the sunrise on koh panghan 

we saw the craziest giant snake (boa or python - i don't know but it just ate a chicken) when we were driving back from some town we were at. biggest damn snake i ever saw. 

bangkok....

so i showed up in bangkok after getting the hell out of chiangmai. at least it wasn't flooding here. well, not with water anyway, it was, however, flooded with farang (foreigners) and i had a hard time finding a thai person that wasn't serving me a banana pancake. it took me about two days to get sick of bangkok but i have been having fun regardless. i met up with my friend chris from beijing who is going to school here in thailand. we have been going out quite regularly. he took me to his campus (it is a resort) and we played basketball and hung out. since, i have been to the royal palace, seen a temple or two, shopped, watched numerous movies, ate everything in sight, drank some beer, changed hostels a few times, met some people, and been to china town (i am already missing china too much). now i am finished with bangkok. i will head to the islands and get some sun and relax before meeting chris and taking off to cambodia and vietnam. i will update this thing when i get back i guess, as there isn't much of a chance for me to get online. here are the few pics i took in the last bit in bangkok.


khosan road at night (and balloons)

this is one of the temples at the palace in bangkok 

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

just as i took a photo of these jungle kids, a swarm of fire ants went up my pant leg and bit me in a million painful places 

dali

dali was a traveller's paradise, much like yangshuo in guanxi province. the old city is a walled, cobblestone town with traditional buildings and small western-style cafes and restaurants. weed grows wild along the side of the street. the scenery is gorgeous and it is easy to retreat to the hundreds of small minority villages scattered around erhai lake. diab and i loved it. we arrived around 1am the first night from kunming and managed to find a great hostel. we went out for a beer and met a chinese minority girl who is muslim and is dating an english guy with whom she co-owns the bar. crazy. she hooked us up with a chinese girl and her mom for a trip the next day. we went to a traditional market, a butterfly spring, bai cultural dancing and tea ceremony, took a ride on the lake and anything else that seems really touristy to do. the next day i was ill from food poisoning i think. all day i writhed in pain in my bed and diab rented a bike and toured the city and countryside. the next day i was ok and we rented bikes and followed the lake while exploring all the villages. gorgeous i tell you. anyway, we stayed a few days and had a great time. i think that china has left its mark on diab. i am sad to say that i am back in hk for a few days and will be leaving china for good. next stop is southeast asia (thailand first). i will keep you all posted. thanks for staying with me for this long. oh yeah, here are the pics from dali. :)


making incense in a small village outside dali

the mountains around dali were gorgeous, the clouds just played around them  

the water pump keeper and a child 

kunming, yunnan province, china

kunming was pretty fun. we were tired from two days and nights of travelling so we decided to spend two days in this city. we were suprised to find that it was so big and clean and actually quite nice. there is a large lake park in the centre of the city and markets as well as nice temples and some sights a little out of the city area. we met with some americans and isreali's and went to a club where foreigners could drink for free. from here it was only a four hour bus ride to dali, which was our main destination. see pics here for nanning and kunming.


the guy in the middle, the one who looks like a ghost, didn't have a shirt on and was wearing these little shorts. when he danced, his dreads swung around like pretty little ribbons :)

a temple in kunming 

diab loved the fact that there was a large muslim population amongst the minorities of yunnan province. 

purty!!! 

nanning, guanxi province, china

so diab had an extra week and wanted to get out of hk. i was going to go to yunnan province after vietnam but thought that it would be good to travel with a buddy. so we took off from hk and went to shengzhen to catch an overnight bus to nanning. nanning is a large city (dirty, noisy, smelly) just like any other in china. the difference was that it was diab's first experience in the country and he was surprised to find it so different from hk. it was really hot and we found this pool table in a small bar at the end of a street so we had a couple beers and played with this cool guy. we had a train to catch that evening for kunming so we didn't see much. here are some pics.


a guy in nanning

playing pool in nanning with a cool guy. it was so hot we were happy to find this beer oasis. 

third week in hk

so govind showed up first from his little stint in india and by then tai had moved us into a cool hotel on the island in wan chai. he knew a guy who knew a guy or something and we got a great deal. the next day, when diab showed up from the uae, we had already made ourselves at home and had no problem moving him in. it was almost a 28 cecil reunion in hk. first, let me appologize for taking so long to post this. it was just such a busy week. the four of us went out every night all night, partied, ate, saw sights and had a blast. govind was obsessed with the fact that from the front of every 7-11 you could see another one down the street. diab couldn't figure out where all the people were coming from. and i was just happy to have my friends in hk to relieve some of the homesickness i had been feeling. we saw the word's biggest buddha. we took every form of transportation possible. we went to the beach. climbed victoria peak. mong kok, causeway, central, etc. spent some hard-earned cash but oh well. one of the greatest weeks yet. check out the pics. some of them belong to govind and diab but i can't tell you which. they are fun though. cheers, and again sorry for the delay. j


hk from atop victoria peak

the boys on the star ferry to tsim sha tsui 

second week in hk

time is flying here in hk. already my second week. this one went by a little quieter than the last. played a lot of basketball, had a lot of great meals with friends and relatives of tai. went to a few clubs. slept in real late. spent more money on stuff. i didn't take many pics because, as i said, this was a relaxing week. when diab and govind get here i will do more sightseeing and then i will have good pics for all y'all. oh and i left my brand new cellphone in a cab last night so that phone number i gave in the last post is now obsolete. i have to buy another one. i am a twit.


'have you seen this guy? he owes me money.' that is the translation of this poster.

hong kong is sweeet!

hong kong. the asian island city. the next atlantis? i am having a hard time describing it compared to other cities i have been in asia. it is modern like tokyo. it is western like shanghai. but it is altogether unique and vibrant, flooded with people at all hours, clean and very very hot. millions of people live on top of one another in soaring sky scrapers, so tightly packed together that from a distance they look like floating cities. but somehow hk manages to stay green and lush and relatively easy to navigate. anyway, on my first day, i walked across the border from china in like ten minutes. i took a train to the main tourist area in kowloon and checked stuff out while i waited for tai. he ended up telling me to meet him at his friends place and i took the transit and a cab to get there. well my first impression of a hong kong dwelling was a large mansion on a mountain overlooking the islands. it had four golf greens for chipping and putting, a gorgeous pool, there were nine dogs, two chefs (who made us homemade chocolate and caramel cakes with icecream), eight maids, i don't know. it was just crazy. then the guy's driver took us downtown where tai and i took the subway back to his place. the next day we went wakeboarding around the islands. tai's friend's yaght picked us up and we met up with his friend and his speed boat. it was a fun day but tai split his head and i didn't get a chance to go. got a great view of the city though on the way back as the sun set. we got tai some stiches and met up with some girls i met in shanghai and went to a cafe that was filled with cats. the next day i bought some baskeball shoes and a cellphone (that's right you heard me. i finally got one) my number is (852)97218106. went for a bikeride yesterday and met up with tai's friends and watched a movie. i don't know. it has been busy but i am having fun (spending a bit much but...). anyway, hope you enjoyed the pics from china. here are the ones from my first week in hk. cheers.


tai getting some serious air just before cracking his head open on his board. haha

coming back into victoria harbour as the sun sets after a day of wakeboarding 

city skyline over hk from the top of tai's dad's appartment 

made it to hong kong

well, i made it out of china alive. technically i am still in china but....anyway, i won't go into hong kong just yet. lets just say there have been mansions, private boats, beautiful sights and some shopping. but, i did promise that i would upload all my pics from china when i got to hk so here they are in order.

BEIJING
around beijing
beihai park in beijing
temple of heaven
the summer pallace

SHANXI PROVINCE
pingyao

SHAANXI PROVINCE (an extra 'a')
xian

SHANGHAI
shanghai alive
the fourth floor captain's youth hostel
Hangzhou

GUANXI PROVINCE
guilin
yangshuo
longsheng

sorry there are so many and that they are all here at once but i haven't been able to upload them for two months. enjoy.

happy canada day

canada day. i was lucky to come across this bar where there were lots of canadians and free drinks for trivia questions.

longsheng

i took a four hour bus ride from yangshou to an area called longsheng where the mountains are all sculpted to grow rice. it is absolutely awesome to see and i hope my pics can do them justice. we arrived in a small village and climbed the mountains to get a great view of the terraces from above. i was planning on going to another town called sangjiang where there are lots of minority villages and more terraces with less tourists but the roads were all washed out in floods and i had to return to yangshou. the bus broke down on the way back though and took five hours. it is raining a lot these days so i think i will leave for hk soon. i look forward to seeing my buddies there.


longsheng is an area where there are huge rice terraces built into mountains. i can only imagine how long it took to make these but they are hundreds of years old.

in yangshou

i arrived in yangshou from guilin. this town is sort of what i imagine khosan road to be like in bangkok. there are tons of foreigners and chinese tourists and no lack of western restaurants. not really how i thought i would end my china tour but i am glad to be eating western food for a change. it is really beautiful though and not hard to get away from the modern town. i met some people in guilin and came to yangshou with them. we went rafting on bamboo rafts down the river and then biked through all these minority villages surrounded by ricefields and mountains. so beautiful. it rains on and off here but stays extremely hot and humid regardless. i don't know how much longer i will stay but it will only be a few days, as i have to get to hong kong soon. i will post the pics later.


yangshou is really pictoresque. these limestone hills are everywhere.

these guys are cool