Bangkok & Chiang Mai

Trying to recreate a Greater Healing potion, I ended up with something that smelled like an Indian market.

A small sampling of my tremendous abilities in the food arena.

6 passengers, 1 tuk-tuk, mission accomplished.

Monsieur Blanchet takes a trip to retrieve some croissants.

James and I spend much of our time battling over intersections in the ancient Japanese game of Go. Kids these days.

Not a lot has happened since my last blog, but it's been over a week so I figured I should send one out. Our "bed-train" up to Bangkok was fantastic and brought back some of the more pleasant memories from India. We arrived into Bangkok and quickly made our way to Khao San road, where the vast majority of travelers congregate when staying in the city. We booked into an Israeli hostel which helped us save a little money, but immediately cancelled any opportunity to meet other travelers.

One day was spent at the hotel where Jason's mom and sister were staying (both having freshly arrived from North America), where we lounged around in a little more style and enjoyed the concept of a swimming pool for the first time since Zanzibar. Having finished my parasite medication (goodbye little fella, twas a pleasure to host you), we were able to have one night out in Bangkok and contrary to the song, it was quite a bit more tame than I imagined. Khao San road, although full of tourists, peddlers, bars and beggars, wasn't all that great a party scene from what I could see, although I'm willing to give it another shot on one of the return trips. After spending four nights there, much of it lost into the haziness of Nintendo DS games and an endless stream of Friends episodes, we grabbed a night bus and b-lined it up to Chiang Mai, a city in northern Thailand.

Upon arriving in Chiang Mai, Jason and I quickly enrolled into a Thai cooking class so that we have some chance of making a few of these fantastic dishes when we leave this country. Class was very well taught and organized and saw us creating a 6 dish Thai feast that I would have thought was well beyond my culinary abilities. I was quite pleased to learn the secrets of their curry pastes and sweet & sour dishes. The fish dish was quite a bit better than I imagined, leading me to believe that perhaps if I cook the fish, it becomes edible.

Chiang Mai was also the location of a rather somber moment in Journey history, being that it would play host to the last night where the three of us (Jason, Ryan, Myself) were all together. It seems odd given that none of us will be done traveling until sometime into the new year, but alas it is true due to our differing itineraries. Based on this, we decided to celebrate with a night out on Chiang Mai, first by storming the night market with our incredible bargaining skills and then aimlessly wandering around town until one of the seedy establishments let us in. After some arm wrestling, stage crashing and a massive feast at the end, it was declared a success. The following day, everyone but me went out on some elephant adventures, while I kept watch at our hotel making sure no one stole my bed.

Tonight we hop on a bus back to Bangkok, where we stay in town for an afternoon and then head back down to Koh Tao, I'm still not sure why I'm returning to that particular island paradise, but I can't think of a reason not to return as well.

The end of an era. It's been a blast gentlemen.