hey you, lady boy!

Herro!

So im in chiang mai - got here on thursday after a bit of a HUGE complication (it involves a taxi driver taking me to the wrong airport and me having to take another taxi to the correct airport and then buying a whole new ticket to chiang mai and then after already arranging pickup at the airport in chiang mai having to catch a cab to my hotel b/c my airport pickup thought id be there 2hrs earlier then when i did arrive and then me being afraid that i wouldnt be able to contact the tour ppl because i had minimal contact information - yadda yadda well thats the story anyway) but everything has been sorted out and i am quite enjoying myself here. i'll begin at the beginning:

3 day/2 night trekking tour

day 1- get picked up too early from my hotel (was told i was getting picked up between 9 and 930, the driver showed up at 840 midway through breakfast) and then drive around to pick up 6 other people - an australian couple (who were on their 4th date evidently), a strange british woman who grew up in australia but hasnt been at 'home' in more then 2 years - 45 plus years old, a girl from holland who was pretty normal and two korean boys who had never been out of korea before. we first drove to a waterfall and then drove to a temple ( i dont know the name of it, they didnt tell us but it was at the top of a hill - neat view but shotty temple) and then started walking. we walked abuot 1.5hrs and by the end of it my fat little feet that were cramped into my too-small pumas were blistered and swollen! our stop was at a hilltribe somewhere north east of chiang mai (again our tour guide couldnt tell us where we were) had fantastic thai dinner cooked by our tourguide and then hung out around some candles while a hilltriber entertained us by showing us tricks with string and smoking tobacco rolled up in banana leaves through his nose. we slept in a big bamboo bungalo with mosquito nets on wooden rises. not so comfortable but thats roughing it.

day 2 - we have breakfast - toast and coffee - and then our team splits up. team korea and holland girl are only on a 1 night trek and they go off in a different direction. this is when the real trekking begins. me and the ozzies start heading out. with me and midlife crisis woman in the back while our guide, ding, is in the middle and the two 4th daters are at the front (it would seem they are a bit of a trek-a-holics) - i ended up trekking in my flip flops cuz i could NOT wear those pumas again. so it really wasnt that difficult but after about a month of doing absolutly nothing my body was feeling it. we walked for 2 hrs and then stopped at a waterfall. we ate lunch out of leaves and the others went swimming while ding and i played with his laptop (yes im in the middle of nowhere thailand and im playing on a laptop! he asked me to show him how to make a webpage....like because im white im supposed to be some sort of internet genious!). we then began walking again. this time for only about 45 min and then we stopped at a little 'store' i guess. these hilltribe women sold cold drinks and cigarettes and chips and stuff for the trekkers that were coming through. ding, our guide was a bit sleepy i guess - he ended up having a nap for about 45min-1hr while we sat around and looked at chickens and dogs. i lied in a hammok. once ding was through with his catnap we began walking again - another hr and a half or so until we got to our 2nd sleeping spot. this village was a bit bigger then the last we stayed at. our bedhouse was shared with the dogs though...hmmm...we ate jackfruit (really good, id recommend it - i seem to recall making my parents buy me one of these strange fruit when i was a kid but at that time we didnt know how to eat it and it didnt turn out so good- i'll show you when i get home!) and had another fantastic dinner - they eat pumpkin here....not like pumpkin pie but actual pumpkin its actually really good. i thought it was strange but aparently they eat it the same in australia. the village we stayed at had a shower (not hot or fancy or anything and y0u had to bring a candle in there with you to see anything at all) and offered thai massage for 120baht but i was too tired to indulge so i just slept.

day 3 - woke up late, ate breakfast - toast and coffee again - and then went on a cavewalk. was nothing too exciting except for the big huge bug that landed on ozzie guy's back that midlife crisis woman flicked off but it made a pop-click noise and squirted some sort of pee on his shirt and then flew off - gross! checked out the village stalls - ding showed me this little monkey that the villagers had found - she was only about 3 months old. the cutest thing ive ever seen (besides ninja) i got to hold her and give her fruit! so cute. then we walked about half hour to the elephant camp. me and midlife crisis woman got to ride an elephant together. our elephant didnt like us much - kept spraying us with snotty mud but it was a good ride. then went on a bamboo raft which i got to help steer down the river. was quite nice. after that we all got dropped off at our locations and that was that.

so it was quite the experience. i dont think id do it again anytime soon but i had fun either way. the place im staying at now is called padong travel inn. its quite nice only 200baht a night it has a hot shower and a fan with a mattress on the floor but the location is good and all ive been doing there is sleeping.

yesterday i did a longneck hilltribe tour. there were only 4 of us (2 canadian guys and an irish girl) and there was alot of driving but it was pretty cool. i felt extremely weird though going into these peoples village and taking pictures of them....it was like they were on display - some sort of sideshow freak act. i kept thinking how strange it would be for me to be sitting around watching tv and eating pizza at home and for a group of thai tourists coming into my home to take pictures of me doing what i do every day...very weird. there was one beautiful little girl who i took a picture of and bought a bracelet from. she was so cute.

the irish girl complained alot about how much driving we did (it was a 10 hour day for us - we stopped at a few places but never longer then an hour). i wanted to turn around and say to her 'look, what are they going to do? you wanted to see the longneck hilltribe and they live in the hills - they cant bring the village to you so stop complaining about it!' but it was a good tour also. again really good food! these thais know how to cook.

today i went on a 'safari' did most of the things i had already done on sunday - ie ride an elephant, bamboo rafting ride...but today was a bit higher class i think. and we got a great buffet lunch out of it! i also rode a oxen-pulled cart. there was an older lady from new zealand on this tour and she was afraid of heights so after the oxen took us up the hill to where the elephants were supposed to take us back down to camp she copped out and decided to walk. when we were all supposed to meet for lunch our tour guide, tom, couldnt find her! we were all done lunch and waiting around when he finally found her! ha it was kind of funny. i dont know why you would pay for an elephant ride and not actually ride the elephant. that was the highlight of the day! also stopped in at an orchid and butterfly farm that i went to yesterday with the longneck hilltribe- i just sat and had coffee - nothing too exciting.

tomorrow - my birthday! - im going to the golden triangle - this is where opium trading occurred i think and there burma, laos and thailand borders meet. i think here i should be able to cross the border and get my passport restamped so i wont have to get an extension before i leave chiang mai....very cool!

then i have 2 days to...hmm sleep in! haha i think i will go to the spa one day - the place im staying at is advertising some cool packages at s0me of the local spas. there is also a jewlery making course you can take at an artshop around here somewhere that i might check out. i think i will also have a starbucks coffee and take a yoga class.

well folks thats all thats new! i cant wait until jenn gets here only 5 days! we have to go shopping shortly after you get here because im too fat to fit comfortably into any of my clothes anymore :( - you people wont recognize me once i get home

love you all! miss you more!

alia