Hello Everyone!

We made it to Bangkok, then immediately through Bangkok without much incident. We’re currently in Chiang Mai, our fourth and final night here (this time around), tomorrow we’re taking a bus to the Laos border, then hopping on a “slow boat” down to Luang Pragang. I have no idea what to expect, except it’s apparently a French city? I’ll be the judge of that.

Two stories:
When we were in our first days of the trip, on Ko Lanta, we had a pet frog that lived on our porch under one of our discarded beach towels. I picked the towel up one day and saw the frog, then put it back down because I liked the idea of having a pet frog. We poured some water on the towel to keep it moist.

The next day we lifted the towel and didn’t see him, we were disappointed, but as we lifted it higher, he fell out of a deep fold, plopped right on the ground. We put the towel back down.

A couple days later a cleaning lady was there and I told her not to touch the towel – I did the international sign for “don’t touch this” by putting my running shoes (which I wasn’t wearing) on top. She still didnt’ understand, but when she went to touch the towel we shooed her away.

The final day on Lanta we lifted the towel, but the frog was gone! We were upset, but life goes on.

We made it to the sailboat, then to Ko Pha Ngan and then to Ko Ma. On the day we left Ko Ma for Bangkok there was a DOWNPOUR. Rain going sideways (and cold rain, at that), we were soaked, as were all the other travelers. To make matters worse, the inside of the boat had air conditioning that couldn’t be turned off, so we sat there and froze. Azure changed into socks and shoes, jeans and a sweatshirt, and I intended to follow suit, but when I took my shoes out there was this HORRIBLE smell. I put my foot in my right shoe but there was something hard in there. Then I realized that the smell could only be one thing – rotting frog corpse. The shoes just haven’t smelled the same since.

Story number two:
Azure and I rented a scooter here and went out to the suburbs of Chiang Mai, just trying to escape the smog a little. We came across the “Chiang Mai Sports Complex,” a sprawling group of fields and buildings and courts and one gigantic pool. It’s an Olympic sized 50-meter pool (there are only 2 of them in the Puget Sound area, as far as I know), it’s CLEAN and there was nobody there. I don’t know why – maybe the Thai aren’t big swimmers, maybe the ex-pats don’t know about it, but it’s a gorgeous pool that should be packed. And it’s not. At the most there were about 5 people swimming.

The best part of this thing is that there’s an Olympic-sized set of dive platforms there as well and throughout the pool area there were zero lifeguards to try to keep me from doing stupid things and hurting myself.

Azure falling

I’ve never jumped from that high up. 10 meters, I think, it was a monster. I stood at the edge of the platform and looked down and just couldn’t believe how high it was – my knees were shaking and adrenaline rushing the whole time. I know I can’t sit there and try to rationalize it, to convince myself to go off – so my way of beating the fear is to just not think and just step off the edge. But when you step off the edge of this thing, you wonder to yourself, “What the fuck am I doing? There’s nothing under me!” And you fall. and you fall. and you fall. and you accelerate the entire way and when you finally hit it’s chaos. I hit and my arms & feet stung and my ears popped and water rushed over me and threw me into underwater flips… then I surfaced, and floated, and let the endorphins do their work. But here’s the amazing thing about falling from that height: I did it 7 or 8 times that day and EVERY time it was just as thrilling. I didn’t want to jump, my knees shook, I decided it was a bad idea while I was still falling… every single time.

The only time I dove.

Yesterday was amazing. This morning we decided to do it again. We got to the platforms and on my 3rd or 4th jump the water slammed my jaw together and I felt a pop – chipped a front tooth. It wasn’t bad, but it was a visit to the dentist. We asked an expat if she knew a good dentist and she told us it was a little roadside clinic in the Northeast part of town and that she’d email us directions. But it was getting late, and we’re leaving tomorrow, so we decided to just drive and find a dentist along the way. We drove for a long time, got lost, didn’t see anything around except houses and a road that wasn’t about to turn up a dentist. We stopped at a hair salon, of all places, and checked our email. No word from the woman. The hair stylist, though, was taking her son to the hospital and told us to follow her, there’d be a dental clinic there as well.

So we followed them, parked and walked in. A couple wrong turns and we finally found the dentist and as we walked in, the woman said, “you’re Mike?” I hadn’t checked in, didn’t call anybody. “Um, yeah” I looked at her pad of paper and my name was written in red and circled. She said my appointment wasn’t for another 30 minutes.

Azure and I left completely floored. We found this place by getting lost and following a hair stylist, and when I walked in the door they were waiting for me, specifically me. Azure didn’t think it was a good omen, like a Twilight Zone thing, but I thought it was a sign that I HAD to get my tooth fixed there.

The dentist did a good job – she found some cavities (one of them very deep) and drilled drilled drilled while I squeezed Azure’s hand hard. Azure sang me songs about Mango Shakes to keep me from passing out from the pain. The dentist filled the holes and it was all done – a good job, I hope.

To fix a chipped tooth and fill three cavities, it cost a grand total of 900 Baht, or $25. Does anyone happen to know how much it would cost in the States? I need to brag accurately.

Enjoy!

Thanks for the emails everyone’s sending! I love hearing about home.

Take care,

Mike.

Hello Everyone!

Being on the sailboat for 5 days was interesting, we learned a lot about how self-sufficient a person would have to be to live as cheap as they do. I’d like to try some day (be able to live comfortably on virtually nothing), but not right now. Unfortunately it ended up being a bit cramped on the boat (7 people) and we didn’t really liking the guy who was the captain. He was arrogant and didn’t listen to a word we said. So after a few days in a harbor we jumped ship and stayed at this little beach called Ko Ma on the island of Koh Pha Ngan.

Ko Ma is an “islet” – a small island connected by a sand bar to the bigger island of Koh Pha Ngan, so it was a very cool environment to be visiting.

Ko Ma, with the sand bar disappearing

We lived in another cheap hut, motor scooted around the island and just hung out in general. Driving was tough on the island because – for some damn reason – they built their roads going straight up hills rather than around them at shallower grades. Some of the roads had “CAUTION!” for a 20% grade and when you went up the hill you were looking straight up at the sky, just holding on. The worst were the hills leading to the southern-most point on the island, Hat Rin.

One of the steep hills

At Hat Rin they have an immense Full Moon Party that attracts up to 25,000 people on two little connected beaches. We were lucky enough to be on Koh Pha Ngan for the full moon party! which we didn’t go to because it’s just not our scene.

Our scene is more like the following: A monastery in the jungle. We drive through the gates and down a long driveway to a series of small white buildings behind the main temple. It’s humid, warm and the light is beginning to die. There are people sitting on steps in sarongs or shorts, and we walk into a little courtyard where a guy shows us where to change. I got a plaid blue and red sarong. It was awesome.

We use a bucket and dipper to shower quickly, then up the steps and into one of the two doors for the sauna – men on the left, women on the right. Open and close the door quickly or people will complain. Inside, the first thing I notice is there’s almost no light except a little natural light coming through a couple slits on the side. The ceiling is about 5 feet high and the little room is about 4 feet wide and 12 feet deep – about the size and shape of a large coffin. It’s a steam sauna – very humid – and they infuse the steam with herbs like lemon grass and maybe menthol. Taking a deep breath cleans out your lungs, you can feel it go down your throat and into your chest. On each side run tiled seats where there’s – oh – 9 people packed in, sweating, talking, meditating. Because of the hot yoga I’ve been doing at home for the last 9 months, I felt confident enough to sit in the sauna without panicking, which I’m sure I would have done otherwise.

After rinsing dead skin off our bodies outside the sauna, we find the host again. He takes us back to a small open building that has a roof and three walls, the last side being a curtain that separates the room from the main courtyard. A nun takes me, lays me down on a pad and sheet and gives me the best massage I’ve ever had – she uses tons of oil (again, herb-infused) and is very very patient. She knows her shit, you can tell. For an hour I just let her tell me what to do, and I relax and listen to the rain and whatever’s going on in the courtyard outside.

Finally, I return to the sauna and sweat the oil out of my pores and meet Azure, who looks like a new person.

The sauna at Wat Pho

Koh Pha Ngan wasn’t bad. We actually liked it a lot, probably our favorite place so far as long as we weren’t near Hat Rin.

Right now we’re in Bangkok, which is a manic mix of very modern malls, gritty neighborhoods and the most touristy backpacker areas you can imagine. There’s an immense flea market on weekends where we’re going to blow a bunch of money when we get closer to the end of our trip. Diesel Jeans for $10!

As I was writing this, Azure was booking a flight to Chiang Mai in the north. We’re leaving tomorrow evening. There are jewelry making classes, cooking classes and boxing classes. I’m… so excited.

I hope you’re all enjoying your Decembers. Write back with gossip!

Take care,

Mike and Azure.