Back into the swing of things

Once again, I'm the only American.

Yu and I joined a group doing a two day hill tribe trek into the mountains north of Chiang Mai. The tour company divided the group by age, so we were hanging out with 20 and 30 somethings. We had 12 people most from Germany, a couple Dutch, and a couple Canadians (French). Our trip organizer reminded us to tell the others that we paid a higher price for the tour (since we had the Thai local price).

The trek was nice, and started with a short elephant ride. The novelty of riding an elephant wears off in about 15 seconds. There was a baby elephant which was kind of cute and was the center of attention for pictures. After the ride and crappy lunch we started the walk. Some people had issues with the climb which was nearly the entire three hours. Even with the shade from the jungle, it was a bit warm. One problem with walking through the jungle is that the trees are so thick that you can't really see anything until you get to a clearing. Eventually, we made it to the village where the views were much nicer.

The communal dinner was quite nice and for the first time in months, I really felt as if I was back in full traveller mode. Many of the people on the tour were seasoned travellers. At least half had already been to South America. Others were coming from China or other Asian destinations. Stephanie (one of the Canadians) had been travelling off and on for 11 years! The vibe for the entire evening was really good. We were able to share stories about places where we have been and funny language mix ups. The next morning I woke up at 5 AM due to the friggin roosters again. Those 5 AM rooster wake up call seems to be common no matter which continent you are on. We hiked down to a waterfall where I was able to swim a bit. No one else wanted to get in because it was too cold. It didn't matter because everyone got cold and wet from the white water rafting in the afternoon. Overall it was a good trek and the people I met were great. Looking forward to meeting them again some day.

I ended up doing something rash and bought another digital camera. The auto focus is not functioning properly on my current one. I can't afford to miss any pictures on this trip. Heading to Laos tomorrow, so I'm not sure when I can post more pictures.

Chiang Mai Moonlight Madness

The overnighter to Chiang Mai was supposed to be on a VIP bus. The bus was your standard double decker monster. Clean, but no where near as nice as a high end bus in South America. I had another "Wait a second, you are not Jane" moments on the bus when I woke up upon our arrival to Chiang Mai. Yu and I toured the city after our arrival and checked out a few treks. She has been absolutely great as far as getting the Thai local price for everything. After setting up our trek and passage to Laos, we visited the Doi Suthep temple in the mountains. The place was nice, but I'm getting to the point where all of the temples are starting to look similar.

The day that we arrived in the town was the second day of the full moon festival. We returned from the temple to see the crowds lining the bank of the Ping river. There was a barrage of fireworks and these paper hot air balloons being lifted in the air. In the river, the folks were placing floats decorated in flowers, candles, and incense. The balloons and floats signify letting go of bad vibes. At one point I looked into the sky and thought that there must be at least a thousand paper balloons up there. Some poor farmer is going to wake up tomorrow to find his yard littered with those things. The night market was an absolute zoo that evening, but we were able to spot some good food and a few nice souvenirs.

I have decided to buy another suitcase when I return to Bangkok and stuff it with a ton of junk before leaving home.

Chill day

I've been doing a ton of walking around the city the past few days and need a break. We are gettting ready to jump on the overnight VIP bus to Chiang Mai. Yu and I have planned out about five days of treking, rafting, and elephant riding before shipping off to Laos. If this is anything like South America, these next two weeks will fly by REAL quick. I am a bit relieved to get out of the city due to the smog (as in any big city).

I have noticed that I am not in drinking shape anymore. I'm a lightweight to begin with, but since Switzerland, I haven't been doing too much drinking other than the ten day bender when Jon met me in Argentina. I had a couple beers with Greg in HK and my liver gave me that "Who you talking about Willis" feeling.

Also, since Hong Kong, my camera has been acting up. This comes at a very bad time since I'm headed into the meat of my Asia travels.

Wats Up?

I arrived in Bangkok without issue and met Yu at the airport. Yu is a friend of an old TI colleague and will be traveling with me for a couple weeks (she is local which will help with the logistics). We arrived at Lamphu House where I was able to get a room for about $10 per night. The place is backpacker central just off of Kao San road. She showed me how to use the public transportation so I could get around on my own. Since it was the weekend, we went to the JJ market. The market is huge and you can actually find good stuff. We spent about 2 hours in the market and only saw about 1/3 of the shops. It will be one of those places I return to just before leaving back to the states. Ended up buying a few shirts at the second hand country western store anyway.

I thought that Taiwan was cheap, but Bangkok has proved to be the cheapest place to eat so far. My first lunch here cost me just over $1. There are plenty of tourist attractions near the guesthouse. I have had one of those long days where you try to see as much stuff as possible in the shortest amount of time. My legs are beat and I'm dehydrated. I was able to see the grand palace, Wat Prakaew, Wat Pho, and Wat Arun. My camera got a ton of use this afternoon. Most all of the Wats look like they were just unwrapped from the packaging. Everything looks so new and shiny. It is a shame that these places are not open at night. The lighting at these places puts another dimension to their beauty.

Found the USB port. Enjoy the few pics.

The Couple

My arrival to Hong Kong was not at a convenient time for Greg and Jeanette. As I mentioned earlier, they are currently between houses now. Both have been busy balancing work with the stress of decorating and moving into their new place. I really doesn't bother me that they don't have that much time to show me around. At this point, I'm just happy to see them. I was scared for a moment that they would need my help to assemble all of the storage units from Ikea, but they paid for the assembly for the furniture too. I've attached some pictures of their new place in the works (which is high up there and has a nice view). I'll be staying here for the rest of the week.

Greg and I were able to take the ferry to Macau this past weekend for some gambling. As soon as we arrived, Greg was turned away at the Wynn Casino because he was wearing flip flops. What a way to take the air out of the tires! We quickly hailed a cab which drove us to the nearest mall. Greg bought himself some stylish Pumas and we were back in business. After losing about 2000 HKD at craps, both Greg and I clawed our way back into the positive numbers at the black jack table. Greg even won enough to pay for his shoes as well! We rolled back to HK at 4 AM totally exhausted. It is great that the JW has excellent beds.

I have been able to do some sightseeing, but most of the things I have already seen from the last trip. One new place that I visited was the goldfish market. I liked watching the store owners blast compressed oxygen into the water filled plastic bags and display pre-packaged goldfish. They also had other creatures ranging from snails to turtles to crayfish. I have the next few weeks finally planned out, so looking forward to push off into Thailand.

Moonlighting

I've been working my mangina in the hotel restaurant to earn some extra cash for my travels.

I'm in Hong Kong sucka

I have been keeping a written journal since I have not been able to access the internet as frequently as I want. I found that I was literally writing an entire book on paper, but then thought to myself no one really wants to read all this crap! So I'll try to keep the descriptions and sappy sentimental stuff to a minimum on the blog.

Hong Kong is such a unique city compared to every place else I've been. It is such a strange mix of international people, money, culture, etc. It is a great place to visit, but you couldn't pay me enough to live here.

It was good to see Greg again and to meet his fiance. Greg and Jeanette had some issues with their last apartment, so they are currently staying at the JW Marriot until their new place is ready. By some miraculous show of negotiation skills, Greg was able to reserve four nights for me in the JW Marriot on Tyco Electronics bill! Not only that, but I have access to the executive lounge (free food and drinks)! The JW is soooo nice (for well over $350 a night, it should be). I'll have four nights of pure luxury bliss by backpackers standards. Unfortunately, I was told I couldn't use the mini bar or order any adult movies. Those corporate types are such party poopers!

I'm using this week to charge up and get everything set for Thailand. The weather is going to be wet for most of the week, so I'm not quite sure how much sight seeing I'll do.