Sept 29/30 Overnight in Akhu Village some trekking in jungle & white temple

The guesthouse we are staying at is Baan Bua guesthouse, they do have an website it's here . It's a cute little place in the city that seems so quiet and relaxed from the business of the streets.

So to continue from last post, we took a long tail boat on the river to the elephant visitor place. The elephant ride Dean & i took was for 30 mins in the little village outside of Chaing Rai, it was okay great scenary different to ride an elephant as you feel all the muscles move. Dean sat as the driver and he felt the scratchy hair on his legs the entire ride. 30 mins was enough of a ride and we paid 400baht which works out to about 12.50CAN. From there we took Jeep up to the hilltribe villages. Got to see how they lived. We slept overnight at the Akha village about 3:00pm, we had a deck type area to chill out at, while the father made tea and coffee for us. We spent the night up on the deck most the time, Noi our guide mentioned we could walk around but we didn't do too much that night. The sun went down about 5:00pm. We had an awesome supper of rice, soup, pork.

As we arrived on a night before a celebration, everyone had firecrackers. Mostly the ones that made noises. All the kids and adults seemed to look for a place to make it sound the best. The firecrackers are meant to scare of spirits.
We slept in the area of the deck, i dislike sleeping on a mattress on a hardfloor. I had to do yoga in the morning for my body not to hurt. The rosters started their
called about 6 and seemed to keep making noise until 9. In the morning, after breakfast we went for ahike up the mountain to see the plantations. Coffee, Tomatoes, all sorts of vegetation. Our guide Noi, had a friend of his take us up for the hike and OMG, i should have gotten into better shape. The uphill was killer and this cold is still hanging on so i can't seem to breath good yet. I thought the going up part was hard but the going down was almost worse cause my hamstring felt like i pulled it. We had lunch and then hiked up to the waterfall. That was about a 1 mile uphill and that was not as tough but i still needed some breaks. The waterfall was beautiful. It was so nice, would have been nice to go down to the bottom but the mist would have completely drenched our clothes. We still had to visit the white temple at the end of the trek. Man it was beautiful. It was different as the mural on the inside of the temple was pop art. It was to represent all the current temptations that we need to resist to reach enlightenment. Wish i could have taken pics but not allowed inside a temple/wot. I have a brochure that will show more detail. They had the twin towers with a snake coiling itself around them. Star Wars figures like Jabba the Hut, The Matrix, cellphone, watches, and other things. We got to the temple at about 5:00 and it was a cloudy day and Dean got some good shots. As i needed an immediate toilet when we got out of the jeep i didn't have time to grab my camera or more time to take better pics of the temple. Hoping the pictures do it justice. i purchases some amazing pics from the gallery. Got back to guesthouse about 5 and it was so nice to have a long shower as i felt so hot and dirty.

Trains, Tuk Tuks & Chaing Rai

The 14 hour train ride to Chaing Mai turned into 15 hours 15 min. As the train was late. We decided on the train to go up to either Chaing Rai or Pai, which ever bus left first. The bus to Pai left at 2 we got to the bus station at 205, if the bus was on time we would have made Pai but i guess it wasn't meant to be. So we walked over to the other teller for Chaing Rai tickets and the bus was leaving at 215. we had enough time to pick up some water and hope on the bus before it departed. We are deciding if we go see Pai after Chaing Rai but we are thinking maybe not as all the travelling isn't that much fun and we might be missing out on sometime amazing here in Chaing Rai.

Tommorrow we are off to do some trekking in the Chaing Rai, we will be taking a jeep and travelling to hot springs, elephant ride, visiting 4 different tribes, sleeping in the Karen tribe overnight and next day going to another Tribe and waterfall. I'm charging the camera as we speak, think i missed out on some pics.

THe guest house we are staying


well my internet time is up to update this at a later date.

Love ya all.

Grand Palace & Wat Pho

Today was the day to visit some temples here in bangkok. We started at the Grand Palace, Many Thai's stopped us to tell us about borring clothes. Apparantly there is strick clothing restrictions. Because Rachel & I were wearing tank tops we had to borrow shirts - we looked like factory workers. white or blue button up blouse type shirts. Dean had a t-shirt and pants on so he didn't have to bother with the deposit and borrowing clothes. Cause i was wearing a dress and Rachel was wearing pants that could be pulled down we didn't have to borrow a long skirt, but many people had to as you could tell. Some ladies wearing hawaiin shirts and a thai like - elephants and design type on the long skirt. It was amazing but so many people and it was so hot. Lots of restoring and building of new temples. We seen the emerald Buddha, he's actually made of Jade. We seen about half the Palace and ended up walking out the exit.but we weren't bothered to walk back and check out the other side. From there we walked the one block to Wat Pho. One block by on the side of the Grand Palace was a very long walk, especially in the heat.

i enjoyed Wat pho much more, less people, got to see the reclining buddha. lots of little structures. The temples are amazing and wish you could take pics but i understand why you can't.

Right now we are in the lobby of the hotel we stayed at. It's 9pm and we are killing time to hit the train to Chaing Mai - the train ride will end at 12 noon tomorrow. We have little cots to sleep on. When we get into Chaing Mai, we will decide if Chaing Rai or Pai will be our next destination. Dean and Rachel need to get into the country and i agree, bangkok is busy and i don't feel the culture i see lots of backpackers and tourists but noone is bothered to talk and chat with you.

Well time to get going to the train now. See ya all soon.

Saturday in Bangkok

We attempted to go to Grand Palace today and the Thai's where telling Dean - long pants. He was wearing shorts and they were warning him to wear pants. As girls the dresses we were wearing was fine but for my arms showing but i brought a shall to cover up. We walked the end of the street trying to decide if we go to the mall or buy pants and go to the Wat's. At the end of the corner, a scout hooked us into looking at a boat ride on the river. We walked throught another market to the harbour or boat place. We decided why not, Dean & Rachel never been on the river in Bangkok. It was a nice 1 1/2 trip got to see some amazing houses and mini temples and the old/poor side of bangkok and go to see the Grand palace from the river. Afterwards we took a taxi to MBK. A huge mall. We went straight up to the 7th floor to eat. We decided on a Japanese restaurant and it ever good. The mall was crazy sort of like a mini market indoors, on certain floors. A lot of electronic stalls, t-shirts, etc anything you may want. Wasn't in the shopping mood and only bought a small purchase. We took another Tuk Tuk from MBK back to Khao San Road. I'm glad i'm not driving in Bangkok. The traffic is crazy, bumper to bumper with motorbikes, tuk tuks taxi's and other vehicles. The tuk tuk's and motorbikes weave in and out of traffic and beside other vehicles and anywhere they think they can go and fit through. Only thing with the tuk tuk's is the smell of exhaust and to hang on cause they go really fast. So it's 730pm now and we are relaxing in our rooms at the Sawadsee House. Dean and Rachel are playing on my Nintendo DS playing the brain ages as i'm on internet. Not sure if we can go swimming in the pool as it's dark already. Probably have to eat supper sometime soon. Tommorrow intales going to the Grand Palace and Wat Pho with the proper attire. Swimming and then at 10 pm we get on the train to Chaing Mai. It's an overnight train with 2 beds and i think we have a privite room. We'll get into Chaing Mai at noon the next day.