Trip of a Lifetime

Chiang Rai, oh my!

Sawadee Krap! In case you're a little slow, thats Thai for hello. So, I'm now way up in the north of Thailand, in Chiang Rai. Fantastic city. We stayed at a place called Garden Guest House, it was a small, cozy place a little off the beaten track, in a corner of town. The guy who owns it is named San, quite a nice guy - then again, so is everyone! I've never met so many happy, smiling, carefree people in my entire life; and I've only been here a week. Last night Chris (the Swede I mentioned earlier) and I bought a little soccer ball for 5 bucks and went down to a field to play for a while. We ended up playing a game of pickup soccer with about 10 teenage Thai kids, they went to school somewhere nearby. I cannot explain in words how amazing it was to play a game of pickup soccer with such fantastic people. I even scored a few goals ;) Something else I've noticed here is the difficulty Thais seem to have translating their language into roman lettering. Sometimes even when they get it right, it's still rather strange, and at times, quite funny. Here's an example I stumbled upon in one of the 7 billion 7-11's in Thailand. http://www.geocities.com/spiker4394/P1011582.JPG The idea of a yellow surprise in my drinking water is slightly worrying, but I haven't yet been ill :) The oral translation has it's flaws as well, as we discovered when we heard a Thai band covering a song by The Police. Their version was actually quite good, until the chorus: "Every move you make, every smile you fake, I'll be washing you" Hmm... although a friendly gesture, I decided to shower by my self... The live music here is quite good, I even got a chance to play some drums at a small pub thingy, it was great! http://www.geocities.com/spiker4394/P1011578.JPG Walking past a buddhist temple, we saw this.... dragon-man-thing http://www.geocities.com/spiker4394/P1011583.JPG And finally, a picture of us with our good travelling buddies, the Swedes, whom we'll be leaving today :( http://www.geocities.com/spiker4394/P1011587.JPG Hopefully we'll be meeting up with them on the southern islands for some more multicultural drinking :D As for Kailyn and me, we're heading over to Laos right away, and we'll be posting some more pics in a few days! Much love, keep safe and enjoy the snow :) Sawadee Krap!

posted by Spiker @ 9:56 pm