Island Relaxation

Well, we've made it down to the famouse Islands of South East Thailand. You may have seen the movie The Beach, most of that was shot on Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Somui and other smaller islands right around them. We're on Ko Pha-Ngan right now in a small little beach resort up in the North, pretty much as far away from the famous full moon parties as possible which is both good and bad. The distance means better security of our stuff as thousands of people flock here for the monthly event but also means a long cab ride in for the nights out.
Anyway, back to whats been goin on in the last little while. After I posted last time in Bangkok we did a little exploring by Tuk Tuk, a crazy looking half motcycle half taxi cab that Thailand is famous for. You have to wade through drivers trying to offer you "yours" of the city for 10 baht and by "tours" they mean one temple and 3 tailor shops. They get coupons for gasoline if they bring people to the tailor shops so they always do it even when you tell them not to, which is a little worrisome if you had to get to somewhere right away. It also works to your advantage as you get to understand the system. We havn't paid for a tuk tuk since the first day cause if you tell them your ok with stopping at a shp and pretending to be interested then they'll take you for really cheap to where you want to go (after you stop at the shop and mess around) and we've been able to get them to do it for free. I did actually end up getting some stuff made which was really fun and out Tuk Tuk policy let us shop around quite a bit before we found the place we liked best.
Anyway, yah, they're lots of temples and stuff like that in Bangkok but the weather was pretty bad that first day so the pictures aren't awesome.

This is the golden mountain, one of the big temples in the city

they're little buddah shrines everywhere, I think its rude to take pictures of one that people are praying at so the ones I've taken are the ones outside the temples and are less ornate. The ones inside are so intracate and golden and jeweled and stuff

this is the actual golden mountain part of the temple, the view of the city from the top is pretty good


Like I said the weather was a bit bad
That night we took the night bus to Chaing Mai to go trecking. We are tring not only to budget but make the most of our time so we planned to leave for the treck the morning that we arrived on the bus which made for a pretty hard first days hike. The hills around Chaing Mai are beautiful though and the hill tribe people we got to stay with were great as well

on the way out from chaing mai to where the trail starts I got to ride on top of the truck with our Thai guide, Wee.

lots of cool waterfalls, some you can dive off

the jungle is dense and goes on forever
That night we stayed with one of teh hill tribs in their houses


a common toilet
they make the best food, noodles and rice and stuff
sunset at the vilage

there was a festival the night we were there and all the kids had firecrackers and sparklers to play with, even the really little ones


We had a fire and chilled out with the family that we were staying with

The next morning we were off again to the elephant camp where my camera died, but Tom has pictures that I'll post later
We ate lunch at another hill tribe village

they grew lots of things

Wee made me a slingshot

there dogs everywhere

after that second night it was back to Bangkok on the nightbus. In bangkok we had the day to kill cause the night of the morning we arrived it was another night bus down to the islands. (meaning that last night was my first night in a bed in 5 days) The busses aren't bad and they're easy to sleep in but the times are arbitrary, they say you get into the next city around 9 but we got to bangkok at 4:30 in the morning wich is hardly a full night. That would be fine if you were staying there, you'd just go to your hotel and sleep but we were leaving on another bus that night. Not a whole lot to do in Bangkok at 4:30 in the morning with your bags and stone cold sober so that sucked a bit.
we went to the royal palace that day though it that was pretty cool


And toured around the nicer part of the city. Its a wierd city cause some places look like those pictures from the top, and like this

but other parts look like home and are super trendy

its pretty wierd. A real channel purse costs about 200,000 Baht. A meal costs 20 baht. You do the math but this is a country of disparity I think.
yesterday night we bussed down to the islands and its been great here. Like I was saying before we're pretty distanced from the hussle bussle of Haad Rin and out little spot is nice. I'l;l haev more pictures of around here for you later cause my camera is now recharging but the boats and island culture is really cool. Lots of those long wooden ones liek you see in the movies and stuff and the colors are vivid and all over the place

We have access to the internet a lot here so I'll update again when we explore more of the Island. Miss everyone, hope everything is going good.