in thailand

allright, i forgot my swiss army knife was in my carry-on and had to leave it behind at the hk airport. i will get someone to send it to me i guess. anyway, i arrived in bangkok from hk and checked my email at the airport. my friends eddie and jenn had already left and told me where they were staying in chiang mai (thailand's second biggest city). i figured since i was flying out of bangkok in september, i could just skip it for now and booked a flight that same evening for chiang mai. while i waited i got a haircut. i arrived at around 9pm in chiang mai and found the hostel they were staying at but it was locked tight and so i waited at a nearby bar. hours passed and still no sign of them. the bar was closing and i didn't have a place to stay so i ended up staying at the bar in their staff room. it was kind of gross but it was warm. i met up with my friends the next morning and we headed to a small village called pai in the north. we stayed in a really cool cottage-type place with a really big courtyard and medicinal herb garden. the first night we went out and had a good time. the next day we rented motorbikes and eddie crashed with jenn on the back. it was minor but kind of scary. it was all our first time riding bikes. we went through some villages and went to a waterfall. it began raining like crazy and the drive back was nuts. the next day we went on an overnight trek through the jungle with a company that boasted it's non-touristy nature. their motto was that, if you saw another foreigner on your trip, you get half price. anyway, it was a hard trek and our guide was so hung over that he puked every half hour but it was still beautiful. it is the rainy season and we got wet but we saw gorgeous villages and bugs and all sorts of forests. we stayed the night in a tiny village. that night though, it rained really hard and when we woke up the next morning, we learned that the village of pai had flooded and that the bridge to the city was destroyed. our guide's aunt died with numerous others as their houses collapsed. we were stranded in the jungle with no food. and water. we decided we would trek to another camp, a bamboo hut in a bamboo forest. we had to stay there because there were numerous water crossings to get home and the rivers were too high and fast. another guide braved the trip to bring us food and stuff so at least we ate and drank whiskey and sang songs. it turned out to be really great. i built a bamboo bridge but lost the guide's machete when i accidentally tossed it into the river. oops. i bought him another though. we made it back to pai the next day to find it completely destroyed. the few places where the water had receded were knee deep in mud. luckily our gear we left behind, including my laptop were fine. but our guesthouse and the herb garden were anhilated. we cought a bus to chiang mai that morning and arrived to find it flooded here too. half the streets in the city are swimming. jenn and eddie cought their plane out this morning but because all the backpackers in the city were trying to get out, i couldn't find a flight. i have to stay one more day here. at least it gave me a chance to let you all know that we are alive and that our stuff is fine. here are some of the pics.


our trekking group at the end of our journey