Pai

So after leaving Chiang Mai I made my way to Pai, where I spent a week.  I got in at night in time for the night market.  I found my hostel, which was just outside of town and up a little hill with beautiful views of the mountains and all of the little bungalows that fill Pai.  I went out in search of food and ended up finding a guide that was taking a group on a 3 day trek the following morning.  So before I knew it I was signed up and ready to go.

I was with a young Israeli couple and 3 Dutch guys.  We did a fair amount of hiking through a bamboo jungle on our first day.  In fact 7 hours worth.  We had a porter that carried all of the food, cooked our meals, guided us, rolled his own cigarettes with bamboo leaves he found along the way and spoke no English.  It was a beautiful hike, but I was focusing more on the experience than the views.  Coming from NZ, I knew I was not going to find anything with the amazing views I had grown accustomed to. There's obviously a different type of beauty here.  

We spent our first night in a small village that consisted of 4 families.  They are the last village that has not moved to government run villages.  The villages the government has set up have medical facilities, a school, plumbing, electricity, satellite, an annual budget for the women to make crafts for markets and food supplies.  This last one that doesn't has none of the above.  It's only one generation of people.  The grandparents have moved so they will have medical care and the grandchildren have gone to live with them to go to school.  It was very interesting to see that way of life still exists, but we were told that eventually move because the climate isn't good for growing crops so they often run low on food.  It's a 2 hour drive to the next village as well and during the rainy season the roads aren't travelable.  

So we stayed in a hut on the floors with pigs below that oinked all night and roosters that crowed with half mutilated sounds.  The water is well water and the shower had no walls.  Just a big ole bucket in the middle of the yard.  You can imagine the laughter that ensued over it all.  They make their own whiskey out of something like looks like a chewy root.  We had some with dinner and it wasn't all that b bad.  The food they cooked over the fire place was one of the best and most authentic meals I have had.  

We hiked the following day to another village that was government funded.  There was quite the difference.  Again, we had an amazing meal and cold beer after another long day of hiking.  On our last day we had a short hike along a river, had lunch, rice and pork, cooked in bamboo.  The whole trip was worth the experience and the company was great as well.  

I spent a few days in the small town of Pai when I got back.  It's a little hippie village that is crowded with tourists, but it has a much more laid back feeling.  It has the best street food thus far.  I rented a motorbike and to scope out the viewpoints, the temples and just get a feel for the town.  It was an incredible little place and I loved every minute of it.  

I went to Chiang Rai next, but used it more as a stopover and place to relax and recharge for a day.  I saw the White Temple, which is incredible, and made a couple new friends.  I will post pictures soon and write about my trip to Laos and my first few days here.  My computer is telling me it's full, so once I figure out how to get rid of some music or how on Earth to use Dropbox, I will be be able to upload my photos and share them with you all.

               

Chiang Mai

So I spent a grueling couple of days traveling via overnight buses to Chiang Mai, in the northern part of Thailand.  I took a 12 hour overnight bus from Krabi to Bangkok, whicg started off with the first hour being spent in a sketchy garage on the side of the road trying to fix a flat tire by a handful of people standing around with headlamps on.  After we got on the road we were hauling along.  One thing Thais care nothing about it safety.  They live without fear.  As I tried sleeping I was thrown from side to side like a rag doll.  I remember waking up a couple of times thinking at any moment we were going to be turning in circles and for all I know we probably did a couple of rolls.  

So after hanging out in Bangkok for the day I got on my second night bus to Chiang Mai. It was a little better than the first ride, but not much.  I arrived here at 6am and found the hostel I booked.  Getting in early is a good thing for someone like me that enjoys the mornings.  So I got off to an early start, roaming the streets while the rest of the town slept.  I instantly fell in love with Chiang Mai.

It's a small town, but big enough.  It's got more of an authentic Thai feeling, even though it's still buzzing with tourists.  The people are friendly and much more willing to help and offer hospitality.  When walking around I had to keep my eyes open and constantly look around.  There are temples on every block and they are more amazing than anything I have seen.  They are free too.  So skip Bali and it's temples, they don't have a thing on Thai temples.  They are really lavish, covered with ornate designs, gold and bright colors.  Some of them are really quiet as well.  I got up early enough to avoid them being full of tourists snapping photos and being loud.  I sat and watched as the monks walked the streets in their orange robes heading towards their respected temples.  It was the same feeling I got in Nepal.  A sense of peace and serenity.

As the afternoon came, so did the heat and the people.  With the extreme heat and humidity I have missed out on for the last 16 months, I haven't taken to it so well. So I use the afternoons to read a book or nap!  Then I go back out around 5 when the sun is fading and just walk.  Turning on roads that I know nothing about is the best part.  I'vve stumbled upon some great little cafes and some really cool temples, or wats, of course.  I also realized I have tons of pictures of the beautiful sites I have seen, but not of the streets or the daily life.  I spent the first afternoon walking around and capturing some photos of the area. 

Yesterday was the best part of my trip to date.  I took a Thai cooking class!  We started at 8 and left for a local market.  It was full of anything from fruits and veggies, to meat, to rice, to all types of prepared food, to fried roaches, frogs and some other questionable and nauseating insects.  My camera died the second I got there so I had to use my phone for pictures.  Our guide tookus around and taught us about some different rices, spices and vegetables.  We had some time to explore on our own and then we loaded back in the truck to head towards the farm.

Side note:  Transportation here is either a small Tuk Tuk, powered like a motorbike, or a truck that has a roof over the back and benches on each side of the truck bed.                   

    

The cooking school has 4.5 acres of farm land filled to the brim with herbs, tomatoes, cucumbers, pumpkins, pineapples, mangoes, garlic, etc.  You name it and they have it.  We walked around tasting, smelling and guessing what different herbs and veggies were before we made our way to the classroom.  For my menu I chose the following:

Green Curry Paste

Green Curry Chicken- obviously using my paste

Thai Vegetable Soup

Basil Chicken 

Papaya Salad

Pad Thai Noodles and Stir Fried thick noodles

Coconut Milk with Banana for dessert

It was so much fun.  I can't say it was the best food I have ever had since it was my first experiment with making my own Thai, but the experience was worth it.  We each had our own little stations with ur cutting boards, knives, stove tops, etc.  It was also really nice just to cook a meal.  Since I have been traveling I haven't cooked a single thing.  It's so cheap that it's easier to eat on the street and at the end of the day, cooking a meal for one sounds exhausting.  

We ate so much it hurt to move.  I had plenty of leftovers to bring home for dinner, which I wasn't even hungry enough to eat.  Not that it stopped me though, I ate it all!   It was a great day and it was nice to be in the kitchen cooking and laughing with people as we experimented.  I provided great entertainment when I asked the teacher if I could create fire in my wok like she had done.  My facial expressions were priceless and had everyone in tears.

I dawdled around the night market that was full of crafts and the same old stuff that everywhere in Thailand seems to sell.  They have some cool things, but I don't see the need to buy things that still have to be carried for another couple months.  I also love gift giving and I get carried away.  So I have told myself that this trip I will not be coming back with gifts.  Sorry to you all!  It just ends up that I buy for one person and then I have to buy for 50 more.  I will take pictures of the things I would buy for you if I was going to buy you a gift, because it's really the thought that counts right?!

Love to you all! xo          

Tonsai pictures

The most beautiful and relaxing beach, with spectacular views and a rock climbers paradise

Koh Lanta Pictures

Living are of the B&B where I spent 3 days volunteering

view from the porch down to the water at sunset

Sunset from the actual beach

Last Beach, Koh Lanta

Old Towne

Views from Shanti Shanti at low tide

Laura and I 

My first week in Thailand

So I have been in Thailand for a week now.  I started on the small island of Koh Lanta.  I was supposed to be staying for a month with a Thai/Swedish family that runs a little B&B on the edge of the jungle.  There was a French girl, Laura, their volunteering as well.  They have 2 volunteers there to clean the rooms and look after their 2 kids , Shaan (3) and Jeevan (1.5).  The kids were pretty cute.  Turns out though the mom is a bit of a  looney and I just didn't have the patience when she got in a huge argument with Laura.  

From the minute I met Laura we hit it off and talked and laughed endlessly.  Again, one of my favorite reasons to travel.  Laura adds to the list of people I will keep in touch with.  Anyways, after 3 days of volunteering I realized I didn't want to work, I wanted to be traveling.  Well perfect timing for the argument over something as petty as a miscommunication created through the language barrier.  At the end of the day it turned quite comical and Aruna (the mother) told Laura not to come back.  She had been there for a month and only had 12 days to go.  Aruna told me to come back, but I didn't have time for shenanigans like that so I said no thanks.   Laura and I joked that she/we were fired from a volunteering job.  I've never been fired before and I don't envision it ever happening over something silly and trivial like that either.      

Koh Lanta is a really cool little spot.  It has several little beaches along the west coast, all a bit diferent from one another.  Laura and I took our next day to explore the island.  The night before we went to a night market and looked at souvenir/trinkety items and ate banana nutella crepes.  Delicious!  They call them Thai pancakes and they are everywhere.  Laura rented a motorbike for the month, which was extremely handy and it allowed me to see so much.  Had I been alone I would have rented one as well.   We spent the day stopping along the beaches, swimming, sun bathing and then made our last stop in Old Town.  This is the southeastern part of the island, which is only about 30 minutes away at most.  Laura knows a young French guy that has his own little restaurant there.  He cooks 1 meal for the day so if you don't like it then his motto is 'tough shit, go somewhere else'.  He gets fresh fish everyday and produce from the markets so he literally cuts the fish up as it is ordered to cook.  OHHH and one weird thing they do here, and I notice in Bali.  They don't fillet the fish.  They chop the head off and then continue to cut it in the same direction, so you have the spine in your meal.  I had tuna like it in Bali and it really freaked me out.  Is this normal and I just don't know it?  Someone please advise!

So the best part, his specialty is ICE CREAM!  So clearly I was in heaven.  Homemade ice cream made daily?!?! YES PLEASE!  I had Chai, which was to die for.  Then he told me about his flavor for the next day and asked if we wanted to try it.  I can't even describe it to you because it was something French and had these little french biscotti things in it and I tell you what, as Pinky would say "it would make ya slap ya grandma".  {Side note: my Grammie knows Pinky and will laugh , noo I would never slap you Grammie}.  It was the best ice cream I have had in my life and that means something because I eat a LOT of ice cream.  Actually, there's not much I don't eat a lot of!

So I got carried away.  But this little place is right on the water.  It's like sitting on the end of someones little pier, with blue water at your feet and a nice breeze.  Just when I was "over" the beach, this place totally redeemed Koh Lanta.  If you ever visit, add Shanti Shanti as a must!  

Also, Patty's Secret Garden is a must.  After eating so much rice and noodles, finding western food that is legit is an amazing thing.  This place is owned by an English/Thai couple and they make excellent salads, which are normally impossible to find, and....you guessed it, a delicious bacon cheeseburger.  I really needed it after a month with little meat other than the occasional chicken.  They have an outdoor area filled with toys, which is like a playroom, so it was THE spot for families.  Parents drinking beer while the children entertain themselves, brilliant!

I was sad to leave Koh Lanta, but Jordan Atchison told me about this fabulous little place called Tonsai. And was it ever.  It was the first place I felt really comfortable in.  I didn't feel that people were trying to swindle me, there are no cars and it was soo peaceful.  For it being a small island, this place had so much to offer.  It is a rock climbers paradise.  The beach is surrrounded by these amazing rock formations and I wish my pictures did the place any justice.  Kayaks were all about, I went hiking through to another beach and a climb up to a viewpoint.  I went to the "Chill Out Bar" Jordan told me about.  A Thai rasta grinds coffee beans with a mortar and pestle.  Best coffee I have had in a while.  Everything there was open air as well, so I laid on the deck all day in the shade reading a book and drinking coffee and taking the odd break for a swim.  It was so wonderful.  So far that is my favorite spot.  If my friends I had made along the way had been there it would have been even better!

Last night I took the overnight bus to Bangkok.  I got in at 5am.  Bangkok is another one of those cities that doesn't sleep.  The street vendors selling trinkets were still open, all the bars and restaurants were open and prostitutes were coming out of the wood works.  It was strange.  I spent the morning walking around and once it got hot I resorted to a cafe with free wifi to research some of my upcoming travel ideas.  I went and got a manicure and pedicure, which for $10 left a lot to be desired.  I'm pretty sure a 2 year old could have done better, but oh well, when in Bangkok.  I found dumplngs at a street vendor and went all out order Chicken Curry, Pork, Veggie Spring Rolls and Shrimp Spring Rolls.  The look the woman gave me said "I hope you're not putting on a bathingsuit anytime soon".  I gave her a big ole grin and then proceeded to polish off every bite in record time.  

I'm sitting in a coffee shop sipping a coffee as I write.  I am due to catch my bus in an hour to Chiang Mai.  Hopefully I have several days of trekking ahead of me as I head towards the mountains.  Assuming my knee gives me no trouble, I will be off galivating through the hills of northern Thailand and Laos over the next couple of weeks.  I am moving a bit faster than planned. I orignially wanted to be settled in places longer, but I began getting too restless.  A day in a foreign country is about 2 days in normal like, because you get up early and want to see everything.  So being out and about for 12 hours wipes you out.  

More to come soon.  Oh and sorry for the excessive posts at once.  I try to upload pictures and such when I don't have internet and then publish them when I do, so it makes for several posts in a day.  Pictures will follow soon! 

                                 

Penang in Pictures

Batu Ferringhi beach

Nan and me

Coolest coffee at the Moustache Houze

Rachael, me and Nan

Rachel

Lion dance costumes 

Fruit stand

We found the Alabama Shake, in Malaysia, with 2 Alabamians, in the middle of the CNY celebration area

The dock where the national park begins

Monkey Beach

Jungle Hike

View from the Lighthouse

Sunrise from the ferry leaving Penang, on the way to Langkawi 

Langkawi Harbour

Sunsets, my favorite thing