South America, Land of Mystery and Advenure!

"Oh, hello there, you've caught me in the middle of packing."



"Packing for what, you say? Why, for my trip to South America."

"Of course, you are absolutely right, I cannot visit the entire continent, that would be ludicrous! No, instead I am sticking to just a handful of countries. If you wish to take a look at this map here..."



"I will be flying into Lima on December 31, then heading down to Arequipa, followed by Cusco and the renowned ruins of Machu Picchu. Then on past lake Titicaca to the Bolivian capital of La Paz. I will most assuredly visit the Salt Flats of Uyuni and mayhaps some other other areas of interest such as Potosi and Sucre. Following this, I will e heading into Argentina to visit the spectacular Iguazu Falls and the 'hip' city of Buenos Aires. Given time, I may stop by in Chile before heading back to Lima for my flight home."

"Why yes, I would be happy to keep you informed of my travels. I shall keep you notified of any exciting happenings via this newfangled electronic diary of mine. Please feel free to leave comments or questions, I will do my best to remain diligent with updates and photos from this exciting adventure!"

"Until we speak again, do take care."

Beach Please

So after 4 wonderful days in Chiang Mai, I grabbed a bus down to Sukhothai. Spent a day exploring the ancient and impressive ruins scattered in and around the city. Sukhothai was the capital of Thailand before you were born and was destroyed by the Burmese. There's some prett cool temples that still survive and a truly massive Buddha statue that was worth seeing. All told, it was like a less impressive and less touristy (there's that word again) version of Angkor Wat.

Then it was on to Kanchanaburi where I visited the famous (and pretty) 7 Steps Waterfalls. You can go swimming in the pools under the falls and little fish will nibble at your feet, eating all your dead skin off. It feels kinda weird at first, but it's cool once you get used to 20 little mouths softly chewing on you. I also visited the historic Bridge over the River Kwai and nearby Hellfire Pass, vestiges of the 2nd World War. During that time, POWs were forced by the Japanese to build a railway from Thailand to Burma. Pretty brutal work, since almost everything was built by hand and the Japanese forced people to work 18 hour days with little food to keep them going. Something like 100,000 people (12,000 POWs) died building the railway, which now lies mostly abandoned (I did, however, get to ride on a short section that's still in operation).

To Bangkok, which was surprisingly cool and not nearly as dirty and decrepit as I'd feared. Neat place, but there's not a whole lot to do once you've seen the majestic Royal Palace and the nearby 15m tall, 50m long reclining Buddha statue. So after only one day, I grabbed a flight to beautiful Phuket. Phuket Town itself I like quite a bit, it's got a lot of old Portuguese buildings, some good restaurants and I got a really cool loft room on the top terrace of a guest house that I'm totally in love with. The nearby beaches, though nice, are a little too crowded for my tastes, so I'm going to check out some less resortish places and see what lost paradises I can uncover.

Then it's back home, arriving in GP on the 28th (not the 21st, not sure who started that rumour). I'll get some pictures up sometime, but mostly I'll just be relaxing on the beach. See you all (or some of you) next week, take care!

Loas Country

So let's start right after Christmas. I took a surprisingly nice bus ride scenic (but touristy) Luang Prabang.



Saw some nice waterfalls (where I went for a swim),



and some bears.



Then it was 3 days by boat with my friend Micheal,



with some very pretty stops along the way,





to get to remote Phongsali.



Did some trekking in the area,



before catching a bus to Udomxai, where I made my last post.



Since then, I've spent a couple days biking in Luang Nam Tha, crossed the border to beautiful Thailand, where I visited Chiang Rai and its strikingly modern White Temple (which has a mural depicting things like 9/11, Star Wars and Buddha). I've been in the outstanding Chiang Mai these past few days, maybe the nicest city I've ever been to. Lots to do during the day (yesterday, I did a cooking course, today I'm going mountain biking on some trails), great restaurants and markets at night. It is touristy, but it's also big enough that you never really get that Disney World vibe like I got in Luang Prabang. Also, the nice thing about Thailand (at least in the north) is that the locals are rich enough that they go out to the markets and restaurants too (again, unlike Laos), and you never feel pressured into spending money and being a tourist. So yeah, Chiang Mai is lovely, definitely a must-visit if you're ever in this part of the world, I honestly think I could spend the rest of my trip here, it's just that great.

PS
If you're looking for the bears, they're over there.

Back in the World of Adventures

Hey all, sorry for the delay between posts, here's my excuse:

After Christmas I headed up to Luang Prabang. Fairly nice town and the nearby Bear Park and waterfall were cool, but it was way too touristy for my tastes. So I headed up to far flung Phongsali by boat with my friend Micheal. Three uneventful (but relaxing) days later and we had arrived.

Phongsali is crazy: the highest city in SE Asia, they only have power for 5 hours a day, restaurants can only cook a couple of different dishes (if they're even open, which they usually aren't), and you get woken up at 5:30 every morning by communist propoganda being broadcast around town over loudspeakers. I loved it!

No tourists means no stupid tourist kitsh in the markets, I got to do a great trek with Micheal and some girls we met. If you don't mind squat toilets and bitter cold evenings (though the night sky up there is unparaleled), then it's a great place to check out. Just don't expect any luxuries, or even half-comfortable beds, for that matter.

Making my towards Thailand now. After a brutal 8 hour bus trip over dirt roads which are more akin to goat trails, I'm pretty beat, so I apologize for any typos or muddled sentences and wish you all the best! Pictures when I get a better connection.