Sorry about the abrupt ending to the last post. You never know when the power will just up and go out here. Pain in the but if you ask me. But it was kinda cool for a full day there was no power. Back to the battle!!!!!

So there i was mindin my own buisness when out of nowhere comes this big blazin yellow beast of a butterfly he is not the kinda butterfly that sips nectar all day and floats around on the breaze. Nope this guy had one thing in mind and that was to tear a fellow butterfly to shreads. However, what he did not realize is that the other butterfly would welcome the invitation. The battle began inocently enough with some aireil manuvering. I knew it would not end there the turf was prime territory with many brillant flowers awaiting the victor. I looked away as somthing grabed my attention. The ants had made it to my potato chip 13.3 minutes this time, they are gettin a little slow. Then from the sky a sound like the clap of thunder roared into my unsuspetcting ears. I quickly turn, my adrenilin pumping, I am ready for the worst. To my suprise it was not the sound of thunder, or a gun shot, but instead the battle of the butterflies! I was frozen as I watched the brutatility unfold before my eyes. Their wings beating vicously against the eachothers. I saw little pieces tear off and float gentally to the ground. The battle lasted a mere 3 minutes but within that short period of time my life long bias toward butterflies was shattered. I will never see a butterfly the same way again. No I have seen the butterfly brutality that lies within... Be wary of the butterfly!!!!

A question that plagued my childhood has come back to haunt me. Only now with a slight twist. I lay in bed at night trying to crack the riddle... At this point none of the pieces of this puzzle will fit... We are all familure with the childhood quest of discovering Why the Chicken crossed the road... It is a question that i have not pondered for many years. Now it rears its head with a new twist. Why did the chicken cross the road right in front of me. I will be riding allong crusin on the BLUE BEAST (125cc scooter). When out of the middle of no where a chicken will come screaming across the road. In some cases they have even run right allong side of me then at the last minute taken to the air and flown over my front tire! I have uncovered one piece of the infilstructure regarding the number of chickens that run out before you. When it comes to chickens you have leaders and followers if the lead roster (big cock) decides to make the move to the other side you will typically come to expect the rest of the gang see the other side of the road as their only chance at life. Yes these chickens are not mearly crossing the road but they are doing it knowing if they dont get there right in front of they will surely die... If anyone has any insight into this quandry I would greatly appreciate the help... I will post any updates into this quest for answers as the insights roll in...

The mentatility of Pai is that of a very small town. They even have rules to keep it that way... Techno and Rap is strictly not allowed neither is dancing. And believe it or not there is no kissing in Pai... Although I have been tempted to turn in a few law breakers. The bugalows next to me are full of criminals. They usually make their offences late at night when I am snuggled into my bed awaiting sleep to arrive as I pondering the mysterious quandry I stated eirlier. So far I have resorted to slapin in my ear plugs rather than calling the police. But if i dont get some answers to this mysterious question soon I just may turn them in...

To Be continued........

Jeremiah

Sawadee Krap everyone,

Today is the 5th day in Pai it has all been grand however, without the use of my curesed foot. I have been inhibited from doing most the things that intrest me. Swiming with the elephants, rock climbing, intertubing, gettin a foot massage, going on a hill tribe trek. So instead i have been doing allot of hangin in my hamock. I have spent several hours watching the ants. They are truely amazing cratures. I find great enjoyment in placing a piece of food in front of a lone ant and then timing how long it takes for him to return with a thousand of his best friends. I also witnessed one of the most brutal battles of all time. Yes you herd me right it was quite gruesome. The battle of the butterflies. The

Power out working of batteries.. Post soon

Hello Everyone,

As I promised I am here to tell the tale of the past two weeks. Koa Tao was great even though I was pent up around the guesthouse for the most part the staff was wonderful. We came to understand eachother pretty well with the aid of one of them speaking perfect english. I did manage to get into the water 6 times or so spending 5 hours snorkeling and going on two dives before my unfortunate embrace with the earth.
I hobeled on to the boat to the main land that would be the first of the three tier trip back to Bangkok which would take 18 hours over all. I managed to make it to the front of the boat in time to secure the most precious piece of landscape there.. The bow unlike vessels in the states you are allowed to hang your feet right over the front even though you are obscuring the view of the captian. I took advantage of this and stayed there the whole time ending up asleep with my head hanging over the side of the `100 foot vessel. The seal was calm with little more than a few ripples here and there. The sky was clear and it provide an amazing view of the islands we passed. They were all littered with coconut trees and huge cliff faces among the sandy white beaches. The bus ride was a typical one. However, the busses here for long distance travel are double deckers that have seats like airplanes with all the room that the plains lack. They are pretty comfortable but I still could not sleep due to throbbing in my foot. I waited around Bangkok for a few hours until 7:30 am when I caught a bus to Auttuya. I managed to find a great spot and splurged for all the luxuries. A/C huge bed nice view and a bathroom with heated shower. I figured i would want somthing nice seeing as my stitches were taken out to earily (apperently i did not lay around enough). The wound though small managed to split open and cause me a fair amount of pain. I lazed about for a few days not makin it far. But I did manage to find a great eye glasses place where i bought a pair of really nice glasses for the grand total of 80 U.S. The same pair would have cost 400 in the states. The last day at Auttuya I managed to make it to a long boat where the lovely lady zoomed us around the water ways dropping us of at all the major temples. I had a great time and my foot was feeling much better. I also managed to snap some great shots. (sorry bobbie yer gunna have to wait on the pics i didnt manage to pick up a digital).

Then I was off to Pai via Chaing Mai. Another long bus ride. With an un- scheduled stop in the middle of a hill on the highway where we proceded to roll backward. It was in teh middle of the night and we were all awoken to loud horns of on coming vehicles. The driver eventually managed to get the vehicle started and into first gear after some serious slipping of the clutch. The trip into Pia was a great one. The roads were windy and full of beautiful mountian scenery. I picked up a moter bike on arrival and have since put some serious roads behind me. It is just so beutiful here. The shades of green are something I would have expected in Ireland and this is the dry season. Though I did arrive in time for a few good thunder storms. This going from 6 months of nothing but sun. The sky is clearing out a bit but you still see a great deal of smoke lingering. In some places it looks like Juneau does after the smoke from the Yukon forest fires passes over the icefields. I met a man a little older than I whom has been travling for the past 5 years strait. He has spent it all in Asia and is now just revisiting the highlights before he is due home in two weeks.

Well there is more to tell but I am in need of a fruit smoothie.

Until later

It was

Hello All,

So sorry about keeping you all in the dark for so long... I appologize if anyone was worrying on my behalf. I have many great excuses regarding my lack of contact and I will allow you to pick any one you wish.

1. MY hotmail was down for 2 days so I could not acces the hotlink to my account.
2. When I tried posting The internet crashed 3 days ago because of a power outage that lasted the rest of the night due to the thunderstorm.
3. The internet is sparadic here in Pai. Never know when it will be up..
4. I acutally spent two hours writing one last night and even went through and proof read it (which is something i rarely do) before I posted. HOwever, the internet ate it and would not spit it back out... No matter how hard I tried.
5.After i was done with the two hours i was two depressed to go on...

You can choose one our you can choose them all sadly enough they are all true...

And I have yet another for you attop of all those... I had a tough day of cave treking (hobeling) witch ended in dicovery of being keyless when I arrived back at my Trusty Stead (125cc Scooter) They were lost somewhere in the huge abyss known as a cave which was a 25 minute hike away. I had little hope of finding them. But Someone was lookin out for me upstairs and they emerged into the light by the hand of a gracious guide. After all these amazing events. I have arrived back into town rather bushed.

I will write again tomarrow... I promise

P.S. You should have seen my entery that was eaten by the net it was amazing!!! Mom you would have been proud.

Hello all,

I cant quite rember where I left off but I think it was on Kho Samui right before I left for Kao Tao. Well here goes. It all started off great when I arrived there were the usual touts trying to entice you to stay or dive with them, but that only lasted the first few minutes. I managed to find a great place to stay where the jungle surrounds me. I have my own private bugalow 10 feet of the ground with a king size bed, private bathroom with shower where the floor is covered with river rocks (kinda like a little zen garden). There is a private balcony looking into the somewhat tamed jungle landscape. I also have a friendly Gecko that spends a few hours every night cleaning my room of mice and bugs he is about 14 inches long. The people that work there are very relaxed and and have become fairly good friends despite the language barrier... The menu is large and very tasty but you must always be wary of the mouse terd peppers...

After setteling in and renting a motor scooter I cruised the town interviewing the many dive companies. The prices all seem to be the same which I dicovered was due to there being sub standard dive equipment in circulation due to heavy discounts five years ago. This led to an intervention and standardized prices which are still a hell of a bargin. I secured an advanced dive class for the small amount of 175 american dollars. With 17 dollars for each additional dive after the course. I also managed to work a certian amount of housing allowance into the deal... The instructors and dive masters at Asia dive were right up my ally and I had a great time diving with Ali currently a dive master from England that showed up about 8 months back and decided he would be an instructor before he left. He is nearly there and in all reality could have been there months ago if he did not put off taking the tests. I had been snorkeling around the island and managed to come across some amazing reefs allong with a 7 foot Black Tipped Reef Shark who swam a little to fast for me to catch, but that did not stop my trying... I also managed to get down for two dives before my course was to start. I saw many of the same creatures that I hald allready been chaseing around for several days while snorkeling, however, there were also many great schools of fish the baracudas were a little intimidating as while snorkeling I was constantly followed by them but the clown fish managed to set my nearves to ease.

I had managed to cover most the roads on the island even those that resembled hilly dried out stream beds with a little 125cc scooter I was actually quite impressed with where I had gone with it. I rarely had to drag it up any hills. But now the time had come to experience those same winding hills on a proper 250cc Honda dirt bike. The going was great for the first 20 minutes of having a proper amount of power under my control. However, it soon went to my head I was just getting used to the bike and was having a good time popping wheelies and turning the obsticals on the back road trail into jumps. This was when I crested a fairly steep hill with a very little trail going up it. I was fealing a little cocky after conquering the hill and decided to ride a whellie over the top of it. The terrain cought me off guard in my celebration and snuck some very soft sand right at the landing point of my front tire. I asumed I would do a good bit of rolling down the other side of the hill, however, to my suprise I slid only as far as the bike. This was due to my foot being crushed under the foot peg. I looked at my ankle at the funny angle it was planted at and feared the worst, that it was broken. My bike had not maged to sputter out yet and gas was spilling out of the tank. I pulled it back up with all the adrenilin I could muster just as it died. Luckily It fired back up, but then again the terrain back down to the town would still require a fair bit of skill to navigate. But atleast I would not have to wait out the rare chance someone else would travel this trail again today. The navigation would have to take place without my back brake foot. But on the possitive side my other foot was still free to shift gears. I was able to put it into a low gear on the way down that acted as my back brake and gentely feathered the front. But this was not the best of Ideas seeing as it was 41 degrees C and the bike constantly overheated and died. This forced me to keep my speed up which would be my only chance of gettin back. After a good bit of riding and a whole lot of the mantra "Please God Dont let it be broken". I made it back to my bugalow where I hoped to my room packed a good book and a change of cloths "incase i was at the clinic awhile" and then over to the man that ran the place who quickly brought me to the nurse who made my day. She was kind and quick with the stitching I was and as I still could not feel my foot it really did not hurt much. Except of course when she had to break the wounds all the way open to clean them. It turned out that it was my lucky day despite my stupidity of riding in sandals, shorts, and a tank top. I had no broken bones!!! I did manage to get a nasty sprain to go allong with the stitches on my foot and knee. But other than that just a bunch of surface scratches. The locals around here allong with the farangs (forighners) that have spent any amount call it a Koa Tao Kiss. I am not the first to recieve this kiss and am far from the last...

As I was saying before this was right before my advanced dive class was to begin. The feeling of euphoria that erupted from me after discovering my ankle was not broken was quickly squelched when I came to realize that I was in one of the greatest dive mecas of the world. Where I would remain for another week as I healed enough to pack my bag out. With no chance of gettin my feet wet. On the bright side I have been crutchin my way around town building up some good arm steangth. Mabey I will able to put it to use if my ankle heals enough to Kick Box in Chaing Mai.

Well that was a couple of days ago and all is healing pretty well except my ego of course.

Thanx for reading,

Jeremiah

Well I am now in Kho Tao and am loving the atmosphere. The full moon party turned out to be what I was hoping it would not. I just wish I was 17-21 again I know I would have had a blast then (dam growing up),however, being that I had chosen such good travel partners (the brits) I still had a good time. The party included roughly 8000 people spread out on the beach that shrunk and grew. It was much more crowded when the tide came in. A few things that were a little off key. One being that everyone either took a wee in the sea itself or paid 10 baht to relieve themselvs only to have it enter a broken tube that went down the beach busted half way down. With everyone drinking themselves silly you can imagine how much wee went to the beach and the sea. The trick is not to spend much time on the down wind side of that half of beach. The music that was played was only that which is most most popular. Loads of R&B and tecno. Each bar/ dance club was competing with the others in both size of speakers and volume. It was near imposible to escape and have anything that resembeld a decent conversation. I was rather amused as a people watcher though. For the most part partiers were anywhere from 17 to 28. You always knew when you stumbled across a young one. They would either stand about wide eyed and overwhelmed or would run wildly about slowly discovering their limits with alcohol and pass out somewhere on the beach. One particular charector passed out on the beach and had a shrine of beer bottles erected around him. When I walked by later in the night he had his hand in a bucket of warm water a cigarette in one hand an beer pressed to his lips. I did check to see that he was still breathing seeing as no matter how many flashes went off in his face he never as much as flinched. There were also many people on all fours in the water pucking out as much as they were sucking in sea water. If you stopped and looked around long enough you were sure to find those that could not handle rein their hormones in any longer and began "gettin it on" on the beach there were even those that thought the shallow wee/puke/poo infused water was a romantic place. I spent most my time hanging out at the sand castle that was an ingenius achatectual marvel. Matt the brit gave birth to the castle but we all chiped in in the end. After the party we all were back off to Samui where we decided not to give in to the dangers of sleeping past our checkout time. Instead we woke the beach by wrestling and splashing maddly about in the water. Ther were a few that did not aprove of our good times and gave us a good screaming at but it did not seem to keep us quite for long. After a good swim we were off to a bite to eat at a place just down the beach from ours. We were treated to this rather expensive breakfast by someone unlucky enough to loose their billfold at the party. Luckily for us we were not forced to contact the owner seeing as it was a rather ordinary fold with nothing but cash inside.

A little later we were off to a great new beach and bugallow resort called "Sliver Beach Bugaloows" I passed the place while cruising around the Island on my scooter and due to the great view had to turn back for some lunch. I was very excited to discover they had very plush rooms avaliable for less than what we were paying at the crummy Calm Beach Bugalows. I spent the next few days snorkeling around the coral reefs that began just a few feet from shore. The night before I was leaving the brits and I stayed up till the wee hours of the morning having heated debates that were all to common amoung us. We covered everything from polotics to love. We rarely agreed on much but after some time we always managed to come to a middle ground that we could all accept. The next day was to be the first that I would spend on my own since I had the pleasure of meeting the brits 8 days past. I was a little nervous as they had not only became great friends but also a saftey net. As much as I enjoyed spending my days with them it was time to move on. I will definatly catch up with them at some point on my trip again but for now I am looking forward to spending a little time on my own. The island of kho Tao is great and

I will write agian later as I have allready overspent my time on the computer and may not have enough denero to cover it right now...........

Jeremiah

Well I am off to the full moon party we will be on the island of Kho Phang Nang for about 7 hours.. I will write more when I return... I was considering bringing my camera but it is just to big and to valuable for me to loose. I thing I will kidnap one of my travel partners digitals and run around taking pictures the whole time... I cant wait... Just so no one worries I will not be particking in any illicit drugs but perhapes a few beers as I plan on being sober the entire time so I can truely experience the event... I do hope it dosent consist of a bunch of stoned drunk people looking for an excuse to party...

Wish me luck!

I have managed to skip a few things and believe that I left off somewhere in Bangkok... After getting used to the bustle of the big city which houses half of the population of Thailand I really grew like the place. I found myself wandering down local streets wondering what wonderful things I might come across. I think the best thing I came across on one of my little trips was a local park at about 7pm thailand time when all the locals are off work. As I entered the gated area and slowly walked around in hopes of absorbing as much of what i saw as i could I was amazed by the sense of community the people here are able to maintain even in such a larg city. In the main square slightly elevated from the rest of the area were roughly 800 people young and old all happily dancing allong to the arobics that a very fit and full of smiles lady was directing from center stage with a headset microphone. Circling the park was a track for those that wished to run/jog/walk in the shadow of the perfectly manicured trees. There was a covered area in the center of a pond where many where painting the lovely flowers, turtles, fish, butterflys, and landscaping. Off to another corner were many tables for table tenis where I wached for awhile then participated when an older Thai lady insisted I play her friend it was allot of fun even though the forty something lady beat me pretty bad... A short walk from there were several bad mitten nets with groups of people activally watching and participating. Through out the entire area groups of friends sat on the shaded grass and in the many benches. Their was even a weight gym for those who wished to get a good work out. My favorite part of the area was where I came across six men playing a Thai game that seemed to be a very agile mixture of hacky sack and soccer I dont even know how to decribe the game other than that but I sat in a bench nearby for a long time and clapped at all the great moves that were made. The park was beutiful and perfectly manicured down to the last blade of grass, everyone there were in such great moods and did not seem to mind my intrusion of their dayly routine. This park is directly across from the Grand Palace which I did not have the time to tour on this day.

The next day I made sure to rise early and grab a cab to the Grand Palace which truly is grand I was amazed by the sheer size of everything expecially seeing as it was all incredibly intricate. I spent the better part of the day there with my zoom lens on trying to capture the spirit of the people placing offerings for the famous Jade Budda. I cant wait to develope the film. I was also supprised as to how few people of my color were there in comparision to what looked to be locals. But once again they seemed to enjoy my presence. I also visited the Reclining Budda. On my way back to Kho San Road I stoped in a park where many children were flying kites it was a week end and many families were there. I planted myself in the middle with my zoom lens and snapped away with an ocasional kite smacking into me it was alot of fun helping the kids get them back into the air. I spent quite a bit more time wandering the back streets and observing local life.

On to present day Kho Samui

Well today well be the third I have spent in Kho Samui. Which is a place recomended by our local Thai Restraunt. It was roughly a 15hr train ride, 1 hour bus, a 2 hr wait, and a three hour boat ride to arrive from Bangkok. I would consider this Island to be their equivilant of Hawii. The people are still very friendly for the most part and the food is the same high quality. However, we happened to book a three night stay at a very run down bugaloo complex with money hungry souls as the people that run the place... Our at least on person in particular who has cursed at me in thai on a few ocassions when I have told people they were out right paying to much and to bring the price down before agreeing. If looks could kill he would have buried me awhile ago. I just smile and gaze back at him... I did manage to come across a very nice bugalow complex which I have booked for the two nights following the Full Moon Party which takes place tonight on its beach of origin Ko Phang Nang. They had to move it one day in further than the actual full moon due to a major Budhist holiday. The weather is about 95 degrees with near 100% humidity. I have done suprisingly well in the heat, however, I did burn my hands nose and lips quite sevearly while roaming all over the Island yesterday with a Man from the Virgin Islands that I bumped into at this internet cafe. It turns out that he worked with Clinton and was called in to make arrangments for Bush Sr. and Clintons visit to Sir Lanka. From what he had told me it was mainly a photo shoot with only one visit to the effected areas and the rest of the time spent shmoozing with the local leaders. We cruised the circumfrense of the Island on our hogs (125cc scooters).

Well I have been here for over an hour now and it is time for another dip in the ocean. If anyone has questions or comments please feel free to post them. eg. taste of food, prices, people, weather, culture, etc.

Thanx for reading

Your fellow Alaskan

Hello all,

After making the boneheaded mistake of arriving for my flight at 12:30 pm for my 12:30am flight I spent another night with Anthony and Dave Making dumplings is Seattle and had a great night doing so. Man can those guys pump out some dumplings. For those of you who dont allready know Dave is the owner of the rapidly growing market that is Pel Meni with my best bloke (fiend, I have been spending allot of time with four bloody brits but that is for later) Anthony as Dave's right hand man we were producing these savory delights at the recently opened factory in centeral downtown a block from the Space Neadle that Dawn was kind enough to treat Anthony and I to Sunday brunch at. So if anyone is there eating these beauties in a couple weeks you will have the pleasure of knowing I had something to do with placing them there before you.

With every waking minute my anticipation grows. Over the last few hours we have recieved a 5 inches of very wet snow and I had the pleasure of working in it. To say the least I won't be ready for the radical climate shift upon reaching S.E. Asia...

My Travels will inculde The greater part of Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, and Vietnam. With perhapes a short trip into China.?. My main goal other than enjoying myself to the fullest is to fully immerse myself into the cultures through which I am traveling. Granted it might not be possible in a 2.5 month period of time (I wish I had longer)... I just purchased my trip insurance a few minutes ago with $500,000 coverage for a whopping $120.00 U.S. including a waiver for rock climbing, hangliding, scuba diving, and a number of other sports I wish to participate in while there, however, they were not to keen on the Kick boxing. If any are interested the web sight is insuremytrip.com.

Well it's off into the great white outdoors to try to navigate my way home amoungst the other poor souls putting allong at 15mph down our Highway praying not to have their vehicle chosen by the Snow God as a sacrifice!

P.S. Mabey I'll dust off the old dog sled and spend the weekend in my families mountian igloo retreat. The best place ta go for some good ole bear wraslin.

interesting fact of the day... Did anyone realize that Eskimo's (Inupiat/Inuiat/etc.) created sunglasses??? This was due to the immense glare from the reflective qualities of snow, they typically consisted of a shaped piece of bone with two small slits in it to allow in a limited amount of light... With out this intuitavie invention they would have all gone blind.

The Alaskan