Ramada Ballers

On our flight to Phuket we sat in front of a couple American guys - our first encounter with Americans. We're at the back of the plane waiting to get off and I decide to introduce myself, ask where they're from etc. etc. Mike & Sam are old friends from LA/San Fran and come to find out they're heading to Phi Phi - the island we're heading for as well. So I say "hey you want to split a cab to the pier and catch a boat together?"

At this point we all knew we missed the last ferry, but we didn't know that it was going to be extortionist pricing to get a private boat. After weighing all the options we decided to bite the bullet. We found another couple that was "in the same boat" (sorry, had to) that made the final price 18,000 baht ($642) for six people.........for a 45 minute boat ride......in a country where your hotel room is $35.

It took them 30 minutes to gas up the boat and by that time we were over the disappointment of the price and looking at the bright side: We get an awesome private boat ride right? Not so much. More than an hour later all of us and our bags had been drenched and we were sufficiently beat up by the choppy water. We did get a great view of the sunset and Phi Phi at night as we came into the pier. Oh but we didn't get to dock at the pier. Nope. They anchored and we waded into shore. With our bags. For $107/person. It was our Phi Phi walk of shame.

Upside is the first Americans we met turned out to be great beach partners and we had more than a few laughs over the whole experience "On a Boat." We also decided the boat ride had bound us together. Although we slept at different places we ate together, scubaed together and hung out until they left this morning.

Also for your information scuba makes snorkeling seem like a joke. Seriously, it changes how you view open water. We will now always wonder what we could be seeing down below. We also can't wait to get certified and do more dives. Is there scuba for babies?

Our Scottish dive instructor Gareth was a character and a great teacher. We did two dives with a lunch break in Maya Bay at Phi Phi Leh ("The Beach") Amazing. Honestly, the only reason we decided to dive was how helpful the dive instructor was when we had arrived after dark with our bags and were looking for hotel on our Phi Phi walk of shame. Taking a lesson just seemed like the best way to compensate him. If the boat ride was for nothing more than to meet our new American friends and learn how much we love scuba it is well worth the price of admission.

Lost in Translation

Chiang Mai The Final Day

After waking up at the elephant park and watching the next group of tourists feed the elephants we headed out on a trek up a mountain/hill. We were rewarded with a waterfall to swim in at the top and then a reverse hike down the way we came up.

You like those pants? Totally functional in this weather and everyone is wearing them over here.

We ended the day with a white water rafting trip and then a traditional Thai bamboo raft that Joshua had to steer. Not maybe worth the plane ticket over just for this day but in the grand scheme of life - still fun!

Tomorrow we head to the beach. And when I say "the beach" I mean "The Beach." Ten Points to anyone who is not Carl who can name that location.

English Word for the Day

We totally lucked out on our elephant adventure. We decided to splurge and spend a day and a night at the elephant park and hands down most interesting part of the trip so far. Do you know the english word for elephant caretaker?

It's mahout. File that away in useless knowledge. These guys basically adopt an elephant and spend every day taking care of them. The elephants only sleep 3 or 4 hours so these guys only sleep that long. They get paid basically nothing but they do it because they love elephants. I liken it a bit to being a ski bum.

These were my two favorite mahouts that we met over the campfire that night. The one on the left is the leader of the mahouts and takes care of the 2 year old elephant. He also lost all of his front teeth in a scooter accident. The one on the right took us to see the sleeping elephants. Both are from Burma. Did you know that elephants sleep with their trunk in their mouth? And that is item number two of useless but interesting knowledge for you. You are welcome!

The most fun/gross part of the day was cleaning our elephant in the pond. I won't go into details, but let's just say the bottom was about a foot of "sludge", and only half of it was dirt. Still an amazing experience though. We walked away from the day saying "did we really just do that?"

Thai Cooking 101

Did we make the perfect curry paste? Nope.

Did we give it the college try? Absolutely

We do know enough now to attempt pad thai, 2 different kinds of stir fry spring rolls and in theory we can make curry paste from scratch. We also know that I don't like pumpkin in coconut cream. Well worth the time I think.

With every passing day we are noticing that we don't come across many Americans. Like none. We've met all kinds of Europeans, Canadians and plenty of Aussies but our country is poorly represented in this side of the world. I don't understand how we could have met two separate groups from Belgium in two different parts of Chiang Mai but not a soul from the States. It's crazy!

Chiang of Pace

After 15 hours of train/bus travel we arrived in Chiang Mai. The feeling of decompression was immediate. I liken the city to Verona, Italy: quaint, laid back, idyllic in many ways, but still plenty of city life, history, culture, etc. We settled in at our new temporary abode: the Thapae Boutique House. The value in Thailand is amazing. For roughly $28/night we have a lovely room, free wi-fi, breakfast and service that puts Hampton Inn to shame (and most every other US hotel experience for that matter) all located in the heart of the city. They even do take out laundry: $2 for a full bag of clothes. I could definitely see staying here for a while.

Once we settled, we got out and did a little walking tour. Saw some more buddhas, got a dirt cheap massage at the women's prison (wouldn't have thought women doing hard time would laugh that much, but I think it's awesome that they're learning a trade and getting to practice on tourists!) then explored Tha Pae Road.

(in case you don't recognize it, that's excitement on Tiff's face)

Once the sun exited we hit the night market for a bit

then grabbed some dinner at the "Good View Restaurant". Although the name leaves something to be desired in creativity, the ambiance and view more than compensated.

Tomorrow's agenda: A day learning how to cook Thai food at a local farm. Curry here we come!

The Fykes and Floods

2010 may be the year of the Tiger but seems to me it should be the year of floods. Thailand is having some crazy rain in the north that is causing some serious issues with the rivers and canals further south. We just barely made it out of Bangkok last night because the rail lines are starting to be covered with water and impassible. We had luckily arrived early enough to catch what was going to be the last train out.

Along the way they had to take us off the train and put us in buses to drive through the worst part. Personally, I would think a train through water was safer than a tour bus through water but my Thai isn't good enough to argue with the transit authority so we just got on the bus and tried not to notice the feet or 2 of water we were driving through.

We were passing through the worst of it just at dark and it was crazy to see these houses they had built on stilts still having water getting into them when it wasn't even raining. Not to mention the people laying on mats at all the high land because I presume they had already been flooded out. The Nashville flood was horrible and as I watched people trying to sweep the water out of their houses I had quite a flashback to doing the same thing at a neighbor's house. However, when their option isn't a friend's home but a tarp at the top of the hill it seems even more tragic.

We are safe and dry in Chiang Mai but I know my Nashville friends can appreciate first hand the tragedy of homes being overtaken with water. I doubt the news is telling you anything about this so I thought I'd let you know.