Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label travel. Show all posts

thailand travel conclusion

4.10.2009

and thus concludes the amazing cathy and jenn 2009 trip and my (almost) month of travel. i am now back in mae sot and thus buried under a pile of work again.

i would like to close with a few pictures i've been saving as they're not place-specific yet offer just a glimpse into some of the hilarious things in this country.

amazing baby sandwiches, yum! also, the small print says: a shady island in a see of rice! (note to self: if ever writing something in a foreign language, make sure to check on secondary word meanings.) so funny.

yes that is gasoline being sold on the side of the road out of whisky bottles.

shrink-wrapped buddhas!

blandness girl and benign girl. can they have these labels in the u.s., please?

they gave us this as a snack on the bus. we were on a win tour. win!

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sukhothai - i became mildly obsessed with this tree


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sukhothai



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sukhothai - part 1

many years ago - somewhere in the neighborhood of 700 or so - sukhothai was the capital of thailand. now it basically exists as a historical park filled with a ton of beautiful ruins.

and now for something completely different: pictures! but this time in black and white. i'm so full of crazy surprises.



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next stop: mae sot

for the continued adventure of cathy and jenn's thailand adventure, you will next follow us down to mae sot... where i forgot to take many pictures. we ate burmese food, went to the day markets, visited my old school, and hung out in my apartment (which cathy nicely referred to as "rustic" haha). it was nice to have a low key day and a half especially since the lower half of my person was still not entirely thrilled about its new toasty state.

it was really great to have someone close to me understand what it is i'm doing a bit more. i pointed out the organizations i work with, gave her a tour of mae tao clinic, she met people and saw where i live. this somehow makes it seem more real.

the adventure picked up again however on the bus ride to our next destination: sukhothai. i took a picture from inside the minivan:


this was one of the most eventful rides i have had thus far (note me holding on to the seat in front of me). the crazy driving the driver was engaging in really wasn't the noteworthy part. (getting around this country is a daily exercise in the study of incompetent vehicle operations.)

it was more our fellow passengers and their propensity for carsickness that made it memorable? the strangest was the woman sitting in front of us. first i would like to point out that she had on a t-shirt that on the back said, "DINOSAUR!" the shirt was however covered with cartoon teddy bears wearing neon pink sneakers. i wish you could see this in the picture.

she seemed to take the whole tip in stride and, in fact, even appeared to be sleeping through almost all the driving. it wasn't until we'd stop that, without fail, she would lose it. weird.

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chiang mai - pictures from the jungle

4.06.2009


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chiang mai - "but i brought the economist..."

after koh chang, cathy and i traveled to the north of thailand. we stopped for a few days in chiang mai where, much to my surprise, cathy took an immediate interest in something entitled, "jungle flight: the best adventure in chiang mai."

as i've mentioned in previous posts, i am decidedly a land-person. (i would say land-lover or land-dweller, but those things make me think of pirates, and while pirates are hilarious, it undermines the seriousness of my assertion.) i don't really like the water - an unfortunate fact for someone who grew up on the coast of florida - and i don't particularly enjoy being high off the ground, either. i am embarrassed to say how many times i had to be rescued from the rope ladder at shamu's happy play land as a kid before i accepted facts.

the "best adventure in chiang mai" was fine by me though. i had faith that it would be pretty, a bit cooler than in the city, and best of all, i had found the new copy of THE ECONOMIST. i love magazines with a passion. they're portable, full of fascinating articles you can read without high levels of investment, and in chiang mai, you can get them in ENGLISH. this is particularly special since in thailand they like to print the covers of magazines in english for some reason. this leads you to think, "ohhhhh, a magazine, yay," only to have your hopes dashed when you pick it up and realize the inside is in thai. needlless to say, i considered this akin to the find of the century. i figured i'd just go along for the ride, enjoy the scenery, and get in some reading.

however once we got there, and i made my plans known, the serious peer pressure from the other zippers started. "but i brought the economist...," wasn't even the beginning of a valid excuse and before i knew it, i was strapped into a harness, had a helmet on my head and was headed up a path for the first tree.

cathy zipping.

we had to zip to this contraption, climb down those windy stairs and then cross the longest rocky wooden bridge i've ever seen. it took a good twenty minutes for my stomach to recover.

this was how we were attached to the tree (once we made it there). apparently it was up to "french standards." i question those standards.

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koh chang - sunset


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koh chang - random pictures

the beach.

a spirit house on the beach.

we went to see a waterfall.

house on stilts near the beach.

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koh chang - katherine!

added benefit to the relaxation and beauty of koh chang: my friend katherine and her husband andy were there! many friends for the price of one = aces.

it was awesome to see you all. please come back to thailand! and if you're reading this and haven't made the trek, come to thailand! i can promise you good times.


for more about why katherine and i are standing beside a random gnome picture, read her account of the incident here:
http://lewandakman.blogspot.com/2009/04/mystery-of-gnome.html

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koh chang - a story in pictures

what are you doin? i'm kayakin. (or as its called in thailand, tri-akin.)

ohhh, a deserted island!

four layers of sunscreen = not enough! it's rough being albino.

(see previous grand palace post for albino explanation.)

seriously though, after this point in the trip my lower extremities - no joke - remained swollen from the sunburn to between two and three times their normal size. it lasted for over a week until after receiving advice from my friend katherine's husband (who is a doctor), i got it checked out in a hospital in bangkok. which, p.s., if you ever get sick, try to do so in bangkok. that hospital was insane! crazy lounge/reception areas, efficiency like none other, and they put your medicine in a goody bag! anyhow the next day back in mae sot, i remained as horizontal as possible and peed with incredible frequency from the diuretic i was prescribed. i'm happy to report that all my limbs are now back to their usual state.

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koh chang - beach hut

cathy and i stayed in a small (read: tiny) basic (read: thank god there was a mosquito net to protect us from all the bugs) hut just yards from the beach. it was great!

the bathroom was outside! it was hot enough that it didn't matter so much that there was no hot water and if you didn't look too close there weren't so many bugs.

a rare appearance by jenn who, as official blog photographer, has little evidence that she's been anywhere. seriously, i could be making all this stuff up. p.s. that is the sink of the outside bathroom.

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koh chang!

next we headed to an island not too far off the coast called koh chang. beaches have never really been my thing - i'm afraid of the water, i look at the sun and it burns me, and i'm not a huge fan of beach clothing. but i have to say, this was one of the most beautiful places i have ever been. must to go back now, please.

this is a picture of koh chang taken on the ferry to the island. i like this picture because it reminds me of a less than or equal to sign.

this is the beach where we stayed, called kai bae beach. it was only mildly overrun with tourism. thankfully high season is ending and we went during the week, so it was actually quite laid back.

this is the coast line of kai bae, complete with a fishing boat.

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bangkok - grand palace 2 - albinos

4.04.2009

speaking of tour guides, this was ours at the grand palace. he was really interesting and had a fairly progressive take on gender politics that he randomly decided to share with me, probably because i'm female. he also identified cathy and i as something else which was a tiny bit incorrect. and that was as albinos. while explaining to the group that in thailand albino elephants are revered and taken to live at the king's palace, he kept looking over at us and giggling. i picked up on this quite quickly since i'm already used to thai accents by now, and cathy wasn't far behind - it was not subtle - which of course caused us to giggle in response, and only fueled his fire. at one point he left the group while we went in to see a buddha made entirely of emerald, exclaiming in our direction, "i will go get a picture to show you!" the result is the above picture.

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bangkok - grand palace 1

on the left are three large spires made in different styles - the first is sri lankan, the second thai, and the third khmer.

this is an up-close shot of one of the buildings. our tour guide told us that everything was covered in 24 carat gold. i'll believe that.

these scary looking guards are gigantic and menacing looking.

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bangkok - giant reclining buddha


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getting around bangkok

this was our tuk tuk driver. a tuk tuk is basically a small covered wagon that sits atop a motorbike as it speeds through traffic. they're definitely the way to go here as they're small enough to cut corners and have built-in air conditioning.

he also showed us around and gave us flowers!

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bangkok - tall spindle roof building

i'm not entirely sure what this building is called. on our map its labeled, "first temple." we climbed to the top which gave some great views of the city.



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children at the wat

we met these adorable children who sold us an offering at one of the wats. they showed us the correct way to make the offering (hands together and bow three times), and once we were finished, promptly picked up the flowers to sell to the next people.

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sweet deal for yourlife

this was clearly not a deal to be missed. eternal happiness for less than three us dollars? yes, please.


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no one belongs here more than you

"what a terrible mistake to let go of something wonderful for something real."

(miranda july)

dream a little dream

"a dreamer is one who can only find his way by moonlight, and his punishment is that he sees the dawn before the rest of the world."

(oscar wilde)

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