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well hello again!
this time on the adventures of matt & cat:
we just finished our trip to Chiang Mai (northern Thailand) which is a lot nicer than Bangkok. it's a "college town" for what that's worth. small enough to feel cozy in, but big enough to have some "luxuries". we even stayed at a place that had a swimming pool ($12/night)!! we met a girl on the train to Chiang Mai from upstate NY--we stayed at the same place and on Sunday she & I (cat) took a Thai cooking class together while matt did some exploring on his own. i'll be happy to cook for anyone when we return, but be warned that i'll be charging a steep traditional Thai price of $1/meal!
the next day we all three headed out for a 3 day trek. our guide, Boon, was quite a character and taught us a lot about the local vegetation and tribal history. we went to the Sai Mok Waterfall, some BOILING hot springs (that supposedly people cook eggs in & once an elephant burned to death in... that got heavy, sorry). we stayed in villages on both nights: the first had 41 people and the second had about 50 families. we were supposed to have two elephants to go on a jungle walk with, but because of some scheduling conflict (hot springs...? JOKE), only one was available... so naturally, the driver is kicked off and matt replaces him!! so here we are, three sunburnt Americans just traipsing through the jungle on SaanBoom with matt in charge! we made it back to the drop-off point with only one casualty: one of my flip flops... the next day we were looking forward to a relaxing float down the river on a bamboo raft, but we soon found out we were the crew of a 30ft. bamboo-lashed raft... "crazy Boon the polygomist" (not our nickname, that's what his village calls him) threw some instructions out under his breath and we headed down river. all was easy and nice until (after a couple of trek-celebratory beers) we started to hit some rapids. one nearly took the life of our raft, but we miraculously made it out with dry packs and only a couple bumps and bruises! mark that off the to-do list......
we spent one more night in Chiang Mai, got on another sleeper train (not nearly as nice as the first one) and headed back here to Bangkok. we're headed south tonight to Ko Tao (near Ko Samui) to soak up a little sun and do some relaxing because we deserve it! :) sorry, that was sort of rude, i didn't mean to rub it in....
everyone keep taking care of each other over there! skype is awesome & free if anyone is interested with a webcam! love you all!--cat (& matt)
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