Thai travels

After going back and forth and trying to decide what direction to go, we finally decided to head north to Chiang Mai and from what we've heard it was the right choice (not a lot of rain). I had Steve pick the first few nights as we landed on his 55'th birthday.We left Vancouver from gate #55 (this is going to be our lucky day ). We had a long first day of travel as it took 26 hours from Vancouver airport until we arrived at our fab hotel in the mountains in the northern parts of Thailand. The 3 flights were uneventful and we were able to catch a few winks and watch a few movies. I screwed up when booking our connecting flight from Bangkok to Chiang Mai thinking we had 2 1/2 hours when in fact we had 1 hour to clear customs, pick up baggage, check in, and board our domestic flight. We had to run with our luggage to our domestic check-in but were too late to check in our suitcases. Lucky for us they were carry-on size so we proceeded to security where xrays displayed my professional scissors, straight razor and cork screw. They were quickly confiscated (it is what it is), we were just happy to make our connection! Our hotel shuttle was awaiting upon arrival and quickly had us loaded and off to pleasantville. We checked into our awesome room with beautiful views of the surrounding mountains and resort grounds. Full on class, phat suite, king bed, jucuzzi tub, wifi, big deck, sitting areas inside and out, plus pick up shuttles to and from our room. Nice treat, and hey Steve only turns 55 once. The Panviman (hotel)........the panviman can. Rested up there for two nights it was off to the city of Chiang Mai. Slowly we are lowering our standards to extend our stay as well make it real and affordable. Spent a few nights at a mid range hotel and now we are in a cute little boutique guesthouse with wifi, comfy bed, tv, swimming pool, breakfast, great staff, all for $27.00 bucks a night. The first full day in the city Steve went mountain biking on a big double black excursion ride high up in the Chiang Doa mountains. There was three riders and a Thai guide. One guy from Australia, the other from Vancouver, and Steve. Their ride started at an elevation of 5700 feet down to 1300 feet on steep technical washed out single track in the rain. Tough day. For me not so much! I wandered around the old city, in and out of markets, had lunch, and a nice massage. Day two we both went mountain biking, same national park but different area from Steve`s. A long downhill ride for me consisting of blue runs passing through coffee and papaya plantations, orchid farms, opium feilds, down to rice patties in the low lying valley. The tour was mostly downhill with some uphill grunts. There were five riders in our group with two guides. We ended up at a lake, had lunch and a rinse off. Steve swam with the kids. Then back to the city for some Italian thin crust brick oven pizzas. Yummy! Day three in the city we rented a little Honda Blade (110cc) and headed off to see the tigers. Steve went and hung out with the big cats and I with the cute little six week old kitties. I was nervous for him because he sure wasn`t. Perhaps due to his love of cats. These cats were huge! Even though Tiger Kingdom was a bit touristy the animals are not chained or drugged as in Bangkok. Nothing like it back home (liability?). Later that day we hiked up to series of 10 stunning waterfalls in the Doi Suthep-Pui National park. It started out with a little sunshine, as we reached half way the rains came, holy holy, talk about rain. We were determined to make it to the top, 10 waterfalls and soaking wet, but we did it. No one else was around, or as crazy. It took us awhile to slowly make it down, but was so worth the effort. One of my favorite places to hike in Vernon is the B.X.falls, it was the same same but times 10. The following down day had us chillin by the pool with a couple brewskis, ahhhhh!

Belated blogging...Happy teeth,surprises and smiles

We wanted to surprise our kids and meet our grandson Henry, so this is a VERY late blog entry. This is from the last week spent on Phuket Island back in May. Enjoy, hopefully many more adventures to follow. During the last fun filled week on Phuket I was on one of my beach walks and thought I came across a joke left behind from the weekend paragliders or a photographer. It looked as though this dead fish lying on the sand had false teeth inserted in it`s mouth. I looked around thinking there was a hidden camera but as I got closer I realized it was for real. It was a coral eating puffer fish with these crazy looking teeth. Earlier in the day Steve and I also had our teeth cleaned, so this added to the humour, a fish with teeth like ours. Now back to the dental experience. Pretty much the same same but different. First the price, $25.00 each (gotta love it) with two assistants busily working on our cleaning. They have the same fancy hydraulic chairs, same spit sinks, but they have this apron that they put over your face with a hole cut out around the mouth area so the high pressure water sprayer doesn`t get your face wet. Clever idea. We finished the day with a brick oven wood fired pizza joined by our friend, Theo. Yum Yum. The following day we organized a trip to Coral Island with our English Muay Thai friend, Richard, his girlfriend/manager Emma, and Theo. This was our second trip here as we were drawn to the tranquility and great snorkeling. We journeyed on a long tail boat operated by a sea gypsy. These are men that literally live on the water and are in tune with the sea. They headed to higher ground before the 2004 tsunami hit Thailand. The beach had soft white sand that felt like baby powder on your feet. While snorkeling we swam with plenty of beautiful fish and some very large coral gardens. On the beach we observed these large beautiful yellow double billed birds eating seeds from a tree and posing for photos. Theo has lived in Thailand for over a dozen years and never witnessed any birds like these strange feathered friends. Finished with a fun night out at Mediterranos, joined by our local friends. We exchanged lots of stories with plenty of laughter, then later checked out an East Indian bar/restaurant back in our neighborhood. There we smoked some apple and liquorice sheesha while catching up on local gossip . Good times! Said it before and will say it again, we are so lucky...... lucky, lucky, lucky!

Muay thai and catching THAT guy!

On an upbeat positive note, the red shirt movement in Thailand appears to have settled down. For now anyways! Bangkok and 27 other provinces are still under a curfew from 11:00 p.m. to 4:00 a.m. Schools open Monday, the blocked roadways are being cleared, and transits systems are given the go ahead. For most part it is back to business as usual for now! Time will tell what resolutions have be made, and when the next political elections will be. Steve and I have been fortunate to be hanging out in the south harbored by sand and surf, we have had no real interaction by the Thais turmoil only by the news and conversations with locals, as most our days are filled with the tough decisions of what beach, what time and should we eat Thai food tonight from the market or a restaurant. Not a lot of pressure here! Yes we are very lucky! This week we had our first full on experience of competitive Muay Thai boxing. We were lucky to have met and got to watch our neighbor Richard from England fight as the headliner in the seaside town of Patong. What an experience! Great to have a familiar face to cheer for and the insight of the fights rituals. At the beginning of each fight the boxers enter the ring and walks around holding the rings top rope to seal out bad spirits and pausing at each corner to say a short prayer. They also do a dance before each fight to honor their god, their supporters, their coach, and to also help them to warm up , relax, and focus. The fighters also wear good luck charms, such as headpieces, armbands, and of coarse the sexy satin shorts . There is live music played and even though it sounds the same, the tune is played to speed up with the fighters pace or use the rhythm to speed up the pace of the fight. There were 8 fights in total. They start with the lightest leading to the heaviest weight and finish with the headliners rounding out the night. The first few fighters were so tiny, weighing in at 60 pounds at the age of 11 years old. They looked to be the same size as the Vietnamese jockeys. Like our Canadian hockey players, they start out at a very young age, spending many hours training. Most fighters were well matched except for one where the Scottish fellow out weighed the Thai guy by 25 pounds, ouch..... no doubt a first round knockout! The crowd watching was almost as entertaining as the matches. From the parents, coaches, and Thais chanting their oooiyyys and awwws to the gambling and farangs adding their own touches to the evenings entertainment. We had four Aussies sit by us that were very funny to listen to. They thought that Richard was from Australia (misprint on the flier) and sang Richard, Richard man to the tune of Macho macho man. They kept asking me questions and I told them we knew Richard and pointed out his girlfriend Emma to them. They then went over to her and told her how lucky she was. They worshipped him (true bromance). Adding a few beers under their belt enhanced their enamoured state. Happy to say he won knocking out his opponent in the four round , giving the crowd good value for their buck. A very talented focused group I have to say. This week we had our old landlord Anders from Denmark, his Thai girlfriend Tip, and our old Finnish neighbor Resto join us at the beach along with Aussie Dave ,his girlfriend New, and Austrian, Herwig . What an international group we were. They were setting up for a weekend event of paragliders competing and a Canon sponsered photo contest called Fun Fly at Naiharn beach. There were over 30 international jumpers registered and about a dozen photographers for the photo contest. There is always some type of entertainment at the beach. Almost got taken out by a paraglider on a practice jump, I had to dive under the umbrella. He was happy to miss us. That same day we witnessed a couple get married ocean side, another couple practice their baton throwing, Dave and Herwig surf, Steve get drifted out by a rip tide to have Dave give him a ride in! Also present was eyecandy man (old man in g-string). Lizzy the beach dog with her pals and to top it off we ran into a guy (no names mentioned) that owns a bar in Kata and this is the third time that we have run into him with other woman while cheating on his Thai girlfriend. It was so funny for us because he looked down the row of beach chairs and here was eight of us that know him and his girlfriend. He was caught, red handed and red faced! It gave us all a little to laugh and gossip about, cheating on your thai girlfriend, hhhhhhmmmmmmm, go figure? It`s a small world after all.