Bangkok

We only had 2 days in the city of Bangkok, but that was enough!

We have stayed long enough so that we could:
1) Buy tailor made clothing
2) Get a thai massage
3) Get a full leg waxing
4) Buy the last of cheap goods!
5) See the world famous sex show
6) Drink at the One More bar (aka roaming VW bus bar)
7) Send half of our backpack home

So, we have accomplished our tasks successfully. Besides, Bangkok is just a big city with alot of people and smog!

On the whole the country is the most western of any place that we have visited! It was a real shock to come from Nepal to Bangkok! A world of difference! My favorite part has definetly been the beaches! Not only is this place open for people, but animals too! It seems that the wild animals just procreate at all hours of the day! Alissa can't keep her eyes off them.

The most important take away from this country is the money making idea that we created. I can't extrapolate, as you might take our idea! I will elaborate with the required parties.

We are leaving for Brazil in the morning. I will be rendevousing with Buttercup, so I will be occupied for awhile. I might not add to the blog for awhile, I apologise!

Chiang Mai to Chiang Rai

We arrived in Chiang Mai and decided that all of the action is in Chiang Rai. So, we decided to
take the 3 hour VIP bus up to the Burma border province and check it out! This area is filled with all kinds of local and immigrant tribes. Of course, all of them are selling their craft to the tourists.

Our first day in Chiang Rai, we decided that we should rent bikes and trek around town. We went to the Fat Free Shop and scored ourselves some nice single speed, cruiser bikes. We successfully completed the town circuit in 2 hours!

We then decided that we needed to rent a car so that we could do all of the things that we wanted. We went to the travel place and we were allowed to rent a car for $20! Deal!
However, when ths car arrived, it had tourist police all over it. The policeman rents out his car to tourists to make extra cash. Yea, it was kinda shady, but it worked! We cruised about in a 4x4 tourist police jeep. Needless to say, no one bothered us.

We went to see the Golden Triangle -- tourist point where Burma, Laos and Thai meet.

Next, we saw the local villagers. Many of them migrated from Burma, as the gov't didn't want them in their country. Seems to be the common answer from the ex-Burmese people that we have encountered. I am sad that we never got to Burma, I think that it would be nice to see, but difficult. As the gov't regulates everything and anyone, especially outside influence. I assume that it would be very similiar to Nepal. So, we were not prepared to face more of the burreacracy.

The next day Alissa signed us up for the Elephant/Bamboo Raft/ "trekking" tour....not my idea, please know this! The "trekking" was a one hour gentle incline to a setup local village -- aka a way to get tourist to buy more shit! Afterwards, we got on elephants that walked in a circle. I was note happy about getting on them, so I was uncomfortable to start. Then the dude was hitting the elephants with this toll of sorts. I was ready to jump off, when the elephant started to encounter gastroinstestinal problems...sounds like alissa! After 30 painful mins, we got off!

Of course the day was not complete with out the bamboo rafting. I can't even commment because it was so bad!

I needed a drink after all of this, so we went on a mission to find the cheapest place in town. It turned out to be the transexual bar....$1.00 cocktails! My kinda place! We even made friends with the owner! Thailand is a very open country. It accepts everyone and allows all types of cross gender orientation. I have never seen so many transgender people in one country!

Away we went on the overnight train to Bangkok!

Shout out to Simon!!!

We thought of you today as we watched the 2 wild dogs hump like crazy outside of our hotel.

Thai cooking class

We arrived by train in Chiang Mai days ago and decided that we would like to take a cooking class. This place is notorious for trekking, but they had monster floods!!! We 86'd that and decided that we would rather eat. (We should call our trip the ice cream tour, rather than the world tour.)

Our day was to include several thai curries, desserts and soup, with the beginning of the day being spent at the local market collecting the ingredients. We were thinking ..."great, avian flu runs rampant in the market!", not to mention the rank smells. The market was not too bad, other than the flying cockroaches, stray 'n rabied dogs, unknown animals of all kinds and vegetables as big as your head! We also met the other members of the cooking group at market.

Members of the class:

Raphael - the jewish, gregarious, young, pre-NYU-law, road biker from ohio--- the most prominent figure of the day! This dude was cycling across SE Asia on bike to support www.tourfor equality.org. He had all of the hook-up, new cool phrases and not to mention money making ideas.

Miguel - the mexican, japanese/thai/chinese imposter school teacher from san diego. Very nice man who discussed teacher stuff with Alissa.

Couple - from switzerland and constantly PDA'd eachother.

Austrailan #1 - the doctor, man of few words.

Austrailan #2 - man with unknown profession, but did succeed at eatting the local dish, King Furious.

Permpoon - master chef and Emeril wannabe.

As usual Alissa and I were stars of the class, everyone knew our name and 'Poon thought we were sweet. We started off the class with sweet and sour prawn soup. It was so easy to make and within in 15 mins I was done. When Alissa was done, she sat down to eat her soup and said,"I can't believe I made this!" That explains the entire day at cooking school, we should be chefs.

Meanwhile, the Swiss couple were making out in the corner.

We went on to make green curry, but I enhanced the receipe with adding some squash. The master chef just loved it! (actually, I was too busy talking and didn't listen to instructions -- Raphael was teaching me the meaning and the use of the word scoon.) We also made penang and yellow curry, I didn't like the taste of either of them. Of course, we finished off the day with Pad Thai! Alissa and I scored the best, as we made it the omlette style (hard to cook).

The master chef made the Papaya salad and sticky rice with mango and we observed, so we didn't get the pleasure of making that dish. However, we were able to eat it!

When we were all finished we all sat down to enjoy our wonderful meals. This is when Alissa spoke with Miguel about teacher stuff. I was too busy listening to Raphael talk about his crazy plan to pay off law school and Austrailan #2 talk about the King Furious meal.

We are now Master Chefs!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

On our way home to our hotel, we learned the backpacker attraction to Laos -- opium smoking, laid back country of south east asia. Mystery solved!

End of Island Life

Today, we are leaving Koh Tao on the ferry heading towards Chumporn and then overnighting it on the train to Bangkok. Koh Tao has been much more eventful than Koh Samui, and less expensive! We started out on a bad note with Alissa crashing the scooter into me and 4 others, all before getting out of the parking lot! We drank the rest of the day.

We have made friends with the local restaurants Cafe del Sol and Cafe Tropicana. We were translators at the 'Trop because they needed an english person to write up the daily premier games. We made instant friends. Everytime we scooted, recklessly by on the motorbike, they waved to us. We drank alot at the 'Sol because it was pretty cheap and the people were nice. They want us to stay.

Yesterday, we decided to get some exercise and kayak around the island. This was a little more than we could handle. We got out on the open waves and Alissa started to panic when the boats went by and caused massive, tsnunami waves. I told her to keep paddling and that this was therapy for overcoming her fear of water. The only major currents came when we were trying to get around the big, phallic "buddha" statue. (it seems that every island has phallic buddha statues) It took us FOREVER, to make this part of the journey! In the mean time, we were getting baked by the sun! We were so careful not to get too much sun, but it was a bad scene. We hurried back to shore and to shade, after only 2 hours of paddling. It was an adventure!

We were greeted by our new friends --- a Burmese bartender and his compadre at the Koh Tao Resort. Alissa got her game on and challenged them to a round of bocci ball. She in for a workout, as these dudes spend all day pouring drinks and playin' the bocci! Alissa was all talk and no game, she lost 13-5. But, she made it up for it by smearing me 13-2!

Before, we return today, we had to give back the scooter. I didn't accompany Alissa to the office as I was busy packing my bags. But when she walked in the room all she could say was, "it was a battle!....the dude wanted to charge me 2,000 baht instead of 400!" I said, "No Way!" He tried to play ill to get sympathy, but she didn't buy and started to make a scene. He had to calm her down. She negotiated hard, but lost and had to pay $1000 baht because that was the only bill she had. (the dude was a total scam, and just wanted more money because there is no action on this island)

Hopefully, the ferry ride to mainland will be uneventful and we can sleep. The ferry ride here took 2x as long because we had to idle in the ocean to cool the engine.

Just another day in Koh Tao

We took the boat from Koh Samui to Koh this morning. We said goodbye o our lovely Coco Palms honeymooner resort and boarded the catamaran. We received only 4 hours of sleep and woke up at 5am (alissa's watch is in the twilight zone), so we expected to get some sleep on the 'cat...no such luck. The boat drove about 400M out to sea when it came to a complete stop and drifted in the ocean for 20 mins. Great! Everyone is gonna get sick and barf! No one one told us what was happening, so we started thinking the worst....it is sinkin'!!!!! I was preparing our exit and a way to swim to land with Alissa on my back (fyi-- she can't swim). Finally, the thai dude got on the P.A. and told us that the boat's engine was overheatin' and that we were idling tilll is chilled. Meanwhile, the boat was rockin' hard due to the storm the night before. People were barfing everywhere, it was bringing back memories of the cleanse.

After 30 mins, we were in biz! On the road again!
We arrived 3 hours later. De-boarding the boat we were greeted by the usual suspects of local guesthouse owners. We respectfully declined and jetted to the closest scootere rental joint . Alissa got an automatic and I got the cheaper standard. Alissa was getting her instruction of the bike, while I inspected mine. Next thing ya know, Alissa and her scooter crashed into me. She got outta hand during the mini lesson. Not only did she take me out, but also some innocent passerbys and 2 other free standing scooters. The owner just said, "it's ok, just get back on and go!"....we were off. Alissa on her scooter with a backpack as big as an elephant and a smaller version in the front basket. She was all over the road, it was a scary sight. We finally made it to Chalk Kon Beach, 1 mile later!

We were fortunate to land the last room at J.P. resort....$15/nite! We beached it for 2 hours and then held a happy hour in our room, courtesy of the local 7/11. We went local with the Thai wine cooler, Spy! Now, we are emailin and writing the blog. Next, we are headin' to the bar!

I didn't buy Duncan the crazy, sexy tshirt (I would have to tear too many brazilian chicks off of him), so I got him something better;)

Koh Samui and Koh Tao

On Monday, August 12th we said goodbye to Nepal. We left on Royal Nepal Airlines, not a very reliable airline. However, on this day they were on time. We left at 8.30am into clear, blue skies!!! Oh Yeah, this means great views of the Himalyan Mountains. For the first 30 mins we flew right next to the Himalyas, including Everest. It was the capstone of the trip!

We arrived in the crazy international airport of Bangkok. We were so exhausted from Nepal that we decided to buy a ticket directly to the islands in the gulf of thailand. We were undecided about the exact island, so we were fortunate to be sitting next to a dude from Buffalo who has been to all of the islands. After our discussion, we decided to get a flight on Bangkok Airways and head to the beach! Although, we did have to wait 6 hours in the airport. Not too bad!
We decided to do the DQ and get some ice cream! Bangkok Airways is the Southwest of Thailand --- except they provide seating, food and pre-boarding scooby snacks. My kinda flight!!!

The landing into Koh Samui was a little rough, but we made it! We found a nice little hotel on the beachfront! He have half of a lil cabin and no tele, but HBO!!!! Nice score for $25USD. However, it the place was crawling with honeymooners and families. And the honeymooners are PDAing it all over the place and having sex at all hours of the day. We have heard alot of crazy noises. But, to keep us at bay, we have rented a motorscooter so that we can go out in the nearby town. Although, this has allowed us to purchase a whole new wardrobe (as well as for duncan) in the town. Not sure how we are going to get it all back! It is very cheap and good quality. duncan, if you read this, im still debating on getting you this really hot n sexy thai shirt so that you can sport in rio....however, it might attract all of the brazilian babes!

The island has treated us well. The food is fabulous. We get to chose from king prawns to seabass everyday! We are making up for lost time. Today, we hit up the spa and it was perfect! Alissa and I got to shower together again, it was another dream day!

Trekking in Nepal

DAY 1-
We left Kathmandu on the local bus with Jagat, Chet (our guides), Florence, Marie, Elene and us.
We drove about 45 mins outside of the Valley and the bus comes to a complete halt. We have a flat tire. We all get out of the bus and wait on the shoulder and watch all of the trucks and cars pass. As I sat there, I noticed that all of the tires were bald. I thought to myself, great, we are going to get another flat! Within 15 mins we were back on the bus.

Off we went, in the very hot and cramped loal bus, which stopped every 10 mins to pick some up, drop someone off or merely sto, toilet break, eat or merely stop to say hi to someone on the roadside. This is why the 175KM ride was going to take 6-8hours, according to Jagat. After 6.5 hours we arrived in Pokhara, the town at the foot of the Annapurna mountains. We were early!
Just a typical day in Nepal.

At dinner we discussed the marriage of a local couple who were married on the top of Everest. The woman was a Newari (upper caste) and the man was a Sherpa (lower caste). This couple was invited to give a presentation at our project, so had our own impression of the couple. Jagat's belief was that it was fake and that it was all for media attention. This seemed to be true as when we saw the couple, they were very un-newlywed like...no PDA and gropping. Also, she merely said that she liked her husband and that it why she wanted to get married. Very interesting.

DAY 2 - We took a 1.5 hour taxi ride to the trailhead. On the way to the trail, the clouds opened up and we were able to see the Annapurnas. We started the trail in Nayapul and were to walk about 6 hours. No one knew the mileage, only hours...so not sure, but guessin' ~5 miles.

The trek was HOT, I thought that I was gonna have a heat stroke! My bag was lite, but it felt like bricks! I dunked my head under every running spring that was available. I didn't think that I was going to make it. Alissa was running a lil low, too, but she turned around and looked at me and it gave her hope!

We stopped for lunch and had our first big BOY discussion. You can't put 5 girls together without talking about boys. It all started with Alissa talking about her boyfriend dilemma. Jagat thought that she boy crazy and was afraid that she was going to go after every boy insight, including him. He said emphatically, "I'm married..so is Chet!" Jagat and Chet are Buddhists and they are in a singing band. When they trek, everyone knows about them and their talents...we will find out later!

After lunch we hiked about 4000 steps to the town of Ulleri. We stayed in this town for the nite.
The accomodations were like a hut/cabin. Basically, a bed. It was fine and we were happy to sleep. However, I did disturb Alissa's sleep as I attemped to kill a moth above her head. Then, it feel on her (half dead). She woke up (with her eye patch on) and started screaming. I finally got it out of the room. Then, I had to kill the leech because it was heading towards our room...prevention is the best protection. Finally, I went to bed.

DAY 3-
We woke up to Jagat saying, "good morning, amy and alissa!" Then he would go off singing some Nepali song. We were tired but we had to get up. The highlight was the sight of the South Annapurna peak. It was a clear morning, one of few, so we needed to capitalize on it.
Basically, the Annapurna range includes many peaks, Several of them over 8000M.

As typical Americans, we brought our peanut butter jar with us. All of the others couldn't understand our obsession with it....we ate it morning, noon and nite! However, all of them ate it at least once and did not complain. So, it was breakfast with peanut butter and tibetan bread (aka funnel cake)....and, we were off!

The trekking was better on this day because we were at higher altitudes, ~2500M. We flew threw the hike and made it to the next village in about 4 hours. We stayed in the town of Ghorepani. It is the highest point on our trek, 3200M. When we arrived, Alissa said,"I smell cow." I replied, " I just took off my boots." That right there describes my feet and clothing for the rest of the trip. I did put powder in them for the last days.

At dinner we discussed international relations and politics. I don't have the time or the energy to reiterate everything that ws said. However, I will mention that Alissa and I have improved the Belgian and Nepali image of Americans. Hopefully, the Lil W won't do too much more damage.

DAY 4-
On the AM of the 4th day we were suppose to get up at 5am to suumit Poon Hill, however it was cloudy ad rainy --- no Poon for us. Instead, we started on our trek to Tadapani. What happened in the next 6 hours was crazy. We spent the entire time on the trail fighting leeches, bugs, insects and rain!!!! It was our least favorite day! At points, we had to run because the leeches were crawling onto our boots by the hundreds!!! It was like a bad movie.

Alissa and I brought some Muesli with us, so we decided to split it with the group so that we didn't have to take time to look for some food. We ate the Muesli and got back on the trail, it started to rain. You know what that means, LEECHES BY the MILLIONS!!! Jagat was the first to get bitten -- I saved him by putting a shload of salt on it....the poor leech was killed by an avalanche of salt! DEAD INSTANTLY.

After 6 hours of craziness, we made it! To top off the day, Alissa and I had to shower together. It was all good, until we saw a leech in the shower. I yelled, "Alissa, get your clothes on and let's go!" We got an OK shower, but the other girls had to use the bucket because the shower stopped.

After all of the Muesli that we had eaten, we both had some "digestive" problems. One big super crunch and I was OK. However, Alissa was sitting around in some pain and talking to Jagat about how the dahl baht gives her gas. He agreed. All of the sudden, Alissa has to go to the toilet....5 mins later she waved at me to get her more TP. It was super crunch for Alissa, too!

After dinner, we sat around with all of the Nepali and sang songs and danced. Both Chet and Jagat are local super stars in the music industry! They were up till 2 am crooning away! Crazy times.....

DAY 6 -
This day started off sunny and no rain....but by the afternoon, it was raining....the leeches were out in full force. After 2 hours of heavy rain, no one had been "leeched". As we were making the ascent to Chumrong, Jagat was explaning to me that the leeches were hanging off the plants, so we were to be careful. As I was checking out the plants, Alissa starts to scream. She has 3 leeches on her hand. Oh God! Elene dumped a few avalanches of salt on her hand -- dead immediately! We hiked in this craziness for about an hour.

We were so happy to see the rice paddies and town of Chumrong. We basically ate and went to bed!!! Too much partying the nite b4.

DAY 7 -
When we woke up in the AM, we were told that the bridge was out and that we had to take an alternate route. Jagat told us that this route was going to be shorter --- that is in Jagatland.

We walked about and hour, when Marie used the "free" toilet, we told her not to. About 30 mins later she found a leech on her stomach and leg. She started whailing and Alissa came to her rescue. We think that she got these when she used the "free" toilet. After she removed the leeches, she did a full body check. She was very worried and afraid. Jagat told her, "I saw a man fight a tigers on the cable channel, she shouldn't be scared." Very comforting.

We trekked on another hour and stopped to eat something. Chet told us that we were very lucky, we haven't encountered Maoists. Alissa replied, "Yeah, they wouldn't be out here with the leeches, only crazy peeps. Besides, this isn't the moneymaking season!" We were told that if we encountered Maoist, we had to give them money and they would give us a receipt. One time payment required.

Our "short" day of 6 hours was completed when we reached the village of Syaluri Bazar. We descended about 1500M in one day! We were back in the heat box!

We put our request in for dinner and chilling by the candles for 2 hours. I decided to take a lil nap. I awoke to Alissa screaming outside the bathroom. She was squatting a pee when she noticed a spider as big as her hand! She picked up her shorts and bolted outside. The local lady had to go in and get it, but not before Marie and Elene had to look at it.

To pass some more time before dinner, Alissa decided to dry her clothing by the candle. She put a nasty burn in her only pair of underwear! bummer;( Needless to say, our room smelled of damp clothing and mold -- just like all of the other nites!

DAY 7 -
The best day of the hike, no rain, no leeches and only 3 hours of trekking!
We were finished, we made our circuit! To celebrate, we had french fries, cheese and potatoes for breakfast!

Although we did have to take the local bu back to Pokhara, which took 4EVER! I think it was 2 hours to go 75KM. Gotta love it.

FINAL COMMENTS:
Awesome guide, adventurous trek and good times!!!! goodbye leeches!!!

Service Civil Int'l project - by Special Guest, Alissa

Instead of re-writing Alissa's comments, I have decided to post her thoughts about our days at the workcamp:

I will start by saying that Amy and I arrived safely in Bangkok and decided to treat ourselves well with rest and relaxation, so we arrived today and booked another flight tonight for the islands of Thailand...obviously, not the islands that were hit by the tsunami, as many airlines are still not offering services to some of these islands, but we will be on the eastern side or in the Gulf of Thailand and we plan to pamper ourselves!The past three weeks in Nepal have been exhausting to us both, but especially me since I acquired my first real sickness on our travels...no, not diarreahea (sp) but a double ear infection in my right ear thanks to my new Nepali friend (or I call her my biny which means little sister), Rita, after she decided to play a trick on me and stick a rose bush branch into my ear, pretending it was an insect, but ended up sticking it too far in and puncturing my ear drum/temple...sort of like when you stick a Q-tip in your ear too far-it really hurts, but this one hurt 100x more...So, this was my second day during our work camp (or fourth day in Nepal) in a remote village called Mathithildra (sp) which is about an hour west of Kathmandu.Needless to say, after she poked my ear, I cried after it began to bleed and it bled all day long until the local Ayurvedic medicine Guru came by and told me to lie down for him to rub special medicinal plant juice in my ear for the bleeding to stop! (amy was busy having coffee and discussin politics with the Spanish, French, Greece and Germans -- otherwise should would have been there to help!) This wasn't the best plan of action, as I began crying and screaming some more since it hurt worst then the actual poking! Not a good sign right from the beginning...but I lasted a few more days at camp until my entire hearing was blocked and then was taken by motorbike to the local travelers clinic...During those few days, we all tried working (digging a drainage ditch and picking up trash) but the SCI or Service Civil International volunteer program wasn't organized very well, so everyone at the camp began complaining and it also began to rain heavily (due to the monsoon season)I think I could write paragraph after paragraph about all the people at the camp, but it would be more fun to share pictures with you and tell you then...but one camper who arrived late, happened to be just finished with med school, so we located an ear instrument and she began to investigate my ear, only to find a hole in my ear drum and this is when I decided to immediately go the clinic...Of all things, I saw a young American doctor who took very good care of my ear and my emotional distress about being away from home.I saw him a total of four times as he wanted to continually check my ear every few days until the infections lessened and the hole got smaller...After all of this happened, the best part was that I was told to stay in Kathmandu for a large part of the work camp so I would be close to the clinic if anything should happen and this is when I realy realized things do happen for a reason because I decided to stay at a nice hotel and took Amy with me for companionship and she was happy to agree since our work camp accomadations were AWFUL....We were originally sleeping on the floor with cockroaches, insects, and mosquitos. The ceiling was leaking all over our sleeping bags and Amy and I were in a tiny room with five other people who go to bed and awake at all hours of the night.There was no real bathroom, as we were told to shower outside under running water which the local people used for everything from showering, washing dishes, and all their trash. (Most of the Nepali community throw their trash on the ground) The bathroom was a typical Nepali toliet or 'swatty potty' (50 meters from our floor) and luckily Amy and I never had real stomach issues but others in the camp were up all night rushing to the swatty potty for their upset stomach...yuck!I feel I could write forever about this camp, but due to our flight coming up, I will also just say that working outside was also a disaster as leeches just seemed to crawl out from every inch of ground and before you knew it, you had blood all over your shoes and socks...Needless to say...it wasn't pretty...and I only returned for a few days to hang out with our new friends from camp and the best day was the last day-a huge party where we got to witness our unorganized supposed leadership get drunk off of rice wine...we took more pictures that night than the entire camp itself....From here, the doctor said I was able to begin trekking and Amy and I joined some others from the camp for a week long trek in the Annapurna region of the country...It wasn't the best season for trekking but we ended up having an incredible time (despite walking 6000 steps in one day) because of our new friends and incredible trekking guide, Jagat....and again, I could go on and on forever about our last week, but I have to catch my flight to the islands...

My additional comments:
I think some of the hardest issues for us were :

• male dominated society -- many of the women were not educated and therefore did not hold jobs
• trash was thrown everywhere
• communication -- english was not the population's first language and we became translators for the people in the work group.
• eating the same meal everyday (lentils, rice, potato curry)

After for travelling for so long on our own, we had a hard adjustment to working in a group. However, we learned to adapt and work with the situation. It was a learning experience in so many facets. We spent alot of time communicating in different languages, translating to people who didn't understand and teaching the Nepali about leadership and group dynamics (mainly Alissa). There are so many things that were no mentioned in this blog message, so I will inform you later if you have an interest.

The highlight was that we met some fabulous people from all over europe (we decided to trek with 3 of the belgian girls). Please see my next blog message about trekking.

Im sorry for no putting pics on the site, but I can't load them onto the computer.