No wet, no fun

Hayo again from Chiang Mai! It's the end of our third day here, and we're starting to feel like we know our way around. The Kanatoke (I can't remember how to spell it now) dinner was awesome - we were picked up from our guest house (any time you book a tour or anything else here they pick you up - our guest house also transported us from the airport to town - I've never been one of the people with a sign made for them with a driver waiting (no, the time Sabrina and I made one out of a napkin for Melanie doesn't count), so that was sweet. It's the little things.) Anyway, the dinner was cool - good food, no crazy unidentifiable meats (or at least none that we were aware of, so it's cool), and lots of traditional dancing, etc. It was seriously a bang for our buck- things here are inexpensive, but this was lots of culture jam-packed into a couple of hours. Yay! The next morning we headed out on our day trek. A frienly Thai guide named Ramu led us, and explained that we'd be visiting an elephant camp, two hill-tribe villages and would then go rafting. It was a full day of stuff- and more exercise than Beth or my sorry grad-school accustomed-to-sitting-and-typing-and-snacking selves had seen in a long time. But we held our own, and had an awesome time! Riding an elephant was rad- we got to feed it bananas, and I think it liked us (as much as an elephant can like people who ride it); the hiking was cool (it poured rain part of the time! bring on the monsoons, yo), the hill-tribe villages were interesting and pretty eye-opening and the "rafting"... was really more Thai guides dunking helpless unsporty girls into the water repeatedly. Beth's little girl squeals every time the guide tipped the raft over made us easy targets; we were completely soaked by the end. :) The Thai rafting guides kept yelling, "no wet, no fun" ... indeed. Despite that... trip on the river was amazing - so much beautiful scenery; so many elephants, water buffalo and rice paddies! Back at our guest house, we passed out, then stumbled to dinner and enjoyed our first for-real monsoon rainstorm. Sitting at an outdoor restaurant (with a romantico candle and everything), the rain beat down on the tin roof and lightning flashed; all of the other tourists and us were so excited; the Thai staff laughed at us. Today we took it easy...the nice woman at our guest house called her friend, a red-truck taxi driver, who agreed to take us to a nearby craft village called Ban Wai. As we were about to leave, she decided to come along, which made the trip even cooler. She answered lots of our questions about the things around us, and we shopped with her for new linens for the guest house's attached restaurant. After a couple of hours of shopping, we were tired, and bought water from one of the craft vendors. When the lady saw us sitting on the curb nearby drinking our water, she insisted that we come sit on itty-bitty plastic chairs that she had. Then she plugged in a fan for us. So nice! (our glistening butter-skin scores!) When we got back to town, we went to visit a few wats, wrote some postcards and went night bazaaring again. "same same" t-shirts were purchased. Tomorrow we leave Chiang Mai to go back to Bangkok - where pictures will be posted! Thanks for the comments and love - hugs to you all. Amy

6 monks in a pickup truck...and other stories from Chang Mai

So I hope this works... I'm sitting at an outside computer stall at our Chiang Mai hostel, typing away as a family of lizzards climbs up the wall next to me (surprisingly, "cute" was my first reaction, as opposed to the typical repulsion I feel for most things that creep up walls in tropical climates)... though many of the features on the computer are in English, the blog page is all in Thai...so fingers crossed that I'll hit the right buttons and you'll be able to read this! Beth and I arrived in Chiang Mai (a city in northern Thailand, about an hour's flight from Bangkok) yesterday. While Bangkok's cacophany of sights, sounds, smells and more was a varitable schmorgasboard of excitement (fantastic!), we were looking to venture a bit more off the beaten path as well, and heard that Chiang Mai was a good place to do so. Our ride to the Bangkok airport was a testament to the fact that the Thai people are very, very kind to tourists, which we've experienced since day 1 here. Our taxi driver to the airport was a sweet older man, with whom we spoke for as long as we could-- which, due to the language barrier, was about 2 minutes. He then offered us postcards of the floating market to look at, and as silence settled in, turned his head back suddenly and, beaming, shouted "music!" In went a cd featuring Thai remakes of British and American pop and hip-hop songs, my personal favorite being a hip hop song whose only lyrics were "Big boiiiiii." The driver and us exchanged several smiles via rear-view mirror, as he bobbed his head gangsta-style to the music. Truly a melding of cultures. Chiang Mai is great - a bit cooler than Bangkok (though we seriously glow hard-core no matter where we are here...all the locals keep asking us "why you walking? so hot!" when they see us on the street because we look like we're covered in vaseline or butter or something). Yesterday we hired a "red song taos" (one of the fleet of many red pick-up trucks with benches instealled in the back which are used as public transportaion all over the city) to take us up to Wat Phrathat Doi Suthep Rajvoravihara (try saying that five times. Or just once, really.), one of the area's most beautiful wats. The journey was awesome- just chillin in the back of a pickup truck as it wound its way up a gigantor mountain with greenery everywhere. 6 monks in the back of a pickup truck passed by on the ride up (which, surprisingly, is not something I see everyday in Brea. Not even on the trolley). The wat was impressive and, as they all are, so peaceful - and included many buddahs, bells, offerings and a great view of the city below. Back in Chiang Mai, we collapsed at our hostel and attacked the box of Pocky Beth had hidden away, rested long enough to for the feelings of heatstroke to subside, then hit up the fantastic town night bazzar for some outrageous deals on Thai silk, crafts, etc. A young entrepeneur on the street tried his best to entice us to enjoy some "blue crab delicacy"... but that will be saved for... never. Day 2 in Chiang Mai has been great - we booked a trekking tour for tomorrow (going to ride an elephant, raft in a river, see a tribal village and try not to have too many "holy crap that's the biggest bug I've ever seen" embarrasing farang moments), took another red pick-up to a sweet out of the way forresty wat (where a monk talked with us! we had a monk chat!) with hippy inspirational signs written in the trees (pictures to come). Tonight we're off to a Khantoke Dinner, a traditional Thai sort of "dinner show," that we've heard is a must-do. Khantoke-doke. Pictures soon, I promise (we have to get a cd made to post them - in Bangkok we'll do it!) Until then, give us a holla - we miss you all!

Tuk-Tuks in Thailand...and What's a What?!

Day 3 in Thailand (although it will seem like two to all of you, as we're 15 hours ahead over here...)---Today we took our first ride in a tuk-tuk, a fun little motorized cart with a kind driver who sped us from one wat (a Buddhist temple) to the next, and stopped by a suit-maker's shop...just because they apparently always take tourists there. We've already seen at least a half-dozen wats, and counting...
Thailand is an amazing place. Hotter than hades, and more friendly than almost any place I've ever been. Taxi and tuk-tuk drivers are all smiles, and everyone on the street wants to sell you their wares...whether hand-made bags, tiny Buddhas, bags full of sweet tea or juice, mini pancakes made on a street-side griddle...The fruit looks amazing, but who knows what water they're washing it in...=) Thus far we've seen so much, and we're learning to happily function in the heat a bit better each day. Some unexpected findings include the fact that there's a 7-11 on what seems like every corner, that they indeed have Starbucks, and Subway, and KFC, and Au Bon Pain, for god's sake. Even Gloria Jean's Coffee, which we grew up walking by in the food court of the Brea Mall (we took a pic of the sign for you, mom!). As we are obviously super white people know we're foreigners, or "farang," and as we look so much alike people are constantly ask if we're twins...or they just smile at us and say "Same Same..." We found "Same Same" t-shirts on the crazy backpacker lane we're staying on in our little hotel, and we're coming home with a matching set. Staying on Thanon (Street) Khao San is a little like staying on DP in Santa Barbara, really. Amy feels right at home here.=) Tons of Europeans, Australians and others sitting out on the street and drinking massive amounts of beer, pretty much all night...the people who look bleary-eyed when we walk past them toward breakfast in the morning are the ones who just haven't gotten the chance to go to bed yet...=)
The first day here we took in some of the most famous cultural sites---the Grand Palace (former home of monarchs) and the Temple of the Emerald Buddha, where a much-prized but very small green Buddha sits perched atop a pile of gold decoration (this is one of the most important Buddhist sites in Thailand). We took a long boat down the Chao Praya river and got to not only see some famous wats from an awesome vantage point but also a slice of Thai life on the water. Yesterday we gave ourselves a bit of a break and went on an outdoor tour of Jim Thompson's house---a beautiful teak house constructed by an American expatriate who reinvigorated the Thai silk industry after WWII---before winding our way through two HUGE malls in a newer part of town. The upscale mall was wholly "western" (Amy keeps laughing at me for calling things this...=))...it almost looked like something straight out of West L.A...except its foodcourt was full of amazing Thai food...and the more regular mall was completely out of control. I've never seen so many goods and so many people in such a small space. The street fair way of life here has a way of almost visually overloading people who are from elsewhere...in every mall, on every street corner, there is so much to see and potentially purchase, so many smells and so much movement...we're just beginning to be able to take more of it in...=)
That's it for this post, I'm thinking...Amy is the more techno-savvy one, and I'm hoping she can figure out how to post pics for you soon, as I just played around with it and can't figure it out!...Tomorrow we're off to northern Thailand, to Chiang Mai, to be exact. As we're not bad-ass backpackers, and our white skin makes us a little less jungle-friendly than some, we've decided to ix-nay tromping through Cambodia to see Angkhor Wat. Something for another trip...But Chiang Mai is supposed to be the cultural capital of Thailand...where hill tribes sell their crafts, where Thai massage, language and cooking classes are taught...and they have elephant camps that I've been told are very cool.=) Peace out, everyone. "Kawpkhunka" (thank you in Thai) for reading.=) Beth