On to Bangkok...

Hello everyone!

Well, Erica and I are now in Bangkok, which seems like the opposite end of the world from our last destination, Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai is small, clean, and friendly, and Bangkok is a huge city filled with people who want to scam you, smog, and a million different smells that all hit you at once; amazing curry, fish, spices, incense, and freeze dried things that you wish you couldnt smell.

We stayed at a hostel in Chiang Mai called Julie Guesthouse and were so excited when we got there, because it just looked like a ton of fun! all these pretty lounges set all over the place with tons of cool people just sitting around making friends. Needless to say, we fit in "brilliantly" and made friends with a bunch of English and Dutch people. Chiang Mai is a quaint, pretty town, and Erica's future destination when she gets her midlife crisis (or so she says...). We decided to take a 2 day trip into the mountains to go hiking, elephant riding, white water rafting, bamboo boat rafting, and to stay overnight with a hill tribe. We set out with one Brit that we had met the night before, "Q" who is a professional poker player, and an incredibly funny guy, and we met 3 more brits; Christian, Hayley, and Lorna, and that made up our group for the trip. We had so much fun with them!

First, we rode on the back of a pick up truck (it was covered though) all squished in like sardines, which probably facilitated our getting-to-know each other. We finally reached the edge of the mountains, and started our 3 hour hike (which may have actually lasted longer..). There were probably 5 incidences where I thought i was going to die from falling off the edge of the mountain, slipping when jumping onto a rock (which Erica did, but she was fine), along with a million other little death traps. I kept thinking to myself "god, they would NEVER let people do this in the US!" which was scary, but also made it that much more exciting.

I would say that the last hour of the hike was almost vertical, straight up the mountain. We could see where we had started, and really longed to be there. I dont think I have ever struggled with something more in my life, than that last hour of hiking. There was one point when both Erica and I thought about just sitting down and giving up, but then, apparently there are tigers in those hills, so we decided to press on. Christian had bought "Puma" sneakers from bangkok which fell apart mid-trek (he is gay, by the way) and so everytime his shoes would cause him to fall down, we would all yell "lady-boy down!" even though they do not call gay men "lady boys" (transvestites are lady boys) it was still pretty funny to us.

I cant tell you what a relief it was to make it to the top of the mountain, we were aching everywhere, drenched with sweat, and full of mud from slipping and sliding all over, but finally we had made it. At the very top of the mountain was a little hill tribe, and it was very much like what you would expect. Children running all over the place among cats, dogs, chickens, and black pigs. We took showered happily in freezing cold water, and then took a look around. After walking for a bit, we went back to our little house that we stayed in, and hung out with the brits, playing a new cardgame called "shithead" (I lost, and became the shithead actually), and then had dinner. Literally the BEST spring-rolls I have ever had in my entire life! We ate and ate and when we got full, we wished we could eat more because the food was so incredible! we had spring-rolls (tons of them!), curry, and this really yummy fried omellet thingy. mmm. I dont know if I'll ever have spring-rolls as good as those ever again! We watched them prepare the whole meal from scratch.

We slept on mats under mosquito nets and after our 900 hour hike, we all slept like babies! The next day, we only had a 2 hour hike to get back down the mountain. You would think that going down was better than going up, but it was a bit more difficult. this time, if you fell, you were going to keep on going down. Luckily, we made it through ok, and stopped to have a swim in a huge and really beautiful waterfall. After that hike, it was off to ride the elephants!

At first, I was sad to hear that we were only to ride the elephants for one hour, but after getting on, I realized that one hour was quite enough. We rode on little seats on top of their backs, and while it was a really fun and novel thing to do, it certainly was not a comfortable ride. but we all laughed, and took pictures of each other, and fed the elephants bananas from atop their backs.

After this (I'm sure you can sense what a long day this was already!!) We went white water rafting, which was fun, and then took a slow ride sitting and standing on bamboo rafts gliding down the rest of the river. Finally, it was time to say goodbye to our tour guide "Dean," who we had grown incredibly fond of. while we were huffing and puffing and could barely climb anymore, he was running, literally running up and down the mountain to check on us and hold our backpacks for a while.

We headed back to Chiang Mai, cleaned up, and all six of us went to dinner. Christian got some really yummy curry, but at that point, I was starting to feel a bit ill, so I went with an American classic, spagetti. We went to a restaurant that was thought was so hilarious, because of a sign outside it that said "You may not believe it, but we have the second best pizza in Chiang Mai". We asked inside who had the best pizza, but they said they didnt know... hm... Anyway, we said our goodbyes, packed up, and headed to Bangkok. By the time we got there, I was not feeling well at all, and when I woke up, I knew that I was sick.

Luckily, I came equipped with antibiotics and started taking them right away. Our first day in Bangkok, I spent 23 hours in bed, one of those hours, I tried to go out and suck it up, but i could barely speak, and was losing my ability to walk, so Erica walked around by herself, and I slept for almost the rest of the time in our hotel room.

Today, however, I'm feeling much better, not 100%, but certainly better! We went to the grand palace in Bangkok, and to Wat Pho to see the reclining buddha, the largest in the world. I was truly not expecting to see what I saw, but let me tell you, it is HUGE!! We had a tour guide in the grand palace named "Ting" and while we had to concentrate to understand everything, he was really great, and we were grateful to have had him. Then we took a nice, relaxing boat ride through the canals in Bangkok where a lot of people live and seem to drive around in boats. I was proud of Erica for taking the boat trip, since she really doesnt like speed boats, or anything like them.

Now, we are just walking around Bangkok, and I think we will see a "lady boy" show tonight, or Thai boxing, and we are off to Cambodia tomorrow!

Lauren Weitzman
"All I want is to be Googleable!"