Phnom Pehn

    Before we arrived in Cambodia, Annie recommended that I should read the book First They Killed My Father. It is a story of a young girl whose life was changed forever due to the Pol Pot Regime. After reading that story I couldn't help but feel pity for this poor nation. For those not familiar with Pol Pot or the Khmer Rouge, I could give you a little insight on the next paragraph.

    April 17th, 1975 marked a day of infamy for Cambodia. Pol Pot's Khmer Rouge evacuated Phnom Penh and forced its residents to move to the countryside where they were forced into slave labor working in the rice fields and similar jobs. Cambodians were tortured, starved and murdered during his reign and women, children even babies were no exception. It was a genocide that claimed the lives of an estimated 1.7 million people, that's 1 out of 4 Cambodians died due to this mad man. His scheme made no sense either. He wanted to bring Cambodia back to its roots and eliminate all western influence or any other outside influence for that matter and lead a nation of forced slaved labor. I wonder how a person with this much power could be so incredibly stupid. How could a person influence an army that was destined for failure.  If you had an education you were viewed as a traitor and a threat to Pol Pot and needed to be eliminated. But not until you were interrogated, beaten and tortured.

     I had a tough time believing that this all happened. How could something so evil exist and strike down on some many innocent lives. But the most breathtaking disturbing evidence would soon present itself and show me that all of this is true and that it was worse than I thought. 

    There are not many old people in Cambodia. It was something I had heard from other backpackers and it was devastating to find that it true. The poverty level also indicates that Cambodia is still healing from that experience and despite all that they haven't and won't give up on their country. They continue to work hard to catch up with their neighboring countries. 

                                                             One of cells at S.21 prison

                                                           Outside the chambers of S.21  

We arrived in Phnom Penh in the afternoon and visited the Tuol Sleng (also called S.21) Genocide Museum. The site was originally a school but when the Khmer Rouge took control of Phnom Penh they converted it to a prison designed for detention, interrogation and torture. Walking through the prison left you feeling empty inside. The rooms where prisoners were kept open and you could roam throughout freely. As you entered the rooms you stepped on the yellow and white checkered tile stained of whatever your imagination came up with and spotted with mold. We found the metal bed frames, shackles and a few torture tools left in the same place as they were they were found.  The walls, made of concrete, displayed a single picture showing what the room looked like while it was occupied. Every picture showed a victim starving, beaten and near death if not already dead. In other sections of the prison they displayed pictures and written confessions (most of which lies in hopes the torture would soon end if they told them what they wanted to hear) of all the residents trapped in this hell hole and, in the last part, skulls of a few victims were displayed showing small blows to the head that decided their fate. It sent chills through your body and left us speechless. I don't think Annie and I had said more than just a few words to each other during our visit and it took a while to start talking again after.  

     The Khmer Rouge wouldn't kill their victims at the prison. They would gather about 50 to 75 of "confessed traitors" and tell them they were moving them to another location when in fact they were taking them to the "Killing Fields", a mass grave where they would violently meet their fate and be thrown into communal pits to be buried. We would visit this horrific place in the morning. 

     The next day came and I had an empty feeling in my stomach. I wasn't sure what we would be in store for. We hopped in a tuk-tuk and took the 30 minute drive to our destination. I couldn't help but feel for all those who lives ended at the end of the of this road we were on. We finally arrived and it was quiet. No one spoke to each other. There were signs stating "Please No Talking" but they were unnecessary. No one wanted to converse in a place like this. I don't think anyone could find the words. 

    We received a headset for an audio tour and listened to a survivor of the genocide tell us of what happened where. He told us of his story and the stories of other survivors. Sadness completely took over me until rage consumed it all when a soldiers story came through the headphones. He spoke of transporting the prisoners from S.21 to the killing fields. The sound of his voice gave made me shiver on the hot afternoon. It was like listening to the devil himself speak aloud. I wondered why this man speaking was alive. How come he wasn't executed for his crimes against so many innocent lives. The truth is, a lot of the soldiers and the top officials of Pol Pot's Regime walked free after the genocide for many years including Pol Pot himself. It wasn't until the past 10 years or so that they have been arrested. Comrade Duch, the top official at S.21 was arrested in 2002 and was found  guilty to numerous war crimes and admitted to being responsible for the deaths of 20,000 Cambodians. He was sentenced to 35 years in prison and soon after reduced to 19 years after officials say he was detained illegally. The Khmer Rouge held a seat in the UN until 1992, that's not a typo...until 19 fucking 92 (sorry for the language). Pol Pot was sentenced to house arrest in 1998 and died of heart failure serving only one year. I can't understand the level of injustice for the victims families and for the people who some how survived this horrific ordeal. 

     After discovering the mass grave they dug up over 20,000 corpses and built a memorial in the center to house the remains. Empty pits covered with green grass now mark the spots of the where all the victims had been murdered by various objects such as axes, hoes, picks, machetes and hammers. They never shot their victims because bullets were too expensive so a quick and easy death was out of the question. Babies and small children met their demise by being smashed against a  large tree trunk and thrown into a grave while their mothers watched. After being raped they would soon join their children in the communal grave now covered in flowers and small handmade bracelets.
    Due to the rains and weather, clothes and more remains of the victims will appear from the soil. They are soon collected by the keepers of the site and then added to the collection they compiled at the memorial. So as our tour drew to a close the audio played some of the revolutionary music the Khmer Rouge played while executing their victims. The music played through the loud speakers that were powered by loud generators and that sound effect was not absent in the recording we heard. While listening to the recording it was then that we discovered some bones and a few teeth protruding from the ground on the edge of the path. We decided to leave after the discovery but for as long I as I live I will always keep this experience in the back of my mind and for this experience alone I have changed the way I look at the world for better and for worse.

                                                Mass graves that were excavated in 1980

                                    Clothes and teeth of the victims are unearthed along the trail

                                                         Skulls of a few female victims

                                     The memorial where the house skulls and other various bones

                                                                    The sign says it all...

                                                More mass graves that had been excavated

    

Otres Beach Part II

On the third night at Otres Beach we were partying late and decided we wanted to continue on. Janna, a girl we met from Germany had mentioned she wanted to go to another beach called Serendipity. She had been living in Otres for a month but never made the full effort to get out there and because she was leaving in two days her time was running. So our crew of six people piled into a tuk-tuk and off we went. It was bizarro-land from the start. As we got close to our destination we drove by a street fight where a local chased another local down with stick and before we turned the corner the Cambodian with the stick had caught up with his victim took a big swing and down he went. We don't know what became of him... Anyway we finally got to the beach and lets just say I'm very very very happy we ended up in Otres because if we stayed in Serendipity I would have left the next day. It's not because of the violence we saw but because of the bar scene. It looked like a ridiculous spring break party. If you could avoid everyone dancing on the bar and get a chance to be seen you couldn't get a beer cause the bartenders were too busy grinding with each other. The prostitutes gave you plenty of attention though. I think we all made a silent pact that night that we would stay in Otres until we were ready to move to our next location.

We were supposed to stay in Otres for three of four days but we ended up staying for eight and after that eventful night in town the rest of our time there was pretty laid back and very fun until we awoke the morning before we would leave. It was around 11:30am when I heard one of the Cambodian women yelling frantically in Khmer. I couldn't understand what she was saying but it sounded to me like she or
someone else got into a scuffle. I opened the door of our bungalow and saw an object with a cloud of smoke following it, being thrown out the second story window of the building next to us. Then I noticed a fire extinguisher hosing down a back pack that was on fire. We quickly got out of our bungalow to find out what was happening and if we could help but it seemed the crew acted quick and got it under control.

We later found out that one of the guests staying in the dorm building had an electric kettle with him and decided it would be nice to make a cup of tea before bed but forgot to turn it off. It overheated and
finally caught fire to his mattress. I heard some of the flames were as tall or perhaps taller than the 4' 10" height of the woman I heard shouting. I don't know how much damage the fire caused but I'm sure glad those guys acted quickly and took care of the situation before the whole place went up in flames and it would have happened really fast. It kinda set an uncomfortable mood for a while as we took it in so a lesson wouldn't go unlearned. Our moods did brighten up though and we spent the rest of the day at the beach and then our nightly routine of ribs, whiskey and cold draft beers under a bright moonlight closed our time at Otres Beach.

Cambodia: Otres Beach

Sorry it has been so long. Annie and I have been traveling in Vietnam for the past month and there is no internet cafes anywhere. Facebook is also banned there but we found a few spots towards the end of that trip that allowed use through our phones. Anyway I wasn't going to type a whole blog through the screen on my phone.

There is a lot of info for Vietnam so I'm going to skip over that for now and tell you about our time in Cambodia first, while it's still fresh in my head. I will tell you the stories of Vietnam when we get back to Thailand next week.

We left Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) early in the morning and took a bus through the afternoon and transferred in Phnom Penh to Sihanoukville, which is near the Vietnam border along the Gulf of Thailand. Out of all the places we visited on this trip Cambodia seems to be the one struggling the most. As we drove through the countryside we noticed not many structurally sound houses built of brick, stones or concrete but tiny bamboo shanties built on stilts that looked as if they could collapse at any moment. When we got closer to the city the shanties turned from bamboo to scraps of sheet metal and other recycled materials and when we finally entered the city things seemed to appear normal again along with an excess of trash in the streets. The entire city did not appear this way but some sections made you cringe and wonder how people could live this way.

When we finally arrived in Sihanoukville it was 9:00pm and we were greeted by 20 tuk-tuk drivers screaming and yelling to get your attention so they could get your business. Vietnamese and Cambodians will annoy you to the point of mental collapse in order to make a sale. Not a very good way about doing business and it certainly did not work with us. The tuk-tuk drivers all lost that night as Annie and I opted for motorbikes to get to our Guesthouse in Otres Beach. Otres is pretty far off the beaten track and I was glad we were prepared for that because if not, I would have thought for sure we were going to be victims of one of those wonderful trips gone terribly wrong. We finally arrived to our Guesthouse called Wish You Were Here, but we didn't know what to make of it cause it was so dark, the village had no street lights and the light from other buildings didn't help much either. What we did know was that there was a cool little bar with ice cold Cambodian drafts on tap and a ton of comfy places to sit and relax including these neat little wicker chairs that hung from the rafters.

The next morning we woke up and finally got to take a look around and get our bearings. My first thought was how long are we staying here for and how could we rearrange our schedule to stay longer. There was a single dirt road with tiny beach bars, restaurants and bungalows. The ocean water was a nice turquoise color and the waves were perfect for body surfing and surfing if you had long board. The first day was fantastic and the icing on the cake was the beautiful sunset every evening.

That second evening we met Juan. "Get the ribs for dinner" he said and it was one of the most valuable piece of advice I got while on this trip. He was from Chile but had been living in Miami for many years. He was busy traveling like us until he found this place and was hired as a bartender. He doesn't get paid cash but they supply him with room and board (alcohol included). We talked and drank all night and he filled us in on everything we need to know about the beach. Where to get the best food, the late night spots etc. We also became good friends with the owners of Wish You Were Here, Johnny and Aaron. I can't even begin to tell you all the great people we met during our time there. It is a just a little slice of heaven in this crazy world.

To be continued....

Sunset at Otres

Beach and Umbrellas

Our awesome guesthouse. "Wish You Were Here"

Super comfy wicker chairs suspended from rafters.

Sunset at Otres

Our bungalow home for a week.

Juan, our favorite bartender

Jim, Mike, Juan, Andy.. Moonrise last night in Otres

Vang Viang

Sorry I haven't been posting much in my blog as of late. We arrived
in Vietnam on Friday and it has been a struggle to find internet
cafes. It was also a struggle to get email access. The government is
quite strict on the social websites so I think that is why we
struggled to get the access. I'm glad I created this blog and decided
to limit facebook because there is a temporary ban on facebook in
Vietnam. No one in the country could access it unless you use another
site to disguise your actions (I'm not going to bother). Anyway I
think I left off where we arrived in Vang Vieng.

  I was excited about our trip there because of what I had been
hearing about the town through other backpackers. On our bus, there
were excited passengers that had spent a decent amount of time there on
previous occasions so now, I was excited too.

   When we finally arrived, by the looks of it, I was disappointed.
Most of the roads weren't paved and the ones that were, were half
assed. You would drive 100 yards on pavement then 50 yards of
dirt and rocks, basically it was off-roading. The buildings were tin
roofed shanties and even the newer buildings including the ones being
built were not impressive. So I guess the town was filled with charm,
maybe some good food, I don't know, something to understand why
everyone loved this place so much.

   Through tripadvisor.com we researched a guesthouse and made that
our home for the next few days. They were very helpful and although
the room wasn't too impressive the staff is why we assume everyone
gave it a good rating. We got settled in and tried to do some more
research about the town. The buzz going around town and we had heard
about this long before we decided to come here, was the rafting down
the river. What happens is you rent an innertube and they drive you three
miles away along this river. You then float down the river that runs
along side the beautiful limestone cliffs and along the river banks
there are bars that offer free shots of rice whiskey upon arrival. You
could try out their different concoctions that launch you into the
river including ziplines, rope swings and water slides. It sounded
pretty cool. So it was definitely on our to-do list there. The other
interesting activity was exploring the caves. We didn't know too much
about them but we were more than willing to give it a try.

  The funny thing about Vang Vieng was their obsession with the
sitcom "Friends". While Annie and I were trying to find a place for
dinner, it was difficult to find a place where "Friends" were not on
TV. Most of the restaurants had a pretty cool arrangement going on.
You kind of get your own personal lounge made of bamboo and covered
with cushions. They did a great job at trying to make you feel at home
by offering a casual dinner with some TV. The only problem was the
food. The food there was horrific and all the restaurants must get
their food from the same distributor because it was all the same.
Nothing was authentic or fresh. If anything, it felt like 7-11 was in
charge of our diets for the time. We were there for 3 days and not
once did we have something decent to eat. The closest thing seemed to
be pizza and "Ellio's" blew their pizza out of the water. Getting back
to the crew on the bus that was so excited to get here. I don't know
how they could have stayed there for any amount of time (one of them
stayed for a month).

  Day number two, we got off to a late start but still decided to
go for the tubing trip. We got our tubes, jumped into the Tuk-Tuk
and headed upstream to the start the journey. I finally figured out
why everyone loved this place so much. They were a few years younger
than I and this was a "spring break" kind of place. We crossed over a
wooden walking bridge to the first bar and there was a crew of kids in
their early 20's, a drunken mess of college kids. Pop dance music
blared from across the river as they played all different kinds of
drinking games. It was pretty comical. Annie and I did our best to
have a good time and not get involved with all the shinadagans going
on. After a couple of beers there, we jumped in our rafts and traveled
to the next bar. They
had a diving board that rose about 20 feet above the water so we had a
beer and tried it out. Then continued to our next spot that sported a
trapeze. It was a ton of fun and the farther you get down the river
the crowds got thinner, older and more tolerable. I guess the young-ins
can't handle their booze like us veterans and boy, did they miss out
The final bar we stopped at had a massive slide. A cement structure
covered in tile. You could probably fit four people across and I know
what your probably thinking. Tiles? Wouldn't that hurt? Surprisingly
enough, it didn't hurt at all. The cool part about this slide was at
the end it had a lip that shoot you up in the air while launching you
into the
water. I saw a couple of people go and I was ready. Annie wasn't
so sure. I got to the top, equipped with my waterproof recorder and
away I went. You build up an incredible amount of speed and then you
hit the lip about 10 feet before the end. It launches you through the
air and then dropped right into the water. It was awesome. Annie was
still not convinced so I had to get others try to convince her and
finally... she went down and loved it. We then had to hightail it out
of there cause it was getting late and we had to return our tubes in
order to get our deposits back. We then had some shitty pizza and went
to bed to get ready for the caves the next morning.

  The cave (not "caves" as we learned) was very, very cool. We
rented a motorbike and traveled out of town toward the limestones. It
was nice to get out of town and drive past the small villages and
farms. The scenery was beautiful and when we finally arrived to cave I
was surprised to see some of the most beautiful blue waters I have
ever seen. A large tree hung over the small river and a cute little
bridge. From there you could see schools of fish swimming around. We
then headed up a steep mountain side which took about 10 minutes to
reach the mouth of this enormous cave. It was gorgeous. I don’t have
much experience with caves in my life but this was wide open and you
were able to explore at free will. We took our time exploring the
different paths that wrapped around large rocks. There weren’t any
tunnels to speak of unless we missed them. There are no guides for
this tour so its on your own accord, which was nice but its possible
we missed some good “nooks and crannies” of the cave.
    It was getting pretty hot in there so we took of and had a dip in
the crystal blue water at the base of the mountain. The water felt
amazing. The perfect temperature to cool you off and allowed you to
take your time and explore some of the wildlife it had to offer.

    The next day we traveled in another bus trip to Vientiane, the
nations capital. It was a cool city but if you remember (in my
previous blogs) I visited a psychic. Well she was right. She called
it. I didn’t really doubt it and tried to be careful but it didn’t
work. It wasn’t so bad though. We toured the city a bit but couldn’t
stray too far from our guesthouse. So I don’t have much of anything to
write about our visit there.

Continued from last post....

   We got back to our guesthouse that we splurged on a little bit cause the place seemed friendly, cozy and was recommended by my buddy Lee (that we met while in Chiang Mai). So we decided to stay there. And it was a very nice place. One of the cleanest we've stayed at during our trip but the noise factor was a bit of a problem. At an early 6:30 start the  locals were building a new guesthouse next door and for some reason they loved using grinders. The sound just cut through our room so all I had was was mere 4 or 5 hour sleep. Annie slept through it all (I don't know how).
      That morning we packed up and looked around for another place. One, for peace and quite, the other for cheaper accommodations. We found a decent little place down the road for cheap and were settling in until we got a knock on the door. The young man from the front desk said a friend is here to visit us. We were both very confused. Who could that be? Annie and i didn't even know we were staying at this guesthouse until about a minute ago. So I walked down stairs and to my surprise it was the host from the last guesthouse that we just checked out of. In a very cool and collected voice she said, "you no pay for room when you check out". We did. We paid for the room yesterday in order to get the key. I asked Annie to come down and I think once she saw Annie she remembered that we paid. I think she was more upset than anything that we left that morning. She noticed my displeasure when I awoke early to investigate the construction going on next door. I did feel bad about wanting to go elsewhere but it was in cards before I found out about the construction. The place was just too expensive. Anyway that seemed to be the only Laos local so far on this trip that actually cared about something. The rest of them are so laid back they couldn't give a shit about anything. For example, we ordered lunch at this little cafe and we got curious that 45 minutes went past and we didn't receive anything, except our drinks. I asked the waitress and she just shrugged her shoulders. We paid for our drinks then left (found another place and had another sub-par meal).
     In Thailand, the people are very friendly. Many smile when you pass by and they appreciate that you are there. In Laos, so far, its a bit different. The only time any local acknowledges you is when they want to sell you something. So, the only people we really spoke to there was the Tuk-Tuk drivers and the Street Vendors. Don't get the impression that they are mean, they just seem too laid back to care about anything.
    The search for something delicious to eat continued. With not much success we had lunch and then went out for dinner at this outdoor restaurant on the main strip. Finally. I had this delicious fish steamed in a banana leaf loaded with herbs spices and some chili peppers for a kick. We were finally done with our slump, not just with the food there but with everything that wasn't up to par in this little city. We discovered more around town. Cozy little bars with delicious food, cafes for an amazing breakfast and when you work your way deeper into the peninsula you will find the prettiest resorts I have seen while on this entire trip along with top notch restaurants. The prices were out of our range for the budget we were on but if you were to be traveling for a few weeks and maybe a have an income I would recommend to visit this place in a heartbeat.
     Just as we were really getting into a good groove here it was time to leave. We chartered a mini bus to Vang Vieng and was that a trip. I don't know if you remember me speaking of the bus from Pai and how people were getting sick. Lets just say I'm glad we had a few tough passengers in this van. Bumpy, unpaved roads that twisted and turned up and down the mountain range through small little villages on the roadside. If our driver wasn't careful we would have had quite a verity of roadkill victims splattered all over. We dodged  chickens, pigs, dogs, goats and cows. It was crazy. A horn is essential driving on this road. You need it as a warning signal. Every time the driver would start laying on his horn you knew a small village awaited us around the bend. Livestock and children would cram on the side of the road and waited for us to pass. After driving through the mountains and got to flat land we were amazed at the view we saw. Magnificent Limestone peaks that just shot up to the sky and were covered in greens and all sorts of trees. One of the most romantic sights I have ever seen in my life. The sun actually peaked through the clouds while we were driving through and the rays cut through the sharp peaks creating something that you would usually only see in a painting. Absolutely gorgeous.
     We arrived in Vang Vieng and for that another blog will have to do so stay tuned:)
   

Next country please :)

  Well we left Thailand on Tuesday afternoon and hopped on a small 30 passenger plane to Luang Phrubang, Laos. It was a short flight, about an hour long and we across the runway into the airport to get our visas. The airport was a little rinky dink place that looks like Knights of Columbus with a runway behind it. We used the ATM and took out 1 million kip (only about $150 USD but it felt cool to be a millionaire at that moment). We then got a cab into the city to find a guesthouse for the night. Luang Phrubang is is a beautiful little city. It's a small peninsula nestled between the Mekong River and the Khan. It is certainly has more eye appeal than all the places we had been on this trip except Bangkok but that's like comparing apples to oranges. It is a thriving community. One of the most expenses places to visit in Laos and you could understand why with all the steps they are taking to improve the community. They are building new beautiful buildings and they are improving the existing.
   We walked around for a little while to get our bearings and work up a bit of an appetite so we sat at an outside restaurant that over looked the Mekong. There was a  beautiful view of the sunset above the big mountains that sat behind the Mekong. The only problem was the smoke in the air got thicker as we traveled to Laos and the sunset was about all you could see of the sun. During the day the haze was so thick that you couldn't make out where the sun is in the sky. It was almost like a foggy day through amber sun-glass lenses. But, while it was close to setting, it glowed a bright orange. It appeared about the same size of the moon when it's full and then before it met the mountains it disappeared behind more smokey haze and the night sky quickly followed. Our dinner came out with the evening and I don't think I could have had a worse meal than I had that night. It only cost about $3 but I have never felt so ripped off before. I ordered a cold beer and stir fried chicken with basil. What I got a was a warm beer and one of those rubber chickens thrown in a deep fryer for about a half hour. Service took forever too. We went to a night market on the main strip and examined the merchandise they had for sale and not too my surprise, it was similar to all of the popular touristy places we visited and all similar to one another.
    I decided to try dinner again that night so we went to a little cafe and I ordered a club sandwich, safe right? No. I got a hard boiled egg a slice of turkey and one piece of bacon on three pieces of "wonder" white bread. How could this be? An awesome little city with with all this tourism. Could the food really be this bad? I looked around and I wasn't too impressed with anything I saw people eating at any of the restaurants around us. A Seven Eleven could have produced a better sandwich than I had but it was at least edible so I didn't go to bed on an empty stomach.

    We are getting kicked out of the internet cafe so I will have to continue this in the morning.

We are back in Chiang Mai

   I'm not sure if I have mentioned much about the weather out here in any of my past blogs. It's hot. The temperatures range in the 90's (F) during the day and the evenings in the 80's. During our first trip to Chiang Mai, the hostel that we are staying at had no AC, or air-con as they call it here. It was definitely not easy to sleep through the night with one rotating fan hitting you for a second and then again after another long 6 seconds. So when we arrived in Pai, a much needed break from the evening heat awaited us there. I'm not sure what the actual temp was but we were able to sleep under blankets and wore long sleeve shirts after the sun went down. 

   The heat during the day was still hot but it didn't stop us from visiting the hot springs only a few kilometers from where we were staying. I never experienced hot springs before and I was definitely surprised at what I saw. As we approached the spring we found a small pool of crystal blue and green water. Steam was pouring off from the top and in some areas the water was even bubbling. In another smaller pool next to us two people were boiling eggs. When we took a closer look the heat overcame us and we had to take a few steps back. It felt like standing over a pot of boiling water. After enough of that we then strolled down the walk where the hot water was cascading down the hill through a series of bends and curves and then collected in a few small pools below. There was only a few people at the park that day so it was nice to have your pick at which pool you would like to hang out in. We chose one pool that had three little waterfalls and I sat under one of them to have the warm water pour onto my neck. It's been over 2 weeks since my "Thai massage" and I still do not have full range in my neck so the water felt nice. 

   I did notice many injuries among the foreigners in Pai. I assume it was a lot of first timers renting motorbikes and not quite knowing how to use them. As we were waiting for the bus to go back to Chiang Mai, I saw 2 girls on a motorbike waiting for instructions on where to return it. One was bandaged up around her ankle and also around her calf. She could barely move her leg as she limped off the back of the bike and the driver could barely maneuver the thing as she attempted to get back into the return garage. The locals must get a kick out of that kind of stuff. I know I would. 

    We got on the small bus back to Chiang Mai and it was an interesting trip to say the least. As I may have mentioned before the trip in was similar to kiddie roller coaster ride and I learned that there are over 760 bends and curves in the road leading to Pai. Well you take the same road back that you took in and this time our driver seemed like he was in a hurry to get back. We sped along the road gunning past slower vehicles with oncoming traffic approaching and even ripped through the smoke filled air where the brush fires reached the road. It was upsetting to see the the fires just roaming around at their own free will and no one would attempt to stop it. But as heard from Pai local that the fires are good because if the forest didn't thin out every once in a while the crops that the town depends on wouldn't get enough light and die off. Anyway a couple of the passengers lost their cookies from the intense journey. One into a plastic bag and the other begged the driver to stop and bolted out of the bus for tree to lean against. With others on the verge of the same fate we finally reached Chiang Mai and many got off the bus in a hurry, happy to have feet planted firmly on the ground. 

    We are going to take it easy and relax for a few days so I'm going to do the same with this blog. We fly to Laos on Tuesday so I will probably pick it up from there.