organic farming

after we left ko tao, we went to chiang mai (a city in the north near the burma border) for a few days. it was fun--as soon as we checked in to our guest house, a mini circus arrived. they travel around the world on these giant bicycles doing a music act, juggling, hula-hooping, tight-rope walking... what a riot. they used to be a group of 8, but only 3 were staying with us. we had a great time learning all sorts of crazy things from them and the other eccentric guests. (we seem to meet quite a few of those.) after a few days of walking around and going to night markets and an amazing thai massage, we took a crowded 4-hour bus ride to pai, a fun hippie town northwest of chiang mai.

we're not actually staying in pai, however. we're at this amazing organic farm outside of town. here's the website: http://www.tacomepai.com/, but it doesn't do the place justice. since we arrived about 24 hours ago, it's been great. you cannot believe the bungalows we're staying in, with beautiful views, even from the bathrooms! this morning we took hay from soya plants and spread it over a field for fertilizer... then we all went to the market to buy the food that isn't grown on the farm... then we went swimming in a ground spring-fed lake... then i helped make a bamboo support for a drooping roof... then all of us got a wonderful lesson in thai cooking from sandot (who runs the place) and ate in front of the fire we used to cook. i'm very full as i write this post and mango sticky rice is a new favorite food of mine.

we're in town for a bit of emailing and nightlife before starting over again. but tomorrow will also involve composting, rice harvesting, and surveying land for a new project. and i'm hoping to get a lesson in traditional basket weaving from sondot's mother. wow. i can't believe all this is really happening. i don't think every day will be quite as packed. i'm exhausted already. but we'll only be spending a week here before moving on to laos when our thai visa runs out. i've heard great things about laos, and i'm looking forward to the more relaxed pace of the country after having spent most of our time here in pretty populated areas.

that's all i've got in me tonight... cheers and much love from asia.

under the sea

only a few of our underwater photos turned out, so i'm uploading a couple. the ones that are the most fun, i think, are of us being and looking goofy.

me

morgan

fish

coral

extreme close-up

a few pictures

here are a few photos, but it takes a ridiculous amount of time to upload them, so there won't be too many.

here's a photo of the four of us: adam, jasmine, alexis & morgan. i guess this is as close as it gets to a "before" picture... i'll get an "after" picture up by the end of the trip and we'll see what has happened.

here we are in bangkok at an amazing all vegetarian restaurant. the owner was just adorable. we spent the rest of the day walking around some temples with beautiful roof tiling and large buddha statues.

this is koasan road, where we stayed our first few nights. as you can see, it's pretty busy with backpackers and people selling things to said backpackers. food from the vendors was great and we could always people-watch for entertainment. the people in our hostel were nutty characters, so we had a great time.

here's the beach on ko tao, where we are currently. it's beautiful and sunny all the time, so morgan and i have been sticking to the shade. morgan, adam (who took most of these photos...), and i just finished our advanced open water scuba certification. the coolest part was going for a night dive yesterday. it was sort of like hiking with a headlamp, except underwater. amazing. when i get them, i'll upload some of the photos we took on another dive yesterday. i hope they turn out.

for a change, we hiked about an hour to a beautiful secluded beach called sai nuan. on either end of the bay, these rocks were great to scramble around on. here i am, enjoying it.

ko tao

we've spent one day on ko tao (turtle island) and it's beautiful. i got a little sunburned yesterday, but nothing a little aloe won't soothe. and what can i expect with this minnesota-white skin. mosquitos are pretty bad and i think that my bed has ants, but i've seen worse in minneapolis! knock on wood, but nobody has been sick so far.

morgan and adam are getting scuba certified, so we have some fun dives in our future. (i've got my cert, jasmine will snorkel...) but that means they've not had a chance to enjoy the beach like jaz and i have. today we're going to walk over to a less crowded beach that's not as big, but just as beautiful, from what we've heard. i'll try to upload some photos soon, but most of the internet cafes won't allow it. not sure why. in any case, i haven't been taking any digitals, just black & white so far. but i'll steal some from the others to show you what we've been up to.

last night we had a great dinner with one of their scuba classmates, sung wook. the food is pretty spicy (at least the dishes i've had), but really flavorful. and everyday we have fruit smoothies--sometimes a few. it's great.

there's not much to write about beyond food and beach, but i'll update in a few days if anything exciting happens!

safe in bangkok

well we all made it. there was a little confusion in the airport (mislabled arrival gate), but we're all together in bangkok now. today we tried to sleep in... i think i got too much sleep on the plane to do that.

then we went to a temple compound with a huge reclining buddha. it was pretty amazing. after walking around there for a while, we went to a market that is apparently huge on the weekends, but being that this is thursday, it was pretty much thai people and us at the smaller scale version. we took the local bus home, so that was a good adventure.

jetlag + walking around in a new place have made me exhausted. i think the plan is to hang out in the hostel for the evening after getting some street vendor food for dinner. there are some nice and intriguing people where we're staying. it makes for interesting conversation.

we're going to spend one more day in bangkok before heading down the coast to check out some amazing-sounding beaches. adam got a tattoo recently, so we'll see how the salt water treats him. i think we're going to visit a couple of the oldest cities in the country, right outside of bangkok.

hope all is well in the u.s.

hello from tokyo

a disclaimer: i'm probably not going to send out an email to alert you all about this blog posting. it doesn't seem very substantial, and there will probably be other quick updates that don't warrant an email. whenever i write a long post that's full of information, i'll let you know...

the last few days have been wonderful, though i got very little sleep. i was able to see my parents and several friends in the bay area before departing this morning. well, tuesday morning. i don't have any sense of what day it is now.

i have arrived in narita (tokyo's airport) after a 10 hour flight. i was able to fly in business class from sfo, which was a first for me. (thank you, jane and rich!) now i'm waiting for my flight to bangkok. hopefully i'll see morgan at the airport when i arrive. he will have flown in a few hours earlier, so the plan is that he and jasmine and adam will get us all set up in the hostel and then moe will come back to get me.

for someone like me who likes to have a plan in place at all times, this experience will probably be a little uncomfortable. i say that as i realize i don't know what we're doing or where we're going tomorrow. i think jasmine has been figuring out some of the initial plans. otherwise we'll be spending some time in bangkok as we decide where to go next.

to be honest, what we're about to embark on is really exciting, but hasn't sunk in yet. i thought that it would hit me while in flight, but that turns out not to be the case. i'm still in travel mode now, hanging out in the airport... maybe once i land in bangkok, things will start to seem real. at this point i still feel like i'm going to be home in boulder in a few days.

okay, the computer isn't accepting my coins anymore, so i'm going to sign off quickly. love to all!