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December 20, 2003Busy 2 weeks
Hi everyone! I've been trying to update this at least once a week, and I lapsed on this last one, just too busy! Okay, so two weeks ago, I decided it was time to get up off my butt and do some hard core sight-seeing. Then I went to the monkey school, where they train monkeys to work picking coconuts. Thais are smart, they get free labor and then charge farang (white people) to see it! There were baby monkeys that you could play with and feed fruit to View image Later, this guy thought he would have more fun smooshing the fruit in my hair. The next day, my friends from the guest-house, Steve and Toy View image and I drove around through the mountains surrounding Doi Inthanon View image It reminded me of how much I miss driving a bike around, the freedom, the air, I resolved to keep the bike for a while. We went to this beautiful park near the mountains View image View image Later in the week, I needed some relaxation (so much activity really wears me out!) so I went to the natural hot springs bath. The springs are sulphuric so it smells like eggs. Guess what they do? They actually sell eggs for you to boil in the hot water View image Just an example of the Thai 'go with the flow' kinda attitude. The bath was really nice, it cost like $1 for a private tub and you could stay in there for hours if you wanted. At this point, my 30-day Thailand entry visa was just about up. I didn't know for sure whether my friend Apple was going to be able to make it, or if I was going to just head to Cambodia. To be on the safe side, I made a Burma border run. They have it set up so that you check out on the Thai side, buy a $7, 1-day entry to Burma and then walk back out with a new Thai entry visa. Much easier and cheaper than trying to arrange an extension with the Thai government. Here's my token Burma picture View image Fresh visa in hand, I decided to meet up with some friends in Krabi for a much needed refresh on my tan. Krabi is a resort town on the south-west side, near Phuket, and is pretty much what you would expect of any such place. Thousands of red/white faces, Bob Marley music 24-7, an abundance of bland food, and the only Thais you see are in service to the tourists. Fortunately, we were able to find a good Thai restaurant off the strip that performed excellently when asked to "make whatever good food you want for me" and a chill bar on the beach whose dj understood that music didn't start and end with raggae. I liked it because from Krabi, you could take a longboat-taxi to any number of small outlying islands. We went snorkling and it was unbelievable, the colors were so bright! You could go to some of these small islands and feel like you had it all to your self. Here's some pictures from that..... You know me, I didn't want to leave the beach, but I didn't have the budget for much more of Krabi so J.P. and I left to see the temple ruins at Ayuthaya, just north of Bangkok. Apparently, this was really some kinda fantastic city 650 years ago. Now though, it's a little difficult to get an idea of the immense splendor that once was, since invaders stole much of the treasures, a new city has developed amid the ruins, and only recently have efforts to preserve the temples begun. Our first stop was Wat Phanan Choeng where the 19m high golden Buddha is the largest ancient one of its kind. View image View image View image View image Then we wandered around to some of the other temples... So now I'm back in Chiang Mai, it's just so great here! I'll be spending Christmas with my guesthouse friends and then meeting up with Apple (she got here!) for some good times in Bangkok. I'm really looking forward to her take on the city, since thus far I haven't exactly been impressed. Well, I hope this was enough to satisfy all of you who were waiting on pins and needles (I'm sure ;) for my next entry. BTW, thanks so much for all the great comments recently. It's been lots of fun to hear from friends, old and new. Keep 'em coming! Comments
hey cutie, looks like thailand is treating ya well, i'd recomend taking some water taxi rides up the canals around bangkok, theres a nice one that leaves one of the docks downtown (by the palace maybe) and goes up to bang-yai, in way northwest bangkok. Its mentioned in let's-go or one of those things. Or take the river ferry/bus thing way north in bangkok and you can rent longtail boats by the hour to tour around the canals. Very fun, very beatutiful, all the houses on stilts. The boat that runs up to bang-yai is a bus so people get off and on at stops. have fun n Posted by: nat on December 25, 2003 05:04 PMHey Kate hey kate, haven't posted any entries in for a minute, so i thought i would...you're pictures are great and your stories are really bad(just kidding)...you're right, I'm jealous i didn't travel after graduation...nice tattoo too, funny though it was a greek letter, cuz in september, I got the greek letter Pi on my back..well, IDIOT, i don't have time to write; need to smoke cigarette, talk to boss, eat Saganaki, G-punch and P-kick some morons...take care on the rest of your travels, "Bravo sou koritsaki" later Mr. P Posted by: mike p on December 29, 2003 07:36 AMDear Kate, |
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