Thailand continued...

My initial idea to come to Thailand was when Joelle and I discussed about doing a 2 week volunteer program followed by a 2 week adventure tour. But not only were the presented dates inconvenient but also the whole application process wasn't clear. So that fell through. But then, Catherine and I decided that its the perfect thing for us to do as a vacation before returning home.

So we first arrived in Bangkok, which we found wasn't that spectacular since it's really polluted and the city is so dirty. The better part of Bangkok was the backpackers' district, Khao San road, where at night it was really hoppin'! There were bars in the streets and street vendors with 20 baht Pad Thai (about 40 cents) and markets lining the streets. We met a lot of travellers from all over ther world.

Shopping was good in Bangkok but not as good as in Chiang Mai. Chiang Mai was so incredibly cheap. When we later moved to the beaches areas, I missed the cheapness of Chiang Mai. I didn't really have that many souvenirs to shop for but faced with so many inexpensive goods, I felt the need to buy something. I did buy something, but still had to hold back hahahah! Chiang Mai was really great though. We went on a full day trek, which actually didnt have that much trekking per se, but we rode elephants for an hour and did bamboo rafting for an hour too! And we got to visit my home tribe as well... one of the ancient traditional hill tribes in Thailand is called Karen!!! though the tribe is really poor and I definitely didn't feel like I was home ;) In Chiang Mai, also, we took a day cooking class - that's right, now I'll be able to cool thai food, if I find the ingredients in montreal..... We went to the markets with the cook and he explained all the different types of vegetables etc, very interesting!

After Chiang Mai, we flew to Phuker through Bangkok and then took a ferry to the famous islands of Phi Phi (pronounced P.P.) It's basically a party island. There are two Phi Phi islands actually - Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Phi pHi Ley. which I think mean big and small phi phi islands. Phi Phi Don is where the hotels are and where the partying happens. It's a really great place. It's defnitely more expensive than northern Thailand that's for sure, but it's a a great place to be! The hotel we stayed it was pperfectly central - a personal bungalow with a personal bathroom, breakfast included and a pool too. It was 800 baht a night for the both of us, but that's about 16$ each, which is really cheap for a nice place like that if you were to find the same place in Canada. Every 2nd shop in Phi Phi was a dive shop so it'd be stupid if we didn't take the oppprtunity! An intro course with two dives was about 1/3 of the price in Australia for sure. Apparently a diving certification is just a bit more than one intro dive day in Cairns (where the Great barrier reeef is in oz). SO naturally, we did go. I did have a hard time at first, but after relaxing, I finally managed and then had a great time. Though since I was concentrating pretty hard on breathing slowly, I sometimes forgot to take a look around, so I missed a lot of cool fish.... but I saw lots of nemos!!!! they were so cute!

So Koh Phi Phi Ley, the smaller and uninhabited island, is where the movie The Beach with Leo Di Caprio was filmed. I'll have to rent it so that i can say "I went there!" during the whole movie!!! hahah

we went to railay beach (so expensive) and are now in phuket (cheaper) and flying out tomorrow. I have to go, internet is out...

im back n montreal on the 17th!!!! miss u and see u soon!