Phang nga, Chiang Mai, Mandalay

The last few days went by quickly as we transported ourselves to Myanmar. In some ways it's feels like we time traveled too. 

But, for the moment, back to Phang nga. 

Biked to a waterfall. Here is the best photo of Julia there. 

We had the trails to ourselves most of the way giving us some peace from the many tourists in Thailand. 

From there, we had to venture to the krabi airport and then to Chiang Mai. 

Up early in Chiang Mai, Julia and went for a run around the old city and had a good breakfast before heading back to the airport for our flight to Mandalay, Myanmar. 

On a taxi ride into town we met a Chilean and an American  from bass lake area who grew up in Mexico. So, yup, I went to Myanmar to practice my Spanish. 

Haha. 

What a stark difference from Thailand. 

First off- they drive on the right side of the road. But, the cars have their steering wheel on the right side. 

People here are very happy to smile and wave and are very curious about us here. 

The temples are very different from anything I have seen and there are random cars full of decorations and people that almost look like a float on a parade. 

Phang nga

This small town is not so popular on the tourist map. 

It really is just what I was looking for. 

Today was a slow start with the two of us feeling much better. 

I rented a bike and rolled outside of town for ~45 minutes. It felt great to be moving quickly and exploring some more. 

We then ended up on a tour that took us around different areas of the marine reserve. 

It was an interesting boat ride, felt like another tourist trap but also just what we needed on another rest day. 

We did see an interesting Muslim fishing village that was completely isolated. It had a gorgeous mosque and the views were beautiful. 

Because the bay in this area has many inlets, we took a long route through different canals as weave our way to the open bay. On our way back it was amazing to see the the canal we had use just a few hours earlier had no water now that the tide was low. 

Anyway, as we prepped to walk to dinner, the rain started coming down and it poured!!!

More uses for bamboo

Happy to have a quiet and clean place to stay while in recovery mode, we found the "garden" terrace on top of our hotel. It's great to have silence, fresh air, and Internet access all at the same time. A new holy trinity.

Julia's excitement to see the terrace views

As I sit here happily enjoying the view of limestone covered in trees, I noticed more uses for bamboo. My favorite!

Check out the lengthwise cut to make a long low flower arrangement. 

And a cross cut to make an individual flower pot. 

I have continued to enjoy my stay here as it feels like a less touristy slice of Thailand. We met some spaniards who work as teachers in primary school. They had a great idea of visiting a school to set up a partnership with the teacher there and create pen pals between their students. 

Tourism central

We read it in all the guidebooks. We knew to avoid the super touristy places in the south. 

We have seen many other tourists and questioned some of the ethics around just traveling to see a place. 

In southern Thailand, we have met many European travelers and a number of people from brazil. 

Today was the first day we met someone from California. 

So many people come here to party. It's an interesting "culture". 

Getting off the tourist track would give me a muh better opportunity to get to know the real culture of the area. 

I was happy to meet someone today who spoke English and was intersted in chatting. 

He was originally From Chiang Mai. He moved to the south after getting married to live with his wife's family. In this area there are many Muslims and he married into a Muslim family and converted from Buddhism. 

He seemed happy with the move as he has lived here fr over 10 years. 

My last post that I deleted was about the best meal we have had so far. Eating in railay beach to try to avoid "ton sai tummy" we ended up with railay tummy. Julia was sick all night and out of energy today while I'm with a bit of a tummy bug. 

Here we wish that we had just had dinner back in ton sai. We stayed an extra dy here as we were told that there was no bus on Sunday to phang gna. 

So here we are sick ad waiting at this waste of time bus tourism center this seemingly sweet guy at a tourist office on tonsai sold us. 

Oh man, here I am, just trying to enjoy the journey. 

As I reflect on these travels, i'm reminded of the same theme that I prefer bike travel and or travel in a place where I can communicate with the locals. 

I think either that kind of "tourism" or a structured service or long term stay should be next if I continue to go places. 

Whaat? Still in ton sai

I wasn't kidding when I said I was really starting to enjoy ton sai. 

Julia and I enjoyed our own morning yoga class. 

Our awesome yoga teacher taught us about how ton sai is really just a seasonal town with people here 3-4 mints of the year. 

Despite that, she had to rent her space for a year. Not a town to get to know the local culture. I had tried inquiring about the effects of the tsunami and learned tidbits here and there. Thr best information I got was " that was ten year ago". 

So, Julia and I decided to leave and head via bus to another beach town to see a national reserve along the water. 

Packed up and ready to go, we missed our connector bus and decided to stay. 

With another day in ton sai, we kayaked, explored, and visited phra nang beach 

where I was able to do some fun bouldering problems. Falling in the sad wasn't too bad because I was able to hop in the water and rinse off. 

Talking about culture in ton sai/ the railay peninsula, there is a definite clbimg culture. People are nice and inviting and interested in meeting other climbers. With more time here, I could really improve my skills. Though, our new friends, Johnny and nick, did warn us about the to sai tummy. Yup, apparently before we arrived many people were sick for days. Ick, here's to hoping we are all in the clear. 

Hill tribe hiking

We ended up signing il for a guided trek so we could see areas where we wouldn't have been able to go on our own while also getting in some good hiking. 

We lucked out with an awesome tour guide. Here are a few highlights and not too many photos. 

Day 1- started off a our guide's house. Our guide, Asa, I'd part of the Lisu hill tribe in the north western part of Thailand. He led us through the jungle to the Karen hill tribe town where we stayed for the night. 

On our hike we saw many different things including water buffalo, amazing spider webs, and the road leading toward the border with Burma. 

We ended our day staying with a wonderful family. Our guide cooked us dinner and we relaxed with some Chang beer. 

On day two we ventured into a cave with spooky spiders, saw a beautiful water fall and drank "jungle tea" out of bamboo mugs that our guide cut for us. 

Ton sai beach-sothai

Katie, Suzanne, and I ventured south on new years day taking a plane, bus, and boat to our destination of Ton sai. It's a small town with many climbers, full of bungalows and lots of trash.  On a peninsula, ton sai beach is isolated requiring us to take a 20 minute boat ride to get there.   Lucky for me, I changed into my sandals in the boat because we had to jump off our boat into ankle deep water and walk to shore. 

The initial feel here was quite sad with the sewage ditches exposed and trash strewn throughout town. 

It's amazing that after 3 nights here, I grew quite fond of the place. 

We enjoyed time at the beautiful beach, railay west, just a 15 minute hike away. 

We found a fantastic yoga class. 

We hired a boat to take us to some islands and try our hands at claiming rocks and jumping into the water (aka- deep water soloing).  Suzanne and I climbed on a guided trip doing some fun climbs and Katie found some friends who gave her a belay. It's quite cool to watch people scaling stalagtites as the climb. 

Julia arrived after spending the holidays with her family and missing new years eve somewhere in air space.  Happy to greet her, we all met for a drink and shared stories of our adventures. 

Suzanne and Katie left today for Ko samui to enjoy a friend's brother's wedding.