Lovin' Life on Lombok (part II)

After finally arriving in Bali, I headed out to Lombok to meet up with Mary, Hari, and Steve. Now I was a little MIA for awhile (my bus from Mt Bromo, a volcano in eastern Java, broke down while in a town with no cell phone capablities let alone internet so I was a day late getting to Bali. I was not able to contact Hari/Mary so they were obviously getting pretty worried. But I lived to tell the tale and made it to Lombok alive, but a day late). Lombok is what people say Bali used to be like ten years ago - a quiet beach island, not flooded with tourists or crazy clubs. But since we were in Indonesia during rainy season we did get a lot of rain, especially while on Lombok.

I had brought some friends I met in Java with me to Lombok and on our first day on the island we all got motobikes and went out to a local beach to go surfing. As the rain began to pour down we abandoned our misson and instead visited a small village on the island. There we learned about the local weaving that is done on the island, which is a way that many people make money. We also spent some time meeting the local village people and children. Back at Senggigi Beach we quickly discovered a great happy hour, they cleverly called CRAZY TIME! just a minute walk from our hostel. Some spicy red curry and several mai-tais later and we were ready to party. It was really great to have Steve back with the crew and we definately celebrated that night.

The next day Steve and I checked out the Sengiggi beach since it was nice out. We spent the day just laying in the sun, playing Jenga, drinking fancy drinks, and then avoiding the storm that soon rolled in. Ahh the rain. That night Steve departed the island bound to go home to America so when he left it was just the threesome back together again.

We woke up the next morning and decided to again take out our motobikes and explore this beautiful island by going north. After we took off the sky opened up on us and we were stranded at Monsoon Point, named the day earlier by Hari and Mary, and were forced into our rainstorm hut. There are small huts all over the island becasuse quick rainstorms happen so often, but they only last about 10 minutes. Sharing the hut with us was an Indonesian man carrying a rather large saska. Let's just say we got out of there as soon as the sky cleared. We continued north around the island and it seemed that at every turn in the road there was another breathtaking view. I was just enjoying the beautiful scenery that the island had to offer. This island is really something to see. Eventually we turned and started heading east into Monkey Forest. The road through Monkey Forest was very lush and filled with trees and yes, monkeys. We all know how I feel about monkeys (see China monkey blog entry) but for some reason I did stop to take a picture of a monkey when he suddenly began to charge at me. Luckily I had stayed on my bike to take the picture and was able to get out of there quickly. Further along the road we encountered a line of cars and bikes, after some investigation we realized that a huge tree had fallen across the road and men with large chainsaws were attempting to cut it up so that bikes could pass. After waiting about 15 minutes they had carved up enough of the tree to pass and we were on our way. After we returned to Senggigi I took off for a while on my bike to do some exploration of my own. I came across a small village where I stopped to play with some of the kids. It seems that cockroach on a string is the next big toy for young kids.

For our last day on the island we actually decided to rent a car because we really wanted get to the northern most part of the island. This car was a minivan and the three of us felt like school kids on a roadtrip, complete with snacks and good tunes. There were a few random tapes in the car and one of them just happened to have good music on it. That day we cruised around the island, saw some waterfalls and local villages. For the sunset we pulled over at a village and suddenly the car sank into a mud pit!! We could not get the car out and soon the entire village was over by our car to watch us. The village men got together and pulled, pushed and put wood under the cars wheels to get us out. While the boys worked I talked to the villagers and took pictures. That was our last day in Lombok and we left for Gili Air the next day.

Bali and Lombok, Indonesia (Part I)

Indonesia is the world´s 4th most populated country after China, India, and USA. Kind of hard to believe when you just glance at a map, the cluster of islands doesn´t appear to comprise that large of a country but looks can be deceiving; Indonesia 17,508 islands are home to 237+ million people. How would we possible decide which of these islands to visit in only a few weeks?

Well, Hari and I started with probably the most well-known island: Bali. I´m sad to say that we were both disappointed with our first choice. For me, Bali had always been built up in my head as the epitome of island paradise, but it was quite different than I had imagined. We arrived late in the evening and headed to Kuta Beach, the backpacker hub. We drove past huge shopping malls covered in advertisements for Cartier and Louis Vuitton. There was even a Planet Hollywood, not exactly the Bali that I had pictured in my mind. I knew that Bali is a tourist hot-spot but I guess I more pictured it as a small, sand covered island. I did not expect the city center to be so developed. Nevertheless, I still couldn´t wait to get to the beach scene. We got to our hotel just after 11pm, dropped off our bags, and went down the road 5 minutes to the beach. Sadly, it was covered in trash. Covered. We learned that because it was low season the tides changed and washed garbage onto the beaches. We didn´t let this get us down, though.

The next morning we got out early on motorbikes to explore other parts of the island. Fortunately we did find some really cool secluded beaches, coves, and cliffs, but again there was so much garbage covering the beaches and in the water. Bali is a big island, and I know I did not see all of it, so hopefully we just had some bad luck and missed out on the good beaches. We were also there in low season so I hope it is nicer and cleaner in high season. We did some research and asked around and decided to cut out stay on Bali short and head to Lombok the next morning, another island just a 30 minute flight away.

A definite highlight of Bali, though, was unexpectedly meeting up with my dive team buddies from Koh Tao, Steve and Matt! We actually knew that they would be in Bali but we did not plan on meeting anywhere specifically. I had sent them an email telling them the name of our hotel and surely enough after we had gotten back from exploring and were relaxing/taking showers and such, our room phone rang; Steve and Matt were standing in our lobby. We were so excited that they found us, we all went to dinner to catch up. They told me and Hari of their Cambodia experiences (they had some crazy stories) and we caught them up on our diving trip to the Similans. After dinner we all went to town and hit up some bars. We did get to stop and see the site of the 2002 bombings that killed 202 people. The memorial was very nicely done, it listed the names of everyone who had died and their nationalities. While it was a sombre sight, it was surrounded by bustling shops, restaurants, and bars that gave a positive vibe that despite the tragedy that occured there, Bali is still thriving and will not let the past bring it down. We had a great night with Steve and Matt and were glad we got to see them again.

The next morning Hari and I got our stuff together and went to catch our short flight to Lombok. As we were sitting in the airport waiting to board we saw Steve walking towards us - the evening before we tried to convince him to come to Lombok with us (Matt couldn´t come, he was heading back to the States) and he decided to come along. So in his hungover state he trudged to the airport and got on our same flight. After an extremely turbulent but short flight, we landed in Lombok. This island was much more what we were looking for - the center of town was not at all touristy and really authentic feeling, the island was covered in green palm trees and forests, and the black sanded beaches were lined with people watching surfers riding the huge waves. We found a cute guesthouse near Kuta beach and spent the day exploring and watching the surfers, they were awesome.

Over the next few days we rented motorbikes (I told you that we are all about motorbiking) and drove all around the island, through the main town and the lush palm tree forests. There was just so much to see, it is one of the most beautiful islands I have ever been to. After Sarah´s Malaysia adventure, we all agreed to meet on Lombok. After a few days her flight landed and she, Hari, Steve, and I were reunited. It was great to all be together again. I´ll let Sarah pick it up from here and tell you about the rest of our time on Lombok...

Similan Islands, Thailand

As I have mentioned, Hari and I very quickly became scuba diving addicts. We loved Koh Tao and diving in the Gulf of Thailand, but while we were there we couldn´t stop hearing all about the Similan Islands which are located in the Andaman Sea off the west coast of Thailand. Since we were already planning on going to Phuket for a few days, we could not pass up the opportunity to head to the Similans, which were just a few hours from the mainland. Plus as things between us were getting serious, we wanted to spend some more time together on what became known as ¨The Honeymoon¨.

After a few days on the beaches of Phuket, we did a bit of research at some of the local dive shops and found out that a live aboard dive boat is really the only way to go to see the Similan dive sites. Day trips are possible, but we wanted to spend some more time and see as much as possible. We signed up with South Siam Divers for a 5 day/4 night dive trip where we would be able to get in 19 dives. We could not wait.

From Phuket we took a 1 hr mini-bus to the port where we boarded a speed boat that would take us out 1.5 hrs to our home for the next 5 days, SSD3. The speed boat ride was rough, so bumpy that several people on the boat got sea sick. Luckily, Hari and I both have strong stomachs so we made it to the dive boat unscathed. As soon as we arrived at the SSD3, we met the crew, dive masters, and the rest of the divers. The boat was quite small, about 35 people total, but really cozy and comfortable. The lower deck had a large dive deck for all the equipment where we would wet suit up before getting into the water, the middle deck had tables and benches where we would eat and just hang out, and the top deck was lined with lounge chairs to relax on in the sun inbetween dives. All of the cabins were either on the same level or below the lower deck and they were quite nice; we didn´t expect much since most of our time would be spent in the water, but we were pleasantly surprised at the quality of the rooms.

Now let´s get down to business - within an hour of arriving we were getting ready for our first dive. Vincent, the head dive master, gave us a briefing about the dive site and got us excited for everything we were about to see. He said conditions were excellent and improving everyday. The water was a bit warmer than Koh Tao, 27°C, blue unlike I have ever seen, and so clear; even from the top deck of the boat you could see down several meters. So we wasted no time and got right into the water with our dive team and Stefanie, our dive master who would lead us around the sites. Stefanie was great, she simply acted as a leader to show us the best parts of the dive sites and gave us freedom to go off with our buddies to explore. She has over 3,000 dives and is only in her mid-20s! I strive to be her someday...

We jumped in, descended, and immediately knew why everyone had told us that the Similan Islands are some of the best dive sites in the world...the visibility was 30+ meters, unbelievable to be able to see everything even from so far away. And the coral formations were spectacular, some were easily the size of a house. I thought Koh Tao was great and this put it to shame (don´t get me wrong, I still love Koh Tao and the diving there is awesome). The acquatic life was incredible and the colors were absolutely brilliant. We were constantly surrounded by schools of fish and saw fish that are considered rare during every dive. Hari and I were like kids in a candy store during every dive, we kept grabbing each other´s arm or leg to signal that there was a massive parrotfish or a coral formation covered in Christmas Tree Coral which look like tiny, colorful trees growing out of hard coral that go into hiding if you wave your hand in front of them.

Our lives for the next 5 days pretty much followed this schedule: up at 6am for a beautiful sunrise, dive, breakfast, dive, take our small dingy to a private island where we were the only people to hang out for an hour, dive, lunch, relax on the top deck of the boat and jump off 10 meters to cool off in the water, dive, dinner, beautiful sunset, dive, hang out for a bit, bed. Like I said, it´s a good life.

There definitely are many highlights of our time at the Similan dive sites, but I´ll go through a few (in no particular order):
#1: One afternoon while hanging out on the top deck inbetween dives we saw some huge sea turtles just swimming around the boat. Everyone ran down to the dive deck to see them closer and the crew started throwing bananas into the water, sea turtles love bananas. They were so relaxed and friendly that we jumped into the water and they would eat the bananas right out of our hands and swim all around us, they were so cool.
#2: Hari and I were on a shark hunt during our dives, we made it our mission to find sharks, as neither of us saw any in Koh Tao. During one dive I turned my head ever so slightly and saw 2 massive (at least 2 meters long each) leopard sharks just lying on the bottom of the ocean. They are not aggressive towards humans, so we were able to get within a few meters of them and just checked them out for a few minutes, it was very exciting to see them up-close and we were lucky enough to see several leopard sharks over the 5 day period.
#3: We learned in our dive courses about nitrogen narcosis, which occurs when diving at extreme depths. Essentially, you get a little bit of nitrogen poisoning which makes you feel and act a little bit high. It sounds dangerous and it is, but as long as you are not too deep for too long and stay with your buddy it really is not that big of a deal. All the dive masters talked it up and said it is actually kind of fun, but neither of us had ever been deep enough to get narced. Then we went on a really deep dive. Thirty-eight meter deep. I started to feel it and looked at Hari who signaled to me via hand wave that he was a bit loopy. It felt kind of strange, I was giggling a little bit into my regulator, but it wasn´t that intense that either of us worried. We were only down that deep for a few minutes and as soon as we ascended to a safer depth we were both fine again. It was interesting to feel the narcosis that we had heard about but there is really no need to dive that deep when there is so much to see at 20 meters.
#4: The highlight of all highlights, manta ray day. We went to one dive site that is known for being home to manta rays. We didn´t want to get our hopes up too high and be disappointed if we didn´t see any, but once again the Similans did not disappoint...they delivered, oh they delivered more than we could have ever imagined. During this one dive we saw at least 6 massive mantas, I´m talking 6+ meters wingspan massive. They were just swimming all around us, it was as if they were putting on a show for us and knew how excited we all were to be seeing them so closely. They hovered around us for a solid 45 minutes, we didn´t even really explore much of the dive site, as we all just stationed where we were and looked all around us to see them so gracefully swimming around. It was almost like huge airplanes flying above us, they would block out the sun completely when they were above us and all we could see was their huge wingspan. Hari was the luckiest one during this dive, at one point he was just hovering and one of the mantas swam directly above him, he had to be less than a meter away. Stefanie had an underwater dive camera and got the whole thing on video, it was awesome. After the manta swam away everyone at the dive site did some underwater clapping, Hari was the star of the day.

Needless to say again, I obviously loved the Similans and could go on for hours about them. If you are a diver spend the money and go there, you will not regret it. In addition to having 19 incredible dives during our 5 day stay on SSD3, we met some really cool people and got to go to some beautiful secluded Thai islands. It was definitely 5 of the best days I´ve ever had.

Patriot Games

While Mary and Hari were on their 'honeymoon' scuba diving in the Similian Islands I headed south to Malaysia. I really enjoyed my time in Malaysia. It was quite refreshing to be away from all the 'package tourists' that were on the islands in Thailand and to be somewhere really new and different. Malaysia is a country made primarily of Chinese, Indian, and Malaysian people. Each of the cities I visited had their own China Town or Little India. I was in Malaysia during the end of the Chinese New Year so the cities were in full celebration mode.
I arrived in the evening in my first Malaysian city, Panang, a city known for its food. The streets were packed with food stalls, red lanterns, and people. There was a huge parade that night packed with children doing a ridiculous synchronised drumming set (think smaller version of Olympic opening ceremonies in China), dancers, and floats. Lots of food, drinking, and general happiness filled the streets and the town enjoyed the festivities of their New Year. I enjoyed lots of food- cookies, candies, beer, dumplings, some strange duck meat noodle concoction, cookies, and more beers. Yes in that order. Good times. Good times.

The next day I was off to explore the city, I walked along the city's Heratige Trail looking at the historic sites, the Khoo Kongs Temple, went into some art and photo galleries. The city is so old that many of the buildings date back to the 1800s. I happened upon Little India and knew it right away with the incense filling the streets, women walking around in bright colored saris, Hindi writing on all the store fronts, and Indian music blaring out of huge speakers out on the sidewalks. Welcome to Little India. For lunch accidental I walked into a packed restaurant that serves the best beef soup in all of Panang. It is so good in fact that it is the only thing on the menu. I sat with two guys that work for the government in Malaysia. I got into a fascinating discussion about politics and Obama, what the election means to the Malaysian government and the positive affects that they have already seen in their government (younger guys running for office, general hope that bigger changes regarding parties or candidate's now being given consideration). The conversation really stayed with me.
The next day I took off on a motorbiking trip with two guys I had met at the bars the night before (Holland, France). One guy had lived in Malaysia for years and he knew all the secret spots to take us. We started off with a traditional Jim Sung breakfast of dumplings then rode to the nearby beach. From there we took a scenic drive and hiked down some crazy jungle type hill where I was eaten alive by spiders type things, but we eventually made it to the river we were searching for and had a swim. We stopped at a roadside fruit stand to eat some of the local spiky fruit that the Chinese say "Tastes like heaven, smells like hell". Our day continued onto a small local village where we encountered local Malay fisherman in the middle of an illegal card game (illegal in this country to gamble, they even had spotters watching out for cops). We joined in the game and they got a kick out of the fact that I am a girl playing with them. The fun slowed a bit as we started to win money, their money. I started to make larger bets in hopes to loose my money because I realized we couldn't leave until we broke even. Eventually we were even and we able to get out of the game. The next stop was at the village faire for dinner and I got distracted playing with all the little kids that were following me around yelling "hello" at me. I love playing with the local children in villages. It was really a very special day for me.

Koh Tao: Wet Suit Up!

Paradise. As much as I love big cities, I am a beach bum at heart and had been anxious to get to the Thai islands. Koh Tao is one of the 3 major islands off the east coast of Thailand. Ferries run between Koh Tao, Koh Phangan (famous for the Full Moon party), and Koh Samui at all hours of the day so it is common for travelers to island hop. We started off on Tao, but I never actually made it to the other islands as I intended because I fell in love...I will get to that more later.

Tao is renowned for it´s world class scuba diving. Not only is the water crystal clear and the acquatic life incredible, but it is one of the most inexpensive places in the world to dive. So naturally people come from all over for their Open Water, Advanced, and Dive Master licenses. I had been looking forward to getting my Open Water certification since Plan B was born, so as soon as I arrived on the island I signed up for classes at Buddha View Dive Resort. Unfortunately, Sarah would not be able to join me...she hurt her eardrum while tubing in Vang Vieng and could not dive because of the under water pressure. I was bummed that I would not be able to buddy up with my partner in crime, but she kept her spirits up and enjoyed the many beaches Tao has to offer while I was taking my classes.

I started off in the classroom for a day, learning all about how depth affects water pressure, air density, and heat. One of the first things you learn is that you always dive with a buddy and since Sarah couldn´t join me, I buddied up with one of the guys in my dive class, Steve - Steve, Matt, and Jake are from Seattle and were traveling through Thailand and Cambodia for a month. We immediately hit it off, shared travel stories and Sarah, Hari, and I were able to give them tons of advice on Cambodia since that was their next stop. After our classroom sessions were complete and we passed all of our written tests, our Fab 4 dive team (Steve, Matt, Jake, and I) hit the water.

Day 1 was pool sessions which are not the most exciting things in the world, but you have to ease into it and learn the way the equipment works and get used to the concept of breathing under water. It. Was. So. Cool. At first it does feel a little unnatural (especially with all the heavy equipment on), but after just a few minutes I kind of forgot that I was under water and was having the best time. We learned how to clear our masks, read our gauges, use our regulators, and went through emergency training if something were to happen to our air tanks under water and we needed to share air tanks with our buddy. It was all the technical stuff, but it is absolutely mandatory for any diver to know so even though we weren´t yet seeing anything exciting, we were learning necessary skills.

Day 2 my dive team finally got into the ocean. We took the dive boat out to the site, wet suited up (that one is for you, Lis and NPH), and hit the water. It was amazing: 26°C, 20m+ visibility in the tropical blue ocean. As soon as we descended just a few meters I could see beautiful coral and brilliantly colorful tropical fish - butterfly fish, angel fish, moray eels, trigger fish (keep your distance - they are territorial, temperamental, and just plain mean), blue-spotted sting rays, clown fish (Nemos), nudi branches, batfish, barracudas, and so many more. It was simply beautiful. My eyes remained wide open the whole time, every time I turned my head I saw another amazing fish or coral formation. After we completed our underwater skills tests in the ocean, Steve, Matt, Jake, and I were officially Open Water (OW) certified divers.

On day 3 the real diving began. Since we had passed all of our tests it was time to fun dive. We descended to 15 meters and followed our dive master around the dive site to explore. Again, so many tropical fish everywhere and got to get really close to the coral to see all of the tiny fish and nudi branches that lived inside. Everything was just beautiful. Since I was now OW certified, I could finally dive with Hari who got his OW certification earlier in Vietnam. We were both very quickly addicted to diving and got in the water at any opportunity that we could. While I was getting my OW license, Hari completed his Advanced course and he convinced me to do the same. So only one day after I had my OW certification, I decided to keep diving and signed up for and started my Advanced classes.

During my Advanced OW course, I learned peak performance buoyancy skills, under water navigation (using an under water compass to navigate dive sites), completed my first deep dive (30 meters) and went on my first night dive with Hari as my buddy. Night diving is so cool, at first I was a little freaked out to go down 20 meters in the pitch black with nothing but a small torch to find my way around; but as soon as I got in the water and started swimming around I loved it. At night many fish that you cannot see during the day are out and we even got to watch barracuda hunting. We shone our torches on their prey and once I was lucky enough to watch a barracuda swallow a small fish in one quick bite, it was very exciting. When we ascended to the surface there were millions of brilliant stars shining above us, it was kind of a surreal experience and one that I will never forget.

Aside from diving, Koh Tao has tons of tiny beaches off small dirt roads and trails. Sarah rented a motorbike and checked out many of the beaches during the day and got in some snorkeling at the shallower dive sites. When I wasn´t diving I was soaking up the rays, relaxing, and enjoying the peaceful scenes. At sunset everyone seemed to congregate at Eazy Bar, oh how we loved Eazy Bar. It was right on the beach and had a small deck with pillows to lounge on while enjoying a Tiger beer and listening to excellent classic rock/reggae music - everything from Bob Marley to Pink Floyd to Pearl Jam. Every night, one of the guys who worked at the bar would practice poi, the Thai art of fire juggling/dancing. This guy was mesmerizing, he so gracefully twirled around lit fireballs on the ends of approx. 1 meter long chains for hours. He is a poi master. Everyone at the bar just watched in awe, he made it look so easy to be playing with fire.

Now earlier I said that I fell in love. This has multiple meanings - I fell in love with the island; I fell in love with scuba diving; and I fell in love with Hari. We had been close friends through good old Citigroup in NY for 3 years, but we were always ¨just friends¨. After we started traveling together in Vietnam, something happened along the way and we both started looking at each other differently. It is kind of cliché, but there was something magical about Koh Tao that made us realize that love was staring us right in the face for 3 years. Sparks flew. We finally ended up together and it felt so natural and just so right. I had intended on going to Koh Samui but we were so content on Tao and with diving that we stayed put. Sarah witnessed everything develop first-hand and knew that this wasn´t just some little fling, so she went to Samui for a few days while Hari and I stayed behind to spend more time together. In those few days, things intensified and we decided that we weren´t yet ready to part ways as we originally had planned. We stayed on Tao a bit longer and then sadly left our island paradise to head west to Phuket to reunite with Sarah and check out the west coast.

The beaches of Phuket were beautiful but overall none of us were really fans of Phuket - in my personal opinion, it is too developed, too touristy, and lacked any sort of real Thai culture. It is really just a crowded tourist beach. But we still made the best of it and found one really cool beach, Karon, away from the crowds. It was really interesting to see Phuket post-tsunami, there were evacuation signs and routes posted everywhere. We only stayed a few days and after that the 3 of us discussed future travel plans and routes. Being dive addicts, Hari and I really wanted to go out to the Similan Islands off the west coast of Thailand and Sarah decided to head south to Malaysia, so again we temporarily parted ways. Of course none of this was expected, but all these surprises are just part of the adventure...

Bangkok

Hari, Mary, and I arrived in Bangkok on night bus coming in from Chiang Mai. We were dropped off right in the thick of things on Khao San Rd. Khan San Rd is where most backpackers spend their time buying loads of cheap crap from cool tee-shirts, fake Ray Bans, fake IDs, yummy pancakes, street stall Pad-Thai, and amazing fresh squeezed orange juice (Hari was a huge fan). To sum it up, if it can be copied to look like the real thing, you can find it on Khao San Rd.
Our first day was unfortunately spent at the Bangkok Hospital where I was having my ear looked at to see if 1. Everything with my ear was OK and healing (yes) and 2. If I could get certified for SCUBA diving in Koh Tao (no). The Bangkok Hospital was one of the best I have ever seen, the ear specialist I saw even put a video camera scope into my ear to show me exactly how my ear looked with a small hole in the ear drum and what a normal ear looks like. Top notch treatment despite the disappointing outcome regarding diving.

That evening we went out for a night in Bangkok - enjoyed some amazing pad-thai from our street lady who made the best pad-thai in all of Thailand, then we went to a few bars for drinks, buckets, and dancing. Hari and Mary, whose relationship was getting more and more serious, spent the evening dancing the night away.

So the next day we set out to see the city sites. We went to go see the City Palace and the trusting folks that we are, we believed an official looking guy standing near the Palace that told us that the Palace was closed for the afternoon and would be open later in the evening. He casually suggested that we take a boat cruise from one of the main canals to the Wat Arun. After a quick trip along the canals we realized we had been royally ripped off . Never take a canal cruise in Bangkok... Wat Arun is a Khmer Temple with a huge tower that is covered in porcelain. Beautiful porcelain flowers in all colors covered the temple, very unique looking. There we met some local students studying English and they requested an interview with us to practice and ask us some questions. These girls were so cute and shy with their English but did a great job. The interview was one of the three others I would do for students through out my next few days in Bangkok as we realized that there were loads of students doing these interviews around the city. After Wat Arun it was off to the Nine Wonders of Wat Pho. This Wat contains the famous reclining Buddha which lays more then 150ft long and is a beautiful gold with mother of pearl feet. Of all the Buddha's that I saw throughout Asia, this one is probably my favorite. To complete our day of Wat´s it was off to Wat Inthrawihan to see the standing Buddha.

The next day we went to finally see the Royal Palace. The place is huge and contains loads of wats inside. The most important Buddhist wat in all of Thailand is the Temple of the Emerald Buddha which is located in the Royal Palace. The Emerald Buddha is made of jade and is stunning. The wat was filled with monks chanting while they looked at the jade Buddha beauty. The Buddha was dressed in its rain costume (it has different costumes that change throughout the year). The Palace grounds were stunning and quite massive with all the different wat's to explore
That night Hari and Mary took off for Koh Tao to start their SCUBA diving classes, introductory and advanced. I stayed in the city an extra day to take in the sites before I met them on the island. I took a local bus out to Bangkok's China Town to enjoy the shops, food stalls, and some amazing shrimp seafood served to me on the street corner. It was a little like being in China again, with the strange smells, unidentifiable foods, dumplings, candies, and the Chinese language being spoken.

On my last day in Bangkok I broke out of the tourist circuit to just walk around the city and explore. I walked for a couple hours around the outskirts stopping along the way to play with some local children, get coffee in some small cafes, figure out where I was on the map, and just reflecting on the trip. I went to get a Thai massage in some small shop and they pretty much kicked the crap out of me, which is what you want in a massage. After that I was off to Koh Tao...

Mo

In memory of my little man, I am sorry I couldn't be there for you during your last months. I will miss you so much as you have been part of my life and our family for 15 long years... I will miss my cat calls to you 'meer mo' and you come running, your tire sniffing, your gopher killing, your favorite blanket obsession, how you were the fattest cat ever, your shade laying, how much you loved getting brushed, how you always thought the perfect place to lay down was on the paper or book I was reading, your immediate purring capabilities, your constant eating, even your cat meows (alright those did get annoying sometimes). You will always be my little man and will have a place in my heart. I love you and will miss you very much.

Pai, Thailand

After our elephant excursion we decided to go about 3 hours north of Chang Mai to Pai, a small, laid-back hippie town in the mountains. We heard from fellow backpackers that the drive to Pai on motorbike is beautiful and we jumped at the opportunity to get on bikes again. During our time in SE Asia we have been motorbiking very frequently, not only is it extremely inexpensive (about $3-4/day) but it is a fast, easy, and fun way to get around and see both cities and countrysides.

Sarah, Hari, and I got on our 125cc Honda Dreams and got going, but not before a quick stop at 7-11 to pick up some supplies. A quick side-note about 7-11s in Thailand, they are everywhere, I have never seen so many 7-11s in my life. They are almost like Starbucks in the US, if you stand at one point on a street you can see at least two 7-11s on the same street. Anyway, I bring up our stop at the 7-11 because another hilarious incident occurred right outside - among the 3 of us Hari is the expert motorbike rider, he never passes up the opportunity to get on a bike and always has a huge smile plastered across his face when he is riding. Hari exited the 7-11, strapped on his helmet, put his freshly purchased water bottle in his backpack, started his engine, and pulled out onto the road. Well, not exactly onto the road. More like into a car. A parked car. He accelerated a little too quickly while looking at the oncoming cars to find a place to pull in and boom, right into a parked car. Sarah and I laughed so hard that we drew a crowd of several Thai ladies who just shook their heads at the inexperienced tourists trying to motorbike. Classic. No damage to the car or to Hari so thankfully it was just another hilarious incident to add to our list.

After we caught our breathe we actually got onto the road and began our journey. We stopped at a tiger sanctuary along the way that we had heard and read about. We got to play with 2 year old tigers, they were the cutest, sweetest things. Their fur was incredibly soft and thick, they were really like playing with German Shepherd sized cats. One liked Sarah so much that he cuddled up in her lap and licked her hands just like a regular house cat would do. Perhaps the reason they were so relaxed and tame is not only that they were born and raised at the sanctuary and have thus never been in the wild, but we think that they must have been sedated. I can't imagine that they were not and was disappointed that this is likely the case. I do not support them being drugged in captivity, but in retrospect I know that we could have protested and skipped out on seeing them. At least it did appear (hopefully) that they are treated extremely well, the people who worked there were very friendly and loving to the tigers.

Some fun facts about tigers that we learned: cubs are born blind and eventually develop vision 6x better than that of humans; in the wild tigers live for about 15 years, in captivity, 20 years; cubs eat only 2kg/day, matured tigers eat 6kg/day (I would have thought it would be significantly more, but keep in mind they are in captivity so they do not have as much space to run and work up an appetite the same way that wild tigers do). Despite my qualms with the sanctuary, it was still really cool to see them up close, they are incredible animals.

Back on the road we had an awesome drive to Pai. The tarmac was properly paved (unlike a lot of the roads in Cambodia and Lao) so we were able to drive at higher speeds. The roads were hilly and curvy and surrounded by gorgeous landscape. We stopped about every 20-30 minutes at lookout points to take photos and just have a look around, such a great drive. We made it to Pai and immediately loved the feel of this tiny town - it is extremely laid-back and quiet, the town itself is made up of only 2 major streets that are lined with small shops and restaurants. Lucky for us we were in town for the night market, so we strolled up and down the streets that were closed off to traffic and enjoyed many delicious treats - everything from kebabs to grilled corn on the cob to street pad thai. We had finally entered authentic pad thai territory, I was obsessed and would eat it nearly everyday for our month stay in Thailand.
We only spent one night in Pai but would recommend to anyone who is thinking of exploring northern Thailand to spend a few nights there, it is just really cute and quaint and the scenery along the way is gorgeous. We had great weather for our drive back to Changmai and got to take in the beautiful sites of the drive one more time. And no one drove into any parked cars again.