Perhaps the tardiness stems from trying to encapsulate such wonderful moments on paper....or that I was busy playing nurse...the new addiction to an old tv show, now not an addiction as I spent all Sunday watching the final season (Prison Break...)... or jumping back into the swamp they call career and teaching. Whatever the excuse it's not a very good one.. but I think I'm finally ready to summarize the last 3ish weeks on the blog.
Now ... how to do that without boring you to death- I'm assuming if you're reading this you're mildly interested.
I will use the point form journal Shaun and I kept over our holiday as a jumping off point and go from there.
First Stop of holidays.... (after 2 weeks of ''nothing''/planning with show and tell for parents and a ''camp'' which was basically babysitting- at the beginning of October)
-First Stop Chiang Rai- Northern Thailand.
* After a weekend of browsing Bangkok we headed up north.
Initial thoughts of our place in Chiang Rai--Musty, Where ARE we? But great soup from the street. We proceeded to rent bikes the next afternoon and finding our way around- trying not to get lost...or ran over on the not so calm streets. We then decided Monday would include a bike tour with better bikes and a tour guide:) Though our self guided tour was pretty wondering seeing lots of soi dogs (street dogs- yuck!), a river, all the beautiful places we could have stayed and getting badly cut off by a car (but not ran over).... We also came across a great Italian restaurant that later that night served us some lovely baguette etc....
-MONDAY: All day bike tour-- with a 1:1 ratio of guides: Included a visit to a beautiful and very modern/new age ''White Temple'' done by an amazing artist, three visits to local businesses; a rice mill--SO interesting, a rubber ''factory (even MORE interesting), and a stop to the fisherman rubber boots and all netting tiny minnows for the market. We also came upon a Monk ceremony/lottery type ordeal in a small village where the monks were honored by locals making basically ''penny parade' type baskets that were numbered. Then the monks pulled a number and hoped to get the basket of the rich family in town (as the baskets were adorned with money!) This ceremony was neat to happen upon as it happens once every SIX years- in that particular village! AND being the only white people and GIANT (Shaun) we soon became the centre of attention-- which I always like :)
After a LOT of uphill climb- a rest stop in the middle of a rice field and lots of sweat we climbed up a steep path on foot to arrive at a beautiful waterfall. Eager to jump in we soon realized this would be detrimental to survival as the waterfall was VERY strong due to the rainy season-- so strong that when our guide took his shirt off the shirt was straight out like a flag due to the wind created by the waterfall!
Thankfully we had the next couple days to recover-- I mean some people argue that Shaun caught some Thai bug-- though symptoms showed *cough* maybe some heat exhaustion-- the bike WAS really hard-- it did provide a good opportunity to catch up on Canadian tv shows.
I will add a following entry regarding the rubber factory it was SO interesting!
jump ahead to THURSDAY-now in another norther community Chiang Mai: We visited a TIGER KINGDOM- where they don't drug the tigers but the tigers are raised in the 'tiger kingdom'' from birth so are trained-- I guess not to eat me! The rest of the day was spent at the Chiang Mai Zoo and Acquarium and FYI if you so choose to NOT take the tram in the Zoo it is a LONG walk UP HILL -- but you DO get the benefit of going to the redneck carnival as you exit the zoo-ie. shooting range and mini mini bike track (like the shriners ride--) AT THE ZOO?
FRIDAY was WONDERFUL we spent the morning fishing at a local fishing hole with Mr. Tuk Tuk. Shaun won the competition catching 8 fish...(he's read this and wants to edit- it was 9--9 fish) I came in a close second with 3+ the one (not joking) that got away- speculated to be about 25kgs! We did both manage to tie for biggest size at 16kg! Those things are pure muscle and it was quite an adventure to reel them in with the giant fishing pools we used! It was a great success after the initial disappointment of shore fishing vs. boat fishing (afterthoughts: Thank GOODNESs it wasn't in a boat-- I would have fallen out trying to reel those giants in and gotten eaten alive!)
SATURDAY included white water rafting with funny english-men, an australian, german, americans and of course us canadians.... After a LONGGGG drive up the mountain- we got out of the van and right back onto the raft-- on a flatbed-- we continued the climb up the mountain- got out for a Thai lunch and then on the river.WOW. What a ride! it was certainly a good season for rafting! We did have to get out of the river at one point-- they wouldn't let us go down the level 6 white water:( Saying that I will certainly fight for a life jacket and helmet that fits a little better next time-- cuz swimming down the rapids was a little terrifying!
Rafting was followed by ATVing-- lets just say after a long day I wasn't quite prepared for the steep inclines-- slippery rocks and muddy situations-- so I quickly decided I was good in the passenger seat:)
Moving on to the south--Phuket.
Sunday Monday and tuesday were spent on the BEACH== woo woo.....
-between surfing-a little (SHAUN)...lying in the sun a lot (CHRISTY)
-a tour to Phi Phi Islands where the movie- THE BEACH was filmed, as well as a different island where a Bond movie was shot-- including AMAZING snorkeling-- with fintail alligator fish! I LOVED the beach- the flourlike sands and the crazy blue waters were BEYOND belief and wonderful--
WEDNESDAY we spent figuring out how to get to our final destination Railay Beach-- once on the ferry we became storm chasers and actually spotted a TORNADO!! cool hey? (it wasn't too near us!) This day was full of varied transportation including: taxi, ferry, tuk tuk, longtail boat, foot...and 200 stairs to our ''resort'')
-upon arrival at our ''resort'' turns out we didn't have a reservation -- but it was pouring rain so decided to stay there anyway-- well- also turns out it was probably more of a resort 20 years ago and mold has taken hold- OH WELL- the view was GREAT and the pool was nice. The 200 steps up to the ''bungalow'' were especially nice as I spent the next couple days attending to Shaun as he was really fevered and NOT healthy--which took us to the hospital on friday- thankfullly he's now recovered (unfortunately now back in Canada.....thankfullly, safe and sound! PLUS although I knew it already it was really nice to have time to hang out with a really superb friend who likes to do all the same things as me!)
-Well that's the short version- Imagine what the LONG one would look like! and now... I'm back to school-- but I'm not ready to admit to that yet... so i'll just try to upload some pictures now :) .... wish me luck!
I figured out a much easier way to upload pics-- just click on the links below and they should get you to facebook pics- they are MUCH easier to download!
let me know if they are inaccessible!
xCLR
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240570&id=502156238&l=9cfe9b9d36
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240575&id=502156238&l=bb02c9abab
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=240572&id=502156238&l=8c6b6c419a
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