Thailand--the end of an adventure (or a beginning?)

I'm feeling pretty groovy at the moment, with a tummy full of the deliciousness that I made in my Thai cooking class this morning and relaxed muscles from my one hour Thai massage that cost me a whopping $7.  Tomorrow morning I start the 18 hour journey back to Colorado and admittedly after 2 months on the road, I am looking forward to:
1.  No more squat toilets, pay toilets, or hunting down toilet paper
2.  Not wearing a money belt everywhere that gives me the ever-so-attractive stomach pooch
3.  Sleeping more than 1-2 nights in one location and on mattresses that aren't just slightly softer than the floor
4.  Wondering whether the food I just ate is going to play tricks with my stomach
5.  Thinking so hard about whether I have enough clean clothes to make it to my next laundry opportunity and finding new ways to cram more into my backpack.

Me and Tamar cooking up some green curry

My Tom Kha Gai soup and best green curry ever

That all said, this trip is 3 times longer than any other I have taken and I feel so fortunate that I could take this journey, it was incredible.  I spent most of this week in northern Thailand, the highlight of which was trekking into the hills to stay overnight in a village and then travel back partially by elephant and bamboo raft.  First we visited some tribal villages, including a Karen tribe where the married women wear colored clothes and the single women wear white.  Most of the villagers were cutting bamboo to be woven into baskets for sticky rice and such.  Then the hike to the village was about two hours but with some steep bits, so luckily our host crafted some hiking poles out of bamboo.  Afterwards, my travel buddy Pru and I used them for some battles ala Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.  Everyone in my group stayed together in an elevated hut, sleeping on mattresses with mosquito nets.  With a very modest fee of $1/person, we were entertained around our campfire with a traditional performance from some local girls.  We also led them through the hokey pokey but I guess it's a smaller world than you think because they seemed to know it already.

Married Karen woman in traditional clothes

Darling village girl not the least bit shy about checking out the foreigners

Villagers at home cutting bamboo for baskets

Pru and I battle it out

My group checks out the homestay--we slept in the hut pictured

Dance performance by the village girls.  The traditional costume includes metal bands worn around the waist.  

Incredibly our elephants each held 3 people plus the mahout (guide) and my mahout actually balanced right on the elephant's head.  My fellow riders Pat, Vicky, and I were slightly disconcerted to learn that our elephant was 45 years old and elephant life expectancy is only 40, but we came through unscathed and watched amazed when he chomped down a whole tree as a mid-ride snack.  Next we rode bamboo rafts and I mean literally bamboo poles held together with cut strips of tires.  Each of us took a turn as a raft gondolier but whatever my next career may be, it's surely not as a raft captain.  

Pat, Vicky, and me (plus our mahout) on our old elephant

Boarding the bamboo rafts

One other noteworthy stop was the White Temple near Chang Mai, one man's vision strange yet sometimes beautiful creation.  Inside the temple, some of the motifs include the burning twin towers, Neo from The Matrix, and Michael Jackson.  Oh, and did I mention the golden bathroom?

At the White Temple

Fanciest bathroom building I've ever seen

And with that, 849 days and 20 countries later, I am returning to my homeland.  I plan to keep this blog going just a bit longer, so expect to hear soon about my readjustment to life in the USA.  The adventures may just be getting started...

Lovely Laos

Sabaidee (hello)!  For the last week, I’ve been traveling through what I believe is my 48^th country, Laos (the “s” is silent).  This is almost a sleepy place, with a slow pace of life and quiet, polite people.  It took me awhile to warm up to Laos--it was such a departure from the intensity of India--but now I find it really quite lovely. 

I’m traveling now with a group of 13 people ranging from 24 to 73 years old, hailing from Australia, Britain, Canada, and the U.S.  In Laos, we started in the small capital city of Vientiane which did not have any very remarkable sites but it was fun to explore one man’s self-made collection of Buddha statutes. 

At the Buddha Park near Vientiane

Vang Vieng was our next stop and the town itself is an unattractive string of shops catering to tourists who want to tube on the river and drink alcohol served literally in small plastic buckets.  However, the environs have lovely green hillsides that we got to see on an extremely bumpy dirt road bike ride.  It can only be deemed miraculous that I did this 8 mile roundtrip ride on a fixed gear road bike.  The next day, I went ahead and tried bar hopping by inner tube on the river, where there are guys at each bar who throw ropes and pull each floating customer in to shore.  It’s not the classiest pastime but it was a fun afternoon. 

Me and my fixie

Local kids check out the weird foreigners

Next, after 5 hours on one of the windiest roads I’ve ever been on, we arrived in Luang Prabang.  The city is dotted with many beautiful temples or wats, including the Buddhist monks in orange robes who provide the wats’ upkeep.  On New Years Eve, I got up at 5 AM to see the monks gather offerings of rice, fruit, etc from people who line the street sitting on bamboo mats, collecting them in a lunch pail of sorts.  I was surprised that some of the monks were very young, perhaps only 10 years old.  Then we stopped at a pretty nature area, Kungsi Waterfalls.  After visiting a few wats, my final mission was to finish my Christmas shopping at the Night Market (my family is celebrating Christmas on January 16^th after I get home).  The currency here is 8,000 Kip to $1, so it took awhile to get used to so many zeros in my wallet but my multiples of 8 are now fresh in my mind.  Then finally I stayed up until midnight (just barely) to ring in 2012 with my group.  People all over the city set off huge paper lanterns that go up like hot air balloons, dotting the whole sky with orange specks—it was a serene but special start to the new year. 

Monks collecting morning offerings in Luang Prabang

Pat channels his inner Tarzan at Kungsi Waterfalls

At Wat Xieng Thong

Buddha statues with tile mosaics behind at Wat Xieng Thong

Night Market in Luang Prabang

2012 is off to a calm start as we’ve spent the last two days on a boat going up the Mekong River.  We’ve had some of the best food on the trip during this time, dishes like green papaya salad and larp, a ground meat/hot pepper salad.  The boat ride has fortunately left me with time to write up this blog on the boat but no wifi, so the uploading will happen later.  I have a few more days in northern Thailand, then it is home sweet home which gives me a bit more excitement and angst each day--excitement for food, family, and friends; angst for job hunting, reverse culture shock, and weighing in after many months of travel cuisine.  I just keep reminding myself, what will be will be and besides, that’s all still a week and a country away.  Next up, Thailand.  

Our boat on the Mekong River

Locals busy along the Mekong

Boy eating sugar cane in a village along the Mekong River