Oooohhh... Someone just set off fireworks right outside the window. They've got these strange ones that just seem to hang in the sky forever. I'm not just exaggerating either -the little sparks have been up there barely moving for the whole time I've been writing so far. Still glowing and hanging there after more than a minute. Anyway, you don't care about that.
We've been in Chiang Mai for a few days now and it's been an odd mix. The first day we just set out thinking we'd hit the big main Wats. It turns out there's like three wats per capita; wats have wats for neighbors and you have to wonder how they support them all. They're worse than Starbucks. (Glowing sparks still in the sky.) We got our fill after about a dozen and took in a cool art museum and then the night market.
The second day started out awesome with a cooking course through our guesthouse. They took us to the market to buy all the ingredients and then taught us to make all sorts of good stuff. We basically spent all day just cooking and eating. After the course, Zoo and I hopped a taxi (which here means pickup with bench seats in back) to a famous Wat to watch the sunset. It was beautiful, but I was starting to feel a little queasy. Things went downhill from there. Without going into the gorey details, let's just say that the whole night was a total loss. (Sparky things are still there!). Basically, so was the next day. Guess my cooking may not be so great after all. I'm feeling much better now though so it's all okay.
Today we hopped a bus to a town called Lampang for an elephant conservation center. It was a long ride and we didn't really go about it the most logical way but we got there eventually and it was pretty cool. We got to see the elephants have their baths in the river and they put on a little show. They even have a couple of the elephants doing paintings which was incredible to watch. Without being prompted by the trainers, we watched one do a crude but easily identifiable picture of some flowers. They had a few baby elephants and I got to play with one a little and feed it. The little bugger got a little excited though and whacked me with his trunk trying to get at the sugarcane. You wouldn't think a baby would be strong but if you imagine that his trunk is about as big as my thigh and solid muscle, it makes sense.
Well that's it so far. We couldn't get a flight to Laos until the 26th so we'll be spending Christmas here at our guesthouse. It actually sounds like it might be fun. They apparently stop taking new guests and have a party with special food and secret Santas. It'll be totally different from home, but it should be an experience.
Update on the mystery glowy things: Zoot found out they're lights in balloons. Odd since they seemed to come from the fireworks but whatever. It makes more sense than my UFO theory.
Saturday, December 23, 2006
Monday, December 18, 2006
Thailand so far...
Hi all from Chumphon, Thailand. I'm starting this instead of sending out mass emails because I'm never really sure how many people actually want to hear every detail about my life. Plus, I'm tired of tracking and updating everyone's address.
As most of you know, I'm travelling throughout SE Asia with my little sister Susanna (aka Zoot). She flew into Seoul way back on the 10th and we hung out with my friends in Korea for a while. You've all heard my take on Korea so I'll try to keep it short. We crammed a ton of palaces and temples inton our first day in Seoul. After that, we took the train back to Daegu and stayed with Cat for a few days. I just took Zoot around my hangouts and all the not-so exciting things we usually do. Then on Saturday, we took a train back to Seoul with Emma, Andrea, and Daryl. Spent the day shopping and went out that night and had an odd night. I'll refrain from details to protect the weak of heart (i.e. parents) but we had fun in the end. It wasn't at all the weekend I was hoping for and I ended up having a very awkward goodbye with Cat.
So on to Thailand. We got into Bangkok late so we ended up staying at a craphole the first night. The second place was much nicer in a ridiculously cheap and spartan sort of way. It was run by this really friendly man who had a daughter in the US and had actually travelled there himself. We stayed in the backpacker zone called Khao San Rd which I didn't really like. It clearly catered to a different sort of person from Zoot and myself. The restaurants were fine, but there were tons of bars, and souvenier shops that specialize in t-shirts with crude sex jokes. During the day, we left there and toured the huge Grand Palace and adjacent Wat (temple). The first two days were really all about seeing enormous Buddhas in enormous Wats.
Not liking Bangkok very much, we quickly headed south to the small island of Ko Tao. It's a diving mecca, known as the cheapest place in the world to get certified. We caught a night train which was awesome -my first experience with a sleeper. We ended up talking to a French woman near us late into the night. She was a really interesting character -she lives in Japan and does art/video installations for the fashion industry (Emma, do you know the Laptop Orchestra?). After she and Zoo went to bed, I went up to the dining car and just sat there with a Singha and the windows down in total bliss.
Ko Tao turned out to be paradise. We picked a dive resort called Buddha View (big rock on the bay kinda looks like a Buddha) a little ways from the main beaches. It's got a good rep though so I think I got excellent training. I basically spent my days doing the dive course and Zoot relaxed or kayaked.
Diving scared the hell out of me at first -breathing underwater is freakish and wrong- but I eventually learned to calm down and enjoy it. The course pretty much filled my days with two half-days of classes and six dives. The instructors were cool and so were the folks I did it with. I've even got an underwater DVD of all of us doind stupid stuff on our last day. Most importantly, they taught us the primary rule of diving: look cool. To that end, I can do flips and blow bubble rings pretty damn well. No pictures yet though. I don't plan on spending my whole time here writing and uploading.
After I finished diving, we decided to move on to Chiang Mai in the north. The first part of the trip had to be on a high-speed catameran. All other ferries had cancelled due to high swells (like 3-5m) but this one is more stable supposedly. Let's just say it wasn't a fun ride. Half the people were throwing up because it was swaying 45 degrees in either direction. Either that or because Bruce Almighty is a really cheesy movie. So we got there safe and caught the night train to Bangkok (sounds like a movie name). Since it actually left fairly early, we headed into the dining car expecting another relaxing drink like the last train. Instead, it was dimly lit with Christmas lights and they were playing loud Thai music videos. The waiter was a gender-bending Thai man (?) who sang along in a high pretty voice to all the songs. Then he suddenly got an idea, switched to a karaoke DVD, and serenaded me with "I've Never Been To Me" -the transvestite anthem. Not satisfied, he proceeded to play a string of western songs we didn't really know and tried to get us to sing along. We put it off for a while but Zoot and I both got talked into some. Strange night.
Anyway, we made it to Chiang Mai and so far all I've done is eat and use the computer. Better get going so I have more to write about.
As most of you know, I'm travelling throughout SE Asia with my little sister Susanna (aka Zoot). She flew into Seoul way back on the 10th and we hung out with my friends in Korea for a while. You've all heard my take on Korea so I'll try to keep it short. We crammed a ton of palaces and temples inton our first day in Seoul. After that, we took the train back to Daegu and stayed with Cat for a few days. I just took Zoot around my hangouts and all the not-so exciting things we usually do. Then on Saturday, we took a train back to Seoul with Emma, Andrea, and Daryl. Spent the day shopping and went out that night and had an odd night. I'll refrain from details to protect the weak of heart (i.e. parents) but we had fun in the end. It wasn't at all the weekend I was hoping for and I ended up having a very awkward goodbye with Cat.
So on to Thailand. We got into Bangkok late so we ended up staying at a craphole the first night. The second place was much nicer in a ridiculously cheap and spartan sort of way. It was run by this really friendly man who had a daughter in the US and had actually travelled there himself. We stayed in the backpacker zone called Khao San Rd which I didn't really like. It clearly catered to a different sort of person from Zoot and myself. The restaurants were fine, but there were tons of bars, and souvenier shops that specialize in t-shirts with crude sex jokes. During the day, we left there and toured the huge Grand Palace and adjacent Wat (temple). The first two days were really all about seeing enormous Buddhas in enormous Wats.
Not liking Bangkok very much, we quickly headed south to the small island of Ko Tao. It's a diving mecca, known as the cheapest place in the world to get certified. We caught a night train which was awesome -my first experience with a sleeper. We ended up talking to a French woman near us late into the night. She was a really interesting character -she lives in Japan and does art/video installations for the fashion industry (Emma, do you know the Laptop Orchestra?). After she and Zoo went to bed, I went up to the dining car and just sat there with a Singha and the windows down in total bliss.
Ko Tao turned out to be paradise. We picked a dive resort called Buddha View (big rock on the bay kinda looks like a Buddha) a little ways from the main beaches. It's got a good rep though so I think I got excellent training. I basically spent my days doing the dive course and Zoot relaxed or kayaked.
Diving scared the hell out of me at first -breathing underwater is freakish and wrong- but I eventually learned to calm down and enjoy it. The course pretty much filled my days with two half-days of classes and six dives. The instructors were cool and so were the folks I did it with. I've even got an underwater DVD of all of us doind stupid stuff on our last day. Most importantly, they taught us the primary rule of diving: look cool. To that end, I can do flips and blow bubble rings pretty damn well. No pictures yet though. I don't plan on spending my whole time here writing and uploading.
After I finished diving, we decided to move on to Chiang Mai in the north. The first part of the trip had to be on a high-speed catameran. All other ferries had cancelled due to high swells (like 3-5m) but this one is more stable supposedly. Let's just say it wasn't a fun ride. Half the people were throwing up because it was swaying 45 degrees in either direction. Either that or because Bruce Almighty is a really cheesy movie. So we got there safe and caught the night train to Bangkok (sounds like a movie name). Since it actually left fairly early, we headed into the dining car expecting another relaxing drink like the last train. Instead, it was dimly lit with Christmas lights and they were playing loud Thai music videos. The waiter was a gender-bending Thai man (?) who sang along in a high pretty voice to all the songs. Then he suddenly got an idea, switched to a karaoke DVD, and serenaded me with "I've Never Been To Me" -the transvestite anthem. Not satisfied, he proceeded to play a string of western songs we didn't really know and tried to get us to sing along. We put it off for a while but Zoot and I both got talked into some. Strange night.
Anyway, we made it to Chiang Mai and so far all I've done is eat and use the computer. Better get going so I have more to write about.
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