Woke up around 4:30 once again.... it was a mad rush to get all of our things together and get out the door to catch the bus to Chaing Rai. The bus was only 3 hours long, but the day didn't have a good start. I woke up and yes this might be too much info for some, but I woke up with diarrhea. So I spent most of the day in a toilet somewhere along the trip... got to see many different toilets, quite the experience I think. Ended up taking loads of pills of all kinds... still nothing. Travellers diarrhea got the best of me, I was defeated.
Arrived in Chaing Mai around 9am and hung around Mirrow foundation head quarters for a while. We chilled out played some frisbee and a little soccer. Finally Mirrow came back picked us up and drove along this road into the hill tribe villages. This road looked like we were headed to no mans land I swear. Itwas a dirt road with loads of pot wholes. Driving along the road this guys on a moter bike was behind us he had a pint of vodka in one hand and was driving all over the road. That's not even the worst, he kept falling a sleep while driving so we had to keep yelling at him to wake him up. He was so hammered we honestly thought he was going to crash, luckly we were there until he finally came to his senses and pulled over to take a nap on the side of the road.
Got to one of the villages, got set up in our romms/one giant tent with bug nets. \living the dream I tell ya. Went for dinner and me4t a bunch of people who were volunteering there from different parts of the world. Chatted for a while and made new friends... couldn't tell you their names now, but at the time we were all buddy buddy!
After dinner we went to the soccer field and played soccer with the local kids. They were amzingly good at soccer... pretty much kicked our butt all the way back to Canada. spent the entire night there playing with the kids until it got too dark to see the ball. Walked back to the village with a sworm of kids got us some showers and peaced to bed because the next day was one of the most difficult days I've experienced in a while.
Saturday, May 29, 2010
Day 6
Obviously I woke up with a major hangover, but that's fine I'm hard no big. Got me some water and pulled it together like always. We headed out as a group pretty early and headed to see the Doi Sui Tahp temple. We drove up the mountain in a truck truck on some seriously bad roads...mind you we are all hungover as shit so you can just imagine how much worse this trip up was. By the time we got to the top we all felt like puking, but major troopers so we held it in.
To get to the actual temple itself we had to climb hundreds of stairs... it was not my favorite part of the day. The stairs plus the heat made a hangover even worse and more money spent on buying water. Finally got to the top so we toured around the temple, would have enjoyes it more I think if I wasn't feeling so haggard. At this temple you could see the entire city of Chaing Mai, got some serious pictures. Amazing view, so much so that we could even see the airport where we watch a plane land.
After seeing the temple we started our trek back down the stairs and went to a local waterfall. Not as nice as the rain forewst one, but still very cute. The day seemed very long, but really it was quite short. The hangover did not help the day much so once we got back to our hostel we all missed dinner and headed straight to bed to catch up on some serious ZzZZzzZzZ's.
Friday, May 28, 2010
Day 5
Ok so we woke up at around 4:30 am to get ready to catch a bus at 6am. God that was not fun let me tell you. The early mornings are killing me, because we all know I am not the first one to go to bed at night so this means I am getting no sleep on this trip. Something has gotta change soon because the bags under my eyes are taking over.
Got on the bus and drove for an hour up the mountain into the rain forest where we spent the dy zip-lining
. It was called flight of the Gibbons, good experience everyone should do it... you can do it in Thailand or Laos. Anyways got to the building, met our guides... they were some characters letme tell you. Didn't feel like my life was in good hands with them,but I decided to trust them anyways. Got all the gear on, one wedgy and camal toes at a time. It was a pretty sight, just saying. Once we were all ready we started our adventure. Me being scared of hights did not help the situation, because the guides made me go first to fuck with my head. Not my favorite moment in life. After a while as the day went on I stopped holding on and let myhands go free... still screaming though.
Once the zip-lining was over and done with we trekked up the side of one of the largest waterfalls in Thailand... long journey up, and a whole lot of sweat. Finally made it to the top and the view was magical. You could see the entire rain forest it was amazing. Chilled up there for a while collecting my thoughts... no still haven't f
igured out what I wanna do with my life, but all in all, it was quite entertaining. The hike down wasn't so smooth, made it all the way to the bottom without falling until the very end where I fell. Ass, everything wet, that was fine though, no big deal or anything just everyone watching me making fun of me. Myself-esteem wasn't shot to the ground or anything, I was mearly setting a fashion statement... a wet ass is in guys didn't you hear.
After spending the day in the rain forest we took the bus back fown the mountain, we all got showers and then headed out for some food. After food we all decided it would be a good idea to go have a few beers. Well a few beers turned into much more and a long night of partying. I cannot tell any of you what actually happened that night because we all swore to secrecy. But in the end we made it home around 5:30 am safe and sound and very haggard and headed to bed for a couple hours since we had to be up in a few hours time... no big deal right.
Also on day 4, at supper time our trip leaders Amanda and jonah ordered a plate of bugs. Some of the group were trying bugs and a couple of us were not, me included. Eventually Amanda talked me into eating a silk worm for Ellen D, and I did, but it was puked up very soon after. Good experience, but no I will never eat another bug in my life. So disgusting, I can still taste the worm in my mouth it was so nasty.
Got on the bus and drove for an hour up the mountain into the rain forest where we spent the dy zip-lining
. It was called flight of the Gibbons, good experience everyone should do it... you can do it in Thailand or Laos. Anyways got to the building, met our guides... they were some characters letme tell you. Didn't feel like my life was in good hands with them,but I decided to trust them anyways. Got all the gear on, one wedgy and camal toes at a time. It was a pretty sight, just saying. Once we were all ready we started our adventure. Me being scared of hights did not help the situation, because the guides made me go first to fuck with my head. Not my favorite moment in life. After a while as the day went on I stopped holding on and let myhands go free... still screaming though.Once the zip-lining was over and done with we trekked up the side of one of the largest waterfalls in Thailand... long journey up, and a whole lot of sweat. Finally made it to the top and the view was magical. You could see the entire rain forest it was amazing. Chilled up there for a while collecting my thoughts... no still haven't f
igured out what I wanna do with my life, but all in all, it was quite entertaining. The hike down wasn't so smooth, made it all the way to the bottom without falling until the very end where I fell. Ass, everything wet, that was fine though, no big deal or anything just everyone watching me making fun of me. Myself-esteem wasn't shot to the ground or anything, I was mearly setting a fashion statement... a wet ass is in guys didn't you hear.After spending the day in the rain forest we took the bus back fown the mountain, we all got showers and then headed out for some food. After food we all decided it would be a good idea to go have a few beers. Well a few beers turned into much more and a long night of partying. I cannot tell any of you what actually happened that night because we all swore to secrecy. But in the end we made it home around 5:30 am safe and sound and very haggard and headed to bed for a couple hours since we had to be up in a few hours time... no big deal right.
Also on day 4, at supper time our trip leaders Amanda and jonah ordered a plate of bugs. Some of the group were trying bugs and a couple of us were not, me included. Eventually Amanda talked me into eating a silk worm for Ellen D, and I did, but it was puked up very soon after. Good experience, but no I will never eat another bug in my life. So disgusting, I can still taste the worm in my mouth it was so nasty.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
Day 4
finally got into Chaing Mai from the overnight bus around 6am. Everyone of us looking haggard and annoyed. This is when we made a group decision to not walk to our hostel, but to take a truck truck we call them. Its a truck with seats in the back and our bags go on top. Very simple really. Got to our hostel none of us feeling tired or cranky anymore so we decided bfast would be the best way to start the day. Got me some fried rice and felt like a million dollars.
After bfast went back to the hostel we all took a shower and myself, Teale, and Steph took off on an adventure to find fresh fruit... which we did. All three of us bought a giant thing of watermelon, and gobbled it right up all hoping to poop in the near future s
incethe pooping was a bit of an issue for the three of us.Went back to the hostel, our leaders Amanda and Jonah brought us a list of clues and broke us up into groups of three. Scavenger hunt time. Went around the city of Chaing Mai all day pretty much getting lost, and taking some ridiculous pictures. In the end we found our way back to the hostel after some serious bartering on my part with a Tuk Tuk driver. In the end we got what we wanted and he lost big time.
That night we went out for supper at this small restaurant, this is where our leaders mentioned we were going to get fish massages after and that tomorrow, we would be going to the flight of the gibbons. Not gonna lie.... pumpedddd!! After the massage, which still I could not allow those damn fish to eat my feet.... I was still too afraid. God I am a baby. I did let them eat my hands which is a bit of improvement on my part I must admit. A couple of us... really only the drinkers and the smokers... that's what our group has been broken down to. The drinkers and the smoker vs the sleepers. Just saying though the drinkers and smokers have much more fun. We decided to go to the night market and chill out at this very chill restaurant drinking some Chang and playing drinking games until it was time to peace to bed to wake up at 4am.
After bfast went back to the hostel we all took a shower and myself, Teale, and Steph took off on an adventure to find fresh fruit... which we did. All three of us bought a giant thing of watermelon, and gobbled it right up all hoping to poop in the near future s
incethe pooping was a bit of an issue for the three of us.Went back to the hostel, our leaders Amanda and Jonah brought us a list of clues and broke us up into groups of three. Scavenger hunt time. Went around the city of Chaing Mai all day pretty much getting lost, and taking some ridiculous pictures. In the end we found our way back to the hostel after some serious bartering on my part with a Tuk Tuk driver. In the end we got what we wanted and he lost big time.That night we went out for supper at this small restaurant, this is where our leaders mentioned we were going to get fish massages after and that tomorrow, we would be going to the flight of the gibbons. Not gonna lie.... pumpedddd!! After the massage, which still I could not allow those damn fish to eat my feet.... I was still too afraid. God I am a baby. I did let them eat my hands which is a bit of improvement on my part I must admit. A couple of us... really only the drinkers and the smokers... that's what our group has been broken down to. The drinkers and the smoker vs the sleepers. Just saying though the drinkers and smokers have much more fun. We decided to go to the night market and chill out at this very chill restaurant drinking some Chang and playing drinking games until it was time to peace to bed to wake up at 4am.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
Actual Day 3 of trip, last one was day 2
So I woke up feeling like a ball of poop. Should have stopped drinking way earlier then we did, but it was such an adventure I could not leave early. Woke up packed all our things because that was our last night in Bangkok, we were going to be heading to Chaing Mai later that evening on an overnight bus.
The day started off me wondering if I was going to be sick or not, but then finally that feeling went away when Bangkok had one of the largest thunder and lightning storms I've ever heard. the lightning light up the sky and the rain was pouring harder then any rain I've ever seen and the thunder shook the hostel to the point where I thought it was an earthquake... I was wrong, but one of their many thunder and lightning storms they get. It was amazing though, everyone of us were amazed by how ridiculous the rain was. This is when we decided we would all go to a small coffee shop by our hostel and chill out there chatting until the rain stopped.
Finally after the rain stopped we headed out to adventure. We decided we wanted to go to Wat Pho one of the many Temples in Bangkok, but the special things about this temple is that it had the largest reclining Buddha. We took the ferry to Wat Pho and on our ferry ride we got to see another famous Temple, actually cannot remember the name, but when it is sunny out is shines so badly you cannot look at it. We also got to see local Thai people fishing in the extremely dirty water and some who even lived under small huts near the water. We finally arrived at Wat Pho and went to check it out, this is when we realized ladies such as myself must wear pants or shorts that cover the knee and there must be no shoulder showing. Welcome to Thailand everyone... girls get the short end of the stick lets just put it that way. Before you enter the temple you must take off your shoes... so if you're me obviously the first thing i thought about was oh wow I'm going to get athletes foot now, or some foot fungus. Anyways we entered the temple and the walls were all hand painted with sooo much detail, we even got to see one of the ladies sitting there painting it as we walked through. The Buddha himself, we was very large and in charge. It was laying and completely made of gold, probably one of the lagest Buddha's in the world, but who knows really. Let's just say it was bigger then 4 or 5 elephants put together.We then walked around and viewed other temples in the same area, watched some local Thai men fixing one of the roofs and they were just chilling 50 or 60 feet up there with no secure line so if they fell, well it wouldn't be pretty. after spending a few hours visiting different temples we decided to head back and split up into groups to grab some food before our overnight bus to Chaing Mai. Once on the bus we all passed out until midnight when we made a pee stop. then another 6 hours to go with no toilet... it was scary. I never know my bladder could hold for so long, but I was very proud of it haha.
Monday, May 17, 2010
Day 3
Started the day off early, and decided to have a nutritious breakfast. We each got muesli with fruit and yogurt. It had so many fruits that I've never seen before in my life, but it was one of many adventures that include food. I decided after eating that trying new fruit can be a bad experience... but for the time being I will continue to have these bad experiences because I am bound to find a nice tasting fruit that fits my needs.
After breakfast we all walked to one of the many parks in Bangkok, this one in particular has an old castle in the middle of it, but has been closed for years. Here we played a few games while the local children swormed around watching us. It was awkward, but yet really funny because they were sov amused.
Leaving the park we ran into a bunch of Tuk Tuk drivers and we all decided it would be a good idea to get them to take us back to our hostel while we gathered our things to continue on adventuring. Tuk Tuk's are actually hilarious, they are like a three wheeled motor bike with a small sitting area in the back. They whip through traffic along with every other person driving. I honestly do not thing they have any laws towards how fast or what side of the road you drive on. Lets just say this would sooo not happen in Canada.
After picking up a few things at the hostel we got back into our Tuk Tuk's and they took us to the Gem store. This is where they make beautiful jewelry, but very expensive. We saw how the local Thai people spent most of there day in a small room making these items, and not going to lie they had some major detail on them which you think would take hours, but they are speedy fast.
After the Gem store our Tuk Tuk drivers tried to scam us because they wanted another gas ticket, we were not too impressed, but we decided why not just go with it and see where they take us. Bad decision, they ended up taking us to a tailor shop and none of us wanted tailored clothes. This is where our Tuk Tuk drivers and us got into a bit of an argument and well lets just say they ditched us. No we didn't know where we were, but it was more of an adventure. After walking for 20 minutes in a direction we didn't know we found a small restaurant place along the road that looked very lonely and obviously no one ever goes there to eat. We decided there were 12 of us so we would give them some business for the first time in ages. We ordered a bunch of fried rice and chicken, the place was very sketchy, but the food was awesome. we paid not more then 2 dollars canadian for this meal for 12 people.
We decided since it was the weekend we would check out the largest weekend market in Bangkok which was called Che Chae market.... not actually sure how to spell it, so my apologies. We spent most of the day roaming around the market and even after spending so much time there we still never got to cover it all. At the market we happen to find a small very communist store. It was unreal crazy ridiculous. It had a picture of president bush and darts all over it. I can't even explain how crazy this store was so use your amagination, and even still it was way worse then what you are imagining.
After a long day of walking we decided it was time for a cab. split up into two groups and took a cab back to the hostel. This was also another ridiculous experience. People do not follow lanes, we think they are of a suggestion then a rule because our cab was pasing people driving on the opposite side of the road, we actually had to slam on the breaks at one point because another car was headed straight at us. This is when the cab driver started laughing at us because we were like omg you are crazy. He thought that was cool, so you can only imagine how crazier it got from there. Once back at the hostel we chilled for a bit, took some much needed showers and waited for our supper adventure.
We went to a local restaurant where there were no foreigners go, this is how you know it is a good restaurant according to Jonah and amanda our trip leaders. And it was good, so much food. A lot of fish, which is so not my choice, but we got pork and other selections as well so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. At this restaurant we meet Nick and Off two real Thai individuals. Off is actually part of the royal family so it was nice having dinner with him and getting to know him better. At dinner we all decided it would be a good idea to eat the really hot peppers that no other Thai people eat. My mouth was on fire, my eyes were watering for over an hour, I could not speak. So not something I would choose to do, but we did it for Ellen Degeneres. Dinner went really long and a lot of us started to get really tired. We though we would just head back to the hostel and head to bed. We started to do that, once back at the hostel a couple of us decided to go for an adventure. This adventure turned into much more.
As we went to get water in the &eleven Teale another girl on this trip notice the big Chang, which is a giant beer that is 7% was only 43 bot. This is supper cheap compared to anywhere else so we bought a couple and started drinking while roaming the streets. Got the Ellen flag out and we turned into a tourist attration. Everyone started coming up to us trying to get their picture taken with us. Finally found Jonah and Amanda and drank with the locals, and met other Canadian guys from Montreal. After getting pretty haggard we decided to go dancing at The Club and stayed out for most of the night dancing it up with Ellen and everyone loved her.
Finally made it home put on my bug net and went to sleep!!
After breakfast we all walked to one of the many parks in Bangkok, this one in particular has an old castle in the middle of it, but has been closed for years. Here we played a few games while the local children swormed around watching us. It was awkward, but yet really funny because they were sov amused.
Leaving the park we ran into a bunch of Tuk Tuk drivers and we all decided it would be a good idea to get them to take us back to our hostel while we gathered our things to continue on adventuring. Tuk Tuk's are actually hilarious, they are like a three wheeled motor bike with a small sitting area in the back. They whip through traffic along with every other person driving. I honestly do not thing they have any laws towards how fast or what side of the road you drive on. Lets just say this would sooo not happen in Canada.
After picking up a few things at the hostel we got back into our Tuk Tuk's and they took us to the Gem store. This is where they make beautiful jewelry, but very expensive. We saw how the local Thai people spent most of there day in a small room making these items, and not going to lie they had some major detail on them which you think would take hours, but they are speedy fast.
After the Gem store our Tuk Tuk drivers tried to scam us because they wanted another gas ticket, we were not too impressed, but we decided why not just go with it and see where they take us. Bad decision, they ended up taking us to a tailor shop and none of us wanted tailored clothes. This is where our Tuk Tuk drivers and us got into a bit of an argument and well lets just say they ditched us. No we didn't know where we were, but it was more of an adventure. After walking for 20 minutes in a direction we didn't know we found a small restaurant place along the road that looked very lonely and obviously no one ever goes there to eat. We decided there were 12 of us so we would give them some business for the first time in ages. We ordered a bunch of fried rice and chicken, the place was very sketchy, but the food was awesome. we paid not more then 2 dollars canadian for this meal for 12 people.
We decided since it was the weekend we would check out the largest weekend market in Bangkok which was called Che Chae market.... not actually sure how to spell it, so my apologies. We spent most of the day roaming around the market and even after spending so much time there we still never got to cover it all. At the market we happen to find a small very communist store. It was unreal crazy ridiculous. It had a picture of president bush and darts all over it. I can't even explain how crazy this store was so use your amagination, and even still it was way worse then what you are imagining.
After a long day of walking we decided it was time for a cab. split up into two groups and took a cab back to the hostel. This was also another ridiculous experience. People do not follow lanes, we think they are of a suggestion then a rule because our cab was pasing people driving on the opposite side of the road, we actually had to slam on the breaks at one point because another car was headed straight at us. This is when the cab driver started laughing at us because we were like omg you are crazy. He thought that was cool, so you can only imagine how crazier it got from there. Once back at the hostel we chilled for a bit, took some much needed showers and waited for our supper adventure.
We went to a local restaurant where there were no foreigners go, this is how you know it is a good restaurant according to Jonah and amanda our trip leaders. And it was good, so much food. A lot of fish, which is so not my choice, but we got pork and other selections as well so it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be. At this restaurant we meet Nick and Off two real Thai individuals. Off is actually part of the royal family so it was nice having dinner with him and getting to know him better. At dinner we all decided it would be a good idea to eat the really hot peppers that no other Thai people eat. My mouth was on fire, my eyes were watering for over an hour, I could not speak. So not something I would choose to do, but we did it for Ellen Degeneres. Dinner went really long and a lot of us started to get really tired. We though we would just head back to the hostel and head to bed. We started to do that, once back at the hostel a couple of us decided to go for an adventure. This adventure turned into much more.
As we went to get water in the &eleven Teale another girl on this trip notice the big Chang, which is a giant beer that is 7% was only 43 bot. This is supper cheap compared to anywhere else so we bought a couple and started drinking while roaming the streets. Got the Ellen flag out and we turned into a tourist attration. Everyone started coming up to us trying to get their picture taken with us. Finally found Jonah and Amanda and drank with the locals, and met other Canadian guys from Montreal. After getting pretty haggard we decided to go dancing at The Club and stayed out for most of the night dancing it up with Ellen and everyone loved her.
Finally made it home put on my bug net and went to sleep!!
Friday, May 14, 2010
Day 1
Hey everyone,
Ok so made it to Thailand safe and sound. We got in about 10pm last night and decided why not celebrate a super long flight. Obviously we went out for a few beers. Had my first Chang beer, quite tasty, not gonna lie.
Thailand is super hot, feels like a sauna that never ends. Lots of water will be drank on this trip I can tell you that. On the plane to Thailand I met this very interesting Thai man. He has travelled around the world like 4 times. He told me all the hot spots to visit and what was a waste of time, which was super cool. Everyone here speaks pretty good english so there is no problem getting around, but everything looks the same so you could potentially get lost. Not a problem though, if you get lost just ask a Tuk Tuk driver, which is a three wheels motor bike kinda thing and they will take you pretty much anywhere for super cheap.
so i noticed last night that there are lizzards everywhere. Like the really little ones. They are just cralling around everywhere and oh man the cats. There are cats everwhere. like last night when we went to bed all you could hear were cats crying it was ridiculous. i'm not joking though there is a cat every 5 steps you take, they are everwhere.
last night we walked up and down kao san road which is famous to all backpackers I hear. It was incredibly busy, and street meat everwhere. With that comes garbage and with lots of garbage comes rats. saw sooo many rats just wondering the roads looking for a good place to hang out, that was not my favorite part. kinda acted like a little girl when it ran by me by jumping up on a chair and screamed just a little.
Anyways its almost 9am here so I'm gonna go grab be some cheap pad thai and get this adventure on the go.
Wry
Ok so made it to Thailand safe and sound. We got in about 10pm last night and decided why not celebrate a super long flight. Obviously we went out for a few beers. Had my first Chang beer, quite tasty, not gonna lie.
Thailand is super hot, feels like a sauna that never ends. Lots of water will be drank on this trip I can tell you that. On the plane to Thailand I met this very interesting Thai man. He has travelled around the world like 4 times. He told me all the hot spots to visit and what was a waste of time, which was super cool. Everyone here speaks pretty good english so there is no problem getting around, but everything looks the same so you could potentially get lost. Not a problem though, if you get lost just ask a Tuk Tuk driver, which is a three wheels motor bike kinda thing and they will take you pretty much anywhere for super cheap.
so i noticed last night that there are lizzards everywhere. Like the really little ones. They are just cralling around everywhere and oh man the cats. There are cats everwhere. like last night when we went to bed all you could hear were cats crying it was ridiculous. i'm not joking though there is a cat every 5 steps you take, they are everwhere.
last night we walked up and down kao san road which is famous to all backpackers I hear. It was incredibly busy, and street meat everwhere. With that comes garbage and with lots of garbage comes rats. saw sooo many rats just wondering the roads looking for a good place to hang out, that was not my favorite part. kinda acted like a little girl when it ran by me by jumping up on a chair and screamed just a little.
Anyways its almost 9am here so I'm gonna go grab be some cheap pad thai and get this adventure on the go.
Wry
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
SE Asia trip
May 12, 2010
Ok everyone, tomorrow is the day. I fly out at 10:45 where I will be meeting my group in Toronto. From there we will begin our journey over to Tokyo, and then to Bangkok. As for right, packing is the name of the game. Lets hope I don't forget anything important.
I'll keep you all posted on my adventures as they happen in SE Asia.
Wry
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