My newest read:

So far hilarious and well timed to this point in my travels.

OMG I found Gluten Free Cookies!!!

Thank you Susan!! (from my cooking class who told me about Butter is Better) I found this place and within 20 minutes I had six warm chocolate chip cookies in my hands (they have butter in them and dark chocolate but at this point I could care less). I can't remember the last time I had hot cookies from the oven!! The first two were so warm, the chocolate so gooey they fell apart in my hands (don't worry, I proceeded to lick my fingers - no shame - so as not to waste any). They were SO GOOD!! I am now sitting at my hostel (having eaten three of the six, trying to save the other three for tomorrow) waiting to see if I get sick but it was SO WORTH IT! :D look at these amazing things:

Home Sweet Home

Up at the crack of dawn this morning, well actually since 2am (this may have had something to do with coconut latte I had at 10pm last night because I was so excited to find one) I attempt to get the 8am bus to Chiang Mai. Turns out, because it's Thailand and nothing happens if they don't feel like it, there was no 8am bus today, just a 12pm one (which you can't buy tickets in advance for) and so even though I arrive early, it seemed the entire population of Pai (or at least the mass of leftover Reggae bums) has the same idea as me so I feel extremely fortunate when the horde of locals and tourists alike jump the bus as it arrives at the station (me included) before it even unloads (because the only way you get on is if you fit) and I manage to not only get on with my luggage, but score a seat! A half hour later than scheduled (or I guess pretty close to on time for Thailand) the bus lurches forward and I start thinking that I actually may make it to Chiang Mai tonight (all the minivans were booked and if I missed this bus my only other hope was to swarm the 4pm bus and hope to get on, otherwise I was sleeping in Pai again). Lucky for me, I, along with about 45 other people, managed to pack on to a bus that is not only meant for just over half this, but is falling apart at the seams (the hand railing on the roof only has two of eight screws in it, part of the food paneling is missing, the broken door is lying covering one of the back seats and as you've probably guessed, there is no door). Not only are the seats filled but there are ten extra people standing in the isle, four sitting on the floor at the back entrance and two standing in the doorway (I had a cute little hill tribe lady napping on my shoulder most of the way, but this was far from the worst option). How this bus made it up the long, winding hill to get out of Pai (I was sure it was going to start rolling back a few times when the driver was trying to gear down while barely moving) and then back down to Chiang Mai, is beyond me - you could smell the breaks burning half way down. Five hours later (by some great stroke of luck it seemed) I made it to Chiang Mai in one piece, bought my ticket for Wed to the Lao boarder and then took a tuk tuk back to my previous residence, the Royal Guesthouse (where the awesome woman at the front welcomed me back and gave me my room for 50B cheaper :) Knowing where I was going and not having to struggle to find a place to stay after a day like this was sheer bliss. I walked in, got a room, went and grabbed some food from a good nearby spot, did some trip planning, checked my emails and now, only a couple hours later, having been productive and not in the least bit stressed (since Chiang Mai anyhow) I'm jumping into my soft bed in my quiet room for an amazing sleep! Yay :)

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Success!

Coconut milk latte! Yessir :) maybe the reason I was up half the night last night? Lol

A wall hanging at a coffee shop in Pai

A little something different..

A slight deviation from the usual and a little bit of a splurge, I found smoked salmon with eggs for breakfast (100B) yum!

My best invention yet!

Not yet feeling desperate enough to choke down black coffee, but missing the caffeine from my soy lattes I had an ingenious idea: I asked for a side of coconut milk to put in my coffee! A little different but not to shabby! It definitely give me my caffeine fix. My next goal is to find someone to make me an actual latte with coconut milk :D

My Happy Place

Another awesome day. Pai is so chill. I rented a little no speed pedal bike with my Victoria buddy for 50B for 24h (that's about $1.50) and pedaled around town and out into the country. An hour and a half in my poor legs were done and I was starting to melt in the sun so I found a little lunch place that made me a pad Thai with no sauce (i'm getting better at this) and I'm sitting sitting at the table eating and someone goes "Christina?" and in walks Kaylee Price and her sister (I went to BCIT with Kaylee), they were in Chiang Mai the same time as me and came to Pai the same day but we had yet to run into each other. Small, small world. 5 minutes later I met two guys, one from Victoria and one from North Van, this place is teeming with Canadians! It's very BC-esk. Think Roberts Creek or Nelson mixed with a little of the island art scene like Saltspring. It's filled with hippies and people looking for a laid back place to do nothing. And the weather is cooler too, at night people wander around in toques! There are little red mailboxes, flower boxes and pedal bikes everywhere. Lanterns hang over the street and there are little pastel colored ice cream shops, coffee shops and boutiquey shops selling I <3 Pai merchandise, a mix of artsy and retro, think magical mystery tour, metal lunch boxes and rolling stones T-shirts. And hearts everywhere. And then there is the plethora of reggae merchandise mixed in with hill tribe clothing - a truly unique place, a little out of place in Thailand, made even more interesting with the Reggae Festival going on this weekend. Tomorrow I may get a little adventurous and rent a motorbike (having practiced driving on the wrong side of the road today with my pedal bike) and go to the reggae festival (it's been a few weeks since my late nights in Pi Pi, I can probably survive one night..) Today i'm content sitting in my hammock sipping my watermelon fruit shake :)

Best kiss by Elephant

Yesterday I had the most amazing day! I had signed up to go to the Elephant Nature Park because I heard that when in Chiang Mai (and Thailand in general) it's the thing to do. Now I'm not exactly an elephant fanatic but I figured it would be something to check off my list, you know: been there, done that. Little did I know how awesome this experience would be! There are actually many places/companies with which you can see elephants in Chiang Mai but I happened to pick up the brochure for this one and sign up, what a great fluke! As I learned in a documentary shown to us on the way there, the park was started by a Thai woman (Lek) who rescues elephants who are out of work (elephants used to be used for logging but this is now banned) being abused (the traditional obedience training for the elephants is very brutal and inhumane, many even die during the process) not properly cared for (it's so easy to purchase an elephant that people are buying them and using them to beg in the streets but have no mahout training and don't know how to care for them) or are injured or near death, nurses them back to health and then cares for them. Beginning around 10 years ago with one elephant, she now has 36 in her amazing "elephant heaven". She also runs something called Project Jumbo where her and her team travel to different villages to teach them to properly care for their elephants and she's working with Mahouts (elephant handlers) to convince them that positive reinforcement works and is a better method to train their elephants. To afford to purchase these elephants from their owners and then continue to feed and care for them, she opened the park up for volunteering. You can either spend a day or I think anywhere up to a week looking after the elephants. And the best part is that since her mahouts use positive reinforcement to train the elephants, they are so well behaved and used to people that these massive animals roam free around the park and you can feed them, bathe them and interact with them (One of them even gives kisses with its trunk!). It's so horrible to hear the pasts these elephants came from, the sickening brutality they endured and see the injuries they still have (at least one had a broken leg, one a broken hip etc) but to see them so well cared for and happy and know my visit helped to make this happen, made me feel pretty darn good about my day :)

Second most important lesson:

Most Thai food has sauce that I can't eat (oyster sauce, soya sauce and most fish sauce) thereby limiting my culinary ability a bit, or enabling me to be more creative? Either way, this class lead to Noi writing me this note to help me no get so sick on my trip. It says something along the lines of:

"I'm allergic to wheat, soya sauce, oyster sauce and milk" in Thai, and has been very helpful so far :)

Me and Noi with my Phad See Ew

Tom Yam Gung

I didn't take a picture of the Tom Kha Gai but it is the same soup as this but with coconut milk. I liked that one best :)

Penang Curry

Just incase you weren't hungry yet.

Green Curry

Noi's version has more veggies than many thai versions but I prefer this. Btw these plates are our portions to sample!

Larb Moo

Pork Salad. Also Amaaaazing.

Som Dam Salad

Aka Papaya Salad

Garlic Shrimp w Tamarind Sauce

As amazing as it looks (drool). And I can actually eat it! Noi was so great about removing all of the products w wheat for my portions so that I didn't accidentally eat something that would make me sick :)

And the eating continues..

Back at the restaurant Noi taught us that the four flavors of Thai cooking are sweet, spicy, sour and salty. This isn't a great picture but our open air cooking area was amazing. On the menu for cooking were 14 Thai dishes. 14!! Imagine taste testing them all. By the soups we were all so stuffed we were worried we would need to break to digest before cooking anymore.

The menu:
Appies:
1. Garlic shrimp w Tamarind Sauce
2. Som Dam Salad (papaya salad)
3. Larb Moo (pork salad)
Curry:
4. Green Curry
5. Penang Curry
Soups:
6. Tom Kha Gai
7. Tom Yam Gung
Phad-Stirfry:
8. Phad Kraphao
9. Cashew Stirfry
10. Stir-fried Eggplant
11. Sweet and Sour Fish
Noodles:
12. Phas Thai
13. Phad See Ew
Desert:
14. Mangoes & Sticky Rice

Another market shot

When in Rome...

Wanting to make the most of my Thai experience (and who am I kidding, seriously needing to bone up on my culinary skills) I came to Chiang Mai with the hopes of taking a cooking course. And as per the wonderful Leah's recommendation, I signed up for a cooking course at the Dash Teak House and Restaurant (the broke backpacker voice in my head screaming: "I haven't spent 1200B on anything yet! That's like 5 nights accommodation!") but man am I ever happy I ignored it! End of day I actually ended up having an Ikea moment, thinking: I can't believe I only paid $40 for that, it was that good.

Noi (our amazing instructor, and Paula Boodhan's Thai twin) started our cooking lesson by giving us an in-depth guided tour of the local market, not only showing us the fruits and vegetables that make up the essence of Thai cooking, but making sure we touched, smelled and tasted many of them as well. It was 8:30am and we'd already started eating, and this was only the beginning.

Here is Noi showing us Galenka:

Another Dragon

New Years Festivities

Chinatown Chiang Mai

Three Days Coming

Three days into my stay in Chiang Mai and I was FINALLY able to go and apply for my Indian visa today (yay!) I was up first thing this morning and took my first tuk tuk out to the Indian Consulate. On my way to get my documents photocopied (which by the way was not "out the door and too the left", apparently in thailand that's slang for: "go out of the building, cross two streets, turn left and walk 150m down the street to a Internet cafe where they have a photocopier" - thanks random man on his way back!) I met a really nice woman from the States with a motorbike (who lives in Pai!). She took me to Chinatown on the back of her bike (how these people balance their families, dogs and livelihood on these things is beyond me, and impressive, the driving here is nuts!) where we wandered through the streets watching the New Years festivities after which she kindly dropped me back at my hotel with a newfound urge to go to Pai. Happy to finally know when my visa would be done (next Monday, not 3 days, boo) I was at least able to finally make some plans for the next few days so I wandered over and found "Dash" (thanks Leah!) and signed up for a wicked cooking course tomorrow where I get to go to the market and then cook like 12 dishes (one of which is mango sticky rice! Yup), and then eat my creations :) Then, because wandering around aimlessly for three days was clearly getting to me I got productive and booked my elephant safari for Thursday, found a cheap way to get to Pai for the weekend and then Lao and the Gibbons experience next week then went off I search of temples where I met a couple of really nice monks to whom I awkwardly explained that I was 26, unmarried, did not live at home, had never been to church and did not have a religion lol. Seemingly unfazed,
they chatted with me for a half hour and then gave me a white twine bracelet, reciting prayers while knotting it for safe travels and good luck. Pleased I was finally able to have an honest conversation with a Thai person and that not everyone in this country has been jaded by tourism, I wandered off in search of a restaurant where I could explain that I wanted a meal with no oyster sauce, soya sauce, wheat noodles or dairy, and they would actually care. An hour later, having found a safe dinner and starting to feel better I had my first oil massage and then wandered home, excited for my day tomorrow and happy I don't have to plan for the next few days, I'm spent :)

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And yummy things:

And interesting things...

Night market ctd

Chiang Mai Street Market

Just some of the beautiful things:

First full day in Chiang Mai

After my first good sleep in almost 5 days, I found a great little breakfast spot in the middle of the old city and am off to check out some wats and get myself a much deserved massage. I think I've had enough trains for awhile.

I took a picture of my fruit shake from breakfast because yes, there's a naked lady in my fruit juice. And here I was beginning to think Chiang Mai was more wholesome than Patong.

A PG Happy Ending: The Royal Guesthouse

So in the end, after my incredibly long journey I was ecstatic to find a room all my own for 250B (albeit on the 6th floor - up 10 flights of stairs), with my own bathroom, free wifi and a pool. I like Chiang Mai already :)

This is the view from my room:

My home for 15h straight

So I made it to Chiang Mai, after the longest travel day yet (second to my trip to Asia).

9am: I took an hour long bus from Patong to the Phuket airport. Then, an hour later than it was supposed to, my plane left Phuket and arrived in Bangkok ( it's now 3pm instead of 2pm). I took the subway 6 stops and then walked to the mrt and went another 8 stops to the Hua Lumphong train station where by some very lucky chance I was able to get a ticket on the 10pm train to Chiang Mai. It was now 6pm. Four hours later my train left Bangkok and I spent 15 hours on a sleeper train - third class (it was the only seat I could get). The best part: to travel 700 odd miles from Bangkok to Chiang Mai cost me a grand total of $8.51! The worst part: spending 15 hours in an uncomfortable seat with an upset stomach and running on a severe lack of sleep thanks to my Patong hostel. However, for $8.51 it was worth it. Now I just need a few days to recuperate.

I didn't take a picture of the toilets on this train, it would have involved showing actual waste. Yup, they were that pleasant. So instead, below is a photo of the inside of my train car:

Sweet Indulgence

2nd night in a row of "The best apple and cranberry sorbet combination I've ever had". Yum :D 59B

Street Food of Patong

So in the interest of trying to get a decently priced meal here in Patong, as well as getting the full cultural experience, I decided to scope out some street food for dinner last night. I found this little place down a side alley off Bangla Street where a bunch of locals were eating. I had no idea what most of what she was putting in it but she told me they were rice noodles and some pork and fish. So I said sure, one bowl, no soy sauce. And this is what I got for 50B:

My two new books

Shannon recommended Little Princes which is about a guy who works to bring home the lost children of Nepal. The other book I bought Bc my other lonely planet was way too big. Some content to keep me occupied while in Patong :)

A quick side note...

Mother and Grandma do not worry: even though this place is "mind boggling" (to say the least) is is safe (day and night). There are still a decent spattering of normal tourists wandering around (probably wondering how the heck they ended up here...I heard Patong was a party beach but wow, way off) and even families with children. Why you'd bring your children to a place where the bracelets say "f**k you" and "big d*** " and so on is beyond me. There are neon signs with boobs and ass everywhere. If I had kids I'd be on the first bus outta here. Anyhow don't worry, i'm safe, full and heading down to the beach :)

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My indulgence

I bought some fake Tiffany earrings for 200B because I lost my earrings on Railay. Cute eh? They do a pretty good job on them. I'm trying to hold out until I get back to get a wallet.

Where I bought my cheap dinner from last night

Too bad they put Soy Sauce on it :(

Shannon checking out some fake shoes

Bangla Street 9pm

Sin City on Drugs

This is probably the most accurate a description I can think of for this place. It's what I thought Bangkok's red light district would be like mixed with Vegas or maybe Cancun. The people who come here are a very weird mix of sleazy old men, some younger people, some older ladies looking to pick up Thai guys, swingers? (Ida's description) and generally anyone looking to get into some trouble and party. There is neon EVERYWHERE, loud music until 4am, bars everywhere (keep in mind I'm describing Bangla Street- where we happened to find our cheap hostel, is also sin centre) with signs that say "husband daycare - leave your husband with us and you only pay for his drinks" and ladyboys and maybe some girls (it's pretty hard to tell the difference some times) line the streets trying to get you to go into their bar and see the ping pong shows. All the bars are open and you can see the dancers from the street. There are even plastic chairs set up along the sides of the street for "spectators" because watching what goes on in this street I definitely entertainment of some sort. At around 9 the showgirl ladyboys come out dressed in Carnival outfits charging 100B to get pictures with them. Scattered in between the bars and tattoo shops (because those of course go together- and they are everywhere just like the strip joints) are alleyways with cheaper food stalls (the food here is WAY overpriced, like 2x any other place I've been) and stores with fakes galore. Anything you could want here you could find. Fake Coach wallet? 300B. Fake Tiffany earrings? 200B. Fake Adidas shoes? 700B. This place is nuts. I even found a Starbucks and McDonalds in the middle of it.

This morning Shannon and I went for breakfast and there were two guys who were taking their "dates" from last night for breakfast, like it as completely normal to be out w ladyboy prostitutes all night then take them for a meal in the am. Another guy walked in with his and we wondered whether it's customary to buy them breakfast? He looked more shameful. Everywhere you looked outside, everyone was doing the walk of shame- wandering home in their high heels and little dresses from the night before and weirdly enough they were mostly locals. All "working"? Shop owners are hosing off their patios and the streets and cleaning the garbage from the beaches from the massive party last night and the one about to start up again in about 8 more hours. I'm glad I had a nap this morning after Shannon left because I know I'll has fun trying to sleep tonight. By the time I get home I'll be able to sleep through anything.

Back on my lonesome again I'm off to get some Pad Thai and go to the beach. I'm going to try to get some last bits of sun and find a somewhat clear beach around here before I fly to Bangkok on the 20th. Two sleeps and counting. Good thing I just got two new books :)

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Our new friend Ida in our room

Pimped out 350 B room in Patong

Balcony, wifi and all!

Proof that Apple rules the world...

The travel agency desk where I bought my feet ticket this morning to Phuket.

Here it is!

The amazing mango sticky rice that Shannon trekked over to Ton Sai to get for me yesterday :) it's even good cold!

Making friends and saving lives

Another sweet perk to making friends while traveling: Inheriting a sweet first aid kit from my nurse friend who's leaving Wed! Yup that's a bio bag. Thanks Shannon :)

Mmmm Thai Food

The yummy Pad Thai i'm addicted to. Picture of mango sticky rice to come tomorrow :)

I found my new love: Mango Sticky Rice

So it's day 5, I think, in Railay and I'm ready to head to Phuket tomorrow. I'm almost done my exploring, (rock climbing yesterday where I made it to the top of a two 15m cliffs, a 5a and 6a, before my weak arms gave in, and a 7 island sunset snorkeling tour tonight where we apparently get to swim with phosphorescence). My only problem is that yesterday I had mango sticky rice for the first time. Katie I'm sure you mentioned this to me but this stuff is amazing! I had it for breakfast before climbing yesterday and I can't stop craving it. For those that don't know, it's warm rice with coconut milk drizzled on it topped with slices of mango. This may seem like an odd combination and I admit I was a little skeptical at first, but after the first bite all I wanted was more. Please have mango sticky rice Phuket! I can't wait for breakfast tomorrow.

Speaking of food, people over here (tourists included) smoke more than they eat! Who knew how sheltered we are in Canada that the moment I step in a foreign country I am bombarded and dare I say got a cold from, inhaling the cigarette smoke from the chain-smoking rest of the world. All I can say is wow - I'm so happy I live in Canada.

And now I'm off to try to book a hostel in Phuket online. I've given up wandering around aimlessly looking for a cheap room day of and have decided to book one before arriving. Lesson learned, no more stressful day ones for me. Famous last words right? Here goes...

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Lantern Lighting

The coolest little coffee shop!

My latte was a ridiculous 110B but I bought it anyhow so I could sit in this sweet spot (and charge my iPhone lol). Railay Beach has a lot of places with cushions on the floor (or on a raised platform) and then small coffee like tables to eat off of. I didn't see these anywhere in Phi Phi.