Pacific Mall x Gazillion= Hong Kong!

Hey all. Finally arrived in Hong Kong yesterday afternoon.

To recap, The last 4 days in Thailand were spent on the island of Koh Phi Phi [Pee Pee]. It is one of those places you see in travel magazines, that has aquamarine water, white sand and mountains in the background. It was like a little slice of heaven. Koh Phi Phi itself is made up of two islands, Phi Phi Don, and Phi Phi Lay. Phi Phi Don is larger and houses most of the resorts and where you find the main ferry pier. Phi Phi Don, though larger, is still very small. Only a narrow strip of the island is actually inhabited. There are no motorized vehicles on the island, only bicycles. And a lot of it is still under construction from the post-tsunami destruction. It was relatively quiet, but It'd be interesting to see it in a year's time when all those mammoth resorts under construction finally open up.
Phi Phi Lay lies about 2 km south of Phi Phi Don, it is uninhabited for the most part, it is mostly unreachable rock cliffs and dense, hilly foliage. The movie "The Beach" was filmed in Phi Phi Lay's Maya Bay. It's this beautiful lagoon, with amazing snorkelling. There are some locals who camp on the island in Maya Bay on Phi Phi Lay, but no permanent residents.
Ray and I got enough sun and mosquito bites to last us the rest of the Canadian winter. Well Ray at least, I head back to Bangalore and 25 degree days! Koh Phi Phi was the most relaxing part of our trip. We lounged on the beach a lot. Took a one day tour of the surrounding islands, beaches and lagoons. Went snorkelling and swimming too. The snorkelling here is phenomenal. The fish are great, but the coral is something else! And to be able to see it all from the surface of the water is such a thrill. We also pigged out on great seafood. The jumbo tiger prawns are so good, fresh everyday, and relatively cheap!

Hong Kong is pretty cool. It reminds me of a cleaner, hillier version of Manhattan. The airport express train into the city was uber cool, it travelled outdoors mostly so I got to see a lot of harbour and lots of mountainous coast. The city itself is teeming with people, there are people everywhere! Chris says they're favourite past time is shopping, which is evident by the number of malls and stores that are around. For the most part the culture here is just a larger scale version of what you would experience at Pacific Mall on a Saturday afternoon. It's very much a "going out" culture, which doesn't surprise me because given the limited space on the island, i'm sure there's no incentive to stay in one's teeny tiny apartment.
I'm meeting my Auntie Colleen this afternoon, which should be fun since she knows this place well. Off to dim sum in Hong Kong!

Patong Beach, the Asian Wasaga

The past two days Ray and I have been at Patong Beach, Phuket. Patong is located off of the Andaman Sea off in a huge Bay that is inset about 2 miles from the ocean. It has white sandy beaches and clear green water. You can go parasailing or rent jetskiis right off the beach. The surrounding area have mountains that rise up up about 1000 ft or so and are covered with beautiful green vegetation. The beach itself was affected by the Tsunami a few years back. But has since recovered, and very well. There is a main road that runs parallel to the beach with tonnes of shops and restuarants. There are so many tourists here it is unbelievable, there are more blond people here than in Toronto!
You could never tell this area suffered from such a devastating Tsunami only 2 years ago. The restaurants, some of them quite posh, are lavishly decorated and can seat large numbers of people. There is a Nike shop, and McDonalds, and tonnes of biker bars and cafes.
We spent most of our two days here scooting around the city and vegging out at the beach. This place is more about people watching than actual sight seeing. On Sunday night, we went to the main Bangla Rd., which is closed off for pedestrians. There are mostly bars that line the street, and people soliciting you the whole way down. They sell things from cigarettes to tailor suits to Ping Pong shows(sex shows). Thailand also seems to have a substantial population of what they call "ladyboys" which are really just drag queens. They stand on the street in thongs, high heels and feathers and try to get you to watch their burlesque shows. We've been tempted to go just for the hell of it, but it's too expensive. This place really comes alive after dark. The restaurants fill up, the "Thai girls" start lining up in front of the bars trying to get guys to come in and spend all their money there. It's a pretty awesome spectacle. Needless to say Patong Beach is more for "mature" travellers, there are very few kids here I've noticed.
Ray has rented a scooter for the 3 days we've been here. Last night he parked on the wrong side of the street and his bike got chained. He had to pay the police 500 baht to unlock it! It's funny, we were joking that he managed to get a parking ticket halfway around the world too! Anyways, tomorrow off to Koh Phi Phi for relaxing, snorkelling and diving.

Zoom Zoom!

Today was the one of the best days of our trip because we rented a scooter! The rental guy wouldn't let me have one myself because when he made me go on a test run I almost crashed into a wall. Which wasn't my fault really since i've never driven a scooter in my life. But Ray got one, and it was only 200 baht (about $6 Cdn) for the whole day, it was worth it. He drove around by himself for most of the afternoon because I didn't trust him to take me on the back. But by the evening, I was feeling a little bolder and so we decided to brave the streets of Chiang Mai and drive to the night bazaar. It was amazing! The traffic here is much more calm than in Bangkok, but still quite busy. Like India, no lanes, and even fewer traffic signals (that we understood anyways). Happy to say we arrived in one piece back at the hotel!

Elephants, Spiders and Roosters oh my!

Today we returned from a 2 day trek in the North Thailand mountains and it was incredible! We departed early Saturday morning in a group of 10. There were 4 dutch travellers, 2 Italians and 2 New Zealanders. We travelled about 1 hour outside of the city to visit a traditional Karen[Ku-ren] Hilltribe village, which is one of the many different Hilltribes that live in the Thai mountains. The Karen Hilltribe migrated to the Thailand mountains hundreds of years ago from Burma due to civil unrest in their native country. They live off of the land, and survive off of cash crops such as flowers, fruits, vegetables and of course rice, which is Thailand's biggest agricultural export. The Thai Monarchy has helped the rural communities such as these Hilltribes by implementing agricultural programs that provide research and resources to the Thai people, so they do not have to rely on crops such as marijuana or opium to make a living. Much of the rural communities suffer from debilitating opium addictions, and this was one way for the government to resolve their addiction problems and the volatility and danger of harvesting illicit crops. The loyalty of the Thai people to the Monarchy is absolutely overwhelming. Due to programs such as these, the people here revere and basically idolize the King. There are yellow banners with the King's picture (the colour of the King) everywhere and every Monday (the day he was born) the Thai people were yellow golf shirts as a show of support for the King. They also wear yellow rubber bracelets that say "Long Live the King" not quite "Livestrong" as Lance would have it.
Anyways, this Karen hilltribe was beautiful, with thatched roofs of straw and some sort of waxy leaf. They are all built on stilts because of the flooding caused during the monsoons. And like most rural, agricultural areas, each family has their own share of dogs, chickens and pigs that roam around the village, yet somehow everyone knows which belongs to which family.


After walking around the village we got back into the truck, stopped for lunch and finally were dropped off at our trailhead. We walked for about 15 km up and down hills, over streams and through paddy fields, and arrived at our night camp 3 hours later, which was another Hilltribe village. This one was quite similar to the one we visited earlier in the day, but here there was a large hut for the tourists that stopped for camp. It was on stilts as well, but had no door, and the floor was about 2 feet lower than the sleeping surface and was structured sort of like a gangplank. The beds had large mosquito nettings, but that was about it in the way of comfort. We all had baths with ice cold water. And were treated to a remarkable dinner cooked by our tour guide, on a single gas stove. He made us bean sprout and tofu stir fry, green curry chicken, vegetable soup and white rice! It was really, really good. The hilltribe also had a large cooler stocked with Fantas, Chang beer and water, and for like 1$ each drink we drank like fishes! We ate by candlelight and then headed off to bed since there wasn't muc else to do.

The stupid village roosters crowed almost 2 hours before sunrise, so we were all up and ready to leave very early, sans any type of alarm clock. When we awoke, we saw that a gargantuous spider had made a home in the hut where we were sleeping, so we all wanted to get the hell out of there anyways! (This picture is just for you Danika! I hope you can see its hairy body and beady eyes, and very gangly, fuzzy legs!)

After leaving the village in the early morning, we had to hike a lot of tedious uphill terrain. And I know Ray will hate me, but he was dying! I think he sweated more liquid than he drank that day! But he made it, with a sprained ankle to boot.

By midday we arrived at the elephant camp, and there were 4 majestic elephants and 1 baby waiting for us. There could only be 2 on the saddle per elephant, so that meant 2 out of the 10 of us had to ride on the neck, and I was one of them! It was freaking scary, but so incredibly fun.
The elephants walked very slowly and seemed almost gentle knowing we were on it's back. Everytime it flapped it's ears it would slaps my legs and it kept pointing its trunk it my face like it was going to sneeze on me, like that nasty walrus scene in 50 First Dates. We rode the elephants for about a half a kilometre, through streams and next to cliffs, I thought I was going to have a heart attack. Only in hindsight Did I actually think it was fun!

The last thing we did was take a bamboo raft down the Mae Ping river. The rafts were about 30 feet long and were tied together with cut up pieces of rubber tires! It was more like white water rafting since we went through rapids and got soaked, but it was nice to not have to walk for a while. The trek was so much fun, and the group of travllers we were with made it that much more interesting. Needless to say it was nice to come back to a hot shower and air conditioning, but it's an experience I will certainly never forget.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

The last few days in Bangkok were spent shopping and visiting the famous Wat Pho, which is the "Temple of the Reclining Bud-dha" as well as the Grand Palace. The reclining Bud-dha is magnificent it is housed in a huge temple building, the actualy Bud-dha is about 200 ft long, and it is painted gold. We were not allowed into the Grand Palace because there are hours when the locals are permitted, and then hours when tourists are permitted. We unfortunately landed up when it was only local people hours, so we walked around the Palace walls and took in the surrounding. We took a river boat up the Chao Phrao river, which winds through downtown Bangkok. The waters are brown, and very choppy, but you get to see some really great sites, like Wat Arun, which is the "Temple of Dawn". It is a beautiful structure with one large spire that is heavily adorned. It was on the opposite side of the river to the other popular temples and the Grand Palace, so we didn't make a stop. But we got some really good pictures of it!

This morning, we arrived in Chiang Mai and met our Tour Guide "Billy". He picked us up from the airport, he was waving one of those giant signs with my name on it. I've always wanted someone to do that! The hotel is really quaint, with all Lanna style designs. It will be our home for the next 5 days as the tour continues. Tomorrow we go to a visit a Thai Hilltribe in the local mountains and then to Home Industries to see how they make all the local Thai handicrafts.

We had lunch at this cute outdoor cafe next to the hotel. We feasted on Tom Yum Goong soup, Thai yellow curry, Thai red curry and pad thai. We have decided to order Tom Yum Soup everywhere we go, because it is honestly the most amazing soup. Yes Paul, even better than Young Thailand! The yellow curry was also crazy good, though it reminded me sort of South Indian Coconut curries, but more about that in the food blog!

The cost of renting a scooter for a day is 150 Baht, which is about 5 Canadian dollars. So Ray has decided he is going to rent one tomorrow, at least he has travel insurance!

IN BANGKOK!

Bangkok is absolutely amazing! The new airport is gorgeous and takes like miles and miles of movators to get anywhere. And this is the first time EVER that my luggage was on the carousel before I even got there!
The people here are so friendly. There is food everywhere, but i've been to excited to eat, I know, no one would ever think Danila would say that. I arrived early this morning and had a little adventure getting to the hotel. The English speakers here are few and far between, so I stick to pointing and stuff. And the ones that can speak English have a killer accent, sounds like another language all together! The weather is nice and steamy, but people here still wear long sleeves and stuff, kind of like India.
I am just doing some prelim research right now on what to do. Kind of overwhelmed here by myself, but not for long! There's a nice Aussie chap typing next to me, so he's my company for today! I will upload pics when I have time, these computers are pretty basic. OH, and so strange! They have 7 elevens and Tops grocery stores here!!!