Bob Barker

someone should remind thailand to have their pets spayed or neutered.

easy ridin'

here are some pictures of the cycle trip we just took. spectacularrrrr! also, notice the ****MAP**** link to the right. i've been updating it with our travels.


first, doi inthanon, the highest peak in the 'land. cruised up there early this morning. good views, although hindered by all the smoke in the air. very cold riding up there on the bike while it was still dark, but worth it. i also somehow managed to escape the 100 baht entry fee. maybe the guards don't much care at that time of day.







these were a couple of spires near the summit. one was built to commemorate the king's 60th in '87, the other for the queen's in '91:

felt like this one was meant to be (for me and a few million other people).

not really much of a view from the exact top. kind of in the middle of the woods. king inthanon died in 1897, and the mountain was named for him. i think he must have liked the smokes/booze. at one of the shrines there was an open beer can and all these cig butts burnt ceremonially.

sunset behind the place we stayed in last night.

me where we ate dinner last night. it was a wierd string of about 4 resorts in the middle of nowhere. start of the low season i suppose, as there was nobody else staying at ours.

action shot of anne

large pond centrally located in mae hong son, looking across to the wat.

this was at a restaurant in mae hong son! glad to see it's a global movement.

good view of one of the roads we travelled. almost the whole trip was like this, steeply up and down with many 200 degree switchbacks. mom, it kept us moving pretty slowly!

reveille

in a few of the towns we've stayed, there are a bunch of loudspeakers all over the place. in some of those towns, they think it's fun to wake everyone up. before it was mostly in muslim villages, where they would pump up the volume with morning prayers. those were at like 4:30 am, and easily the most annoying. here in pai, it was some sort of dude singing some sort of song. kind of funny. as we never really adjusted to the time change, we're up at 7:00 every day anyway. the problem is that none of the stores open before 8:30 or 9, even those serving breakfast. wierd.

pai early in the am

we rented motorcycles yesterday in chiang mai so we could explore northern thailand for a few days. first leg of the trip took us to pai, winding around through the mountains and whatnot. the picture below was taken when the trusty watch altimeter read about 4,200'. we eventually climbed up closer to 5,000. pretty good scenery, although a bit dimmed. apparently the hill tribes all over the region are currently burning the forests, maybe for agriculture. we passed some rather large flamage on the way to see a geyser.

me and the wheels yesterday, all reppin' the flyers. yes, those are flames on the side of the helmet. two words: BAD ASS. it was my first time taking a manual bike out of 1st gear, and i was quite proud. got her up to a buck ten (kph), but i'm pretty sure i can beat that today.

'nanners

me in chiang mai about to enjoy hawaiian fried rice. picture worthy 'cause it was served in a halved pineapple. a word on pineapple: probably one of the best fruits ever, my love for it grows daily here. it's abundant and cheap (like everything else). pineapple fried rice is slammin', as well as pineapple shakes.

next to god, the parents.

Inland

boated and bussed to the BK on wednesday. the bus dropped us off at about 8:45 at night at some obscure spot coincidentally frequented by dishonest cab drivers. we had previously decided to make the couple night stay in the city a comfortable one, so we splurged on a shmancy $50/night hotel room. probably one of the pricier places in the city, dude said he could take us there for 500 baht. the tourist in me was all like "man, that's only about 15 bucks, and this guy probably has no reason to F us." anne is smarter than me though, and we continued down the street and found a legitimate cabbie who charged us 85 baht. his "english not so good, but japan ok." this was convenient, as anne was apparently able to exchange understandings with the guy using strange vocal manifestations as i sat quietly, amazed.

we went for a drink after checking in to the hotel, at the bar where we sat right next to the street. at some point, anne gasped and pointed over my shoulder. i turned around to stare into the face of a G.D. elephant! it was obviously of the asian variety, much smaller than it's african cousin, but very large indeed. this was a very crowded street in the middle of a large city. they were selling bags of vegetables that you could feed to the animal. wasn't much interested, thinking about where and how one would store such a beast in a crowded city. we found out later that the practice is illegal. the fuzz likes money though, and usually don't much care how they get it.

today we hopped a fright to chiang mai for 50 dorrar. this is a much smaller city than bangkok. i rented this jalopy of a bicycle for one bone, or clam, and tried not break it as i cruised around at top speed (maybe 8 kmh). we're far to the north of thailand, bordering the golden triangle. we'll hang in this region for probably about a week.

cartilage

rented a kayak and some sweet fins yesterday, then paddled out to "shark bay". absolutely amazing. it was almost as good as discovery HD. i was all swimming around looking at these pretty little fish and stuff, then all of a sudden i spotted a 4-foot black-tip reef shark. right after that, i noticed about three more swimming around. i was able to follow them around a bit, but they're pretty fast. they seemed to not care about me too much, despite having cut my finger open on some coral and gushing blood all over the depths. snorked around for a couple of hours, checking out cool fish and plants and whatnot amidst the (probably) fecally contaminated gulf of thailand. visibility was about 20 meters (i'm on metric now), but there's still something eerie about not knowing what's lurking past that.
waiting for a taxi now to take us to the pier. then it's a 3 hour boat to chumpon, where we'll catch an 8 hour bus to bangkok. the big city!

ko tao

this is a pretty sweet island. supposedly less touristy than ko samui (the perennial tourist fave) and ko pha ngan (home of the full moon parties), we set out from krabi on saturday. we stayed in surat thani saturday night, really just waiting to catch a boat. we could have sailed at night on a cargo ship, but though we'd just chill out for a night. surat thani doesn't have too much to offer other than transportation to other places, but it was ok. got up sunday morning early to catch a taxi to a pier, where instead of boarding a boat, we boarded a bus, rode for an hour to another pier, and got on a boat. about 5 hours of sailing, stopping at samui and phangan along the way. we got to ko tao, which appears to be the most heavily visited spot on the planet. we walked the main beach for three hours or so looking for accomodation with no dice. caught a cab to another spot on the island and the dice were hard to find. we made it to a divey but acceptable spot for about $10 a night. it's good for sleeping, but we'll move on tomorrow night to a sweeter joint up the way.

the island itself is beautiful, hands down clearer water than anywhere we've been. i read that the small island issues the 2nd most SCUBA certifications in the world (maybe Perth is 1st?). every place to stay here is also a dive instruction shop, and they all prefer that you book classes. i think instead we'll rent some fins & snorks tomorrow along with a kayak and head out to "shark island", which i'm sure is completely safe. i've heard that punching a shark square in the nose will make it think twice about the attack. could be a pretty good segue into hunting, which i'm confident is the most logical option (other than vegetarianism).

back to the scooters! that's the little orphan, about two bikes ahead of my slow ass. absolutely crazy traffic. it's kind of like the east coast on crack cocaine. once you realize that 1. everyone is going to cut you off, 2. everyone expects you to cut them off, and 3. single file is for losers, you kind of find a nice harmony to the madness.

anne chillin with a monkey. greedy bastard had 2 apples.

view from the top of Wat Thamm Suea, outside krabi. incredible climb. i think 1,237 stairs, some very steep! i probably lost 1.5 liters o' water on that one.

similar view

suprising likeness of Gautama Buddha all painted gold

top, top of the wat

ko tao. this is the bay where we're staying.

ko tao

map link

try this one

violently illin'

left tonsai beach today under wary legs. we "ate" "dinner" last night at a place that seemed pretty harmless. man, did we ever get served! the only thing we ordered that didn't end up with something weird or alive in it was beer, which anne didn't get. hit her about 4 hours later and through the night, my slower immune system didn't pick it up until this morning. we made it to krabi though, something resembling a city. we decided that we'd been 'skeetered and ratted into a splurge, so we kicked up $27 for some climate control. NICE! feeling much better after some rest. brought a bag into town which i plan to fill with all sorts of exotic fluids. ginger ale comes in a red can here. weird.

movin on up into the gulf of thailand soon, maybe tomorrow or the next. this place is pretty civilized, we might take advantage for a bit. need to lighten the load and ship some more stuff off to japan.

i've got a makeshift map of our travels here.

Kickin' it

Tonsai is a really sweet place. Apparently it's some sort of mecca for rock climbing. Easy to see why, nothing but limestone and basalt cliffs all over. The whole place is just a bunch of bungalows and restaraunts weaved throughout the jungle/beach. Got here yesterday after a night in Ao Nang at this real divey bungalow. The place we're in now is supertits, all up on stilts and whatnot. I believe there was a rat that came out of our shower drain though, because all of our food wrappers were neatly arranged near it when we got home last night. I put a large rock over it, and I'm confident that I've outsmarted the beast. Now......pictures!!

Sunset at Ao Nang.

Beach from Ko Yao Noi

Rocks!

These things looked pissed! They were all grazing, then stopped abruptly to stare at me when I walked up.

Motor-scootin!

Anne lookin fine on the kayak today.

Sweet view of the mainland from the kayak.

Me, chillin. Badass travel hammock, no? Thanks bro.

View from inside the bungalow we're currently staying in. NICE.

fightin 'round the world

2/11/09
Having heard tell of a tribe of monkeys nearby, I set off alone into the jungle. As they are notoriously easy to spook, I stealthily crept through the thick brush with a pocket full of camera. 'Twasn't long into my excursion when I happened upon a few unsuspecting primates. "Monkeys!" I thought silently. I locked eyes with one of the rowdier of the bunch, knowing that losing a staring match is a direct sign of weakness among their kind. Approximately 2 minutes 55 seconds into the competition I felt my legs being swarmed. The monkey had somehow summoned a formidable pack of wild mosquitoes, and I quickly realized that I forgot the DEET! Instinctively I abandoned the gaze to defend myself. I was haggard, dirty, welting. I decided to return to the bungalow and hose down in glorious chemical deterrent, but not before catching and dealing this little bastard a solid noogie.

Welcome to Thailand, now speak English.

So it turns out that while niether the sun nor the whiskey probably helped my situation, niether were direct culprits. Traveler's Diarrhea, caused by any number of bacteria foreign to our sanitized American digestive systems. Man, what a pain in the ass. Get it? I was pretty much bed-ridden with no appetite for two solid days in the midst of a tropical paradise. I thought long and hard whether the deal was better or worse than a good day in the office, but remained indecisive. I'm now on a steady diet of 500 mg Ciproflaxin tablets procured from ol' Doc Li in P-Land and some rehydration powders that taste vaguely like a sweetened salt lick. I'd say, with confidence today, that I'm running at about 92% juice. I feel as though I've earned to right to carry on vacationing!

Enough of that crap... Get it? We left Ko Phuket yesterday via a taxi from Mai Khao to Bang Rong pier, then a ferry boat to Ko Yao Noi. Pretty sweet here. Rented a quite motor-scooter (it's quite masculine, honest) for about $8 for the day and stayed in a hut with electricity, bathroom, and teli. All things we didn't really need, but it doesn't cost very much.

We're quickly learning that if you don't have any idea where you're going when you get to a new place, you should probably at least be prepared to lie about it. Otherwise, you just cave under the pressure of seventy-five dudes all like "Hello, where are you going?" and jump in the back of one of their taxis. Then you just end up wherever they take you. My biggest problem so far is getting over the Hollywood notion that everyone is tryin to F us in the worst way. Most people seem decent, even though they are all trying to make a buck. You can't really blame them. Even when it seems we might be getting ripped off, it's only a difference of about 2 or 3 american dollaz.

It's absolutely amazing everywhere we go. We'll probably tool around and look like tourists for another couple of hours today before we hop a ferry to the next picturesque beach. Pictures soon maybe. I'm taking a lot, but still haven't mastered getting them uploaded to the web through an internet cafe.

Only met a couple of Americans so far. Most white people are European. We kicked it with some real cool English folk at the last place we stayed. People speak some English all over the place, but there really is a striking barrier sometimes. Usually you can get the point across. I feel like I've won a small victory, as I can now fluently say "Hello" (Sawatdee Khrap) and "Thank You" (Kawp Kun Khrap). I feel pretty foolish when I do, so usually I just rely on repetitive English at increasingly slow speeds.

phuket

thailand is basically amazing. just ask any tourist! got in on wednesday night and thought we'd try walking from the airport to this beach, which we heard should only take about 15 minutes. the only locals around to give directions were cab drivers, who seemed pretty content to not understand why we'd want to walk, and assure us that they could take us in their taxi. after walking past the same cab stand three times, one of the dudes offered a good price. he said the only accomodation in mai khao was the swanky marriott resort. clearly he doesn't know about the internet and my addiction to it. dropped off at he marriott, we found a little tiki bar on the beach where this south african dude was chillin. explained that we could walk about a mile down the beach to some bungalows. we were very excited to see some lights after trekking all of our shit down the sand in 90 degrees. we've been staying there, in a bamboo hut ever since.

the plan to move on keeps getting pushed out. it's cheap and everybody is friendly, so we decided to spend a couple of nights there. sort of had plans to figure our way out today... enter whiskey and sun poisoning. i've been completely useless all day today, and it's taking maximum effort not to fall out of this chair. hopefully it's just the sun/drink combo and not some exotic strain of flu-ski. should be able to find out by tomorrow.

today we caught a lift into the village with malcolm, the english dude who we're staying with. dropped off some laundry at the 'mat, now kicking it in an internet cafe. absolutely beautiful beaches and whatnot. i think i need a little bit more than 15 of the spfs.

this is the place we're staying, in one of the "new for 2008" bamboo huts. 500 baht/night, or about $14.31. highly recommended. the dude's wife is an amazing cook. hit up some curry, noodles, and tom yum soup so far.

some pictures

ships in the ocean.

pretty much sums it all up...

rooftop swimming pool. that's right.

shittsburgh

i'd like to talk about an interesting phenomenon that i observed in philadelphia. there are two phenomena in fact. first, and most understandably, i probably only saw three pieces of eagles paraphernalia during my entire stay in the region. second, i saw probably seventy five a-holes wearing brand new combinations of black and gold. it's clear that the steelers maintain one of the largest fan bases of the nfl, probably something to do with the city's inability to provide anything else meaningful to the world at large. it's upsetting to see so many people intently flaunting gear o' the burgh in a city with a perfectly good, although championshipless team.

ran into some stillers fans here in singapore, all wasted and excited about today's results. hammed it up with them, even though it hurt just a bit. i'm just jealous.

gum..................gum

luckily, chewing gum is now legal in singapore. apparently there was a free trade agreement signed recently with the states, and wrigley wanted their share. therefore, the entire nation gained (or regained) the right to blow rasberry-flavored bubbles. love them dollars!

sitting in an internet cafe in little india right now. by far the strangest place in the city. odd odors abound.