mom and Dad for a lovely Christmas present. :)

The Death Railway Photos

Kanchanaburi Photos

Hiking in Thailand's Jungle

New Year's Day. Ruth and I woke up really early to prepare for our hike. It was a two day, one night adventure. It was a small group, the two of us, our tour guide whom never once introduced himself to us and a French man that was rather interesting. The first half of the morning, we were given the typical run-around of a tour in Thailand. Finally, after lunch we embarked on our hike. The jungle that we hiked in was fantastic. I showered myself in the cancer causing chemical of deet to keep the mosquitoes off me. We had only been in the "high-concentration of mosquitoes" part for about 2 minutes when our tour guide killed one that was a malaria-mosquito. Thank goodness for the pills I was taking.

The jungle wasn't one that is tromped through a lot. Our guide, along with a knife sharp enough to behead someone cut his way through the overgrown bush. He even cut down an entire banana tree with this knife. He taught us survival techniques in the jungle - such as if you ever come become prey of snakes. His knowledge extended to the types of jungle food one can eat. He always gave it to us to try, but it was never anything I'd want to try again. The view was fantastic. It wasn't a terribly difficult hike but nice to be out nonetheless.

Our resting place for the night was in an Akha hill tribe village. We got there just around dinner time and turned the bamboo hut into home. The hut which was typical of what the hills tribe people sleep in was built up on stilts with hard futons, a few blankets and a mosquito net to sleep under. The porch had a gorgeous overlook of the hills in the distance. We all changed into fresher clothes and relaxed. The actual hill tribes people live about a 5 minute walk away from where we were staying. We were staying in their village technically but not imposing on them at all. Unless, they came to our part of the hill, they'd never know we were there. I preferred it that way.

There was one man that was in charge of assisting us. His hut was across the threshold from our hut. He served us tea, brought us snacks and ended up helping our guide by making us dinner and breakfast. The helper man was sweet, no words ever exchanged between us but his smile always so friendly. Later on, while the French man was in the hut talking on his cell phone (yes, his cell phone worked here!) - Ruth and I had a visitor. His name was Chang. Chang was this vibrant 11year old boy.

Our guide while walking had made this pop gun out of a bamboo twig. It soon becomes a spitball gun with the help of some paper. Luckily for me, I had brought a small notepad of paper to keep notes that was soon used for ammunition. Chang taught us. First, rip off a piece of paper and put it in your mouth. While inside your mouth, soak it with your spit and make it into a ball. Put the spit covered ball of paper in one side of the gun. In the other side, put in more bamboo and put it in and out quickly to get some energy going. Last - push the bamboo in and watch the spit ball go POP and fly.

We must have done this for a good 45 minutes. The spit balls getting increasingly larger and us starting to aim for targets such as the local pig or what not. Chang was great - always laughing and never getting tired of the spit ball gun. He was good company. Soon, night fell and we were served dinner. With the setting of the sun and the increase in altitude by being in the hills, it was incredibly cold. I had brought layers and layers but nothing could prepare me for the coldness of the night. Ruth, the tour guide and I played several rounds of rummy by candlelight before calling it a night at 9:30pm. There's not much to do at night in a bamboo hut without electricity.

I must have slept nearly 11 hours when the tour guide forced me awake to have breakfast with the others. We hiked back down that day with even more wild plants to eat, coming across a beautiful waterfall and him showing us more and more tricks

As we made our descent, I couldn't help but to be impressed with the agility the guide had in the jungle. He was always 5 steps ahead of us chopping stuff down, moving rocks in the stream for us to walk over, making sure the trail was clear. What took him a split second would take me a minute to even figure out what to do next. He knew this jungle like the back of his hand. It was at this point that I realized it's no wonder we couldn't win the Vietnam war. This man has been raised in the jungles, hunts in the jungles, he is practically one with the jungle. There's no way we could compete with this type of knowledge, no matter how much training our soldiers may have had. This guy was good. He's been doing it for 35 years, easily. He doesn't need to think twice, he sees, he reacts, he's ahead. Thanks to our skillful guide, we made our way back into Chiang Rai with enough time to shower and catch our scheduled afternoon bus back to Chiang Mai.

Click HERE for all the photos.

New Year's Eve in Chiang Rai

Chiang Rai was a haven away from tourist central, so we thought. Unfortunately, it wasn't so much that way at all. Sitting from our dinner restaurant the night before, you couldn't tell at all if we were in Thailand or a Western country from the stores in our view. All of English or American backgrounds. Ah, well. It provided us for decent shopping for things we needed for our upcoming hike. It was New Year's Eve this day and a bit cooler than Chiang Mai since we were even more northern. This day was pretty much a temple day for us. The temple you see below was nearby our guesthouse. Not even sure of the name of it but just went in for a quick glance.


The main goal of our day was to get to this one temple that was recommended to us by the tour guide we booked with the night before. It is called Wat Rong Khun and was out of central Chiang Rai. We went to the marketplace and somehow bartered with the songthaew drivers without any English on where we wanted to go and for a decent price. It was probably about 20 minutes out of Chiang Rai using a songthaew. It's pretty much the main transportation used in Thailand. In Chiang Rai, they were a regular truck and in the back, there's a roof and two benches where the customers sit facing each other. You tell the driver where you want to go and negotiate a price. So, you cram as many people as you can, sometimes 15 people in the back of these trucks and all going separate directions.

Wat Rong Khun temple was phenomenal, my most favorite temple by far. In case you haven't noticed yet, in Thailand, all the temples are glittery gold. Wat Rong Khun was completely white set atop lush, green grass and with the bluest skies that day. According to wikipedia, the white color stands for the Lord Buddha’s purity; the white glass stands for the Lord Buddha’s wisdom that shines brightly all over the earth and the universe.

The place was just brimming with people. As it's new, only just recently constructed - it's not mentioned in guide books yet. In fact, it's not even completely finished. So shockingly, we were the only people there that weren't Thai. When approaching to go to the main temple, you have to cross a bridge. The bridge represents the crossing over from the cycle of rebirth to the Abode of Buddha. The small semicircle before the bridge stands for the human world. The big circle with fangs is the mouth of Rama or Rahu, meaning impurities in the mind, a representation of hell or suffering. The bridge isn't there to protect you from water, but rather from hundreds of hands reaching out at you. Each hand is uniquely different. Some fingers are regular, some are like alien, some have crazy nails, some have amphibian like hands, one nail had nail polish, one hand was giving me the middle finger, no two were the same. We walked through the temple twice to get a good feel for it. I still remember it very clearly over a month later.
Getting back to Chiang Rai from the temple was a bit more difficult than getting to the temple. We were hoping to catch another Songthaew but weren't really sure where to find one. We decided just to start walking and flag one down. We reached the main strip of road, somewhat like a highway and we still hadn't seen one. Ok, we thought, the walk won't be that bad. Walking, walking, walking...sweet a Chiang Rai sign! Shit, 13 kilometers. Nothing to do but keep walking - 3 bicyclists pulled up besides us and starting speaking to us in Thai. I said back to them Chiang Rai because I figured they were asking why the hell we were walking there. Since we couldn't communicate they just keep going on. Finally, we saw one of these Songthaews coming down the road, we flagged it down and hopped in. Thank goodness. About 4 minutes later, we passed those bicyclists and I waved goodbye to let them know we'd get to Chiang Rai okay.

The next place we went to was the Hill tribe museum and Education Center. I don't even know where to start on about Hill Tribes in Thailand, it's a topic that I am actually researching right now for my adult advanced class. Basically, in a nutshell - there are 6 predominant groups of hill tribes that reside in mainly Northern Thailand. They have emigrated from Myanmar/Burma, Laos and Southern bits of China to escape persecution for one reason or another. Here they reside in Thailand for hundreds of years, moving from one area to another once they run out of good land to grow crops on/live on. These people have no money, no schools, no health care, no rights as humans. Some are trying to wait their time out until human rights workers can get them to developed countries as war refugees to set up a new life. There are all sorts of issues that have arisen with these people. The Hill Tribe museum high-lited not only their cultures and history but about several controversial issues. I'll leave that for another day as well. Maybe, I'll post up here on what I end up writing for my adult class because we'll be talking about all the controversial bits. Strangely enough, since returning from Thailand, one of the main issues has been written about on the BBC.

Here are the links, if you're interested in this topic:

A video report on it

The written report

I promise, I'll post up my report on it in the next week for further information. The museum really affected me, it was so informational and one of the best things I did in Thailand. I hate being 24 and feeling so ignorant about topics. This is one of those topics that I wish I had known more about prior to my trip. The museum was really eye-opening and pretty amazing. We must have spent about 2 hours there before leaving.

The last place we went to on this day was a temple called Doi Tong - which was placed high up on a hill. We read that it was supposed to offer amazing sunset views - but that was a bit of lie. You couldn't really see much because the trees were too high. It would have been beautiful had we been able to see it. We got to see some of the landscaping through openings and it was spectacular.
Doi Tong is described as a phallic Stonehenge up on the hill. It's supposed to be the Buddhist layout of the universe. The biggest penis was made to represent Mount Sineru, the axis of the universe, while the series of other smaller penises and moats and pillars are to represent the heavens and the earth, the great oceans and rivers and the major features of the universe. I think you need a really phenomenal imagination to be able to see all that, but that's how the story goes.

So, yea, today was New Year's Eve. We started it out at a restaurant that had live dancing and music.
But we actually rang the New Year's in at the Tee Pee bar with a bunch of Australians and their tour guide. The bartender was absolutely insane, he didn't ever speak - he only screamed. He took your order in an Ozzy Osbourne type of way...screaming. HOW CAN I HELP YOU? THAT'S TWENTY BAHT! HELLO! and all the while screaming along with the music that he chose to play...which also involved screaming. If I were friends with him, I'd nickname him SCREAMER. The bartender and tour guide put together a beer bong for us. So, I did my first beer bong in like 4 years that night....Ruth did one and so did some of the Aussie's.
For the countdown, we all made a circle around a table and put our arms around each other and counted down and screamed HAPPY NEW YEAR! It's not such a big deal in Thailand because they don't really celebrate New Year's Eve as December 31st like we do in Western countries. So for being in small Chiang Rai, if we wanted to celebrate it, we needed to celebrate it with other Westerners. It was a lot of fun though. The night ended when one of the Aussie's started throwing up all over the place and Ruth and I decided since we had to wake up early to go hiking it should be time to go.

Click here to see all the pictures from this day

Baan Thai Cooking School

Our last day in Chiang Mai, Ruth and I went to a cooking school. We went with one of the recommended spots out of our guidebook that also caters to vegetarians. There were 5 other people in our class besides Ruth and I. Our teacher was a cute Thai girl, probably 28 named Yam, but she told us to call her Yummy. After very brief introductions, we all went to the local market to get the food we needed for the day.. Yam pointed out all the different types of food at the available. It's hard going to a new country with all this new food and not knowing what any of it is just by looking at it.
After about an hour at the market, we went back to our school. Yam brought us out a Thai "welcome snack" to wait on while she prepared stuff. This includes many different ingredients - coconut, dried shrimp (or without for the vegetarian), ginger,lime, shallots, chili peppers, and roasted peanuts. You take a type of green leaf and you fold it so it kind of is in the shape of an ice cream cone. Then, you put all those above ingredients into it - soooooooo good.

After that, the first thing we made was papaya salad. This dish includes papaya, garlic, chillies, tomato, green beans, peanuts and some sauces. You are given a mortar to use to pound it all together. You can choose how many chilies you want to put in it for spiciness.
1 = somewhat spicy
2 =spicy
5 or more = Thai spicy
I went with 2 chilies. So, you put the bulk of the ingredients into the mortar and mash away with a heavy pounding stick. That's it! Put on a dish and it's done! We also made spring rolls to eat with this dish as well. It was good, shocking that I can actually cook in fact. After that, we made mango sticky rice - which is just soaking sticky rice in coconut milk for an hour and then putting mangos on top. We did that now to make sure the rice was soaking while cooking more.
While the mango sticky rice was sitting, we moved on to make curry paste. This involved mashing just a bunch of red chillies, shallots, garlic, Thai ginger, lemongrass (which actually smells like lemon!), lime, coriander and tumeric root in the mortar. We took turns passing the mortar around and mushing the stuff together because your arm gets really tired after a while. She said there's a rumor in Thailand that a good Thai wife makes a lot of noise as the pestle (stick that you mash with in the mortar) - hits the mortar. A bad wife is quiet about the process. Once the ingredients have become smooth and fine, it's finished! We used the curry paste to make the next dish, my favorite Thai dish called Khao Soy. It's popular in this region of the country...not sure if you can find it in the Southern bits of Thailand.

You put the freshly made curry sauce, oil, and indian curry powder together in a wok. After a while, you add coconut milk, tofu (or chicken), and keep stirring. Then you put it over cooked egg noodles. It becomes likes a soup. Then, you put hard noodles over it when ready to serve. It was soooooo delicious.
Afterwards, we ate our mango sticky rice. Yum! The school was a lot of fun and it was nice mingling with the other students. There was a guy from Corning, NY who currently resides in Hong Kong. A French couple currently residing in Jakarta and a Malaysian couple (that actually live in their country). It was nice to talk to others who are "ex-pats" living in Asian countries and hearing their challenges and experiences. I enjoyed comparing it to my own experience here in Japan. We all got along well. In the evening, we went shopping in the markets with Tamo and said goodbye.

The next morning Ruth and I headed up to Chiang Rai but with a few complications. We had intended on taking an 11:30 bus up North. We were unfortunately barred from this when all buses were full until about 3:30. So, we sat in this coffee shop for 4 hours because unfortunate for us, the bus station isn't central at all so we had nowhere else to go. Here's a photo of what it was like there - we did a lot of reading, writing and listening to our ipods before finally getting on the bus.
The bus ride went smoothly aside from a weird stop we had. The bus pulled over, a police man came on and shouted something in Thai. We couldn't understand him but saw lots of people pulling out their ID's. Well, if you know anything about traveling in 3rd world countries, it's not very uncommon for foreigners to be bribed to pay a lot of money. I thought that is what was going to happen. I was really nervous searching for my passport. Luckily though, that didn't happen - instead one man was removed from the bus and we were back on our way. Here's a photo of Ruth and I on the bus - happy we're on the bus and I was happy we weren't bribed.
This was December 30th. The next day was December 31st, New Year's Eve. We had wanted to be hiking on this day but since we got into Chiang Rai a lot later than expected, we couldn't get the reservations made in time. So, we had to settle for booking it for January 1st. After making our booking, we just had some dinner out on town and went to bed. I'll write about New Year's Eve next blog.

Click here for pictures from this day and for a sneak preview of the next blog.

Doi Suthep,Handicrafts and Muay Thai Boxing

During monk chat - our monk had informed us of the "best temple to see while in Chiang Mai." We took his advice and hired a tour guide one of our days to get to this far-away temple. I was a bit of a fool and had got too drunk for my good the night before. On the way to the temple, I had to ask the tour guide to pull over so I could get sick on the side of the road. Sometimes, I am still very much not a responsible adult.

Doi Suthep - this infamous temple is about a 30 minute ride out of Chiang Mai up on top of a large hill. This temple is the holiest temple in the Northern part of Thailand. It has a "miraculous legend" to it's founding that goes a bit like this. Long, long time ago, there was a king that wanted to enshrine holy artifacts, so this king put a mini shrine on the back of a white elephant. He wanted to see where this sacred animal would go to. After a lot of time, it climbed this hill, trumpeted three times, turned around three times, knelt down and died. The king took this as an indication that this was the spot.

In order to get up to the golden temple, you need to climb up 300 stairs. On the top of the hill, is a beautiful temple complex. The temple's Golden point (called a Chedi) was glittering bright in the sun. It's claimed that this part of the complex is one of the most harmonious pieces of temple architecture in all of Thailand.

From the back of the temple complex you could see a beautiful view of Chiang Mai since we were up high on a hill. It was a bit hazy for us but we could still see a bit through the haze. The tour guide provided us with a lot of helpful information about temples in general. Things that were useful to us, not only at this temple but just in general. For example, when viewing a temple, you should always walk around it with it to your right hand side. It should never be to the left of your body. And surprisingly, he informed us that Buddha did not originate in Thailand, nor even Asia. It's shocking since most Asian countries practice Buddhism. I can't remember exactly where he said it originates but I am pretty positive he said that it was Crete.

After Doi Suthep, our tour guide brought us to have lunch at a local restaurant. He introduced to us my new favorite Thai dish called Khao Soy - which is a very spicy dish. I'll talk about that in my next blog. From there, we went to a handicraft part of the city. The first stop was a place that made homemade umbrellas. They make it right from scratch. The paper they use is made from a certain tree OR from elephant poop. Elephant poop, isn't that funny?! They take their handmade paper with their handmade umbrella skeleton (made from bamboo) and glue it together or tie it together. Then someone hand paints it. This was my favorite handicraft spot we went to.

After the umbrella stop, we went to a silversmith. It was interesting watching how they make the form of the jewelry but this particular spot seemed more interested in trying to get us to purchase something as opposed to showing us the factory for a long time. Then we went to a silkloom spot. This one was really cool, too. I learned about where silk comes from. Now, I've always been aware that silk comes from silk worms; but I guess I never really understood what that meant. In the picture below, you can how the silk comes. Those white and yellow bulbs in that hot water pot are silk worm cocoons. This woman take a cocoon out, takes a bit of the string and then runs is through that circle like thing and that keeps the silk straight and prevents it from breaking. She keeps rolling it through that circle-like thing until it runs out of thread. When that happens, a dead silkworm falls out and back into the water. That part grossed me out. If you look to her left hand, you can see all the thread she has been getting from the cocoons.
Then, there were actual women also working on the looms there. They use all 4 limbs to work these huge machines. Their legs are pushing on petals and their arms are moving things around above their head or in front of them. It truly appears as if they are doing a dance with the looms. I walked around quite a bit and just watched them intently doing this. These women are so skilled, I don't think there is any way I could figure out how to run one of these looms. It's so impressive!

We went back and had "The Last Supper" with 3 of our friends, Kyla, Andres and Emily who separated ways from us this evening. They headed down South to an island resort while Ruth and I remained in the North. That night we met up again with Tamo for some Muay Thai boxing! We got front ringside seats for this event.

Muay Thai has fans in Thailand to likes of how we have fans in America for American Football teams. Every province has a stadium and when it's shown on TV, it's like Superbowl Sunday at a sports bar every time. There's a strong spiritual and ritualistic way to Muay Thai adding more grace to an otherwise violent sport.

You soon get used to the ritual of the ring and boxers. Each boxer enters into the ring to the wailing music of a three piece orchestra called the phipat. The boxer first bows to the direction of where he was born and then to each 4 corners of the ring - which is actually North, South, East and West. He also has to honor his teachers and the spirit of the ring. Next, he performs a slow dance.

In Muay Thai, and part of the body aside from the head can be used as an offensive weapon. All parts but the groin are allowed to be fair targets. Kicks to the head is the strategy that causes the most knock outs.

The first two boxers were young boys which I thought would bother me but it wasn't bad. The later into the night it got, the stronger the boxers became. It was such an eye treat staring at these men's incredible ripped bodies. We had an older Thai man sitting next to us so we started chatting with him a bit allowing for some fun interaction with the locals. To the right of us was a whole crowd of locals sticking their hands in the air placing bets to a bookie. Everytime a good hit was made, the crowd all screamed "oy!" as loud as they could. The atmosphere here was phenomenal. Everyone is so excited. The last 3-4 fights were soo good. The boxers were a lot stronger and vicious than the first few we had been seeing. I was really getting into it. The last round of the night was a joke. In comes two men. One - a Thai guy with a fat belly. The other a tall, lanky white guy with "White trash" tattooed down his chest. They fought for 3 rounds before they ended it. We're not really sure why he was up there, but we figured that he woke up the next day with a killer headache trying to remember what he did the night before because he was so drunk. Then, it came back to him. And now he will have a story to tell his friends in the future...."This one time, in Thailand..I got really drunk and ended up in a Thai boxing ring." It was really good fun and ended at 1am. Ruth and I went back to our hotel and Tamo back to hers. Muay Thai was by far one of my favorite things I had done in Thailand. That's a thing to do if you ever come to Thailand

Click here for all the photos of this day

Waterfalls, bamboo rafting, whitewater rafting and elephant riding...

Our second major day in Chiang Mai we did a really awesome tour that got me back out into nature again.

The waterfall in the picture below was our first destination on our tour (besides the small pit stop to an Orchid prior to this that needs no more mention than this). The waterfall was cool, but nothing overly impressive. Even though December is Winter in Thailand, it feels as hot as our summer. There is a lack of water at this time of the year...thus, this waterfall wasn't much to see. There was a natural rock slide one could go down but I didn't know about it until our tour guide was gathering us to go. I was a bit disappointed because I totally would have gone down it had I known. When I saw the few men doing it, it made me very nostalgic for the Adirondack's again. My last summer in the area before moving to Japan, I had done all sorts of cliff jumping and waterfall seeking with Jon. It's such a rush and seeing those men do it made me itch to join them.
After the waterfall, we all went Whitewater rafting. It was so much fun! I haven't gone white water rafting in over three years now. The safety procedures in Thailand are nearly non-existent which made me a bit nervous. My life jacket - about 3 sizes too big would most likely not save me in an emergency situation. Our guide, this guy - probably the same height as me but pure muscle didn't speak English. He could say the commands in English and that was about it. Then, there was a guide whose boat we pretty much followed and went down the rive with. This guide was an absolutely nut. He was constantly screaming and whacking us with water via his paddle. The rafting wasn't anything that difficult or scary but the guides made it so much fun. Halfway down the line, we just picked up random Thai guys that were fishing on the shore but needed a life back down river, so into our raft they go - with no helmets and no life jackets. We floated down the river lazily for some of it allowing the current to take us.

When we finished the rafting bit, we then went onto bamboo rafts. These were about 15 feet in length and 5 feet wide. We fit about 10 people per raft and there was one guy steering us in the front with a long stick. Our lower bodies were submerged in the water. It was relaxing.

Then to go do what nearly every tourist in Thailand does - ride an elephant. We took an hour ride through the jungle and down a river on the back of an elephant. There's an elephant steerer-guide man that sits in front of you and gives commands to the elephant to make sure it keeps going and prevents it from stopping and eating for the next hour while you're on it's back. They just climb up the side of the elephant as if it's a brick wall that just needs to be hopped onto. I shared an elephant with Ruth and Kyla. Our friends Emily and Andres were on the elephant in front of us. They were the leading elephant but by the end of the tour, their elephant was last. It was a bad elephant, that right in front of our eyes ripped down a tree in half! It was intense! So powerful! It apparently was really hungry.
The last thing we did was go to a Hill Tribe. This was a Karen Long Neck Hill tribe. The women here all wear gold rings around their necks. The men believe that the more rings around the neck, the sexier the woman is. Girls start wearing them around the age of 6. I had a hard time grasping that I was going to go see these women. I felt like - I was just going to see a zoo exhibit or something. But, they're human beings . Maybe I have such a hard time with it because I can't stand when people stare at me in Japan only because I am foreign. It's the same idea here - going to see people just because they are different. One of my co-travelmates really really really wanted to see them so we did it. It was pretty cool to see the long necks in person but it was really depressing as well. I've since learned alot about their culture and what brings them into this situation that I will elaborate on another day. This picture below wasn't taken by me - it was taken off the internet - but just for a better visual for you to understand long neck women. I couldn't bring myself to take pictures of them. Basically, these women have no choice but to do this zoo exhibit of themselves. Most of them came from Burma/Myanmar to escape war or death. Therefore, they aren't Thai citizens but they can't go back to their own country. So, they are forced pretty much to go into these touristy villages where loads of tour guides bring people like me to gawk at them. These women all own shops and try to sell you all sorts of unneeded crap. Most people buy stuff just because they feel bad for them. The stuff is not authentic. In fact, some of the stuff had "Made in China" stickers on the bag. The picture below is an example of the huts they live in.
That night we met up with Tamo, another girl in my area that happened to be in Thailand and the city we were in for a few coinciding days. I ran to meet up with her at McDonald's after our tour. We all had dinner together and then 4 of us went out for drinks that evening. It was the most I drank in a while....

For pictures of this day click here (same link as last post)

Chiang Mai, the beginning

When people ask me, "Where in Thailand did you like best?" - my answer is Chiang Mai. Again, our first day was spent taking care of tours and things of that nature. Our afternoon - we went out to do some more temple viewing recommended by our guest house owner.

The first temple we visited was called Chiang Mun that was built in 1296-1297 AD. The temple held several important artifacts for Thailand. One of these was a white quart Buddha image and then also a stone cut Buddha. Behind the temple was a 700 year old stupa that was surrounded by elephant carvings. The temples were sparkling gold as usual.




The second temple we went to was called Wat Chediluang Varaviharn. This was supposed to be one of the best 3 temples to see in Chiang Mai, but it was under construction. However, in the back it held yet another old Khmer -like structure that is 60 meters high. It used to be 90 meters - which you can tell by looking at the top of it, but was destroyed in an earthquake nearly 500 years ago.
These Buddhas below - represent every day of the week. From left to right shows Sunday through Saturday. If you know which day you were born on - you should pray to that particular Buddha. They also have Morning and Night Buddhas - so if you don't know what day you were born on but you know what time of day you were born on - you can pray to that Buddha instead.
This temple was supposed to be the 2nd of 3 temples we intended on seeing this day. The plans changed as we were leaving the temple grounds. There was a program here called "Monk Chat". There was a sign that said, "we don't mind if you come to look at our temple, but we are sad if you just leave and don't speak to us." We thought it would be super cool to talk to monks so we decided to join in monk chat. Ruth and I went together to talk to one monk, Andres went by himself and then Kyla and Emily went to speak to another monk together. Now, when people ask me, what are the best things you've done in Thailand? I will always respond this monk chat at this temple. We spoke for two hours to our monks. It was so great to speak to someone. He was only a year younger than I - 23 years old. He became a monk when he was 14. At the moment, he is attending Buddhist University - which is who puts on this monk chat program. In the future he would like to become a teacher. He talked about all sorts of things from Buddhist beliefs, his university to his favorite sports. He really made me think a lot about the purpose of life and just about how I live my life. It's just so intriguing to me that I can speak to someone my own age and how different we are. How different our thought process is, how different our past 10 years have been...how we can think so differently yet be at the same age. He seemed so in-tune with life, with who he is, so sure of these things - that it was attractive to me. A lot of times, I feel so lost in life. I think I want one thing but then am not sure. Especially since living in Japan, I question life all the time. It was very comforting to have someone that seemed so confident in life to talk to.

After we literally closed down monk chat, we went for dinner and a few drinks. Then, we played under the lit up lanterns. I haven't mentioned it yet - but I think it's very Thai to speak about. The king. Everyone and I mean every Thai person loves their king. You see pictures of him everywhere you go. Everyone wears yellow shirts because it is the king's favorite color. You know those "livestrong" bracelets that were so popular like 3 years ago? Well, they all wear them, too, except they don't say "livestrong" but they say "Long live the king". I doubt there's another country in this world that loves their king as much as Thai people love their king. So, here's a photo of us, with one of the millions huge posters of the king hung around Thailand.


Click here for pictures of this day and for a sneak preview of what future postings will be

Christmas Day

My Christmas Eve slumber was like that of when I was a kid. I didn't sleep well. Unfortunately, it wasn't because of the excitement of what Santa has brought, but because there was a dog that was barking for easily 4 hours throughout the night. It was terrible. Since I used to have really bad insomnia at college, I've pretty much adapted to functioning with a poor night's sleep the next day.

Christmas day. It was spent on a train all day. Our train arrived an hour late, which seemed to be the norm in Thailand. If it's 30 minutes late, it's still on time. If it's an hour late, it's properly late. We rode 1st class - which gave us seat cushions, air conditioning and some food. I couldn't eat the food because it was all meat but even if I had eaten meat, it didn't look that appetizing. We called Ruth's food, "prawn head curry" because we weren't exactly sure what it was - but the head of a prawn was the biggest thing in there.

(above: Ruth and I making the time pass acting like fools)

(above: Kyla and Andres making the time pass, too)

(Above: and of course Emily, too!)

I taught Ruth the American childhood game of MASH. We had a good time doing that for about 30 minutes. We played "guess where the foreigners are from" making up code names for countries. The scenery was nice but it was very similar to Japan. The sun had set leaving us with about 2-3 hours of nothing to look at outside the window. Kyla taught us a game called GHOST which got a bit heated up right before the train ride ended.

I think we arrived to Chiang Mai at about 9:00ish. Our guest house was really nice. The most spacious rooms we had in the whole of our travels there. The staff was friendly and it was clean. We wanted to have a Christmas dinner but by the time we got situated most places weren't serving food anymore. 711. 711 is everywhere. Seriously, every turn in Thailand offers a new 711. That's where Christmas dinner came from. It was by far the most disgusting Christmas dinner I've ever had. I had muesli, which was good. Then, we tried making sandwiches out of cheese, jam and wheat bread. Nasty. Andres had bought "pickled mango" thinking they were something else. Pickled mango is nasty, I don't ever recommend it. The best part of Christmas dinner was the beer. I called my family on this night and then headed to bed. It's just another day, now isn't it?

Andres: These pickled mangos are going to make me puke!
Ruth: They're going to make you pube? what? what is that American English word?
Andres: You thought I said I was going to pube? and that is his face that followed that conversation