Chiang Mai

Realizing I was running out of time to catch my train to Chiang Mai, I downed my 630 mL bottle of Chang beer, said my goodbyes to the friends I'd come to know over the last 5 nights at the Sukhumvit On Nut Guesthouse, and set out through the dreary rainy night for the Sky Train public transport. I was in a bit of a stupor and worried I would have trouble hitting all my change-overs and proper stations along the way, but somehow the system wafted me up and with hardly a thought I found myself wandering up to the train station in a daze. The train station is hopefully my last blurry picture -- I've finally set the exposure time down a little to correct the problem.

I wound up on an overnight, air-conditioned sleeper, going 14 hours and 700 km to Chiang Mai. I unfortunately didn't capture any of the small villages and rice patties we passed along the way.

As the parasites took hold only 1 day into Chiang Mai, I wound up staying in my hostel mostly. After 36 hours of nothing but water for stool, and several pot fulls of blood later, I only wished to have ordinary diarrhea, complete with food particals and color (other than crimson red). Anti-parasite medicine, a hospital visit, an a bunch of antibiotics later, I am about to leave Chiang Mai for the small mountain towns of Pai and Soppong having only explored Chiang Mai minimally.

In the Chiang Mai post you will see only photos of various Wats (buddhist temples), fried bugs, my guesthouse rooftop and the mosquito man. One Wat contains an 1800 year old buddha relic and a 2500 year old buddha relic, though they are difficult to see as they are securely enshrined in a sort of vault.

I have never figured out how the hell to use blogspot effectively, and I'm on limited time, so I'll forget it for now and keep going despite accidentally posting my pictures in reverse order.

The mosquito man has a museum of natural wonders he has collected, traded for, and bought over his years traveling around the world and doing field work. He has discovered a rare species of mosquito which is named after him. He touts the benefits that mosquitos provide to man and animal and has many holes cut in his shirt to provide easy access to the blood suckers. The other man is Brian, from Wales, who I spent the afternoon with.

Bangkok

I haven't had much time to post. I am using Wi-Fi free right now on my good friend Bruce's laptop. I will post a few photos, tell my tales at home mostly, and call it good.

These photos didn't go in the order I was hoping for, but rather than fool with the computer, I will roll with it.

The first photo is the alley where my hostel is located. There is a crazy dude that walks up and down the alley ALL day long with only shorts, a satchel, and a white shell necklace. He looks like some sort of Bodhi Satva or something. He is one of my favorite parts of the landscape.

Next the cook at the garage/shack/home of Kat as me and the guys call her (I think her name is really Kaa with a very sharp "a"). I have ate here 2-3 times per day for the past 4 days and become something of a Regular along with Bruce and my new Britsky friend Tom.

Next is my friend Bruce sitting watching a terrenchal downpour (which is not really visible in the photo for some reason). Then there is a shot from the Balcony of my hostel.

The picture of the Monitor Lizard is from Lumphini Park.

Then theres an artist restoring a very extensive series of stories rendered along the wall of the Grand Palace. The next is me standing next to the largest lying Buddha in the world (very standard tourist stuff). I'm glad I saw it, but it felt more like a $1.25 photo op.

Lat we have a Buddha shrine and Wat Pho and a doorway within Wat Pho.

That is all till my next post.