Updates

What have I been up to? I haven't posted since September...WOOPS

I'll tell ya what I have been doing.

In October I was enjoying being back in Melbourne. The weather was slowly getting better...the sun was coming out! I was working at the Stroke Foundation as well as occasionaly doing hospitality work. I celebrated Halloween in major style as a Captain Jack esque type pirate. We had a big halloween house party which was also a farewell party to everyone living in it...the sharehouse was going to be demolished and we all had to move! Our bizzare landlord just magically had a new house for us all to move into. It was a big house...and he is very 'crafty" and knows how to turn a 2 bedroom room into a 4 bedroom room. You get the deal...he crams people in and demands lots of $$$. Oh the new house had a pool as well...his major selling point. WHAT A CREEP...time to bail!

But now I am in November. Do you know what I do now??????????? I decide to store most of my stuff at friend's houses and go to South East Asia. I tell the National Stroke Foundation that I am leaving for a bit and they say I can have my job back when I return. Perfect. So all of a sudden I am on a 9 hour flight to Bangkok with Jill and another friend, Stewart. We arrive in Bangkok and spend 3 days buying CHEAP CRAP, but I loved the cheap crap. We also met up with Condon and Wayne, a friend from Darwin. One day we decided to get out of the busy city and go to Ayutthaya...the old Thai Capital. We spent the day bike riding around looking at ruins and old temples.

Our next move was to go north to Pai. A little hippy town with lots of places to explore. I loved Pai! There was a night market everynight with food stands, jewelry, clothes, etc. Everything! One night I bought a bracelet from a guy named Boy. He was big into stones..my bracelet has a labrodite stone and I guess it is supposed to help and heal headaches...or something. That Boy...he really sold me! The major highlight was our scooter/motor bike rentals that we kept the entire time as our own personal vehicles. 100 baht a day...that is like 3 or 4$ a day! So we drove all around Pai, out of the little city and up the mountains to waterfalls and tiny villages. We rode along a back road where there were a lot of elephant camps as well as hot springs.

We pulled our scooters over at an elephant camp and decided to not only ride the elephant but also swim with them as well. The lady said it was really fun...and pointed to pictures of other people who were in the water with these huge elephants. She was right...it did look fun. SO WHY NOT? Stewart and I got on one elephant, Condon and Wayne were on another elephant. Each elephant was led by an old Thai guy. We think these men were high on drugs, we know one of them snorted something on our walk. But hey, too late now, we are all on these big elephants walking down a road being passed by cars. So we walk on, for a long time it seems...then we are walking down a hill and I see water. It looks pretty dirty, but like I said, its too late. So our elephant creeps towards the water and we are on the edge, about to go in. But I can tell he really doesnt want to get in! Condon's elephant practically jumps in and then just lays down in the water. This causes Wayne and Condon to fall off and the water is rushing pretty hard so they are struggling to get abck on the elephant. After our thai guy changes into his bathing suit...he pulls our elephants ear for a solid minute and we are in the water and our elephant looks suicidal as it just falls to its side into the water. Stewart and I fall off and struggle getting back on the thing. The thai guys continue making the elephants lay down in the water, we continue "swimming with them" aka falling off and having to climb back on. I literally laughed the entire time. If you want to know exactly how it happened I can literally show you because the whole time we were being taped and we have a DVD of this adventure.

Pai was a great 4 days! Our last night we went to a half moon party in the jungle. A real jungle you ask??? Im not 100% sure...But it was really far away from town, really dark, lots of trees, etc. so how was I to judge whether it was a true jungle. But having a party in the jungle was a great way to leave Pai.

More SE Asia stories to come....