Temple Hoping and Elephant Bathing

The last few days have been a blast. very busy and very exciting. I love it here. THailand reminds me of a cleaner and less crowded india with less poverty. Marissa and I are having a lot of fun. everyone thinks we're on our honeymoon.I'm not sure why.

I think maybe I'll break it up into sections:

On Ester

As I mentioned in my last post we are being hosted by a lady named Esther. We found her on Couchsurfing.com. we thought that we were going to stay with her at her house but as it turns out she owns a guest house and she gave us a room. IT has been really great. the room usually costs about 2000 baht per night (about70 dollars) as compared to our 150 baht per night guest house that we had budgeted. we get our laundry done, free internet, free meals, and water in our rooms. but the best part is that Esther hads been showing us around and helping us organize our stay.

Esther is quite a character. She was born in singapore (I think) and educated at cambridge. she is 42, and a partner at a local law firm. She is wealthy and always telling us about shopping trips in Milan and meeting mick Jager.

Day One (continued)

when I last posted Esther was about to take us out ot lunch. SHe took us along with another couch surfer and a friend from england to local hole in wall restaurant and ordered us about 6 dishes. After words she took us out to this great bakery in one of the nice hotels. Esther paid for everything.



Day two

Yesterday went to the elephnt santuary. IT was really fun. we fed the elephants and we bathed them and we hung out with them. The santctuary was really impressive. despite being a big part of the culture, elephants in thailand are almost extinct. the shelter resues abused elephants from the tourist and logging industry and takes them into the park. there were about 40 elephants.

at night we were planning on going to the night market but we fell asleep at about 8 and missed it.







Day Three




Today went temple hoping. it was was amazing the temples here are so beautiful and peaceful. we hired a driver for the day for about 150 baht (3 dollars) and drove everywhere.

Afterwords we got an hour long thai massage. It was so nice. tonight we are going to a reggae concert.

the rest of the week

Tomorrow we are going on a daytrip to the highest mountain in THailand. the following three days we are going on a trek to stay with one of the hilltribes. (think national geographic long necks with rings around the neck)

I Have Arrived

Fourty some hours later and I finally made it to Chiang Mai. The trip was very long and exhausting but it went very smoothly all things considered.

I'm sitting at the banks of the river the flows through Chiang Mai (I don't know what it's called...soemone can look it up if they want) under a hut writing this blog. I hadn't planned to log on for a while bu I have free internet and I'm too Jetlagged to do much else

We had intended to stay with a girl that we met on couchsurfing.com but when we showed up we were at a guesthouse. After several comfusing conversations with people who didn't speak much english we deduced that the couchsurfer girl owned the guesthouse and is letting us stay here for free. I am fresh off my first shower in a few days and feeling much better

I cannot talk long because we are going to lunch with Esther (our host) and some of her friends. After that Marissa and I plan to visit a temple and maybe get massages before crashing for the night.

I like all the comments. keep it up, they're fun to read. also subscribe to my blog so that you'll know when I write as it will probably be sporatic.

15 hours til take off

Well this my first blog. I'm not much of a blog person, but I thought that this would be an easy to keep everyone posted on my travels and post pictures. I don't want this blog to become a distraction so I may not update it much. But I thought I'd atleast start one and see what happens. and I'm not going to spellcheck or proof read so get over it...

I'm leaving tomorrow morning at 12:10 from Des Moines. I land in Bangkok at 12:30 AM. I have a flight to Chiang Mai at 7 AM. My itinerary from there is as follows (Although it is pretty tentative)

• Northern Thailand
• Laos
• Vietnam
• Cambodia
  
• Bali
• Southern Thailand
• Nepal
• India

I am all packed and just relaxing for a few minutes before going to bed.

Below is my packing list:

o Passport - BP

o STA cards - BP

o Ipod - BP

o Headphones - BP

o Ipod Charger - BP

o Ipod cord - BP

o Adapters - BP

o Cell phone – Font pocket

o Cell phone charger – Front pocket

o 8 t-shirts

o 1 sweat shirt

o 1 pair of jeans

o 4 pair of shorts

o 1 pair of travel pants

o Travel Towel – Front pocket

o 1 Pajama pants

o 1 Sweatpants

o Pancho – Shoe pocket

o 2 pairs of socks – shoe pocket

o Bathing suit

o Sports shorts

o Wet Bag – shoe pocket

o 14 Boxers

o Hiking shoes – Shoe pocket

o Chacos - wearing

o 1 hat

o 2 sunglasses - BP

o Sunglass case - BP

o Camera - BP

o Camera charger - BP

o Memory Card -BP

o Camera battery - BP

o Camera cord - BP

o Dress shirt

o Brown belt – Shoe pocket

o Green belt – shoe pocket

o Toothpaste - T

o Tooth brush - T

o Floss - T

o Shampoo - T

o Body wash - T

o Face wash - T

o Hand sanitizer - BP

o Deodorant - T

o Razor - T

o Razor Cord - T

o Medicine - G

o Money belt - BP

o Watch - BP

o Wallet - BP

o Gum

o Playing Cards - BP

o Travel Book - BP

o Book - BP

o Sleeping bag – shoe pocket

o Zip lock bags - T

o Frisbee – BP

o Spliter – BP

o Directions to Esther – Folder/BP

o Itineraries – Folder/BP

o Laos Tickets – Folder/BP

o Neck pillow – BP

o Compass – BP

o Ear plugs – BP

o Headlamp – BP

o Copies of Passport – Folder/BP

o Visa Pictures – Folder/BP

o Toilet paper – G

o 3 Locks – BP

o Eye mask – BP

o Checklist - BP