Bangkok

Greetings from Northern Thailand!

I've just arrived in Chiang Mai, the northern capital of Thailand. After taking a 13 hour over-night train, I feel surprisingly rested (probably because I slept the entire way on a plush sleeper), man the Thai know how to travel! Plus which the whole trip cost about 17 dollars Canadian, unbelievable!

So we left Koh Tao as a group of six people: Kiah and Alyssa from Australia, Mark from Switzerland, and Reba, Erin, & me from, of course, Canada. It had been 6 days since hanging out as a group on Koh Tao and we had to say goodbye to our other mate, Tom, from England.

The trip wouldn't have been too bad except that I had the stomach flu!!! In truth, I've been sick for about three days and haven't been eating much, especially at night. But, I also hear that this is quite common. We've actually seen signs hung on food stands saying, "clean ice for sensitive Western digestions". Man, are they ever right, our stomachs go crazy over here. Good news though, I woke up today feeling much better. (and yes mom, I now have more colour in my cheeks :)

Bangkok was a blast! I've heard so many bad things about it before coming and most people advised me not to stay for too long. But, it was completely different for us because Alyssa lived in Bangkok for four months while working at Unicef. She knew the best places to stay on Koh San Road and the best Thai massage joint. My 2.5 days there were jammed packed. We saw the golden buddha, the royal palace and temple, rode on the public bus to a huge Thai market, got a ride from several Tuk Tuks, got a Thai massage of course, took a ferry ride, shopped like mad (unbelievable prices, I can see why shop owners import from this country), saw a cabaret show featuring "lady boys" (more on that later), and spent time relaxing and chatting in cafes.

Shopping is beyond belief here. Everything is negotiable. NEVER except the first price. It's also better to accept the fact that Thai people pay WAY less than foreigners. This is to be expected and appreciated because it's all relative. We are way richer than they are and I believe that we should pay more. Doesn't mean that you can't haggle though! Just to give you an example: we went to Pat Pong market two nights ago and Reba was quoted 1250 baht for ONE silk blanket (that's about 40 bucks CAD), after some serious haggling which included having the woman follow us through the market, Reba paid 500 baht for TWO silk blankets. Go figure! It's hard not to buy such beautiful things and I've already started collecting presents for Christmas.

More on the "lady boys". I'm going to post some pictures of these fabulous ladies once I arrive in Taiwan. They are incredible! Reba had the idea to go to a cabaret show featuring men dressed as women. It was just great! They did all the classics including Tina Turner, Marilyn Monroe, Chicago, and West Side Story. These men were SO beautiful. We couldn't believe it! At the end, they invited us to pose for pictures with them, I'll post those later too.

Then it was time to leave Bangkok and say goodbye to everyone! So sad that our posse was breaking up (some are going home, others are going to Cambodia). We had a tearful goodbye and a made a short video clip to capture it all. It's never good to leave the ones you click with but now we have even better reasons to visit our countries. I feel like I'll see them again soon.

Well, I must go, I'm heading out for a two day trek in the Pai area. Should be a blast!
Take care and keep in touch,
love R