Thailand Travelogue

January 28, 2004 – 5:30 pm - Chang Mai, Thailand - 29 C and Scattered Clouds

(Tony)We have been basking in the fact that we are in Thailand since we arrived on January 21st. The weather, the food, the people, the ligion and culture, and did I mention the food? It's almost overwhelming. Almost. We are making our best effort to enjoy the weather, to learn about the religion and culture and to eat as much as our bodies will allow us to.

Our first night in Thailand was spent in the border town of Hat Yai. This is a busy place with people from Malaysia making the border crossing on the weekends for cheap shopping (that gives you some idea of the costs here in Thailand). We arrived in the afternoon via a minivan full of tourists from the island of Penang in Malaysia. This was a very painless way to cross the border, and the only delay was another tourist obtaining a visa (visas aren't necessary in Thailand unless you stay more than 1 month).

The hotel situation in Hat Yai is not great, as you don't necessarily get what you pay for. The place we ended up at (after much searching) costed just over 10 USD, and was nicer than some places that cost double that. From our hotel experiences in SE Asia, when you pay a little more, you get a lot more. This wasn't the case. As I said, we did find a decent place in the end, and we even had enough time to catch the night market for some food before heading to bed. I also managed to get a Chang Beer from 7-11 (it can't be beat at about 75 cents US for a big bottle!). The high cost of alcohol in Malaysia and Singapore is just another reason I am glad to be in Thailand.

Aside from the hotels, Hat Yai was a great place to visit, as it is in Thailand. When we walked around Hat Yai, it had a completely different feel than Malaysia or Singapore. Thailand has a very warm and inviting feel, and our first experience hearing "saawat-dee-ca!" from a Thai brought this to light. We walked around for a little while and found a night market to grab some food. The night markets in Thailand are great, as food vendors line the sides of a street (that is typically closed for auto traffic) and serve all sorts of food, ranging from snacks to full, multicourse meals. It's very interesting to see the vendors set up their self sufficent booth, complete with all the necessary food preparation gear - wok, large pot for cooking noodles natural gas for fuel, water and large buckets for doing dishes, and some even have small tables and stools for the customers! At the night market, we picked up a couple bowls of noodles for 20 baht (60 cents Canadian) each, as well as some skewers of meat and a green mango. It was a great meal for only a few dollars! The remaining amount of time we had in Hat Yai was spent wandering around and shopping (the Malaysians are right - it is very cheap in Thailand).

The next day (January 22nd), we took an 8 am flight from Hat Yai to Bangkok aboard Thai airways, and then took an afternoon flight from Bangkok to Chang Mai. Those two flights took us from the very south of Thailand to the very North of Thailand. We decided to take the plane instead of the extremely long train or bus rides (the distance between Hat Yai and Chang Mai is a whopping km!). Taking the plane was a very nice way to travel that distance, and the stopover at the Bangkok airport brought back memories of our 2002 trip.

When we arrived in Chang Mai, we thought that we had escaped the Chinese New Year issue of full hotels. For this reason, we did not book a hotel prior to arriving. We were wrong about the hotels not being full. When we phoned the hotels that we had picked out of our guidebooks, they were full. We then turned to a hotel booking agent in the airport (along with many others from our flight). We did manage to find a hotel for a reasonable price, and after being processed in the highly effective and efficient airport taxi system (one of the best we have seen), we showed up at a beautiful place. It is called Paddy Field and seems to be new, as the rooms are immaculate and the tuk-tuk drivers don't know where it is. For those of you interested, it is located close to Suan Dok gate (within the city walls), and can be found on the internet at www.paddyfieldhotel.com. For 715 baht (about 19 USD) you get a double room, TV, breakfast (thai or american) and a very attentive staff. It's a little out of the way, but it's worth the extra walking around.

With all the stress of finding a hotel, we decided to relax by grabbing some dinner. One place that is recommended in the guidebooks as the "best steak in Chang Mai" appealed to me. It was a very good meal, but I don't think the meat was beef (it was very dark), but it was good! The waitress spoke very little english so it will remain a mystery. There were a lot of dogs roaming around, now that I think about it...

After dinner, we checked out a night market in China town, and since it was Chinese New Year, it was very busy. This market was located in a maze of small streets and it was loads of fun roaming down around looking at all the foods, trinkets, and clothes.

I'm not done yet, I'll run through the rest of our time in Chang Mai in a future update!

January 29, 2004 – 3:43 pm - Chang Mai, Thailand - 31 C and Clear

(Tony) Continuing from where I left off in my last entry...

On the 23rd, we rented some bicycles and went out to get some errands done. This included scoping out transportation and general information about travelling to Cambodia to visit the Ankor Wat and Phnom Penh (the capital city of Cambodia). This ate up much of our day, but at night we took in a traditional dinner at the Chang Mai Cultural Centre. This dinner is quite a large event with traditional Northern Thailand food served, accompanied by demonstrations of hill tribe dancing. Hill tribes are people that have come to Northern Thailand from Burma, China and Loas to escape poverty or unstable political situations in their own country. There are many hill tribes and each has it's own traditions that have evolved from traditions in their country of origin. The food had a couple of surprises, such as pork rinds and fried chicken. Other dishes included pork curries, fried cabbage, and deep fried vegetables. For dessert we were served Krista's favourite - a sweet sticky rice cake that is dried and then deep fried. They are similar to rice cakes in Canada, only crunchier and much more flavourful. The food itself was served on a short, round table that was about 1 foot tall. We sat on cushions with a triangle pillow behind us for comfort. There were also two separate dance shows, one during dinner and one after. The dancing took place after dark and was very entertaining - ranging from the "Fingernail Dance" where women moved very gracefully with long extensions on thier fingernails to the "Sun-Fire Dance" where a dancer swung flaming sticks around with amazing control. It was an opportunity to see some of the strange musical instruments in action that I have only seen in the markets before. The dinner and dancing were both very well orchestrated, and this was no small feat with the number of tourists there for dinner. The guidebook said that the people running the Cultural Centre have been doing this since 1971, and I can believe that with the efficiency of the staff. All in all, it was great fun and gave us a glimpse (even if it was a little touristy) into some of the traditions of various peoples of Northern Thailand.

Chang Mai is famous for it's cooking schools and the day after the traditional dinner we decided to try our hand at making Thai food. On a tip from a couple of fellow travellers in Singapore, we tried out SmartCook, which turned out to be a great choice. We were picked up at our hotel in the morning, and taken to the school. The school is actually an open-front teak house with a large open area in the front (with a long table to eat at), and a kitchen in the back. When we arrived, we had expected a class of up to 12 people, but we found that it was just us two. Our teacher, Mai (pronounced "my"), was joined by two english students, Por and Bee. Por and Bee take english in university and the cooking school is an opportunity to practice. After deciding what we were going to make, we all headed down to the market for fresh supplies. It was awesome having a "guide" through the market to answer any of our questions, and there were many asked! The smells were amazing - lemongrass, Thai ginger, seemingly endless varieties of basil... After learning about Thai produce and working up an appetite, we headed back to start cooking.

We had selected 6 dishes to make: 1. spicy glass noodle salad, 2. tom yum soup (hot & sour), 3. red curry paste, 4. red coconut curry, 5. pad-thai (or pad-farang as Mai called it - "farang" is Thai for foreigner), and 6. sweet sticky rice with mango. Upon returning from the market, we started a cycle - prepare a dish, cook it and then eat it. It was a great (and filling) day, and we didn't even have to do dishes! The best part about cooking yourself (besides the satisfaction) is that you can tailor the taste to your liking. All the dishes were spectacular, but if I had to pick a favourite it was the spicy glass noodle salad. It was a mixture of glass noodles, steamed minced pork, and spices. It is a light dish that is refreshing in the warm weather due to the fresh ingredients. It is a perfect example of how one can tailor the taste of a dish - Mai's was very spicy, mine was mildly spicy and sour (from lime juice), and Krista's was on the sweet side (and they were all tasty!). The day was about 6 hours long, including the hour at the market, and it costed 700 baht/person (about 18.50 USD/person), and I would highly recommend it to anyone. Not only did we get lessons in Thai cuisine, we had a great time talking with Mai, Por and Bee. And we didn't need any dinner after a full day of eating!

One other thing that I learned at the cooking school is that I love starfruit! When we returned from the market, they had some out for us to snack on. Starfruit is very juicy and very crispy at the same time, and the taste is amazing. There are two kinds of starfruit - sweet and sour. I had the sour type with some salt, and it still makes my mouth water when I think of it. I have yet to find it in a market, but I will. I hope that I can get it Canada somewhere...

After the cooking class, we needed some exercise to burn off all that food, so we went to the Bangkok Airways office to book our flights to Cambodia. A promotional price helped make our decision regarding visiting Phnom Penh (it was a relatively cheap add-on flight). This gives us a chance to see the Silver Pagoda and the killing fields of Cheung Ek, both of which should be very interesting.

As we left the hotel where the Bangkok Airways office is located, we noticed a small crowd gathered in a grassy area. Besides the tourists, there was an elephant painting a picture! We went over and watched for awhile, and we were explained that this elephant is an artist, and works in conjunction with a human artist. The human artist sets up the easle and the canvas and picks the colour of the paints while the rest is done by the elephant. I watched as one elephant was handed the brush and drew some lines similar to the outline of pointy mountains, and another then came over and filled in the lines with another colour. It was pretty amazing, as he did quite a good job. Other paintings done by elephants were on display, and were impressive for an elephant to have done them. I have found being around elephants a great experience, as they are massive and strong, but gentle and very nimble, very intelligent, and almost always hungry. I fed one of the "elephant artists" a couple of bunches of bananas, and I was surprised at how quickly the elephant grabbed the bananas out of my hand without touching me at all. Those trunks are pretty amazing. Between the cooking class and elephants, our day was done.

The nexy day (Sunday, Jan 25th), we decided to check out a famous temple in the area, the Doi Sutep Temple. We headed out there in a songthaew (pronounced "song-tao"), which is a small pickup truck with bench seats on either side of the covered box - these are basic public transportation in Thailand. The main tourist feature of the Temple lies at the top of a 297 step climb - a tall gold chedi, surrounded by a large square. Along all of the inside walls of the surrounding square are gold statues of Buddha in the seated position. Around the base of the main chedi are more gold statues of Buddha in a variety of positions (the various positions of the Buddha represent his various actions - dispelling evil, teaching, reaching enlightenment...). There is also a number of bells around the site, and one very large gong. There were many tourists at the temple, but there were also many worshippers coming to pray. It was actually nice to be at a touristy location, as I didn't feel that I was invading by snapping a couple of photos.

We arrived back in town in the afternoon and decided to check out the Sunday market. The market runs from about noon to midnight give or take, and by 3 pm, there were plenty of sellers out. We opted for food first (of course), and tried some papaya salad, which is quite popular and a little spicy, and then some pad-thai, BBQ pork skewers, BBQ sticky rice patties, and washed it all down with a couple of coconut juices served in a section of bamboo. As the day turned into night, the market became more and more busy. We returned to our hotel for a break and when we went back to the market at about 7 pm, it was solid people. This wasn't a surprise, as the food was great and there were so many items for sale, it was unbelievable - lamps, paintings, jewelry, games, musical instruments - the list could go on forever. The best part was that everything was cheap! I haven't yet mentioned the size of the market - the police shut down a main street in the middle of the old city, along with a bunch of corresponding smaller streets. All this area was packed with vendors, and it took us well over an hour just to walk it, and we barely stopped. Even though it was so busy, it felt very safe and the vendors were very nice. Thailand really does never cease to amaze.

Prior to heading back to the Sunday market, we had time to book a tour for the next two days. So, the next morning at 7:30 am, we headed off on a tour that would take us North through Chang Rai, and across the border into Laos. We were picked up in minivan with 6 other tourists, a driver and a guide. Our first stop came after about an hour of driving. As we approached, it looked like several markets that we had visited, but the guide said that we were stopping at hot springs. Well, there were some hot springs in the centre area of all the stalls filled with T-shirts silver and other trinkets. The hot springs consisted of three small pools that are not used for bathing, as in Canada, but are used for boiling eggs (chicken and quail). We didn't buy any, as we already had breakfast, but the smell from the pools was very sulphurous, so I'm not sure how they would have tasted.

After having a brief stopover at a temple close to Chang Rai, we had a long ride to the Golden Triangle (a place where the Thailand/Laos/Myanmar borders meet). The border between Thailand and Laos, in this area, is defined by the Mekong River. When we stopped, we were given an option to take a longtail boat ride across the border to a market in Laos. Krista and I decided to take this, and it was quite a ride! Instead of going straight across the river, the driver took us up river a little ways and showed us a casino/hotel, as well as some locals' homes on the river's edge. To put things into context, a longtail boat is a long, skinny boat (two people can comfortably sit next to each other at the widest point), made of wood, with a V8 car or truck engine on the back. The engine is connected to a propeller on a long shaft (thus, long-tail boat). They are very loud, go very fast, and accelerate quickly. This makes for interesting riding when you come across another boats' wake. When we were up to speed, the girl in the front seat was right out of the water and bore the brunt of any bumps that we hit. However, with the wind and sun in our face, and the lush greenery on either side of the river, I was considering taking the boat around more instead of visiting the market. We did end up getting off the boat and visiting the market. The major attractions here are the local whiskey and sending postcards. I didn't try the whiskey as everything seemed overpriced (and it was before lunch). It was a fast ride back to Thailand after looking around.

Our next stop was the the border crossing between Myanmar and Thailand. There are a couple of reasons for coming here - to renew your Thai visa and, yes, more markets. This market is indeed different, as even the Thai people say that it is cheap. It wasn't incredibly cheap, but it was interesting to see the border crossing and stand at the "Northern-most point in Thailand." Particularly since Hat Yai (where we were on the 21st) is one of the Southern-most points in Thailand.

After seeing what the market had to offer, we began to make our way back to Chang Mai, with a three stops along the way at hill tribe villages. The villages were interesting, mainly due to the history of the people. Now, the villages are showing signs of westernization (a hill tribe trek is a typical thing to do when in Chang Mai), such as electricity and seeing the odd satellite dish on top of a village house. Their handicrafts are original, and I didn't mind buying a couple of things to contribute to their economy (and provide me with gifts for when I get home!). Visiting a hill tribe was a bit of an issue, and it was best described as "voyeuristic." There are many people want to go and see these hill tribes in their natural setting, but by visiting them one introduces them to something else, and enough people visit, that natural setting becomes not so natural. The villages that we went to were heavily touristed, so I don't think that we had much of an effect, but there are tours to other villages that have not seen so many tourists. I personally think that the Chang Mai cultural centre dinner provided me with enough of a glimpse of the hill tribes.

After a well deserved rest (the Chang Rai/Laos/Golden Triangle tour lasted for 14 hours), we got up and headed out again. This time, our tour was to be a little more adventurous - no markets, but lots of mountain biking, elephant riding and white water rafting!

Our day started at 8:30 am and we drove about an hour to the point where we would start mountain biking. There were only four of us on this tour, Krista, myself and two British guys, James and Justin. The guide, Tor, told us we would be biking about 10-14 km to the elephant camp, then riding elephants for about an hour, having lunch and then white water rafting for the rest of the day.

It was great to get back on a mountain bike (even if I was wearing sandals), and the ride was very pleasant. There was enough up hill to give us a work out, but enough down hill to keep us cool. The road was all paved and took us through a couple of villages and past numerous farms that were growing anything from fruit to coffee beans.

I have to admit that I've been writing for some time now, and I am getting tired. I also think that a Beer Chang is calling...

Bye for now, but I'll finish this up soon!

January 29, 2004 – 3:43 pm - Chang Mai, Thailand - 31 C and Clear

(Tony) Continuing from where I left off in my last entry...

I have to admit that I've been writing for some time now, and I am getting tired. I also think that a Beer Chang is calling...

Bye for now, but I'll finish this up soon!

January 30, 2004; 3:24 pm - Chang Mai, Thailand - 31 C and Partly Cloudy

(Tony) Continuing on with my tale of the mountain biking, elephant riding and white water rafting tour...

We mountain biked along the road to a small river, and then followed it upstream for several kilometers. It was only around 11 am, but the heat was enough to make the uphill sections quite a bit of work. Our guide, Tor, pointed out some of the rapids that we would later be going over while white water rafting. Some of them looked a little ify, but Tor said it would be fine. From one other past experience with white water rafting, the rapids always look worse than they are (but I have only been rafting one other time before, of course).

We all arrived at the elephant camp in one piece and took a rest before starting on the elephant ride. The elephants are Asian, of course, which means that they are smaller than African elephants, but they are still a very large animal. With an elephants large bulk, it really is surprising how graceful they are. When our groups turn came to get on the elephants, Krista and I were to go on one elephant, with the two British guys (James and Justin) on another. A ramp was set up for us to walk up to the height of the elephant. A steel frame strapped to the elephants back held a bench seat for two people. The elephants would come up to the ramp head first, so that one had to step on the elephant's neck or head to get into the seat. I felt a little bad stepping on the elephants head, but she didn't seem to mind. We settled into the seat, our tour guide snapped a couple of photos of us, the mahout (elephant driver and keeper) called out an order, and the elephant was off. The route the elephant took us crossed the river, snaked along the river bank, crossed over the river again, and took the road back to the camp. The trip took more than an hour, and was lots of fun. The seat rocked back and forth as the elephant walked, which was fine, but when she started to walk down the river bank into the river, we had to hang on or slide out of the seat over the elephant's head! The elephant waded through the water easily, as we were hanging on for all we were worth. While the elephant was crossing the river, the mahout sat right on top of her head (with his legs hanging towards her trunk), and jumped off when we reached the other side. In order to control the elephant, the mahout mainly uses his relationship with the elephant and a series of orders such as go, stop and left (our elephant did not have an order for right). In extreme cases, the mahout also has a wooden stick with a steel poker and a sharpened steel hook on one end. This doesn't harm the elephant, as it's skin is almost 2 inches thick. The only weak point of an elephant, we were told, is above the eyes, where the skin is only a few millimetres thick.

As we rode the elephant along the rivers edge, we had a chance to chat with the mahout (many thais know at least some functional english). We found out that our elephant was 25 years old, and the mahout was 23. He called her his big sister. The mahout also allowed Krista to sit on the elephant's neck, and snapped a picture. After crossing the river again, Krista and I switched up (in part due to the elephant trying to grab Krista's sandal several times!). It was an interesting ride on the elephant's neck, but I must say that elephants are much hairier than I thought (and the hair is quite thick). I think that pants would have been preferable to the shorts that I was wearing.

The ride along the road was relatively uneventful for Krista and I, but the James and Justin had their hands full. The elephant they were riding seemed to be quite hungry and was stopping all along the way to grab some vegetation to eat. The problem arose from the fact that we were on a road high about 100 m above the river, with a steep drop from the road to the river. The elephant seemed to like the branches hanging out over the cliff much more than others. Although the elephant looked stable from our vantage point, this was not the case for James and Justin as they were pleading with the elephant to back away from the clifff edge. In the end, we all made it safely back to the elephant camp. We also were able to feed the elephants some bananas after the ride, and they definitely liked that. Our elephant prefered the yellow bananas over the green, as she spit out most of the green ones. It is amazing to have an elephant truck pluck a bunch of bananas out of your hands with it's trunk, without even touching you. You can just sense how much power that trunk contains, and it still gently grabs the bananas and loudly chomps them down.

After the elephant ride, we could either bike or ride in the van another 4 km to the raft launch/lunch spot. After a very filling lunch and a quick course in various raft commands from our guide, we hopped in the boat. I say a quick course, but the tour company we were with was quite thorough in preparing us for what was to come. It also helped that, through conversation, I found out that our guide was previously in the Thai special forces, and was forced to quit due to an injury. As I said he was very thorough and we practiced for awhile in the boat before we got underway.

The season becomes important for the rest of the story, as we are in the dry season. The rainy season is coming, but until then, the rivers are relatively low. This translates to numerous exposed boulders in the river everywhere (you can see this in some photos pictures that Krista has posted). I could go on forever about each set of rapids that we hit, but I don't want to write a novel. Instead, I'll say that the rapids ranged from some fast running water that was fun, to a few feet drop with boulders on either side. One section in particular was tough, as the low water left narrow gaps between rocks where the boat would hang up, and we would all have to move to the front of the boat to unwedge the back end. Some situations were a little hectic, with us becoming stuck at the top of a drop, only to lodge ourselves at the top of another drop once we become unstuck. Turning backwards at certain points definitely added to the excitement. Our boat captain was very well trained and once we were used to working together, it was a lot less nerve-racking and a lot more fun. We ended up very wet, as a couple of times the boat was full of water (we never did flip over until the captain decided we were not wet enough!). Later on in the ride, we caught up to some other rafts from another tour company and a many-battle water war started up. I think that we gave better than we received. The grand finale to our rafting was a game the captain called "helicopter," where we all climbed to the back of the boat, the captain standing on the back holding a rope attached to the nose of the boat (the front end of the boat was right out of the water). Two people started paddling in opposite directions, and we spinning around until the captain tugged on the rope and flipped us right over! All in all, I'm thankful that there was no rafting tour in India on the Ganges River!

The whole day was great, and I highly recommend the tour company we went with. It's called the "Chang Mai Adventure Company," and our guide was Tor. The cost was a little steep at 1700 baht/person, but was well worth it.

That brings us to February 28th until now. This time has mainly been filled with walking around doing some organizing (we will be meeting our friend Bruce from Chetwynd in Phnom Penh!). We did get to the Chang Mai zoo, which was a good outing. They have a very good number of African animals, including giraffes, zebras and lions. It was surprising how close we could get to the animals, particularly the giraffes. There was a Thai couple feeding a giraffe leaves, and the giraffes head was within a few feet of us. Krista also posted a picture of this situation as well.

Any other spare time has been filled by updating the website (whew! - it seems like I've written a novel in the past few days). Krista has been putting her computer in the internet cafe through it's paces by uploading a ton of photos. She's also put on a bunch of good captions as well. I particularly like "Stay away from my lunch Panda." The Pandas were a large attraction at the Chang Mai zoo, and the wood sculpture that Krista photographed me with was in the perfect pose!

That's all for now. There will be more coming up, as tomorrow we head off to Bangkok, and on the 1st we fly from Bangkok to Phnom Penh, Cambodia!

January 30, 2004 – 3:24 pm - Chang Mai, Thailand - 31 C and Blastingly hot

(Krista) It is so nice to be back in Thailand. We were here back in April/May 2002, during the hot season. I stress the word hot, because it was never under 30C. Bangkok's high during April is 38C (and that's without a humidex!), and low just above 30C. We were dying. Right now, however, Thailand is experiencing their "cool" season. Cool being 31 to 34C during the day, and 25C to 27C at night here in Chiang Mai. Needless to say, even during their cool season, we have become very adept at finding shade, even a square inch of it offers much relief. The trusy 7-11s (as common as Tim Horton's in Hamilton or Oakville), are the greatest source of cooling. I personally think they cool their store to the same temperature as their coolers. Sure, I like my potato chips to be as much of a relief as that slurpee I just drank! Doesn't everyone?

I fell in love with Thailand the first time we visited, and that love has increased tenfold after having had this opportunity to travel to dozens of other countries immediatly prior, and while our experiences are fresh in mind. There is so much to see, experience, taste and do here. It really is a country that appeals to any type of traveller, of any age. Plus the prices are amazing. One can stay in a really nice hotel for about $30CAN a night. This price will likely include a pool, and definitely be air-conditioned. Budget travellers can stay for as low as $3 CAN, depending on what they can take. A decent and comfortable room is easily found for $8 CAN. We have chosen a really decent hotel that runs us 715 Baht, or $25 CAN. I highly recommend this hotel, Paddy Field Hotel, as it is spotlessly clean, well run, extremely friendly and helpful staff, and the price includes breakfast. Of all places we have crashed throughout this trip, this is likely my favourite (save for Kristi, Robin and Julie's place in London).

In my opinion, Thailand's best and most appealing feature (besides its prices) is the people. Thai's seem to always be either smiling, or on the verge of smiling. The person who dubbed Thailand as "The Land of Smiles" hit the nail on the head. They have such tolerance for us, often knowingly or unknowingly rude and ignorant, and poorly dressed tourists (Thai's have many social mannerisms dubbed rude that us Westerners think are normal, and thus it may be very easy to offend a Thai). Still, I always get a giggle or a smile when I try to speak Thai to them, even though I only know basic numbers and phrases, and likely sound them out all wrong. I think this tolerance and joy has alot to do with their attitude toward life. According to many guidebooks, this nationwide attitude is due to three concepts: jai yen, mai pen rai, and sanuk. Jai yen is an aversion to confrontation, which includes raising voices or even visible irritation. Mai pen rai is the attitude taken if put into potential confrontation, and is basically equivalent to a shrug or a resignation. Thus Thai's will bow out of an argument with the idea of "why bother?". The last attitude, sanuk is the most apparent and obvious. It basically means that Thai's bring fun into everything in life, including the most draining or tedious piece of work. I love all of these attitudes, and hope to work them into my life someday.

It is not only attitudes that contribute toward the optimistic and overall joyous feel of this country, I also believe the Thai greeting, or wai is a big part. To greet someone, you hold your hands in a prayer form close to your chin (the wai), bow your head, and say "Sawaat-dee kha" (if you are a female), or "Sawaat-dee khap" (for males). You use the wai again when thanking someone - woman say "Khap-khun kha", men say "Khap-khun khap". This type of greeting makes things more touching and personal than a simple hello, thank you or even a handshake. I believe the wai is equivalent to a non-contact hug, which turns complete strangers into friends. The degree to which you bend when making the wai, or how high you place your hands depends on the social status or age or the person to which you are greeting; lower bends and higher hands are reserved for elders or monks. See this photo from 2002 for an example of the wai.

Thai's are very careful about the way they dress, and consider it important to look nice at all times. Shorts and tank tops are rarely worn by Thai's, and cannot be worn into a Buddhist temple, or wat. I'm surprised Thai's even allow tourists into their country, considering the way many of us prance around in our tanks, shorts and sometimes in bikini tops (Thai women do not wear bathing suits, they swim in sarongs, t-shirts and/or shorts). I am totally guilty of the tank top issue, but it is so hot in this country, it is hard to imagine dressing in more cotton. As I understand it, Thai's do have a term to describe some of us dressed less than appropriately, and it is along the lines of "tourist garbage" (less than appropriate would mean those in dirty and really baggy clothes and unkempt hair - not uncommon in these parts).

Besides their dress, Thai's have some strict social mannerisms and taboos that are very different from ours, and thus foreigners (or farangs) are very apt to offend. Some of these taboos include blowing your nose or sneezing at the table. If one must do so, excuse yourself and leave the room. I am totally guilty for this one, as their meals are so spicy my nose goes on a marathon run, and I end up using up a whole box of tissues. If I were to get up everytime I needed to blow my nose, I would never eat!

Other social taboos are grounded in ancient Hindu beliefs where the head is considered the most sacred part of the body, and the feet are the most unclean. For this reason, it is considered absolutely disrespectful if you touch a person's head or point your feet at them. When entering a temple or home, you must take off your shoes and never point your feet at anyone or at the Buddha sitting at the head of the temple. To avoid pointing your feet while sitting, you must either sit cross-legged, on your legs (both of which are totally uncomfortable for the unseasoned), or on your bottom, with your legs tucked to the side (see the way Por and Bee are sitting in this photo). These beliefs are similar in India, and I made the terrible mistake of rubbing a child's head (he was sooo cute), leaving the entire family in a state of shock.

Besides wearing shorts and bathing suits, women must also be careful not to touch monks, or to hand them anything directly. Monks are found wandering all over town, or on the ubiquitous songtheaw (see Tony's description above), and thus are hard to avoid at times. Yesterday I was on one bench in a songtheaw, and four young monks were facing me on the other. I had to disembark before them, and ended up tripping and hitting all of the other non-monk passengers while attempting to avoid touching them.

The biggest source of national pride to Thai's is their king. For this reason, no one ever ever ever should say anything bad about this all-revered man (unless of course you want to have the s*%t kicked out of you). His face is on every coin and bill, and therefore you should never ever step on dropped currency, or deface a bill. I mistakenly reached my foot out to stop a rolling coin dropped by a Thai woman the other day, but thankfully caught myself - who knows what the consequences would have been. As for defaced bills, on our last Thailand visit, Tony accidentally accepted a ripped 100 Baht bill and for a week could not rid himself of it anywhere, as no retailer would accept it as money. I think we still have this bill at home.

Other sources of offense are public displays of affection between members of the opposite sex - never never never seen. It is common, however to see same-sex hugs or pairs holding hands as an act of friendship. Also, if in a movie or public event, and the national anthem is played (usually accompanied by a picture of the king), stand up, regardless of your nationality. Points, stares and nods of disapproval abound if you don't. Not that I have been privy to this type of behaviour, but I have read about it.

All of these mannerisms, taboos and attitudes originate in part from the predominant Theravada Buddhism, followed by 95% of the country's people. The Buddhism practiced here in Thailand has many Hindu and animist overtones, such as the ever-present spirit houses, or Shiva's trident topping many temples (wats) or stupas (chedis). Animism predates Hinduism and Buddhism here in Thailand, and is the belief in the existence of spirits outside of human bodies. I really love their spirit houses - so colourful and animated. We were walking with our three cooking teachers to the market the other day, and a cat was hanging out in a sprit house, 4.5 feet above the street level. The girls shrieked and giggled away when they saw it, saying that spirits live in these houses and its funny that a cat is in one (and they were serious).

In all, Thailand is fun and enchanting, adventurous and relaxing, a country with so much potential, yet one that should remain untouched to retain its charm. I feel all at once happy to be here and to have experienced it in my lifetime, yet at the same time uncomfortable that I am potentially westernizing their way of life by just being here. For this reason, Tony and I chose not to go on the famous "non-touristic" hilltribe treks, and are reluctant to go off the beaten track. As much as I love to explore, I much rather "leave no trace" here in Thailand and stick to the main, already trampled, tourist routes. Still, I want everyone I know to have had the opportunity to come here and to share in the experience of joyous innocence while eating really good food.

February 4, 2004 – 4:34 pm - Phnom Penh, Cambodia - 31 C and Stiflingly hot

(Krista) We left the addictively enticing Chiang Mai for Bangkok on January 31st. Luckily we had a side-trip to Cambodia planned for Feb 1st - 8th, or else we likely would never have left this part of the country. So beautiful, and so much to do. And that's not saying anything about the amazingly comfortable temperatures. At night the temperature is cool enough to wear either a thin long-sleeve shirt and/or pants, or still hot enough to prance around in tanks and shorts. That is my favourite type of temperature. Bangkok and Phnom Penh are a little too hot for daytime enjoyment....

When we started planning our trip to Phnom Penh, we knew we had to get from Chiang Mai all the way down to Bangkok for the 31st, but we had no idea how. There are many options available, in all classes of budgets, from trains, buses and planes. The slow, 14-hour overnight train is an economical option, if one chooses to go second class with sleeper bunks. At only $30US each though, we could have taken the first class sleeper cabins, similar to those we took in Malaysia. Not a bad idea, with a comfortable but unrestful sleep. Luckily, howver, we stumbled upon a newer Thai-operated airline, called Orient Thai. They fly from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for only 1505 Baht each (around $32.50 US). Thus, instead of a 14 hour train ride, we flew for one hour, and had a restful nights sleep at our favourite hotel in Chiang Mai - the Paddy Field. The bus was never really an option, as apparently they can be unsafe when bus drivers decide to race each other to Bangkok.

We arrived at Bangkok Airport (for the upteenth time) on the 31st, and were scheduled to leave for Phnom Penh on the 1st. This gave us "one night in Bangkok"", as Murray Head would say. I still have yet to get this song from my head....

We decided to crash for the night downtown in the Banglamphu neighbourhood, in a hotel we fell in love with on our first Thailand visit - the New Siam II Guesthouse. Lucky for us, the hotel has retained a its quiet atmosphere, despite being in the most backpacker-heavy district in the entire world (Khao San Road). Also, to our surprise, the operators added new perks to our rooms: satellite TV, and personal security boxes, and added a pool!!! These new additions did justifiably raise the price of the rooms from our expected 550 Baht to 690 Baht (there's 38 Baht to the USD). We love this place, and recommend it to anyone (don't be put off by the not-so-welcoming staff, as they have to put up with hundreds of less-than-polite budget travellers everyday). Be forewarned however, they continue to stress the "visitors are illegal" policy - ie, prostitution is NOT welcome.

That night we battled the sticky heat of the "hottest city in the world" to wander amongst the world's biggest concentration of backpackers. This was Tony's first time wandering down Khao San Road, in amongst the hoards of crowds, cheap food, clothes and jewelry vendors, and happy-hour cafe/pubs that chaotically spill onto the street. On this infamous street, you can pick up anything you want for cheap, whether it be a sarong, a pirated copy of a LimpBizkit CD, or a degree in Neuroscience (yes, we are each going to become PHDs before we leave Thailand). Pad Thai and fruit vendors are scattered amongst the dreadlocks and bikini tops, as well as giant loads of tamarinds....This is a great street, actually neighbourhood, full of energy, beer and bargaining. I can't wait to get back there in a few days.

February 13, 2004; 7:48 pm - Bangkok, Thailand - 28 C and Scattered Clouds

(Tony) We are now in Bangkok, having left Siem Reap in Cambodia on February 7th. It has taken us 6 days to get to an internet cafe, as there is a ton of things to do in Bangkok, and we have been doing our best to do them! It was hard to leave Siem Reap (and Bruce) behind, but it was great to have a third person to travel with for a week (Thanks Bruce!).

What exactly have we been up to here in Bangkok? Well, as I said, we arrived on the 7th and managed to find a hotel for the next, as our reservation was for the next night. On Sunday morning, we woke up, changed hotels and then headed for the weekend market. The weekend market is a rather large event, and the bus was packed with people as we approached the large area covered by the multitude of vendors. We just started walking around the huge area, but we learned later that we should have picked up a map of the market, as it is very much a maze. For those out there that have not yet experienced a market in SE Asia, I'll do my best to describe it. At a market as big as the weekend market, vendors are selling almost everything - including food (of course), clothing of all sorts, jewerlly, arts and crafts, housewares, and even pets! The vendors shops are small (around 10' wide in front and 15' deep), are made of wood, and are connected together to form long chains. Customers wander along narrow passages between shopfronts, and people stopping to window shop can stop the flow of people altogether. The weekend market we were at took up an area of around a half city block, so one can imagine how many shops are squeezed into that area! This market was quite well organized, with major categories like clothing lumped in the same area, and even minor categories like blue jeans were grouped in one area. There were probably 20 shops selling blue jeans all next to one another! One thing that is not lacking in any market in SE Asia, and the weekend market was no exception, is food. There is an area where food vendors provide some tables to sit at, but there are also food vendors scattered everywhere, selling all sorts of Thai cuisine. All in all, a trip to a market is an attack on the senses, with lots of sounds, smells, tastes, and sights. You may be asking yourself why anyone would want to go - the answer is that the market is loads of fun, and very cheap. Haggling is standard, and it seems the better humoured you are with it, the more the price comes down. The only problem is that it's hard not to buy things (even when your pack is already full!). I came out of the weekend market with sore feet, a cool Thai T-shirt, but the guy selling the iguana wanted a little too much...

The day after our market experience, we decided to check out some sites. We had already seen the "must-see" sites in Bangkok - the Grand Palace, Wat Arun and the like. We did decide to see Wat Pho again, as when we were here last, restoration prevented us from getting a good view of the huge reclining Buddha. Wat Pho is located right beside the Grand Palace, and is very similar in style, with many tall Chedis decorated with small pieces of colourful ceramic. Large temples with the familiar red and green roof tiles are also found here. Of course, the big tourist attraction is the gigantic reclining Buddha at 46 metres long and 15 metres tall. Almost as impressive as it's size is the fact that it is covered in gold leaf, giving quite an effect to the smiling figure.

After checking out Wat Pho, we walked over to the Golden Mount, which is a temple built on small hill. The fact that we walked to these sites is due to the great location of our hotel. We are staying in the Banglampu area, which is very touristy, but close to many sites. Banglampu is a rather large itself, and our hotel is located in a nice quite sidestreet, well away from any noise and mania that can be found all too often here in Bangkok. It's called the New Siam II Guesthouse, and is not the cheapest place, but it is newly renovated and even has a pool (which has been quite a feature with the hot weather). Where was my point in all this? Just the fact that we are located within walking distance of many sites, and that's saved us both money and headache dealing with tuk-tuk and/or taxi drivers.

The Golden Mount is famous for it's views of the city, as well as Buddha relics contained within Wat Suket. What is a Buddha relic you ask? This is typically a piece of the Buddha himself, ashes for example (we've also come across a temple that contained a small, inner ear bone of the Buddha). These relics are typically contained within a chedi (the dome shaped structures with a tall spire off the top), and are not for viewing. The relic aside, there is a great view of Bangkok from up there (Krista included a photo or two showing the view on the photos page).

We wandered around for sometime and ended up at the Wat Mahathat, where monks offer meditation classes three times daily. We met and were taught by a monk named Phaison, and it was a very interesting experience. There are two forms of meditation, one for relaxation and one for striving for enlightenment (those descriptions may not be completely accurate, as I'm trying to keep things short, and may not actually know what I'm talking about). We learned a method that focused on being in the present, and I found that this relaxed my mind (and body). It was very simple and easy, and I would recommend anyone thinking about taking a class to do it. Obviously, there is a lot more to meditating than can be taught in one class, but I found the calming effect almost immediate.

The next day (February 10th), we decided to go and check out the local amusement park - Dream World. Krista will cover this in her update, and I will continue from there...

February 13, 2004 - 11:12 pm - Bangkok, Thailand - 25 C, and refreshing

(Krista) While doing long trips such as these, you end up doing alot of thinking about life, both past and present. I have found my mind drifting back to childhood quite often, and as such, Tony has had an earful. Well, a couple of months ago, one of my regular daydreaming journeys back to life as a child in Ontario had me back riding the Dragon Fyre rollercoaster at Canada's Wonderland. This resurfaced memory created a monster - after that, I had to get on a roller coaster sometime in the near future. Luckily enough, I found out that Bangkok had its own version of Canada's Wonderland, or Disney's Wonderland; called "Dream World". Now I was on a mission, I had to go and ride a rollercoaster.

When I ran this idea past Tony, his face went green. He has never in his life ridden a rollercoaster, and here I am talking about upside-downs and loopdy-loops, standing up and backwards rolling coasters. Poor guy was so nervous, while I enthusiastically counted down the days until I could get to Bangkok to ride a rollercoaster.

Three days ago, the dream came true. We left early in the morning, for the 1.5 hour journey by bus to Dream World. We were told by the tourism folks that by taxi it would take 1.5 hours, and here we were on the reputedly slow public transit. Nevertheless, we were saving a ton of money (instead of 500+ Baht, it costed us 94 Baht), and considering we took a wrong connection that costed us 1/2 hour, it took us only 2.5 hours! Through the entire journey, I could see grief and anxiety in Tony's eyes....If he only knew how much fun he was in for.

When we arrived at Dream World late that morning, we were the only ones here, and thus had all the rides to ourselves! It was great! The first ride we hit was, of course, the rollercoaster. Fortunately for Tony, it had no upside-down loops, or towering drops. Instead, it was a simple coaster, squeezed into only a few square metres, and although it was a bit rough, we did get some good Gs going around the corkscrew turns. I have never heard Tony laugh as hard as he did while riding this one, and I quickly realized his fears of coasters were over once he asked to go around again.

Although Dream World has been coined as Thailand's Disneyland, I'd personally call it a mini-Disneyland as everything is smaller and of a lesser adrenaline rush or quality. There are the token restaurants, cotton candy dealers, stuffed-animal games, and live show. As for rides, there is bumper cars, bumper boats, a WILD viking ship, a soaking wet log-ride, haunted house, and monorail (damn, I just realized I missed the octupus ride). There is even a mini-monorail that does a 500m circle of the northern part of the park, and a cable car that rides above the southern half of the park. One of the highlights for me was this tube ride with a pre-warning of "You will get wet". I ignored this and after two back-to-back cycles through, walked off dripping from head-to-toe. Oh well - at least it's a tropical country! Good thing the water reaked of chlorine, or we'd be doubted the safety of being immersed in Thai water.

One of the craziest rides in the entire park was called the "Flying Carpet". Really this was just a row of seats that circles vertically clockwise for a few moments, then counter-clockwise for another few moments reaching heights of about 30m. Well, this looked like nothing from the ground. However, I guess the ride operator decided to play an evil trick on us foreigners, and had us going around at light speeds for a countless amount of time, leaving Tony and I bruised all over from being jammed into the seat bars. This ride was fun for the first 20 seconds while our stomachs were being jerked around, but after 3 minutes, we were considering yelling stop to him! Besides the Flying Carpet ride, another crazy ride was the "Raptor". We had no idea what this ride was about when we saw it. Nevertheless we hopped in, VELCROED ourselves in, and this ride just flung us around in our seats in all directions for about 3 minutes. We still don't know the point of the ride, and still shudder at the thought that we were spinning around in circles while nearly vertical in only a velcro seat.

If it doesn't win on the rides, Dream World definitely takes the points for the best prices on food. Where Disneyland or Canada's Wonderland's (or Canabis Wonderland, as one T-Shirt in a Thai market had it) mundane food costs at least twice what one would pay at a gourmet restaurant, Dream World was only marginally more than street food. Thus, Tony and I were eating typical Thai food (skewered meats, noodles, freshly blended fruit shakes, popcorn and coconut/rice pudding desserts) for only a few bucks. Further, there are clothing shops and a market selling really decently priced goods. Considering the place was pretty much deserted before noon and after 3:30pm (when the Thai teenagers had to run home), and prices were so good, this place was definitely worth the 2+ hours travel each way.

February 13, 2004 - 11:12 pm - Bangkok, Thailand - 25 C

(Tony) The day after all the excitement at Dream World, we took in the National Museum. The National Museum is one of those sites in a country that you don't always get to, but when you do, you never regret it. The National Museum of Thailand is a complex of buildings that house the history of the Thai people. The first building we visited was a chronological summary of Thailand and it's people. There is surprisingly little known about ancient Thai people, but there is much proof there were people living here. Several theories exist as to where these people came from - from Southern China, from present-day Singapore or Malaysia, or even from India. I think that the only thing that all Thais can agree is that they didn't come from Cambodia (there seems to be a little bad blood between Thailand and Cambodia). Anyway, it was an interesting walk through the history of heroic Kings all the way to present day, where the King has ruled for over 50 years. Various Kings have contributed to Thailand, and one King even prevented Thailand from being colonized by Europe (a very impressive feat). It seems as if every country has an interesting history, and Thailand is no different - I'll be polishing up my library card when I get home...

The National Museum also houses art works from all the various Thai styles. These are mainly religious, and consist of both Hindu and Buddist art (mainly sculpture). It is an impressive collection, and it's interesting to see the image of Buddha evolve through different artistic styles.

After the National Museum, we decided to take a ride on a different form of public transport, the Chao Praya River ferry. These boats run like river buses, taking people from stop to stop along the main waterway in Bangkok. The Chao Praya is a very busy river, and when we hopped on the ferry, you could see boats all over the river - huge barges being dragged slowly by a small tug, longtail boats taking tourists all over, the ferries (of course), and even small one person boats. All of these are travelling as fast as they can to get to where they want to go. It makes for a hectic river. I feel sorry for the fish in that river! The traffic aside, it was a nice boat ride down to the Central Pier where we hopped on the BTS skytrain, which is Bangkok's light rail transit system. This system is amazingly quiet and clean. A very relaxing ride took us down to Sukhumvit Road. A leisurely walk up the very touristy Sukhumvit Road brought us back to Siam Centre, where we hopped a bus home.

After a few busy days filled with lots of walking, we decided to take a bit of a break. There were still two sites that we wanted to see - the Marble Temple and Wat Intharawihan. The Marble Temple is famous for it's Buddha image, and rightly so, as it is the most spectacular image I have seen. The temple has been newly renovated, and the deep blue painted wall behind the golden Buddha image is a great contrast of colours. Even better is the backlighting behind the Buddha which make it seem to glow.

After the Marble Temple, we headed over to the Wat Intharawihan, where a giant standing Buddha rises above everything in the area. The image is 32 m tall, and looks down upon a nice patch of green grass.

The rest of our day was filled with trying out the pool at our hotel. It was a great way to unwind after all the walking we've been doing. We should have been making use of the pool earlier! Actually, one reason is the weather. When we arrived on the 7th, the weather was relatively cold (5 C) and rainy. We came from the airport to the Banglampu area by airport bus, and it was a scary ride. The expressways were the worst, as big puddles built up in the road. Also, the expressways here are elevated, and that means when entering and exiting, there is an incline and decline, respectively. While exiting off the expressway, the bus swerved, and the rear end fishtailed and for a moment it felt like we were going to flip. The bus righted itself, but all talking on the bus stopped for some time after that. Note to self and other travellers - try to avoid travelling in adverse weather conditions unless necessary. Well, the weather is back to normal for Bangkok - hovering around 30 in the afternoon and cooling off a little at night. Very nice indeed.

That brings us to today, where our main goal was to make sure that we could fit everything into our packs for the trip home. Everything did fit, but we did need an extra bag to help out.