I’ve uploaded new photos from my motorbike drive up in the Cameron Highlands where tea is grown on the mountain slopes. The air was cool and the roads wind around these mountains and up and down the hills. Driving the motorbike is the best way to experience the Cameron Highlands.
A view of the Pai River from the nearby mountain
We’ve just uploaded photos from our last two days in Pai. Instead of joining an organized trekking tour, we decided to ride around by ourselves and explore different villages, waterfalls, wats and farmland. It was fabulous.
Check out the photos from day 3 and day 4.
We are now back in Chiang Mai packing our bags and getting ready to say goodbye to each other and to Thailand. Tomorrow morning we both fly out of Chiang Mai – I am flying back to HCMC for 1 night before flying back home (via Tokyo) and Kevin is flying to Malaysia to start his adventure!
Pam Bok Waterfall Near Pai
We’ve uploaded new photo albums from our first two days here in Pai in the North of Thailand. Check out photos of our motorbike travels:
We’ve been in Pai since Sunday afternoon when we arrived by bus from Chiang Mai. The name of the town is pronounced with a hard “B” sound, as in, “Bye Bye”, not, “American Pie”. The weather is quite different up here in the mountains of Northern Thailand and we wake up to the chilly morning air protected by a couple of blankets and a mosquito net in our cabin. The cabin is the ideal setting for a little morning stretch and exercise, complete with a straw mat and a beautiful view of the gardens.
We decided to skip the included “American Breakfast” as it’s called and cross the street for something a bit more interesting and healthy. We first dropped off our dirty laundry, also across the tiny street, where they wash your clothes for 20 Baht (50 cents) and it’s ready by 6PM the same day. The breakfast cafe was small and charming with statues, flowers and little offerings of food in dishes which the passing dogs seemed to enjoy very much. Tamar had a fruit, yogurt and muesli cup and I enjoyed a mushroom crepe and some very strong and good coffee.
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Tin Tin Up Close
Going to the north of Thailand without riding an elephant is a little like going to Vegas without gambling. Yesterday, on our first full day in Pai, we decided to go elephant riding in the afternoon. For our journey, we got “Tin Tin”, a huge female elephant who doesn’t look a day older than 412. Tin Tin, as we learned moments later, is a moody girl with a serious gas problem (the two are related, I suspect).
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One of the many dirt roads around Koh Mak
We decided to end our week long stay on the islands by spending two nights in Koh Mak – a smaller island off of Koh Chang. We took a slow boat from Koh Chang’s fisherman’s village and an hour later we were on a gorgeous new island. Even before getting off the boat, I could already see that the water was crystal clean turquoise and the scenery resembled one of those posters you see in a tour agency. Koh Mak is definitely less touristy than Koh Chang with far less resorts, restaurants and activities. There are stretches of land where you see nothing but trees (and dogs). It is very quiet and somewhat secluded, a perfect romantic getaway.
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I just returned from a fabulous weekend in Singapore. I enjoyed every little street, dish, neighborhood, park, drink and mall (yes, I admit it).
I arrived late in the evening and went straight to my hostel “Hangout @Mt. Emily” which was perfect. The hostel is located in Little India at a top of a hill, right by a beautiful park. It has a great vibe and a gorgeous rooftop deck with beautiful view of the city. It has been a long time since I last stayed at a youth hostel but I was glad to see nothing has changed, not even the browser version on the public computers.
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Floating Market, Can Tho
This is my third visit to Vietnam, I have seen many of the wonderful sights all along the country but have never visited the Mekong Delta before. I have always wanted to go and see the southwest of Vietnam where the Mekong river ends its long journey from China through Myanmar, Laos, Thailand and Cambodia.
This past weekend I went to visit my friend Thi Bay in Can Tho, the largest city in the Mekong Delta. After a 5hr bus ride from HCMC through rice fields, villages and towns, I was finally at the campus where Thi Bay lives. Six months ago, Thi Bay left NY for a teaching position at Can Tho University and a chance to reconnect with her Vietnamese roots (her grandfather was Vietnamese, a fact she has to repeat 5 times a day on average). In a short time, Thi Bay has become somewhat of a local star in a city that has very few foreigners. From students walking by to the Xe Om drivers outside the gate, everybody knows her and wants to have a little chat.
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photo credit: JasonDGreat
Thailand has a new prime minister and the country looks to be bouncing back from its relatively brief period of instability caused by mass protests and the blockage of Thai airports. The airports have reopened and things are returning to normal. We’re following the news closely as we prepare for our upcoming trip. Even if nobody closes down the islands and beaches we still may need to enter the country by plane so we’re hoping that there will be no further disruptions to the Thai way of life as well as our upcoming visit. Read more about the current situation here: Thai PM vows to restore stability – CNN.com.
It may seem like just yesterday but believe it or not it’s been a full year since helmets became mandatory for motorbike riders in Vietnam. We wrote about the helmet revolution when it happened last year. It’s certainly no surprise that this law has saved lives and there are even more safety measures in the works! View the NY Times Article about the World Health Organization’s assessment of the existing and future laws.