Last days in India

So Sky got released from the hospital on his third day. We were so happy to be out of there and we went directly to the train station. We got a ticket to Patna which was all we could get at the last minute that was on the way to Darjeeling. We got general tickets for the first time and ended up sitting in the luggage racks of third class. It wasn't that bad at all. All the locals were looking at us like we were crazy. Westerners don't usually take third class. We arrived in Patna at about 9pm and planned on catching a 10:45 train to NJP (the closest train station to Darjeeling). I will never forget a poor little boy, that must have been about 10 to 12 years old, laying on the floor in a corner, shaking just like Sky had been doing right before we went to the hospital, with flys all over him. This was a very populated and poor area that doesn't see tourists very often. We got third class tickets again to NJP, thinking that the last trip wasn't so bad. The train station was very interesting. First we had some guy following us around for about 30 minutes. He would follow us everywhere we went and then when we stopped he would just stand a short distance away staring at us. We told him to leave us alone but it didn't faze him. As we were waiting for our train, we eventually ended up with a crowd of indian men standing around us just staring. They didn't try to talk to us, they just stood there and stared. I felt like a monkey in a cage. It was very uncomfortable. We talked to one man that explained to us that we were just very strange, and that they were curious. We tried to tell them to leave, but they just stood there. So I eventually took my camera out and started taking pictures of them, hoping that they would get the point. Nope. Finally our train came and it was mad dash to get on. We found our car and it was jam packed with people. It didn't even look like we could fit in there with our huge packs on, and even if we could there was no way we could ride all night like that. We turned around and left the station. The next day we got sleeper class tickets for that night and ended up with a day to spend in Patna. We went to see a Bollywood movie which was hilarious. It was long and goofy and full of singing and dancing. It was interesting how they use random english words and phrases. We met a man that spoke really good english, who worked at the theatre, and had a nice talk with him. He told us about growing up with servants in his house and how his family has quite a bit of influence over the government. We also talked about India and it's problems and how the US is having a hard time. He let us see the movie for free.

We went back to the train station and got on our train later that night. It was fine, until some military boys got on the train and decided to set up camp in our area. They didn't have tickets. They were loud and very rude to everyone. I went to sleep on the top birth and one of them climbed up and tried to sit at the end of my bed. I asked him to get down and he said, "No, you move your feet." A nice man across from us said something to him in Hindi and he got down. Poor Sky on the bottom birth got the worst of it. They messed with him for a while and tried to intimidate him with their military badges, but Sky got them to leave him alone.
The next morning we were eating breakfast on the train and it was about time for us to be at our stop. We were stopped at a station and asked the guy across from us if it was NJP. He said no, next one, so we didn't get off. Sky still wasn't sure so as we were taking off again he looked for a sign. Sure enough, we were at NJP. If we didn't get off we would be taken a long way in the wrong direction and could have possibly gotten stuck in some random place for a night. So we grabbed all of our stuff and we jumped off. The train wasn't going full speed but it was going fast enough for us both to fall flat on the platform, first Sky, and then me. Everyone at the station thought we were crazy sitting there on the ground with our stuff all over the place, laughing hysterically.
Next it was a bicycle rickshaw to the bus station and a beautiful, and long, bus ride to Darjeeling. Darjeeling is a beautiful small town built into a side of a mountain. We got there after dark and got a taxi with a Japanese guy that we met on the bus. All the roads are very steep and we ended up pushing our taxi up a couple of hills, and yes we still had to pay. We tried about four hotels before we found one with a vacancy. The next day we walked around and went to the zoo, which is small but has some good projects going on. They are breeding and releasing endangered species like the Red Panda and the Tibetan Wolf. We also ran into a girl named Alina that we knew from Varanasi and the three of us planned a trek for the next four days.
The trek was awesome. We originally wanted to go on our own and camp, but that is no longer allowed. I guess last year there were some tourists caught stealing bugs from the national park. So now you have to go with a guide and you are also not allowed to pitch a tent. There are small hostels along the way that you stay at. It was nice not having to carry a lot. We got to hike by some temples and we spent a night in Nepal. Yeah! We made it to Nepal! The weather was not the best. We were in the clouds half the time so you couldn't really see anything and we never got to see Everest. It was still a nice hike and we met some students from Philly that were there teaching english. We had a great time hanging out with them. I loved the forest and got to see a wild Yak. There were tiny little villages all over the steep hills. It must be crazy to live on such a steep slope. I also got to see some Himalayan Ginger, which I spent two days chopping down in Kauai last summer.
After the trek we went back to Darjeeling for one last night in the mountains and all of us had a hard time walking around town. I was almost falling down stairs I was so stiff. Out of shape, fire here I come! It was then a jeep ride down the mountains to a bus stop. There we got on a first class AC sleeper bus to Calcutta. A few hours into the ride the bus broke down. We got moved from our nice beds to a crowded sitting bus for a few hours and we had to get on a government bus (stop and go, people filling the isle and hanging off the side). It took us much longer to get to Calcutta and when we arrived we only had two hours for last minute shopping before we had to go to the airport. That went surprisingly smooth.
Our plane was delayed. Of course. We flew to Mumbai and missed our connecting flight. So we had to spend a night in Mumbai. The airlines gave us the nicest hotel that we had been in yet and we layed around and slept for hours. We felt a little guilty for not using the day as an opportunity to explore the city but we were over the traffic, honking, hasles, staring, pollution, and just all of the craziness of the Incredible India cities. We watched the election news, about how one of the candidates was found hanging from a tree, and 19 people dying at the polls, and the bombing in Assam. We also watched Pulp Fiction and the Simpsons Movie.
Our new flights were all on time and the trip was long but not to uncomfortable. India is over. :( Now we are in Kentucky. We went straight from the airport to the Kentucky Fried Music Festival and Bone Pony rocked! What a trip in itself, just being back. Manicured grass, clean water from the tap, toilet paper in bathrooms that aren't covered in mysterious liquids, sidewalks, sane driving, being respected by men, being able to understand people talking around me, solid food, huge people (tall and wide), clean air, and clean streets. It is better to be back than I thought it would be. India was a great experience and changed the way that I think abouta few things. I recommend that anyone should go there as long as they have an open mind and a lot of patience.
Great trip, can't wait for the next one.

Varanasi Hospital

So, as usual plans change. We planned on staying in Varanasi for one night max. We are still here. Skyler got sick our second day here with a fever. We thought that he might feel better the next day but instead he woke up the next morning shaking uncontrollably with a fever still. It was almost like he was spasming. So we decided to go to the hospital. You never know what you might have when you are in India. What an experience. We showed up at 7am and we were immediately taken to the emergency room. There was a man laying on a bed next to skyler, moaning in pain with a gas mask on. He didn't look like he knew where he was and was shifting and rolling around. At one point his blanket fell and a got accidental peak at him. His wife was crying by his bed and she looked terrified. There was a mouse hanging out in one corner of the room, mosquitoes flying all around and the room was not clean. It was not exactly reassuring.
Sky was in bad shape and they asked us some questions and then immediately hooked him up to an IV. Sky asked them what it was and they said it was an IV. "Yes, of course, but what is it?" They could not tell him. I looked at the label and it was just sodium, potassium and calcium water for dehydration. Then they started giving him shots and every time he asked what it was, they gave very vague answers, and when he asked what was wrong with him they said they didn't know. If they didn't know, why where they treating him. Then they said that he would be put in a private room. They took blood, urine and stool samples and put him in the room, which was nice, and just left him there for 6 hours. Sky asked so many questions about when we would get results, and how long he would be there and how much the room was costing us and no one would answer us. It was always, "yes sir, 10 minutes" and then never came back. Finally a doctor came in and Sky was very frustrated by then. The doctor kind of told him what his results were but not what he would be taking. At this point Sky's fever was gone and he was no longer shaking, but still sick. Our thinking was, why do we have to stay in this room if we are not doing anything but waiting. We knew that we were paying just to be in there and didn't think that we needed it. The doctor was very rude and unhelpful and it turned into an argument. Skyler said he wanted to leave and asked them to take the needle out of his arm and they refused. It was like they were holding him against his will and they had his passport and insurance card. It wasn't until there was a huge fus, that a man that spoke good english and was willing to listen to us, that it got sorted out. A new doctor came in and told us exactly what was going on and we found out that they wanted Sky to stay for 3 days. He has a urinary track infection and some kind of stomach infection. They still could not tell us how much all this was costing us. We asked if they could just prescribe him meds and send us on our way. Surely there are other patients that need a room more than Sky does. We were told that because Sky is a foreigner that they must take special care of him. If he were Indian, they would do just that and send him away, but he is american so they have to make sure that he leaves well. It is because most Indian's can't afford the private room. All I could think of was that poor old man in that dirty room downstairs. He should have a private room. We didn't find out until today that the private room is 20,000 rupees per day. That is 400 dollars. What?! It wouldn't matter if we didn't have to pay up front. We will get our money back but if we stay to long we would not have the money to pay. We were upset. Why was this not told to us earlier? Now we owe them 800 dollars for Sky to get medicine twice a day. We simply tried to explain our situation to our new doctor and he got mad at us. He was being very defensive and accusing us of being racist almost. What a nightmare. Now we had the hospital administration in the room. They calmed the doctor and Sky down and they said that after tomorrow the billing would stop no matter how long Sky had to stay. So now we are both staying at the hospital. Sky is better but still not feeling 100%. They gave him a shot in is ass and told him it was a pain killer. Now his head, stomach AND ass hurts. We hope we will be able to get out of this town soon. I figure that if they aren't going to get any money out of us they won't keep him there. I just hope that he will be okay and that he won't get another sickness just from being in the hospital with people sticking needles in his arm all the time. There is another girl from Boston there that we spoke with that was having the same problems. She plans on leaving tomorrow no matter what they say. Oh India.

Cross Country

Manali was beautiful for us. It was the first time in 3 1/2 months that there air was clear enough to see a defined horizon or ridge line. We were some of the few tourists which meant that most restaurants and markets were closed but it was also very peaceful. It was sunny all day and then dropped below zero at night. We walked around the small little towns and got some good views of the mountains, and checked out a small nature reserve full of huge old trees. One day we were just wondering when we found a Tibetan monastery. We went inside and looked around at all of the art and statues of the gods. We bought some incense and prayer flags and one monk invited us into his kitchen for tea. So we went inside and had tea and some food. They put home made flour, chunks of butter and sugar into a bowl and made it into a gritty dough and served to us. They said that it helps with diabetes. It wasn't bad at all. We sat and talked about india and the effect that globalization has had on his religion. He was a very modern monk. He was wearing crocks and had a cell phone and a nice watch. He said that the biggest problem is money. He explained to us that if there was a very poor indian person in his kitchen he would have to leave if some rich people came in and could not join the conversation. We also talked with a man who was half indian and half Canadian. He was a dj who also owned a hotel in Manali. He told us all about how we should go to "upper" because that is "where the freaky people are, doing freaky things, its funny." I guess that is where all the drugs are, and raves, and there have been reports of gurus giving tourists too much LSD. We did not have time to explore upper. Besides, everywhere in Manali the marijuana plants grow like weeds anyway. It is in people's yards and lining all of the roads. People just ignore it.
We realized that we were running out of time and decided that we wanted to spend our last week in Darjeeling. It is better weather over there and we can go trekking without a guide and see mount Everest. So now we are just pushing our way across the country. We took a 15 hour bus from Manali to Deli. This was the scariest ride of my life. It was an over night bus and half of the drive is on a mountain side. This is a narrow road with a drop off on one side and and very tight curves and turns. Also at night the only things on the road are huge trucks and buses. All this, and they still drive like lunies. We were keeping in mind that they do this every night and they know the roads, but I still thought we might be done for a few times. Plus the buses are all painted on the front with bright colors, some have flashing lights, and the windows are always outlined. So it looked like huge metal clown faces flying at each other in the dark. When we got to delhi we were dropped of, with half open eyes, in the middle of no where it seemed, in the middle of a huge crowd of rickshaw and taxi drivers up in your face. We got a ride to the train station, waited a few hours and then got a train to agra. We were in agra for only 7 hours. We saw the taj mahal from a restaurant rooftop and that was good enough for us. Then we got on another train to varanasi. We arrived yesterday and got a room for a couple of nights. Varanasi does not seem as bad as people say it is. The river is dirty, but the area in general is the same as the rest of the country. We have walked along the ghats and there are many people doing laundry, bathing, washing dishes or just cooling off. The sun here will steal all of your motivation and energy if you let it. We also say a ghat where people bring their dead. They burn the bodies with wood and then send them down the river. There is a specific amount of each kind of wood that will burn a human body most efficiently, and different kinds of wood have different prices. Sandalwood is the most expensive. This is the best place in india for the dead to go because it is the town of Shiva. Some believe that if your body is sent down this river when you die you will be released from the wheel of samsara and will not be reborn. So everyday, all day, there are about ten bodies laid out on the steps burning, just down the street from our guest house. Tonight we get to go on a boat ride down the river at sunset and also tomorrow morning at sunrise. We will get to see all of the rituals that are done everyday. Then it will be back to the cool clean air of the mountains. And the toy train!

In the Mountains

We ended up staying in Rishikesh for about 6 days. We didn't really do much but we walked around a lot. That was interesting enough and it is easier to walk around in the streets there. Skyler took a cooking class from a mother of 5 girls, in their small two room house. I took some yoga classes for free. I learned a little about yoga therapy. It was really interesting. We did exercises for back problems and stomach problems. We did breathing exercises for head aches, breathing problems, and meditation. It is all about balancing out your body as well as your mind because most physical problems come from emotional stress. It felt great but you look really funny doing it. It was strange going from a quiet relaxing room, out to blaring horns and cars racing by, with people begging along the street. It rained on us for the first time in three months and that felt great. We walked up to a nature reserve and checked out a couple of waterfalls one day and saw a village up in the hills. It was pretty laid back and easy. We wanted to go rafting but a bug bite that left a hole in my back is still healing and Skyler found out that he has been hosting a parasite. We had the cure for it the whole time and didn't know it. Our malaria pills are antibiotics and help with all kinds of things, we just hadn't been in malaria country so we weren't taking them. Anyway, the ganges river is not the cleanest and after watching open sewer pour directly in it, we said no to rafting. We planned on going trekking but we decided to wait until we got closer to the mountains. Yesterday we left for Manali. We took a local bus and that was interesting. It was 15 hours of curvy roads, crazy driving and stopping and going. We were cramped because of our huge back and sometimes the bus was full with the isle filled. Sky got a lot of ass in the face. When we arrived it was cold and raining. Our room didn't have heat so we had to adjust fast. We found out that this is not a good time to go trekking because there is to much snow and the weather is bad. Bummer. We came just a little to early. The town is really nice and the traffic is low. We saw some temples that look like carved up log cabins. There were yaks to ride, huge rabbits to pet and snakes too. It was sad. We saw our first leper. It is really beautiful and there is a park you can go three wheeling in and tomorrow we are going rock climbing ( I'm going to be so soar) and to a hot springs. We think that we might not stay to long and try to make it to Darjeeling before we have to leave, in 16 DAYS! We only have a few more spots to hit.

Camel College Without Knowledge

So Pushkar was nice and relaxing but there wasn't much to do there so we moved on to Jailsamer which is close to the Pakistan boarder in the Thar Desert. It is a small town that surrounds a huge old fort. The fort is either 3000, or over 800 years old (we were told both). It is very beautiful and we got a place to stay inside the fort for less than 2$ a night. We went on a three day, two night camel trek into the desert which turned out to be wonderful and disappointing at the same time. When we arrived, we planned on taking Jessika's advise on which agency to book our trek through. We got to our hotel and they showed us their book and I recognized a name that Jessika had given me and the man said, "Oh yes, that is me." We asked if he remembered a guy with dreadlocks and he said yes and the girl had brown hair to her shoulders. We thought sweet, we must be in the right place. I'm pretty sure now that he was lying or confusing our friends with someone else. We went with three people from Argentina and they were awesome. Our guide's name was Tiger and he was the only problem that we had. He seemed ok at first but then he started telling us sob stories about how he gets paid very little and relies on tips from tourists. He said that it hadn't rained in the desert for 10 years and that the village people were struggling because of this. That was a lie because it rained the next day. He told us his very long story twice, but when I asked him to teach me about the desert he could not tell me anything. I asked, "If I was lost in this desert how could I find water?" Tiger said, "Find a village, they are everywhere." This was a true but disappointing answer. The first two days we went through several villages where we got mobbed by children asking for money, or the ring on my finger, or whatever we had. We could always see power lines and hear motor bikes and there were people everywhere we went. It was not what I expected. The last day was much better as far as scenery. Tiger was just weird. He was sitting with Skyler and I and started singing the Barbie Girl song. At first it was funny and we were laughing and then he changed the lyrics to "I'm a bloody barbie girl, I break like plastic, bloody sand in my hair." Creepy!! Then he started telling Sky that he was a bloody barbie girl. I'm glad that it was the last day because that made me feel a little uncomfortable.
Besides our lame tour guide the desert was beautiful. We got to see a couple of snakes and there are only a few species of plants. There is a new species that has been popping up recently and I believe that it is probably invasive. It is very tall, red and white and has three huge hard leaves that spin around in a circle when the wind blows. I think the species is.............. um.......oh yes, windmill. Yes, they were everywhere the first two days. They are used to pump water for the village people. The best part for me was just being around the camels. They are such weird animals. They are huge! Huge gas machines! My camel's name was Victoria. They were all very calm and well behaved. They just eat and fart and when they are told it is time to go they lay down so you can climb on. They eat and swallow and then they bring their food up again and chew it some more and then swallow it again. When they do this the burp travels an amazing distance so if you are ever around camels, beware.
Now Sky and I have moved north to Rishakesh. We are in the foothills of the Himalayas. It is very beautiful and this town is the Yoga center of the world. They also have white water rafting and trekking and camping and waterfalls. I think that we might stay here for a while. It feels great to be in the mountains again.

On to Pushkar

The day after the Holi festival we ended up climbing a mountain, pretty much on accident. The city was much calmer that day the four of us decided that we were going to check out the Pink City area of town. We didn't know where it was except for that it was right next to the huge for on the hill. So we started walking towards the fort. We were tired of the rickshaw drivers ripping us off, and taking us to hotels of their friends instead of where we asked to go. We walked through some neighborhoods and some little boys pulled my pants down. I guess the guys here see us women tourists as there only chance to see or touch a woman or something. If they did that to an indian women they would be punished. Anyway, a crowd of young kids formed in parade like form behind us and showed us to a path that lead up to the fort. They followed us up part way and goofed off and then the rest of the way we were on our own. It was a trail but it was rocky and went along the huge wall of the fort. So basically we walked up and half the way around the fort. It took a couple of hours and we didn't have water the the view was worth it. The city is massive with over 5 million people in it. We finally got to the fort and got some water and food and then explored around inside. Then it started to get dark and we somehow hitched a ride with a local model and her friends back to our neighborhood. She took us to a jewelry shop first, surprise surprise. Then when we were talking back to our hotel some older men that we had tea with during the Holi festival found us and invited us to an Indian gypsy music festival. So we went. We partied from 10pm until 4:30am in a small village outside of Jaipur. There was a temple with flashing lights, live Indian music, kids everywhere, it was crazy. It was actually a small event but it was intense. We felt like we were famous. They all crowded around us everywhere we went. They all wanted to touch us and take pictures with us and dance with us. We got tea all night and they fed us as well. The ladies gave us henna tattoos for free, but then asked for a gift in return, which was rupees of course. It was a good experience and fun but I now just look like I have a diseased hand. It was a really special experience and the hospitality was wonderful but I felt like I was an exhibit almost. Every time they urged me to go up and dance all I could think was (dance monkey dance!!!!)
The older men wanted us to go to their shops the next day and Phil and Carly did but Sky and I went to the hospital. Sky got a bug bite on his knee and it is the gnarliest bite I have ever seen. It got huge and red, then scabbed over, then started to bleed and then he squeezed an amazing amount of puss out of it which left a hole in his leg. I have seen nothing like it before. It could be the most amazing thing I have seen in India. He is fine, we got some drugs and it is getting better now.
Yesterday we got to Pushkar. Phil and Carly are still our travel buddies. It is a small town on a "lake", more like a nasty pond really. There are ghats all along it where you can pay to get blessed in the nasty looking pond but I think I will pass. The surrounding area looks kind of like the foothills of boise. It is really friendly and we got a nice place to stay for 3$ a night. So far we have done a little bit of shopping at the market and climbed up to another fort. I might take a dance or yoga class tomorrow. Who knows, I'm on vacation, I can do whatever I feel like doing tomorrow. Ahhhhhhhhhh. I just found out that I have a job for the summer and I can definitely wait to start working.

Holi Festival in Rajisthan

After about a week of basically doing nothing but sitting on the beach, boogie boarding, and eating and drinking in Goa, we decided it was time to go back to India. Goa was great! It was relaxing and there was good music and we met a few new friends. I can see why people can get stuck there. Sky and I took a 30 hour train to Jaipur Rajasthan, starting on the 9th. The ride was really nice. We met a couple from London going to the same place and we have been exploring the city together. We also met some Indian friends that helped us get a good cheap place to stay. Yesterday, 11th was the Holi Festival. It is the festival of colors and basically the city closes down and everyone runs around throwing colored powder or water all over eachother. Tuesday we were walking around in the street near our hotel and just happened to stumble across a family having a small party. They invited us in and put color all over us and then we danced around to Indian music for a couple of hours. It was so much fun. They gave us snacks and told us to come back the next morning but we all slept in instead. Yesterday was the real Holi Festival and it was quite different. Everywhere we walked people would come up to us and smear our faces with color. Everyone wanted to shake our hands and give us hugs. We started off in a family neighborhood and we got invited into a temple for tea. The people were all so friendly and welcoming. We met a 65 yr old Lady named Kay, from Germany, who we kidnapped into our crew. Then we wanted to see all the real action of Holi and so we jumped into a taxi and found it. We went to a busy street and got more than we asked for. There were a lot of drunk men, little kids and hardly no women in sight. The crowds of people would surround us with there hands all over our faces. Some of the stuff that they had was really nasty and it was very overwhelming. It got old pretty fast, especially when Carli and I kept on getting grabbed by the men. We eventually just jumped into a taxi and went back to our hotel area. Overall Holi was really fun, and we ran into mostly great people. Today we are going to tour the city a little bit and make plans to move on to somewhere else in Rajasthan. So far the desert here reminds me of the desert around Boise. Next we are heading for the Thar Desert for the sand dunes and camel treking. :)

Hello India!

You hear people say all the time, that India is a different world and that it is shocking and unnerving. Sure, it is what everyone says it is but our experience here has been pretty mellow so far except for a few strange events. We arrived in Bangalore at about 10:30 at night and got a prepaid taxi to a hotel that we read about in our Lonely Planet book. The driver took us to the general area, but we had to argue with him, as well as other random people that just happened to be on the street that we stopped at, to take us directly to our hotel. He did not know where it was, but we eventually figured it out and got there only to find that it was closed. So we went to a place next door and it was fine. Bangalore is a city that looks like it is falling apart. It appears that they have started construction everywhere and then just forgot about it. It is very busy and the traffic is crazy as to be expected. All the men wear long pants and collared shirts and all the women wear beautiful saris. I did not see a lot of poverty. Many of the women are quite chubby actually. There are people, mostly children, begging but they don't look that bad off. We saw a could of deformed men begging, but even with their deformity they look like they are pretty healthy. There are cows and chickens, goats and sheep and dogs roaming around everywhere. They have very strict laws about beer. The food thought! We did not know what anything on the menu was but we just pointed to different things and everything that we have received so far has been delicious. We tried to book a train to Goa right away but it was full for a couple of days so we went on a tour to Mysore. It was fun. I mean, it was a guided tour so it was, get on the bus, get off the bus, you have 20 min to get back on the bus. We saw a fort that is 3000 years old, a couple temples and Mysore Palace. Really cool buildings. My favorite stop was at a fountain garden at night with a colorful fountain that danced to Indian techno. The bus that we took back dropped us off in an area that was no where near our hotel. So we had to get a tuk tuk back. Our driver again could not find our place. Before we got in the vehicle he told us 120rps and when we got out a few blocks away from our place, because he couldn't find it, he demanded 175rps. So we got in an argument with him with people from the street again making it their business. We ended up just giving it to him and walked back to our room. It seems silly when you realize you are arguing over less than a dollar. Then, after we had been in our room for only 20 minutes we get a knock on our door. It is two police officers in full uniform with rifles. What?! They were talking to Sky in Hindi and Sky just kept saying " I'm sorry I don't understand. What is the problem?" Eventually they just said goodnight and left. That left us feeling a little uncomfortable. The last thing we want is to get in trouble here. We asked the man at the desk of our hotel the next morning about it and he said that it happens all the time and not to worry about it. I was just glad that we were leaving that city.
So now we are in Goa. Our train ride was a pleasant experience and we chatted and shared snacks with some very nice Indian men that were on vacation. After the train we hopped buses to get to Vagator which was really fast and amazingly easy. It is so wonderful here. It is extremely hot but at least I'm not missing hot showers. There are dreadlocks everywhere, bars on the beach, techno dance clubs and half naked tourists running around the beach with the luckiest cows in the world. If I were a cow I would want to be a cow in Goa. It is very relaxed and friendly and we found a cheap place to stay with a view of a garden and an old fort that we are going to hike to soon. We might stay longer than we originally planned. So for now we are just relaxing on the beach with beers, looking out over the Arabian Sea. :)

The Karen Village, Behind the Scenes

So we are back in Chaing Mai again, and it feels great to sleep in a bed, take a hot shower and hang out in civilization. The two weeks in the Karen Village were.....well.....it was what it was I guess. It was two weeks of roller coaster emotions and lots of confusion. We stayed with a family of four that hosts tours like the one we went on a month and a half ago almost every night. So every night there was a new group of tourists that stayed at the house. The children sang every night and we also heard the same jokes every night. The house was simple but spacious. All made out of wood and concrete, with a metal roof. We slept on a concrete floor with a few blankets under us and a few on top. The family was so wonderful to us. The wife, who we called Pi, spoke very limited english but we had a few nights of playing games and bonding and sharing language through books. She was amazing in that she never stopped moving all day. She got up at 6am every morning, cooked breakfast, then went to the school to teach, then came home and did stuff around the house, then cooked again, and then studied by candle light all night. She had headaches all the time from reading in bad light. The husband Saikam spoke pretty good english and was very friendly but was not around that often and when he was he was with a tour. They had two kids a daughter that is about 11 and a son that is 8. They were amazing children. They often had no supervision, especially on weekends. When the parents were gone they would use huge knives to cut fire wood, to make a fire, so they could make themselves and us lunch. Then they would shower on their own and do laundry. They were so good at taking care of themselves but still played like kids at the same time.

We were a little disappointed with the school. There is about 60 students and three class rooms. There are about 6 teachers and most of them speak a little english but it was very hard to communicate with them. When we first arrived we were told that the children were going camping for a boy scout thing and that we could go along but Sky would not be able to teach until the following week. So his teaching time when from a limiting 2 weeks one week which is almost nothing. We went camping and it was fun to learn about all the medicinal plants in the forest and to watch the kids make their own shelters out of branches and tarps. We made an obstacle course for them in the jungle and and basically just sat around and watched for three days not really knowing what was going on because we could not understand what they were saying.

That weekend we wanted to hike somewhere but our host family did not seem very comfortable with that and one day took us to a waterfall but the other day we were just stuck at the house but locked out and all our stuff was inside. They were so strange about things sometimes. We were always locked out when they were gone, they didn't like us walking around and never told us where they were or when they were coming back.

So teaching time finally came around and Monday was a let the kids rest because they just got off a holiday day. Sky got to teach for only a short time. Then Tuesday was Monk Day. I guess it was a half moon that night or something, so we went to the temple to pray that morning for about 20 minutes. The rest of monk day is apparently set the forest on fire day. The kids just ran around raking up leaves and fallen branches and burned whatever they pleased. We didn't really see the point but they had fun. So that day the kids only got a couple hours of class time. Wednesday was sports day. So they run around just playing basically, no organized games, until lunch. Then they eat a big meal, sit in front of a TV for about an hour and then they try to learn. They were all so tired and unmotivated by the time Sky got to teach, and it was really frustrating. Thursday was the most productive day and Sky got some good hours in. Friday just happened to be the one day out of the year that the kids don't write. That's right, no writing at all, but drawing is okay. So all in all it seemed like going to teach in the village was a big waste of time. The other teachers don't make their students stay in the classroom. Many of them tell the students to just study and then start drawing out plans for their new house or whatever they feel like. I really wonder where all the money that is donated to the school goes. It seems to me that they are just lazy. There are kids that are way too young to be in school that hang out in the classrooms as well as kids that have already graduated and just have nothing else to do. There was one student that was deaf and no one made any effort to teach him how to read lips. He could write but he could not talk and when ever anyone talked to him they spoke gibberish or just made sounds like he did. He acted out a lot in class, surprise surprise. Sky even offered to teach extra on the weekend and they couldn't organize it so it never happened. One glimmer of hope though, was one little girl came by on Saturday by herself wanting to learn more. Sky almost shed a tear.

During the week I was sometimes in the classroom helping Sky and the rest of the time I was walking around all three villages mapping with my GPS. The teachers said that they wanted a map of the area and they wanted to know the distances between. This could be used for education or even for something for the tourists to look at when they came to look at the school. So I made them a nice map with the distances between, the perimeters of the villages, the areas, the male to female ratios, # of houses , average # of people per household etc. The teachers loved it, but when I brought it home to show Pi and Saikam they did not like it at all and got mad when Sky showed it to some of the tourists. Why? Those are questions that tourists always ask. Why does it have to be a secret? So strange.

Besides that we did have a good time hanging out with everyone in the village. The older men were the most welcoming and laid back. They shared their home made rice wine with us and one old man even taught us an ancient fighting dance. There was a lady that lived next door that often came by and gave me bananas. The kids where fun to play with. We ate many interesting foods like tadpoles, beetles, fresh water shrimp, pig intestines, and frogs. The frogs where the best. They would put a whole fish that had been fried on your plate so you had to look it in the eye before you took a big bite out of it's face. The head really was the best part. Sometimes I had no idea what I was eating but we always had rice. Rice, rice, rice with every meal. Rice veggies and mystery meat but very little fruit. I was horribly stopped up for the first week and a half.

So, the Karen live really nice lives. They live in a beautiful place and their life is simple yet comfortable. They are not what they seem when you come through as a tourist. They have solar power, TV, motor bikes, cell phones and more money than they want you to believe. They get funding from Canada and I'm sure they make a good amount off of the tourists. They could do a lot more for themselves if they wanted to but they would rather rely on handouts is the conclusion I have come to. They even tried to charge Sky and I 500 baht for the ride up to the village in the back of a pickup truck while they were running errands around town anyway. It seems to be how Thailand goes. Everyone just wants your money. I don't regret staying there at all and I will stay in contact with the friends that we made there. Sky is even thinking about going back for a longer amount of time next year. Maybe to another village though. It was overall a wonderful experience and it saved us a lot of money too.

So now we only have a few days left in Thailand and we are spending them in Chaing Mai and traveling back down to Bangkok. Then it will be on to India which we are thinking might be the real adventure of our trip.

Back to the HIll Tribe

So we said goodbye to Phuket. No more smoky haze, lines and lines of rubber trees, and beautiful white sand beaches covered with tourists. No more gibbons. No more screaming high school students at 8am. No more motor bikes. :) We were there for a month and it felt like we were there for a day.
On our way back up to chaing mai we had the bus drop us off near a national park called Khao Sok. We hitch hiked the rest of the 40kms to the park. It was still a tourist area but was very quiet and peaceful. Ahhhhhhh. We paid to get into the park but we camped for free for two nights. This park is part of the biggest nature reserve in Thailand and is 160 million years old. It was said by some scientist to be older and more diverse than the amazon. It looked old with big trees, birds everywhere and vines covering everything. It had wild elephants, tigers, bears, deer, gibbons, monkeys, all kinds of snakes and over 150 different species of birds. Skyler and I took a hike the day that we spent there. We hiked up the side of the main mountain and found a good place to swim in a river all by ourselves. We tried to go off the beaten trail a few times but could never get very far. It was thick and well, you know, there were tigers around. Out of all the amazing wildlife that was there we got to see some lizards, spiders, mosquitoes, birds and some beautiful butterflies. No tigers or elephants but I'm sure that only few are so lucky. The forest was so wonderful just to walk around in. It was very refreshing to get away from the crowded tourist spots and big cities. There was a little town right outside the park for food and drinks. The first night Sky and I hung out at the Spirit Bar which was just a camp fire and a tiny stand selling drinks. The guy who owned it also made money giving tourists dread locks. It was fun and very interesting to hang out with a thai hippy crowd. There were also many Germans around. It seemed like anyone else that was white was German.
The day that we left we needed some money and the ATM was out of cash. We needed money for the bus to get to Sarat Thani because we had already bought train tickets all the way to Chaing Mai. We had a mini panic moment and we were asking around at what our options were and some nice thai lady at a mini mart just gave us the money that we needed to get to Sarat Thani. We had no way to repay her but she just gave us her card to say, send me business. It was so nice of her. So we got to Sarat thani and got on our train okay which was a sleeper. Very nice way to travel. Then at 3am the train stopped and everyone started getting off. We were confused until an english speaking thai man told us that a train in front of us had gone off the tracks and we had to get off and catch a bus the rest of the way to Bangkok. So we got off and waited, and waited. Another train pulled up with another load of people needing to be bussed to Bangkok. We had a train to catch to Chaing Mai at 8:30 so we started to get a little worried that we wouldn't make it. Then finally one bus showed up. Suddenly there was a mob of people all running towards the bus. So Sky and I started laughing and ran as well because we knew that we needed to be on that bus to catch our next train. There was young men pushing old ladies out of the way and I caught and old thai lady by the backpack who almost fell backwards out of the door. It was so hilarious, but we pushed out way through and got on. The way sky explained it was, " It was like we were all starving dogs and a bus full of bacon drove up." We got to our train with 15 minutes to spare. It was a long two days of travel.
So now we are in Chaing Mai again. Ahhhhhh, the first hot shower in over a month was the best thing ever. This evening we are getting picked up by a man who lives in the Karen Village that we went to over a month ago. We are going to stay with them for 2 weeks. They said they have a house for us to stay in and that they will feed us while we are there. Skyler is going to teach english and I'm, ah, going to help him i guess and just help out with daily chores that they do around the village. I don't really know what to expect but I'm excited to learn from them. I won't really be able to talk to anyone but I hope that they will show me how they farm and how they make their clothes and how they cook. There will be no Internet or cell phone service so I will be unreachable for two weeks. Don't worry to those of you that might, mother, we are going to be with good people and they have transportation into town if anything happens. So, I will tell you all about it when I get back. Sawatdee Ka!

On Vacation Again :)

So my gibbon adventure is over. :( Tomorrow I get to talk to a science class at skyler's school about the gibbon project and that will be fun, but I'm done working with those silly apes. I moved in with Skyler for his last few days. Volunteering was so fun and ended so quickly. I even got to go to a Muslim Wedding. This was a strange experience because I did not know the couple that was getting married. Most of us volunteers didn't. So basically we showed up and said a quick sawadtee ka to everyone and then we were led upstairs to eat a feast. We did not eat with anyone else from the wedding. Then we went outside to take a million pictures with the bride and groom and then said goodbye. I felt kind of like a prop, but the food was good. This was the groom's only wife but they are allowed to have four. So that was interesting.
Also a few days before I left another volunteer named Scott got lost in the forest. He was camping with a thai staff member, Yan, in the forest and they were drinking a lot. He wanted to go hunting for snakes because this is what they had done before. Yan said no because they had to get up early to track the gibbons and went to bed. Scott, being the smart drunk that he is decided to sneak away and go snake hunting by himself. He ended up slipping, falling down a hill and hitting his head. His flashlight broke, he didn't know where he was so he stumbled around all night. The next day he walked down the mountain dehydrated and hallucinating. They found in at about 5pm in bad shape. The next day he was fine and went back to work but he never heard the end of it. Poor idiot.
Skyler and I have been exploring Phuket this weekend. We went to see the big Buddha in south phuket. They just built it and it really is huge. There is a gong there that will make a very loud and crazy noise when you rub your hands over the center of it in a certain way. It all has to do with how moist your hands are and how fast you do it. Skyler and I were two of the few people that could do it. The locals were very impressed. They just didn't understand that there was a science to it. Instead they believe that it is a spiritual thing, so there was even a Thai mother telling her children to wai to Skyler after he did it. Wai is when you put your hands together in a prayer like position in front of your face and it is used to show respect. There was also a great view of Phuket Town and the bay. We could see other islands close by too. I wish I could show you but this computer will not allow me to upload photos.
Now I am looking forward to moving on. Skyler and I think that we are going to boat over to Railey which is on the other side of the Gulf of Phuket. There we can relax on the beach and go snorkling, kayaking and all kinds of fun adventurous stuff. We also will go to Krabi and try to find a temple we heard about that has over a thousand steps leading up to it,or something like that. We hope it will not be another temple surrounded by a market. Whatever we do I'm sure it will be fun.

Frankinlindsey

So, about a week ago Skyler was taking me to work early in the morning on his room mate's motor bike. The driving around here is pretty crazy. Not as bad as in Bangkok and Chang Mai but there still doesn't seem to be many rules followed. So, when we were half way there Skyler had to slam on the brakes. We think that he used the front break to much because all I remember is the squealing of the tires and seeing the front wheel turn and bam! Face on pavement! I jumped up grabbed my face and all I could see was blood dripping down and I could feel that one of my front teeth was chipped in half. I started yelling at Skyler (not that it was really his fault) out of shock and confusion. Skyler had scraped up his leg and elbow but other than that he was okay. He stayed very calm and after a minute to breath I calmed down as well. He grabbed the first thing he could find out of our backpack, which just happened to be my dirty underwear, yeah, and put it over my nose which was bleeding. He checked out my face and pushed on my nose to see if it was broken, and we could tell that is wasn't. The rest of it looked bad because your face can bleed a lot but it really only needed first aid treatment. The people that saw the accident were very nice and called the police and ambulance but honestly, we did not need one and did not need to pay for one. So, we jumped back on the bike and finished our journey to the Gibbon Project. Those sweet concerned Thais thought that we were crazy. When we got to the Project we informed the staff that I was not going to be able to work that day, as if they couldn't tell. We got out my first aid kit and Skyler cleaned up my face which was scraped and bruised but did not look as bad after all the blood was cleaned off. Then we got on the bike again and went back to Skyler's school and they took us, in the Principles van, to the hospital. There, I only had them fix my tooth, which means give me half a face tooth, and they did a very good job. I was only in the hospital for 1 hour and my pearly whites were just as they looked before. They were still a little loose but I felt much better. The hospital was the nicest hospital I have ever seen. There was live music in the waiting area and it was super clean. It really looked like a fancy hotel more than a hospital.
The whole ordeal was a bummer, especially because Jessika and TJ were visiting us and I missed out on hanging out with them as much as I could, but I was very lucky. I was not wearing a helmet because we only have one, and by law the driver has to wear it. It was a great day to be alive! It has been a week now and you can hardly even tell that it happened. All my scabs are already gone and I only have one tiny scar. We think that I fractured my nose a little but, I have not been in much pain at all and what do you do for a fractured nose anyway. If I went to a doctor for it they could only really give me pain killers. I told the Gibbon Project that I could go back to work the next day, and I really could have, but they made me rest for a day.
So, now I only have three more days of working with the gibbons. :( I have learned so much and next week I will be giving a talk to some environmental science students at Skyler's school. I'm going to try to go diving this weekend and for the few days that Sky is teaching and I have nothing to do I'm going to the beach. Ahhhh. I also want to volunteer at a homeless dog shelter that is down the street from where I will be staying for a day or two. Our days on Phuket are going fast and I'm going to miss it but I'm also excited to move on to the next chapter of our travels. Love you all.

The Gibbon Project

So I have been working at the gibbon project for a while now and I have learned a lot. Not just about the gibbons, but about how the government works, and how animals in Thailand are treated in general.

So, the Gibbon Project. Gibbons are an endangered species in Thailand. There are some in the wild in other areas of the country, but they disappeared completely from Phuket island in the early 1980s. Back then it was legal to keep wild animals as pets in Thailand. In 1994 there was a law passed that made it illegal to own all wild animals, except for elephants. So many residents now had illegal pets and didn't know what to do with them. So the Royal Division of Forestry created the gibbon project as a place for these gibbons to go. This story is what is given on our information boards on the education center.
Since I have been working here I have learned that Thais are wonderful people but are very proud of their country and the fact that this is an organization is run by them and not foreigners. Which they should be, but their story is not really true. There was a man from America that studied primates and came to Thailand to start the gibbon rehabilitation project to try and save an endangered species and reintroduce these animals into their natural habitat. If you ask the Thai staff what happened to him you will get different answers like, heart attack, or an accident out in the forest. If you do the research though, you will find that he was shot and that a week after he was shot, his wife died in a car accident. I in no way think that any of the people that I have been working with would have had anything to do with this, but someone didn't like the fact that an American was running the program (theory) so they got rid of him and now it is run by the Thais.

Regardless, the project and the people that are running it now have a good thing going. Even though it is illegal to own gibbons we know of many all over Phuket that are kept as pets. Locals will walk around the beaches with a baby gibbon and have tourists pay to have their pictures talked with them. Others are kept in bars and forced to smoke cigarettes and drink beer because it is fun for the tourists. Many of these gibbons are injected with drugs to keep them awake because they naturally fall asleep at about 4pm, and that would be no fun for the tourists. Others are just kept as pets because they are cute and people like them. The problem is that when they reach a certain age they can get aggressive, no matter how domesticated they are. So people just kill them or shave down their canine teeth and keep them in small cages. So why don't we just notify the police and have them taken away? What usually happens is that they just don't care, or they will find these people and ask them how much they are willing to pay them to keep their gibbon. Basically saying if you pay me off I will keep my mouth closed. That is how the police work around here. Even though there is a law, they know that the gibbons bring in money and that will help the economy/government. Some kind souls that understand and our just tourists or residents will sometimes buy the gibbon for a large amount of money just to bring it to our project. The only problem with that is, the seller now knows that he can make money off of selling gibbons and will just go get another one. How does one get a baby gibbon you might ask.

Sorry I get quite passionate about all this so this may be a long blog.

In order to get a baby gibbon, which is all people want, poachers will go camp out in the forest over night. Every morning they do their territorial calls so that is how they are found. If the poachers find a family with a gibbon they have to shoot the sisters, brothers and the father first because they are all protective of each other. Then the mother will climb as far as she can up in a tree to try to protect her baby which is always wrapped around her belly. The poachers then shoot the mother and she will fall to the ground from a great height. 1 times out of three the baby does not survive the fall, so the poachers will have to try again. So for every gibbon you see on the streets of Thailand there are on average 15 dead ones in the forest. That is why gibbons are endangered.

So when we get gibbons at our project we first put them into quarantine. There we do blood tests. They can have hep A, B, or AIDS or herpes. They can have anything we have. Once they are found to be clean we send them to the rehabilitation center. There we have to teach them how to be gibbons. They have been living with humans most of their lives so they do not know how to relate to other gibbons or survival techniques. We have to teach them how to drink water in the wild and how to swing instead of walk. The forest floor is very dangerous for them so they must learn to stay in the tree canopy. We then try to pair them with mates. This is hard because they are like humans and are very picky. When they choose a mate it is for life and the way they chose is through singing. So we have to try and figure out who is singing together and then move them close. We then try to put them in the same cage and teach them how to share their food. Once they are okay with each other have a baby, we wait until the baby is a certain age and then move them to a cage further away from the rehab site. After a period of time we then move them to a cage that is way up in the canopy for a while. After that we release them into the park which is a non-hunting area. We still feed them for a year after that, giving them less and less as the year goes on. In 16 years they have released 5 families and there are currently 3 with one family getting close. It takes about 10 years on average to release a family and there is only one ranger in the forest that comes once a week, so there are still poachers to worry about.

It is a sad story, but we are making progress. It is all funded through donations and volunteers like me. The government gives no help and even makes it harder for them. They will not allow them to open bank accounts in other countries to receive donations. People can still donate online but there are so many fees that the bank takes out that if you donate 1500 baht the gibbon project gets about 500 baht.

The realities are a little hard to deal with but I love working around these apes. They are so much like us in so many ways. They all have personalities and they can sense your mood. I'm so attached to them already. Even if I'm cleaning ape poo it is one of the best experiences that I have had. So, if you know anyone who is going to Thailand tell them not to get their pictures taken with gibbons, or monkeys, or lizards or any wild animal. It supports a bad business. They can also report it when they see it, and who knows, maybe someone will do something about it.

The mad train dash, then Gibbons

So leaving Bangkok was pretty crazy. We spent the day at Koh San (sp?) road at the market and then went to this huge temple where the largest statue of the reclining Buddha is. It was pretty enormous. Our train was leaving at 7:30 so we thought we would give ourselves 1 1/2 hours to get back to the hotel to get our bags and then to the train. Woops! Five o clock traffic does not only exist in the US and Bangkok is huge. We took a tuk tuk half the way home, then the sky train and then had to walk. Skyler left a shopping bag at a 7-11 where we stopped to get a quick food fix. So here we are with our huge backpacks on, running through the city. Jessika and TJ were awesome and ran with us the entire way. TJ may be the reason we got our bag back. Then we had to jump on the sky train to catch the subway that took us to the train. We got on the train with minutes to spare. Lesson learned, but when it was all over, looking back on what we must have looked like running with our packs on, it was sooooo hilarious! The train ride was the best one yet. They had a bar with Christmas lights, playing britney spears and boy band music (music wasn't so great). We slept all night then caught a bus to Phuket in the morning.

So now I am at the Gibbon Project. The place I'm staying isn't the nicest and isn't close to anything but the people are very friendly. I have a great roommate from whales who is here for the same amount of time that I am. I got a tour and there are over 40 Gibbons that we care for, and I'm supposed to memorize all of their names. Yeah right! I haven't even gotten the peoples names yet. They are like little people with their own personalities. Some just want you to pet them, some want to bite you, and some just moon you or try to scare you because they think it is funny. Most of them have very sad stories and some are still in pretty bad shape. There are a few families that have been successfully released though and I got to go observe one of those families today. I love watching them. They are like little hairy acrobats. They are soooo loud too. Every morning they hoot yell and they all have their own "song". No sleeping in here on days off. I start at 6:30 or 7:00 almost every morning and get off between 2:30 and 4:30 depending what part of the project I'm working on. It is a really great organization and I feel good about what I'm doing. Skyler is also very excited about teaching. He is staying in an apartment with another teacher about his age and they get along great. He teaches 4 classes a day, 5 days a week. It is not easy for us to see each other with no transportation but he came to hang out last night and was invited to go spend the night out in the forest with us before my stay is over. So it is turning out to be a great experience.

Back in Bangkok

Hello Bangkok, again. This Bangkok experience has been much better. We are staying in a nicer and cheaper place. Jessika and TJ are here which is wonderful! It has been so great catching up with Jess and the two boys bonded quickly by having a night out away from the girlfriends. Skyler is having his teeth worked on because it is sooooo cheap here and we are about to go get our train tickets down to Phuket. Jessika and TJ won't be able to travel with us :( because they have to wait for a friend but they will be in our area so we will see them again. Until next time, love you all.

Disney Land

So today Skyler and I decided to go check out some temples around Chang Mai. They are everywhere. We rented a motor bike and drove to the international buddhism center. It was not what we expected at all. As soon as we arrived we were met by yet another market with people trying to sell you things. Even the monks were trying to sell you things. It was so crowded and people were running around ringing all of the bells. Then we went into and area where you can get blessed by a monk. We sat down with a group of other tourists and while the monk was chanting I look over and the girl next to me is carrying a playboy bunny bag, to get blessed my a buddhist monk. After that we left. It was very beautiful and there was a great view of Chang Mai but we felt like the monks and the religion were just on display for money. It seems that way for a lot of things here. The people are so dependent on tourism for survival. In Chaing Mai the average person will work 12 hour days, 7 days a week with a few weeks off a year and they get paid 200 baht a day (7$). Most of them are working for tourists. A lot of mixed feelings going on. Despite all of that, most people are very friendly and the city is fun. The way they do some things here seems to make more sense then the way we do them. Tomorrow we are leaving for Bangkok again. We are going to meet up with Jessika, yey! and then we will head down to Phuket. I'm excited to move on to something new.

sawatdee ka!

Sorry it took me so long to write. Everything has been happening so fast! The flight wasn't so bad. Sky and I met a travel buddy named Josh that had the same flights as us so we had a buddy. The biday was the most interesting part of the Japan airport and the Taiwan airport smelled like an old bowling alley. We landed in Bangkok at 2:30 am and jumped into a taxi. The first thing we noticed was that it was decked out with speakers, two cd players and all kinds of lights. The driver was driving like a mad man playing american rap music. It made me think of Brian. :) He totally ripped us off but I guess it has to happen to every traveler in order to learn. We got dropped off in an area called Siam Square at about 5:00am. It was dark and smelled sooooo rank! There was trash everywhere and rats and we thought maybe the driver had just dropped us off in some random place. We found a place to stay though that was clean and not too far out of our budget. We then walked around Bangkok for a while when it got light outside. It is a crazy city. It smells like sewer everywhere and the drivers are crazy. There aren't that many cross walks so you just have to go for it. The pollution is pretty bad too. We were not that thrilled. You couldn't really tell you were in Thailand sometimes with McDonalds and starbucks and 7/11 and Pizza Hut all around. We decided we needed to get out! So we went to the train station and got a train to Chang Mai. When we were at the station there were tourist helpers around and they took us up to an office so that we could book a room in Chang Mai. We ended up signing up for a three day trek and two nights stay in a hotel for a pretty good price. At first I was uncomfortable about the whole thing, thinking that we got sucked into a tourist trap but it ended up being amazing! The train ride was 12 hours and it is very interesting trying to balance over a hole in the floor on a moving bus when you need to pee, but our seats were nice and the scenery was great. The best part was when I first got on and the door shut on me and I couldn't figure out that all you needed to do was push a button to open it. It was a short moment of panic. :) We got to chang mai and got hounded by touts trying to give us a ride when we already had one arranged. At one point I had 5 of them surrounding me talking in Thai, trying to read the sticker that I was given to wear. But, we made it just fine and the hotel was really nice. We went to the night market and it was huge and busy and everything is sooo cheap. We also met a group of people, one from New Zealand, one from France and the other was a local Thai. They helped show us around town.

The Trek
We were in a group with 7 other people, a couple from England, a couple from California and three people from Korea. We first went Elephant riding which I personally did not like. I didn't like the way the elephants were being treated, there was no education given on them, not even an introduction, and you had to buy bananas to feed them every 15 minutes. They were taught to beg for food as you ride them. Really lame! I hope I get a better elephant experience in India. The trek was very pretty and we got to swim in waterfalls and everyone in our group was great. Our guide was better than I could have ever imagined. The first night we stayed with a Koren hill tribe. They are people that live in the mountains around Chang Mai that came from Burma. They speak a different language and live a very simple life. It felt very strange being there. At first I felt very uncomfortable because I thought we might be exploiting these people. But, it ended up being a wonderful experience. These treks bring them money for a school that they are have just built. They kids all came out to the camp fire and sang for us and then we sang for them and they showed us their way of life. They even sent up something that is kind of like a mini hot air balloon that said Happy New Year on it. The next day we hiked to another waterfall and ate lunch at another village. We then stayed at a camp by a river and had our own little new years, drinking rice wine(locally made) and eating sticky rice made in bamboo by the fire. It was very wonderful. Then today we hiked out and rafted down a river on rafts made out of just bamboo and rope. It was a little bit of a balancing act. The best part of it all is that Skyler and I are going to go back to the village after we volunteer in Phuket and stay with them for a week or two. Skyler is going to teach english at their school and I am going to help and then...... I don't know hang out with the ladies and do what they do. I'm so excited! It is going to be a crazy experience. They are going to let us stay there for free and feed us.

They people here are great when they are not trying to rip you off. There are dogs everywhere on the streets just hanging out or sleeping on the sidewalks. Chang Mai is a really fun town and doesn't smell so bad. Over all, I'm having a blast. But for now, Sky and I are meeting our new trekking buddies for dinner, so until next time, I love you all and Happy New Year!