We were already in culture shock when we landed in Bangkok. Such a modern, wealthy and relatively clean city! Even the airport was up to Vancouver standards. We ended up staying on Ko San Road, Levi's old hood (he was here 7 years ago) filled with tourists, cheap Thai street food, and ridiculous shopping. I of course had to take advantage on some daily mango with sticky rice and coconut sauce. Soo good!

In Bangkok we visited some essential sites, including some out of town places like the floating market and the tiger sanctuary. The tiger sanctuary was cool.  It is a budhist temple that started taking care of orphaned tiger cubs years ago and now has 25 of them that they show off to tourists. It was daunting to see such massive creatures up close, let alone pet them. One of the care givers mentioned to the nervous crowd of tourists that a tiger could decapitate a human with one swing and that they purposely keep their claws sharp so that if they "accidentally" claw one of the care takers, it would at least be a clean cut and easy to stitch up. After such "useful" information, I was obvously a little hesitant to get too close during a few cheezy photos of us petting the beautiful creatures, but the trip to see them was well worth it.  Another day trip outside of Bangkok took us to the ancient city of Ayuttaha (which dates back from 1350 AD), the area had some beautiful old temples, historical monuments, and ruins. The best part was renting a little scooter to buzz around the area. 

By far the coolest thing in Bangkok was running into a friend of Levi's from highschool by chance near Ko San Rd.  Total coincidence to see Joel Crawford sitting having a drink at a restaurant as we walked by. We wondered whether or not it would happen to us on our trip, and I had recently commented that if it was going to happen anywhere it was going to be in Thailand. 

 After a few days in Bangkok we took a train to the northern Thailand city of Chiang Mai.  We had a good day learning to cook some delicious Thai dishes on an organic farm. We also went on a two day hike where we rode elephants and walked in the jungle while picking lychee off the fruit trees. We got caught in a terenchial dourpour and ended hiking through streams but it was all worth it when we reached out rustic accommodations along the river.  I was pampered by 3 Thai women and a little girl who gave me a fabulous Lahu massage. Such heaven! We also met up with an old family friend of Levi's, Eddie, who is living in Chiang Mia.  Levi had visited him before when he was in Thailand and it was very nice to meet his 7 year old son, who was just about to be born during the last visit.

After some time up north we headed down to southern Thailand visiting the gulf coast near Khanom and the island of Ko Muk on the Andaman coast.  We were seriously questioning whether we'd made a mistake to go to the island of Ko Muk as it was coming down in buckets when we boarded the boat, and did not let up until we arrived at our accommodation.  The island was deserted, since it was the off-season with some unpredictability in the weather.  Nevertheless, we spent a few nights in a bungalow overlooking the water and kayaked through an eerie limestone cave called Morakot (emerald cave) to a beautiful hidden beach. The island was idyllic except for the areas where garbage was scattered, I guess somethings are not meant to be perfect.  The island was our last stop in Thailand and we made our way into Malaysia soon after for a visit to our 16th country.