A Bohol Christmas

>> Friday, January 14, 2011

Not a lot of people travel to the Philippines. I'm not sure if it's because it's less accessible than places like Thailand. It is made up of a lot of islands (around 7100) which makes traveling within the country more difficult. Maybe it's because people think it's a dangerous place. If you listen to the media or read government travel advisories that certainly might be the case. However, like most places, incidents are rare and typically isolated to a particular area. The Philippines originally came onto my radar as a travel destination when I saw stunning photos of the underwater life in dive magazines about 10 years ago. I knew I would go someday.

My flight arrived around 11:30 pm in Manila and my onward flight to Cebu didn't leave until the following morning at about 6 am. I hopped in a taxi to head to a nearby hostel for a few hours sleep. I was fortunate to meet a local who directed me to where to get one without being ripped off. Like many big international cities, Manila is a 24 hour place. People were everywhere. Cars and tricycles (motorbike taxis) were everywhere. Numerous times when the taxi was stopped at a light young children of 5 or 6 years old approached the taxi with their hands out, some making eating motions or rubbing their tummies. They would bang on the window. Perhaps some of these children were hungry, but perhaps they were simply forced into roaming the streets at midnight to beg. I had some of my Filipino students warn me that this was very common. As hard as it was to do, I ignored them.

After a few hours sleep it was back to the airport to catch my short flight to the city of Cebu where I would catch a ferry to Tagbilaran in Bohol. From there I caught my first tricycle to get to Alona Beach on Panglao Island. It's a cheaper option than a car taxi and the road isn't good anyway so there's not really much of a speed advantage. Unfortunately, I ended up with a driver who, although seeming to understand where I wanted to go before I got in, ended up stopping several times to ask if people knew where Peter's House or Genesis Divers was. It seemed to take ages to get there and I pulled my Lonely Planet out several times to try to match up the map with the very few landmarks there were since there are no names on the roads. In reality it didn't take that long to get there, it probably just seemed to since the journey from Guam-Manila-Cebu-Tagbilaran-Alona Beach was a long one with very few hours sleep.

After arriving at Alona Beach it was a short walk to Genesis Divers. The accommodation is above the dive shop in simple rooms built of traditional materials. The shared bathrooms are the cleanest I have ever seen. It's on a beautiful stretch of beach. Who could ask for more? After putting my bag in my room I sat down to order some lunch and got talking with one of the dive instructors. He suggested I go diving that afternoon. So after lunch the two of us hopped into the boat for a short ride to a nearby site. All the images I had in my mind from the photos were right in front of me - ornate ghost pipefish, banded pipefish, moray eels, tons of nudibranchs (colourful sea slugs), and best of all, 2 frog fish. I'd only ever seen frog fish once before (in the Maldives) so I was ecstatic. Diving in the Philippines is all about the small stuff, the hard to find stuff, not the big can't-miss-it stuff. We had a long, leisurely dive of 80 minutes. The days that followed brought more great diving, including to Balicasag Island where I saw tons of turtles, a school of squid, lots of leaf scorpionfish and plenty more nudibranchs along with all the usual suspects.

Alona Beach was also where I spent Christmas, and I couldn't have picked a better place. I am starting to get used to Christmas without snow. Alona Beach is quite a popular tourist destination for Filipinos and is one of the well known places for overseas visitors. Consequently it has quite a few restaurants, bars and places to stay. Fortunately it does not have any big hotels so it has a low key, friendly vibe. On Christmas Eve, Genesis Divers had their staff Christmas party and everyone staying at Peter's or their other hotel were invited. Free food and drink was a recipe for a great night. The staff spent the entire day preparing for the party. Decorations were put up, a tree decorated, a gift table set up, stereo equipment set up, food was laid out and even a disco ball hung up on the beach! Just as the party was about to start the skies opened up and torrential rain came down. What took a whole day to set up had to be frantically saved from the rain. It made for a cozier beginning to the night as we had to eat huddled together under the sheltered porch but fortunately the rain didn't last long and we were able to return to the beach. After a fantastic meal, the staff and families were given gifts and their year end bonus by the owners. Then it was time for the entertainment. It was all provided by the staff and it was a riot. The highlight was the beauty pageant put on by the divemasters and boat crew. After getting to know these guys over several days it was hilarious to see them strut their stuff in bikinis and evening gowns. Similar to Thailand, the Philippines (despite being very Catholic) has a very accepting view of gay males and 'ladyboys' are an important part of society. When the party started to wind down one of the crew got a guitar out and the boys took turns singing songs. Most were popular English songs, a few were Filipino. Amazingly, they all had great voices. Just when common sense would say it was time to go to bed, a couple of the guys asked me if I wanted to go dancing. I looked at my watch, saw it was 2:45 am and decided why not. So we headed to a club. Although there are a fair amount of non-Filipino tourists at Alona Beach, none of them happened to be at this club. When I looked around I was the only white person in the place. I was also the tallest person there! After a very sweaty night of dancing, the boys walked me home at 6 am, just in time to catch an hour of sleep before getting up to go diving.

Christmas Day featured a party at the resort next door. A bunch of us bought tickets to go which included the meal and a show featuring traditional Filipino dancing. The food was nowhere near as good as we had at the Genesis party and the service was awful because most of the staff were performing in the show rather than serving the guests. However, the dancing was fabulous. The grand finale was a fireworks show which was a little too close for comfort but simply beautiful.

Bohol has two big tourist attractions that draw visitors. One is the Chocolate Hills, about 50 square km of cone-shaped hills which turn brown in the dry season and look sort of like Hershey Kisses. The other is the tarsier. I wasn't too keen on spending the amount of money being asked for a tour to the Chocolate Hills. If I could have split the cost, then alright, but everyone else had either already gone or was busy doing their open water course and couldn't spare a whole day. But I was really keen on seeing the tarsier, one of the world's smallest primates and undoubtedly one of the oddest looking. A couple of the guys were also interested and could spare an afternoon to make the trip. So we arranged for a taxi to the tarsier sanctuary. I had met up with a CouchSurfer from Manila at Genesis Divers and she was kind enough to do the negotiating for us. However, not surprisingly, the morning of the day we were to go, the taxi driver called to say he could not get a car, only a van, and it would cost us more. The angel that she is, Onjay managed to sort it all out even though she had already left for the airport! Our driver arrived in a car and charged us exactly what we had agreed the day before.

Unfortunately, due to their cute appearance, Philippine tarsiers have been kept as pets and displayed in cages for tourists. They have also suffered a loss of habitat and there is concern about their numbers. The possession and display of tarsiers was banned a couple years ago in Bohol but apparently you can still see them in cages on the roadside. The handling and noise is so disturbing to these tiny nocturnal creatures that they only live for a few months and sometimes even commit suicide in captivity. The sanctuary aims to protect both the tarsier and their habitat. It is 167 hectares of forested land where the tarsiers can freely roam. The visitor centre serves to educate and for a fee a guide will take a few people at a time out to observe the tarsiers. The protocol is quite strict so as to not disturb the animals. Small groups, no talking, no camera flash. We were lucky to spot a couple tarsiers. Since the tarsiers roam freely you never know if any will be in the vicinity of the visitor centre. About the size of a human fist, they are so ugly they're cute.


I fully intended for my final night in Alona Beach to be a quiet one. I had a taxi coming to pick me up at 7 am to make the long journey off Panglao Island and across to the other side of Bohol to a town called Ubay where I was planning to catch a ferry at noon. Nobody could really say for sure how long this trip took and the guess was around 4 hours. After diving I was hanging up my dive gear to dry and one of the dive guides brought me a drink. Then they all insisted that I join them for karaoke. I already had plans to go eat with some other guests so asked if they could come along. While I quickly threw some clothes on the details of where the karaoke was happening was passed along to the others who were going to join us a bit later. I did some quick photo sharing and then we were off. It all seemed sort of sketchy as we walked down an unlit path to a completely dark house. It seemed nobody was home. The German divemaster and I headed to a nearby shop to buy some Tanduay rum and Coke. When we returned the lights were on and the karaoke TV machine was set up. The house belonged to an elderly couple who apparently charged money for people to come sing karaoke on their porch! If I recall correctly it was 5 pesos a song (about $0.15 NZ). The others managed to find us (I have no idea how!) and brought along chicken, rice and fireworks. I guess we had all the essential ingredients for a good night! Once again we were treated to the wonderful voices of these Filipino guys. We shared the rum and food around and looked up cheesy songs like Final Countdown and Livin' On a Prayer for the boys to sing. As it was probably destined to do, the party eventually moved on to the club. Once again I arrived home at 6:30 am. I had barely enough time to pack!

I had arranged for the same driver that took us to the tarsier sanctuary to take me across to Ubay. Since nobody seemed to do this journey and it was only a guess that it would take 4 hours, it was pretty difficult to decide what would be a reasonable price. I had seen typical prices for similar journeys on other islands and I could compare it to the price for a day tour around Bohol (since it would take the driver a day to take me across and then drive back home). In the end I thought I had negotiated a good price. So did Onjay, my Filipino CouchSurfing friend. It turns out that a recently made friend managed to shave a couple hundred pesos off my deal when he followed a few days later. However, I got the added bonus of a stop at the Chocolate Hills which I paid nothing extra for. I was glad I got to see them, but I certainly would not have been willing to pay the high price that the tours were charging to see them. They were pretty green so definitely not at their chocolately peak. The trip to Ubay took just over 3 hours so I arrived with plenty of time to spare before my ferry to Maasin on the island of Leyte. I had time to wander around the local market and grab an early lunch. I realised why so little was known about the journey from Panglao Island to Ubay as it was immediately obvious that this town did not receive many foreign tourists. Most people would have traveled back to Cebu by ferry and then taken another ferry to Leyte. I was taking the road less traveled.

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Surprising Guam

>> Monday, December 27, 2010

I never intended to go to Guam. I didn't really know much about Guam before I went. I only knew there was US military bases there and that the scuba diving was just so-so. But I had to fly through there so I figured I might as well spend a few days. Turns out I had to spend either 2 days or 5 days so I opted for 5 days. I had arranged to CouchSurf and my host had kindly offered to pick me up at the airport. I arrived at about 6 in the morning after an overnight flight and was feeling rather sleepy when I walked up to the US immigration officer. As a Canadian, I didn't have to go through the quantity of paperwork required by most travelers, but I soon discovered that I didn't quite have what I needed. What I needed was the address of where I was staying. I hadn't thought about it since my host was picking me up. I had his phone number in case there were any problems. I was too tired to recall the names of any hotels. So I simply put my host's name and phone number down on the form with the vain hope that it would be sufficient. It wasn't. I got hauled into the immigration office. At that early hour of the morning the airport was very quiet (my flight only had about 20 passengers on it and it was the only one to arrive) so obviously there wasn't much work to be done. When I walked in the room about 10 immigration officers stood up from where they had been sitting. They promptly left the room, leaving me alone with the officer who said I needed an address. Fortunately I had my host's number so he gave him a call. No answer. I sat down and waited. He called again and this time he answered. All sorted! I was free to go.

Guam is a small island, less than 50 km long and less than 20 km wide. However, the population and the sights are spread around the island in various villages so you really need to have your own transport. Fortunately rental cars are cheap. After breakfast I got myself an old Nissan for next to nothing. I caught up on a bit of sleep and then ventured out in the car to get myself oriented. My first goal was to get a map which actually proved to be harder than one might think. After stopping at numerous places I finally managed to track one down. I managed to find the dive shop and sort out plans for diving the following day. Guam certainly doesn't belong on a list of the world's top dive destinations, but the diving was actually not too bad. We managed to see some turtles and the Blue Hole is a fantastic site. For $25-30 for two dives (unguided), the price is the cheapest I've seen on the planet! The second day I had the unique experience of touching two shipwrecks which had gone down in two separate wars. The 440 foot Japanese passenger-cargo freighter, the Tokai Maru, was sunk by a US submarine in World War II. The 290 foot merchant raider, the German SS Cormoran, was scuttled by its captain in World War I rather than face capture by the Americans. It really was awesome to be able to dive on both these wrecks in a single dive and extend my arms out to reach two bits of history at the same time. Thanks to my CouchSurfing host who had dived these wrecks many times I had the perfect guide!

That night we were joined by a CouchSurfing couple from Hawaii. The guy only stayed one night before heading back home, but Louise stayed on for the next few days so were able to have some adventures together. We went snorkeling, toured around dropping in at sights at random and she showed me what has to be one of the craziest houses on the planet. Our host did a superb job at inviting us into the local scene as we took in a poetry slam at the university and went to a Christmas concert/dinner at his church. My favourite part of CouchSurfing is that you get a much better feel for how the locals live and don't just see a place from a tourist perspective. It's infinitely more interesting to hear about Chamorro history from a Chamorro than to read about it on some sign at a museum. I even got to attend a Christmas fiesta (the fiesta is a cultural tradition) one afternoon.

As I continued my exploration of Guam on my own after Louise left, I continued to marvel at the beauty of this tiny island. Unfortunately it was raining so I wasn't able to hike as planned since the trail was treacherously slippery. However, I stopped at many historic sites as well as ones of natural beauty. It's true that Guam is massively influenced by American culture (there are many McDonalds and the world's biggest KMart), that the diving is only average and there isn't a whole lot to do. But if you get a chance to experience it as I did, diving and staying with the locals, you may be pleasantly surprised. It is naturally gorgeous, multi-cultural and rich in history (Spanish colonization, Japanese occupation during WWII and as an American territory). And as I found out on my final day, full of some of the kindest and most helpful people on earth. My decision to rent a super cheap, well used car came back to haunt me on my final day as I was headed to the airport. I decided to go early, planning to stop at one more sight before I hopped on my flight. Unfortunately I only made it about 500 metres from my host's house before the car failed and I could not get it to start. My NZ phone didn't work in Guam so I walked back to the nearest shop to call the rental company. After I returned to my car, I was amazed as every single car that drove by stopped to offer to help. I had people try to push me off the road (but the tires seemed locked) and a woman even went and bought me some water. They all offered to call someone to help me and some offered to drive me to the airport. It was unbelievable. I actually started waving cars on and even then most of them stopped anyway. A policewoman stopped as clearly the car on the road was a hazard. But while she was making a report a truck drove by with a teenager driving and she had to leave to give chase (apparently some sort of troublemaker). A couple people lent me their phone to call the rental company again as it was taking forever. In the end I waited for about an hour and a half for a mechanic from the rental car company to show up. By that time I was needing to get to the airport for my flight so the mechanic ended up driving me. If you are going to break down, certainly Guam is the place to do it.

Chamorro chief

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A Brief Time in Oz

>> Sunday, December 19, 2010

As the end of my second year of teaching in New Zealand wound down, I was anxiously awaiting news about my residency application. I had submitted it in May, but without knowing my job situation, the application had to be put on hold. September brought an offer of another year at Pakuranga College. It wasn't the permanent position I had been hoping for and that would make for a strong application, but I wanted to stay on and hoped it was good enough for New Zealand Immigration. After numerous phone calls and e-mails from me to try to hurry a decision along, they finally decided it was. I received the news of my residency approval with less than a week to go before I was leaving on my six week summer holiday. This year I would have the peace of mind of knowing they would let me back in the country and I would be allowed to work upon my return!

I had a busy itinerary planned for the summer holidays which would take me to five countries and on thirteen flights! First it was a brief return to Cairns. I'm obviously quite used to flying and have never been bothered by it, but in light of my brother's recent place crash, I found myself a bit nervous about the landing. After safely arriving in Cairns, I had my first experience of sniffer dogs. Since I was traveling with anti-malarials and antibiotics I had to admit this on the customs form. Fortunately I passed the sniff test and caught a ride into town.

I had hopes of going hang gliding the afternoon that I arrived, but the weather didn't cooperate so I ended up having a relaxing afternoon. I took my book and wandered down to the esplanade lagoon for some swimming and sunbathing. As usual, I had a very busy lead up to the trip as I packed up all my stuff and moved out of my flat. I was feeling pretty tired but somehow agreed to go on a pub crawl that night. I wasn't really in the mood for it, but it turned out to be a fantastic night. I have yet to have a really good night out in Auckland. They always seem to happen when I go on holidays. I have no idea what time I ended up back at the hostel but we ended up dancing until the early hours. I won't even mention what I did to help a guy win a free skydive!

The next day I managed to wake up early to pack my bag and make my way to the train station. Of course I was exhausted so it wasn't surprising that I forgot something at the hostel and had to turn around and go back when I was halfway there. By the time I got to the train station I was sweating buckets and it wasn't even 8 AM. The heat and humidity were staggering. I jumped on the Kuranda Scenic Railway which takes you on a journey from the coast inland to the Atherton Tablelands. The trip provides views of the mountainous rainforest and as you continue along you can't help but admire the engineering that went into creating the railroad. Despite the heat, when we got to Kuranda I decided to venture off on a hike to Barron Gorge National Park to get some good views of the falls. It seemed to take ages to get there and just when I was about to give up and turn around I saw the sign for the park. The falls are lovely but I'm not sure they were worth the sweat to get there. I returned to Kuranda and made my way to Birdworld. It was a bit unnerving being trapped in a giant bird cage, but it was amazing to see a cassowary. Such funny looking birds!



As it turns out the views of the falls which you got from the skyrail on the way down were as good or better than the views I had slogged through the heat to obtain. The skyrail is a fantastic way to see the rainforest. You really get an appreciation of the size of the trees while slowly skirting above the treetops. After descending back to land with views over the Coral Sea, I headed back to my hostel to grab my backpack and set off on the next stage of my journey.

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Fakarava, Tuamotus

>> Wednesday, October 13, 2010

After a stop in Mahine, I landed in Fakarava, another island in the Tuamotus. I was picked up by Jacques, the owner of Relais Meramais pension. A very friendly man, he made me feel welcome instantly. After unpacking, I grabbed one of the pension's bikes and went to check out the village. I managed to catch the fruit and veg stand just before it closed and picked up a couple apples and kiwifruit (imports from NZ of course!). Then I headed to one of the three stores where I found the selection of products to be even more minimal than Rangiroa. I honestly have no idea how people survive without fruit and vegetables! At the shop in Rangiroa they had a fruit and veg section, but you were lucky to find anything there, let alone something that didn't look like it had fallen off about 6 trucks on its way from NZ or the USA. In the stores in Fakarava there is nothing. You have to catch the fruit and veg stand open. Unfortunately there is a grand total of about 4 different fruits and about 6 vegetables, only one or two of which looked edible. I think the French Polynesians live off raw fish and baguettes. At least that's how it appears! In my yearning for some vitamins, I may have made my most ridiculous purchase yet --> about $14 NZD for 2 litres of juice!

A quiet evening was spent at the pension where everybody was old and French. No young, single people around at all. The next day I was the only person on the dive boat with the owners, Serge and Carine, a really lovely Swiss couple. Although Serge warned me about the currents in the pass, I was still caught by surprise at how strong they actually were. You could ride them like Superman, and that is just what Serge did, with his arms out, cruising along. You could see he really enjoyed diving. It's such a wonderful experience to dive with a guide who is clearly passionate about it. They always make a big effort to find things and point them out since they are just as excited about seeing them as you are. It wasn't tricky to find the creatures that are the main event on Fakarava, however. It's all about sharks. Hundreds of them. They were everywhere. That night at the pension I didn't see a soul!

The second day it was just Serge and I diving again in the morning. Lunchtime showed me just what life on a very small, remote island is all about. I hopped on a bike and ventured off in search of a hamburger for lunch. After trying a couple places and biking several kilometres I found out that there was no ground beef on the island. In the afternoon, we were joined by a nice, young Swiss couple who have been on an around the world trip for a couple of years with no end in sight. As we headed out to the dive site, we saw a baby humpback whale break the surface of the water. Serge slowly manoeuvred the boat closer and closer as we put on our masks and fins. Just as we were about to jump in, another dive boat approached quickly and the baby humpback went down and did not resurface. So close! After hearing about my food woes, Carine suggested I talk to the woman at the bakery to see if she could make me a pizza. So we stopped there on the way back to the pension. It turns out the woman was from New Zealand. She had married an islander and moved there just a few months earlier. She said she would be happy to make me a vegetarian pizza, except she couldn’t do it for two days! There was no cheese on the island either and she had to wait for the weekly boat to arrive. So I put in my order.

The third day we ended up heading to the south pass. It wasn’t the original dive plan but the conditions were favourable so off we went. It’s a long journey and the seas can often be too rough to make the trip. The south pass, which is much narrower than the north pass, has a huge concentration of sharks and is the highlight of diving Fakarava. Words can’t describe the majestic beauty of hundreds of sharks cruising along in the current. It was simply astounding. We did two dives through the pass, but I could have easily gone again. We even saw a few eagle rays. Lunch was spent standing knee deep in the water at Tetamanu with black tip reef sharks and a Napolean wrasse for company. After I finished my panini, Carine asked me if I would like dessert. She didn’t know the English word for it and tried at length to explain it to me. I had no idea what she was talking about but said that I would have some. Turns out it was applesauce!


On the morning of the fourth day it was back to the north pass for some more Superman action. The current wasn’t quite as strong so I was able to really appreciate the corals, schools of fish and the plentiful sharks. The second dive we went in search of mantas at a cleaning station but had no luck. We did manage to find a few leaf scorpionfish and a school of baby grey reefs though. That night at the pension was finally a busy one. Some dive instructors from other islands came by and there were a few more people staying at the pension. Finally some people to have some beers and conversation with! Of course a lot of the conversation was in French so I needed the occasional translation. I was also really happy to have an incredible pizza to enjoy after two days of anticipation!

The last day of diving finally brought the much anticipated manta rays. There were either 3 mantas or the same one came by three times during the dive. The last evening was a quiet one as the only other people staying at the pension decided to go out to eat. That was actually not such a bad thing as all they did was complain about everything. If you want a party island with fantastic food, Fakarava isn’t it. But the diving is amazing, so who cares?!

On my last morning on the island I took a bike and headed to a beach a few kilometres out of town. I read and swam until it was time to head back to pack my bags. Upon leaving Jacques gave me a shell necklace. I was a bit disappointed not to get a flower one as I hadn’t got one during my whole stay in the islands. I guess you don’t get that special treatment if you are staying in the cheapest accommodation possible. Unfortunately the necklace didn’t even make it to Papeete without falling apart!

The pension owner where I was staying in Papeete for my final night was a bit late coming to the airport to pick me up so I had a chance to say goodbye to Chantal and Dario who were heading off to Rangiroa due to my rave reviews. After dropping off my bags, I headed in search of a bar/restaurant where I was planning to meet up with some CouchSurfers. The guy I had met at Rangiroa was going to be there along with a few others. Sadly I never found them. They were running on island time and I was in North American mode. After waiting for an hour and a half I gave up and decided to go eat at the roulettes near the ferry terminal. My last night ended up being another quiet one, but at least I finished reading Shantaram. I had tried twice previously to read it and never got very far before getting sidetracked by the busy-ness of life. Tons of relax time, unbelievable diving, and amazingly beautiful scenery above water. This was going to be a vacation to remember!

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Rangiroa, Tuamotus

>> Saturday, October 09, 2010

After about an hour of flying I landed on the island of Rangiroa in an island group called the Tuamotu Archipelago. As I was looking for someone holding a sign for Rangiroa Lodge, a guy approached me and asked if I was Katrina. It turns out that it was the CouchSurfer, Ludwig, I had arranged to go for pizza with. I had asked him to host me but he had to leave for Papeete the next morning so we had made plans to meet for dinner the night I arrived. As it turned out, his roommate took the same flight as me so he was at the airport to pick him up. Small world. Or rather, small island! He had also brought a CouchSurfer who had been staying with him. After finding Freddie from Rangiroa Lodge, I made plans to meet Ludwig at the pizza place after dropping my bag off in my room. It turns out that there were a few more people at the restaurant to meet. Yves, the owner of the dive centre I would be diving with, was there, along with his girlfriend. There was also a diver named Romain from France. Even though much of the conversation was in French (it was the first language for all but me), it was an enjoyable evening over my best meal so far in French Polynesia. As I don't eat fish (especially raw!), eating is a challenge. The islands have very little ability to grow anything so almost everything has to be imported. Fresh fruit and veg are rare and expensive and the selection is extremely poor.

The next morning I met Mark and Kirsten, the only other people staying at the pension besides myself and Romain. They all raved about the diving over breakfast but still I didn't have high expectations. Right from dive one I was blown away. It was dive 300 for me so cause to celebrate anyway. Straight away after jumping in the water I knew all the hype about sharks in French Polynesia was true. They were everywhere! There was also a manta ray, something I hadn't seen in 4 1/2 years. Add in some huge barracuda and Napolean wrasse and it made for a great dive. The whole thing was topped off by by a group of bottlenose dolphins that came not once, but twice during the dive. This was a first for me and their playful, inquisitive nature has probably made them my favourite marine creature. The second day of diving brought the closest encounter I had with the dolphins. They swam around us so close you could have touched them. After the first dive much time is spent drinking tea, eating biscuits and chatting. Yves, the owner of Raie Manta Club, is a shark expert and has dived all over the world. He is extraordinarily knowledgeable about marine life and is full of fascinating stories. This day the topic was shark bites, both fatal and not. Yves has had a few bites and the boat driver has a really nasty scar on his leg. Ludwig, the CouchSurfer, also had a scar of his own. With the number of sharks in the water here and the popularity of spearfishing, bites do occur. Yves gets very close to all types of sharks in his work and explained that he sometimes has to elbow a shark away after taking a close up photo. Incidents during dives are extremely rare though. Only once in about 25 years does Yves know of a shark getting aggressive during a dive in Rangiroa. With nothing else to deter the shark, the guide took off his BCD and pushed the shark away with his tank. The worst bite that Yves got came when he was rescuing a shark from a fishing cage. Some thanks!

Apparently equally scary compared to the sharks is Romain in the night as poor Kirsten discovered. He is not only a sleepwalker, but apparently a rowdy one! He banged on the wall which adjoins their rooms and started screaming in the middle of the night! Not quite sure what was happening, Kirsten was understandably a bit alarmed. We all had a good laugh when we discovered the nature of Romain’s night time antics.

Another bit of excitement occurred on the way to the dive centre on the second morning. A French man who owned a local pension was joining us for the dives and driving himself on his motorbike. He was following behind us and as we went around a bend in the road, a truck coming the other way with a load of lumber (not tied down of course) lost its load. The pension owner came close to being decapitated! The lumber hit him in the shoulder causing him to crash. Unbelievably he decided to leave his bike there and jump in the Jeep and come diving! His injuries were some bad road rash to his arms and legs and I would have opted for the doctor, but I guess he was really keen to see some sharks. Maybe with the blood in the water he was hoping to attract more!

With just a couple "snacks" and the pizza place nearby, night life doesn't exist on Rangiroa. So we spent our evenings watching video footage that we took during the day's dives. On the second day, we were joined at the pension by a French woman named Stephanie and we would all crowd around her netbook to re-live the shark and dolphin action. The third day of diving brought more sharks and dolphins but also a few manta rays for those of us fortunate enough to be looking in the right place at the right time. The creature of the day though was the turtle. On a couple dives, what I'm sure was the same turtle, came around. He was very friendly and only too happy to munch away on the coral and let himself be filmed. Since the next day was possibly my last day of diving (I had already done 7 dives of my 10 dive package and could possibly do 3 that day depending what Yves planned) I asked everybody else who was diving (Romain, Stephanie and a couple English guys named John and Stan who were staying at a fancy hotel) if they were keen to dive Avatoru Pass. So far, all our days had been spent diving Tiputa Pass, but I thought I couldn't leave without diving the other pass. Everyone agreed. Was I ever happy that I asked!

The next morning the plan was for Yves to take a fish down in a plastic bag and hide it in a coral head. The idea was that it would attract the sharks, not just the grey reefs, but hopefully a silvertip to come very close and stick around awhile. However, as we headed out to the dive site we spotted manta rays on the surface and one even jumped out of the water! Change of plan! We got into the water and after a few minutes we saw the manta rays. In only 5 metres of water we spent the rest of the dive watching several manta rays feeding. Not since the Maldives had I had such an experience with mantas. Unbelievably majestic creatures! As we got back on the boat after the dive, John comments to Yves, "Yesterday I was going to tell you that you were going to have to change the name of the dive centre to the Turtle Shell Club but after that you can keep the name Raie Manta Club!"

For the second dive, we carried out our original dive plan and were rewarded with some very close shark action. The grey reefs circled around and then came the sizeable silvertip. Although I had great luck with the marine life, I was not so lucky with the camera as a few minutes into the shark action, and before the silvertip arrived, my memory card was full! I frantically tried to keep my eye on the action while simultaneously deleting what I thought were some rubbish photos to make room to take some footage of the silvertip.

Over lunch, Romain and I were discussing dinner plans. We had decided to go for pizza and I had invited John and Stan. Romain asked me if they were coming and I said that it would depend on their wives who had just arrived from Bora Bora to join them. With a look of total shock Romain revealed that he had thought they were a gay couple. After some hysterical laughter I realised I probably would have thought the same if I hadn’t heard them mention their wives previously. They were obviously very close friends and had talked at length about numerous diving vacations they had taken together.

After another great third dive back in Tiputa Pass with the dolphins and a school of eagle rays I decided to do another day of diving rather than a day trip to the blue lagoon (an apparently very pretty lagoon within the main lagoon of Rangiroa). With such amazing diving, I just couldn’t stop! The last day was slowed back down to just 2 dives and we were joined by a couple new faces – Niko from France and an American. Stephanie had left the previous night. Just when I thought Rangiroa couldn’t possibly have anything left for me, I was once again amazed. Although I had seen tons of sharks on every dive, I hadn’t yet experienced what Romain referred to as the “wall of shark” in which there are hundreds of grey reefs which seem to literally form a wall. On this last day I finally saw it. To top it off I also saw a great hammerhead (rare to see, especially at this time of year) as we drifted through the pass. I frantically tried to get the attention of the others, but nobody saw me before it vanished into the blue. A memory for just me to savour!

The final evening was spent eating pizza, just as my time on Rangiroa had begun. Romain and Niko were my company on this final night and I knew it would be hard to leave the next day as I had had such a fantastic time, not just diving, but also with the people I had met. The three of us gathered around Niko’s laptop that night and watched a documentary which featured Yves as a guide for Jean-Michel Cousteau on an expedition to study sharks at risk. Yves had also done the camera work. It was funny to watch him explain many of the same things he had told us over the course of the week when the documentary was obviously quite old. A much younger Yves in a ridiculous pale blue wetsuit made us all laugh.

I’d spent 5 days diving with sharks, but it was two land based creatures that finally got to me. As Romain and I were sitting at the picnic table in the kitchen area, I glimpsed not one, but two rats walking on the rafters. Then, when I went to my room, I moved the rock that propping the door open and saw a small scorpion. I thought it was dead so I grabbed an empty water bottle to push it outside. When I went to do so it started to move and I let out a small scream. I cleared it out and then was returning to the kitchen to get more water from the fridge. Just then Romain came around the corner to see if I was okay, but in the process he made my heart jump again!

My last morning I got up to say goodbye to Romain and Niko and then ended up chatting to a woman who had just arrived from France as I enjoyed my last moments sitting and looking at the aqua coloured water and white coral beach. I would really miss this place...

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Society Islands, French Polynesia

>> Monday, October 04, 2010

One of the dive destinations which had been on my to-do list for a long time was French Polynesia. I had heard many good stories from a guy I dived with in Egypt and had put it my list of "someday...'s". When I saw a cheap flight advertised from Auckland to Tahiti I snapped it up without even thinking about it. The plan was to spend a few days in the Society Islands before heading to the Tuamotus for diving. It's not a long journey to French Polynesia from New Zealand although it really is far from anything. I had a great flight which started with a long chat to a Tahitian man of about my age. He gave me some insight into the culture and way of life and explained a bit about the different islands. We also swapped some travel stories. His best story was of a near death experience that he had in Auckland. He was nearly killed while sitting in a restaurant on Queen Street. A car came through the window, missing him by about a foot. The latter part of the journey was spent alternating between dozing and watching Where the Wild Things Are. I both loved and was scared by the book as a child so I couldn't resist checking out the movie. By the time I got to my pension it was 3 AM Papeete time (1 AM in NZ) and I was totally exhausted. I'd only had about 3 1/2 hours of sleep the previous night but oddly I couldn't sleep! I got maybe 2 hours of sleep before my alarm woke me up. The one cup of coffee provided with my included breakfast was nowhere near enough to shake the cobwebs.

Fortunately I didn't have to do much to start my day other than walk 100 metres and hop on a tour bus. I figured the best and easiest way to see the island of Tahiti was to do what they call a circle tour. I had booked a full day trip, but it ended up being closer to a half day tour as we skipped the Gaugain museum since his paintings had been temporarily removed. We also skipped lunch. Instead we stopped to check out the black sand beaches (created from volcanic ash like those in west Auckland), a lighthouse built by Robert Louis Stevenson's father, a gorgeous waterfall, a blowhole and a grotto. Since we finished the tour at about 2 PM and I didn't have to catch the ferry to Moorea until 5:45, I asked to be dropped at the market as I had heard it was a must-do in Papeete. The main floor is the fruit/veg/fish market for the locals and upstairs is mostly souvenirs for tourists. I spent ages looking at all the stuff and debating whether to buy anything. Eventually, after watching a guy in a wheelchair busy at work engraving mother of pearl, I ended up buying a necklace he had made. It was a shark with a black pearl, a perfect representation of this trip.

After the shopping and a bite to eat came the hard part. I had fully expected to be dropped off back at the pension after the tour so I hadn't brought a map. I vaguely knew where the pension was and oriented myself based on the ocean and the mountain. Fortunately I stumbled across an internet cafe in my wandering and since I still had lots of time until the ferry I popped in for a bit. Along with checking my e-mail and facebook, I looked up the pension and found a map on their website. Sweet! Nonetheless, in order for a map to be of any use, you have to know where you are. That was proving very difficult as very few roads actually had any signs. Sticking to my original navigation strategy, I used the mountain to guide me and I set off in what I hoped was the right direction. When I got to the next major road I asked someone which road it was and it was the one I thought it was. I was on the right track! From there I used my crudely drawn map and instinct to get me back to the pension. After picking up my bag I headed down to the ferry terminal. After buying my ticket I thought it was about time to try a Tahitian beer, a Hinano, at the snack (simple restaurant/cafe) by the ferry quay.

After the ferry, I hopped onto one of the waiting buses which meet the ferries. It was full of locals except for a handful of guys, one of who was obviously from South Africa based on his accent, and a few from somewhere in Europe but I wasn't sure where. I heard them mention that they were staying at the same place as I was and it sounded like at least one of them had been there before so I started to ask them some questions about Moorea. It turns out that they were yachties (yacht workers). The other three guys were Swedish. When we got to the pension at about 8 PM, the reception was closed. Some others that worked on the yacht had already arrived and one of them rang the pension number so someone would come to check us all in. Of course I ended up waiting for all 9 of them to check in first! By the time that all happened it was getting late and I was hungry. I basically dumped my stuff in my room, grabbed my handbag and started to head out to find some dinner.

As I was leaving, I had to pass by the dorms where the yachties were staying. They were all sprawled out on the grass with bottles of gin, vodka and wine. I was invited to join them for a drink and then go out to eat with them. Little did I know what I was getting myself into when I accepted! After a couple drinks most of us headed to a nearby caravan (common on roadsides and provide quick basic meals) and ordered some food. Meanwhile the drinks flowed and I met more of the group which included some Kiwis and English. The remaining few decided to wander a bit farther to eat at a nearby bar so they could stock up on some more bottles. The party then moved to the beach in front of our pension and was kicked off by the boys wrestling on the beach, an event I was only too happy to watch! Some splashing around in the ocean, several tequila shots, and then a few boys decided to climb a tree. For two of them it ended up being like a couple of cats stuck up a tree as they went up easily enough but then realised how high they were and had a heck of a time getting down because they were freaked out. It didn't seem to me that we were that loud, but at some point, what must have been the husband of the woman who had checked us in, came out shouting at us about the noise. This more or less shut the party down as we all headed to bed soon after.

I awoke at 7 AM to a whole lot of banging and shouting. When I got up and headed to the toilets, I saw a few of the yachties who told me that they were being tossed out and that they had been told the police were on the way. I watched them dash out of there and told them I would probably see them later on at the beach. When I went to pay for my room the woman told me that none of them were allowed back at the pension. She obviously knew that I had been hanging out with them, especially since one of them came to return a key and talked to me while I was paying my bill, but she did not kick me out. This was good, since unlike the yachties, I was planning on staying 2 nights. I ran into a few of them over breakfast at a nearby restaurant and after arranging a rental car for the following day I headed to Hotel Les Tipaniers where I met up with them.

It was going to be a relaxing beach day. Well, relaxing and swimming with sharks and stingrays. I watched some of the boys kitesurf for a bit, then I decided I was ready for some action myself. Nobody else was quite ready for snorkeling yet, so I geared up and headed out myself. It was maybe a 15 minute snorkel out to where the sharks and rays gather in chest deep water. I totally lucked out as when I got there as a boat with a couple people on it had just arrived and put a whole bucket of chum in the water. This brought in tons of blacktip reef sharks along with the stingrays. After awhile, when the numbers had dwindled, I started to swim back. Unfortunately as soon as I got back into the deeper water I realised just how strong the surface current was that had helped me to get there. I've never experienced anything like it before and it was really hard going. I certainly felt like I deserved the beer when I got back, even if it was only 11:30 AM.

A lazy couple of hours followed with lots of chatter and some lunch. One of the girls and I made a brief attempt to lie on the beach but it was like a sandstorm and was not worth the sand in your teeth. After eating, most of the yachties and I went back out to see the sharks and rays. A couple of the guys snorkeled, but after my earlier experience I opted to join the rest who were renting kayaks. We brought a bit of fish with us, and whether it was that, the larger group size, or the smaller number of sharks which were around, the stingrays were crazy! In the morning they had been content to just swim around. Now they were coming up to us and touching us, looking for food. It freaked us all out. One of the guys even jumped back onto his kayak. We were all screaming. Eventually I got a bit used to it and was able to touch them. You had no choice really as you quite often had to push them off of you. A few sharks swam around, but nowhere near the number that I had seen earlier. As we paddled back, Duvall and I were struggling to keep the kayak straight. Every stroke pretty much turned us backwards. The kayak was so full of water that I was practically submerged in the back seat. It was probably the worst bit of paddling I've ever done, but also the most amusing, and we got back eventually. The 2 girls apparently ended up going in circles for awhile and we started to wonder if they were ever coming back. Another beer on the deck of Les Tipaniers and it was time to say goodbye. The yachties had to catch a ferry back to Papeete as they had to work the next day.


I had seen enough sun for one day so I made my way back to my pension with a few stops along the way for some souvenirs and postcards. By the time I got back to the pension I was ready for another swim and then I sat on my terrace and watched the sun go down. It was not as spectacular as I had hoped as I had read that the sunsets from that beach were fabulous, but perhaps there were too many low clouds. A shower and pizza capped off the night. Finally, after three nights of 3-4 hours of sleep (packing, traveling, partying), I got a solid 9 hours!

The next morning I picked up a baguette and jam and my rental car - a Fiat of course! I drove back to the pension to grab my bag and check out. Then it was road trip time. There was just one small problem. I couldn't get the car to go in reverse! After several attempts to get it in gear and looking all over for some kind of magic button that would allow it to go in reverse, I finally asked a guy who was packing up his tent. He was French, surely if there were any tricks to French cars, he would know. Sure enough, there was a bit on the gearshift that you had to pull up in order to shift into reverse. Doh! I should have thought of that, but it didn't even cross my mind. Finally I hit the road. Where I had stayed was on the northwest corner of the island and the airport is in the northeast so I decided to first head most if the way across the north part of the island to see the beautiful Opohunu and Cook's Bays. With dramatic mountain peaks as a backdrop and the varied blue shades of the lagoon, the area is stunning. No wonder Captain Cook thought it worth stopping! I headed inland from Cook's Bay to check out the ruins of several marae. I also headed up to Belevedere Lookout which offers amazing views of the mountain peaks and both bays.

After descending through the Opohunu Valley with its pineapple plantations, I began to head back toward the west side of the island, making a stop at the unofficial information centre to ask about what to do on the remainder of my journey around the island. The woman, actually an artist who makes and sells black pearl jewelery, offers advice simply because there is no official tourist info centre. She suggested a snack to eat at and a good beach for swimming. She wasn't sure of how to get to the start of the trail to the waterfall I had thought of going to, but she figured that there wouldn't be much water in it anyway as it very much depended on rainfall. After a bite to eat, I continued my counter-clockwise journey, stopping every so often to take a photo or just to admire the scenery. I tried to find the waterfall trail, but could see no sign and there wasn't anybody around to ask so I decided my time would be best spent enjoying the beach. I continued on towards the Sofitel resort as there is a nice public beach just past it. The lady had told me that the access road was just after you came down from a hill after the resort. She didn't mention the amazing view from the top of the hill. Wow! You could see the over-water bungalows of the Sofitel atop the fantastically blue lagoon and the island of Tahiti as well. After a few photos I carried on to the beach where I spent a couple hours alternating between swimming and reading. Then it was time to head to the airport.

I was supposed to fill the car up with petrol, but the service station next to the airport was closed. When I got to the airport there was no sign of the man from Europcar who was supposed to meet me there so I went to the counter to check in. They asked me if I wanted to catch an earlier flight which was leaving in 5 minutes. Since I had a tight timeframe for catching the next flight (15 minutes), I said yes. I left the key for the rental car with the woman at the counter and headed out onto the tarmac to board. After a short 7 minute flight I was back in Papeete. The only problem? I didn't know where I was! I was at a tiny airport that wasn't familiar. It took a very lengthy and confusing conversation with the lady at the counter to work out that the airport I had expected to land at (and needed to catch my next flight at) was just next door. I had thought I might have had to catch a taxi or something. Even so, 15 minutes might not have been enough time to get my bag, walk to the next building and check in again. I suppose it is enough if you are on island time!

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Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef

>> Monday, May 10, 2010

After a pretty quiet first term, I was finally off to Australia for 10 days during the April break. I had originally thought of going to the Ningaloo Reef on the west coast, but that would have been fairly pricey and after spending the big bucks to have my eyes done I was feeling a bit poor. So Queensland and the Great Barrier Reef became the new plan. For a change, I was going to have a travel partner as well. I was going to meet up with an English guy that I had met in Thailand.

The last half of the trip would consist of a liveaboard diving trip out to the Great Barrier and Osprey Reefs. The first half was pretty open except that we had a rental car and a yearning to dive the SS Yongala. I had heard that this wreck was an absolute must-do. We decided to spend a day driving down to Alva Beach where we would dive the Yongala and figure out the rest later. The Yongala sank in a cyclone in 1911 and wasn't discovered for 50 years. The reason and circumstances of her demise are unknown, but all 122 lives were lost. The history itself would make this a dive worth doing, but the real draw is the abundance of life. The dive centre's website says "More fish in one dive than ten on the reef" but I was completely unprepared for not just the quantity of life, which was staggering, but also the size of it. Everything was super-sized. Angelfish which are typically the size of your hand were 2-3 feet long, the groper were massive, I saw turtles far bigger than any I had ever seen before. It definitely goes in my list of top 10 dives. Unfortunately the seas were very rough getting out there and several people were too seasick to dive. I stuck with keeping my sights on the horizon and although I was nauseous, it wasn't enough to stop me from diving. It's not an easy dive with big waves on the surface and strong currents to battle on the descent, but once down on the wreck it is all worth it.

After the Yongala, we headed back north along the coast to Townsville. We spent some time exploring Castle Hill, a huge red rock hill which offers beautiful panoramic views over the city and out to Magnetic Island. Then we left our car behind and hopped on the ferry to Magnetic Island. This was about the point where the English guy and I stopped talking. Or rather he stopped talking to me. My regulator had a piece broken while diving the Yongala and I needed to get it fixed before we headed out on the liveaboard for 5 days. I needed to access my e-mail to see if a dive shop had replied to me and could get the part and fix it for me in time. We had a silly argument about where to find an internet cafe and both snapped at each other. Normal people would apologize and move on. Well, not this guy. He might have been 40 but he behaved like a 4 year old. He would not even speak to me unless absolutely necessary. We spent a couple days on Magnetic Island, staying at Bungalow Bay Koala Village. We did a stunning coastal hike which brought us to numerous gorgeous sandy beaches. Another hike took us to the ruins of a fort complex from World War II and also offered amazing views. Finally, we spent some time visiting with the koalas, wombats, and other creatures at Koala Village. After returning to the mainland, we drove to Mission Beach. The following day was spent whitewater rafting on the Tully River. It was one of the best rafting trips I have done. My travel companion was a miserable grump but the rest of the people in our raft were huge fun and we had an awesome guide. No way was I not going to enjoy the day. We got tossed out of the raft a few times and did some cliff jumping and rapid swimming as well.

After Tully we headed back to Cairns and I was able to drop my regulator off to get fixed for the next day. Finally I was able to be on my own. No more being trapped in a car and a room with someone who won't even speak to you! I had a relaxing morning doing a bit of shopping and checking out the city of Cairns before being picked up to head out to the Great Barrier Reef. It was a very odd experience to be on a liveaboard boat for 5 days with someone and pretend to not even know him! But that is exactly what we did. He had called ahead to get Taka to rearrange things so we were not in the same room and he continued to not speak to me which was just fine with me. Life is really too short to spend time around negative people. Taka is a large boat with room for 30 guests and there were 29 on our trip. There was no shortage of interesting people to chat with and I got buddied up for diving with a lovely German couple.

The diving on the Great Barrier Reef was good, but not outstanding. There was actually much less fish life than I had expected and the corals were not that healthy in many places. However, there were some awesome dives. The dive at Cod Hole where the massive potato cod are friendly enough to pet was fantastic. Steve's Bommie was teeming with life including potato cod, marbled stingrays, a wobbegong shark, a turtle, whitetip sharks, a silvertip, mantis shrimp, triggerfish, pufferfish and schools of trevally and snapper. The highlight for most divers is probably the shark feed dive which attracts whitetips, grey reefs and silvertips. It brought in probably 30 sharks to enjoy a mid-morning tuna snack. It was good fun watching the sharks eat the tuna which had been lowered down, but didn't quite offer the excitement and proximity of the bull sharks being hand fed in Fiji.

My first taste of Australia was a good one and I know there is much, much more to explore on future trips. I think next time, however, I will go solo.

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Thailand Tally

>> Saturday, January 30, 2010

Lost

  1. Combination padlock for my backpack
  2. Possibly one sarong... I haven't completely unpacked my bag yet
Broken
  1. Handbag zipper, handbag not replaced as I couldn't find a handbag I really liked
  2. Flip flops aka jandals in NZ, actually these broke in Fiji but the dive guide managed to repair them well enough to keep using, this time they were done so I bought new ones
  3. Not one, not two, but three pairs of sunglasses!! Good thing the most expensive pair were the ones I bought in NZ for $15.
Overall, not too bad! I think I may invest in one of those hard cases for sunglasses. It was rough when I had no sunglasses to wear the morning after my Lasik surgery.

Transport
  1. Metre taxi
  2. Tuk-tuk
  3. Song-thaew (pick up truck with two rows of seats down the sides)
  4. Motorcycle taxi
  5. Bicycle tuk-tuk
  6. Local bus
  7. VIP bus (huge reclining seats, A/C, toilet, more comfortable than an airplane seat!)
  8. Longtail boat
  9. Speed boat
  10. Day dive boat
  11. Liveaboard dive boat
  12. Cargo boat
  13. Passenger ferry
  14. Rigid inflatable boat
  15. Raft
  16. Inflatable kayak
  17. Plastic kayak
  18. Plane
  19. Train
  20. Elephant
  21. City bus
  22. Skytrain
  23. Subway
  24. Bicycle
  25. Scooter
  26. Minivan
  27. The local bus from Pai to Chiang Mai (yes, this hellish bus gets a category all of its own)
  28. My feet
  29. Scuba fins

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    Injury Report

    I've saved this until the end of the trip because there was talk at my school of setting up a pool to bet on what traumatic event would happen to me in Thailand.

    First, let me start by saying that Thailand is a dangerous country!! Half the people on Koh Tao are walking around wounded from scooter accidents. One of the dive guides I had there has had eight scooter accidents since arriving last May. I met a tourist who had two accidents in less than a month there. Fortunately, that one does not make my list this time. I am also including sicknesses although they aren't actually injuries. It makes the list more dramatic. Ha!

    1. Night of violent vomiting due to food poisoning
    2. Sinus infection which turned into chest infection, still have a nagging cough from it 6 weeks later
    3. Minor ear infection - managed to keep it from getting worse with the antibiotics I was taking to get rid of number 2
    4. Unknown bug bite on arm which turned into huge pus-filled sore which burst and then wasn't able to heal as I was in the water so much. It will leave me with a scar.
    5. Blisters on both ankles from 17 km trek
    6. Stepped too close to one side of a two stair wooden set of bungalow steps that weren't actually secured to the veranda and managed to tip the steps over with myself trapped inside. Massively bruised thigh and calf.
    7. Cut on bottom of big toe, unknown cause
    8. Bruises on legs and arms from being tossed into water by elephant trunk
    9. Cuts on legs and one arm from some type of nettle-like plant while cutting sugarcane for elephants
    10. Rash on face, unknown cause
    11. Sunburn because I wasn't supposed to wear sunscreen on my face after the Lasik surgery
    12. And the winner is... Slipped on wet tile floor while stepping down into bathroom. Fell and hit head (not hard, just a slight bump and no blood) and banged sink with back of hand. Sink came off wall (just held by resting on a couple screws, not actually secured to wall) and broke into a million pieces. Classic. Was not made to pay to replace sink.

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    Final Days

    I arrived in Kanchanaburi in the afternoon, and after sorting out a place to stay on the river Kwai, I decided to visit the nearby Thai-Burma Railway Centre. It is a very modern and informative museum that presents the history of the building of the "Death Railway" by Allied POWs and Asian labourers. I knew little about this aspect of WWII and it was very disturbing to see the way the workforce was treated by their Japanese captors and the conditions in which they were made to live. Photos of the men could easily have been mistaken for men in a Nazi camp in Europe. No matter where (or when) it happens in the world, war is ugly and atrocious.

    After this historical primer, I walked a couple of kilometres to visit the famous bridge. It was swarming with tourists, probably more so than anywhere I had been in Thailand. There was a remarkable amount of Asian tourists. Actually walking across the bridge was a frustrating process due to the number of people and the fact that the majority of them would not budge off the centre of the track. It would have gone quite smoothly if each person had put one foot in the middle and one foot on the outside of the track. People could have passed each other easily. I think most people were uncomfortable putting a foot outside the centre. Of course that meant I had to put both feet outside. That was not comfortable for me. Despite all the things I do, I still do have a fear of heights and it's a long way down to the river! On the way back I decided I was not going to budge from the centre. I would see what reaction this would cause in others. Maybe I was giving way too easily. After having a guy walk right into me and throwing me off balance, I gave up on this idea. Even with my wobbly balance and klutzy ways I felt safer walking on the 2" x 4" piece of plywood than being body slammed. All the rudeness actually put me in a grumpy mood. Fortunately, three lovely Thai girls insisted on having a photo with me. Not just as a group, but one by one. They were so adorable and giggly that my bad mood instantly dissipated. I rather enjoyed the walk back across the bridge. After that I headed to a totally wacky WWII museum which was very close to the bridge. It was the most disorganized mess I have ever seen! There were a few good bits, if you could find them! The best part was actually getting up onto the roof which allowed for amazing views of the river and the bridge while the sun was setting.

    The next day I had my most extravagant day of the entire trip (not counting the Lasik of course). In the past few years I have met quite a few travelers who visited Tiger Temple while in Thailand. I had seen pictures of them posed with tigers and knew I would try to go there when I was in Kanchanaburi. According to the temple's abbot, tiger cubs were brought to the temple by villagers when their moms had been killed by poachers. They started breeding and now there are about 35 tigers at the temple, along with various other animals. When I looked into the tours, it seemed like what was offered was transport out to the temple in the afternoon allowing for about 1 1/2 hours of time out there to have a few photo ops with some very sleepy tigers and hundreds of other people. There was however, for a very hefty price, a morning program which was very appealing as it offered lots of interaction with the tigers and very few people around. I really had to talk myself into spending this much money for one day. The program is limited to 10 people per day but on this day there were only 6 of us. The morning started out by giving food to the monks (which was all provided) as they arrived at the temple. Next, we all went inside the temple and had the opportunity to bottle feed, hold, and play with the cubs. Then we had a Thai breakfast with the monks and tigers. When breakfast was over, we walked some of the older cubs to a waterfall play area. These tigers might still be considered cubs, but they are big and strong! They were allowed to run freely and we were given bamboo poles with toys attached and told to play with them much like you would play with a kitten. The idea was the same, but there were definitely a few scary moments! Once the tigers were tired out, we walked them over to get shampooed. They were tied up for this part. My tiger was rather grumpy and caused me to have to run in a circle backwards in order to avoid one attempted nip at my hand. The tiger trainers are never far away and when any of the tigers get a little feisty they will intervene. After the bath it was time for some food. Again, my tiger was having none of it. He could probably sense that I wasn't too comfortable trying to hand feed him chicken after he tried to bite my hand! So I ended up having to feed one of the other tigers. After this it was time to see the big guys. We got to walk the adult tigers down to the canyon where they would have some play time. Yet again I got a feisty one who felt like climbing a tree rather than walking nicely. Once we got down to the canyon, the trainers put a chain link fence around us. I guess when you get fifteen or so full grown tigers running and jumping you should take some precautions. The fence was not a permanent structure and only went up to my mid-chest so wasn't really offering much safety. Rather I think it was just to act as a deterrent. If the tigers were interested in us, they could have easily knocked the fence aside or jumped over. It was definitely exciting to watch these gorgeous creatures frolic in the water and play. I stayed for the afternoon as well so I got to see and experience what most tourists do when they go to the temple. It really is a 5 second photo op walking a tiger and then a few snaps with the tigers while they are sleeping in the sun. My experience was much more exciting and I could understand the price differential. Prior to going to the temple I had heard that there was speculation that the tigers are drugged so that tourists can safely get their photos taken with them. It was definitely not the case in the morning as the tigers were extremely energetic and playful. I have no idea about the afternoon. It is possible. The tigers were sleepy, however, they are animals that normally sleep 18-20 hours a day. The abbot claims that it is because they have tired them out playing and then fed them their lunch. It was only after I went to the temple that I did a bit of research and found out that there is a lot more controversy surrounding this place. There are allegations of everything from illegal trafficking of tigers, to physical abuse, to high risk interactions between visitors and the tigers. It was absolutely amazing to be able to interact with the tigers in such a way. However, perhaps the tigers are paying too high a price. And perhaps someday a person will as well. I'm just glad it wasn't me!

    There are many more things to see around Kanchanaburi, but they all seemed to involve waterfalls, rafting, or swimming with elephants. Since I was forbidden from swimming due to my surgery, I decided to head to Ayutthaya for a day. I rented a bike for my last morning in Kanchanaburi to take in a few more sights and check out yet another museum. Then I took the afternoon minivan to Ayutthaya, the second capital city of Thailand. Largely destroyed by the Burmese in the 18th century, the old city is filled with the remains of many temples. I spent a very hot day biking around exploring the ruins. For some reason I seem to draw Thai students to me like a magnet. At many sights throughout Thailand I was approached by students to ask me questions in English for a school assignment. This day I attracted a whole class of kids! They were about 8 or 9 years old and on a school trip from Sukothai. We were able to converse a bit and have a few laughs. One of the boys felt it necessary to show me his monkey impression. I'm not sure whether the heat and humidity had actually increased or whether it was because I was paranoid about getting sweat in my eyes (since this was strictly forbidden), but my last few days in Thailand seemed so much hotter than the rest of the trip. I had decided to take the train back to Bangkok so had a bit of a sweaty walk to catch a quick ferry over to the train station. Unfortunately, the train was running late. Not only that, but it didn't arrive at its rescheduled time either. Finally, more than an hour after the train should have arrived, I could wait no longer. I had to use the toilet. Wouldn't you know it, but in the couple of minutes that I was gone, the train came and went. Luckily there was another one in about an hour so I once again sat down to wait. Finally I arrived back in Bangkok at about 7:30 PM and tried to make my way back towards the hotel I was staying at. I had planned to take the subway most of the way and then get a taxi. Stupidly, I walked the wrong way when I got out of the train station and had to walk quite a way back by the time I realized I had gone wrong. I was really hot and sweaty by this time. My big pack hadn't bothered me for the rest of the trip, but in these last few days, it just seemed too much. In the meantime, plans were coming together to meet up with Christian, yet again. We did our usual, "meet you at the McDonalds on the corner of such and such roads" and went back to my hotel to check in and dump my bag. Then it was off for some goodbye beers in the nearby red light district of Patpong. We started out sensibly at an Irish bar. However, after a couple buckets of beers and a challenge from Christian, I found myself in a ping pong bar. I had heard all sorts of stories about ridiculous cover charges, huge fees to leave if you didn't drink enough, and even of being robbed in these places, so we were careful to clarify things before we went in. 200 baht for a beer (close to double the price of a beer at a non-ping pong bar in the area) and we could leave anytime we wanted with no further cost. It felt very awkward when we went in as we were the only foreigners! I suppose by this time it was pretty late as we had stayed at the Irish bar until they closed. However, we had to live up to our end of the deal. So we ordered a beer each and sat to watch the show. The show consisted of the girls using their vaginas to open bottles of Coke, smoke cigarettes, and shoot bananas across the room. I am not even going to get into a discussion of the evils of the sex industry, but the time to drink one beer was more than enough for me. I had seen what it was all about and I was ready to leave. I think one more bar rounded out the night before I said goodbye to Christian for the third and final time.

    My final day in Bangkok meant packing my bags for the last time and going to my final follow up appointment at the Lasik clinic. Not surprisingly, I overslept (from 5 until 8:30 AM) and had to call to change my appointment time to an hour later. That had been my original appointment time anyway and we had decided that I should come earlier so I had more time to make my flight. When I eventually made it to the clinic, I was told that everything was healing nicely and I was free to fly. I had planned to take the airport express bus since it conveniently stopped just down the street from the clinic. I got someone from the clinic to phone to double check on where I had to catch the bus. I was told that a bus would be there shortly. I made my way to the bus stop and waited for quite awhile and no bus came. There was an information booth nearby and when I asked the man there, he confirmed that I was at the correct spot to catch the airport express. I figured I had just missed one, and if I stuck around, another one should come as they were scheduled to come every hour. Eventually a Thai woman asked me which bus I was waiting for. When I told her that I had been waiting for the airport bus for more than an hour she looked worried for me. She went to speak with the man in the information booth as well. He told her the same thing that he had told me. She seemed overly worried for me. I thought about jumping in a taxi, but if I did, it would take the rest of my Thai baht and I would have no money to eat lunch. It wasn't time to panic yet as I had been wrong about the time of my flight. It was actually 3 hours later than I thought it was. Still, after an hour and a half of waiting, I was doubting the existence of the airport express bus. The Thai woman told me of another way to get to the airport. I could take the Skytrain to the end of the line and then catch a minivan to the airport. I decided to wait for 15 more minutes. When no bus came I headed for the Skytrain station. This turned out to be a very efficient way to get to the airport as you zoom above most of the bad traffic while on the Skytrain. Once I was at the end of the line, I only waited about 5 minutes and an airport minivan arrived. So easy!!

    As I finally arrived at the airport, hot and tired, it started to sink in. My Thai adventure was over. It had been full of ups and downs as all travels are, but I had enjoyed myself thoroughly. I had met some amazing people, done a lot of fun and crazy things, and experienced many different aspects of Thailand. I would not miss the Bangkok taxi drivers or the hordes of tourists. However, I would miss the food, the people, and the simple beauty. It had been another fantastic journey.

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    20/20

    >> Friday, January 22, 2010

    After an all night bus trip, I arrived in Bangkok at 6:00 AM. I was splurging for the next few days. I had negotiated a 3000 baht per night hotel room down to 1000 baht per night. Air conditioning, minibar, in-room hairdryer, bathtub, TV, free continental breakfast. I was prepared just in case I needed to hibernate for awhile. I had an appointment at 2:30 that afternoon to see if I was a suitable candidate for Lasik eye surgery. Check in time was 2:00 PM but I was really hoping to get into my room sooner so that I could have a shower. After a few hours of sitting in the lobby using the internet I was able to go to my room. I showered and then ventured out to check out the neighbourhood on my way to the Lasik clinic.

    I had thought about having Lasik off and on, but with my vision not being stable and me not staying put in one place for long, it hadn't really been an option. I had heard about Thailand as a place for medical tourism and thought I would investigate. It turns out that getting two eyes done in Bangkok is about what it costs for one eye in New Zealand. The idea of Lasik is a bit terrifying. This is your eyes after all. Problems do happen. But I have had quite a few friends who have had it done recently and been really happy with the results. I decided it was time. I researched to find out what clinic/hospital had the best reputation in Thailand, and also which doctor there was the most experienced. Before coming to Thailand I had even watched a series of videos on YouTube made by a Kiwi who had made the trip to Bangkok solely to have Lasik done by the doctor that I had booked my surgery with.

    I had heard that hospitals were like 5 star hotels in Bangkok, but my experience at TRSC International Lasik Center was still unexpected. That place runs so smoothly it is ridiculous. As an international patient, I was given my own 24 hour Patient Counselor. During the examination process, you are moved from one room to another, one person to another, to have each test done. Somehow everyone knows you by name even though it is a very busy place. In the waiting area are drinks, snacks, newspapers (English and Thai), and even a bunch of laptops to access the internet. Not that you spend much time waiting. I had barely logged into my e-mail after the series of tests when they came to bring me to see the doctor. He told me I was an excellent candidate and described the various surgical options to me. Based on having some night vision problems which he confirmed was likely due to some aberrations (found in the testing) that could potentially be fixed with the Ultimate Lasik procedure, I opted to go for it. It is the most expensive option, but as far as I am concerned, if you are going to do something like this you don't do it halfway. You go for whatever should give you the best vision.

    The next day I was rather nervous about the procedure. I had watched a multimedia presentation the previous afternoon detailing all the possible risks and complications. Of course it is everything that could possibly go wrong that runs through your head in the hours before the surgery. I tried to distract myself by shopping, but it was rather unsuccessful as there really wasn't anything that I was keen to buy.

    When I arrived at the clinic for the surgery, it was the same organized efficiency as the day before. I signed the consent form, paid the money, and was given a Valium as well as my medical kit to take home. Then I was whisked off to put on a gown and sat in a chair for the anesthetizing eye drops. Once the drops had taken effect I went into the operating room and was met by the doctor. He explained again how the procedure would work as one of the staff applied tape to help keep my eyes open. The actual Lasik procedure itself took less than 10 minutes. The doctor explained exactly what to expect and what he was doing at each step, but all I felt was a slight bit of pressure for a few seconds on each eye and all I saw was a small green light and then some diffuse red light. Very bizarre that you can get such dramatic results from something that seems so simple. After the procedure I had eye patches put on to prevent me from rubbing my eyes and brought down to a taxi.

    It is hard to believe that a taxi driver would try to rip a person off who has clearly just had surgery, but in Bangkok it happened to me! I had walked to the clinic two days in a row and had done quite a bit of walking around the area so was familiar with it. I could hardly see through the tiny holes in the eye patches, and my eyes were streaming with tears, but I was able to realize that the taxi driver had missed a turnoff that would get me to the hotel. Instead he carried on farther, then returned down another road in order to make a longer journey out of it. I was absolutely fuming, and I gave him an earful. I don't know if perhaps he did it on purpose because he thought I couldn't see. I paid the entire 73 baht fare anyway (it's about $3 NZD) as I just wanted to go lie down. When I returned the following morning in a taxi, the fare was just 51 baht (the flagfall is 35 baht).

    As a side note, I have a nice story to counterbalance the one about the jerk of a taxi driver. The night before my surgery I stocked up on a couple 1.5 litre bottles of water and a 1 litre orange juice. As I was walking down the street the plastic bag broke and everything went flying. I didn't have just one person help me. I had three people, each picked up one item and stood patiently to return it to me while I tried to figure out just how I was going to manage to carry all of it.

    I had mentally prepared myself for all kinds of pain and agony. I had heard a few horror stories so was surprised when I had absolutely no pain after the Lasik. My eyes gushed tears for the hour or so that I was awake after the surgery and that was it. When I woke up a few hours later I felt great. I had some soup and took a Valium anyway as they recommended to do so for the first night. The next day I was so happy to get the eye patches off as it was actually the worst part of the whole procedure. I had almost fallen down the stairs leaving the clinic and I tripped over a suitcase in the lobby of my hotel because I couldn't see. It was very frustrating to be so helpless and yet have nobody to look after me.

    The one day post-op exam results were promising. 20/20 in one eye and 20/16 in the other. That was the result the doctor was hoping to achieve. Hopefully it sticks!

    Since I was feeling like a brand new woman, it was time to spend some time exploring Bangkok. I had been told that the snake farm was worthwhile, and it was within walking distance, so off I went. The farm is part of the Thai Red Cross and is used to produce anti-venom. There is a snake museum which taught me more about snakes than I think I ever wanted to know, as well as some live snakes on display. The highlight is the snake show though, where a dozen or so snakes, many of them venomous, are brought out by handlers. After convincing myself that I should actually hold the Burmese python, I had a couple hours to kill before my evening plans to go watch some Muay Thai boxing. I talked to the guy who did the commentary for the snake show as it didn't seem like there was much between where I was and where I needed to be for the boxing. He suggested taking bus 47 to Jim Thompson's house. An American silk tycoon who mysteriously disappeared in the Malaysian mountains in 1967, Jim was an antiques and art collector. The house, which is a great example of a traditional Thai home, is now a museum to display his collection. After a quick tour there to gawk at the 6th century headless Buddha and other delights, it was off to the boxing. I couldn't come to Thailand and not check out the infamous boxing. I didn't actually think that I would enjoy it much, but I really did! It became even more fun when I started making small bets with some of the people sitting near me. I actually won all my bets and made a whole 40 baht!

    Since I was feeling up to some more adventure, and didn't need to be back in Bangkok for a few days until my follow up appointment and flight back to NZ, I decided to escape the big city for awhile and head to Kanchanaburi the next morning.

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    Flight of the Kat

    >> Thursday, January 21, 2010

    To my dismay, my night of revelry had probably cost me the chance to get a minivan back to Chiang Mai. It was Sunday and the minivans were totally booked. Many Thais go to Pai on the weekend and add tremendously to the tourist traffic. My only option if I wanted to get back to Chiang Mai that day was to take the local bus. It would take about four hours instead of three. Also, it was leaving later than I had hoped to leave. But it was that or nothing. Those two things turned out to be minor. I have taken a lot of local buses in Thailand. For the most part they are like a Greyhound bus. The seats are comfy, they have air conditioning, and you are usually given water to drink. The only journey I had taken on a local bus that wasn't enjoyable was the one where I got on the bus halfway through it's route and it was full so I had to stand for four hours. The local bus from Pai to Chiang Mai is a completely different can of worms. I'm not sure who designed these buses, but the leg room isn't sufficient for anyone over the age of about 8. The bus was far beyond capacity. When I got on the bus there wasn't a seat to be had. There was a bag on the floor at the back which had a guy sitting on one end, so I opted to sit on the other end rather than stand. This left me facing the back door which was tied open with a piece of rope. People continued to get on the bus and sit on the floor in the aisle. A couple people decided to get on in the back and the conductor (money collector) was also riding in the tiny space of the couple of steps to get on the bus. There was nothing comfortable about this arrangement. I had a guy squishing me from the right, bags falling on me from the left and back, and three people standing in front of me squeezed into space enough for one. It was a wonder I could breath. Then the journey began. On the way from Chiang Mai to Pai in the minivan, I had enjoyed the sunset and then slept through most of the curves. On the way back, I held on for dear life as the bus careened around each bend. I had to brace myself against the edge of a seat with one hand and a pile of bags with the other. Even so, occasionally, I would lose my balance and fall one way or the other. I just hoped that I wouldn't fall too far and end up pushing a pile of people out the back door. It was definitely the worst bus trip I have ever had.

    I think the journey rattled my brain a bit. When I got to Chiang Mai I knew which guesthouse I wanted to go to. The place I had stayed at the last time was awful (you even had to pay 10 baht for toilet paper) and I had got a tip from someone about a good place. Although I knew where it was, somehow I forgot and thought it was on the street where the Sunday night market was. On Sunday nights they turn an entire street into a market and no cars are allowed. My original plan to take the minivan would have had me arriving before the night market started. By the time I arrived on the local bus, the street was absolutely wall to wall bodies as I tried to make my way down. The going was excruciatingly slow and made even more painful by the fact that I really needed a toilet. By the time my brain woke up and realized that I was on the wrong road, there was no escaping! I had to go several blocks until there was a major road that allowed me to head north and then backtrack east along the correct road. When I finally made it to the guesthouse I think I would have cried if they had told me they didn't have a room. Fortunately they did. After dumping my stuff, I headed out to meet up with Christian, one of my boyfriends (haha) from Koh Tao. We wandered around the market for awhile, but eventually we had enough of the crowds and decided to head to his guesthouse for beers. I ended up walking back to my guesthouse at around 1:00 AM and came to realize that there are a lot of dogs in Chiang Mai. You don't notice as much in the daytime with all the people and vehicles. At night, they seemed to be everywhere.

    Originally I had thought of doing a hill trek in Chiang Mai, but now I only had one day before I had to be back in Bangkok. I had heard that many of the hill treks were just a walk to a village which gave you a chance to gawk at the villagers as they tried to sell you stuff. I was reluctant to take my chances and be disappointed when what I really wanted was a beautiful hike to see some stunning nature and the chance to actually meet hill tribe people whose traditional lifestyle was not destroyed by the tourist trade. I don't think you will get that on a one day trek (maybe not even on a multi-day one) so I opted to do what is proclaimed as Chiang Mai's number one tourist attraction, the Flight of the Gibbon. From the information in the Lonely Planet, and on the brochures at the tourist agencies, my understanding was that it was a canopy zip line tour. I was surprised, in a good way, to find out that it involved some abseiling as well. I had never done abseiling before and it was pretty cool to be dropped 45 metres on a rope. Another highlight of the day was a brief marriage to one of the guides. After all, I couldn't go on the honeymoon line without a partner. No worries, the quickie marriage was immediately followed by a divorce as soon as we got to the next platform. After all the flying through the air, we were served lunch and then we went on a bit of a trek to a waterfall before returning to Chiang Mai.

    My short return to Chiang Mai over, I finally got in a tuk tuk (I had avoided them thus far but thought I had better take one at least once) to go to the bus station for the overnight journey to Bangkok.

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    Laughing in Pai

    >> Tuesday, January 19, 2010

    After a bit of a stroll around the riverside area in Chiang Mai, I caught a minivan to Pai. The road between Chiang Mai and Pai is a steep one through the mountains with 762 curves. (No, I didn't count. It's on a T-shirt.) Some of the curves are really more like U-turns than curves, and motion sickness pills may not even be enough for some! It was actually a beautiful drive as the sun was setting over the mountains. When I arrived I confirmed my last minute plan to go rafting the following morning.

    Every once in awhile you meet a couple that makes you stop and think how perfect they are for each other. On the rafting trip I met just such a couple. Sarah is originally from Australia and Chris is from England. They were living in England, but after their travels are making the move to Australia. We had four rafts going on the trip and I was fortunate to be put in the boat with them. We dubbed ourselves TEAM TEVA as we were all wearing Tevas. Then there was THE FAMILY (an Aussie family of 4), THE RUSSIANS (a Russian couple), and TEAM GERMANY (4 Germans). I am pretty sure I have never laughed as much as I did in the 3 days I spent with Sarah and Chris. I think the Thai rafting guides thought we were slightly crazy at first. We dragged our guide, Lan, into the insanity eventually. He kept using the expression "Oh Buddha!" (instead of "Oh God") whenever we got a bit out of hand. The river, which is class IV just after the rainy season, was very low and only class II with a few class III rapids. We were all aware of this beforehand, but looked forward to a couple days of getting away from it all and seeing some of the surrounding beauty. It's a beautiful river and the low water provided a different kind of challenge as we kept getting stuck on the rocks. Poor Lan had to jump out a lot in order to get us unstuck. Despite the low water, TEAM GERMANY managed to capsize and we managed to lose Sarah. All the more reason to laugh uncontrollably. Of course there was also some sneak attacks from behind from one of the guides of the other boats. He managed to catch me off guard once and make me go for a swim. Pretty much whenever possible we would have water fights with the other boats. We even managed to get some Thai boats engaged in battle on the second day.

    On the first day we stopped for a break where a small waterfall tumbled into the river. The only people we saw were local women fishing with nets and hunters with guns that looked like they were 50 years old. There had been some fires set on the hills beside the river and we think it was done by the hunters in an attempt to direct their prey to make them easier to find and shoot. The rafting company has a permanent camp built on the river where we spent the night in very simple bamboo shelters. For most of the group it was early to bed, but Sarah, Chris and I partied with the Thai guides. They were an absolute riot. The second day we had our lunch where there was a hot spring. We had all envisioned a spring that you could bathe in. However, the water was not deep. It did create some nice, warm mud which we decided to create mud wraps with. I think the Russian woman had a bit of mud fetish as she went completely nuts when she got the mud all over her. Towards the end of the second day I saw something I have never seen before. Dynamite fishing. Shortly after we paddled by a couple of teenage boys, there was a big blast and an explosion of water about 10 metres high. Then one of the boys dived into the river to get the fish which had been killed. It was such a shock to see something like that.

    When the rafting was done and we had returned to Pai, Sarah, Chris and I headed out for dinner and made plans to be mahouts (elephant trainers) the next day. They actually planned to do two days of it and stay overnight at the elephant camp. I had planned to leave the following day to return to Chiang Mai so would just go for the day. The day started out with an elephant ride and pretty much picked up from where we had left off the night before. I have ridden on an elephant before, but it was in a seat and I used a platform to get on the elephant. Elephants are big animals. Climbing up on one if you have never done it before is not a graceful event. You grab onto the elephant's ear and the elephant lifts it's leg so you can use it as a stepping stool. Then you kind of have to climb/drag yourself up. The mahouts make it look easy. We were a spectacle. I was the last one to get up so I had the pleasure of laughing at both Chris and Sarah as they ungracefully pulled themselves up on our elephant, Pha Nom. Riding an elephant bareback sounds cool, but really isn't comfortable. If you get stuck far back as Chris did, then you are riding on the spine with your legs spread about a million miles apart. Ouch. If you are in the very front on the neck it isn't so bad on level ground, but it is no fun on the downhill as you have to support yourself with your hands so you don't fall headfirst off the front of the elephant. That gets very hard on the wrists, especially for those of us still recovering from a broken one. Towards the end of the ride we took the elephants down to the river for a bath. Chris and Sarah elected to stay onshore as they hadn't put their swimsuits on and would have the chance to do it the following day. That was a bonus for me as they took lots of pictures of me. First I got numerous trunk showers and then the elephant threw me into the water. I managed to get standing for a bit on her back before jumping off. As we had the old elephant in the group at 50 years old, I had to borrow someone else's elephant for the trunk toss. You climb on the elephant's trunk and get thrown. It's sort of like when you step on your parent's hand and they throw you over their shoulder as a kid, only a bit more terrifying and way more fun. After the bath, we returned to the camp for a soak in some hot springs and some lunch. Then it was off with the mahouts to get some food for the elephants. We went to gather sugar cane. Armed with machetes, we hacked and stacked the sugar cane in the back of the truck. When we returned to the camp it was time to get serious. We were given notebooks and pens. We had to learn the Thai commands the mahouts use to get the elephants to do what they want. Thai is not an easy language. It is all about tone. This is even true when talking to elephants. We learned commands for things like go forward, go back, turn left, turn right, stop, lie down, and commands to use when we wanted to get up or down using the elephant's leg. I think my elephant did what I asked maybe 1/3 of the time. The rest of the time she just did whatever the heck she wanted to do. It was all in the tone which I clearly hadn't got right. After the mahout training I was supposed to be taken back to Pai, but I suppose since it was just Chris, Sarah and I doing the mahout training, the owner let me stay on to take the elephants to the jungle for the night. After that we had a couple beers with the mahouts. Then Chris went across the road and got some Sangsom whiskey and coke. Before I knew it we were being cooked dinner by the wife of one of the mahouts and I wasn't going back to Pai that night. We spent a hilarious night drinking and talking with the mahouts. I ended up crashing in Chris and Sarah's room. I was taken back to Pai the next morning when they made the trip to town to pick up the tourists for the day. It was a fun end to a fabulous few days.

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