Vannakum!

Ok ok ok, wow this blog thing is a lot of work to keep up! this is gonna be a long one... Our time on Koh Yao Noi was awesome. Its a pretty big island in the middle of Phang Nga bay, but it is not very touristed at all, for now that is... The Locals are fantastic, since they have not yet gotten into the business of taking advantage of tourists. On the ferry boat through the bay they let us sit out on the front and take in the beautiful view. We passed a Muslim fishing village which was built over the water, and we also saw the "James Bond" rock from The Man with the Golden Gun. After setteling in at Sabai Corner we walked around a bit and proceded to play cards and drink the rest of our sketchy Thai Whiskey. We hung out on the beach for quite a while, and a few bottles later we decided it was bedtime, however it was already way past bedtime for Kendra... haha, we carried her part way down the beach and then these Thai boys came up to us and carried her for a while (until she was violent that is) and then I piggie backed her the rest of the way... hahaha funniest night ever, and the pathetic part is we were in bed by 9.
One of the best parts of our stay was when we were walking and an old man from the ferry boat recognized us and invited us to ride on his motorcycle with him (it had a kind of side car attachment) into town. He didn't know any English and all we could say was "khap khun kha" (thankyou). With all our extra weight his poor little bike would only go about 7mph, but it was so fun! all the people we passed would laugh and wave, and many of the passing motorists would slow to chat with the old man about who knows what, but it often ended in laughter and we assumed they were joking about us... Eventually we motioned for him to drop us off since we didn't want too long a walk back. We ate some food, and the timing worked out perfectly because as we left our friend was driving back as well, so we caught another ride! The next day when we were shopping for food for our kayaking trip we ran into him again, and of course he offered us a ride but we had more shopping to do. What a nice guy! So yeah, we bought lots of food at the local market, rice, potatoes, carrots, oranges, and so on. Kendra bought a sarong, it has just about every color on it, I wish I had a picture to post so you could see how "attractive" it is... haha sorry Kendra! But even better Kelly bought a hat that said "hip hop". Yeah, she would...
We met up with Kitty and Zach the next day and got everything in line for our trip. They were so great, He is Thai and she is from Scotland. We packed our kayaks and were off. That first day of paddleing was Hell! As soon as we got out of the bay the wind picked up. After a solid 6 hours of struggle, we finally got to Kudu, a little island north of Yao Noi. We ended up setting up camp in this beautiful little cove, almost completely closed off from the ocean. When the Tide was out, the whole bottom was covered in coral. Sadly, we arrived at low tide and so had to pack all our gear across the coral. That night sucked. My arms were completely dead, and my elbows and hands could hardly bend, and on top of that I was soo sunburnt! I was not a happy camper, litteraly. The next morning was a little better. Our original plan was to kayak to Ko Mak, but based on the status of my elbows we decided to take it easy. We paddled to Ko Roi and explored a cave lagoon thing. We camped in the same place that night. We had a great campfire and made some dinner and went to sleep. That night I woke up and looked outside (I might be psychic) and our kayaks weren't on shore anymore. It was the full moon that night and the tide rose more than we expected. So anyways I was like "Oh shit" and ran out to see if our kayaks were still there. they were floating nearby (thank God) but a bunch of our stuff was being washed out to sea. I woke up Kelly and Kendra and grabed my head lamp. We waded around in the ocean grabbing the loose items, all the while being attacked by fire ants who were apparently suprised by the tide as well. Luckily we managed to retrieve most our things, my swim top was the only lost thing, and even more luckily, I found a swim suit hanging in a coconut tree that fits pretty well! The next morning we saw a bunch of monkeys and also some hornbills attacking each other. We planned to paddle to Koh Hong, but the ocean was way to choppy and at some points the waves were completely covereing our kayaks so we camped on the east side of Yao Noi. It worked out great, our beach was amazing. We set up our hammocks and made a nice fire. We also made friends with a local stray dog.
Okay I'm gonna try to speed this thing along, sorry if I leave out too much...
So after returning kayaks and cleaning up at Coconut Corner we took a ferry over to Krabi. On the ferry we ran into a this girl who had seen us when we first returned from our kayak trip and had said how "hardcore" we were (which made my day!). It was pretty funny. We got a ride into town with this guy who was telling us about all the crazy drivers there were and how dangerous it is, all the while speeding around blind corners. We took a longtail boat to Tosai beach, where Kitty reccomended we go. It was absolutely fantastic. Apparently its the Mecca for rock climbers and so the beaches are covered with hunky tan rock climber boys. Its also a major hippie hang out, which coincides which the rockclimber thing, and so most of the beach front bars are named things like "the chill out bar" and are filled with rasta decor. Our first night there we watched a fire dancing show and were then given the practice balls to try it for our selves. Kendra was the brave one and actually did the fire dance! It was awesome. Props. The next place we went to had a slack line in the middle of the bar. We met these really cool Austrian guys who taught me how to jump on the slack line. It was so crazy, I wish we had bars like that in Corvallis, haha. The next day we hiked over to Railey and went to the famous beach from the movie "The Beach" (ironic huh) The beach was amazing and the nearby caves were cool too, but it was way too crowded. We then climbed up the hillside to the viewpoint and to the lagoon. The hike was a lot more strenuous than expected, I felt like a mountain goat for most of it. That night Kelly and I got food poisoning and spent all night praising the porcelain god. We couldn't do anything the next day, which I guess isn't the worst thing to have to lay around on a beach all day. The next day we travelled back to the train station in Surat Thani. I said goodbye to Kelly and Kendra as they boarded their train to head north. As I waited for my train I was approached by this Thai guy who was really out of it. He talked to me for like an hour straight, I only understood about half of what he was saying but he was basically telling me his life story. Anyways, I was really glad to get on my train.
My cab driver in Kuala Lumpur was so interesting. Id noticed that the people weren't too fond of Americans so I told the driver that I was from Australia. And so we had a completely frank coversation about the USA and he basically said the Bush is so stupid and how could Americans allow their government to comit such crimes in a country where the people are supposed to rule. Luckily we didn't talk about Australian government, that would have been awkward. Besides politics we talked about education, religion, economics, and many other things (it was a long cab ride). It is the best conversation I've ever had with a complete stranger.
Anyways three cabs, two trains, and two plane rides later I finally arrived in India. It was a rocky start to say the least. My Debit card wouldn't work in the airport ATM and so I had no money, and my cab driver didn't understand what I was trying to tell him so he just kept driving around. The streets here are ablosutely insane by the way. I thought Thailand was nuts but it doesn't even compare. There are cows and goats wandering all over and random road blocks and things, I can't even describe it, just Yikes. So yeah, I was in the cab with no money, and I finally convinced the driver to let me use his cell phone. After a few tries I got a hold off this guy, Nitin, who I knew was hosting one of the girls, Andi, through Couchsurfing and so I let the driver talk to him to get directions for meeting up with them. I don't know what was said, just a lot of yelling and then he hung up the phone. A few second later the phone rang and then more yelling and then he handed me the phone and Nitin told me to get out of the cab right away, this guy is crazy! And then I put them back on the phone together to try to work things out and there was more yelling and another hang up. After some extremely awkward moments of silence I asked the driver if everything was okay? He said "shhh! I must do time to find calm." So we kept driving and eventually he said that everything was fine he knew where to go. I was a bit skeptical, but two hours later we parked in front of a little restaurant and Andi came out and payed for me and it all worked out great! (breathe Mom). So that night I couchsurfed at Nitins amazing beach house in south Chennai and the next morning we drove to Auroville to see the Dalai Lama speak in front of the Tibetan Pavillion. It was really amazing. He is so contagious. When he laughs his entire body laughs. And to my surprise he is really funny. He mostly talked about human unity. After that Andi and I went to meet up with Snehal, a local Aurovillian who is on couchsurfers. He's a really cool guy who is trying to set up a gift economy business. He has this little place with a kitchen and hang out area and seperate from that he has a loft thing. You can eat and cook whatever you want and stay at his place and then you can pay whatever you feel like or leave a gift behind. The next day we met up with three other girls and went into Pondi. We ate some extremely dodgy street food and walked around and then all five of us squished in the back of a rickshaw and came back to Auroville. That night some of the puppies that were living below our loft were really sick and were making horrible sounds and by morning three had died. It was so horrible.... I took a picture of this one the morning before. Also that night, some rats got into my bag and chewed up all my granola bars, my lotion bottle, and they tried to get into malaria pills. Sneaky little bastards.
We met up with our faculty and took a bus to Mahabilapuram. We met up with the rest of the group and spent the next couple days exploring the city and doing ridiculous ice breakers to get to know each other. Everyone here is amazing. I was expecting everyone to be tye-dye wearing, kumbaya singing hippies. Theres a little of that but not nearly as much as Id thought. They split us into two cohorts and we are living in seperate places. We are living at the American Pavillion and the Tibetan Pavillion in the international zone of Auroville. Its pretty sweet. Im staying at Tibetan, which is where the Dalai Lama stayed, and he blessed all the rooms here. So far we've just been touring Auroville and having group discussions and stuff. We get up at 6 every morning and do Yoga, its so intense. This place really is amazing, I can't wait to explore more. It used to be a complete desert and then in the sixties this idea of Auroville arose and they began planting trees. Now it is covered in trees but I can't even imagine all the work it took to get it like this. I have a lot to say about Auroville, but I will hold that for another post, this one is becoming quite epic. As for me, I'm just getting over my second bout of food poisoning. Yesterday I went to the local health clinic with a temperature of 104. Today I'm feeling a lot better. I'd love to hear what everyone is up to at home, shoot me an email if you get a chance.

xo

Gettin out of the City

We are now in Phang Na, but I'll back track a bit first. We looked around Bangkok some more after we packed up the morning of the 4th. We took our first tuk-tuk ride to a nearby Wat (temple type thing). Tuk-tuks are known for ripping off tourist, and we were no exception, but the experince is worth it. They whiz around like little go-karts, racing between cars. We walked up the hill to the Wat and got a 360 view of Bangkok. It is Huge, I knew it was big, but wow! Skyscrapers in every direction. Then we walked a few blocks to where they make monk bowls. Imediatly we were harangued into the regular "Hallo, Hallo, Come, I show you, very nice, You buy?" We followed an old man through some alleys (a bit sketchy) but it was really interesting to see the living conditions of the locals. Next we went to check out The big mall downtown, it has 7 floors. We had lunch at a restaurant that was full of thai people, so figured it was good. We were pretty disappointed as we sifted through the crab shells and porkrines, and basically just picked out the peanuts and noodles. After that we headed for the train station. On our walk out we were flagged over to what were apparently some Thai radio of TV stars and they were advertising Pepsi, so we may be on some Thai commercials or something, Ha Ha, yeah we're a pretty big deal... Eventually we made it to the train station. We had an hour to kill so we just sat on the floor like everyone else, and when the clock hit 6 o'clock the Thai national Anthem (i think that's what it was) started playing on the loudspeakers and everyone in the station stood up and faced the mural of the King. Have I mentioned how much the Thai people Love their King! There are posters of him everywhere! It's kind of funny to imagine the US loving our president that much. How wierd would that be for every household to have a picture of Bush on the mantle. We boarded our train around 7:30. We sat there waiting for about 2 hours and then finally we left. The 13 hour ride was pretty close to miserable. Since we were in 3rd class we had bench seats and it was impossible to get comfortable.

We took a bus from Surat Thani to Khoa Sok where we booked our bungalow hut thing, it had an amazing view and was surrounded by the sounds of the rainforest. We also got an hour long thai massage, pretty awesome for $7. Khoa Sok National park is the biggest rain forest in Thailand, and has a huge lake. We took a tour of the lake, which was beautifully bordered with limestone cliffs, and had a tour of some nearby caves. Our guide Po (spelling?) was like the real Moguely from the Jungle Book. He swung around on vines and made gibbon and sacaida calls. The caves were amazing, and there were absolutely no safety precautions, which made even better. We followed a stream down into a crack in the cliff with nothing but our headlamps. Walking along we saw some awesome rock formations and bats that covered the ceiling. There big frogs in there too, the picture is of "budda frog", he's playing dead. In one stretch Po stopped to show us a Huge spider and the ground was crawling with crickets... ugh! That was my least favorite part, but the best part was when we climbed down into the stream and had to swim across, so fun! We hiked through the jungle back to the boat. Our ride back to the bungalows was in some guys truck. He didn't really speak english so it was fun. I was resereved shotgun, i don't know why? It was really funny actually. there were six people sitting in the bed and four squeezed in the back seat and Kendra went to sit in front and the guide stopped her and motioned me to sit there, wierd? Anyways, the guys truck was really nice, and it had a screen on the radio that showed the words to the song (like karoke) so all of us were singing along and the driver thought it was the funniest thing ever. Then the people in the back knocked on the window and so we stopped at the 7-11 (they're everywhere) to buy beer and snacks (which made the karoke even funner). We knew our bungalow people were annoyed with us since we didn't book our tour through them, and these suspitions were solidified when our dinner meal of green curry arrived extra extra spicey! It is probably the hottest meal I've ever eatten, and it burned on the way out too... TMI. Anyways the next day we did our own hike in the jungle to some waterfalls, it was really nice, but I was sweating buckets. Then we retrieved our backpacks and walked out to catch the local bus to Phang Na.

Wow, this post is getting long... Well, last night we stayed at a hotel in Phang Na for $2! So Amazing! Our standards have sure adapted to the Thai dollar. Now we're like "$6 hotel, pshh, we can get it for 2, and $1 pad thai, thats outragous, lets walk down the street and get it for 60 cents!" hahaha, gotta love it! This afternoon we are catching a boat over to Koh Yao Noi where we're going to rent kayaks and paddle around the bay and camp on little islands and stuff. Should be awesome!
Hope everyone at home is doing well!

xo

Curry, ladyboys and tuk-tuks

Wow, so this is my belated first post. It's been a crazy couple of days. Our trip started out quite ominously. First of all, Kelly lost her passport the day before we were planning to drive up to Seattle (not too surprising for her), so we had to book it up there and get her a replacement. Then the dog ran off (which has never happened before), and then on the freeway we encountered a flying mattress (literally) which we ended up driving over at 70mph... fun stuff.

But all said and done, we've made it here safe. The plane rides were good, 12 hours form Seattle to Incheon and then 6 hours to Bangkok. Kelly, for God knows why, chose the Kosher meal option. So everytime they were serving food they first had to bring it to her so she could open the packaging for inspection and approval. Yeah, she would. This will be our second night in Bangkok. The first night worked out great, we met a few people in the airport and all shared a van into the city. The driver taught us some Thai phrases, and also let us know how happy the Thai people are about Americas future with Barrack Obama! We rented a room just off Khoa san for 430THB ~$4 a person... pretty cheap for a private room with bathroom. After dropping off our bags we headed out to Khoa san for some food and drink. We got some amazing pad thai for about 60 cents (haven't gotten sick from street food yet...) and tested out the local thai beer selection. Then finally, about 4:30 am headed for bed.

This morning we had some fruit and green curry for breakfast and then got a cab to drop of Kelly and Kendras body bag at a storage unit. By the way, streets here are insane! It's kind of similar to Moroccan traffic, cars, bikes, motorcycles and buses all over the place cutting each other off and going as fast as they can to make a red light... and apparently it's completely legal, yet spitting in the street can get you arrested, makes sense eh. Then we got a little lost searching for the metro, finally ended up on the sky tram to check out the weekend market. The Market was Massive! You can buy anything there. You could easily spend a day walking around and not have time to see it all. We didn't buy much, since we don't want to pack it around. But, I did try out some fried grasshoppers! Can't say I'm a fan. Got Kelly to try them too (picture), but Kendra refused! Oh, hahaha and we ended up wandering into the pet area of the market and they had squirrels for sale! so random. After that we took the subway to the train station. We bought out tickets for tomorrows night train to Surat Thani. The 1st and 2nd class tickets were all completely sold out so we ended up buying 3rd class... lol, Kendra is going to hate me for this decision. It will be a 13 hour overnight ride on wooden benches. Should be pretty fun right!

After that we got lost again, and according to the locals expressions we were not supposed to be where we were. But eventually we made it out to the river and we hopped on a boat to chinatown. We bought some oranges and wandered around for a while. Then we got a cab back here for dinner (more pad thai). Now we are exhausted and cant wait for bed. I think we've gotten about 7 hours of sleep in the last few days... so on that note, goodnight.

xo