Ko Phangan & Farewell Thailand

We hopped a quick ferry ride to Samui's sister island, Ko Phangan, best known for its monthly full moon raves, but also home to some secluded beaches. Our first home here was Blue Hill Resort, which is currently undergoing a renovation to into an upscale resort. Lucky for us, they hadn't finished yet, and we got a room overlooking the water at a bargain price. The collection of bungalows were largely empty, and at times it seemed that we had the entire place to ourselves. The highlight was their infinity pool that looked out on Ko Samui.



As usual, we rented a motorbike and explored the island's beaches ('hat's) including Hat Son, Hat Yao, and our favorite Hat Salad.

A couple days into our stay, we realized that our Thai visas had expired. It turns out that we had been given a one-month visa our first time in Thailand because we entered through an airport, but our land entry (from Laos) only earned us a two-week visa. Since we had hoped to make it to Thailand's west coast (Phi Phi & Krabi), we headed to Ko Samui's immigration office to resolve our issue. Here we got a eye-opening lesson on dysfunctional and illogical government.

The immigration official informed us that we could purchase a 7-day extension (which we did in order to exit the country legally), but that she could not provide us with a 14 or 30 day extension. Ok, we figured, it seems logical we can't just stay forever. A bit harsh, but understandable. But wait, if we wanted to stay she told us--no problem--just board a bus on a 16-hour round trip to Ranong on the Burma border, where we could board a long-tail boat, cross a river, stand on a small concrete island for 10 minutes, pay $10 with a crisp ten-dollar bill ONLY (for sale for the equivalent of $20), and then begin the eight hour bus ride back. After doing this, you would be given another 14 day extension for entering Thailand via land.

We both laughed that the official and encouraged government policy was to promote this ridiculous practice instead of just charging us more money for another 7 days. We factored in the annoyance of doing this, the bragging-rights of going to Burma, and the impending monsoon season on the west coast and decided to bid farewell to Thailand a bit sooner than planned. So nice work Thailand, less tourist dollars!

With our remaining days, we decided to return to Ko Phangan and spend the remainder of our time at Hat Salad. We got a great room at Cookies Salad (weird name, but whatever) that looked out over the entire bay.



This made for a great happy hour each evening with our favorite beer.



We continued to explore the island, and chartered a long-tail boat for a ride to Hat Khuat (aka Bottle beach).



Like all the beaches we've seen, the water here was beautiful blending from crystal clear shallows to light greens to dark blues. It's just a beautiful place.



As the full moon party approached on the 9th, the island began to noticeably fill up and we were excited to have timed our exit appropriately.

So we bid a fond farewell to Thailand (we've spent a lot of time here) and hello to Bali & Indonesia. First stop: Gili islands for water sports, diving, and of courses, more pretty beaches.

Operation Ko Samui

You should have expected this blog update to take so long with our change over to island time. For the last week, we've plopped ourselves on various stretches of sand and done little else than read, sleep, and relax.

Ko Samui, although more westernized than its neighbors, is known for its long stretches of palm fringed beaches, white sands, and clear warm waters. The beach tends to be over crowed for much of the year, but is currently undergoing its very warm, but low-tourist, season. For nearly a week, we spent each day on a different beach, including Chaweng, Lamai, and Bophut.



During this time, Steve started to live in his silly looking fisherman pants, which he picked up for $2 in Luang Prabang. It's getting hard to remember when he wore something else.



We also took time to indulge in some western cuisine, and treated ourselves to an absolutely massive tasting menu at the swank 'Library'. The restaurant/hotel looks as if it were designed by Apple, which especially delighted Steve's nerdy-ness. The meal consisted of ten appetizers, five soups, ten entrees, and five desserts. Needless to say it was entirely too large of a sampler.



As fun as a 30 course menu was, our favorite food in Samui came from a deli, reminding us a bit of being in New York.

We also took a day away from beaches (well, almost) and headed by boat to the nearby An Thong National Marine Park. We motored around this collection of 42 pristine islands, stopping to snorkel, see some incredible vistas, and lay on more beaches.



The inside of one island holds a blue lagoon, that was especially beautiful.



The postcard-perfect waters put Ko Samui to shame and we especially loved the small beaches throughout, depsite their coarser sand. In this shot, the rock in the middle is known as the praying monkey.



After five days of relaxation, we headed to nearby Ko Pha Ngan for a change of scenery. This smaller island, infamous of its full moon parties, also has its share of secluded beaches that we'll search out. More to come, although don't expect it too soon.

We're on Island Time Now

We left Laos on an overnight train headed for Bangkok. We stayed here a couple days so that Lindsey could follow up on her ear issue with a doctor at what proved to be the nicest hospital (Bumrungrad) either of us had ever seen. We're a bit sad we didn't take pictures as the entire hospital looked like a hotel lobby.

Having already seen most of the city's major sites, we took a different approach to the city this time around. We binged a bit on Starbucks and fast-food, saw a couple movies, and spent most of our time wandering air-conditioned shopping malls. The highlight of it all were VIP seats at the movie theater which reclined and came with blankets and pillows. Even though the Nick Cage flick was a bit lame, you could enjoy any movie in seats like this.

From Bangkok we headed to Ko Tao, an island on the Gulf of Thailand known for its exceptional scuba diving. Lindsey was a bit disappointed that Ko Tao doesn't have the long stretches of beach she'd envisioned, but we'll get to those on our next island.

After seeing a few overpriced rooms, we checked into a horrifically hot (and overpriced) room at a dive 'resort' for $5/night. Our first day we rode around the island's insanely steep and slippery roads to some of the island's more remote bays. At several steep points, Lindsey had to get off and walk up since the bike didn't have enough power to keep going. We both wish we'd been forewarned, but once we arrived at Hin Wong and Tanote Bay we enjoyed the swimming and snorkeling. That evening we cooled off in the breeze along the beach before retiring to our sauna of a hotel room.

The next day, Steve went on a full day scuba trip, at three of the island's best dive sites. He was immediately impressed as he swam through literally millions of fish, the highlights being a school of barracuda, a massive puffer fish, moray eels, blue spotted rays, a 5ft potato grouper, and large stretches of beautiful coral. Lindsey had hoped to get her scuba certification here, but decided it was not a good idea given her ear issues.

Swimming through the school of barracuda was amazing.

The ultimate highlight was a brief encounter with the world's largest fish, a whale shark. This was exactly what Steve was hoping to spot, although they are generally very elusive. Even though it was a small one at only 10 feet (they grow to 40 ft), it was still amazing how easily such a massive creature can move through the water. Steve's dive group of four was the only one to see a whale shark that day and earned him some special bragging rights back on board. He was a bit excited and distracted, resulting in some pretty bad pictures and video.

The same day, Lindsey took a great yoga class before relaxing on the beach. There she played with a couple local dogs that eventually were sleeping on her towel with her. She was excited to take the day to just relax.

Since Ko Tao lacked the wide beaches we wanted to relax on, we skipped over to Ko Samui aboard another ferry. We might head back to Ko Tao (it's fairly close) for more snorkeling at some point, but are currently enjoying things here on Ko Samui.

Riding Elephants

Our last day in Pai (before heading to Vietnam) we began at Thom's Elephant Camp. Unlike the USA, Thailand lacks any kind of safety precations or instruction, and immediately we were able to pet and feed the elephants. The elephants were previously used for teak logging in the jungle which was outlawed. Our elephant was Pompaen (meaning Lovely Girl), a 19 year old female and the smallest of their group.



Soon it was time to ride the elephant and we grabbed an ear, stepped on it's leg, and not-so-gracefully pulled ourselves on top. We walked to the river and quickly realized there are more comfortable modes of transportation. Regardless, it was a pretty fun ride.



At the river, the elephant walked in and began spraying us with water, with Lindsey taking the worst of it. The trainer had her spray us, sit in the river, and do everything to drench us. The best moment was the elephant dance (kind of like bull riding) which sent Lindsey screaching and falling into the river. Steve lasted a bit longer since he knew what was coming. We have it on video, but need to get to a better internet connection to upload it. Here's a picture for now:



After the ride, we got to relax in thermally heated hot tubs before heading for a slow ride on a bamboo raft. The raft was pretty boring, but we got some close up view of bathing water buffalo.


Pai was a very relaxing place, and would have been even better without the smoke. Our next stop is Hanoi to meet up with Lindsey's dad and begin our journey down the Vietnamese coast.

Path to Recovery

After hardcore trekking and Lindsey's finger injury (see previous post), we checked in to Pairadise (cheesy name, but a great hotel) for some much needed relaxation. Lindsey finally got her anti-inflamatories, soaked in the pool, and took in another massage and mani-pedi. For those in Pai, she highly recommends the massage at "IceHouse". She especially enjoyed the manicure were she was presented with a wide variety of sparkly nail polishes, manufactured by HelloKitty.



Steve got bored and "boated" around a little pond.



The only activity in these two days was a 2.5-hour Yoga class at YogaSala, Steve's first. He got a lot of enjoyment out of the instructors meditative instructions, such as "whatever it is, just be happy with it" and "awaken the tips of your nose." Yet despite the funny moments, it certainly helped to stretch out our muscles.

In the evening we saw "Milk" at a theater constructed of bamboo with a bedsheet for a screen. We laughed as mid-way through the movie a subtitle appeared: "This copy is for awards consideration only and not for public presentation." Oh well, welcome to Pai.

Two days of relaxing had offset one with Mr. Chart.

Chart vs. Wild

Meet Mr. Chart, the Northern Thailand equivalent to television's 'Man vs Wild' survivalist Bear Grylls. Having read great things about Mr. Chart online, we arranged for a two-day overnight trek through the jungle to a remote Lisu village where we'd overnight and get a closer look at village life. What we really got was our butts kicked.

Around 8am, we arrived at Mr Chart's office (and home) where we were quickly offered breakfast. But Chart (apparently his first, last, and nick name) doesn't serve the standard fare, and quickly pulled out jungle ferns (yes, ferns) and a whole chicken, head, claws, and all. We embrace the strangeness of eating ferns, staring at a chicken head, and sitting on a plastic floor as we dig in. It was actually pretty good, but aside from the ferns, we begin to pick up on some odd things: 1) he named his son bamboo because he liked bamboo, and 2) he has a bag of raw boar meat (which he hunted in the jungle) and which he plans to carry all day for food. We look at each other happy we'd brought clif bars and snickers.

After a quick ride in the back of a pick-up, we start our journey at 9am and head into the woods at an aggressive pace. Chart leads the way, wearing what are basically slippers, and we quickly learn that he has been a Muay Thai boxer since the age of 7, hinting it's going to be a tough day. An hour into the hike, we arrive at the edge of the jungle and Chart offers whiskey to god(s?) to protect us at a makeshift shrine.



The next portion of the hike crossed back and forth across a stream and required a lot of footwork on slippery rocks to stay dry, which needless to say, we didn't. A few hours into the hike, Lindsey took a bad fall on one of the rocks and slammed her fist into another rock badly hurting a finger. Not sure if it was broken or just badly bruised, we stopped to treat it.

Unfortunately, Steve had knocked out the power in our bungalow the night before (which wasn't fixed!) and had forgotten the medical pack with normal things like ibuprofen and tape that could have really helped at this point. But we were confident that Mr. Chart had some supplies to help. Confidence couldn't have been more misplaced as he pulled out tigerbalm which he guaranteed can treat anything. Lindsey was not happy and in a lot of pain, but she continued on.

Another 2 hours of trekking (4 total so far) we stopped for lunch, having already taken in a quick break at a remote waterfall. Chart offered us some pickled (raw) boar, which we both declined and we stuffed ourselves with sticky-rice and clif bars. Steve made some safe drinking water with his steripen gadget, while Chart, on the other hand, just about shoved his face in the river and started drinking, assuring us it was safe. We opted for the steripen.



As lunch ended, Chart told us: "now hard part, morning trail for villagers and animals, next trail only Chart use." Given that we already felt it was a pretty difficult hike, we were a bit concerned and we quickly discovered that by "hard part" he meant we'd be following a 4 inch path up near-cliffs, down slippery stretches of gravel, and through thick jungle. It was an incredibly difficult hike and even more so for Lindsey who was unable to grip with her right hand. Yet despite how hard it was we thought that lots of people do this with Chart so we were just being a bit whimpy.

By about 3pm we reached a high elevation corn field and figured we must be getting close to the village. As we sat down for a break, Chart said "New York" and simply laughed. The 43 year-old was kicking our butts. Chart showed us some pottery fragments in the fields from a 1000-year old people and let us rest for 5 minutes. Here we found out that we were an hour and a half out from the village.

We continued uphill, climbing to 1800m and passed our first villager, 'Sam' who was out hunting for squirrel. Another hour later we stopped for our final break and found out the big secret. Instead of changing Chart's usual 3-day, 2-night trek to accomodate our 1-night requets, he just combined two days of hiking into one day. He was very excited about the time that we had made covering 30km and climbing to 1800m. We were utterly exhausted.



At 4:15, we arrive at the Lisu village and were welcomed by mean barking dogs that Chart shot at with a slingshot he had crafted in the jungle. He tells us that we have hiked all the way to the Burmese border and that the Thai army was just over the hill protecting the border. We snapped a few pictures and quickly made our way to a bench where we'd rest for the majority of the evening.



Village life was not what we had imagined. We both envisioned a rather romantic concept where the community would work together and take a lot more pride in their community than a modern society does. But this wasn't the case and it really just seemed like seperate households trying to survive: doors were locked, there was garbage throughout the area, and each family cooked for their own. The floors were dirt, livestock wandered freely (including inside the houses) and we wondered what kept people living in this manner.



As we sat and rested, Steve was invited into a house with four men squatting around a small fire eating and drinking. He had a bite of black-chicken (a gross looking animal, but tastes like regular chicken) and some shots of gasoline-powered whiskey (Samsong brand). Here he learned that no one knows how old they are in the village and they typically just say 'I was born in the rainy season' or the dry season, which occur annually. He also met a man who claimed to only shower during the wet season. He quickly left and returned to the bench for more rest.

In the evening, we slept in a house with bamboo walls, dirt floors, chickens, bags of corn/rice, and a chicken-feet door ornament. Yet despite how filfthy it all seemed, the people were kind and lit us a fire to stay warm, which typically isn't done. For dinner, Chart made some more pork dishes (we declined again) and a nice chicken soup which we devoured.



Before dinner we also made more water with the Steripen and a few villagers gathered around in awe of modern technology as Mr. Chart explained it to them in their tribal language.

We went to sleep, hoping that Lindsey's finger would feel a bit better by morning and praying there weren't any fleas in the bed. We managed to get some sleep until about 5am when we were woken up by roosters.

We always thought that roosters did their noise once when the sun came up, but in reality they do it continually for about 5 hours. And when the village has about 100 roosters, this means you just don't sleep after sunrise. It was the most annoying alarm clock the world has ever known.

In the morning Lindsey's finger was still quiet swollen and painful and we decided to hike out to a road and take a truck back instead of risking her falling on it again. Even though this day's hike was supposedly easier, the tigerbalm just hadn't done much to help surprisingly enough! We hiked uphill (even more!) to a road where we caught a 1.5hr ride back to Pai in search of some ibuprofen and some serious recovery. Hiking on the road Lindsey got a great picture of Steve and Chart:



One day of Chart had proven to be enough, and the village stay was a bit more than we were prepared for! For anyone considering Chart here's our advice: bring your own food and medical supplies, and opt for three days of trekking.

Relaxation time!

Pai, Ride of Death

Wednesday morning we boarded a minivan for a three hour drive to Pai without a full understanding of what we were getting ourselves in to. We soon realized this was no ordinary bus ride as the driver flew around pinhair turns up the mountanside at 60+mph. These were windy roads that turned both of our stomachs and sent us back and forth across our seats. The drivers technique, especially passing on the opposite side of the road around sharp turns terrified us throughout the trip. Lindsey nearly vomited on Steve. It was a ride we were both happy to be done with as we arrived in Pai. (btw, we are taking it again back to Chiang Mai so we obviously deserve it!)

Steve was a bit disappointed upon arriving as much of the coffee fields have recently been burnt and the valley was filled with smoke. While you can see the mountains, it is only through a thick haze, and we're hoping it fades to catch some of the views we had seen online.

Next we checked out a few places to stay along the river and chose a riverside bungalow where no one seems to speak a word of English--actually rare so far on our trip! Then we walked through town and arranged activities for the next few days. Steve was amazed he got Lindsey to agree to a hardcore trek with Mr. Chart (just check out the website) and Lindsey is ecstatic that she's booked to ride and bathe elephants.



We rented another motorbike (this one even cheaper!) and headed to a remote waterfall and canyon. It certainly wasn't the most impressive nature we've ever seen, but was still nice to be outside on a beatiful day--it's a bit cooler here.



It was a bit dusty...



On the way back we checked out a new hotel to try out after we get back from our trek, then picked up some Singhas to sip next to the river before dinner. As we walked into town for dinner the town had come alive. Earlier it seemed as if it were completely tourists, but at night there was more local flavor. For dinner we tried an entire platter of various thai dishes at Laan Taung and enjoyed talking about it with our newfound cooking knowledge. Finally we headed home to rest for our trek that would end up being quiet an adventure.

I Cook Thai in Chaing Mai

Our second day in Chiang Mai we spent in a full-day cooking course at Baan Thai Cooking School where we learned to prepare customary Thai dishes. After being picked up at our hostel, our first stop was to a local farmers market where we learned about the different Thai produce and starches. Our class of eight stood out among the locals, but we really enjoyed learning more about the funny things we'd seen since Bangkok. The Thai enjoy very literal names for their ingredients and some of our favorites are Mouse Shit Chilies (because they look like mouse shit apparently) and ear mushrooms, which definitely look and feel like someone's ear! Steve never takes any normal market pictures, so here's another gross one.



We picked up the ingredients we'd need for our six courses and headed outside of Chiang Mai to the Baan family home. It was a beautiful setting with an organic garden and fish pond surrounding our outside seating and cooking area. All that was missing was a hammock for our soon to be realized food-coma. They even welcomed us with a plate of some of the fruits we had just learned about. Jack fruit (the yellow one) tastes like laffy taffy.



Throughout the day we made a stirfry, appetizer, soup, curry paste, curry dish, and dessert--and ate all of it! The dishes were spaced throughout the day so that we could make room to stuff ourselves course after course. We learned certain techniques like rolling out a Thai lime makes them sweeter and less bitter, how to make curry paste from hand (it takes a lot of physical effort), and all the herbs that are fantastic for flavor but will make you sick if you eat them.



The dishes turned out great, we met some nice people from Scotland, Quebec and California, and we took home a complete recipe book. We're excited to cook a Thai feast for you all upon our return, complete with our new favorite beer: Singha!

After cooking Steve did some work online planning the next leg of the trip and Lindsey took in another $5 massage. Life is tough! Late at night, our hunger returned and we returned to Lemontree for a small $4 meal.

Next stop Pai, Thailand for trekking, elephants, and the remote countryside.

As usual, click on any of the above pictures to navigate to our complete online album.

Chiang Mai, $9 Rent-a-Bike!

Despite arriving a few hours late to Chiang Mai (took us 16 hours!), we were energized to seize the day, and didn't yet know it, but were about to crush all existing budget records. We checked in at the Bluehouse ($9/night), rented a motorscooter for $9, added $2 of gasoline, and headed for the summit that overlooks Chiang Mai. A few clif bars, some nuts, and strawberrys kept us going as Steve tried not to send us off a cliff on the windy road.



We passed waterfalls along the way and upon reaching the summit, saw a sign for a Hmong village. Not certain on daylight, we took our chances and descended the other side of the mountain into their valley. The village children came out to see us, chickens and piglets were everywhere, and dogs chased Lindsey around. Steve was offered a giant glass of whiskey to have with the locals and tasted a very small sip (definetly not jameson quality). It was an incredible sight and the highlight of our day. We were glad we took the chance to see it.



We quickly sped down the mountainside on no gas and lot of brakes to arrive back at our hotel. We headed for dinner (our first real meal of the day) at a nearby family joint (Lemontree). The food was incredible and for $6 we feasted on what you see here. It would have been $4! but we splurged for a tasty Singha beer.



Afterwards, Steve caved in and bought a very very cheap Asian laptop to stay out of internet cafes. While it was a good purchase in the end, it did take about two hours to learn how to type in English!

Our first day in Chiang Mai was complete paradise after the chaos of Bangkok. It was one of our favorite days thus far.

A special thank you goes out to Matt Borgman, who generously funded (via donate button!) nearly our entire day. We tried to stretch it as far as we could and for the price of 3 Manhattan beers, think we got the biggest bang for his buck.

As always, to see more pictures click on any of the above pictures to navigate to our complete online album.

Final Observations on Bangkok

We've never seen so much food in our lives. Everyone, everywhere is making or eating food. We can't imagine what happens to all of it at the end of the day or if it could possibly all be consumed!

There was a lot of prayer. We wern't sure if people do pilgrimages to the many wats in Bangkok or if they were strictly locals, but people prayed everywhere: wats, make-shift temples on street corners, in parks, etc. People would bow to a two inch buddha when entering a massage place and we easily (Without exageration) saw 5k buddhas in our 3 days. It was a bit shocking and we almost felt uncomfortable not doing it.

The city as a whole lacks proper mass transit, housing and other things that really could improve their quality of life. Steve joked that if you reallocated all the effort and rescources that went into building gold covered buddhas and temples you could have a pretty comfortable city! Just about every corner had this many powerlines.



There was a heavy police/military presence, which surprised us for buddhist nation. Tibet, clearly buddhist, was easily taken over by China simply because they didn't have any army because they were committed to buddhist teachings, and Thailnd contrasted quite a bit by appearance. Maybe we need to do some more wikipedia reading on Thailand politics and history, but if anyone has the cliffnotes version, we'll take it.

There we also lots and lots of pictures of the King all over town. Reminded Steve of Maoist China.

That's all, just a few thoughts!

Bangkok: Palace and Napkins

On Sunday we woke up early and headed for the Grand Palace, but in long pants this time. Again we took the water taxi and felt a bit like pros explaining how it worked to the next round of foreigners. While waiting for the taxi, we fed the fish, which literally filled every inch of the river below us.

Arriving at the palace, we were taken by its over-the-top design. Oppulent buildings fill every bit of space within the walls and each building is covered in intricate gold inlay, paintings, and tiling. It was amazing to see and gratifying to finally be someplace younger than America (Bangkok is only 200 years old). Also inside the palace is the Emerald Buddha (actually solid jade), but very impressive. The buddha has apparently been taken from country to country as the result of different wars which we found ironic given the peaceful religion. We moved quickly through the sites as it was over 90 degrees and we we're in long pants!



Out of the palace, we detached our convertible pant legs (we love gear) and proceeded to Wat Pho, home to the Reclining Buddha. The buddha is absolutely massive (150 ft long) and it's mother-of-pearl feet are the most impressive part with intricate designs telling various buddhist stories.



Since we'd come in under budget the previous day, and had been sacrificing meals to see more sites, we treated ourselves to a feast at The Mandarin Oriental for all of $30! It was a great feeling to dine with napkins and air conditioning!

Sunday night we headed off on a 13 hour (ended up being 16!) overnight train to Chaing Mai eager to see some country side and get out of the city.



Bangkok was the craziest city either of us had ever seen. We walked a lot, sweated more, got Wat fatique, started tuk-tuk arguements, cringed at markets, and loved it. That being said, we're happy to be in the country now.

As always, to see more pictures click on any of the above pictures to navigate to our complete online album.

Bangkok Day 2, How Much You Pay?

Saturday morning we headed for the massive 10,000-booth Chatuchak Market. While a lot of it was junky, there were an impressive number of actual botique designers and antique dealers that really seemed to run a good business from a hot and dirty marketplace. There was also more street food here, a smell to behold, and Steve's favorite thing to photograph.



After the market we snuck in one-hour massages (@ $5 each!), then walked to Khoa San Road to see where the tourists and backpacker crowd congregate. Here we ate some Pad Thai prepared on the street for $1/each, which was actually pretty tasty!



Next we opted to avoid tuk-tuk drivers and walked to the train station to purchase tickets for the next evening's journey onwards. To fully understand why we opted for an hour plus walk through the heat, we first need to explain how Bangkok works.

Tuk-Tuk drivers generally pick up westerners and instead of taking them to the requested destination, drive them to an assortment of businesses that pay for their gasoline if they bring in customers. These include tailors, travel agencies, restaurants, etc. It takes extremely direct language to get your way with a driver, and we felt our New York impatience helped us a bit in dealing with them.

Anyways, en route to the train station we walk through the largest and most chaotic Chinatown we'd ever seen. We also passed Wat Traimit, which holds a solid-gold Buddha weighing over five tons.



After picking up train tickets, we headed to the night market and strolled through Bangkok's Patpong red light district, not the least bit interesting.

Our biggest amusement of the day was the Bangkok local's favorite question: "How much did you pay?" Everyone you talk to, concerning any purchase will ask you. Massage, food, bus, tuk-tuk, taxi, tailor, hotel: how much did you pay? We couldn't stop laughing at their obsession with the market. We also began to tell them ridiculous prices to see their reactions.

At day's end we were proud of seriously coming in under budget. $20 on hotel, $6 breakfast, $10 on massages, $5 on water, $2 dinner! Not bad for having a great day.

Bangkok, Ro Noy

Welcome to Bangkok , overfilled with bubbling pots of food, harrasing tuk-tuk drivers, stray animals, and warm smiles. Writing this having already left the city we have some interesting impressions of the place, but we'll save those for a seperate post. Here's what we saw...

After a red-eye flight from Dusseldorf and a stop at our hostel the Shanti Lodge (nice enough), our first stop was to the Grand Palace. We got lost among the alleys, wandered through a market and some pretty desperate neighborhoods in our attempt to find the river ferrys and Lindsey began to wonder what Steve was getting her in to. Her tension peaked when a man emerged from his shack, covered head to toe in buddhist tattoes, and kindly directed us towards the pier. It was a great first impression of the locals. The wander also allowed us a chance to see (and smell) some of those meals best kept to the Travel Channel, which are documented in the pictures (click a pic to get to entire album).



When we arrived at the Palace, we were rejected for innapropriate attire (shorts!) and opted to return another day, rather than wear plastic borrowed pants. Walking across the street, a university student began chatting with us and telling us the lesser known sites to see. He took our map, drew stops on it, then negotiated a price (60 baht / $2) with a tuk-tuk driver for us. He spent well over ten minutes talking with us and we couldn't imagine a New Yorker ever doing the same. The Tuk-Tuk driver was to take us to each stop on the map, and at the final stop we would pay him. This technique (known as "Ro Noy" apparently), was the student's greatest help.



So off we went with the stranger's tour guide to Bangkok. The first stop was at one of Bangkok's scores of Wats, (buddhist monestaries), and we began to get a closer look at the architecture, buddha images, and monks. Next we stopped at a tailor, which (and this has been 3 times corroborated by non tuk-tuk drivers!) was only open to foreigners for one week and generally requires a governemnt ID card. Steve picked up a sports-coat and Lindsey orderd a 60s'-mod coat of Thai silk, which may or may not turn out. Next we stopped at Wat Intharawihan, home the 100ft giant standing buddha (see below), and lastly stopped to walk the stairs of the Golden Mount where we rang the bell three times for good luck. It was a fun couple of hours, and a well spent $2.



At night we headed to see Muay Thai boxing at Lumphini Stadium. We laughed when we saw the actual "stadium", complete with folding chairs and a sheet-metal roof, but couldn't have enjoyed it more. The heavy-weights were 145lbs with zero percent body-fat, but the true stars were the 60-80lbers. The locals are incredibly animated and gamble with each other in the same way wall street pit traders work, pretty funny.



We have so much more to tell you about the rest of Bangkok and promise to get another post out tonight! Also, for those of you that haven't seen all the pictures, click "pictures" on the right hand side of the site to navigate to our complete online album.