Picking up where we left off, Muay Thai ended up being quite interesting, and certainly authentic. We'll overlook the fact Liz passed out mid-evening, or that Anderson lost 50 baht gambling, since eight fights in a row is certainly a lot to endure without distractions arising :-). Many of the fighters were very young, there was one 30kg fight between literal boys, and plenty of other battles were in the 40-45kg range. The top fight, billed as Heavyweight, was between two 90kg warriors. However, all the fights were entertaining, and while foreigners outnumbered local fans, everyone was enthusiastic and, it seemed, at least somewhat intoxicated. Singha Beer was the official stadium sponsor, and Thai culture is certainly relaxed about drinking - like Korea it is literally available everywhere.

After the Muay Thai, Blaise and Anderson ended up wandering the streets for a while, which resulted in them witnessing a stopped tuk-tuk getting smashed into by a woman on a speeding motorbike. From about 10 feet away, it definitely was a bit of a shock, and ruined any chances of them getting a ride. Thankfully the woman appeared to be alright, although she probably wasn't going to be driving anywhere for a while...
Earlier in the day we'd wandered around, stopping at a few travel shops, looking to book a "Hill Tribe Tour." There are a plethora of options here in Chiang Mai, but we wanted a lot of bang for our buck, even if it meant being uber-touristic. The tour we wanted was a one-day trip, including two hill tribes (Karen & Hmong), plus a one-hour elephant ride and a one-hour bamboo raft ride. After some price shopping, we got it down to 600 Baht/person, with Mr. Whiskey Tours. So Saturday we awoke around 7:30, sleepily showering and downing breakfast in silence. After a short walk to the travel shop, and a water pickup (sorry, no whiskey) at 7-11 (they have the best deal, 1.5 liters for 12 Baht), we were ready to go when the minivan pulled up. Our guide was a man named Po, who not only spoke excellent English, but was very fun-loving and informative once we'd warmed up to each other. First on our busy agenda was our elephant ride, which is about the most awesome way to start a day. Elephants are spectacular, and even if you're riding around on an established track, with vendors along the way selling bags of bananas

and sugarcane (20 Baht), its still an incredible ride. Liz & Luke had the cutest driver, a boy of no more than 4 or 5, who nonetheless drove the elephant with sufficient skill. The elephants have become a bit

greedy - helps sell more fruit - but how can you refuse a trunk curling up needfully in your face? With plenty of photos taken, our next stop was our the Karen village, which was empty except for pigs, chickens, a spicy chili pepper plant, and one woman selling beautiful traditional woven handicrafts. We might have bought a few, its true...


From there we did a bit of jungle walking, it was impossible to call 30 minutes on a wide path 'trekking,' but we ended up at a very nice waterfall, where we got to go swimming for a while. The water felt great in contrast to the hot, humid air, so even our guide took a dip. The swimming hole was located right at the waterfall's base, so when we would jump in the current would immediately push us downstream - not much swimming was actually required.
Our next village stop, the Hmong people, was even more touristed-out, as all we saw was a row of houses next to a row of handicrafts for sale. Thankfully lunch was next, as our stomach's were in need of sustenance. The food was actually quite delicious, always a concern on any type of package tour, but we got a decent Massaman curry, plenty of fresh veggies with fried rice, and a variety of cold beverages were available as well. The grand finale was bamboo-rafting, which ended up being pretty awesome as the river we were on at least had some semblance of rapids, and the raft drivers were more than willing to make it a good time, engaging in water and fruit fights. Yep, we were picking up fruit from the river and throwing it at each other!
Saturday night we split up, LLC going out earlier, while ABB relaxed for a while before journeying out to find food and beers around midnight. LLC perhaps lucked out, getting to watch a real elephant dance around outside the bars, keeping beat surprising well, and making some new friends who gave them a motorbike ride to Spicy, one of the biggest clubs in town for late-night dancing. ABB ended up eating tasty fried mystery meat and an equally mysterious-but-tasty fruit and vegetable dish. At least the Beer Changs were without a veil of secrecy!
Sunday we had a different animal experience, as we all piled into a songthaew in the later afternoon to go to Tiger Kingdom. Basically its a place where you pay money to be able to touch real tigers - there's a perhaps more famous Tiger Temple outside of Bangkok, however this place, only 15 minutes (versus 3 hours) away, was much more convenient, and actually turned out to be less expensive, too. Liz and Brian chose the 520 Baht "Smallest" option, while the rest of us picked "Medium" for 200 fewer Baht. So that's $10 or $16 to spend 15 minutes with real, live tigers. Yeah, we know - it was a great deal. We got to pet and pose away, the tigers were definitely awake and not drugged, they were just relaxing as the heat of the day ended. Frankly, if the tiger's were any more excited, it might have been a bit scary. Looking into their eyes (briefly), we knew they were happy yet still wild. After our time was up, we then got to watch an employee play with a group of five juvenile tigers, who were more than happy to chase after a toy on a stick, wrestling with each other the whole time. They'd jump into a big pool of water, pull on each other's necks and tails, and do a multitude of other cute things. Getting to watch tigers at play from so close (10 feet, just separated by a chain-link fence) was arguably cooler than actually touching the tigers - a cat feels like a cat no matter how big it is.



Last night was then spent wandering about, and we ended up having a chance midnight meet-up (of our different wandering groups) at a fried insect stand outside the local gay bars. The infamous ABB combo was bold enough to try grasshoppers and frogs, with Blaise even downing a cricket. They were all without doubt nasty, however the fact that enormous roaches and other 'tree bugs' were also available meant we were actually being pretty tame. It's not like we're on 'Man Vs. Wild' or anything over here - our lunch today at Subway (daily special 6" sandwich = 59 Baht) was very satisfying! The gay bars were understandably lowkey on a Sunday night, though the pulsating electronic dance music and the lady-boy bartender made for quite the atmosphere. We were surprised to hear some of our own favorite songs, 'Dhoom Utchali' from India, as well as 'Tell Me' & 'Nobody' from Korea, blasting on the stereo - though the bar-staff swore they were Thai in origin. A song's still a song even if the name's wrong...
Today's been a day of relaxation, though Luke & Christine are currently at the Chiang Mai zoo, and we remaining boys made a ticket run to the train station, but we've mostly been reading, writing, and packing for our 9pm overnight train back to Bangkok. Unfortunately sleeper class wasn't available this time around, so we're just going to have to stay up most of the night - good thing we're oh so flexible! Tuesday will be spent doing final biking preparation, and then Brian will fly out Wednesday afternoon, so hopefully we can get a decent night of sleep Wednesday before our planned departure early Thursday morning. We want to leave early to beat both the heat and the traffic, almost half of our first day will be escaping metro-Bangkok - wish us luck on that, please!
For a different perspective on our travels, make sure to check out Blaise's blog: Keep On Keepin' On. It's been added to our link list for easy accessibility, just make sure to be ready to laugh while you read, since his writing is definitely quite hilarious!
There is also a new Holiday Fu article up, called 24 Hours in Bangkok, while a Chiang Mai/Muay Thai piece is also in production. To give fair warning, these articles are definitely much more gritty and 'real' than this blog, if you want to keep viewing our adventures through Disney-glasses, then you should probably stick to the blog only :-).

Peace A&E&posse

On Tuesday we finally realized our dream of laying eyes on the Reclining Buddha at Wat Pho. Part of a massive temple complex, that looks like the set from the as-yet-unfilmed Candyland film, the statue itself is housed in an enormous building. Truly, the magnitude of this religious icon is done no justice by our photos - it is simply giant. Representing the moment when the Buddha obtained nirvana, the entire Wat is very peaceful and serene, despite the omnipresent camera flashes. The remainder of the temple complex, besides being a bit complex to navigate, was also impressive, full of brightly colored spires, devotional halls with Buddha statues, and plenty of gardens to relax, contemplate, or meditate.
We did manage to wander about a bit during the rest of the day, getting traditional Thai massages in the morning, and in the evening stopping at the massively modern MBK Building where we purchased some business cards; however, our evening plans of going out were waylaid by an UNO-filled evening and a relatively early pass out. Wednesday became a bit of a business day, with us dividing up be more productive. Anderson & Luke headed to the train station to purchase our overnight tickets to Chiang Mai, while Brian, Blaise & Liz did a little cycling and suit shopping. We all reconvened mid-afternoon, loaded up our packs, and journeyed across town for our 6pm train. The key problem with traveling right now is that all of our baggage is optimized for bicycle travel, not land travel, so currently we have to awkwardly carry panniers and dry sacks slung over our shoulders!
The train was waiting at the station when we arrived, so after purchasing some important provisions, like whiskey and chips, we got onboard. 2nd Class A/C was definitely quite nice, our benches handily converting into beds for sleeping. We got dinner, not too bad at a deal at 150 Baht if the taste of the generic curries could be ignored. Everyone on the train went to bed pretty early, as did we when exhaustion kicked in around 10pm. We awoke at 6am, the congested city of Bangkok having been exchanged for lush, green mountainsides. Breakfast arrived soon, tasting somewhat better than dinner, so far as a cheese, lettuce, and tomato sandwich can. Disembarking, we avoided a few hotel touts, before taking a Songthaew to a somewhat randomly selected lane outside of the main tourist ghetto. Without a destination, we just divided up and checked out several guesthouses before settling on Finlay Bed & Breakfast, which at 250 Baht/person including breakfast and A/C, was definitely in our price range.
Given that our train arrived only a little while after 7 am, we were excited to actually have a full day of adventure ahead of us. The tricky part was figuring out what to do! Chiang Mai is known for its temples, and for being more relaxed than Bangkok, but it is still a large city with over one million people. So at first we considered renting some bicycles, but after talking to another traveler who was staying at our hotel, we decided that scooters, or motorbikes as they are known here, would be a better bet. More fun, only slightly more cost, and the ability to travel well up into the surrounding hills clinched it for us.

After some bartering, we got four automatic scooters for 850 Baht, which included helmets, one liter of petrol, and insurance in case anything unfortunate were to arise. Not to ruin the end of this blog post, but we didn't need the insurance, thankfully. We'd heard that there was a fantastic temple 16km west of Chiang Mai that also would provide splendid city views. First, however, we spent time cruising around the city, getting used to being on the left-hand side of the road, and checking out a few other temples we'd read about in Lonely Planet. After a few wrong turns, and a bit of circling about, we found ourselves at Wat Phra Singh, an immense Wat full of impressive imagery and icons, as well as a large garden area with a plethora of Buddhist sayings in Thai and English.


We thought there were plenty of Buddhas about, but our next destination, Wat Chiang Man, was practically overflowing with statues of Buddha. We find it iconically ironic (or ironically iconic?) that Buddha didn't want himself worshipped as an idol, and yet Thai Buddhists did not get that memo apparently! But the statuary were all impressive, almost always at least flaked in gold, and in plenty of positions. Reclining, fasting, teaching, praying, etc. were all represented, sometimes in the same hall. Monks were usually about as well, so chanting could be heard as we walked and gawked.
Elephants played a predominate theme as well as other animals, but the former were stone while the latter were live cats and dogs.

In between those two temples we enjoyed a delicious Thai lunch, full of pad thai and some spicy local noodles. We also went overboard on beverages, our table full of 25 Baht smoothies and shakes. We gotta fight dehydration whenever we can, as the humidity here is infinitely more draining than you'd think. Next up on the agenda was the long ascent into the hills to Doi Suthep temple. The climb was slow, even on motorbike, as getting past 40km/hr proved difficult. The endless S-curves were quite enjoyable, though we were glad that the weather was clear as it definitely could've been dangerous otherwise.


We stopped briefly at a lookout point, for the prerequisite photos, as well as an icy lemon juice, before driving up the last few kilometers. At this point the clouds all around us startled to drizzle a bit, and we were more than happy to scurry up the temples 305 steps to shelter. Thirty Baht later we were walking about barefoot and amazed. Seriously, the number of collection boxes requesting donations practically outnumbered the Buddhas, and the Buddhas numbered in the thousands. Of all shapes and sizes, the coup de grace was the stunning Emerald Buddha.




For added effect, the skies literally opened up as we arrived in its presence, rain pouring all over the gold-encrusted and under-construction central pagoda nearby. Thankfully a respite came soon enough, and we were able to emerge only damp and hungry. A nearby noodle and rice restaurant recharged us for our descent down the mountain, and despite being splattered by raindrops we rode our way down. We pulled over about halfway, since we wanted to ride an extra 3km to see a signposted waterfall.


While pausing momentarily at the entrance gate, Mother Nature took control again, and the true monsoonal onslaught began. Monsoon rain might not always fall hard, but when it pours out from the sky it drenches everything in its path. You don't get wet when you walk around in it, you simply become soaked instantly.

Our plan of waiting out the rain failed, as darkness started to become an issue, so despite the downpour we drove deep into a valley, curving around on a small road. The waterfall paled in comparison to the journey, for riding out of the valley bordered on downright danger. Steep hills, both up and down, were slick beyond belief, and at times our shoes became additional brake pads. Thankfully we emerged unscathed, able to laugh at our predicament, but the relief when we finally reentered Chiang Mai, and conveniently simultaneously departed the storm, was palpable. Despite getting separated, we all managed to wind our way back to our hotel decently effectively. We did definitely get some looks, as foreigners on the roads at night are pretty rare.

Dinner was pizza, and we managed to find more of the doxycycline (for malaria) that we all need at the low, low price of three Baht/pill, so the night was a definite success, too. Drinking beers and listening to music at our hotel made a pleasant nightcap to a day full of Thai adventure. Today, Friday, the plan is to lay low in general, but tonight we're going to go to a Muay Thai fight. We're not exactly fight fans (but then, we're not necessarily all Ping-Pong fans but that didn't stop us from seeing the infamous show while in Bangkok), though the spectacle alone, plus the fact it's an authentic local experience, should definitely make it worth it.

More news soon for sure,
Peace
A&E&L&B&B&C

While we laid low on Friday night, we've ended up having a couple of crazy Bangkok days and nights since. Without divulging TOO much information, our Saturday involved the interesting dichotomy of the large traditional Chatuchak Market during the day, and some late-night adult and club adventures at night. The market was sprawling and quite impressive, not only for the variety of goods available, but also for how friendly all the sellers were. The market was quite clean, mostly devoid of gross odors, and our lunch there was delicious. Anderson's written an article about our experiences, that obviously goes into much more detail, so hopefully that will be available on Holiday Fu shortly.
Since we stayed up until past 8am, the majority of Sunday was spent in slumber, not-so-easy given the heat and humidity, but we all managed to sleep pretty well nonetheless. Sunday night we headed back to the airport to pick up Blaise, and so by about midnight our entire team was officially assembled. Of course we (again) stayed up late, but that's pretty much our MO until the cycling begins.
Yesterday we were again up for the challenge of exploring Bangkok's sprawling sites. We rode the SkyTrain across the city to the Chao Phraya River, where we boarded a public boat.


For only 30 baht we rode up about a third of the river, disembarking quite near the infamous Khao San Road. Other than plenty of touts, and the typical tourist ghetto wares, there wasn't really much going on, so we hopped into some tuk-tuks to see some temples. We tolerantly agreed to endure some sales pitches at a tailor shop and a massive gem store, in exchange for a free ride. Our drivers were great young guys, so the whole experience was pretty fun, since we knew what we were getting ourselves into.
We saw the much-hyped "Big Buddha," at Wat Indravihan, although what we wanted to see was the reclining Buddha at Wat Pho - we're planning on heading there sometime soon.
After our temple tour, we decided that Blaise needed to experience the seedier side of Bangkok, so the tuk-tuk drivers dropped us off at a non-descript building in some random neighborhood. Inside was the infamous Ping-Pong Show. Use your imagination, and then some, and you'll get a rough idea of what was going on. Needless to say, it was at times very far from sexual, like a low-budget Cirque Du Soleil involving certain female body parts. Not exactly entertaining, but certainly intriguing. We summed it up as something your curiosity forces you to see once, but you'd definitely never go again. Definitely.