It’s difficult to grock that “this morning” (well, 41 hours ago — that international date line can really mess with you) I was in Bangkok. Tomorrow, I’m back at work. Vacation is over. 🙁 Thailand and Cambodia are beautiful countries. I highly recommend. p.s. I’ll be back posting more pictures & stories in the next week or two.

One of my favorite tidbits from the Lonely Planet: Krung Thep Mahanakhon Amon Rattanakosin Mahinthara Ayuthaya Mahadilok Phop Noppharat Ratchathani Burirom Udomratchaniwet Mahasathan Amon Piman Awatan Sathit Sakkathattiya Witsanukam Prasit That’s Bangkok’s official name.  The rough translation is: The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukarn In Thai, it’s truncated to Krung …

A couple highlights: The beach that we’re on is probably about half a mile long.  (I’m really bad at guessing distances — it takes about 15 minutes to walk it.)  The most people we’ve seen on the entire beach at a time is about 75. Got my first thai massage two days ago.  It’s amazing… this women uses her elbows, feet, knees.  At some point I was hanging practically upside down.  The massage is done on this covered platform on the beach.  There was a breeze, soft thai music playing, wooden wind chimes, and the ocean lapping.  An hour massage for 6.50 USD.  I’ve gotten …

We decided to upgrade our bungalow to an uber deluxe beachfront hut.  There’s a patio, air conditioning, and hot water.  It costs a whopping 1600 Baht (40 USD).  For another 2 bucks, we bought a hammock to hang on the patio. The view at sunrise was beautiful.

Arrived in Ko Samui two days ago and stayed one night in Chaweng. It was awful. I’ve never been to Cancun… but it looked like they could have filmed MTV Spring Break there. Yesterday, we caught a ferry to Ko Phan Ngan and are now on a small beach called Thong Nai Pan Noi. We’re staying in a small bungalow in a place called Baan Panburi. Our hut costs 650 baht a night (about 12 bucks), and comes fully equiped with fan, mosquito netting, and cold water. 🙂 It’s beautiful. The beach is quiet, there’s lots of sun, and the …

My favorite part of the trek was the elephant ride.  The elephants we rode on seemed very well treated and fed… but it’s always hard to tell.  Elephants are no longer really being used in day-to-day manual labor like they were before.  As keeping an elephant is very expensive, the best hope for these amazing creatures in Thailand is (responsible) tourism. Some pictures… Feeding “Mae” some sugar cane: Headshot:

Rough trek schedule: Day 1 (Jan 2nd) Get picked up in covered truck and head up to mountains. Walk through Mao & Karen villages. Hike to waterfall. Hike through jungle & fields to Karen village. Stay the night in Karen village. Day 2 (Jan 3rd) Hike to another Karen village. Hike to another waterfall. Go on elephant ride. Trip on bamboo raft. Karen villages are one of several northern Thai hill tribes.  They also happen to share my name 🙂

Got up at 6:30am this morning… gotta love jetlag.  But it did make for a beautiful stroll the city.  Morning light, fresh fruit and banana pancakes at the market. About to head out on a 2 day trek through the jungles & hill villages.  Bamboo rafts & elephant rides included.  🙂