Chiang Mai

You know when you're on a bus and you're trying to sleep, but you've got 8 people behind you talking loudly all night in Hebrew...well that happen to us too.

Last night's bus trip was one that brought back memories of Africa. The bus left on time and got here when it was supposed to, so that was good, but it sure was difficult to sleep. We bought our ticket from a travel agent rather than at the bus station, because the price was almost half. It turned out to be a fake VIP. The seat were cramped and wore out and the walls had gum stuck all over them. To make things worse a group of Isreali backpackers talked all night long.

But enough complaining, we made it here, and Chaing Mai seems pretty cool. It's an old city that is surrounded by a moat and a crumbling wall. The pace is much slower than that of Bangkok, and the weather is much cooler since we're 800km further north. So it's petty cool...as in weather, and cool like snapping your fingers in a jazz club cool.

Today we just rented some junky pedal bikes and explored the town. Tomorrow we plan to take a Thai cooking course, and then we'll visit a National Park or two the following day.

The political situation at the airport hasn't really changed at all. Tensions seem to be mounting and the protestors continue to rally more support...so we'll just stand by and see what happens. As we said before we can't even tell that anything is going on. We're in the same city that the PM is in and things are very peaceful. We did however see a small group of pro-gov supporters today. They however weren't doing much more than driving around in a pickup truck and saying some things through a loudspeaker, but nobody really seemed to care. We'll keep you posted.

The Double Deuce

This is one of the food stalls in the Khao San area of Bangkok. They're serving up mangoes and sticky rice. It's one of Brian's weaknesses.

Well, you get the "Rowaan special" today....2 blogs in one day! Once again, we've started off the trip in Rowaan style. Last time we were travelling we managed to loose all of our pictures from our first week of travelling by accidentally deleting them from our camera. We couldn't let another trip go by, without loosing our pictures again....except this time we lost pictures from 2 weeks as well as our camera. Needless to say, that put a downer on the day. While eating lunch today, we put our camera down beside the table and it was only 30 min. later that Brian realized he forgot it. We rushed back to where we had eaten lunch only to find our camera was gone. We spent the next few hours trying to find it, but no luck! We've since gone to get a new camera (the same as our old one) and aren't letting it out of our site!

This is where we got our new camera today....this whole place was electronics. They had everything from computers, to cameras....ipods.....computer software and games. It was quite overwhelming!

We were reminded today that although it was really disappointing to lose our camera, and especially our pictures, that it really isn't the end of the world. There are much more important things to worry about. It's a good reminder.....but it still sucks!

We've had a fairly decent day regardless of our misfortune. We've been eating well, and even found a "cornflakes" booth for breakfast this morning, which was a treat because we haven't had cereal since we left home. Tomorrow we'll spend the morning in Bangkok and hopefully go to the King's Palace. Brian is getting a suit tailor made here, so he has his first fitting tomorrow morning. Although Brian was tempted to wear it while we're here, he's going to leave it in the shop until we come back through here in March (provided the airport is open by then).

This is a view of Khao San road...the backpackers ghetto here in Bangkok.

We're planning to take a bus up to the Northern City of Chang Mai tomorrow night. Our plans for Chang Mai include Thai massage, hiking, and hopefully a cooking course so we can learn some of the great secrets to Thai cuisine.

A typical noodle stall found on the streets of Thailand.

Back in Bangkok

So we recieved an email from the Canadian embassy today. Telling us that travelling in Thailand is perhaps not the best idea now. It was pretty much just talking about the situation at the airports...but nonetheless we thought it was a little funny. Seriously, if you didn't look at the news you wouldn't even know that anything is happening here.


We're now back in the capital, and we are only 2 blocks away from the parliment buildings, and everything is as it was 2 weeks ago when we arrived. Really there's nothing to worry about. We're just glad that we're not flying home now.

As far as what's going to happen here it's a little unclear. The leader of the military says he not going to stage a coup, but he's also telling the prime minister to step down. Both airports in bangkok have been closed, and the prime minister says he going to do something about that...but so far nothing.

There are lots of rumours flying around. I went to the internet cafe here that we normally use, and when I entered all the screens said, "bangkok is under a state of emergency and all internet connections in the city are down. ATM's and credit cards are also not working." There was more. So I went across the street and got some money out of an ATM. I guess that was wrong. I walked a little farther and found another internet cafe. So here I am drinking a coffee and typing away. The only downside is that this place is a bit seedy. The keyboard is sticky, Thai girls of the evening have been coming and going with their patrons, and cochroaches have been crawling all over my feet. I've killed three in ten minutes. Here's proof...


We're on the way north now, which is why we've found ourselves in the capital again. We're going to spend a night here, since we didn't want to do two overnight buses in a row. (we did one last night) Erin's gettting her hair braided right now, just like she had it done in Burundi. So, I've got a few hours to kill on my own.

I guess I'll spend some time reading about my buddies Stephen and Jim on CBC, and see what's up with Les Habitants. (take that Chris L)

A Day on the Beach

We spent a great day at the beach today. We managed to stay up late last night, but were still up with the sun this morning. Brian and I have been trying to get into the routine of running here, to stay in shape, so we started the humid morning out with a good sweat!

From there, we ate an awesome buffet breakfast at our hotel, which is included in the price of our room. After 3 meals of rice a day for the past couple of weeks, bacon, potatoes, toast, eggs, fruit and juice was the breakfast these Canadians were looking for.
This is a view of our hotel at night from our balcony. All the lit up areas are pools that cascade into other pools. It's amazing!

These pictures don't do the room justice. It's a very modern layout, complete with a decorative stone drain in the bathroom. This may be the most luxurious place we've ever stayed. We found out too that this hotel has only opened this month, so it's VERY new!

We spent most of our day today soaking up the sun (through the clouds) and jumping through the waves. It's been a good way to relax, and we're feeling rested and ready to move on again tomorrow. Our plan is to spend the morning here using one of the 12 pools at our hotel and then take a bus back towards Bangkok and eventually head up to Northern Thailand.

I think this picture may be too small so you won't be able to read the words on the chip bags, but they have very different flavours here. The one on the left is seafood flavoured and the one on the right is "double cheese pork burger" flavour. We haven't tried either of them.

I thought we should probably give you a little political update as well. I don't know how much has hit the news in North America, but Thailand is undergoing quite the political turmoil here. Over the past few months tensions have been growing between the Thai people and the government. Many people feel the government here is corrupt and they don't want them in power anymore. In 2006, the people of Thailand rallied against the government and ousted them from power, but now only a few years later, the same party is still in control. The Thai people are fed up with this political party and have been staging protests for the past few months. Everything is culminating now and the leaders of the protest group are encouraging as many Thais as possible to come to Bangkok to protest against the government, with the hopes of throwing them out of power. Over a million people are said to be protesting in Bangkok now....(Preecha has been involved in these protests in the past). They have taken over the airport and all incoming and outgoing flights have been cancelled as a result. There has been some gunfire and 3 bombs set off in the squirmish thus far. No one has been killed but several have been wounded. The prime minister that the people are trying to oust has been out of the country but is returning tonight with plans to call a "State of Emergency" in Bangkok, and he says he has no plans to step down as prime minister. We're keeping a close eye on the news here. And, there is NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT US!! All of the problems are in a certain area of Bangkok and we'll be able to steer clear of it all! Other than hearing about this on the news, we wouldn't even know anything was happening.

Anyway, tonight we plan to enjoy our luxury here before we head out again to rough it on the backpacker trail. Thanks for reading, and thanks for your comments and emails. We love hearing from you guys!!

Still in the South

a cool spot on the island with just one family and their fishing boats.

Tsunami memorial.

a swallow house. It's big business to harvest swallow nest and sell them to China...where they are eaten.

These huge beetles were very numerous on the island. We had the chance to eat them fried in coconut milk at one of the locals houses; but we didn't.

The Takua Pa fishing port. These boats head to Africa and beyond.

A field on the island that was once jungle. The Tsunami wiped out many of the trees and the salt water that remained killed many more in this area.

The beach is very much wide open on the island. That retaining wall was broken by the big wave. At some places on the island it was as high as thirty feet.

Taking a long-tail boat to the island.

Hi again,

It's been a few days since we've given you an update of what's been up.

We left the island on Saturday morning and visited our new friends Preecha and Nit on the other side of Southern Thailand. After the Tsunami that devasted the west coast of Thailand in 2004, Preecha spearheaded a relief effort and home building project on the Island of Ko Koh Khao. He helped build dozens of homes on the island. After doing so he and Nit really fell in love with the people on the island, and have committed themselves to serving the people there. They've built a community centre with the help of over 1000 western volunteers. They really got a great thing going. There's a lot more to who they are and the work that they do and we'd love to share it with you when we get home.

We really enjoyed spending a few days with them on the island. We spent our time chatting with them, looking around the small island, visiting their neighbours, eating, and eating. I think we must have had 5 meals on Sunday. Really they love to eat, and they love getting us to sample Thai dishes that we haven't had yet. We had Mango Sticky Rice, Fish Soup, and some other amazing curry dishes. Last night though was the best; we basically had an all you can eat crab meal. Preecha's friend is a crab fisherman and he gave us over 2kg of crab. The little restaurant down the road prepared it and we "went to town" eating it. It was a real treat!

The island is still very much authentic Thailand. It's distance from a major airport has spared it from the massive development that the other Thai islands have seen. There are only around 800 people (there were more than 3000 prior to the Tsunami) on the island and just a handful of hotels. The island is just as beautiful as the others, and it won't stay undeveloped forever. There's already plans for an airport and a bridge for tiny Ko Koh Kaoh. So if you want a prime piece of sand and not too many speedos you should come now.

This morning we left the little island and headed south to Phuket. I'm sure you've heard of it, since it's the undisputed beach capital of southern Thailand. It's no secret that you have to share the sand here with everybody else...but we wanted to see what it was like. It's exactly what we expected. Tons of snow white flesh, single men for the sex trade, western food, english signs, and resorts; but the beach is one of the best we've seen. It's wide and long and the water's georgeous. So did we get another $11 a night bungalow here? Dream on! We won't tell you what we're spending, but we've got a sweet pad! Our first hot shower in over a week!

Tonight we're just going to go for a dip in the pool and try to stay up late. We've been sleeping most night by 9pm. We never did quite get over the jet lag. Perhaps we'll watch a movie.

We've got free internet, so expect another update tomorrow.

Hiding from the Rain

Unfortunately today is another rainy day. It is rare for Thailand to see rain at this time of year, but the last few weeks have been wetter than usual. We woke up to pounding rain last night and it has left puddles everywhere for us to try and drive around without us getting too wet on our scooter.

We don't have much to report. We thought we'd just say hello! We're enjoying ourselves despite the wet weather. We found some amazing homemade donuts and splurged on them yesterday evening...and we've been drinking fruit shakes at least once, if not twice a day!

Today will be our last day on the island here, and then we are heading off to meet Preecha and Nit again.

(Don't worry Rachel, we're doing our homework and we'll post it all when we're finished!)

Pics of the Pair

Well it's a rainy day on Ko Pha Ngan. So we found a cafe that we can upload some pictures on. Hope you enjoy!



todays lunch...that's a dragon fruit shake

the food market on the island. very small compared to the large ones that are in every city. this is how thai people eat. food is always more important than atmosphere. and they do food well

mmm...

our bungalow. great eh?

there's little here to disturb us from hammock swinging by the ocean and the swaying palms.

what's up!? ( we heard there's a 1 in 5 chance of being killed by a falling coconut. B&E's #1 rule is safety first. that's what Dave Froese always says!)

Erin rippin' it! (in a motionless sort of way)

i caught this one and sparred Erin's life! The milk was good though.

on the ferry

more ferry

you guessed it...ferry.

...and fairy. I mean bus.

Paradise

We are officially in paradise! We spent both yesterday and today, on a beautiful island in Southern Thailand. We took a 9 hour overnight bus from Bangkok and arrived in Surat Thani early Tuesday morning. But, let me tell you, unlike our overnight Africa bus rides, we were travelling in style! Not only were we given pillows and blankets, we were served tea and snacks along the way, and got to listen to some great asian karaoke music! I guess that's what you get when you travel "VIP" or "WE" IP as they say it here!

Anyway, after arriving in Surat Thani, we made arrangements to take a ferry to the island where we are now staying. We had our first "rip off" of the trip; a few wrong turns took us to a travel agent who charged us almost double for the ferry tickets. But, we still found ourselves on the ferry and experienced some of the most beautiful scenery we've seen. Unfortunately we can't show you pictures today as the computer we're using won't let us post them. Hopefully we'll get some up here soon!

While on the ferry we made arrangements to stay in a guest house, and on arrival were somewhat disappointed with our accomodation. We've stayed in worse accomodation, but this was definitely the worst in the area, as there is a lot of choice! All of the accomodation here are stilted bungalows right on the beach. We stayed the night at our not so nice bungalow and have moved to an amazing bungalow with views of the ocean for only $11/night. (Just wait for the pictures and we'll have you drooling). We spent the day yesterday meeting some great people. We've been spending some time with a British couple (from Birmingham, Rach) and it's been great. They've been travelling for 13 months and are just gearing up for going back home. Other than that, we've obviously spent some time enjoying the beach, the ocean, and the sunburns we've gotten (but they aren't too bad).

Today we rented a scooter/motor bike and travelled around the island. It was tons of fun! The island is fairly small and it only took us about 30 mins to get from the top of the island to the bottom. It's absolutely beautiful here!

So, just to answer a few of your questions:

Yes, the food is VERY spicy here. Brian LOVES it! He orders it as hot as he can and he's always wanting to try something new! Me, on the other hand, well, I have my favourites and I definitely can't handle the spice. My stomach wasn't feeling so hot the other night, so I'm trying to avoid spice if I can. There really are lots of options though!

Yes, we do love Gucci and Rolex, but we're waiting to make our purchases before we come home. It might be Gnocchi and Ronex for the Rowaans though!

Matt, we did have some great pretzels on the plane...they were actually pretzel nuggets. It was quite the twist!

The weather here continues to be HOT! We were spoiled with airconditioning our first few nights here and now we're learning to live without it. It's actually been raining here for a few minutes every day and we're surprisily thankful for the clouds because it relieves some of the heat.

We plan to stay here until Saturday and then head out to meet Nit and Preecha again. Stay tuned for pictures!

Food and Stuff

i had trouble obeying that sign.

nice eyes lady!

Well we had a good couple of days! Someone from our church put us in contact with Preecha. He and his wife Nit were extremely happy to host us for a couple of days. On Saturday night we went out to eat with them. The Sunday we spent the morning at their place and had lunch with their family and some neighbours. They fed us so well. Nit made an amazing green curry and we finished the meal with about four different desserts. I loved them all, since they all involved coconut, and Erin...not so much.

dessert

After that we went to a city called Pattaya. It's on the coast and is one of the main draws for tourists. The beach is ok, but the main reason people come here is for the prostitution. I had heard that 80% of all tourists in Thailand come for the legalized sex trade. And after seeing Pataya I believed it. It's not an exageration to estimate that there must have been 10 000 white males there by themselves. It's pretty disturbing to see old Europeons parading around with teenage thai girls. Preecha and Nit wanted us to see that part of Thailand. We're glad we did...but not at the same time.

Nit and Preecha above Pattaya

We had also heard that Thai people love to eat. That has been proved true. After seeing the scene in Pattaya we went into one of the many malls in town. (That's another story in itself. The malls here are crazy. Picture the Penn Centre and then stack 6 of them on top of each other. Then fill that mall with so much stuff that there are very thin aisles. Then put one on every other block around the city. It's crazy!) Back to eating. So in the mall Preecha wanted to get some ice cream. The store had a promotion on that gave you 6 scoops for about $3. The price was too good to resist so we got that. After that we headed back for Chonburi where Nit and Preecha live. By this time it was 8:30 or so, and after a big lunch an 6 scoops of ice cream plus a coconut while we walked, we figured that would be it. But no, we went to the amazing outdoor food market as soon as we got back to Chonburi. And fishished our day with more amazing thai food. We're meeting up with Nit and Preecha and an island in the south later this week...and we'll tell you a little about them then. But I will say that they're amazing people and perhaps the nicest we've ever met

dessert

This morning we came back to Bangkok and are set to take a bus tonight to the south of Thailand, where we'll do a little island hopping. Today we were struck again by just how great the transport is here compared to Africa. The bus station is 4 floors and everything happens on schedule, whether the buses are full or not. Everything is just so organized; if you've ever traveled in Africa you know how much of a pain it can be.

'Rin enjoying the bus terminal!
Lots of destinations

Since we arrived at lunch in Bangkok and our bus leaves at 8, we thought we'd see what's called the Theives Market. This is in the Chinese area of the city. It's a large covered market that was once famous for having lots of stolen items. Everything seems to be legit there now. We were amazed by the variety of crap and non crap that was available. If you're a gamer you'd go nuts for the thousands of video games and systems available at prices that would make you bring some home to sell. Or if you want a real i-pod for $20, or a fully auomatic weapon then this is your place. Erin just bought a cheap watch since hers died today. (sorry Danielle, old pinky bit the dust) Other than that we just walked though it and made a mental list of all the things we plan to pick up before we fly home from Bangkok in 4 months time. Shopping here for anything is so cheap compared to home. All the brands we love at home are made here.

Hopefully our next blog is from a tropical paradise.

A Day in Bangkok

Already, we are remembering the flexibility needed while travelling! We planned to spend our day today at the "weekend market" in the city. We were up early (at 5 am) since we couldn't sleep any longer due to the jet-lag we're experiencing. We got some breakfast and headed over to take the ferry across the river to the market. On our way to the ferry we couldn't help but notice hords of people all wearing black, heading in the same direction. We saw this everywhere we went in the city.

We realized quickly that none of the shops were open, and there were no cars on the roads. We tried to ask some locals as to what was going on, but weren't able to get a clear answer. We decided to follow the crowds and ended up in a huge park in front of the palace where we learned the King's sister had died and this was the funeral. It's hard to explain the numbers of people that were there. Someone told us they expected over a million people to come and pay their respects. Thai people really love the king!

Crowds in front of the palace.

Because most of the city had shut down, we weren't able to head to the market as planned so we've spent our day sampling more thai foods, and we got a tuk-tuk ride to see a couple of the more famous Buddha's in the city.

The weather here today is hot, and sunny. We're looking forward to meeting with Preecha later this afternoon!

Here are some pictures of our day today.

We tried some Thai noodle soup today. It was really good....but I have no idea what this ball is!

Flowers people were using to "bless" the Buddha.

In the Big Smoke

Well they don't call Bangkok that but I think I will. We're in the biggest city in southeast asia.

We arrived today after some seriously tiring traveling. We flew overnight from the T. to London and then waited 13 hrs to move on here. We went into London and saw some of the sights while enjoying some typical UK Fall weather.

Erin in front of St. Pauls (thanks to Nate and Rach our official London tour guides)

Anyway we got here and everything is in order. We got our luggage and really have had no mishaps to speak of. We didn't get to see much of the city yet since we didn't get to a guest house until 5pm. We're in an area that is the main backpackers hangout in town so there's lots of other white folk walking around.

We basically just showered and then hit the street for some great Thai food! Tomorrow we're going to go to the big Weekend Market and check that out. Then tomorrow night we're going to go to Chonburi with a friend of a friend for a day or two. His name is Preecha. He's also going to take us South from there...so we're going to be on the move already

it seems like we always have pics of us stuffing our facing so here's one of me with some Phat Thai.

We'd also just like to say thanks for reading this and hope you enjoy! We love reading the comments!

Here we go!

Well, today's the day we leave! Weeks and months of planning have finally come down to today. It's hard to believe we're actually leaving today! Our flight leaves Toronto at 9:00 tonight, heading for London. We have a 13 hour stopover in London, so we plan to do some sightseeing before our flight leaves for Bangkok at 9:45 pm on Thursday.

We're due to land in Bangkok at 3:30 Friday afternoon. The forcast is promising HOT, sunny weather (highs in the low 30's C). We can't wait to be there!

Hopefully all goes as planned! We're excited for all of you to follow us on our trip, and to keep in touch with us while we're gone! Hopefully, we can update you all again soon!