southern thailand to chiang mai

Hey everyone! I'm currently in Chiang mai, Thailand. This place might be my favorite so far, the vibe is amazing. I will get to Chiang mai in a bit but first let me fill you in on what we did in the south. In railay we wondered around the town and went to the beach. It was a small beach enclosed by monstrous limestone cliffs that resemble scenes of Jurassic park. I honestly kept starring at them in hopes of seeing a teradactyle. Ok maybe not but I did call for them with my mating call. We got some food afterwards with views of the bay and the mangrove forests. The food was ok but the visual stimulation made up for it. We had our eye on a reggae bar that had a roof top so we stopped there before heading to sleep. The next morning we got up to get breakfast at a restaurant on the water and looked for our laundry that we had dropped off the night before. We booked a tour that took you snorkling at multiple islands and than swimming with the glow in the dark plankton. We were pretty amped on the trip. The trip left at 2pm so we went to the beach to relax and swim. The time came for when the trip should depart but no sign of anyone. The weather was also getting really windy and overcast. We wait 20 minutes past the departure time and head to the travel agency and found out the trip was canceled due to the weather. The lady was really nice about it and gave us suggestions on what to do in the beach area. She told us of a hidden lagoon just a short walk away. As we make our way there there are a bunch of caves to walk thru and explore. I pop out one of them and here voices above me. I look up to see a few muddy people making their way down a cliff side by holding a rope tied to a tree. A girl passes me by and warns me of what lies ahead. The warning made me more interested in the hike so we begin climbing up the steepness. The trail is filled with a clayish like mud and the passer by's are covered in it. We get over the top of the mountain and made our way down to find three layers we had to descend into. It was straight up rock climbing type degree of difficulty. I was worried that amanda was gonna want to turn back but she had no doubt in her mind on pursuing the end! We lowered our selves down the three shelves and found ourselves in a hidden lagoon surrounded by limestone cliff walls. I felt like I was in a different world or planet, something out of avatar. Life was growing on everything, the rocks had trees growing out of them and the trees had orchids growing on them. We climbed our way back out and followed the path we were once on and it led us out to another beach area. By this time the sun was going down and the tide was out so we had a beautiful big beach to walk down. But first things first we need to wash all the mud off that covered our bodies. This was no easy task and needed help by using the sand as an exfoliate to scrub it all out. By bathing suit is still to this day stained orange, i kinda like it for the memory. While on the beach we spot a group of masked monkeys chilling in the trees above us and watch them monkey around. As we make our way back to the trail we spot a group of another kind of monkeys and they are called Macaque. And that is pronounced Ma-Cock. The macaque is so nice, very friendly to all. Lol i still laugh about this name and make references to Macaque. Its now getting dark and we make way for dinner and for sleepy time. The next morning we wake up early for breakfast and than catch our boat for Koh Lanta. Lanta is an island just south of Railay and is known for being very relaxed and less touristy. We get to the island by mid afternoon and check into our bungalows which are really nice. Before coming to Thailand I had gone to a Reel Big Fish concert and beer fest and cut my foot while dancing near the pit. This cut is still on my foot to this day as i write. I have herd horror stories of needing to keep your wound dry or really bad things can happen. So my usual, i get worried, so i go to the clinic and ask them what i should do. The clinic was closed because of slow season but the lady was nice enough to look at it and prescribe me some meds. She also barred bad news...i could no longer go into the ocean if i wanted my infection to heal. With this said we left the next day and headed for Koh Phi-Phi (pronounced Ko-Pee-Pee) which is where the beach was filmed, so expecting to be gorgeous. As the ferry approaches the island i can see why everyone raves of this island. The water is super pretty and the island around give you great backdrops. There are no cars on this island only scooters and bicycles. We explore the town and buy a tank top that says i love phi phi and than head to the beach for a beer, relaxation, and reggae music. Amanda swims in the bay while I jam out with a local. The day on the island was great but now we need to board our next ferry for Phuket Town. When we arrive on the island we are told to wait for our mini bus transfer. Its about a 100 of us waiting and when the last of the people get off the ferry the tour guide hands out a bunch of papers. The papers had lists of hotels they had to go to drop off all the tourists/travellers. It was mayhem out here with yelling and screaming. It took a little while and than everyone dispersed and went there own way. We were heading to Patong which is on the otherside of the island which we were told to go to for the nightlife especially ping-pong shows. We booked a guesthouse online that had amazing reviews but we found out that no one knows where it is located. After 20 minutes our driver finally finds it and the reviews were right. For 7 usd a night we got our own room, bathroom, a/c, tv, and balcony overlooking the streets. Super nice place! That night we got a quick eat at a local place (garlic pepper chicken) and headed to bangla rd to scope out the ping pong shows. Now let me explain to you what a ping pong is if you dont know already. Its pretty much a glorified strip club that specialized in certain performance acts. The ping pong is what got them famous and noow they are doing all sorts of stuff including shooting darts at balloons. While wondering bangla rd we cant figure out which ping pong show to go to. We just feel weird going to one so we cant make a decision. While discussing it we get surprised by the first person we met in thailand back in bangkok airport. Really crazy running into him. We caught up on our travels and than headed to a bar that had live music, cheap beer, and of course jenga and 4 in a row. Those are great forgotten american games but not here in thailand. You can find them at most bars. We play a few rounds of connect four before a man from dubai comes to our table to play some competitive jenga. His name was Joe, and is a heavy set man that was f-in hilarious. He knew how to have a good time and continually bought us beers and shots. We went to the ping pong show with him and he acted like an absolute crazy man. I honestly love this man. I cried so many times out of laughter due to all his antics. While watching the show Joe keeps trying to be part of the show and gets us kicked out. By this time its really late so amanda and i make our venture back to our room. The next day we wondered the markets and streets of Patong. Its market galore here and you can find whatever you are looking for. We make our night short and wake up the next morning to pack for our flight to chiang mai. The next day we catch a mini bus for the airport in the late afternoon and we arrive in chiang mai at 10pm. We get to our guesthouse and immediately make our way for the night market to get some tastyness. And there it was some of the most tasty of tasty, water dumplings! For 1 usd i got a meal of water dumplings, for .70 usd i got fresh young coconut water, and for another 1 usd i got a tasty tasty tasty rotee ( banana pancake-thin dough cooked to a crisp with banana and egg inside than topped off with chocolate sauce and condensed milk). So for 2.70 usd i got the best filling meal. The next morning we woke to get breakfast and then our day was spent wondering anf exploring the streets of chiang mai. This is so far my favorite city in asia. Everyone is so so nice, the food is great(and cheap), and so many little streets to explore. Our day was finished off by stopping by a dermatologist to check out a mole that has been getting bigger on me. He said it looks benign but to be safe he will cut it off. The appointment cost 3 usd, pretty expensive i know. He will cut it off tomorrow and i am a little nervous but feeel like its got to be done to be safe. After the doctor we went again to the night market to get food and fell asleep instantly once getting back to the room. Now this morning we woke up for a whitewater rafting trip on the Maetaeng river. It is the end of rainy season here so the water is high and strong. We had a blast and the rapids were big. A tree had fallen across one of the rapids so the crew had to get us off the rafts and skip the area. As everyone gets off i look at my guide and ask can i go down with you, at the same time point to my GoPro, and he is like yeah one person only. I was the only one aloud to go down with the rest of the guides, good times. We returned to the city and expectantly were hungry and found a great vegetarian restaurant. Now im here in a internet cafe writing to you all. I feel good to have caught up on this blog but I feel even better that im going to buy myself a Chang (The best beer in thailand). Cheers to all you reading this, till next time....