sick sick sick

We're heading back down south now to bangkok then to Krabi... going to finally see some beaches and ocean water in the sun and out of the jungle.

I dont know who ate what... but 5 people are reallly sick on the trip... its just me and the aussie who arent sick (means a lot coming from the one with the worst stomach problems ever lol). Everyones been in and out of the washroom, and feeling super uneasy, its unfortunate because its ridiculously hot today and today is a strictly travel day, we've come from chian rai to chiang mai by bus and tonight we are taking an overnight train... i hope it subsides, no one can really figure out what would have been the one thing maybe everyone had? it might just be bad luck and perfect timing for everyone of them to get sick :( hope everyone gets better... :S at least we know its strictly gastrointestinal i think... definately from something in some kind of food... should go by decently quick.

Cheers!

Lisu and Akha Village Hillside Trek - Northern Thailand

Hey guys! I just had a pretty cultural experience up in the hills of northern thailand! We started in Chiang Rai, which is a pretty decent sized place way up north of thailand. Near chiang rai there was a small village, which we got to stay at the local teachers house for the night before trekking. He had a beautiful home and family. They cooked us some beautiful food and had fresh passion fruit... and if you wanted, worms that came from the cocunut trees... i didnt partake. but the fruit was awesome. His school kids played music for us with the most amazing instruments and tried to teach us some thai after.

The next morning we hopped in the back of a farm truck to our starting point on the trail. From there we hiked up up up... through the jungle and had lunch at a beautiful waterfall. Once the sweltering hike of only 10 km ended... we came to our beautiful village hut overlooking one of the best sights ive seen in a while. From there we took a look around the village and had a nice homemade dinner all together on our deck. That night, to support the local women who have taken massage courses to learn a little bit of extra income... i got my first thai massage and it was amazing... a whole 5 dollars for an hour... !

The next day was soooo much better once we had a pretty easy 10 km hike to the next village of akha where we stayed directly with the locals, you can see on my facebook all the kids everywhere!! they loved us and we loved hauling them around on our backs. This village wass so unique.. u could see Burma in the furthest mountains and beautiful flowers and mud and straw huts. Again we had a great dinner then got to spend all our free time monkeying around with the beautiful akha children. Whats really unique about the akha is that they have the most beautiful costumes in thailand... there traditional dress is the most extravagant! absolutely beautiful, it taked them one whole yr to make ONE! imagine.. and i dont even know how to hem my own pants.

We stayed in a really basic hut with chickens and the sound of pigs. The pigs and the main rooster had me up at 6! after we hiked allllllll the way down today (the third day) we came to chiang rai which we will stay the next two days. Its pretty hard here because now that we are so north no one really speaks english and all the signs here are in Thai or Lanna... it took me an hour and half to find this internet cafe.. and no.. i did not find a laundry place... so my group is gonna have to deal with three days of elbow greese. IT IS SO HOT HERE. the luxury of being up in the mountains is we got our first breezes ever! and cool nights... now back on the ground.. its gotta be 30 degrees.

I think tonight we all wanted to finally go get some cool ones and see a "ladyboy" show (and there are lots of ladyboys in thailand)... these are meant to be fun.. i dont want my grandparents thinking we're going to see a tranny strip show hahaha. this isnt the case, all in good fun but i think i am way to tired... and a little frustrated with having to figure out chiang rai with a really crappy map! I can just imagine what chinas going to be like.. grrrrr!
Well i love and miss you all! ill try calling some of you this weekend.

Grama, grampa, mom, cousins, steve and family, miss you and love you all! will talk soon! this weekend ill be heading to southern thailand, which is a whole new ball game.. so ill let you know as im on my way!

love yasss!

River Kwai to Chiang Mai

WOW! today was amazing... at first i thought going for an elephant ride was not all that great because they are bread just to make stupid tourists have a laugh and are not happy... but... this isnt true, we were about 45 minutes into the jungle from chiang mai and got to ride amazing elephants who have abundant water to drink... lots of food in the surrounding area and have a beautiful habitat to live in. These elephants are happy... humans are no weight at all on them and there completely free to rome around and be happy, whereas in places like africa there whole life may be dedicated to finding water in far places and trying to be free from poachers... so besides being 20 feet off the ground and going up steep hills... my thai partner asked if i wanted to ride the head where he was... and its probably the funnest thing ive ever done ever!!! it was so amazing... and the elephants know when you have bananas so we bought a bunch of bunches... and he would fling his trunk right into our laps... open his "nose" breathe and spit all over you until you gave them bananas... amazing... and yes we got soaked with elephant snot and mud and couldnt have been happier! lol. Chiang Mai is so beautiful in the surrounding area, its quite amazing.. in a day or two im going on a three day trek to the hillsides to see a very small village where there will be no other tourists and home cooked meals from a family... im so glad to see the backside of thailand.. although, still very much in the developing stages.. it is beautiful, the people make it more beautiful then it really is within the exhaust and garbage filled places.

Once doen the trek i will post more pictures.

Sawatt dee ka!

Bye Bye Bangkok

Allo Loves. Its been an eventful week I must say. Am Happy to have left the mayhem that is bangkok. There are soooo many people in bangkok and wayyy to many tourists so I was pleased to leave. I got to hang out with Jen plenty... im not sure if she made it back to Canada or not? If someone knows let me know haha. Oh Jen.

Anyways, so I left Bankok I guess only yesterday and took a fairly short bus ride to the city Kanchannaburri. It is a much slower pace then bangkok.. but compared to home it is still hectic. The country side though is unbelievable!! This is the thailand i came to see. Our guest house is lovely and is right beside a farm... with a rooster that roosts allllllllll morning and some other crazy animals that i dont see... just hear haha. There is also no tourists where we are so thats lovely. The food is still amazing and cheap.. havent eaten anything to crazy but i did stumble across some scorpions and crickets that me and some italianos ate... "when in rome".

Today we went to Erawan falls... CHECK IT OUT! absolutely breathtaking 7 tiered elephant waterfall.. with nice monkeys and beautiful water... on this blog thing it is a bit difficult to post pictures one after the other so im uploading them all to facebook to get them off my card and in a safe place! My friend Vicki and I have been touring together... shes from England, ive met quite a few people from england i must say. Also... germany, switzerland, morrocco, australia and the list goes on. The thai people are very niceeee in a lot of ways and a lot can speak broken english which helps. There very beautiful people with humble families. Tomorrow i will be floating down the Kwai River on a barge for 24 hours.. should be amaaazing.. but its sooo HOT here , i hope we dont die of heat exhaustion on the barge... we will be swimming in areas.. .but from what i understand theres lizards and big fish and all kinds of crazies in the water... how do you know if you dont try? lol.

Anyways things are good...we are about to head to a night market to pick up some some food for our breakfasts...vicki and i are trying to live off of 200 Baht or less a day... like seven dollars... its not that hard ..crazy hey? You can get a full on Songthaew...a truck with benches in the back to super far distances for 150 baht per person... amazing how little they work for and no complaints.

Ill be in touch soon.... and be calling the family in the next day or so! I love you all.

SA WAT DEE KA!

So... after 24 hours and 4 countries later... im in bangkok. 11 hours ahead of Ontario and fighting the tiredness. Its very humid here... but, what better way to cool off then have a Leo beer with JEN! The second i got out of my taxi at the hotel jen was waiting with open arms... immediately she dragged me out into the back alleys of Kho San Road. When i say back alleys... i mean back alleys... with rats... local food hawkers... and wondrous odours. I met some amazingly friendly thai people in the weirdest bar setting ive ever been in last night, but the beer is cheap and way better then at home and great company. Today its about 25 degrees and the streets are swarmed with Songthaews and Tuk Tuks and some ridiculous looking tourists... i may be included. The food is gastronomic and the hawkers are everywhere... i dont know what they cook... but i think everything and anything goes by the looks of things. This place is amazing, i havent seen much yet.. i thought id write a post to let my family know im here and everythings gonna be great. I am going to go to some Wats today and i think jen wants to bring me to a beach.

Another comment... when i was briefly in tokyo.. and im sure its the same here in places.. the technology blew me away, in the washroom... theres three different kinds of toilets... a squat toilet...a "normal" toilet and a somewhere in betweenie... so beside these toilets, theres buttons... u can choose to get an asss wash... u can choose to get a perfume type substance sprayed on your bottom... or you can also choose to play a toilet flushing sound to muffle whateverr sound you make on the toilet.. i think there was another one that just played japanese music as well... then when you get up the toilet miraculously pulls away the paper toilet seat cover and automatically flushes.. very interesting. The technologically updated squat toilet i honestly didnt get it... so i avoided it..like the canadian i am... the back alley squats on the other hand are a bit more "nomadic"...

Miss Vicki Bell..... im almost glad you didnt come cuz your wallet would be more broken then you could have ever imagined... things here are sooo cheap... i wish i would have come naked and never bought a backpack back home... everything is amazing... the vendors are everywhere you look, its insane.

I dont know whats in store until sunday when i head north... but i dont have much to say right now... ill take some pictures of some temples and whatever craziness i come along.

Im safe and feeling fine! i miss you all already.

Its 11 hours ahead... so for my family... ull always miss my messages or ill be on here when your sleeping... i will call in the next couple days to say high.. its cheap for a minute so ill giver ago.

Pre-Departure

7 Days before the journey begins. In 24 hours I will be with my humble family in Havelock, Ontario, getting and giving a lot of love before I depart from Toronto until Christmas. On Friday my beautiful and generous friends on Ambrose street had a swell little going away party and I got to say hi and bye to everyone :) Thanks to them with much love and for my boyfriend for coming down for our last weekend and seeing me off.

The last two days have been a bit bumpy... a nnumber 7 earthquake has rippled through the phillipines killing many people under the collapsed rubble of old buildings. The earthquake and seasonal variations, along with two devastating and approaching hurricanes, has ripped through the Phillipines and flooded many parts of Vietnam and Cambodia - two of the countries I am visiting. The death toll has reached about 50-60 in the northern countries, mainly from flooding and drowning. This made me very paranoid, but after research into previous years the typhoon season repeats the flooding every year and mainly to the same spots in central vietnam, i will be catching the tail end of this season and after looking at the local pictures... even in the floods everyone pushes through, the markets still run, the transportation still manages, and ppl keep their spirits. So I am just hoping it is all subsided and calm by then, and if not... I will be smart and skip the country. No worries , I will stay tuned and be very inquisitive:)

The first leg of the journey will be a circuit of northern and southern thailand, where there is no weather advisories at the moment and everything is calm, my next post will be in 10 days or so when I have something real to tell yoU!