Is it too late to post this update?
Well, we’re back in New Zealand after four flights and 48 full hours of traveling (including one very glorious night in the Bangkok airport). Bowels are still feeling the effects of “Bangkok Belly,” but the situation improves daily…
Since we last wrote, we’ve had a few more incredible adventures. After having survived a night of horrendous food poisoning and a then a remarkable day with elephants, we moved further north towards the Burma border to a town called Chiang Dao. We rented a small jungle bungalow with large spiders free of charge. Chiange Dao is situated at the base of a large and beautiful mountain where a Wat (or a Buddhist temple) is a little ways up the hill. Conveniently, after having had a sour stomach from all of the Thai spices, we were able to enjoy fine Western dinning at the restaurant next to our bungalow. We enjoyed homemade pasta, wine, beer, chocolate cake, salmon, pizza, and cheesecake. It turned out that our 2 expensive nights on the town cost just as much as our bungalow, $15 per meal. It was fabulous.
Having spent a very memorable and powerful day at an orphanage in Korea, we decided to stop at a local Thai orphanage on the way out of town. This time we had the opportunity to play with children around 7 years of age. The children at this particular home have been orphaned by AIDS, and most have contracted AIDS themselves. Similar to the other orphanage, the children jumped on Trav and me, and they did everything they could to prevent us from putting them back on the ground. It was truly heartbreaking and eye opening.
Pai came next, a small hippy town further north. When I say hippy, I mean full-blown hippies who must have been sucked in by the vortex of Pai. We couldn’t help but overhear some (now old) hippies raging on about Vietnam, America, and the state of the world (who knows if they actually know that it is 2006, we didn’t have the heart to break the news). We again stayed in a small bungalow and spent our time on a hike up to the local Wat and eating the local dishes. As with the elephant industry, the popular tourist activity in the North is to visit local hill tribes. You may have seen the women who wear gold bands around their necks….these women live in the north of Thailand. We opted out of this experience, as we were unsure of the impact our visit would have on these local tribes; not to mention that while many of these tribes have stopped putting rings around the women’s necks, others have started the tradition up again to appease tourists. In Pai we took a white water rafting trip through the jungle to a town just a few kilometers from Burma. The two-day trip was lead by “Chai” and “Chicken,” our crazy, local Thai guides. Although the river was a bit low, we thoroughly enjoyed our time and the warm water. While on the river, we had the chance to see some of the local tribes people fishing. We slept in rickety bungalows precariously balanced on the side of a hill, and, as has been the case with most of our trip in Thailand, I spent the night on “bug watch” while Travis slept without a moment of unrest. Our last few days were low key, again in a smallish town, eating the local food at the night market.
We’re now back in NZ. Most of our time and energy has been spent searching for a car. No such luck yet, but keep your fingers crossed. We did spend last night in a “Batch” ( a small cabin) in the mountains. The night was pretty cold and the morning was even colder, as Trav and two AR friends went for a 3-hour run down a section of the track that will appear in the Coast to Coast race in a few months. I spent the morning lounging in bed and reading my latest book…. Ah, the life and joys of a normal person.
We are in the midst of planning our next few steps…perhaps a try at a local chocolate shop, on a multi-day-trek in the mountains, or experiences yet to be determined.
More to come…
Love,
T and A (Get your mind of the gutter, we’re sick of all of the perverse people out there)
Since we last wrote, we’ve had a few more incredible adventures. After having survived a night of horrendous food poisoning and a then a remarkable day with elephants, we moved further north towards the Burma border to a town called Chiang Dao. We rented a small jungle bungalow with large spiders free of charge. Chiange Dao is situated at the base of a large and beautiful mountain where a Wat (or a Buddhist temple) is a little ways up the hill. Conveniently, after having had a sour stomach from all of the Thai spices, we were able to enjoy fine Western dinning at the restaurant next to our bungalow. We enjoyed homemade pasta, wine, beer, chocolate cake, salmon, pizza, and cheesecake. It turned out that our 2 expensive nights on the town cost just as much as our bungalow, $15 per meal. It was fabulous.
Having spent a very memorable and powerful day at an orphanage in Korea, we decided to stop at a local Thai orphanage on the way out of town. This time we had the opportunity to play with children around 7 years of age. The children at this particular home have been orphaned by AIDS, and most have contracted AIDS themselves. Similar to the other orphanage, the children jumped on Trav and me, and they did everything they could to prevent us from putting them back on the ground. It was truly heartbreaking and eye opening.
Pai came next, a small hippy town further north. When I say hippy, I mean full-blown hippies who must have been sucked in by the vortex of Pai. We couldn’t help but overhear some (now old) hippies raging on about Vietnam, America, and the state of the world (who knows if they actually know that it is 2006, we didn’t have the heart to break the news). We again stayed in a small bungalow and spent our time on a hike up to the local Wat and eating the local dishes. As with the elephant industry, the popular tourist activity in the North is to visit local hill tribes. You may have seen the women who wear gold bands around their necks….these women live in the north of Thailand. We opted out of this experience, as we were unsure of the impact our visit would have on these local tribes; not to mention that while many of these tribes have stopped putting rings around the women’s necks, others have started the tradition up again to appease tourists. In Pai we took a white water rafting trip through the jungle to a town just a few kilometers from Burma. The two-day trip was lead by “Chai” and “Chicken,” our crazy, local Thai guides. Although the river was a bit low, we thoroughly enjoyed our time and the warm water. While on the river, we had the chance to see some of the local tribes people fishing. We slept in rickety bungalows precariously balanced on the side of a hill, and, as has been the case with most of our trip in Thailand, I spent the night on “bug watch” while Travis slept without a moment of unrest. Our last few days were low key, again in a smallish town, eating the local food at the night market.
We’re now back in NZ. Most of our time and energy has been spent searching for a car. No such luck yet, but keep your fingers crossed. We did spend last night in a “Batch” ( a small cabin) in the mountains. The night was pretty cold and the morning was even colder, as Trav and two AR friends went for a 3-hour run down a section of the track that will appear in the Coast to Coast race in a few months. I spent the morning lounging in bed and reading my latest book…. Ah, the life and joys of a normal person.
We are in the midst of planning our next few steps…perhaps a try at a local chocolate shop, on a multi-day-trek in the mountains, or experiences yet to be determined.
More to come…
Love,
T and A (Get your mind of the gutter, we’re sick of all of the perverse people out there)
posted by Amy and Trav at 1:21 AM
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