Now this is really getting interesting....

Wow. I thought this was cool before, but the longer we're here, the more I'm getting to know the place, meeting some great Thai folks, not to mention the great people from New Zealand, Australia, Germany, Austria, England, and god knows where else that we've been chilling with. We finally left Southern Thailand and headed north up into the hills to Chiang Mai. Great town, lots of cool temples, including one on the top of a very large mountain (complete with a 400 step staircase, which, incidentally, sucks in weather this hot). Chiang Mai has a neat thing called the Sunday Walking Street, which pretty much amounts to a 3 mile long Shakedown - good stuff... Don't ask me how, but I managed to impale my foot with a chopstick.. Here's hoping that's the only injury of the trip...

Got to Pai yesterday, which is a neat little hippie town of a couple thousand up in the Himalayan foothills. This place is great - veggie restaurants, chill reggae bars, mountain peaks, and weirdos all over (kind of reminds me of home). Upon arriving in town we visited a small wat (temple) that was tucked back into the forest. Had a very cool Burmese/Shan-style pagoda, which is a big departure from anything we've seen so far. A very friendly monk showed us around the whole complex (though the only English he knew was "USA" and "airplane"). They had a bunch of great Buddha relics, and quite strangely, a box full of old Japanese WWII rifles and helmets. I was able to speak a little Thai to him, but it was basically a half hour of him rattling off Thai quite rapidly, while I nodded in puzzled agreement. When we were getting ready to leave, a very cool thing happened - the monk went into his robe and produced a sacred Buddha amulet, which he proceeded to give to us - you just can't buy something that cool anywhere - a very heartfelt and meaningful gift...

Funny thing - my Thai is getting better, but my English seems to be degrading. I find myself speaking to someone from England, for example, and I catch myself waving my hands around a lot, dropping extraneous words and conjunctions, etc. I figure by the time I get back, I should be speaking at a kindergarten level.

Anyway, I'll leave you with a few pics... Take it easy...

Monkeys!

Monkey eating the can of Pringles it swiped from Lacy

More pics soon, assuming I can find some fucking decent bandwidth somewhere in this country...

Heaven on Earth

Hat Rai Leh West at Sunset

Got down to Southern Thailand and took the longtail (WITHOUT breaking my knee this time) out to what is probably my favorite place on the planet, Railay (known in Thai as Laem Phra Nang - Holy Princess Peninsula). Hard to explain quite how beautiful and chill this place is. Hardly anyone around, beach bars everywhere (where you can coincidentally buy a big fat spliff at the bar for a few baht - stuff sucks, but you can't beat the service!). Limestone karst formations guard white sand beaches and there is something to look at in every direction. This place is the end of the Earth, and I can only hope it remains that way, as I plan to visit this place for the rest of my life.

Hat Phra Nang (Yeah, it's sideways, sue me...)

One (More) Night in Bangkok

Temple of the Emerald Buddha

Back to Bangkok and sidled up to the banks of the River of Kings - check out this view from our balcony - absolutely breathtaking (Wat Arun - The Temple of Dawn)

Wat Arun

Spent the day hitting all the big temples, and getting a massage at Wat Pho, the home of the Thai massage (the real kind you pervs)... Lots of great food and the nicest people on earth - you just can't beat this place for a big city. Guys outside the temples, although harmless, try to convince you that the temple is closed for the day, not quite sure what they hope to gain, but they're full of shit. I came up with the best line ever, but in the land of non-confrontation, I decided against using it, but I'll share it here for posterity - "Hey, pal, I wasn't fucking reborn yesterday!" I love this country.

Wat Pho - Temple of the Reclining Buddha - Represents Buddha's passing into Nirvana

The Sacred City

Wat Mahathat, Ayutthaya

Former capital of the Siamese empire for over 500 years, and the most powerful city state in Southeast Asia during its heyday, Phra Nakhon Si Ayutthaya (The Sacred City of Ayuthaya) is a very interesting place. After the Burmese sacked and burned the city in 1756, the capital was moved to Bangkok and since then time seems to have forgotten this town... Ruins EVERYWHERE and nary a farang tourist in sight. Turns out learning a bit of Thai came in pretty damn handy, as people here speak little to no English for the most part. Spent all day walking through ghostly ruins filled with Buddha statues in various states of disrepair (in ridiculous heat, mind you). With hundreds of broken Angkor-era temples, you can't help but wonder what this city looked like covered in gold in its prime...

The Three Chedi of Wat Phra Si Sanphet, Ayutthaya

Elephant Caravan - Wat Phra Ram

Countly loads, take me home... USA 3, France 0

Whew! After about 48 hours in transit, a Chicago deep dish pizza, a couple sushi rolls in Tokyo, and a few heaven-sent ambien, we finally arrived in Bangkok. Getting out of our cab at midnight, the first thing I hear is a guy playing guitar on the side of the road, singing none other than sunshine on my fucking shoulder John Denver. Not the first thing you expect to hear upon disembarking 13,000 miles from home. What really gave me a chuckle was the desk clerk at the hotel singing along as we walked in - "Wet Virgina!"

Although everyone lands late in Bangkok, no one goes to bed. We headed straight for BKK party central, Khao San Rd. and proceeded to throw back Beerlaos like it was our fucking job. Ended up drinking with an interesting Frenchman named Thor til 6:30 in the morning, during which he challenged me to no less than 3 different arm wrestling matches in which I handily crushed him. Showed us a bunch of naked pics of his Indonesian ex-wife, pretty fun guy in general. Bad hangover - and I mean FUCKING bad - the next morning.

Here's a pic of my favorite place in Bangkok, and the holiest place in Theravada Buddhism, Wat Phra Kaew (The Temple of the Emerald Buddha) - absolutely mind-blowing...