We flew from Seattle to Narita, Japan. Flight was 10 hours but wasn't bad. This was by far the longest flight I've ever been on. There were TVs on the back of each seat with on demand movies and video games. The movies and the games made the trip go by very quickly. On the flight I watched:
     - The Day After Tomorrow
     - The DaVinci Code
     - X-Men<
I also played a single player game that was similar to Super Puzzle Fighter.

The food on the plane was actually really good. Better than food I've had on any other flight. For dinner I had rice with vegetables, a fruit bowl, a roll, and a small salad. Breakfast was rice with a berry sauce, juice, a bagel, and a fresh fruit bowl. Hot towels were provided before each meal.

Here's a pic of us at the SEATAC airport:

Approaching the Narita Airport, the view was not as expected. I was expecting a lot of mountains and hills, but the land was flat and green with lots of farms. One thing that really stood out to me was that most of the houses had blue roofs. Landing in Japan, it took us a while to get our things together and get off the plane. The flight attendants were cracking jokes about how slow we were.

By the time we got off the plane and to the gate for our next flight, I wasn't feeling very well. The air in the airport was warm and it was very crowded. Natalie had me sit down and she got me drink. We spent the rest of the time at the gate watching this little boy that was about 3 years old run around throw things in the trash for his mom.

And, here's another airport pic. This time at Narita:

The flight to Bangkok was about 7 hours long. I finished watching the X-Men movie, started another movie called Men of Honor, and fell asleep. I did wake for dinner, of course, which consisted of rice with some beans and grains, a cake, a salad, and a roll. I slept through most of the flight.

We arrived at the Bangkok airport around midnight on Saturday. We were both tired and dreading the customs line. Fortunately, the lines were short and getting through customs was relatively painless. While looking for the restrooms, we ran into a guy that wanted to give us a ride. I continued to the restroom and Natalie took care of getting us to the hotel. I was nervous about getting a ride with some random guy, but Natalie assured me it would be okay and was confident he would take care of us. For 600 baht (about $15 US), he drove us to our hotel about 30 minutes away.

We arrived at the hotel about 1AM. Getting there made me a bit nervous. The driver turned down an alley way filled with vendors and people. Everything looked a bit run down. Once we got into the hotel, everything was good and I was once again comfortable. We were exhausted, but very excited to be there. We took some pics of the hotel room and then crashed.

Our hotel room was different than anything I had ever experienced. The room key (key card) is required for the room's electricity - lights, air conditioning, etc. It took us a couple of tries to figure that out. We were unable to turn off the lights in the center of the room, so we slept with them on. In the middle of the night, on the way back from the restroom, I decided to just unscrew the bulbs so the lights would turn off.

Morning Adventure (2 hours)
Today was to be our day of rest after the long flight. We decided to walk around a bit and see our surroundings. Within two blocks of the hotel we were stopped by a guy that started giving directions to the many temples in the area. After about 5 minutes of telling us what we should see and marking it on our map, he introduced us to a tuk tuk driver and explained that 20 baht each (75 cents US) was a good price to see the city and that he'd take us to the temples. We said, "Sure, why not?" and loaded ourselves up into the tuk tuk. At each temple, the driver told us to take our time and he'd wait for us. Between temples, he took us to some shops - 2 clothing stores and one jewelry store. The driver explained that he received gas coupons for taking us to these stores, so we entered the stores and spoke with the people there.

Afternoon Adventure (2:30pm)
After a nap we decided to go for another outing. We walked down a few roads and ended up on a road where they were selling plants. It was a series of plant vendors and shops about 5-6 blocks long. Several of the shops were selling fish out of big plastic tubs. It was getting very hot and humid so we decided to head back to the hotel for another nap.

Some pics from our walk:

Evening with Todd (5pm)
A little background info: There is a Thai food restaurant a few blocks from our house that we frequent often. The owners of the restaurant are from Thailand and go back to visit often. The owner's son, Todd, happened to be in Bangkok while we were there. So, they gave us his number so we could hook up with him while we were in town.

Todd arrived at the hotel with two of his friends to take us out on the town. We walk about a half mile to a public park adjacent to the river. The park was relatively large and was originally a fort with cannons pointing towards the river. There were a lot of people in the park. Every Sunday there is free aerobics instruction in the park. There is also a large group of people doing Thai martial arts and some are playing traditional Thai instruments. There are also groups of skateboarders and break dancers doing their thing.

After the park, we went across the street to get food. We entered a tiny shop and walked to the back and up some stairs to a tiny little dining area. Todd ordered for us. The food was exceptional. We ate in what appeared to be a closet with a small table and some short stools. Dinner was about 50 baht per person.

After dinner we took a cab to the Riverfront Hotel where we boarded a large boat that had a dining area/ballroom below deck and a huge open dining area on the top of the ship. Todd ordered about 10-15 dishes for us to try. The boat ride lasted for about 2 hours. The trip was from the hotel, along the river to the bay, and back again. By the time we returned to the hotel, we were exhausted and went to sleep.
Rama VIII Bridge
Santichaiprakan Park


Movies

Morning Excitement
I woke up around 7AM today. Around 7:30AM, Natalie realized that we had not paid rent before we left for Thailand. After searching online for about 30 minutes and not being able to find the mailing address for rent, we emailed my parents to send a rent check to our apartment manager. This way the apartment manager could mail the check for us. Once our panic was over, we went down for breakfast at the hotel.

Introducing Tor
At around 10AM, Todd showed up at the hotel with his uncle, Tor. Tor is newly retired. Our plan was to rent a car and spend the next two days in Khao Yai National Park. Tor suggested that we go to the park for the day with him and then come back to Bangkok tonight. We agree and the 4 of us (Todd, Tor, Natalie, and I) travel to Khao Yai in Tor's car. It turns out that Tor has worked in the area of several years and knows the park and surrounding area well.

Khao Yai National Park
The drive to the park took about 2 hours. A good chunk of this time was spent trying to get through the traffic in Bangkok. On the drive into the park, we see a few deer feeding near the side of the road. The park is incredibly beautiful. We stop at a lookout point on the top of a hill to view the valley and hills below. While at the lookout point, Tor shows us a tree that produces tamarind. We then stopped at the information center at the park. It was a standard national park info center with the exception of the bathrooms. The bathrooms had a garden in the middle of it. There are some pics below. Our next stop was one of the large waterfalls located in the park. We took a trail that went down to the base of Haew Suwat Waterfall. Once we got to the bottom, we climbed onto the rocks at the bottom. Climbing onto one of the large rocks, I slipped and cut my knee and hurt my toe. Once I realized I was going to live after the fall, I enjoyed the waterfall for a while longer. We walked back up the trail and went to a small pavilion that was selling snacks and drinks. We got some food and drinks and stopped to rest. While we were there, some other people let us know that they had found a pit viper at the base of a nearby tree. I went over to take a look and get a picture. As we were leaving, some others had spotted a Great Hornbill and let us look through their telescope to view it. On the drive out of the park, we came across a couple of groups of monkeys near the road. We stopped and took some pics.
Khao Yai National Park
Great Hornbill
Haew Suwat Waterfall

Trip back to Bangkok - Fruit Stand
Just a few miles outside of the park we stopped at a road side fruit stand that was selling fresh picked bananas and noina. Noina is an interesting fruit. It looks like it has a tough exterior, but it breaks apart fairly easily and is very soft on the inside.
Noina (Custard Apple)

Trip back to Bangkok - Store
We stopped by a shop that was owned by a college friend of Tor. He and his wife offered us fresh papaya and ice water. It was nice and refreshing. Their store offered specialty candies, dried fruit, and dried meat. The table and chairs we used were made from wooden beer kegs. The table top and chair tops opened to storage space below.

Trip back to Bangkok - Buddha on the hill
Our final stop before reaching Bangkok was a temple on the side of a hill. The temple had an extremely large Buddha that was halfway up a mountain. The Buddha statue was 100 meters wide.

Hotel in Bangkok
Since our plans changed and we didn't stay in Kao Yai National Park, we didn't have any hotel reservations. Tor got us a hotel that was near his house. The hotel was nice. It had a large golden elephant standing in the pool out front. The bathrooms in Thailand are very different than what I'm used to in the states. The showers are not separate from the toilet. Most of the bathrooms consisted of a toilet, a sink, and a shower head next to the toilet. There is a drain on the floor for the water to drain into.

Ayutthaya
Todd and Tor took us to Ayutthaya. This city was once the capital of Thailand until Burma invaded. The invasion lead to the burning and destruction of the temples and buildings in the city. At the old capital, after viewing the temple and the ruins, we rode and then fed some elephants. We also drank some coconut milk and ate coconut meat from actual coconuts.
Ayutthaya

Elephant Kraal
After visiting the temple and ruins, we stopped by the Elephant Kraal. This place was originally used by the king to pick which elephant would be used for going into battle. This place was also used for training war elephants. It appeared that they still train elephants here, but I don't think it is for fighting.
Elephant Kraal

Lunch
For lunch, we went to a small floating restaurant on the river. The food was really good. Natalie had a huge fresh water shrimp that was the largest shrimp I've ever seen.

King's Palace
After lunch, we visited the King's Palace in Bang Pa-In. The palace is a place for r&r for the king when he needs to get away from king type stress. The palace is enormous. We rented a golf cart to get around and it still took us a couple of hours to view the entire place. Since this was the king's place, Natalie was forced to borrow a dress to cover her legs. For some reason, my shorts were okay.
Bang Pa-In Palace

Wat Niwet Thammaprawat
Directly across the river from the palace is a monastary that was built by Rama V. The only way to get to the monastary is by a cable car that crosses the river. The cable car is powered by a man pedaling on a bicycle that turns the pulley system. The temple was built in a European Gothic style and is the only temple in Thailand that is not in the traditional Thai architecture. While we were at the temple, a monk came by and blessed the four of us.
Wat Niwet Thammaprawat

Dinner at MK's
We went to a department store in Bangkok to shop for fruit and snacks for the trip to Chiang Mai. The department store was huge. It was about 6 stories and carried everything from groceries to electronics to appliances to clothing. We met Todd's grandmother, sister, and Tor's wife at the restaurant for dinner. The place was unique. You order all the ingredients rather than a prepared meal. The ingredients come to you in several small bowls. On the table, there is a large hot plate with a built in pot filled with water. For dinner, you put your ingredients into the water and boil it. They also provide noodles, rice, and a sauce.
MK Restaurant

Trip to Chiang Mai - Part 1
Today starts the first day of our 2 day trip to Chiang Mai. Tor has offered to drive us since he has family and friends in Chiang Mai. On the way we stop at a rice field to see what rice plants look like. I've never seen rice out of a vendor/store setting. Walking into the rice field is interesting. It seems that rice looks a bit like wheat (since I'm not too familiar with either one).

We pass several trucks with a lot of kids in uniforms riding in the back and, at times, on the top of the truck. The children are required to be in the boy/girl scouts. Once a week, the last hour of school is scout lessons.

Once in the mountains, we stop at a rest area. The rest area had several shops. We stopped in one that served coffee and had some fresh coffee and hot tea. Although coffee is grown throughout the region, most places tend to serve instant coffee. So, fresh coffee is really nice to have. The coffee vendor had captured a large horned beetle. Apparently these are called atlas beetles and the Thai people use these beetles for fighting, similar to cock or dog fights. The shop next door was selling freshly picked tamarind. We ate some and it was good. I had never eaten tamarind before. It had a hard outer shell, like a bean pod, but the inside was large seeds surrounded by what seemed like fruit leather.
Beetles
Tamarind

We arrived this evening at a resort on top of a mountain. It is owned by Tor's friend. The resort area is beautiful. Our room is near the top of the mountain with an amazing view of the valley below. A lightning storm over the top of the mountain was occurring as we ate dinner in the open air restaurant.

Morning at Resort
I woke up at about 5:30am to a thick fog covering the mountain and valley below. Music was coming from across the valley. It was very surreal. I later found out that it was from a temple in the adjacent valley.

War Memorial
On a mountain top near the resort is the Khao Kao Memorial and museum commemorating the defeat of the Chinese aided communist. Notice the huge white temple in the distance of the last pic. That's where we are going next.

Big White Temple - I can't remember the name of the temple.
Near the base of the mountain that the memorial was on, is a huge white temple built by the King. The temple is said to house a fragment of bone from Buddha. The last picture in this series has almost nothing to do with the temple. If you look in my sun glasses, you'll notice Natalie taking the picture and the temple in the background.

B.N. Farm
The next stop on the way to Chiang Mai was at B.N. Farm. They were closed for tours when we arrived, but they allowed us to walk around the farm a bit. The store there was open and we bought some homemade fruit ice cream and some dried fruit that was grown, dried, and packaged there on the farm. I also had some fresh star fruit and fresh lanbutan (red spiny fruit). All of the fruit products are labeled 'pesticide free'.

Kaeng Sopha Waterfall
Our original plan was to stop at several waterfalls along the last stretch of road to Chiang Mai, but we missed our turn and ended up at the Kaeng Soph Waterfall. The Kaeng Soph Waterfall is supposed to be the largest in the region. During the rainy season, which is when we were there, the water is very brown because of all the sediment running down river. As for the big elephant skeleton... the waterfall is in the Thung Salaeng Luang National Park and the skeleton was at the park info center. Since I don't really read Thai, I have no clue why the skeleton was there.

Khao Lam
We stopped at a Khao Lam vendor on the side of the road. Khao Lam is yummy! The vendor fills a segment of bamboo with rice, beans, sugar, coconut milk, and water. The opened end of the bamboo is covered with banana leaves. The entire thing is then placed over an open fire pit. The rice and beans cook inside of the bamboo. To eat, you simply peel away the sides of bamboo and eat it like a burrito.

Rest Areas and Random Temple
We stopped at several rest areas along the way to Chiang Mai. The rest areas we say in Thailand are very different than what we have in the states. The rest areas here have a lot of small vendors that sell everything from food and drinks to fresh produce and handicrafts. The ones we stopped at also had magnificent views. Also, here's a pick of a huge Buddha at a temple that we passed by. I have no other information than that since I really don't know where we were.

38 km from Lampang
We've been driving through national parks and mountains for the last few hours. The forest is so think it looks like it may be rain forest. Roads here are narrow, 2-way roads and are winding through the mountains. At one point, we drove through an area with signs depicting falling rocks. About 100 meters after the sign is a huge rock about 3 meters tall and sitting halfway into the road. The rock left a trail of broken trees going back up the side of the mountain. I'm really glad it didn't fall as we were driving by.

Arriving in Chiang Mai
When we got to Chiang Mai, the main roads were all under construction because they are building a large highway through the city. We had some problems finding our way to the hotel. After a few phone calls to Tor's friend and a bit of driving in circles, Tor saves the day and finds our hotel. It turns out to be a huge fancy business class hotel. Man, we've been living the life of luxury lately.

Doi Suthep
Tor picked us up first thing in the morning and we headed up to the top of Doi Suthep mountain to visit the huge temple, Wat Prathat Doi Suthep. There are spectacular views from both the drive up the mountain and from the temple itself. You can view all of Chiang Mai from the top of the mountain.
Chiang Mai
Doi Suthep

Snake, Elephants, Monkeys
After the Wat, Tor wanted to take us to see the animal shows that are scattered around Chiang Mai. We weren't really interested in seeing trained animals doing tricks, but we had a difficult time communicating that to Tor. Finally, after a few minutes, we explained that we wanted to see the area rather than the shows.

Mae Sa Waterfalls
We next went to see the Mae Sa Waterfalls. The falls here consists of 10 consecutive waterfalls spreading out over about one kilometer. None of the falls were all that big, but were all beautiful. It was incredibly hot and humid while we did the walk along the river. By the time we got back to the car, we were soaking wet and very tired.
Mae Sa Waterfalls

v

Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden
After the hike at the falls, we visited the Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden. As we arrived, it started raining very hard, so we decided to stop and get some food before walking through the gardens. The little 'cafe' that we were directed to only had a small cooler filled with tv dinner type meals. Unfortunately, everything had meat in it. Although we were all very hungry, we decided to hold off and find other food elsewhere. Since it was still raining, we went to the green houses. After a little while in the green houses, we realized we were really tired. We stopped off at the orchid farm in the gardens for about 20 minutes and then headed back to our hotel.
Queen Sirikit Botanic Garden

Some Time to Ourselves
While we were still at the botanical gardens, Natalie and I both felt that we needed some time to ourselves. Since we arrived in Thailand, we had had little time to talk or just be with each other. Although it was only about 2pm, I asked Tor if he could take us back to our hotel so we could have some time to rest before we went to the night market. He said okay, but wanted to know what time he should pick us up the next morning. Since I hadn't actually had time to speak with Natalie, I told him we would decide later and give him a call later tonight. He offered to go to the market with us, but we declined his offer. When we got to the room, Natalie was very happy that I got us some time off. As much as we appreciated and were grateful for Tor and Todd's hospitality, we had been in Thailand for a week and hadn't had any time to ourselves. Tor took us to so many places that we wouldn't have found on our own, but it didn't feel like it was our vacation.

Telling Tor
Calling Tor and informing him of our decision was one of the most difficult things I've ever done. He had spent so much time taking us everywhere and was so nice to us, it was very difficult to tell him that we didn't want to meet up with him tomorrow. Due to the language barrier we have - Tor speaks English very well, but we still have problems communicating when it comes to nuances - I wasn't sure how to tell him without hurting his feelings or offending him. So we called Todd first, but were not able to reach him. It took several attempts to explain the situation to Tor. I stated that we really appreciated all of the time he spent with us, but that we just wanted some alone time. He seemed a bit sad on the phone, but I wasn't sure. We felt awful for doing this, but didn't know what else to do.

The Night Market
Our hotel was about a block from the night market. We found a restaurant in the market food area and got some food. the night market was crowded and interesting. There were many, many vendor booths, although most sold the same wares - watches (seemingly fake), shirts, silk cloth, wooden carvings and paintings, and lamps. At one of the watch vendors, I asked if he had a Movado. He looked around a bit and then asked me to follow him. We followed him to a small room under some stairs in the back of a shop that was hidden by a rack of clothing. The room contained several display cases of watches - all the cases were sitting on the floor since the ceiling of the room was only about 2 meters high. The room was nice and cool, which was a huge improvement over the hot and humid air outside. Luckily, I didn't have to worry about working through any ethical issues because they didn't have any Movado's. We did find the candy that Natalie's parents wanted, so we went ahead and purchased those. We also found an item for my niece, but I don't want to say what it is because this site is going live before she gets the gifts.

Chiang Mai - The Old City
By the time we finished breakfast and laundry, it was almost 11 AM. We decided to do one of the city hikes that was detailed in the National Geographic Thailand Traveler book. The hike was mostly to view the temples, which by this time in our trip, we had little interest in seeing. So we just wandered through the city sticking more or less to the route designated in the book. Because it was so hot and humid outside, we decided to stop at a cafe to get something to drink and to get out of the heat. The cafe turned out to be an American themed cafe that served burgers, Italian food, and Mexican food. I just had to try the Mexican food (since it is my favorite), so I ordered a burrito. Natalie ordered 2 scoops of ice cream. The burritos were your standard fair, but there was something a little off about them. I still can't quite figure it out. Outside of one of the cafes, we noticed a couple of sculptures made of metal. They ended up being sculptures of the alien from the Alien movies and of the thing from the Predator movies.

Several people approached us during our hike to offer us rides (in a tuk tuk) or to practice their English. All of them were very nice, but after a while, we just wanted to be able to walk in peace. A few blocks before the end of the trek, Natalie wanted to head back to the hotel. It was incredibly hot and sunny and the heat was taking a toll on the both of us. We found a tuk tuk and got a ride to the hotel for a shower and some rest.

Veggie Surprise
Around 5pm we decided to get dinner. I had found info on a vegetarian restaurant in the old city about 8 blocks from our hotel. We started on our way to the place. I wasn't too hot anymore, but the rain earlier made it even more humid. We were both soaking with sweat by the time we got across the moat to the old city. It took us an additional 30 minutes to find the restaurant. When we found it, there was a sign stating it was closed for 2 days. We spent another 30 minutes trying to find another place to eat. The reason I brought this up is because for most of the trip, I've had a hard time finding food other than rice with some mixed vegetables in it. Although I do enjoy rice and veggies, I'd like to have something different for a change. I've been hungry for a good part of the trip by this time.

Chiang Mai at Night
On the way back to our hotel, we noticed a string of small bars all grouped together. Each had 3-5 girls sitting out front and one pool table inside. None of the girls sitting outside were drinking or talking to each other. After a few minutes of discussion on this, we decided they were probably working girls rather than patrons of the bar. We spend the rest of the evening at the night market getting gifts for family. Natalie and I also found some very light weight pants and shirts that we purchased. I started raining really hard and a lot of the vendors shut down. We finished the night at an Irish pub having a Guinness. By the time we made it back to the hotel, the rain had drenched us.

Flight to Phuket
The flight to Phuket is uneventful. The interior of the plane is all purple and pink and we think Gabrielle, my niece, will like the plane.

Ride to Khao Sok National Park
Although we asked the resort we were staying at to pick us up at 4pm, the driver showed up at 1pm when our flight arrived. We had wanted to spend the 3 hours looking around. He drove us to Phuket and along the coast. The beaches there are crowded. Wat, the driver, showed us where the tsunami did damage along the coast. There was one point in which the tsunami carried a large ship 2 kilometers in inland. The drive to the resort took about 3 hours. The views along the coast and through the mountains were beautiful.

Khao Sok Rainforest Resort
When we got to the resort, it was very hot and humid (surprise, surprise!). The resort was right along the river and about 100 meters from the park entrance. The bungalow we stayed in was very small with a full size bed and a small rack to hang clothes on. The bathroom had a toilet, sink, and a showerhead (with a hole in the floor for the water to drain). Wat told us to rest and then come to dinner when we were ready. After a short nap, we went to the restaurant. They had a pretty good vegetarian selection. At dinner, Wat provided us with a book that detailed the available treks that the resort offered. Unfortunately, none of the treks we wanted to do were available. We wanted to do the lake and cave trek, but they needed at least 4 people to do it. Then, we said we wanted to do a half-day trek and spend the rest of the day tubing down the river. It turned out that the guide was only doing an all day hike. So we decided to go with that since it was really our only option. We spent the rest of the evening playing cards and dice and drinking Chang Beer.

Bad Start
The day started with our wake-up call being late, only giving us 30 minutes to get ready, eat breakfast, and meet up with our guide for the trek. I started to take a shower when we realized that the water heater kept tripping the circuit breaker. If I hadn't already stated this, we didn't get the bungalow we wanted when we got there. Wat showed us the 'tree house' bungalow when we arrived. It had two single beds instead of a double. It also didn't have hot water. So, we picked the riverside bungalow. With all that, plus the lack of choice in our trek, Natalie was in a very grumpy mood. We got ready as quickly as possible. Natalie was unable to take a shower because of the circuit breaker issue and the short time we had to get ready. We arrived at the restaurant right before we were to leave for the trek. Wat offered up some toast and coffee, which we took, but we were still hungry when we left.

Full Day Trek
We met our guide, The Tigerman, and the other person on the trek at about 7:30am. We walked to the park entrance and had to pay the entrance fee (200 baht each), which was supposed to be covered as part of the trek cost. I was wearing convertible pants with the pant legs in my pocket. As we reached the trail head, Tigerman told to tuck our pant legs into our socks because of the leeches in the jungle. I was very glad that I had my pant legs with me. I quickly pulled them out of my pockets and zipped them on.

The first 2 kilometers of the hike was on a wide trail through the jungle. During this part we saw some black monkeys in the some trees deep in the jungle. We also saw spiders and chameleons. Tigerman cut a vine to make us some straps for our water bottles. As we got deeper into the jungle, the trail got smaller and more strenuous. the lack of breakfast was getting to us after the first hour or so. This made hiking in the hot, humid rain forest very hard. Luckily, I brought my small, hand-sized camp towel with us. I dipped it in the river and we used it on our heads to cool down. As we got deeper into the jungle, I started noticing the sound of a radial saw in the distance. I assumed they were building something in the jungle. It ended up being the cicadas. After a couple of hours, Tigerman stopped us to check for leeches. It was at this point that I noticed blood on the front of my pants. My clothes were soaked from sweat, but there was a large amount of blood on my pants and stomach. I was a bit scared at first. There was a lot of blood, no pain, and no leech. Tigerman explained that leeches sucked until they were full and then they would just drop off. The anti-coagulants lasted for a while, though. I bled for another 45 minutes after that. It turns out that I simply donated some blood to the jungle. Once full, a leech can go a couple of weeks before he needs to feed again.

By the time we got to our destination for lunch, Natalie and I were about to die. Tigerman passed out our food (rice and veggies wrapped in butcher paper). The food was so good, but I was so exhausted that I could only eat about a third of my lunch. I sat down on a large rock and just rested for about 15 minutes before doing much else. Our lunch spot was a small rocky area between the jungle and the river. The water here was a greenish color, but incredibly clear. Just 30 meters up stream, past narrow cliffs, was a small but beautiful waterfall. After we rested a bit, we decided to head to the waterfall. There was a small bamboo raft. Natalie, Tim (the German guy that was also on the trek), Tigerman, and I got on the raft and started towards the waterfall. There were too many people on the raft and it started to sink. We all eventually got off the raft swam for a while. Another guy, from Winnipeg, Canada, showed up where we were spinning. We invited him to jump in the water. He was a little nervous because he had gone tubing the previous day and the river had fish that bite. He was several months into a yearlong visit to Thailand. He teaches English at one of the elementary schools. The walk back was at a quicker pace because of the approaching rain storm. About 1.5 km from the end of the trek it started raining incredibly hard and continued until later that evening.

After the Trek
As soon as we got back to our bungalow, we took off our soaked clothes, took a shower (with one person handling the circuit breaker), ate dinner, and then went to sleep. It was about 4pm. We woke up about 2 hours later and decided to go get desert. During desert, we told Wat that we wanted to do the lake and cave trek. He said he would see if there were enough people to do the trek and he would get back to us.

Remembering the bars along the road between the park entrance and our resort, we decided to be social and check them out. We walked up and down the road and none of the bars had any patrons. So we went back to the restaurant and drank beer and played a dice game (cinco-uno) until it was time for bed.

Lake and Cave Trek
Wat woke us up on time this morning so we had breakfast before the trek. Wat told us to just bring sandals, rather than boots, because we would have to cross a few deep rivers. he also said we should bring a change of clothes for swimming and a flashlight for the caves. We had noticed a laundry place last night while we were looking for a bar and wanted to drop some clothes off on the way out. It turned out the resort did laundry for the same price, so we left our clothes there to be washed. The other person doing the trek was a Brit from Newcastle named John. During the 45 minutes drive to the lake, we talked about British and US politics, as well as pop culture in the two nations.

The trek started with an hour long long-tail boat ride across the lake. The boat ride was great. The lake is man made with a bunch of limestone mountains and cliffs sticking up out of the water. We arrived at a floating lodge to prep for the trek to the cave. The trail head was a five minute boat ride from the lodge. The first part of the trail was very muddy and wet. After about 500 meters, we had our first river crossing. The river was about waist deep with a slight current. From there to the cave was another hour of trekking through the jungle and river crossings. This included muddy inclines, climbing under and over fallen trees, eight river crossings (some with very strong currents). By the time we reached the cave, I had pulled about 10 leeches off of my feet and legs. It had started raining a bit and our guide was concerned about being trapped in the cave if the water rose too fast. So, we agreed to only trek about 50 meters into the cave. We had to cross the river another 4 or 5 times while in the cave. The current was very strong and the river deep in the cave. There were many big spiders and hundreds of bats in the cave. Once we reached the point where the cave narrowed and the water deepened, we turned back.

The trek back to the boat resulted in less leeches on me (only 3) and a couple on Natalie. We boated back to the floating lodge for lunch and some rest. On the ride back across the lake, we stopped a few times to see some black monkeys and some great hornbills in the trees along the edge of the water. Once we got back to the resort, we ordered some dinner and stayed up late drinking and talking with John.

To Sarat Thani
After paying for our stay, Wat gave us a ride to the main road to catch the 7:30am bus to Sarat Thani. We waited about an hour for the bus to arrive. During that time, we talked with 2 British girls that were waiting for the same bus. They were psychology students doing their residencies and were on a 4 week holiday in the south of Thailand. The bus ride took about 2 hours. The bus driver was driving kinda crazy. He was trying to pass while oncoming traffic approached. One of the passengers that had a small child with her started yelling at the driver and made him stop and let her off the bus. We missed our stop for the airport, so the driver made a slight detour and dropped us off near a bus station on the outskirts (we think) of town. We ended up taking a cap to the airport from there. The airport was small with only one gate, so we had to wait outside the terminal until our plane arrived.

Back in Bangkok
We arrived at our hotel completely awestruck. When we reserved the hotel online, we had decided to stay in a luxury hotel for our last couple of nights in Thailand. The hotel was a high end business hotel and was very, very nice. We spent the rest of the afternoon napping before we went out for dinner. We asked the hotel staff for a nearby vegetarian restaurant and they pointed us to a place about 16 blocks east of the hotel. We decided we could walk it. On the way to the restaurant, we realized our hotel was next to a bunch of working girl bars. We weren't able to find the restaurant, so we found an outdoor place and got some food. The service wasn't very good, but we later read in a guide book that that was to be expected. "The squeaky wheel gets the greese," the book said of the service there.

Deaf Vendors
The main road next to the hotel was lined with vendor booths, much like the night market in Chiang Mai, but all of the vendors are deaf. We passed by a vendor on the way to dinner that was selling photos mounted on black wooden boxes that we liked quite a bit. She tried to make the sell, but I tried to let her know (using hand motions) that we were going to be back after we ate. She pointed to her watch and let us know that she would only be there for about 2 more hours. The expression on her face displayed a look of disappointment and the thought that we wouldn't actually come back.

After eating, on the way back to the hotel, we passed the previously mentioned vendor again. She was already packing up her booth when we arrived. She was very excited that we had come back. We ended up bartering with her a bit and ended up buying a photo of a monk that we liked. We went back to the hotel, went swimming, and then to bed. It has been a very long day.

Royal Palace and Wat Pho
We slept in a bit today and ended up just taking a cab to the Royal Palace. It was closed until 2:30pm, so we went to the Wat Pho instead. We saw the huge reclining Buddha and many of the large temples there. Natalie got the Thai massage that she had been wanting. By the time we got to the Royal Palace (across the street), it was closed to tourists. So we decided to go back to the hotel and get some dinner.
Wat Pho and Reclining Buddha
Wat Pho and Reclining Buddha Part II

Evening in Bangkok
We took a cab to the sky train adn then the sky train to the hotel. We had the hotel staff show us on a map this time where the vegetarian restaraunt was that we couldn't find last night. Even with the map, the restaurant was a bit difficult to find. Rather than being a vegetarian Thai food restaurant, it was more of a fancy little cafe that was also an art gallery. The food was good, but we ended up paying about 1000 baht for dinner. It was a fusion restaurant. I'm not 100% sure what it fused though. After dinner we headed back to the hotel for a swim. I wanted to go out afterwards, but Natalie didn't, so we stayed in and I took the time to catch up on this journal (the paper version).

Hanging out in Bangkok
It looks like yesterday's entry was the last entry I made in my journal. So, i'll just write this according to memory (yeah...) and some of the pics I took. We didn't really have any plans other than to just hang out today. This is our last day here. We fly out at 6am in the morning tomorrow. We decided to take the skytrain around town and just see what is around our hotel. Since the skytrain is used rather heavily, there are a lot of things on the roofs of buildings that I haven't seen in the US. There were a couple of odd little statues and on one building there was a huge TV showing commercials. The TV was at least 5 meters tall. I also realized that during the entire time in Thailand, there were these huge posters, arches, flags, billboards, and monuments to the King. This year is the 60th anniversary of the King taking the throne. So, I took one picture of a poster of the King that took up half of a building. These tributes to the King were everywhere, so I didn't really realize how often I saw them until I got back to the US. I wish I would have take at least one picture...

Another Veggie Surprise
Natalie found a listing for a vegeterian restaurant for me in Bangkok. It was in a part of town that we had not yet visited. We had the hotel staff write the address of the place in Thai so that we could get directions to the place once we got to that neighborhood. We took the skytrain down to the end of the line at the river and decided to walk the rest of the way. After about 20 minutes of walking and not being sure if we were going the right way, we flagged down a tuk tuk, showed him the address, and we were off. He dropped us off on the street near the restaurant. The restarant didn't really have a sign, it was just the bottom corner of a building. When we finally found the place and went in, there was nobody that spoke English. It was at this point that we realized that we had always had Tor, Todd, or a guide with us that spoke English almost everywhere we went. We had left our Thai-English book at the hotel for this trip. After about 5 minutes of total confusion, a guy showed up that spoke some English. He told us that they were closed, but that they would make us some food anyways. They brought out a menu, but it was all in Thai. We didn't really know what to do. Another girl showed up that spoke English very, very well. She helped us order some food, which turned out to just be more veggies and rice and some soup. The food was good, but they gave us entirely too much food. We each ate less than half of the food on our plate and about 1/3 of the soup. When we were done, we asked the girl to let the restaurant know that we really appreciated them staying late for us.

While we were walking between the skytrain and the restaurant, we noticed they were building a new monument for the King in the shape of a boat. Somebody told me why it was in that shape, but I have since forgotten. And we passed a McDonald's on the way back to the hotel, so I took a pic of Ronnie. Notice the placement of his hands and the slightly submissive lowering of the head. All service staff at restaurants and hotels did this anytime you approached or left. I'm still not sure if this is a thank you or welcome you type of stance, but I noticed that the patrons did the same. So, I generally did likewise.