Unfortunate Business Names, vol. 1

Thailand! Part two!

I love monkey's!






Even mean monkey's who steal things:



Thai massage....full release:



One of the indigenous villages in Chiang Mai, in northern Thailand. The women chew some sort of root to make their teeth black...It's not a good look!




Wrong way, little dude:


They make their money by selling things to tourists, and man, they SWARM you:


New friends. They were just as taken with us as we were with them:





The Karen tribe are political refugees from Myanmar (Burma) and have very few liberties in Thailand. They are allowed to live in the hills, but according to our tour guide, they aren't allowed to visit villages or attend schools, and are kept completely segregated from the Thai people. It's a horrible life, and even more frightening is the fact that this type of suppression is better than the treatment they received in Myanmar.







The Imperial Palace in Bangkok. It was really cool, and filled with gold! The Thai people love their Emporer, and there were pictures of him everywhere in Thailand. His official color is yellow (it has something to do with the day he was born) and his wife's is blue, which is why you see so many people wearing yellow and blue. The Palace also has the strictest dress code ever! They actually have an office where you can rent skirts and long shirts, because you are not allowed inside without everything being covered. And man, its hot in Bangkok! The line to rent clothes was super long!









And that's my trip! It was definitely an experience I will always remember, and I still think about it and laugh sometimes. Thanks again, Ashley, for inviting me!

Thailand!

I realized that it has been forever since I updated my blog, because tonight I decided to throw up some pictures of Thailand and realized it has been almost a year since I went there! Anyway, in August 2007 my friend Ashley and I went to several places in Thailand for a little R&R. It was a really interesting experience; Thailand seems to be a place people have very strong opinions on and either love or hate. Although I didn't hate it, I don't know if I would go back. It was very hard to reconcile the beautiful scenery with the overwhelming poverty and rampant sex trade. I will say, however, that I am really happy Ashley asked me to go and I am very glad I went! Our first stop was a day trip from Bangkok to the Bridge over the River Kwai. On the way we stopped at a Foreign Soldier Cemetary, where most of those buried were Prisoner's of War who worked on the Burma Railroad:







If you can read the side of the train, you can see it was used by the Japanese to help expand the Burma Railway:


The Bridge:





As you can see from the picture, the sides of the bridge are completely open. It was pretty rickety too, and there were a lot of people walking from side to side. It was a little scary:


On the day trip we also took an elephant ride:


It was a once in a lifetime thing, I think. The elephants were sweet but some had chains of their legs and it was kind of sad. As I am writing this I am realizing that I am too soft-hearted for Thailand! I need to harden up if I ever want to go back!

The scenery from the elephant was pretty though:



We also took a VERY rickety raft down the river:


Our fearless leader Ashley would never lead us astray though!


I need to get this outfit for my brother:


And the train ride on the Burma Railroad:



Some beautiful beach scenes:







Gasoline is expensive even when it comes in water bottles!


And bringing in luggage is a bitch during low-tide.



The view from our bungalow:


This is the area where The Beach was filmed, and the area hardest hit by the tsunami. There are no cars on the island we stayed on (and many surrounding areas), but we took a taxi from the next island to the airport, and our taxi driver said he lost 6 siblings to the disaster. Sad and kind of overwhelming.








Monkey Island:







Hahaha, I am 12:


These people live on the cliffs (in a very unstable environment, I must say) and spend their lives protecting, and then harvesting, the nests for Bird's Nest Soup. Call me ignorant, but I had no idea that soup contained actual Bird's Nests! I thought it was just a weird name. It doesn't seem very appetizing to me!






Thailand to be continued.....