Gay Thailand

We decided to splurge on a hotel in Phuket. We felt like we needed a vacation from our vacation after three weeks in India so we started looking for a place. We ended up booking a room at CC Bloom's in Karon which is right next to Phuket. It's absolutely beautiful and we love it!

What we didn't realize when we booked is that it's a hotel that caters primarily to the gay community! We really should have realized this after looking at their website but for some reason it just didn't click.

It actually turned out to be the best place for us! After the leers in India, we're very happy to be in a place where I could walk ad naked if I wanted to and no one would care. Not only that but it's everything that India is not- clean, quiet and we can eat all the fruit and dairy we want without fear of explosive diarrhea!

The Lamest Scam Ever

In Bangkok one of the scams you run into is when a tuk-tuk driver (a motorcycle taxi), picks you up for a cheap fare but takes you to a jewelry or tailor shop on the way "just to look" because the shop gives him a gas coupon. The shop then uses high pressure techniques to get you to buy.

We were only in Bangkok a few days, waiting for a flight to Calcutta, so we wanted to see some sights and do some shopping. On our last day we decided to see the National Palace. We find what we think is the entry way, but a few policemen were standing inside and told us to go around. One guy runs out and stops us. He tells us that it is Sunday and the Palace is open in the afternoon and it was only 11 am. He also tells us that he can get us a Tuk-Tuk for very cheap to show us a few of the temples. One is a large reclining gold Buddha that is only open on Sundays, and the other is on the largest hill in Bangkok and has a great view of the city. We agree and he waves down a Tuk Tuk and talks to the guy in Thai and tells us that the fee will be 40 Baht, which is like $1.25. We decided we'd do it because even if this was a scam, $1.25 is pretty cheap and they were sights that we wanted to see anyway.

After the first sight the driver asks us to go into a jewlery shop along the way, just for 5 min. We go into the shop and they have some nice stuff, like a sapphire neclace with diamond studs for $150. We didn't buy anything, but it was nice to look at. The driver then takes us to the temple overlooking the city and after we are finished our driver has disappeared...and we haven't even payed him. We looked around for him for a little while but couldn't find him anywhere. We take a taxi back to the palace and it cost us 40 baht anyway...so we don't understand what exactly happened? This must have been some sort of scam between the guy at the palace and the driver, but why? Are they that hard up for gas coupons? We were too tired to see the palace, but we will be back anyway after India.

What's a Wat?...You Monkey

Our second stop in Northern Thailand is a place called Ayutthaya (don't worry if you can't pronounce it, neither can we). The main attraction here are some 500-600 year old Wats. A Wat is a Southeast Asia Buddhist Temple. Generally it has a large steeple with what look like tires surrounding it. There are about 27 of these things around Ayutthaya, which are in very good condition. Sarah and I spent a very hot afternoon on a couple of bikes cruising to several Wats. We even saw one where a Buddha's head had been separated from its body and the roots from a tree had over grown everything but the head, which they seemed to cradle very mysteriously...just chance or is it the spirit of the Buddha?

For our second day in Ayutthaya, we decided to take a day trip to Lopburi. The main attraction here are a band of mischievous monkeys who hang out by another of these Wats in the middle of the downtown area. They were absolutely hi-larious. It is pretty funny when you walk down into the middle of just seemingly ordinary town and then a monkey comes angling toward you; turn the corner and suddenly there are like 1,000 monkeys; climbing into cars, over buildings, just making a general nuisance out of themselves--right there in the middle of town, downtown, two blocks from the train station; we even saw a monkey climbing into the back of a truck while stopped at a red light. I also bought a pack of sunflower seeds that they sell in the temple, which I fed to them, a baby monkey even started swinging on the leg of my shorts to try and get a few more seeds. We saw several other tourists trying to hide their food from the monkeys only to have the little buggers crawl all over them--on monkey even punched this German guy in the face!

Sean & the Lady Boys

After the trek we were really looking forward to a nice massage. We opted for the Thai massage and we weren't disappointed, although it was very different from the kinds of massages that we're familiar with. They seriously climb right on you and stretch you out! It looks kinds strange but feels really good. They also do some of the more traditional things that we associate with massage. All for 150 Bhat an hour or about $4.50!

Last night Sean and the guys from the trek decided that they wanted to go see a Thai boxing fight. None of the girls wanted to go...

The Thai boxing matches were really cool. There were 9 fights on the card and the main event was a Norwegian guy fighting the local champ and the Norwegian guy won! He even posed for picture with us. Right after we took this picture the guy literally collapsed from exhaustion.

we went shopping instead! We all shared a tuk tuk over to the area where the match was to take place and were greeted by several Thai girls in short skirts and low cut tops. The girls were all a little put off by this until we realized that they were actually all men! The famous 'lady boys' of Thailand. The guys all stood around looking scared of the lady boys for awhile before relaxing and heading into the fight.

OK we weren't actually scared...it's just strange because you are told that you are going to a boxing match and you are greeted by men dressed up like women...we kept asking them "Fighting, right" "we want to see thai boxing" but everything was cool. They were really nice and even sat us by a table in front of their bar/dressing area which was well...interesting. The picture here was taken after we gave a donation for one of the "girls" to have her "operation".

Treking in Thailand

Well, we've totally gone off of the planned itinerary and ended up in Thailand! We were planning on being in Nepal or India around now but we couldn't get in from China. The India/China boarder is closed to travelers so the flights were super expensive...but the flights into Thailand were pretty cheap. So, here we are in Chiang Mai!

We are loving Thailand! The people here are really friendly and the landscape and food are fantastic. Our first day in Chiang Mai we checked out a couple of wats, rode in tuk tuks and looked at a couple of tours. We ended up booking a trek in the mountains to visit a hill tribe.

The trek ended up being really cool. Our group was pretty big but everyone was really nice. We were the only Americans- everyone else was European. We started the trek by cramming into a truck with our new friends for an hour or so and driving out to the trail head. Our trek was gorgeous and we were able to see a beautiful waterfall, amazing views and hike through rice paddies. Good thing we got those Japanese Encephalitis shots too as we ended up hiking through the dreaded combination of pigs, standing water and rice fields. Guess that was money well spent!

We spent the night at the hill tribe village and our guide managed to make us a really nice meal in a little hut with no electricity! We spent the evening around the fire in the middle of nowhere. One of the villagers joined us and although he didn't speak any English, he was proficient in magic tricks which he used to entertain everyone in exchange for beer.

We woke up early the next morning and hiked for another hour or so before coming to a gorgeous waterfall. It was one of the largest I've ever been in and you could even step behind the water so that you were in a cave of sorts. We could have easily spent all day there.

Our next stop was on a river where we 'rafted' on bamboo rafts. Our raft ended up breaking apart and Sean ended up in the river! We ended the day with a visit to an elephant camp where we were able to feed and ride on the elephants. Sean even got to ride on the elephant's head like a mahmout (elephant trainer)!