tigers!

I spent my last day in Chiang Mai yesterday on a trek. Normally treks are all about hiking up a mountain and camping out etc.. as i am limited on time (and money) i did a one day tour. The day started out with an hour long elephant ride. Everyone else in my group was a couple, so being the odd one out i got to sit on the elephants neck instead of on the seat on her back! it was really cool, but really bumpy (i was on her shoulder blades after all..) and quite hard to balance. the uys sitting behind me had to keep me steady a couple times. it was so amazing though, ours name was Lina and she ate everything in sight. Like uprooting shrubs as we walked by them. I was proud. Next was visitng 2 hill tribles, which was a bit of a let down. i expected to see their whole village very authentic. Mostly it was a a whole bunch of stalls with people selling stuff. nice stuff, handmade clothing, wovem blankets etc.. but not what i was expecting. We "hiked" to a waterfall next (a 30 minute walk down a road... more to save on gas i think..) which was freaking cold, but it was really humid that day, so it was kind of nice. Last on the agenda was bamboo rafting, which is basically a whole bunch of big bamboo sticks wound together with a guy at the front making sure you down crash into anything as you drift down the river. Luckily our guide ad us put our bathing suits on first becasue youre on the raft, but its pretty much submerged in water the entire time.

I had just enough to get back to my guesthouse, change and get on a night bus to Bangkok. I spent all of 45 minutes there and was on yet another bus to Kanchanburi, which is where i am now. The big attraction here is Tiger Temple, which is sort of a giant animal sanctuary, and you can pet the tigers and get photos. Its 300B to get in, which was fine, its for tigers after all.. Technically its a temple because the monks take care of the animals. Not thinkin about this first, i show up in a tank top, which is of course a big nono. it was an hours bus ride to get a different shirt, so what do it do? well! they seel shirts at the temple! of course they do. So 300B later im sporting a brand new, hardly tacky "thailand tiget temple" short. now i realize 300B is only 10$ canadain, but here some perspecitive. Im paying 90B fr my hotel tonight ($3) and i paid 20 for lunch today (75 cents). so 300 is a fairly obnoxious price. To gain some closure for it, i took 2 completmentary water bottles (yes you heard right. 2) and took a giant roll of toilet paper (no bathroom ever has toliet paper. just a hose). Then i go into the temple area (buddha statue on a cement block.. pretty unimpressive) and a monk has the nerve to ask me for a donation before i leave! I very polietly said that i had just "donated" 600B to get in the temple and i thought that was enough. Then i left laughing to myself. I realize i just told a story about how i laughed at a monk, but i was a bit put out.

Motorbikes

Ive been in Northern Thailand for about a week now, and i think its my favorite area so far. i spent about 5 days in Chiang Mai, touring around all the temples (there are over 300 in the city alone!) venturing out to a small town where they specialize in handmade paper and umbrellas (i bought a tiny one) and managed to do 2 cooking courses! They were both a lot of fun, one was just an independent one and the other is run by a famous thai chef. that one was a lot more intense, and i learned more, but the first one was a lot more fun. basically the whole day is spent cooking and eating. which of course, rules, but it becomes difficult to move after a while and even more difficult to convince yourself to take a walk to burn some energy.

Chiang Mai has 2 really good markets, the night bazar which is everynight and takes up like 10 city blocks. its lots of bootleg dvds, designer knock offs, purses, clothing etc.. lots of fun, but if you even slow down to look at something the vendors are on you like stink on a monkey "i make you good price! how much?! try on!" its a bit much after a while. the other really good ones are the sunday night markets, and i may have gone a little overboard at those ones. lots of handmade clothing and some of the northern hill tribes come into town with their stuff, lots of natrual cotton. anyways, i have a lot of really pretty items form that night..

im currently in Pai, which is a smallish hippie town, only 135 km from Chiang Mai but it takes 4 hours to get here becasue the road is so twisty. i met a girl on the bus who is travelling with 2 guys she met randomly. we are sharing rooms at a guesthouse by the river and today we rented motorbikes, and drove up to a waterfall. it was really beautiful but freezing cold! then i dropped my helmet down the waterfall and had to scramble down to get it befre it fell into oblivion. I wasnt real keen on driving, but i decided to give it a whirl, and it was way easier than i though it would be! i made it about 500 m, turned around sucessfully and went back. i was so proud of myself. next step, buying a harley. (ha!)

en route to bangkok

the last week or so has been pretty busy, ive been to 3 different islands (all with fairly nauseating ferry rides) but theyve been so beautiful. Ko Pha Ngan and Ko Tao were the last 2, i stayed a couple nights on each, and managed to find little huts on the beach to stay in. it was so nice, id go for a hike in the day, then lay in my hammock until dinner. the snorkelling on Ko Tao is amazing, its one of the best palces in the world for it, and i managed to sqeeze in a quick trip before i left this morning. ive never seen so many fish in my life!

im in Chumphon right now, which is pretty much a stopover town for people going to, or coming from Ko Tao. Im taking an overnight bus to bangkok and then straight theough to Chang Mai in the north, which is well known for cooking courses and elephant trekking. The people are apparently much friendlier as well. The novelty of people yelling/pointing/staring at me as i walk down the street has worn off.

Thailand!

I arrived in Phuket last night, which is the major touristy town in the south of the country. i didnt get into a hotel until about 830pm, so there wasnt a lot of time for exploring. I did manage to find a cafe close by and get a late dinner. i can tell ill be exploring the cuisine of thailand quite extensively (meaning: ill be eating a lot). I ordered rice with shrimp and basil, brothy soup and a beer and its came to a grand total of 55 BHT. Or under $2 Canadian. Magical. Air conditioning is a luxury that costs, so most choose to go without. it makes for uncomfortable days, but suring the night its not too bad.

This morning i took an early bus to Krabi, about 2 hours south, and a jumping off point to Ko Phi Phi ( or pee pee island as they call it) a really beautiful snorkeling island. im staying in a guesthouse (hostels arent a big thing here). i have a room to myself, 2 beds, a fan (the most important), hot water shower (another thing that costs extra, but why someone would ever want hot water in this country i dont know) for 15$ a night. The cheapy places cost 3-4$ a night, but tis the high season and im not booking aheda, just showing up and begging for rooms.

i took a bus (which is a pickup truck with a cage over the bed and benches installed) to Ao Nang beach (at least i think thats where i was...). The first thing i noticed was that everyone swims fully clothed. not a bathing suit in sight. I waded in to my knees for a bit of a cool down. i look behind me, and see 15 children following me. or course they all start yelling outall the english words they know "hello!" "thank you!". i was completely charmed. A bit later, i was walking down the street and a lady asked if she could take a picture with me. I feel like Paris hilton. the people in general are incredible friendly, one lady offered my an apple while i was sitting waiting for the bus. they also ask really personal questions like how much you weigh (hasnt happened to me yet, but ive heard stories) or if you have a boyfriend (almost every thai ive talked to has asked me this). they dont mean to be intrusive, im told tourists of any kind are just a facination. there are, however, the people (men) who ask if you have a boyfriend, and then offer to stop by your hotel later. they probably mean to be intrusive. (dont worry mom i said no)

Christmas and beyond!

Brett and i declined to trade gifts this year. Instead we decided that our presents to each other would be our trip to Tasmania, and the exorbitant amount of money we paid for our campervan rental. Being that Christmas and New years is the middle of summer, and therefore high seanson for campervan rentals, and we waiting until 3 days before xmas to inquire as to rentals (i was actually laughed at by one employee) they pretty much charged whatever they wanted. We flew in on xmas day, and immediatly drove down to the tasman Penisula, and the historic town of port arthur. Our christmas dinner was pasta, complete with santa hats! it may be my new favorite way to spend christmas! As we were paying so much for our rental, we refused to pay for campsites. Just outside Port Arthur we found a youth hostel. We stopped to stretch our legs and take a look around. As it turns out it was abandoned. It couldnt have been abandoned for very long though. There were still dishes in the drying rack, new garbage bags in the bathrooms (which were open, working and full of hot water) and even a washing machine hooked up. We obviously hit the goldmine on this one, and set up shop for the night. While this was all very cool, the whole "abandoned hostel" thing was fairly eerie. Sort of like the setting of a slasher movie.

Next day we drove up the East Coast to Wineglass Bay, which is a famous scenic lookout and hiking area. We hiked up to the lookout, and then down to the actual beach (shaped oddly like the edge of a wineglass..) which was beautiful. We stopped to make dinner in a place called Bicheno. Its sort of a blah town, except for the magic that happens at dusk. Around 10pm everynight hundreds and hundred of fairy penguins come out of the water, up onto the rocks, and into the fields. im not really sure what they DO in the fields, i mean theyre penguins, but it is a magical experience. Obviously flash photography freaks them out, so my pictures arent great, but they were so cute. Theres nothing quite like sitting on a rock, perfectly still and bein swarmed by a group of tiny, tiny penguins. The strange part is, we were walking back to the car, and there were about 20 of them scattered all over the path. Then, as we pull out of the parking lot, our headlights catch a whole other group! in the parking lot!

The next couple days, we went to various national parks and did hikes with amazing scenery. One night, we stumbled upon lake Barrington, which is, by and large one of the most beautiful lakes ive ever seen. Camping there is technically not allowed, but the gates are closed at 9, so basically if you dont get found out before then, youre good to go! We parked right beside the lake, ate dinner, and watched the sunset. It was amazing. Brett woke me up at the ungodly hour of 645 the next morning, but more than made up for it by cooking me breakfast. We, reluctantly, left lake barrington and moved onto our next hiking spot.

On the 29th we headed back to Hobart, returned the campervan and spent a couple days there. We were lucky enough to be there during the taste of hobart festival, which is like the tast to saskatchewan, but there are no perogies, and its more expensive. But very delicious. There was also the "Sydney to Hobart" boat race, which is a big deal, so there was a mini-fair on the peir as well. Very cool.

Back to Melbourne on New Years eve. It was 42C all day. god only knows what the temperature was come the evening, but it was really hot. A large group of us from the hostel went to federation Square to watch the fireworks, which was very cool. New years day, we were all fairly under the weather, and it was 42 again, which made the hostel VERY uncomfortable. So the best thing we could do was go to the beach!

brett left on the 3rd to do the great ocean road, and now im in sydney staying with some friends. on friday i leave for thailand! Wow... that came fast!

more pictures soon!