Hi all, posting from Bangkok this evening...

After our 2 day trekking tour, the next day, we were back in Chiang Mai, taking a full day traditional thai massage course. Traditional thai massages are not your normal kind of oil massages you get at spas...they are basically a work out for both the client and the masseuse! Lots of bending body parts, hitting the body (yes we pay ppl to beat us- it's the stimulate the muscle) and rough elbows. It's awesome- we really like getting them done. We only learned how to massage the legs, as the course is a full week. It honestly takes 7 days to learn all the body parts...so I'm sure I'll be practicing when I get home, if anyone wants to be a free massage! hehe.

That evening, Dan and I took a 14 hour overnight bus to Pattaya to meet a cousin of Dan's. His name is Tim and he works at an orphanage. Tim is about 60 years old, and it was our first time meeting him. We arrived at the orphange early in the morning, and Tim greeted us at the admin office doors. He didn't know what we looked like, but he was expecting us. The orphanage was alot bigger and nicer than we expected! There were many children of all ages (preschool and up) there, some healthy, some deaf, and some handicapped physically. Tim introduced us to the staff in the admin, and then he took us around to the different buildings to play with the kids. OmG! They were so amazingly cute!!!!!!!! Their faces lite up when they saw us (they love foreigners) and by the way they were so trustworthy with us (adult strangers), we knew that they were treated well by the staff there. We were impressed by the services they provided to these children.

The absolute cutest moment was when we went to visit the deaf children, who seemed the most happy out of all the kids we met, when we arrived. Dan started to pick them up and swing them in the air one by one, and they all were amazed at how muscly and hairy his arms were. One boy took us hand and tried to wrap it around Dan's biceps, to measure the size of his muscle. He then took his measurement and flexed his own biceps and compared Dan's measurement to his own. It was TOO CUTE - I wish I got a picture of that!!!! The kids kept lining up to get a ride from Dan. Dan thought it was funny that the girl that was the heaviest out of all the kids, wanted a ride from Dan the most. That was so cute too!!!

Tim then took us to his beautiful huge home in a private residential wealthy area. He introduced us to his Thai wife, Taiole and her Thai friend who was visiting from Australia, Tipwana. They also introduced us to their maid, who happens to be Taiole's aunt.

We went to the beach with Taiole and Tip for most of the day. It's very very touristy in Pataya. We didn't like it that much, as there really isn't much to do there unless you're looking for Thai prostitutes. We were disgusted at how many white (old) men had a Thai girl with him...ew ew ew!

Later that evening, we went back to Tim's home and met his daugher, Kate (16 years old). The ladies cooked up a yummy simple Thai dinner and we chatted about the family and life for awhile. The family was so hospitable, they had us stay there for the night.

We left early (5:15am) for the airport to Bangkok, where we shopped all day at the Chatuchak market. IT was so overwhelmingly big, and all the "stores" are jammed packed together in the hot humidity. We spent about $100 US today on: wooden funky dinner plates (for sushi or salad); 2 watches for me (knock offs DKNY) - one is sophisticated and the other one has a barcode for a face (SO COOL!!!!); a funky lamp for our new home; and a shirt for D.

Now we're just hanging out in Bangkok, taking advantage of all the street vendors and food stalls. Last night in Thailand!!!! We're both very excited to go to Hong Kong though! Tomorrow, we will shop at MBK mall for knock off Diesel jeans, and then head to the airport.

Until then...

Dan and i just came back from a 2 day trekking tour. It was pretty fun - god I still feel like i'm on the awful "bus" ride - it's basically a truck with seats built in the back of it, with a canopy covering us - and the roads are bumpy as hell- can't fall asleep!!!! Got to hang on for life!

There were only 4 of us on the tour - Dan and I, and a guy named Matt (from Pennsylvania) and another guy from Australia, Anthony. On the trek, we drove an hour away from town (Chiang Mai) and hiked up and down a mountain for about 2 hours. It was a great workout! Then we arrived at a village, where it is very primitive.

We got to live like these villagers live - it was amazing. The village consisted of about 10 families, and maybe 8 huts made from bamboo. There were many roosters, hens, chickadees, few pigs, and many dogs around. The poor dogs all looked starved and unhealthy. They always itched themselves, and they had patches of skin showing. Awww.

It was a neat experience seeing how these families lived. They basically collect, hunt and gather food for themselves and for the urban cities (eg. such as Chiang Mai). Our tour guide cooked up an amazing thai dinner for us, and afterwards, we all paid the village women to give us thai massages. Afterwards, we walked around the small village talking to other tourists and watching the cute thai kids play. One of the older thai kids came and sat with us, and played tunes on his guitar. He was amazingly talented, as he is able to pick up tunes on his guitar by ear. He learned english from all the tourists that come and visit his home - and he's 17! We also star gazed. I have never ever in my life seen so many stars- it was a blanket of stars - so amazing! I'm sorry we couldn't get pictures of that, the camera doesn't work that far!

We slept in a hut that was attached to the home. Our room, I assume, was only for tourists. It consisted of about 10 mats, with misquito nets above them. They were hard, but Dan says he slept awesome...and I slept ok...until the darn roosters woke us up at 5:30AM. Ugh!

At 8am, we woke up and our tour guide, SuTim, made us breakfast (toast, eggs, hot chocolate and tea). They are big on processed carbs (white rice, white bread) and high fat foods here - I think I'm gaining a bit of a tummy!!! It's hard to NOT eat the food here though, it's amazing!!!! Wait until we get to Hong Kong- oh man, the food there is going to be incredible!!!

After breaky, we went on an elephant ride. Anthony and Matt rode on the first elephant, and we rode on the 2nd one, which was the mother of the first elephant. Her name was Jon, which means Moon in Thai. The ride was okay...the most exciting part was when a water buffalo came into town, and the dogs started surrounding him and freaked out at him. Then the villager women came and threw rocks at it, and the elephants started to freak out as well. They started vibrating/purring (whatever elephants do to intimidate)...I was freaked out b/c I wasn't sure what the elephants would do next- Charge?! The poor unwelcomed buffalo went on it's way, and swam up the river. After that, things were peaceful again. We have pictures of this...just you wait and see! After the ride, we got to feed the elephants bananas - so cute!

After the feeding, we then went on a Bamboo Raft ride for about 1.5 hours. It's so smart. The villagers gather bamboo, make them into a raft, and have us tourists ship it down the river - so they are making money for sending bamboo AND get paid by the tourists to do so! Smart!!! Today was not as physically eventful, but yet I was so hungry!!! I ate so much, I'm going for a run pretty soon around here, in Chiang Mai.

3 days ago (Monday), Dan and I took a 2 hour Muay Thai (Thai boxing) class for 400 baht each. It was AMAZING!!!! Omg, we have not had a workout that intense since forever. The instructor got us to "warm up" by skipping rope (since we didn't have our runners we couldn't run laps), do lots of ab workouts, bounce on loose car tires (to help us with stance) and taught us basic techniques. It is so different from karate- everything seems almost opposite. It was hard for me at first. For example, in karate, the stances are low and stable, but in muay thai, you have to be up on the balls of your feet- always! Even when kicking! Dan and I trained for about 2.5 hours (we definitely got our money's worth!), while the instructor yelled commands at us. He is a 56 year old man, in good shape! There were other muay thai regular students there- including cute kids. We have pictures of this as well. Dan and I are still sore from the workout today...no wonder those muay thai fighters get in shape so fast!!!!! They are amazingly fit - even the little kids. You can see every single definition of muscle - it's insane!

Anyways, better go - will upload pictures once our camera starts to get full again.

Love Roz and Dan

Hey guys, it's both Roz and Dan posting here...with pictures!!!! Dan is uploading the pictures on the computer next to me right now. I'll link it at the end of this post

I'm (Roz) feeling much better after 5 horrible days of bathroom issues. Without grossing anyone out and getting into too much detail, we both got Travellor's Diarrhrreoa (or however you spell it!) - except that mine was much more severe. At first, we thought it was heat exhaustion, but after coming upon a blurb about Travellor's Diarr. in our Thailand Lonely Planet guide book, we realized our symptoms matched the description. I was in bed for almost 2 days (with the WORSE cramps ever!!!) and running to the bathroom very often. Let's just say that we had to work our schedule around my bathroom schedule...which actually turned out ok because the weather was crappy and rainy in Ko Samui, where we stayed this week.

On Thursday night, Dan and I walked around Ko Samui's little shops. We ended up watching a caberet show put on by drag queens and lady boys. It was actually a good show- very entertaining. There were men who pretended to be ladies, but they over did it on purpose. You'll know what I mean when you see the pictures.

On Friday, Dan and I rented a scooter for $8/day. I was hesitant at first, but once we got the hang of it, it was really fun. We went to different parts/towns on Ko Samui. We specifically went to go see the Na Muang Waterfall - which was not that pretty (the water was brown), but the hike up was fun. It was quite a challenging climb, which we didn't expect - and we only wore our flip flops - so it was even more challenging.

Then on Friday night, Dan and I went to watch a Muai Thai (thai boxing) match. There were 8 fights, and all of them were men (darn, I wanted to see some of the women). A couple of fighters were in their teens (15-17), and there were 2 fighters from different countries (Australia, and not sure about the other guy but he had red hair, so I'm assuming Scotland or Ireland). They start with lower level/rank fighters (so it was a bit slow), and work the way up to more advanced. The last few fights were pretty crazy - one knock out in the first round (they have up to 5 rounds, 3 minutes each round)- and other fights involved some blood. The red hair guy was out of control, and didn't seem to know proper techniques -so even though he dominated his fight, he got disqualified. They didn't say why, but we would assume it was a control factor.

Yesterday, Dan and I went on a kayaking/snorkeling tour, which took us by speedboat to some Marine National Park just off Ko Samui. The snorkeling was definitely not as awesome as when we went with Kelly's family. The water was pretty hazy and there didn't seem to be as much fish or things to see. The kayaking was fun though - it was my first time. It was easy though...but my arms hurt today! I met a young Isrealian guy named Leo on the speed boat - and we dialogued about differences in Isreal and Canada. He was a pretty nice guy, and he invited us to this club by our hotel called Green Mango. Dan and I had to get up pretty early (4am) to get to the airport by 5am to fly to Chiang Mai (where we are right now)...so we were going to take a nap and then meet Leo. But we felt too tired to go, so we ended up sleeping through the night.

Now we're in Chiang Mai, which is where I've saved most of my shopping for. Things here are much cheaper than other places we've been to, including hotels. We practically jumped out of our shorts when the taxi driver said that it would only cost us 120 baht (about $4) to get to our hotel...whereas in other cities, it's been at least about $10. The city here so far is nice, less touristy (which is partly why it's cheaper)- which is good. We plan to do some trekking (hiking) here, and maybe take some thai cooking, and thai massage courses. Whoot! They even offer muai thai (thai boxing) lessons here.

PLEASE CLICK HERE TO SEE THAILAND PICTURES. The pictures are in descending order, starting with most recent.

*WARNING: Few pictures with adult matter; may be offensive to some- view at your own discretion.

Roz and I are currently in Koh Lanta, a bit further South and East than Phuket. Quite a bit more laid back here and relaxed, but beautiful scenery none the less. We had planed to rent a scooter today and visit a waterfall and cave on this island, but my beautiful wife is currently not feeling too beautiful at the moment...probably too much sun.

Despite this, we still love the bathing suit weather. (he he!!!). After our snorkleing trip on Phi-Phi, we headed over to Krabi and Railay, where we both did a half day of rock climbing. After Roz got overly tired, I decided to continue on for another few climbs. Despite the fact that I've managed to scrape the skin off of a few parts of my fingers, the climbs were well worth it. The bus ride from Krabi to Lanta was quite interesting. Just imagine a twin lane highway, but with scooters on both shoulders, large trucks in the lanes, and smaller vehicles swerving in and out whenever they get an opportunity to jump ahead.

Sometimes it's best that you close your eyes and pretend it's not happening. While waiting for the bus to take us to Lanta, we spent about 20 minutes watching a guy wash his vehicles, then his two dogs (who were not too pleased with the situation). One thing that we've discovered is that the multi-waitress system does not work.

In theory, you would think that having multiple servers per table would be advantageous; however, this has proven to be quite the opposite. On many occasions, orders have been mixed up or too many or too few place settings have been prepared, etc. .... Yes, I am typing this as I sit on the beach ... this is my biggest complaint.Next off we're heading to the popular tourist island of ko Samui for some more snorkeling and sea kyaking (sp?). See ya'll in a few weeks!

Dan And Roz

Nov 10, 19:00, Phuket Town

Hi friends! Dan and I just arrived in Phuket Town this afternoon. We were hanging out in Kamala Beach the last few days. As planned, Kelly and her dad, Tim, picked us and Keith up from the bus station in Phuket Town and we headed to Kamala Beach (an hour away). Kelly's family was staying in this AMAZING condo resorts called THE PLANTATION there. Keith, Dan and I found a guesthouse about 5 minutes away. Of course Dan and I got our own room, for $10 Canadian/night.

The first night, Tim and Kelly took us to Patong Beach (1/2 hour away from Kamala) and there, we experienced the interesting nightlife. There's lots of shopping and entertainment (reminded me a lot like Vegas or Porto Vallarta). Lots of pushy vendors getting in your face and trying to get you to either buy things or go see "go go" shows. They seem to harass the male tourists more than females. Imagine a strip of bars along the street and tables filled with people in the middle of the street, so that bars are on both sides. Very busy!

We ended up going to this popular and famous bar that featured "beautiful" lady-boys. I can't remember the Thai term for them right now. But I couldn't believe that some of these "ladies" were actually boys!!! They had SUPER feminine features (well most of them did) and they were skinny as hell. Holy crap! But some of them looked like they were made of plastic. One "girl" actually had a Barbie doll figure - her hips were so oddly far apart and low on her body. Ew. These lady-boys would all dance on a table, flashing T&A, while everyone watched them. People paid to get pictures with them and usually, people were there to take one home for the night (of course for a price!) It certainly is a different lifestyle.

The next day, Kelly and I went to Central Mall to go shopping. I found awesome shoes for $6 Canadian!!! Kelly knows where all the gems are!

On the 3rd day, Kelly's family took us on a day trip to go to various islands by speedboat. The first island we visited was where the movie, THE BEACH, was filmed. OMG, Maya Island was amazingly unreal. The water was so perfect, so blue, so clear, you could see the bottom, even though it was was well over 18m deep. We went snorkeling and saw so many amazing and beautiful things. We stopped at Ko Phi Phi Island, where the tsunami hit it hard. It use to be a skanty town, but now is used as a tourist site. We had a thai buffet luncheon there. MMMM!!

At night we did more shopping, and I found shoes for $6. This morning, Dan and I woke up and went for a nice run around Kamala Beach. We met up with Kelly and her family for breakfast at this restaurant called Rockfish for a 99baht ($3) breakfast. The service was terrible that day (not usually is it like that)- but we waited over an hour for our food. Kelly's brother, Tory, blamed it on the fact that the manager, who looks like a Hong Kong princess, wasn't working and so the place wasn't "efficient".

Shortly after, we split our separate ways (Kelly has to go home soon), and Keith, Dan and I took a bus to Phuket Town. It's ok here, I don't think it's my favorite place. We found a room for $200 baht ($8) a night, and it's the sketchiest looking place ever. It looks like a good setting for drug deals to take place - the floor is cement - dirty and old...and the only thing that's decent is the clean white bedsheets and pillows. Eek. We are only staying here for one night and then Dan and I are going on our own to Krabi Island, where there are alot of adventures to be had- scuba diving, rock climbing, hiking...can't wait!!!

THAILAND HONEYMOON

Nov 7

It's 7:50AM here, and just got off an overnight train (good sleep!!!) from Bangkok to here, Surac Tahni!

The trip is awesome so far, Dan and I met up with our friend Keith when we arrived at the Bangkok airport (from edmonton- the guy who sang at our wedding) late night. We took a taxi into town and found a nice "posh" hotel. The bathrooms here are unbelivable. They don't really use TP here, so instead they have this "hose" to douch yourself after you do your business. I um, haven't quite got that one down pat yet...I bring my own TP! (I know too much info!!!) And the showers don't have tubs...the whole bathroom is a shower floor. It's quite different!

The 3 of us went around town (around 1am) and the night life is nice - lots of street vendors cooking up yummy pad thai, meat on sticks, fruits, etc. MMM! I don't know how the thai stay so skinny! OMG EVERYONE one of them are crazy small!!! We sat in a restaurant to ppl watch and saw a lot of thai hookers taking away horny white men. Ew.

I got to do some shopping the next day in Bangkok, and it's really fun to bargin. The food is amazing and amazingly cheap!!!! So much awesome stuff and fresh fruits. We also walked alot (with our heavy big backpacks- so that was my work out- i need a FOOT MASSAGE badly!)

We actually got scammed - some "nice" english speaking Thai was telling us that we get to ride a tuk tuk (3 wheel motorized vehicle with roof, no doors) for 10 baht (33 cents canadian) and it will take us to see "little buddha" temple and other sorts of places. So he waved a tuk tuk down and the driver drove us to see the temple. There we met another "nice" english speaking thai man who just "happened" to be looking at the buddha. After small talk, he started talking about "big brand names" called "top ten collection" in Thailand (which supposedly is equivalent to Calvin Klein in US). So of course, the tuk tuk driver, who had waited for us, stopped by TOP TEN COLLECTION, which was conveniently on the way to the next tourist site. We caught on to the scam - and as soon as the tuk tuk driver drove us to another fabric store, we made a dash for it. Coincidently, we were only a few blocks from the Train station, where we needed to be. yay!

So the train ride was cool, slept thru most of it (since it was overnight) - the seats turned into bunk beds. This was 2nd class. First class get their own cabins (which we were meant to get, but Keith booked for 2nd class by accident). it was still decent.

We are at the bus station where the train dropped us off. I'm feeling nasty and gross b/c of all the sweat and pollution on me from Bangkok. Ew! Need a shower badly...doesn't help with the humidity!

We are soon going to take a bus into Phuket and Kelly, our friend, will be meeting us there. Her parents just bought a condo there - pretty awesome! We're going to go swimming, snorkling with sharks tomorrow (not the kind that bite!) We can't wait!!!!

Ick, gtg bugs biting me everywhere!!!