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.