Pai Reggae Music Festival

This weekend was yet another spur of the moment trip... This time to the charming mountain town of Pai. We decided to do a last minute trip out there to go to the Reggae Festival.  

The drive is about 3.5 hours, with a stop or two to stretch out the ass, and is through some beautiful scenery.  You go up and over the mountains, so at the very top there are tons of pine trees and its cool and smells sort of like Tahoe.  We did the drive fine, sometimes though being bullied to the side road/dirt by the busses and vans and truck speeding by, as we are little 125cc bikes.  Even the real motorcycles sped by us.  The drive went well and when we got into town, we found some nice rooms and went directly to the Country Kitchen, our favorite place to eat in Pai.

After stuffing our faces, we head down the street to a bakery, and had some of the most delicious Toffee chocolate cake I could have imagined.  It was great.  The apple cinnamon muffin, chocolate banana bread and doughnut couldn't compare... though a taste test was necessary.  We went back to the room to nap and hang out before getting ready for the festival and walking down the street to get shuttled out to the event.

The event was at great little resort, with bungalows, tree house looking rooms, and right on the river.  They had build a bridge over the river, and funneled people through the bridge to the music stage and food/drink/merch stalls. 

The music was alright, and the food was decent.  The drinks were decently priced as well.  The really good part about the concert, besides watching the hippies dance with hula hoops and sticks, was seeing Job2Do, one of Thailand's most popular artists.  He is well known all over the country, from my 5 year old students to their grandparents.  It's crazy how famous he is.  His music is also played all over Thailand, especially in the south at the beaches and any chill hangout spot. Below is Job2Do singing his set, which only started 2 hours late... sometime after 230 am.

Below: First, notice our awesome headbands. Second, bamboo straws. Third, peace sign.

We partied at the festival until about 3 am, and headed back, as we had a long drive ahead of us the nest morning.  After waking up, packing up, and eating a huge breakfast, we set off on the journey, quickly stopping in Pai Canyon.  It's got a great view of the surrounding area and also some weird little stone paths.  It's hard to explain, but there is a little dirt path, and it drops down a solid 20-30 feet on both sides, and the path is about 2 feet wide.  Stupidly dangerous, so of course we all wanted to walk on it for pictures.  

This is one of the scariest ones, and it just jets out a little, and drops straight down at least 30 feet on each side.... perfect area for some sexy photos...

Here's a picture of the canyon, and Claire's new friend...

And to note... this is the first time I really learned how to "blog" adding pictures in text, and links... hopefully I can keep this up. 

Glad I got to skype everyone this past week! Mom, dad,  grandma, grandmpa, steve and shelley... not a bad turnout. 

Sukhothai

Two weekends ago, Nicole (fellow PRC teacher) and I made a last minute decision to take a night buss to Sukhothai, Thailand's historical administrative and spiritual capital. It's like the Angkor Wat of Thailand. We took a bus leaving at 8 pm, and arrived in Sukhothai around 1 am. The bus was freezing, and impossible to sleep on... but go figure. Its cold in Thailand, they keep the AC running on high all night... Amazing Thailand

We got a cart/taxi and tried a couple places before settling on the Sukhothai Guesthouse and trying to sleep, but the room was freezing, we accidently left a window open, and they had given us a blanket and a sheet, to share. Nicole got the little blanket, and I used the sheet, a silk piece of bed covering, and towels to try to keep warm... I even put on pants and a sweatshirt in the middle of the night. We got a couple hours sleep and then headed out to visit the ruins. This entailed a 20 minute walk to the trucks, and then a half hour drive in giant trucks to the ruins, where we rented bicycles to cruise the grounds.

Sukhothai used to be Thailand's spiritual and administrative capital about 700 years ago, or something. Now it's just a local and foreign tourist attraction and holds spiritual sentiment for most all Thais.



We both rented individual bikes, and set off around the ruins, stopping to check out the old temples, stonework, or simply laze around in the shade. Luckily it was a brisk day, so riding the bike actually warmed you up, and the shade was a nice relief from walking in the sun.



We spent the rest of the time checking out some of the temples and sights, Buddha images and ruins... It was a very relaxing afternoon. We checked out the night market for dinner, which was pretty small and quiet, and went back to the room to read/listen to music and sleep. We took an early bus the next morning, and was back in Chiang Mai by early afternoon. It was a nice little weekend away, and since we had Friday off school, made it a long weekend as well.

Back to Thailand

So, you all got to see me at home, but now I'm back in Thailand..

I left for the SFO airport at around 7pm on Tuesday, January 6th. I took a flight from SFO-LAX, arriving in LAX around midnight. Since I was on a domestic flight, I figured I would have to switch over to the International terminal. I went outside, caught a bus (after standing in the cold) and rode the whole look, until the last stop, number 7, for United international flights. However, the woman driving was preoccupied on the radio and skipped it, so I had to sit through the entire loop again. When she got to it again, I had to stand up and yell stop, or she would have skipped it again...

Funny enough I was dropped of exactly where I picked up the bus... as United flights in LAX are both domestic and international. Wonderful. I was too late to get into the gated areas, and they told me they would open around 5 am. This was wonderful, as it was about 1 am at the time. There was only the ticketing areas (which were being cleaned) so very few people were already crashing on the even smaller numbers of chairs. I eventually settled on a series of 3 carpeted metal crates, happily situated next to a door, which, contrary to common sense, opened and closed all night, for no apparent reason. This was wonderful, because without a blanket, and in shorts and sandals, I was horribly cold for the "sleep" i got. At 4 am, I finally gave up and went to stand in line with the rest of the zombie-like passengers.

I was finally allowed in to the gated areas around 430 and immediately found a bench, and passed out till 7, when it was time to wake up, try to find internet, and eat some food. I spent the morning in the airport, watching it get crowded and then empty for a flight. My flight was at 11 am, so when I finally got on I was ecstatic to find myself alone in a row of 3 seats. Until the last moment... when a Japanese exchange student came on holding two bags too big for her to carry, and people helping her. She then tossed on bag on the floor in the middle of the isle and started re-sorting (we were trying to takeoff) and pulled out books, dvd's a computer, make up, hair straightener, stuffed animals, a jacket, etc etc etc... She also would turn and excitedly talk to you, even when I was reading and/or listening to music... To top it off, the TV on our side of the plane didnt work, so for the 11+ hours, I could only see the top third of the TV screen way ahead of me, which made watching any of the movies pointless.

When I finally arrived in Japan, I had a 3 hour layover before a 6.5 hour flight to BKK. The flight was better, and I was able to pass out a decent amount of it, trying not to get sucked into the conversation of the old golf pro and girl coming out to visit an old friend. They eventually got me, and I found out the girl was coming to visit the older sister of a girl I know in Chiang Mai.

Upon the glorious arrival in Bangkok, I went to try to see the reservation I made for a ticket the following morning (we arrived at midnight). There was no reservation so I went to ticketing and bought the first available ticket to Chiang Mai, which was at 630 in the morning, from the domestic airport, and business class. I took it, wanting to just be in Chiang Mai. I got a taxi to the other airport, and proceeded to find a corner to "sleep" in for the 3-4 hours of sitting there I had to do. Even though it was beautifully warm at night, the airport was frigid. Thankfully I had stolen a blanket from United. I attempted some not so restful hours of sleep, and finally boarded my BUSINESS CLASS ticket to Chiang Mai. Let's just say, if you can afford it, business class is the way to go. Big comfortable seats, juice and water upon arrival, a full breakfast with napkin tablecloths, real cutlery, newspapers... the best hour I had in the past 30+ of traveling. So I left for SFO around 7 pm Tuesday night, and ended up (with the time change) arriving home to Chiang Mai at 745 am Friday morning...

That afternoon a friend of mine was flying home, so I went to her house and moved into her old room. It was perfect timing. So now I live in the city, with my friend Dave, who teaches at my school. We have a two bedroom, nice comfy living room (he has an amazing couch) and even have an oven. It's pretty nice, but I dont cook. The room is normal, nothing special, and its loud at night, but thats what I wanted, so no complaints. I spent Friday getting my stuff moved in and sort of hung out, going to bed early, as I was exhausted.

Saturday was a hang out and clean up day and Saturday night was a shitshow with free tequila shots at my friend's bar... Sunday was spend entirely in bed. Now it's monday, and I'm at school. I had two classes this morning, and one canceled this afternoon. I'm trying to fulfill the full day (for the first time in months...) since it's almost the end of the year.

It is an odd feeling coming home to Chiang Mai, where I oddly feel more comfortable then I do in San Jose. Probably because I have a job/friends here.

As you all know it was great to see everyone over Christmas, and the cruise was a blast (except Guatemala... which I protested going to)

Hope the New Year's Resolutions are going good. I'm giving up eggs and rice. If you knew what I eat here, you would find that immensely funny.

Actually, I plan on returning to the gym today (fearful of how fat they all will tell me I got) and start working off the pizza and burgers from the cruise and Adelita's burritos.

Love you all...

the new living room/best couch in the world...