Airboarding is awesome!! Not quite sure how I pulled this trick off....
Nikki was much more graceful-
Tuesday, December 29, 2009
Christmas in West Virginia
Thursday, December 24, 2009
Monday, July 6, 2009
Day 7 and Leaving Thailand
Still not feeling 100% on my last full day in Thailand, Nikki made the executive decision to skip out planned rappelling down a waterfall, and head to the zoo and nearby hilltop temple (DoiSuthep) instead. The zoo was a madhouse, as the Panda on loan from China recently gave birth and the baby is a few weeks old. Chiang Mai has been promoting this as a major tourist attraction, so people form all over the country were here for the grand opening this weekend. The Chinese ambassador to Thailand was even present (we saw his car!). There were school groups, bands, and everybody had some kind of Panda facepaint, headgear, etc. The rest of the zoo was ok, but again not the best conditions for housing animals that I've seen. Still, we saw tigers, lions, rhinos, a bunch of primates, etc.
After the zoo, we jumped in a song tao (communal truck taxi thing) for a ride up a nearby mountain to a wat (temple) called Doi Suthep. It was raining like crazy all day, so we didn't have much of a view, but the temple itself was very beautiful. We snacked out way through the day, eating banana-stuffed waffles, pork/rice sausage, and kow soy – which is a delicious noodle curry dish.
Though we were totally cold and soaked to the bone, Nikki and I rallied to visit Sunday walking street, which is a huge market in the center of town with tons of stuff to eat/buy. Though Nikki said it was more sparse than normal due to the weather, the overall scene was pretty impressive. We picked up presents for people and did some art shopping (got some amazing pieces for whenever we have a house some day). And of course, we ate lots of street food. We had some great standards, chocolate bananas, mango sticky rice, sticky rice wrapped in a leaf, samosas, etc, and I tried a few of the more interesting dishes, including squid on a stick and fried cricket – yum! Last step of the day was to find a long sleeve collared shirt for me (I accidentally packed only two for work next week!). It turned out to be quite an ordeal, running around the night market and talking to various tailors and shopkeepers, but in the end I got something that will get me through.
So now I'm in Taipei for a few hours, getting ready for my flight to LAX to go back to work (public open houses in LA, Oxnard, and Santa Barbara). Long series of flights, but had fun on my layover in Bangkok. Bought some new shoes/socks (my others were totally smelly and destroyed from being wet all day yesterday) and had one last Thai massage in the airport. Jumping right back into work, but feeling very much refreshed and ready to go. It was sad to leave Nikki again this morning, but she and I will both we busy for the next few weeks and seeing each other in a month on Maui for our wedding!
After the zoo, we jumped in a song tao (communal truck taxi thing) for a ride up a nearby mountain to a wat (temple) called Doi Suthep. It was raining like crazy all day, so we didn't have much of a view, but the temple itself was very beautiful. We snacked out way through the day, eating banana-stuffed waffles, pork/rice sausage, and kow soy – which is a delicious noodle curry dish.
Though we were totally cold and soaked to the bone, Nikki and I rallied to visit Sunday walking street, which is a huge market in the center of town with tons of stuff to eat/buy. Though Nikki said it was more sparse than normal due to the weather, the overall scene was pretty impressive. We picked up presents for people and did some art shopping (got some amazing pieces for whenever we have a house some day). And of course, we ate lots of street food. We had some great standards, chocolate bananas, mango sticky rice, sticky rice wrapped in a leaf, samosas, etc, and I tried a few of the more interesting dishes, including squid on a stick and fried cricket – yum! Last step of the day was to find a long sleeve collared shirt for me (I accidentally packed only two for work next week!). It turned out to be quite an ordeal, running around the night market and talking to various tailors and shopkeepers, but in the end I got something that will get me through.
So now I'm in Taipei for a few hours, getting ready for my flight to LAX to go back to work (public open houses in LA, Oxnard, and Santa Barbara). Long series of flights, but had fun on my layover in Bangkok. Bought some new shoes/socks (my others were totally smelly and destroyed from being wet all day yesterday) and had one last Thai massage in the airport. Jumping right back into work, but feeling very much refreshed and ready to go. It was sad to leave Nikki again this morning, but she and I will both we busy for the next few weeks and seeing each other in a month on Maui for our wedding!
Thailand Day 6
Saturday was animal day. We hired a driver named Preecha for the day to take us all around to various animal-themed attractions near Chiang Mai. Disclaimer here – I got to say that some of the operations were pretty terrible and made me sick to see how poorly the animals were being treated. Others were comparatively much better. Gave us plenty of perspective for some of the better/worse ways in which animal viewing can be made available to tourists.
First on the list was an elephant camp. You start out by getting to feed bananas/sugar cane to elephants by hand. You can pay a dollar to have the elephant pick you up by it's trunk – pretty amazing how strong they are. Then you go over for a show where they have the elephants doing all kinds of stuff like kicking soccer balls, dancing, demonstrating how they are used to haul logs, and even painting. Yes, somehow they have trained elephants to hold a paintbrush and paint flowers, trees, and of course elephants. After the show, we climbed on onto a saddle for a ride through the jungle. Very lumpy but fun. Our guide was hilarious and had fun practicing his English with us. His best phrases were "Oh my God," "Oh my Buddha," and "Mamma Mia!" We jumped off the elephant and did a little shopping for hill tribe handicrafts before getting in an ox cart to ride back to the main complex. After a huge lunch buffet, we got on a bamboo raft to float down the river to the end of the tour (same river as the white water rafting, but further down stream). It was very peaceful to be polled along and enjoy the scenery.
Preecha met us at the end and whisked us away to the next attraction, a snake farm/show. The farm was pretty interesting, with tons of different snakes and other random animals (birds, mongoose, etc), but the best part was the show. When we sat down, they cranked the intro part of "the final countdown" (song from Rock IV) and paraded out several ominous looking burlap sacks. Then came the announcing, which was done by a hilarious Thai guy with a great deadpan sense on humor. He would simply turn down the music (which was a continuous loop of the intro to the final countdown) for a second, throw in a word or two, then crank it back up. While we was doing this, three other Thai men were throwing out various poisonous snakes, including kind cobras, and basically harassing them and trying to avoid being bitten. They also got the audience involved and scared the crap out us every once in a while.
Next we went to the "monkey center," where they had a whole bunch of macaques on display and a show. This was definitely one of the most depressing animal exhibits I've seen. The monkeys were in tiny cages of chained up in a small yard, and the show was totally demeaning, and included having them do tricks, sell tourists items, and even ride a tricycle in circles. During the show they picked me from the audience to test my memory ability against one of the macaques. As you might guess, the monkey won.
The final stop, tiger kingdom, was considerably better. This is a tiger breeding program, which is sanctioned by the Thai government, and has a range of tigers for viewing from a few months old to adults. The best part is that you can actually go interact with them. First, Nikki and I went in with three adults, and were allowed to pet/scratch them, as long as we didn't touch their front paws or head (no problem!). They even had us lay down on the tigers. It was just a tab bit terrifying, but also amazing to feel the raw power of their muscles under their velvety coats. As if that wasn't enough, we followed that up with a snuggle session with baby tigers, who were just a couple months old. They were definitely like big kittens (with big claws) and were totally friendly, climbing all over us and cuddling up for a good belly scratch. We talked with one of the trainers afterwards who told us that we switched from being a journalist to working in tiger conservation, after being inspired by Steve Irwin. For some reason, I found that really touching!
When we got back home, Nikki and I were starting to feel the effects of a week of late nights/early mornings. We lay low for the night, ordering food in and catching up on some much needed rest.
First on the list was an elephant camp. You start out by getting to feed bananas/sugar cane to elephants by hand. You can pay a dollar to have the elephant pick you up by it's trunk – pretty amazing how strong they are. Then you go over for a show where they have the elephants doing all kinds of stuff like kicking soccer balls, dancing, demonstrating how they are used to haul logs, and even painting. Yes, somehow they have trained elephants to hold a paintbrush and paint flowers, trees, and of course elephants. After the show, we climbed on onto a saddle for a ride through the jungle. Very lumpy but fun. Our guide was hilarious and had fun practicing his English with us. His best phrases were "Oh my God," "Oh my Buddha," and "Mamma Mia!" We jumped off the elephant and did a little shopping for hill tribe handicrafts before getting in an ox cart to ride back to the main complex. After a huge lunch buffet, we got on a bamboo raft to float down the river to the end of the tour (same river as the white water rafting, but further down stream). It was very peaceful to be polled along and enjoy the scenery.
Preecha met us at the end and whisked us away to the next attraction, a snake farm/show. The farm was pretty interesting, with tons of different snakes and other random animals (birds, mongoose, etc), but the best part was the show. When we sat down, they cranked the intro part of "the final countdown" (song from Rock IV) and paraded out several ominous looking burlap sacks. Then came the announcing, which was done by a hilarious Thai guy with a great deadpan sense on humor. He would simply turn down the music (which was a continuous loop of the intro to the final countdown) for a second, throw in a word or two, then crank it back up. While we was doing this, three other Thai men were throwing out various poisonous snakes, including kind cobras, and basically harassing them and trying to avoid being bitten. They also got the audience involved and scared the crap out us every once in a while.
Next we went to the "monkey center," where they had a whole bunch of macaques on display and a show. This was definitely one of the most depressing animal exhibits I've seen. The monkeys were in tiny cages of chained up in a small yard, and the show was totally demeaning, and included having them do tricks, sell tourists items, and even ride a tricycle in circles. During the show they picked me from the audience to test my memory ability against one of the macaques. As you might guess, the monkey won.
The final stop, tiger kingdom, was considerably better. This is a tiger breeding program, which is sanctioned by the Thai government, and has a range of tigers for viewing from a few months old to adults. The best part is that you can actually go interact with them. First, Nikki and I went in with three adults, and were allowed to pet/scratch them, as long as we didn't touch their front paws or head (no problem!). They even had us lay down on the tigers. It was just a tab bit terrifying, but also amazing to feel the raw power of their muscles under their velvety coats. As if that wasn't enough, we followed that up with a snuggle session with baby tigers, who were just a couple months old. They were definitely like big kittens (with big claws) and were totally friendly, climbing all over us and cuddling up for a good belly scratch. We talked with one of the trainers afterwards who told us that we switched from being a journalist to working in tiger conservation, after being inspired by Steve Irwin. For some reason, I found that really touching!
When we got back home, Nikki and I were starting to feel the effects of a week of late nights/early mornings. We lay low for the night, ordering food in and catching up on some much needed rest.
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