Fortunately for me, I
got to go on this one.
Me, Mom, Dad, Tai, my friend Sam and Tai’s
friend Kelly.
This will come into play later.
We flew from Denver
to San Francisco then San Francisco to Tokyo.
Bangkok is a great place to see a plethora of
amazing Buddhist temples.
And each day he is stripped,
cleaned, and then ceremoniously dressed again.
trip to Bangkok is complete without venturing into the streets for the
flaring night life.
Food, shopping, live scorpions for sale.
And yes,
the red light district is as crazy as you’d imagine.
But as for photos,
I’ll stick to food.
Ko Phi Phi is a dumb
bell shaped island.
Two little mountains connected by a thin isthmus.
One side of the isthmus is deep and serves as the harbor.
The other
side is very shallow and sandy.
On this end, swimmers can wade out 100
yards before even getting their neck wet.
One
would wonder what there is to do on a tiny island with only one little
town.
But let me tell you.
Imagine a Mexican
sopapia, but with jams, honeys, and other tasty treats.
After taking a hike to the little mountain tops what else could you possibly do but SCUBA dive!
…sorry I didn’t have a underwater camera at this time.
The
day after landing we met with the tour group I had booked to lead the
trek.
First thing they did was ask us to hand them our physical
passports.
We looked around at each other wondering if this was a good
idea.
Any traveler knows that while abroad their most valuable
possession is that passport.
Was it for safety?
Or were these guys cons
looking at stealing and selling American passports on the black market?
Well, we shrugged and handed over all 6 passports.
Fortunately, this wasn’t the kind of hot jungle trek were we
slave under 40 lb.
So off
we started down a vibrantly green trail into the jungles of Thailand.
Northern
Thailand feels remote.
a couple of days spent hiking, it was time to meet the elephants.
These
elephants roamed the local forests but came in for care every so often.
Kind of like your domesticated outdoor cat…. well, not really.
elephants is just a little trickier than you’d think.
Just imagine
going down a steep slope and your sitting on a bench on an elephant.
It’s pretty easy to think you’ll slide right off.
Unless your Dad
sitting on the head of the elephant, in which case, wear pants.
Their
skin is rough and you’re sure to get some chaffing if you don’t.
The refuse to step in poop.
Fortunately for her the wild orchids growing on
the passing trees were a welcome distraction.
He would find out two days later on the flight
home what that many bananas can do to you.
Remember the long flights
between Bangkok and Denver?
Well, Sam remembers them even better.
Unfortunately, about 30 minutes after dinner Dad turned green.
