"F" words

Dangerous duo to terrible trio to...(freaky? foreign? fearsome? furry? flammable?) four.

(What's a good adjective that starts with F?)

On January first, Tracey L'Esperance arrived in Bangkok just in time for us to head south to the islands. Well, only one island actually: Koh Chang. It was fabulous (fabulous four?): sun, surf, sand...what more could you ask for?! It fit well with Milo's tropical version of White Christmas (think white sandy beach instead of white snow), if you haven't heard it you can ask him about it next time you see him.

One day we went snorkelling—lots of fun (fun four? funny four?). It was an all-day boat trip with snorkelling, swimming, and vast amounts of food. The scenery was gorgeous, the company was friendly (friendly four?), and the water was nice and clear—great for snorkelling. It was my first time snorkelling and Ijust think I might have to go again... :)

The next day we thought we'd try kayaking. There were a few small islands not far from shore, so we paddled out to the closest one. It had a nice little beach on one end and some decent rocky inlets on the other. We picnicked on the beach and paddled into the inlets, frantically (frantic four?) trying to avoid hitting the rock cliffs. :) It was more strenuous to kayak through the sea for several hours than I thought it would be—by the time we were done, I was done!

After four days or so, we decided to head north for a change of scenery. So...we caught a taxi and a ferry and a bus and a skytrain back to Bangkok, and a skytrain and a city bus and a long-distance bus and a songthaw (shared pick-up taxi) and a van up to our house north of Chiang Mai. Actually we stopped in Bangkok for a day or so, but I liked the sentence better strung all together! The main tourist stop in Bangkok as Wat Pho (the temple housing the famous Reclining Buddha). (Famous four? Hmmm, I kinda like that...) It's basically impossible to show big the buddha statue is using a picture, so I'm not even going to try here...check facebook for other pics!

After our stopover in Bangkok, we did head north via the transport noted above. We stayed with a friend for our first few days in the north. (Thanks again Lynda!) She actually lives out of town on the Prem school campus. It was beautiful. And there were bunnies. This made Tracey happy since she'd been comparing everything else to bunnies for the last week (the fish, the cat, Milo, the sand at the beach...). (Fishy four?)

Luckily, we arrived in Chiang Mai just in time for the Winter Carnival (an annual fair—a local one, not one set up for tourists). We went with Lynda and had a fabulous time! I think we sampled almost every possible food there. It was great! We had khao saw (a curried noodle soup—a northern specialty), pad thai, sticky rice in bamboo, fried grasshoppers, quail eggs, hairy sweet noodle stuff, deep-fried squid, meringue-filled wafer-thingys, dried squid, sausages, banana pancakes...basically we just spent all evening eating! It was festive, fun, fattening...and filling (festive four?) (fattening four?...maybe not!).

Elephants! The elephants were fantastic (fantastic four?)! And they reminded Tracey of bunnies. I was pleasantly surprised by the elephant camp. I thought the elephant show would be a bit cheesy, but it was actually quite good. The baby elephants were adorable...and all the elephants were very talented. They played football/ soccer, danced, gave massages, and painted! It was fun to see. They accepted all tips offered by the tourists too. The money was handed back to their riders, and the bananas and sugar cane was quite happily eaten.

By mid-January it was time for Milo, Amanda, and I to head to the Philippines and time for Tracey to head home to her bunnies. So...that's it for the adventures of the (flighty?) four! Well, actually that's all the adventures I'm planning to write about at the moment, not all the adventures we had...you can find out more via the pictures on Facebook...or by cornering one of us at some point in the future (futuristic four?). (And you might want to get us all together or you may just end up with four different versions of each story...)

Between Christmas and New Year's

So...once again I've fallen behind, so here's another picture blog to catch up on what's we've been doing since Christmas! (actually this is just from Christmas to New Years...)

Bangkok river taxis run every 15 minutes on weekdays. It's a good thing they don't only run in the morning 'cause Milo doesn't wake up until afternoon! (Or maybe he was just trying to get close to the money.) Hmm...

Mmmm...coconut milk is lovely after a wander through the temples of Bangkok.

We headed out of town to Kanchanaburi for a few days at the end of December. We stayed in a raft house hostel. It was cute and quiet and served great food! It also offered rather brilliant views of the sunset over the River Kwai.

During WWII, the Japanese used prisoners of war and local labour to build a railway through to Burma as a secure supply route. So many of the POW's and labours died because of harsh treatment by the Japanese, that it became known as the Death Railway.

This part of WWII history was made famous, of course, by the book and movie Bridge Over the River Kwai. We visited the bridge (not the one made famous by the movie—that one was destroyed by the allies only a few months after being built). It was rebuilt in the same place as the old one and, as you can see, is still used today.

Other sections of the railroad are still original though...

This was a particularly brutal section for the labourers to build as they had to cut straight through soil and solid rock with minimal equipment. It was nicknamed Hellfire Pass by the POWs because of how it looked at night by torchlight. The work teams were required to work 12-18 hour shifts in orer to finish it in 12 weeks! By the time it was finished, 70% of the POW crew (and probably equal or greater numbers of local conscripts) had died.

Bamboo rafting on the River Kwai!

If being a soil scientist doesn't work out, Amanda can always consider a career as an elephant trainer.

Okay, that's all for 2008--the first 2009 post will be arriving soon! :)