Kate came up to visit after her summer in Juneau, Blossom flew over from Toronto for her first trip to Alaska, and Laura also worked in Juneau all summer and wanted to see more of Alaska before heading back down south. We spent a little time in Anchorage, went down to Seward and the peninsula, then headed up to Fairbanks to hang out with our friend Carl. Here's some pictures from the trip. Enjoy!
08 October, 2009
26 July, 2009
28 June, 2009
Big Island!
After racing across Maui back to the airport, we flew on to the Big Island and landed in Kona. Kona is pretty much just touristy and full of people. The beaches didn't even look that great. We spent a night in Kona and then worked our way south along the coast exploring anything that looked interesting and then headed up to Volcano, HI. We stayed there two nights and explored Volcano National Park. The Chain of Craters road was fun. It goes all the way down to the coast along a line of various craters and ends up at a pretty recent lava flow that creates a barrier on the road. The noxious fumes in the area were starting to get to us eventually though, so we headed off to Hilo. Hilo is wet and gorgeously green! The town looks like a ghost town, but it's much more real instead of the fake touristy feeling of Kona. We stayed at a hostel that was literally in the middle of a botanical garden. It was pretty awesome! One evening we drove out to the viewing area for the currently active lava flow. It was pretty cool, even if for the most part you could only see the reflection of the red hot lava on the steam that it created when it poured into the ocean. We did see a few sprays of actual lava fly up though. One day we drove up Mauna Kea and did a little tour of one of the observatories. Then we sat up there until sunset, after which we drove back down to the visitor center where they had a bunch of telescopes out for people to view various things in the night sky. We had a great time looking at stars and galaxies and talking with all the geeky star people there who knew so much. The next day was my last day in Hawaii, so we drove around the north end of the island back to Kona to fly back to Honolulu. We had a bit of time to hang out there, so Jeff and I found a sushi restaurant for dinner before I had to go back to the airport to fly home.
06 June, 2009
Lanai!
Next we headed to Lanai for 24 hours. We headed over in the morning with our camping gear on the ferry and found a rental Jeep. We bounced all over the island in that thing all day and then headed down to the beach with a campground. We set up our tent and then went for a swim while the sun was setting. The next morning we had to get up early to go turn in our rental Jeep and catch a ride back down to the ferry to head back to Maui and fly off to the next island.
Maui!
Maui was the second island Jeff and I went to. We relaxed and got a few things done the first day, then headed around to Lahaina to explore the western side the next day. We spent a night up on Haleakala and did a hike down to the bottom of the crater. The sunset was beautiful from up there too. The next day we drove out to Hana (such an awesome drive!) and spent a little while out there before driving back.
Molokai!
On my trip to Hawaii, I visited 4 of the islands. The first island I went to was Molokai to meet Jeff there and see where he was working for the last 6 months at Kalaupapa National Historical Park. We spent a day exploring topside Molokai (the main part of the island) before putting our backpacks on and hiking down the Kalaupapa cliffs to the peninsula of Kalaupapa where the leper colony is. Jeff had a 50 lb pack and I had a 35 lb pack. Jeff was accustomed to it, but I definitely was not. My legs were shaking by less than half way down, but I survived, more or less. My legs didn't really work for the next 3 days, but that was ok, as I had those 3 days to rest and relax anyways.
02 June, 2009
2009 Iditarod Start (the real one)
Here's some pics from the start of the Iditarod. This was the real actual start, not the just-for-show one they do in Anchorage. This one is out in Willow.
Catch Up Time!
So, time to catch up a bit. Here's the rest of the India pictures. I'll post anything after India in separate posts.
Here's a few random pics, one of my apartment building from the water, another of the pool I would often go lay by, and the third of me playing the guitar for the people at work.
Here are a bunch of pictures from my trip to Pondicherry. Pondicherry used to be a french colony, so there are interesting and random french influences in the area. On the way there we stopped at a number of ancient Hindu temples.
The next slideshow includes random pictures of Cochin and surrounding areas. They love their billboards! At the end are some pics at a zoo of sorts that we visited one afternoon.
Here are some more pictures of my lengha and also of a sari that Jamie bought.
And here's some last minute and last day photos from my trip. It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone.
Here's a few random pics, one of my apartment building from the water, another of the pool I would often go lay by, and the third of me playing the guitar for the people at work.
Here are a bunch of pictures from my trip to Pondicherry. Pondicherry used to be a french colony, so there are interesting and random french influences in the area. On the way there we stopped at a number of ancient Hindu temples.
The next slideshow includes random pictures of Cochin and surrounding areas. They love their billboards! At the end are some pics at a zoo of sorts that we visited one afternoon.
Here are some more pictures of my lengha and also of a sari that Jamie bought.
And here's some last minute and last day photos from my trip. It was very sad to say goodbye to everyone.
15 March, 2009
No time to post!
Hey everyone - I haven't forgotten about you all! I've just been entirely too busy to post more pictures. It's been busy season at work since the moment I got back and I've hardly had a chance to breathe, much less sit down, relax, and post blog entries and pictures. But I still totally plan to. Maybe even later today if I can get my apartment cleaned up a bit first. It still looks like someone just arrived back home from a very long trip and hasn't finished unpacking yet. Which would be true.
01 February, 2009
Shopping!!!
So whoever it was that let me go shopping today with Jamie and Gurpreet needs to be taken out and shot. (Oh wait... that was my own choice... damn.) Heh, anyways, I had an amazing time shopping today, despite my feet killing me and my credit card balance skyrocketing.
Most of the things I bought were pretty reasonable, including a couple more kurta-type shirts, a few cute t-shirts, a couple cute purses, and probably a couple other things. The one thing that was rather incredibly expensive is the lengha I bought for myself. I included a picture below (the first one in the slideshow - feel free to click on it and see a bigger version on my Picasa page), but basically it's a skirt and shirt (short shirt in this case) combo with a scarf. Of course, they tend to be quite thoroughly decked out in hand embroidery and sequins and crystals, and mine is quite the epitome of such. So much so that it probably weighs about 15-20 pounds. It is so incredibly gorgeous though, and fits like a beautiful glove. It's definitely an Indian style and design, but I think it's totally something I could wear in the US as well. I have a plan to wear it at least 3 times in Anchorage in the next year or so, and then I might have to move so I can wear it at least 3 times in a new place. *grin* Just kidding! I'll have to make it pay for itself somehow though! And of course any time you get a beautiful Indian outfit, you have to get bangles, earrings, and necklace to match. (And shoes, but I think I've already got that one covered... I've purchased enough shoes here already.)
I also had to buy another suitcase. I hope Lufthansa doesn't charge too much for a 3rd bag. I... um... have bought a lot of stuff here it seems. *grin* Oh well. I guess I won't be allowed to buy much of anything in Germany.
Modeling Lenghas at Seematti
Most of the things I bought were pretty reasonable, including a couple more kurta-type shirts, a few cute t-shirts, a couple cute purses, and probably a couple other things. The one thing that was rather incredibly expensive is the lengha I bought for myself. I included a picture below (the first one in the slideshow - feel free to click on it and see a bigger version on my Picasa page), but basically it's a skirt and shirt (short shirt in this case) combo with a scarf. Of course, they tend to be quite thoroughly decked out in hand embroidery and sequins and crystals, and mine is quite the epitome of such. So much so that it probably weighs about 15-20 pounds. It is so incredibly gorgeous though, and fits like a beautiful glove. It's definitely an Indian style and design, but I think it's totally something I could wear in the US as well. I have a plan to wear it at least 3 times in Anchorage in the next year or so, and then I might have to move so I can wear it at least 3 times in a new place. *grin* Just kidding! I'll have to make it pay for itself somehow though! And of course any time you get a beautiful Indian outfit, you have to get bangles, earrings, and necklace to match. (And shoes, but I think I've already got that one covered... I've purchased enough shoes here already.)
I also had to buy another suitcase. I hope Lufthansa doesn't charge too much for a 3rd bag. I... um... have bought a lot of stuff here it seems. *grin* Oh well. I guess I won't be allowed to buy much of anything in Germany.
Modeling Lenghas at Seematti
30 January, 2009
Moving to the Gateway Hotel next door...
Things are changing again, which is no surprise, as they seem to do that a lot here. Another secondee named Gurpreet arrives today, and as there are only 2 bedrooms in this apartment, and there are already 2 of us here, I'm going to move over to the Gateway Hotel (fka Taj Residency) next door so she can move into the apartment right away. Really it gives me an excuse (or forces me rather) to do a preliminary packing to see how bad the situation really is and whether I need to go find a post office or if I can do more shopping. *grin*
It's kinda depressing to pack though, even though I'm not leaving yet. My last day is coming all too soon. *sigh* I don't want to leave, but I want to see my friends and my apartment. And I'm not looking forward to the cold. I don't know how I'm going to deal with the cold, even in Germany. I'm already starting to think anything less than 70 is pretty chilly! I suppose that's why I keep buying pashminas... to help keep me warm when I get home!
I tried my sari on again today. I somehow managed to figure out how to put it on by myself! (Albeit not very well.) I'm so tempted to buy another one in a different type of fabric, because they are so beautiful, but I think that would probably be pretty silly, as I don't have any real reason to wear them in Alaska.
Ok, I'm procrastinating on the packing. Time to get back to it!
It's kinda depressing to pack though, even though I'm not leaving yet. My last day is coming all too soon. *sigh* I don't want to leave, but I want to see my friends and my apartment. And I'm not looking forward to the cold. I don't know how I'm going to deal with the cold, even in Germany. I'm already starting to think anything less than 70 is pretty chilly! I suppose that's why I keep buying pashminas... to help keep me warm when I get home!
I tried my sari on again today. I somehow managed to figure out how to put it on by myself! (Albeit not very well.) I'm so tempted to buy another one in a different type of fabric, because they are so beautiful, but I think that would probably be pretty silly, as I don't have any real reason to wear them in Alaska.
Ok, I'm procrastinating on the packing. Time to get back to it!
16 January, 2009
Time is Flying
I only have 3 weeks left!?! I'm still trying to figure out where all the time has gone. And still planning some last minute trips to make sure I make the most of my last 3 weeks here.
Last weekend was a very relaxing weekend. I spent most of both days lying by the pool reading a book. It was awesome! This weekend will probably be a little more active, as another secondee arrived this last week, Jamie, and she and I are planning to go shopping. But I'll probably end up lying next to the pool again at some point this weekend. *grin* It's such a hard life, I know.
Last weekend was a very relaxing weekend. I spent most of both days lying by the pool reading a book. It was awesome! This weekend will probably be a little more active, as another secondee arrived this last week, Jamie, and she and I are planning to go shopping. But I'll probably end up lying next to the pool again at some point this weekend. *grin* It's such a hard life, I know.
South Kerala
Ok, time to finish posting about my holiday trips. After visiting Thailand, Chris and I flew back to Cochin. The flights were fine, the only notable thing is we had to sit in the Bangalore airport for several hours between flights, which wasn't very exciting, but we survived.
We got to Cochin at around 7 a.m. and our driver for the next 5 days picked us up and drove us to my apartment first. At my apartment I was able to unpack and repack my bag a bit and we explored a little. We went to breakfast over at the Bubble and then went up to see the pool on the roof of my building. Then we took a short nap (seeing as we were both running on next to no sleep from flying all night) and then met our driver again at around noon. We dozed off and on in the car on the way to Munnar. It was a beautiful drive, or at least the parts I saw were. We stopped at a number of waterfalls along the way and also a spice garden, where we were given a very nice tour for only $2 (100 rupees). We made it into Munnar soon after the sun had set and our driver dropped us off at our hotel. We dropped out bags and then headed out to see if we could explore the town a little. We ended up finding a local restaurant and had dinner, then we stopped at a spice shop and bought some handmade chocolate with cashews (very, very good!). Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Next morning we had breakfast and met our driver again. He took us up a mountain to a nature reserve area to see the Nilgiri Thar (a rare species of mountain goat) first. The view was beautiful and the goats were very unafraid of humans and therefore very close and easy to take pictures of. Then we headed to a dam nearby to see the lake and we went for a speed boat ride around the lake. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, even if only for a short time. The next stop was a place called Echo Point, which is really just a spot down at the end of the lake where you can yell and hear your echo. In reality it's an excuse for lots of vendors to set up shop and try to sell things. I did find some really cute earrings though. :) Then we went back to the spice shop and bought a few spices and some tea to take home.
That evening was New Year's Eve, so the hotel was hosting a party with a huge buffet, a DJ and some preplanned entertainment. It was outside, which was pretty cold, as Munnar gets down below freezing at night this time of year. But they had a couple bonfires going, so it wasn't too bad. The food was good, the entertainment was entertaining, and the DJ sucked. But it was pretty cool all around. Chris and I left the festivities early due to the cold and instead celebrated the new year from under the comfort of our warm blankets.
The next morning we had to get up reasonably early to grab breakfast and then head farther south and west to Kumarakom on the backwaters. We were a little delayed heading out due to the car not wanting to start in the cold temperature, but that was eventually fixed and we were on our way. We arrived in Kumarakom in time to get on the houseboat at around 2 p.m. The houseboat trip was much like the last one I went on, although the quality of this boat was a bit lower. But it was still very nice and relaxing and Chris and I took lots of photos.
The following morning we had breakfast on the boat and then, once we landed, we had a long drive down to Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, across the border in the state of Tamil Nadu. Our goal was to get there before sunset so we could watch the sunset from the tip. Poor Chris was starting to not feel too great, presumably from car sickness, although he had done quite well on all the car rides so far. We stopped for a super late lunch and a short break at Kovallam beach and after that Chris started feeling even worse. As we were crossing the border into Tamil Nadu he got really sick, but wanted to press on anyways. Finally we realized it wasn't car sickness so much as it was food poisoning, probably from the food at breakfast on the houseboat. (There was a local dish that he tried and I didn't that we suspect was the culprit.) We eventually made it to the tip, just as the sun was setting, and then we scurried to our hotel so Chris could lay down and relax and get better. He did feel better in the morning, but still not great, and we had another long day in the car to get back up to Cochin so he could catch his flight that afternoon. Before we left we tried to see if we could get a flight for him out of a closer airport, but apparently all the flights were booked, so we had to give up on that idea and just face the long car ride. He survived the ride, despite our driver driving like a maniac trying to get us to the airport on time so Chris wouldn't miss his flight. And somehow, he did make it on his flight, even though we arrived at the airport only 15 minutes before his flight was supposed to takeoff.
It was a crazy end to a trip and I was very glad to get back home and relax a bit. I was also happy to go to the Bubble and have a nice non-indian meal with a nice glass of good, non-indian wine. :)
We got to Cochin at around 7 a.m. and our driver for the next 5 days picked us up and drove us to my apartment first. At my apartment I was able to unpack and repack my bag a bit and we explored a little. We went to breakfast over at the Bubble and then went up to see the pool on the roof of my building. Then we took a short nap (seeing as we were both running on next to no sleep from flying all night) and then met our driver again at around noon. We dozed off and on in the car on the way to Munnar. It was a beautiful drive, or at least the parts I saw were. We stopped at a number of waterfalls along the way and also a spice garden, where we were given a very nice tour for only $2 (100 rupees). We made it into Munnar soon after the sun had set and our driver dropped us off at our hotel. We dropped out bags and then headed out to see if we could explore the town a little. We ended up finding a local restaurant and had dinner, then we stopped at a spice shop and bought some handmade chocolate with cashews (very, very good!). Then we went back to the hotel and crashed.
Next morning we had breakfast and met our driver again. He took us up a mountain to a nature reserve area to see the Nilgiri Thar (a rare species of mountain goat) first. The view was beautiful and the goats were very unafraid of humans and therefore very close and easy to take pictures of. Then we headed to a dam nearby to see the lake and we went for a speed boat ride around the lake. It was a beautiful day to be on the water, even if only for a short time. The next stop was a place called Echo Point, which is really just a spot down at the end of the lake where you can yell and hear your echo. In reality it's an excuse for lots of vendors to set up shop and try to sell things. I did find some really cute earrings though. :) Then we went back to the spice shop and bought a few spices and some tea to take home.
That evening was New Year's Eve, so the hotel was hosting a party with a huge buffet, a DJ and some preplanned entertainment. It was outside, which was pretty cold, as Munnar gets down below freezing at night this time of year. But they had a couple bonfires going, so it wasn't too bad. The food was good, the entertainment was entertaining, and the DJ sucked. But it was pretty cool all around. Chris and I left the festivities early due to the cold and instead celebrated the new year from under the comfort of our warm blankets.
The next morning we had to get up reasonably early to grab breakfast and then head farther south and west to Kumarakom on the backwaters. We were a little delayed heading out due to the car not wanting to start in the cold temperature, but that was eventually fixed and we were on our way. We arrived in Kumarakom in time to get on the houseboat at around 2 p.m. The houseboat trip was much like the last one I went on, although the quality of this boat was a bit lower. But it was still very nice and relaxing and Chris and I took lots of photos.
The following morning we had breakfast on the boat and then, once we landed, we had a long drive down to Kanyakumari, the southern tip of India, across the border in the state of Tamil Nadu. Our goal was to get there before sunset so we could watch the sunset from the tip. Poor Chris was starting to not feel too great, presumably from car sickness, although he had done quite well on all the car rides so far. We stopped for a super late lunch and a short break at Kovallam beach and after that Chris started feeling even worse. As we were crossing the border into Tamil Nadu he got really sick, but wanted to press on anyways. Finally we realized it wasn't car sickness so much as it was food poisoning, probably from the food at breakfast on the houseboat. (There was a local dish that he tried and I didn't that we suspect was the culprit.) We eventually made it to the tip, just as the sun was setting, and then we scurried to our hotel so Chris could lay down and relax and get better. He did feel better in the morning, but still not great, and we had another long day in the car to get back up to Cochin so he could catch his flight that afternoon. Before we left we tried to see if we could get a flight for him out of a closer airport, but apparently all the flights were booked, so we had to give up on that idea and just face the long car ride. He survived the ride, despite our driver driving like a maniac trying to get us to the airport on time so Chris wouldn't miss his flight. And somehow, he did make it on his flight, even though we arrived at the airport only 15 minutes before his flight was supposed to takeoff.
It was a crazy end to a trip and I was very glad to get back home and relax a bit. I was also happy to go to the Bubble and have a nice non-indian meal with a nice glass of good, non-indian wine. :)
07 January, 2009
Chiang Mai!
So Bangkok was pretty cool and fun to see, but Chiang Mai was amazing! Christmas evening we flew from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai. It was a quick 1 hour flight. Then we found a taxi to take us to the couchsurfer's place where we were going to stay while in Chiang Mai. (Couchsurfing is a pretty cool way to travel the world and meet new people.) Of the two people hosting this particular couchsurfing place, one was from Homer, Alaska, and the other from Bend, Oregon. They seemed to love to have couchsurfers all the time, and lots of them, as there were two Hungarians, a Taiwanese, a Spaniard, a French, four Polish people, and Chris and myself staying there. Oddly enough it seemed like there was plenty of room.
In the morning we slept in late and then met our tour at around 11:45 a.m. after a breakfast of duck soup. The tour drove us up into the mountains north of Chiang Mai to a zip line place called Flight of the Gibbons. We had lunch with the group and then did the zip line tour. It was a lot of fun, with several zip lines, a couple canopy bridges, and a few free-fall type drops. It also was pouring rain, which made it that much more interesting. After the zip line tour we went to our homestay and met our host, a very sweet Thai lady. She spoke no English whatsoever, but Chris knew a little bit of Thai, so we got along just fine. :) She made us an excellent dinner and then we had Thai massages before bed.
The next morning we were driven back into town where we met up with a different group of people, consisting of a couple from Holland and honeymoon couple from the UK, and then proceeded to drive out of town in another direction following a river to go white water rafting. It was a lovely drive, and the sky cleared up perfectly. The white water rafting was a lot of fun, with up to level 4 rapids and swimming in the slow parts. The guides were pretty cool too. Then we headed back into town and later met up with the same group of people again for dinner at the Riverside restaurant. After dinner, Chris and I headed to the Saturday night market to see what kind of fun things they had. I wanted to buy a lot, but I settled for a cute green purse. Then as we were heading home, we happened to find a restaurant named Lemongrass! And, believe it or not, it is owned by the same family that owns the Lemongrass in Fairbanks. And, to top it off, we knew the guy who owns and runs it from when he was a waiter at the Lemongrass in Fairbanks! (Of course, we did kind of know about this ahead of time, but it was still pretty amazing, and also still lucky that we actually found the place.)
The following morning we got a breakfast of noodles and then caught a songtheaw (basically a small pickup with covered benches in the back - see Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew) to the "bus station". We had asked to be taken to the regular bus station, but apparently the driver had other plans. So we gave up arguing and just got off. Then another songtheaw driver approached and offered to take us up to the temple on the hill (in Doi Suthep, which was our ultimate goal), but we didn't think the price seemed very reasonable so we declined and wandered off to find the real bus station. On the way we checked out a temple or two (they are seriously around every single corner in Chiang Mai). We finally got to the real bus station, only to find out that no buses ran to Doi Suthep, so our only option was to head back to the songtheaw "bus station". So we wandered back there and met up with a German family and joined them in getting a songtheaw to Doi Suthep. On the way we ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic, which we eventually found out was due to the king driving by that way. Go figure. We finally made it up to the temple, called Wat Phrathat, which is featured on the 50 satang coin (worth half a baht). It was beautiful, but very touristy. Once we got back to Chiang Mai we tried to find Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, but by the time we found it it was already closed. So we walked on to the Sunday Market, then further to Lemongrass for dinner. The food was very much like it is at the Lemongrass in Fairbanks, with just a few small touches that made it even more Thai. Then we walked the 45 minutes home to the couchsurfer place.
We had to get up super early the next morning to catch a taxi to the airport to catch our flight back to Bangkok. After arriving we got some fruit at the market, focusing on any fruits I hadn't yet tried. Then we headed to the apartment to do laundry and try the different fruits we had found. Some of the ones we tried throughout my trip are pictured below, including durian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian), one of the strangest fruits known to man, dragonfruit (or pitaya - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfruit), and jackfruit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit). I also tried many other interesting fruits, including green mango (literally mango that isn't ripe yet), some sort of thai apple, and probably more that I can't seem to remember anymore.
After finishing laundry and repacking, we went out to do a little shopping, had red curry for dinner, and then headed to the airport to fly back to India.
Chiang Mai pics
White Water Rafting pics
Fruit!
In the morning we slept in late and then met our tour at around 11:45 a.m. after a breakfast of duck soup. The tour drove us up into the mountains north of Chiang Mai to a zip line place called Flight of the Gibbons. We had lunch with the group and then did the zip line tour. It was a lot of fun, with several zip lines, a couple canopy bridges, and a few free-fall type drops. It also was pouring rain, which made it that much more interesting. After the zip line tour we went to our homestay and met our host, a very sweet Thai lady. She spoke no English whatsoever, but Chris knew a little bit of Thai, so we got along just fine. :) She made us an excellent dinner and then we had Thai massages before bed.
The next morning we were driven back into town where we met up with a different group of people, consisting of a couple from Holland and honeymoon couple from the UK, and then proceeded to drive out of town in another direction following a river to go white water rafting. It was a lovely drive, and the sky cleared up perfectly. The white water rafting was a lot of fun, with up to level 4 rapids and swimming in the slow parts. The guides were pretty cool too. Then we headed back into town and later met up with the same group of people again for dinner at the Riverside restaurant. After dinner, Chris and I headed to the Saturday night market to see what kind of fun things they had. I wanted to buy a lot, but I settled for a cute green purse. Then as we were heading home, we happened to find a restaurant named Lemongrass! And, believe it or not, it is owned by the same family that owns the Lemongrass in Fairbanks. And, to top it off, we knew the guy who owns and runs it from when he was a waiter at the Lemongrass in Fairbanks! (Of course, we did kind of know about this ahead of time, but it was still pretty amazing, and also still lucky that we actually found the place.)
The following morning we got a breakfast of noodles and then caught a songtheaw (basically a small pickup with covered benches in the back - see Wikipedia article: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Songthaew) to the "bus station". We had asked to be taken to the regular bus station, but apparently the driver had other plans. So we gave up arguing and just got off. Then another songtheaw driver approached and offered to take us up to the temple on the hill (in Doi Suthep, which was our ultimate goal), but we didn't think the price seemed very reasonable so we declined and wandered off to find the real bus station. On the way we checked out a temple or two (they are seriously around every single corner in Chiang Mai). We finally got to the real bus station, only to find out that no buses ran to Doi Suthep, so our only option was to head back to the songtheaw "bus station". So we wandered back there and met up with a German family and joined them in getting a songtheaw to Doi Suthep. On the way we ran into a ridiculous amount of traffic, which we eventually found out was due to the king driving by that way. Go figure. We finally made it up to the temple, called Wat Phrathat, which is featured on the 50 satang coin (worth half a baht). It was beautiful, but very touristy. Once we got back to Chiang Mai we tried to find Wat Chiang Man, the oldest temple in Chiang Mai, but by the time we found it it was already closed. So we walked on to the Sunday Market, then further to Lemongrass for dinner. The food was very much like it is at the Lemongrass in Fairbanks, with just a few small touches that made it even more Thai. Then we walked the 45 minutes home to the couchsurfer place.
We had to get up super early the next morning to catch a taxi to the airport to catch our flight back to Bangkok. After arriving we got some fruit at the market, focusing on any fruits I hadn't yet tried. Then we headed to the apartment to do laundry and try the different fruits we had found. Some of the ones we tried throughout my trip are pictured below, including durian (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durian), one of the strangest fruits known to man, dragonfruit (or pitaya - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dragonfruit), and jackfruit (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jackfruit). I also tried many other interesting fruits, including green mango (literally mango that isn't ripe yet), some sort of thai apple, and probably more that I can't seem to remember anymore.
After finishing laundry and repacking, we went out to do a little shopping, had red curry for dinner, and then headed to the airport to fly back to India.
Chiang Mai pics
White Water Rafting pics
Fruit!
04 January, 2009
Bangkok!
On December 24th (Christmas Eve), I arrived at the airport in Bangkok (yes, the one that was closed recently due to protesters - don't worry, that's all been cleared up for now) sometime before 6 a.m. and called Chris. He told me which bus to catch, which didn't prove too difficult to find, and I headed to a market near his place called "Happyland". A unplanned change of buses and a lucky guess later and I managed to make it without too much trouble. I walked into the market and instantly realized I had just walked into gastronomic paradise! Everything smelled amazing! While waiting for Chris to show up, I got some breakfast - green curry. It was about as good as I've ever had (and I'm very picky about my thai green curries). *grin* Chris finally showed up and we headed to his place to drop off my stuff and rest for a moment before heading out on the town. He had a big long list of places to show me, and of course we only made it to a very few, but it was a good overall representation of Bangkok. We started with a random museum we passed on our way. It was originally a prince and princess's palace turned museum. It had a lot of interesting things to look at, including a lot of depictions of the Ramakien (the Thai version of the Ramayana - a Hindu epic). That was pretty cool as I'm currently reading a version of the Ramayana. After the museum we made our way to the Victory Monument, which is pretty much just a major hub in the city for buses. Then we headed to the Teak Mansion and throne halls. The Teak Mansion was beautiful, but alas no pictures were allowed, inside or out. I was able to take some outside photos of the throne halls though. Then we went to Wat B, a buddhist temple that's pictured on the 5 baht coin. (Wat means temple - also, see photos for full name of the wat, it's far too long to spell out.) After the seeing the wat we took a very long bus ride back and stopped at Happyland again for some mustamun curry for dinner. Then we headed to Chris' place and crashed.
The next morning was Christmas day, but it was very hard to remember that fact as the day progressed. Thailand is almost exclusively Buddhist, and they don't celebrate Christmas at all, so the only places you saw any sort of decoration was at touristy hotels and a few of the bigger malls. I slept in Christmas morning while Chris worked on his resume, which he had to send out that day. Then we headed out towards the school Chris works at. (He teaches English to Thai students in secondary school.) We stopped at a market near the school for some fried rice and then walked over to the school to meet some of his fellow teachers. After that we stopped for a Thai massage. Thai massages are great, but a bit different than your usual Swedish style massage. It's like yoga in some ways, and it seems like quite the workout for the person giving the massage. My only tiny complaint is that they don't focus on the back and shoulders nearly enough for my tastes, otherwise it was very good. After the massages we headed to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai.
The next morning was Christmas day, but it was very hard to remember that fact as the day progressed. Thailand is almost exclusively Buddhist, and they don't celebrate Christmas at all, so the only places you saw any sort of decoration was at touristy hotels and a few of the bigger malls. I slept in Christmas morning while Chris worked on his resume, which he had to send out that day. Then we headed out towards the school Chris works at. (He teaches English to Thai students in secondary school.) We stopped at a market near the school for some fried rice and then walked over to the school to meet some of his fellow teachers. After that we stopped for a Thai massage. Thai massages are great, but a bit different than your usual Swedish style massage. It's like yoga in some ways, and it seems like quite the workout for the person giving the massage. My only tiny complaint is that they don't focus on the back and shoulders nearly enough for my tastes, otherwise it was very good. After the massages we headed to the airport for our flight to Chiang Mai.
Bonwick 2008
Bonwick 2008 happened back on December 13th - it was basically a huge work party (somewhere around 1000 people); the semi-formal type where all the big wigs get up and say a few words before setting everyone free to eat and dance. They made us get up on stage too, which was completely unexpected, and say a few words as client representatives. The various teams put together a lot of different performances though, which were really well done.
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