Hello friends and associates. Hope all is well! Colleen and I, in a whirlwind, have finished our contracts in Korea, said many good-byes, and packed our lives into bags and boxes (sort of deja vu from last year, when I left Canada...).Rather than heading straight home, I will reluctantly miss the Highland Games and tour through South East Asia.
The first stop was Hong Kong for 3 days, which is sort of between Thailand and Korea. The city was amazing.., east meets west, in a big way. It was a British colony up until 1997, so it truly has an English feel to it (complete with double decker buses!). Bangers and Mash meets millions of Cantonese Neon Signs along the most beautiful skyline in the world. Unfortunately, I came down with some sort of 24 hour food poisoning (I'm blaming an Irish Pub's chicken sandwich... damn the Irish), so the whole experience was quite the blur.
Next, we were off to the madness that is Bangkok. We stayed on Khao San Road, which is a famous carnival of a tourist street, made famous in the beginning scenes of the Leonardo DeCrapio film "The Beach." It was complete chaos. You could buy everything from fake Harvard diplomas to tailored suites. We later met up with my former co-worker's fiancee, Pla, who lives in Thailand. She showed us some sites, then took all of our messy baggage to her house, so now we only have to carry around a back-pack. Bless her Thai heart.
The next day, I went in for some dental work. Yeah, thai dentistry. The price was right, I'll put it that way. The dentist was a complete pro, but I could see where the cost was being cut. Par example, she began drilling away at my cavity, and when she saw me squirming in pain, she said "you now what? I recommend you have an injection to numb your mouth... 100 baht ($3.00)". To which I replied, in a painful soft voice "fuck yes."Anyway, all's well that ends well. I went back to my hotel and swam in the rooftop pool. $20/night got us a pretty decent hotel with a rooftop pool and bar. This resulted in my first Thailand sunburn.
That night we met up again with Pla, and she took us to a Thai restaurant on the river. The food was awesome, I can see why it has become so fashionable back home. Later she took us out drinking in the Pat Pong district, where I saw a Thai Elvis impersonator (who claimed I looked like Buddy Holly), along with some other crazy shit that I can't even describe with words. We finished the night off drinking "laow cow" (local discount whiskey -- "horrible stuff," according to Simon Stewart, www.silkwheels.com) with some guy on the side of the road.
The next day we were off to the old capital, Chiang Mai, on an overnight bus. The bus was shit, but cost $12 for a 12 hour ride, and because it was overnight, it doubled as a nights expense in a hotel. We arrived at 6am and staggered into a great, clean hotel, (also with a pool) for $10/night. We went to explore for a bit to see some of the markets and temples. We agreed to be touted around town on a bicycle rickshaw with an anciently kind driver. He doubled as a tour guide, and seemed to be a bored, retired man that wanted to show off his city because he was genuine and very helpful. He offered his services for approx $3 for the whole day. He took pictures of us in the temples and told us a ton of stories. It was a nice relaxing way to get aquainted with the city.
The next day we went on a trek. It was a pretty tame 'trek,' but loads of fun nonetheless. The first part of the adventure was a trip to an elephant camp 45 mins out of town. They plunked Colleen and I on an elephant and we were off on a 30 min tour through jungle, mud, slopes, and elephant poop. It was a crazy thing... when do you normally do something like this? We did feel some guilt though, I can imagine the elephants don't have a very good life there... so I bought a bunch of bananas and kept our playful paciderm well fed. Ours may've been the loon of the group though, he sure went to the beat of his own drum. Made for some funny detours. After that, we hiked through the jungle to a waterfall, took a bamboo raft down the river, and visted a hill tribe. Jake of the Jungle.We got back from the trek, showered, and hopped the overnight bus back to Bangkok, to meet up with Pla, sort out some laundry, and catch a flight to Cambodia. Pla was her usual courtious self, and made our few hours in Bangkok very comfortable.We made it to the airport, and flew into Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.
We are in Siem Reap now, and have one more day to go here before we go to Koh Phi Phi ("the beach" from "The Beach"). After that, a stop in London to meet up with my former Xaverian Weekly co-hort Kate. Colleen goes on to Ireland, after meeting up with her mom, and Jake'll wind up in Antigonish on July 26th, at around 3-4pm. Just in time to shower and get ready for the Big Top.
I'll see you then!
Jake (and Colleen)
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