Some pics

4,000 Islands and into Cambodia

Hello everyone! Its been quite some time since I've last written a post and been meaning to but have been really busy or nowhere near internet. Since the last post my journey has been great and filled with many experiences. When I left Vientiane, Laos we took an overnight bus to Pakse in south region to connect to another bus which would drop us off in the 4,000 islands. The 4,000 islands is part of the Mekong River at the border of Cambodia, still in Laos. We spent four amazing nights in our own bungalow on the river for just $2.50 a night. That's 1.25 a person! On the first day we spent it by renting bicycle's to tour the small island of Don Det and Don Khon. These islands have just recently got electricity (2 years ago) and are very much like village life. While riding you see locals harvesting their rice, re-structuring their homes, fishing, and of course kids playing naked in the river. These kids are living the dream! They have quite the playground with many trees to jump off and makeshift rope swings to fling themselves joyously into the muddy Mekong. People don't have much money at all here but the smiles are larger than i have ever seen. Back in the western world I have always thought how life would be living off the land with no need for money or status. Doing your daily duties with long hours and in the end, tired eyes, leading to great sleep. Most people have so much want and forget what its like to need. These people don't know what its like to want and only know the feeling of need. While riding bike and pondering all these thoughts we find ourselves at the bridge to cross from Don Det to Don Khon. We decide to pay the 3 dollar fee to cross because it includes entrance into the largest water by volume in all of southeast Asia. When we get to the waterfall it is as I imagined! The rainy season has just ended so the water is close to peaking. Your peripherals are filled many falls and your ears with thunderous explosions. In the mix of it all, the locals have some how found a way to put a bamboo fishing trap right in the middle of some rocks where water vigorously rushes through. Whoever positioned this contraption must be very proud, I know I would be. After the falls we explore the rest of Don Khon which highly is uninhabited. We are dead tired now and make our way back to our bungalow which is about 1.5 miles away from town on Don Det. We chose to stay far out of town to get more of an experience and for the tranquil aspect. Each night we would walk into town for dinner and to chill at a local bar/lounge that had great vibes. The next day we spent our time just chilling with no plans, something that we've been wanting to do. We plan to leave the next day for Cambodia but while walking around town the bar owner where we have been chilling tells us that he is putting together a BBQ on an island up the river. It sounds amazing so we decide to stay another night and go on the trip. The group of people that joined us on the trip were amazing and made the trip so much better. With all like minded travelers we depart on our longtail boat for an island somewhere north. We all get acquainted and most of us all live in Colorado. You don't meet many Americans out here let alone Coloradoians, not sure if thats how you say that. We arrive at the island and its definitely not what everyone expected but we all make the most of it. I start by diving right into that mukky mek (this is what I have nicknamed the Mekong, due to its clay color) and instantly feel refreshed. Our day is spent eating, swimming, frisbeeing, lounging, and me building the first ever pyramid tube. Thats right a pyramid tube. It reminds me of when my good friend Liz, aka LDS (Liz Da Shit), invented pyramid beer pong. So pyramid tubing is when you take a bunch of inner tubes and stack them in a pyramid shape. Than each tube is filled with a persons bottom with of course only one person at the top. I did not think it would work but in fact it did. Pictures will be put up one day to show this amazing feat. After all day on the island we end it by tubing the Mekong back to Don Det at sunset. With beer in hand, friends on hand, and the most beautiful sunset in sight. I cant help but smile and chills fill my body. As I write right now I get chills of that moment. Back at Don Det we end the trip at the reggae bar where you can jump off there deck, about 25feet high. I absolutely loved the 4,000 islands and would suggest it to everyone. The next day we woke to take the boat ride to the mainland to get a bus ride into Cambodia! But first I had to get the boat started! The normal boat for transportation was being used by the owner for a fishing trip so his wife would take us to the mainland with her boat. But her boat is much smaller, narrower, and hardly used. After about 5 minutes of me pulling a lawnmower like engine I begin to think that we will not make our trip to Cambodia. But then a roar I never thought I would hear erupts from the engine and the motor is alive. I instantly scream loudly "YESSSSSSSS" and I look back at Amanda and a fellow traveler and we all smile and laugh. We all thought it we weren't gonna make it to the mainland. We spent our day from 8am until 2am the next day in transit to the infamous city of Siam Reap. This was the longest journey we have embarked on as well as the most bumpy. Getting to Siam Reap we are bombarded by dozens of tuk-tuk drivers wanting our business. The bus of course drops us off miles away from town so that tuk-tuk drivers can hassle you for money. We have no choice but to pay them for a ride because I know I would never walk miles down a street at 2am in a city I have no knowledge on. The next day we spend the first couple hours finding a cheap place to stay close to the city center. With great efforts we find a place for 6usd a night right in the middle of town with a balcony overlooking the lively streets. FYI, in Cambodia they use 2 types of currencies, USD and Real. So if something costs 2.50usd and you give them 3usd you will get back 2,000 real. 1usd=4,000 real. Shit is confusing and weird! That day we chill and recoup from the long day of travel. While wondering the streets and the endless amount of markets i find myself really enjoying the city, much more than I expected. I have got a lot of mix reviews from travelers so I knew everyone views this place much different than one another. Amanda has become very agitated with how pushy the locals are and doesnt feel the same way. For me I am looking past the market people, tuk-tuk drivers, and beggars. I am seeing how the people are outside of the tourist industry and see a very kind and happy culture. FYI again, a lot of Americans might not know the history of this great country. The history dates back 1,000's of years but has some crucial parts of it that dates back only 20-30 years ago. Its horrifying to learn what they have been through and experienced. I will not go into the Khmer Rouge regime, but if you know nothing of it, than you must learn! Please! So with that stated I put that in hand with observing the locals and am so bewildered with their extreme smiles and laughs. Such forgiving people so I appreciate that sincerely. I grew up with me being hard to forgive people but with time I have found myself understanding the importance of forgiving. So the rest of that day we spent haggling with marketers with no intentions of buying but just for the sole purpose of fun. The next day we hire a tuk-tuk driver to take us around to the temples that surround Angkor Wat. The driver picks us up from our guesthouse at 4:50am, yeah thats correct, to go to Angkor Wat for the sunrise. Angkor Wat is one of the 7 wonders of the world! The sunrise is vibrantly pink with a grey mixture. There are much clouds on the horizon making the light spread throughout. Some people like there sunrises with no clouds for the view of the sun is sheer blinding but I myself love the way the light scatters through the clouds. Minute by minute the the sky changes with a multitude of colors. As My eyes overdose on beauty I think to myself what it was like 900 years ago building this great architectural accomplishment. With the sun in the sky now we depart Angkor Wat to drive to outer Wats. We dont want to see Angkor first and decide to save it for the next day. So we spend the rest of the day seeing a plethora of sights and by 3pm my eyes and mind grow soar and body tired. The next day we rent bicycles to take in the sights of all the temples. Angkor Wat is first where we see jaw dropping architecture! The highlights of the day are Angkor Wat, Bayon, and Angkor Thom. All are amazing in their own way but i knew i would like Angkor Thom the most. This temple has enormous trees growing on top of the temple showing how old this place really is. They shot Tomb Raider here for all you video game freaks. These temples date back to the year 900 and are not of one religion. There is a mix of Hindu and Buddhist inscriptions on the walls. The reason for this is when travelers came through that region many years ago they brought religion with them. The natives I guess believed in both and have depicted them in their art work. This would be our last night in Siam Reap and I have decided to buy a painting for memories. We search vigorously through markets before i find an amazing one of village life. We then get a foot massage in reward of our extreme past 2 days. We leave the next morning and during the 6hour drive I am stuck reading a book the my friend Mike H told me I need to read. Its called "First They Killed my Father" and its a memoir of a young girl during her tragic time when the Khmer Rouge was in control. While enduring a rough bumpy road my eyes stay fixated on her words of sadness and anger. I am a grown man and I have no problem saying that this book made tear up. Its hard not to put myself in her situation and feel as she feels. Thanks Mike for the read it has made my experience in Cambodia much more fulfilling. When we arrive in Phenom Penh we again are bombarded by tuk-tuk driver but this time its mid-day and we can walk it out. We wonder through this maze of a city in search of a nice place to stay near restaurants and bars. It takes us hours before we find ourselves on the river front, the river is the Tonle Sap. We find a cheap place and than get some food. The streets here are filled, like to the max with locals. That night was the seventh day of mourning of the king. The king died at age 90 and will be in the palace for viewing for the next 3 months. The first seven are most important but the the seventh day is of utmost. We walk down to the palace and there are thousands of monks walking down the streets as if in a parade. The people say there are over a 100,000 people in this area at that moment. Its a sight thats is so hard to explain or fathom. These people loved this King and say hes the best ever. They love him so much that they say they can see him in the moon. They say the moon has never looked this way before. Extreme! It gets crazier because after all the monks walk buy and it is all over thunder strikes with a loud boom. Then again and then a torrential down pour covers the city. The last day of mourning is ended with some of the hardest we've seen on this trip. The gods were crying! Wow what an experience to be in this city at this time. I will never forget that moment. After the rain subdues we got back to the guesthouse for some much needed sleep and the next day we, which is today, is firstly spent at a school that was turned into a prison during the Khmer Rouge. Horrifying, the words of the book I'm reading come to life with visual stimulants. Super sad but had to be seen. I just dont know how they can let the people in charge of the Khmer Rouge stay alive to this day! Still no punishment. We just got back from that and will now go to the palace to go inside for today is the first day the public can see the king. We will leave tomorrow for Sihanouk ville where the beaches are white and empty! I highly enjoyed writing this post because I also highly am enjoying the experiences of Cambodia! Hope you all enjoyed as much as I did! Will write soon!

Laos OH Laos

Hello! Its been quite some time since ive last wrote a post. Amanda and I have been very busy travelling with some new friends weve met. The last time I wrote we were in Thailand and now we are in the great country of Laos (pronounced Lao). We entered the country by crossing one of the greatest rivers in the world, the Mekong. This river starts its journey in the tallest mountain range in the world and makes its way into Laos. We crossed the river at about 5:30pm and went straight to customs in Laos to get our passport stamped. They ended up charging us an extra U.S. dollar to enter because of the so called overtime tax. This was not legal and i demanded a receipt so i could show to a consulate. They wrote me one and it read 35 instead of 36 dollars. After several minutes of requesting the right receipt I got nowhere. I gave up due to soaking my shirt in sweat from the crazy heat. We dropped our bags off at a nice guesthouse and then headed for a walk/beer. We passed by the office of The Gibbon Experience and saw some people we met on the bus standing outside. They were going to do the experience in a couple of days and it made us rethink the idea of doing it ourselves. We had been going back and forth on whether or not we would do the tour. We herd great stories and horrible stories about it. The price was also deterring us from booking it but while sitting in the office we decided that it is a once in a lifetime chance, and booked it. Our trip would leave the next morning at 8am and would last till the next day. We ran into our friends on the street again and we went to a river view restaurant for beers and dinner. They were from Holland and are on a similar trip as ours. The food was decent but the company was much better. We had a great night in the tiny town of Huay Xai and before making it back to our guesthouse we ran into a couple that owned a convenience store. This couple was Amazing, they spoke great broken english and were extremely eccentric. They helped us get everything we needed for our night in the jungle and than we were off to sleep. The next day we went into the jungle by truck with just one other couple. Once out of the truck we began our hike into the jungle for about 2 hours and 30 minutes. This is where we started zip lining! We ziplined through jungle, valleys, over rivers, and to treehouses. This might of been one of the best days of my life. We got to our treehouse at around 2pm where we had snacks and drinks while relaxing. The treehouse had epic views of the valley below and a great breeze to put me in a mood for a nap. At 5pm the guides came back to take us on another ziplining trip and this one took us to the so called biggest tree in Laos. This thing is huge! The tree has been blessed by a local monk and wrapped with traditional orange cloth to protect it from Paul Bunyan. We returned to our treehouse hours later for dinner and than the guides left us to be for the rest of the night.The food was great and the sounds of the jungle were ridiculous. Theres a fly the lives here thats over 7 inches long, HUGE, and makes the craziest noises in the evening. Its not just the monstrous fly making noise, its every animal performing at different times. Its as if they have set times in the evening on when they perform their show. I got some great sleep that night and in the morning we woke to do more ziplining as well as hiking. We ended our hike at a small village where we had lunch prepared by some locals. We were than transported by truck along an extremely muddy road back to Huay Xai. We got stuck in the mud 3 times and one of the times both trucks got stuck. The two days were action packed full of adventure. The next day we woke early to grab snacks and head to the slow boat dock to catch a boat ride down the Mekong to Luang Prabang. The trip would take 2 full days with a nights sleep in the town of Pakbeng. This was one of the best experiences of the trip where amanda and i met so many good people. We met 3 other couples that we would travel/hangout with for the next 4 or 5 days. After the long journey we made it to the great town of Luang Prabang and instantly searched for accommodation due to lack of sunlight. A bunch of us slowboaters grouped together and than slowly disintegrated. We found a descent guesthouse for 5usd with another couple we met, Brien and Jamie. The place was in a great location and to find out we had 2 other slowboaters in the same one with a couple more across the street. Luang Prabang has a daily night market that is incredible to wonder thru so this is what we did first. Before getting to the market we ran into Christopher and Angelique, a couple from Sweden, so they came along with us. We sped thru the market because everyone was hungry. We stumbled upon a night food market and found heaven. This market had a large variety of food and we found ourselves eating at a buffet for 1.20usd. I decided to go all out and get a BeerLaos to go along with the tastyness. After diiner we saw our friends Lesa and Tesa (from denmark and holland) and asked them if they wanted to join us in the morning to go to the waterfalls. So in the morning we had 4 couples all pitch in to get a tuk-tuk to take us to Kuang SI and Tad Sae. Before embarking on our trip we met for breakfast and had crepes and fresh fruit shakes. The first waterfall was Kuang Si which is the bigger of the two. The falls had places to swim, jump, and rope swing. The water was a beautiful turquoise color and the temperature was so perfect. We found a trail that took us to the top of the falls with epic views and adventurous trekking. After spending a few hours we got our things, got some food, and headed for the next falls. The ride to Tad Sae was very bumpy and long but it was well worth all the effort. The falls were only approachable by boat so we had to hire a local to drive us there. The boat ride was amazing, we passed local kids playing in the river while the adults fished for dinner. These falls were just as amzing but in a different way. The first falls were huge and roaring with sound and the latter was filled with dozens of pools to swim. We found ourselves far up the river with not enough time to get back to the boats before they left us. So we ran down there to let them know we still need a ride. They almost left us to! The day was absolutely amazing with such pretty sights and the greatest company. That night brien, jamie, amanda , and i got dinner at a riverside restaurant and than went for a walk along the river. I herd some live music and my ears followed it to find that it was a traditonal Laos musical dance. I got some coconut rice patties at the night market and than we ran into Lesa and Tesa. They were going to Utopia for drinks so we decided to tag along and follow. This bar/lounge was right on the river in a residential neighborhood and had the best views/vibe. After a beer I got up to go to the bathroom to find that the bar has a night time beach volleyball court. To add to it there were people from the slow boat playing and they needed more people. So I played some volleyball for a little while and than walked back to our guersthouse. The next morning we rented bikes to cruise around town and see the temples. Saw lots of the city and got so hot doing it we decided to got to a fancy resort and use their pool. All we had to do was buy one drink and we could swim for however long we would like. That night we went to the night food market to find a lady I read about the serves Pho and Khoa Soy, both soup dishes. We found her and now I love her. The food was so amazing that I ate both dishes. We ran into all our friends on the street market and decided to meet at Utopia for some volleyball. It was a great night of competitive ball and beeeeers. The next morning we caught a bus to Vang Vieng and got into the town in the late afternoon. We took the bus with jamie and brien and while looking for a guesthouse we found tesa and lesa swimming in the river. We booked two nights at the same place they got which had great views of the karst cliffs as well as sunset. We had great indian food that night as well as some buckets of liquor. The next morning we went to the blue lagoon for swimming and jumping and than went tubing down the river. Mike Im sorry to say that the real tubing has been shutdown due to 22 deaths this year. Although all the bars were shutdown we still had a blast. That night we kept it chill and relaxed on our balcony and had an amzing melon shake. The next morning we caught a 7am bus for Vientianne where we dropped our bags off at brien and jamies guesthouse and than went straight to Xeing Khuan (aka Buddha Park). This park has infused Buddhism, Hinduism, and Mythology. Its a really trippy park and was well worth the rough ride out there. Now that brings me to the present moment where I am in a internet cafe in the Vientianne city center. We are going to grab some dinner with our friends and than Amanda and I will leave for Pakse, Laos. We are taking a sleeper bus that leaves at 8pm and gets to pakse at 6am. We will miss all of our new friends weve traveled with but home to see them one day in the future. My friend christopher I met here said goodbye to me in Luang Prabang and than added "I hope to meet you again". I really like that phrase cause you never know if you'll see these people again in ur life. And if i dont, it was well worth meeting them once. Wish us luck on our sleeper bus! It was great finally catching up with writing and I hope next time it will be an easier write. Life is great!

Pai- Avoid the news

Hello world! I'm back in Chiang Mai and will be leaving in the morning for Huay Xai, Laos. Our journey in Thailand has come to an end but we will be back at the end of November to see Ayuthaya and Lopburi! Last time I wrote it was my final night in Mae Hong Son. The next morning we road our motorbikes up the 1095 and stopped at a meditation retreat. We were told by some local falangs that there was free meditation at this wat about an hour north of Mae Hong Son. The place was beautiful and well landscaped, everything you would want a meditation retreat to look like. To our surprise nothing was going on since it was the rainy (slow) season so we walked around the premises and enjoyed the sights. We got back on the highway and headed for the hills where I highly enjoyed the turns of the road. I felt like I was in a moto race on my little 125cc scooter lol. I was surprised how well this little guy handled the road, I miss him already. Our next stop was the town of Soppong which is about 40 minutes away from Pai. In Soppong there are a large amount of caves and many that are unexplored. There's one in particular that we had our eye on, specifically for being able to raft through the cave. What I mean is that there is a river that runs through the cave and out the end of it. The river was to high so we werent able to raft through the whole cave but just a small portion of it, still amazing. When you get to the cave you see this huge opening in a cliff wall with bats and swifts flying frantically around. The cave was fun but we jetted out quickly cause we needed something tasty to eat. Pai was a short ride away but filled with many turns and potholes, i love dem potholes. We arrived in Pai by 2pm and and right away began looking for places to stay. After looking at several places we found our spot right on the river on a nice side street. It was super close to the nightlife but tucked away enough for schleepy time. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the town and having some tea at a local tea store. They dried their own tea and had homemade kombucha which i love. That night we went to a couple bars but it was extremely dead so we didnt party all that much. The next day we went on an Elephant ride that we herd good things about. I was excited and not so excited about it, didnt know what it would be like. It ended up being a lot of fun and playing in the river with our friend was awesome. At the end of our journey we fed her her favorite treat, green bananas. She also loves bamboo, like blake, and will tear up huge chunnks of it. Oh and btw we got to the elephant farm via the police. Yeah he dropped us off and picked us up. When he brought us back to town people were laughing at the situation, they didnt know what to think. We than went into the hills on a scenic road to look for a waterfall that had a natural slide. We found it but the water was too high once again so the slide wasnt safe. For lunch i finally satisfied my craving for a burger at a place near our guesthouse and it was so so amazing. It had bacon, cheddar, bbq sauce, sauteed onions and fresh sweet potato chips. All that for 3 usd and thats an expensive lunch for what I like to spend here. I usually average 2 usd for lunch. With all that american in me a nap was due. That night we walked the streets through the market that has anything from street food to handmade goods. We ran into a guy from the U.S. that had the same backpack as us and ended up chilling with him at this really nice outdoor lounge. We were surrounded by great people, good music, and delicious tasty beer. The conversations were thorough on traveling with what to do and what not. Had a great time that night. The next morning we woke early to head for chiang mai to return our motobikes before noon. We took our malaria pills on an empty stomach and in turn got sick. After 45 minutes or se we were able to hit the road with worries of having to pay for another day. We got to our guesthouse in CM with 5 minutes to spare, some serious driving. That day we just relaxed, ate, and slept. The next day we went to doi suthep to see a big temple on the top of a mountain. It was really pretty but filled with hundreds of tourists. We than went to check the results of my mole that had hints of looking like something bad and they came back benign! A feeling of relief went thru my body. Our bus ticket to Laos has been booked and now Im going to the city walls to meet a friend from Taiwan, she worked with us in West Yellowstone. I hope you all enjoyed our travels. Please remember to save your money so that u2 can experience what this world has to offer. Experience Life!

Chiang Mai and The Mae Hong Son loop

Hello world! Im writing to you from the small city of Mae Hong Son in northwest Thailand near the Myanmar (Burma) border. Before we got here we spent one more night in Chiang Mai where we had a lazy day relaxing and prepping for our journey. At night I got a trad Thai massage and than Amanda and I went to a bar that was a tuk-tuk that turned into a bar. So it was a truck where the bartender sat in the back with bottles wrapping around him. Such a sweet little place smack in the middle of the streets of the old city. We conversed with fellow travelers and a bunch of locals. One of the locals showed me a drink called a Nikkito which is a Mojito but instead of rum it is replaced with rice liquor. She couldn't tell me what kind of liquor but damn was it tasty. After a few drinks we walked a couple blocks back to our guesthouse and got some good sleep. The next morning we got some breakfast at our guesthouse and than got on the road to travel the Mae Hong Son Loop. Mae Hong Son is the Northwestern province of Thailand and also a city. I was told about this driving loop from my friend Mike H,he said it was a must, so prior to traveling I did research on it and decided it had to be done. Amanda had never ridden a motorbike so we decided to head south first which we herd was the easier portion of the trip. As we leave the old city we are in search of a gas station cause I have absolutely no gas. Asking locals for directions is not easy but were told to keep pursuing in the same direction as our trip itinerary. And guess what? I ran out of gas! So what else do i do? I start pushing it down the traffic filled streets in search of gasolina but nothing in sight. After about 10 minutes a young man in a motorbike pulls over and starts trying to tell me something. Im not getting what hes trying to motion me and than i see him point to the seat so i sit down. This man ends up putting his foot on the back of my scooter and excels his throttle to push me down the road. I looked back at Amanda with a grin that was filled with happiness and amazement. These people are absolutely ridiculous. Where in the states would ever find someone doing this. And if someone who is reading this is thinking of specific place than let me know cause i dont believe it one bit. While going about 20-30kmh we reached the gas station after a few miles. I bid farewell to my friend and a he just looked at me with sincere happiness. He made my day and I will always remember that deed and hope to one day return that to someone. After much needed gas were cruising the streets of southern Chiang Mai in search of a Doi Anthanon Nat'l Park sign. We make it to the park entrance and pay the 7usd park entrance fee which was a lot for us. We didnt want to pay it but decided it was gonna be worth it. The next couple hours of driving, waterfalls, and dramatic scenery was well worth the money. We went from a hot mug city to a crisp and cold cloud forest. We leave the park towards the town of Mae Chaem going through some crazy twists and turns in the road. These are some serious turns and some portions of the road are very slick from the occasional rain fall. In the end we make it safe to the town and fuel up. We take a break to talk about if we want to stay in town or head for the small river town of Mae Sariang. Btw, its Amandas b-day! She decides that she wants to go forward and make the long trip. A little ways down the road we find out that its about 135 kilometers away and the roads were bad at this stage so we werent get great speed. This part of the trip ended up being really long and dragged out. We were tired, backs were hurting, and hungry. About an hour down the road we pull off to look at the map and a car pulls over to help. This women jumps out of the car and I can tell right away she is so excited to use her english. She is dressed in tribal wear and helps us with our directions. She ends up telling us to just follow her and she will point out which road to turn off. Now I've been getting worried because Amanda is scared of driving in the dark and the sun is setting quick. We end up getting to the city right before sundown, phew. This day was filled with up and downs so we are in search of food and sleep. With no reservations we stopped from place to place asking for prices. We found a real cheap but run down place and we almost stayed there. Amanda didnt look all that comfortable so I ran down the street to find more. I decided that we would splurge a little for her birthday and I bought us a night stay right on the river at a really cool guesthouse. It had air-con, a balcony overlooking the river and valley, and a real shower (the first one weve seen). We checked in and then walked down the street to a really cool restaurant right on the river. We got 3 dishes 1. Pad-c-eiw 2. Satay 3. Sweet mango w/sticky rice. All so amazing especially the latter. These were all enjoyed with several Chang's and good company from our neighboring table. We woke up late the next day and got on the road by 11am in search of the city, Mae Hong Son. The trip was 160km away and said to be a 3hour drive. It was an incredible drive and took us about 3 1/2 hours. We settled in at a guesthouse in the city center for 6 usd a night and went look at tours into the hilltribes. After looking at multiple tour companies we ran into a few Falangs (whities) and they steered us to not do them and we are so happy that we learned more. After having a beer with them we escaped a drunken repeater with a new friend. Jim, from Nashville was living and volunteering in the hills as a teacher. We left to go listen to the live jazz music being played by the lake but it ended up being american shit. One of the songs was Crazy Town- Butterfly, yeah i know really really bad choice Thailand. Instead we went to a little restaurant down the street and enjoyed some food and laughs. We said goodbye to our friend and than passed out. The next morning we got up early to walk through the markets and than drove into the mountains in search of something new, nothing specific. We found ourselves wondering through a waterfall, a mud spa, villages, a fish cave (filled with giant blue carp), and endless amounts of rice fields. The scenery here as Amanda says, is "breathtaking", lol. After exploring we went back to the city and had a late lunch and napped. And that brings me to the present moment. I hope you enjoyed this blog cause i know i did. See ya!

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....

Islands

Sawasdee! (Hello) Im writing to you from the shore of Railay beach just 30 minutes outside Krabi, Thailand. To get here you must hire a longtail boat for 3 usd because there are no roads to get here. I have not checked in with you guys for 5 days now so i will fill you in with what we've done. On friday night we took the overnight train down to Surat Thani and we did so after attempting to take a taxi to the train station. We wanted to be safe and get there early so we left 2 hours before the train departed and we almost missed it. It started raining and the traFFIc got shut down with no movement what so ever. After waiting at the light for over 20 minutes we decide to pay the cab and just walk it out. We end up getting to the train station minutes before and everything seemed to work out. Once i layed down for bed i suddenly became stricken with this extreme pain in my stomach, to be specific my upper stomach area. This pain i have never felt before and got me very nervous thinking i got food poisining or some other 3rd world sickness. That night was a bad night with no sleep and suprisingly no diahrea and no vomitting. Sorry to fill you in on this not so appetizing reading material but this is how things go when traveling. There are ups and and there are downs. We arrive at Surat Thani at 7;30am saturday morning and get right onto a bus heading for the port to catch our ferry for Koh Samui. We get to Nathon Town, Koh Samui mid morning and take a tuk-tuk kinda transportation ( a truck with bench seats in the back with a little gazebo type a thingy covering you) to Chaweng Beach on the opposite side of the island. These drivers are out of control flying down these pot hole filled streets while people of all ages zip by you on mo-peds. Its incredible mothers are holding their new born babys on their lap while also driving a mo-ped in a place where 6 people die a month. And thats 6 people just on that one little island. All the guide books and blogs say to not drive them on this island due to the dengers of breaking an ankle or even death. While holding on for life we meet two fellow travelers who have been on the road for years working and playing. They have an online business, sounds like a dream. We check into our hotel, the loft, and i am feeling sick still so i lay down for a bit before we walk the streets to take a little swim at the beesh. The beeesh is so beautiful and the water is even nicer temperature. The weather has been overcast since the morning and really gloomy like. My mom would absolutely love it, no sun and great temps. Btw hi mom hope all is well. That night turned out to be an early one and fell asleep by 5pm. We are still not used to the time and getting sleepy very early in the day. We woke early saturday morning with the plan to rent the oh so dangerous MO_PED. Almost every corner has a moped rental shop ranging from hotels, resorts, travel agencys, and just random homes. Ours was rented thru a travel agency and the price was 6.50 usd. Thats for a whole day too. So amanda, the scooter, and i take journey on the pot hole filled roads in search of waterfalls, beaches, and whatever else we can find. But right as we start riding it starts raining on us, and than it gets worse. We stop to take cover at the first bar/restaurant and it so happened to be right on a beautiful beach. It was a very small beach with on each side massive boulders. After a beer and many minutes later the rain lets up a little and we head for the streets in search of the 80M waterfall. The waterfall had an elephant riding safari ajoined to it and as we drove up elephants were everywhere with people on their backs. This may sound cool to all you westerners but it aint and thats that. White people feel the need to come to thailand and ride an elephant. They want to ride elephants because they love them and want to be close to them. Yeah you get to do that here but all your doing in the long run is supporting this abusive industry. They treat their elephants like shit, pardon the language. And to top it off they have chains strapped to their ankles while you ride them, so when your so called "trekking" all you here is the chains. Sorry to rant on like that but it really made me upset to see it in person. Now back to the waterfall, it was beautiful. We hiked up above the falls thru a thick forest to get great views of the beaches below. The trekking was so vigorous that we decide to head back to the beach we were once at to get massages on the beach. While coming down the mountain i feel that the scooter is riding a little different and ask amanda to see if the back tire is alright. The tire was dead flat and we were in no sign of a mechanic let alone gas station. The people here are so nice that someone on a scooter flying by slows down to point where i should go. LOVE the THAI. It ended up being a 30 walk down the street to moped mechanic. The inner tube was flat due to a nail puncture so i got him to replace it. 15 minutes later my mood went from being down to up up up high. We then went to a few beaches and on back to chaweng beach to book a tour for Ang Thong National Marine Park. After situating our tour we went in search of a massage on the beach. The sun was going down and the temperatures were getting nice. We paid 6usd for a full hour full body massage and let me tell you, this was amazing like really amazing. This lady will contort you in all sorts of ways and you leave feeling the most relaxed you have ever felt. Wow that was amazing and i look forward to the next. The next day we take our boat tour to the marine park and do hiking, kayaking, snorkaling, and boat jumping. The snorkaling at the first place was real murky so we decide to walk the beach thru the monsterous rocks. Within minutes of walking i look up on the boulder and there is this little face looking straight at me. Its eyes with white circles around them. It was a Masked Monkey! Super stoked on seeing a monkey i shout to amanda to come see. There ended up being a whole clan of them including babys. It was suck a cool expereince and i took plenty and plenty of photos. The day was long and everntful and what better way to end it than having a seafood feast. We had our eyes on this one place that was having a seafood bbq but it turned out to be crap. We walked the streets for a little before finding the right restaurant with the right food. We had a whole grilled snapper, 4 massive prawns ( not shrimps), 2 crabs, 2 calamari, mussels, and sides. Super super good food. It was my first time having prawns and amazing they were, sorta like a mini lobster. The next morning we had plans for a trip to krabi which is on the other side of thailand but i when i woke i thru up. It sounds bad but i thru up due to taking 2 pills at once on an empty stomach. We didnt know that at first and postponed our trip for the next morning. This ended up being a blessing in disguise. That day we went to Lemai and got a really nice place to stay and layed on the beach. We also went to this sweet reggae bar on the water that had treehouse sitting ares with great BLT's, those blt's hit the spot while laying out listening to damian. The next day we woke early to catch out bus for krabi and from krabi take a longtail boat to railay beach which i am right now. We are gonna go to a reggae bar now and than off to a Muay Tai fight. I cut the last bit short due to not more time on interent. I look forward to next time. Till then.