Ana_the rest of time in Thailand...

Feb.1 - Feb.13
I'm so behind with blogging. Don't feel like re-caping. I've been keeping a journal and just don't feel like repeating myself. I'll re-cap what had happened since we met with Tim in Bangkok.

It was so nice to see him. Mani and I picked him up at the airport. He arrive super late or I should say early in the morning. We stayed few days in Bangkok trying to figure out our next stop. Wanted to head north and make our way to the Laos border. We did get our visas in like 30 minutes. Had to pay extra of course. While in Bangkok we went to see the famous "wats" (temple) in the city. I must say they are gorgeous. So elaborate and shiny! We also saw a big reclining Buddha. It was huge about 45 meters long and 15 meters high. Decided to go to Kanchanburi next. Just 4 hours northwest from Bangkok. Silly me bought the wrong tickets to a town named RACHANBURI. Only one letter off. Good thing it was along the way. We were not to far off. Were able to catch another local bus to KACHANBURI. Bad thing it stopped every two feet. I was not happy but. I felt really stupid. =) I love having Vane around she kept laughing in a good way. Goodness!

In this town we saw the Thailand-Burma Railway built in WWII. It was sad to learn so many PoW (prisoners of war) died. I see why the call it the "death railway." Went to the tiger temple. Amazing experience! I actually touched a few tigers. A staff would hold your hand and walk around the tigers. One at a time. Another staff will be holding your camera to take your photo. You had to be quite. We had to do it one by one. The area was crowded but it all seemed to work. Few monks were there too. Vane's face was precious. She looked so frightened. Her eyes were about to pop out of her face. She was so nervous she didn't touch the tigers the first time. She went again a second time. I did pretty good. My heart was beating so fast. I was able to keep my nerves under control. Except one time. I kneel down on the tigers back side. And his tail whacks me on the chest. I FREAKED OUT! The guys walking me told me it was OK! I know is an involuntary reaction. But man I thought that tiger was going to eat me. I do respect them. Towards the end one of the tigers was getting rowdy and actually tried to hit with his paw to another visitor. This tiger kept walking in circles couldn't sit still. I would love to do it again sometime. I was AWESOME!

Another awesome thing we did in this town was riding an elephant we even got to bathe them. It was more for show but we did sit on their necks and went to the river. The guide, very funny teenager kept telling the elephant to go all the way in the water. And Vane's elephant kept wetting her with his trunk. The water was super cold. So much fun. Waiting for our ride to pick us up, we fed two elephants bananas. It was so cool to interact with them. They would stick out their trunk and sniff the banana. I could feel the hot air. They gently grabbed the banana from my hands. It was cute to see the guide telling baby talking to the elephant and it would flap the ears. So cute and smart! Loved it too. Can't complaint it was a very good town. Saw elephants and tigers.

Next went to Chang Mai for three days. Big city not too interesting. I did enjoy the night market. Vane and I got worked on buying some shirts. We just bought the first ones we saw since they had our size. Later we found out we could have got it for half the price. Oh, well! That is the way the cookie crumbles sometimes.

My favorite we did a cooking course. Even Tim did it. I was laughing to see him with an apron on and everything. It was cool to make everything so fast. The bad part you ate every dish after you cooked it. I felt bad leaving anything. We made pad Thai, cashew chicken, fried rice, spring rolls and a beef salad. My favorite by far was the beef salad. Hopefully I can make something similar back home. They did give us the recipe book and options of ingredients we can find back home. The basic ingredients on everything are fish oil, sugar, garlic and sometimes coconut sugar and tamarind paste. It sounds awful but it taste good. The salad had bunch of herbs like lemon grass, mint leaves, cilantro and two other ones I don't remember. Tasty! I felt so full after the meal. It was like Thanksgiving. We didn't eat the rest of the day.

After Chan Mai we went to Chang Rai. Slowly making our way to the Lao border. In this town we saw the long neck. Amazing! These women originally from Burma wear this coil wrapped around their neck. It can weigh around 8lbs and be 12 inches high. This village had other tribes as well. But long necks were the most interesting. Very touristy set up. But still good to see. We went on our own. We rented a motorbike. Tim took me first. Riding one by myself it was a bit more challenging. Never rode one before. Tried to ride it was able to go down the street from our hotel. Didn't feel confident to ride for 7 miles in crazy traffic. So Tim made to trips. One with me and another with Vane. It was fun to do it ourselves. We missed the tourist crowd. Back to the long necks. It looks funny. The necks look elongated. They sleep with it and everything. The younger girls have them too. Not as big yet but still. They even wear some coils around their legs too. I was able to communicate a little bit with a teenage girl. She spoke a little bit of English. Still couldn't get why they do it. Some say it's to make them look ugly. Another myth is that it was put on them long time ago so the tigers wouldn't get them by the neck and eat them. Who knows but is still interesting to see. It would be uncomfortable and sweaty to have that 24/7. The teenage girl said it didn't bother her. They even shower with that thing.

Before leaving town had the best pizza in a while with free refill. We went out big time. Even had garlic bread. It was so good. We were all very happy about that. I think we paid $7US for the best meal in a long time.

Thailand was great. I really liked it. I loved the laid back attitude. Beautiful landscape and gorgeous beaches. =)