August 16, 2007

Chiang Mai

Chiang Mai is a really great town. After the insanity of Bangkok it was great to get to a small town of only one and a half million people. Checked out some really cool Buddhist temples and had some amusing conversations with some monks. Q: Does a dog have the Buddha nature? A: Woof!

Did a little hiking (or trekking as they call it here) west of the city. Saw some rice paddies and... more rice paddies. It was really beautiful in the hills and there were plenty of waterfalls to see. They told us we could have roasted pig for dinner for a little extra money, so we collected up the money from everyone in the group. When we got to the village the pig we were going to eat was still grazing in the field. So I was the lucky one who got to shoot the it. But it was an easy shot so it was no problem.

The next day it was pouring rain. It was like when Forrest Gump was in Vietnam, sometimes it was small rain, sometimes big rain, and there was sideways rain amd sometimes it seemed liked the rain came from the ground. Me and a few others got separated from the group, but it didn't seem like a big deal to me since we were still on a path. But there were some pretty nervous trekkers out in the jungle that day. But it really was no problem, we just backtracked and it wasn't long before we found the guide and were back on our way.

When we got back to camp we played a Thai drinking game called Kong Kong Ching Pong. The first person says Kong and points to the second person who says Kong and points to the third person who says Ching and then the next person says Pong and points to the last person who has to say nothing while the two people on each side gives out some kind of cheer. But its a little different from our drinking games. If you screw up, you don't just take a drink, the ther people in the group rub ashes from an old pot on your face. By the end of the game all our faces were black.

The guides invited us all out to The Big Fight in Chiang Mai. Thai boxing is pretty brutal. There were ten fights and about half of them ended in knockouts. It was really fun betting on the fights. I just looked at both of the fighters picked whichever looked the meanest, and then wandered around the floor looking for people to bet with. I ended up losing 200 Baht, which is about five dollars. I really should have won money, though. There was this one guy from France that was fighting that night. And I knew there was no damn way a frenchman was going to win. I bet 100 Baht against him, but I should have bet more because he got his ass kicked.

Chiang Mai is a really great city, Hopefully I'll be back again soon.


Wat Chedi Luang



They are working on restoring this temple


Buddha smiling down at us


I really like the dragons you see at all the temples


A nice stupa


Pretty good warning against drunk driving


Yay elephants!


A nice little waterfall we visited


Rice paddies


More rice paddies.


Me and some rice paddies.


Roasting a pig on a spit



The village we stayed in.


Sawing logs


A waterfall we stayed near overnight.

The result of playing Kong Kong Ching Pong.


A Praying Mantis


Some jungle.


Nice little waterfall.

Another waterfall


A pony!


Bamboo rafting.

Singa, my Thai friend!


A Thai spirit house.

Some Frenchman getting his ass kicked in Thai boxing.


That probably hurt

And its over.

August 14, 2007

Sorry

The Internet here is really slow so I can't upload the Thailand photos yet. I'll be back in Singapore at the end of the month so I'll upload them then.

August 5, 2007

Bangkok

Bangkok is a crazy huge city. It just seems to go on and on and everywhere is crowded. There's so many people there it boggles the mind.

It was a really big change to go from clean and beautiful Singapore to big and dirty Bangkok. But I managed to survive it. Got drunk on Thai whiskey in a Karaoke bar and sang songs badly. Bought a tacky t-shirt on Khao San road.

People seemed pretty nice. There were scams around though. The tuk tuk drivers will offer to take you places cheap, the catch is you have to stop at half a dozen travel agencies, tailors, jewelry stores, etc, where they get a cut if you buy something. so you have to be sure you make it clear you don't want to make any stops otherwise you'll never get to where you want to be.

But I met some really nice people, and overall I had a pretty good time. Still its good to be out of the city.


Some really tall buildings

Khao San Road, the backpacker's mecca


Just some funky looking building


The parliament. No military coups today.


A tuk tuk


The Saturday market. You can get any kind of knock off stuff you want there.


Some light traffic

A little park I found near Khao San


An old fort

August 1, 2007

Singapore

Singapore was a really nice city. Probably one of the nicest cities I've been to. I 'liked how there are a lot of trees everywhere, and all kinds of statues and interesting old buildings. There is a really good mix of Chinese, Indian and English style buildings all around. And all that mixed in with this really modern metropolis.

Everyone seems to complain about how expensive Singapore is, but it seemed pretty reasonable after coming from Australia. People also talk about how super clean it is, but it seemed no more or no less clean than any other city. I guess most people I've met go to Singapore after they've been to Bangkok, so everything seems really clean and expensive.

It was pretty crowded, especially on the train. But they're pretty good at moving a lot of people where they need to go.

The zoo was the nicest I've ever been to. There were hardly any cages, most of the time they had some kind of natural barrier to keep the animals in. Except for the monkeys and orangutans, which were allowed to roam around amongst the people. Really a good place if you want to go for a walk, a lot of little paths everywhere.

It was a really nice city, I'll have to stay for a little longer next time I'm passing through.

White Tigers


Baboons!!


A cool Little Monkey sitting on his rock


Giant Tortoise


River boats


Some really tall buildings at Raffles


Some weird statue spitting water

Statue of Raffles, the guy that built Singapore (or something like that)


Clarke Quay