Sawadee Ka from Thailand!
I've been here just over a week now and have been keeping very busy. First stop was Phuket (flew in for 30 day visa). The whole reason for me going there was to dive. So I did :). But before that I went to an Obama innaguration party at an expat bart in Phuket town (it happened at midnight in Thailand). It was fun. The bar did a special with Obama burgers and bourbon. Anyway diving. I went over to Karon beach for diving. The beaches were nice as was the $6 massage on the beach. The diving was terrific! I did my first wreck dive (got to swim through the boat to the prow) on the first dive. Then we went to shark point and saw 2 leopard sharks. I got to lay down next to them. The highlight of the third dive was a huge moray eel (we saw 2) but we also saw a bamboo shark on that one. All and all a great day underwater!
After Phuket I decided to head to the jungle so I am now in Khao Sok which is a huge jungle in South Thailand. After a short day hike the first day I was here, I did a 2 day trip into the jungle. The first day we hiked into a cave. The cave had loads of bats and spiders and frogs and crickets and water. So much water that we had to swim at some parts while our guide scaled the rocks with the cameras. So cool! We spent the night in a floating rafthouse on a lake. Like literally you could see the water through the floor of the rooms. And the food was terrific! They put down plates of like 3 different mains and you just served it on up. Curry, sweet and sour, noodles, ginger.. I love Thai food! Day 2 we went for a longboat ride in the morning and saw 4 kinds of monkeys. Most were too far away to get good photos of, but we saw black monkeys, longtail macaques, shortail monkeys, and my favorite (because they act like acrobats in the trees) gibbons. Later we did a hike over a hill and went for a swim before heading back.
Today I decided to go for a short hike to a waterfall. Was supposed to be 4km. I don't know what the person doing the measuring was smoking but after nearly 3 hours of hiking there was no sign of the falls. What I did see loads of, however, mostly on my feet, were leeches. I was hiking with a French couple when I first saw a few on my foot. I was wearing Keens (sandals) for the river crossings (and because it is the dry season when there are few leeches- but it had rained yesterday) and when I took them off I had about 9 leeches drinking away. The French couple (wearing long pants and hiking boots) freaked out about the leeches outside their clothes and went back. I continued on stopping every now and again to pull another few off my feet. Honestly, it was a rather gross way to spend an afternoon but I'll chalk it up to experience. A couple of random facts about leeches- they are harmless in that they don't make you sick or anything and don't hurt at all. In fact you really cannot feel them. They release an anticoagulant when they start drinking the blood so it takes a few minutes before you can start to clot. I could go on here but I bet I am totally grossing you all out, huh? Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them. My camera was in my backpack and upon seeing leeches on my feet I couldn't make myself wait to get out the camera and take a shot before frantically ripping them off. I should take a pic of the marks on my feet though. Note to self.
Tomorrow I start heading up to Bangkok. Going to do a muay thai kickboxing class for a week before Jaclyn and Mish come meet up with me for 2 weeks. Can't wait to see them!!
The picture is of the floating rafthouses where I stayed. Cool, huh?
I've been here just over a week now and have been keeping very busy. First stop was Phuket (flew in for 30 day visa). The whole reason for me going there was to dive. So I did :). But before that I went to an Obama innaguration party at an expat bart in Phuket town (it happened at midnight in Thailand). It was fun. The bar did a special with Obama burgers and bourbon. Anyway diving. I went over to Karon beach for diving. The beaches were nice as was the $6 massage on the beach. The diving was terrific! I did my first wreck dive (got to swim through the boat to the prow) on the first dive. Then we went to shark point and saw 2 leopard sharks. I got to lay down next to them. The highlight of the third dive was a huge moray eel (we saw 2) but we also saw a bamboo shark on that one. All and all a great day underwater!
After Phuket I decided to head to the jungle so I am now in Khao Sok which is a huge jungle in South Thailand. After a short day hike the first day I was here, I did a 2 day trip into the jungle. The first day we hiked into a cave. The cave had loads of bats and spiders and frogs and crickets and water. So much water that we had to swim at some parts while our guide scaled the rocks with the cameras. So cool! We spent the night in a floating rafthouse on a lake. Like literally you could see the water through the floor of the rooms. And the food was terrific! They put down plates of like 3 different mains and you just served it on up. Curry, sweet and sour, noodles, ginger.. I love Thai food! Day 2 we went for a longboat ride in the morning and saw 4 kinds of monkeys. Most were too far away to get good photos of, but we saw black monkeys, longtail macaques, shortail monkeys, and my favorite (because they act like acrobats in the trees) gibbons. Later we did a hike over a hill and went for a swim before heading back.
Today I decided to go for a short hike to a waterfall. Was supposed to be 4km. I don't know what the person doing the measuring was smoking but after nearly 3 hours of hiking there was no sign of the falls. What I did see loads of, however, mostly on my feet, were leeches. I was hiking with a French couple when I first saw a few on my foot. I was wearing Keens (sandals) for the river crossings (and because it is the dry season when there are few leeches- but it had rained yesterday) and when I took them off I had about 9 leeches drinking away. The French couple (wearing long pants and hiking boots) freaked out about the leeches outside their clothes and went back. I continued on stopping every now and again to pull another few off my feet. Honestly, it was a rather gross way to spend an afternoon but I'll chalk it up to experience. A couple of random facts about leeches- they are harmless in that they don't make you sick or anything and don't hurt at all. In fact you really cannot feel them. They release an anticoagulant when they start drinking the blood so it takes a few minutes before you can start to clot. I could go on here but I bet I am totally grossing you all out, huh? Unfortunately I didn't get any pictures of them. My camera was in my backpack and upon seeing leeches on my feet I couldn't make myself wait to get out the camera and take a shot before frantically ripping them off. I should take a pic of the marks on my feet though. Note to self.
Tomorrow I start heading up to Bangkok. Going to do a muay thai kickboxing class for a week before Jaclyn and Mish come meet up with me for 2 weeks. Can't wait to see them!!
The picture is of the floating rafthouses where I stayed. Cool, huh?
7 comments:
Your adventure reminds me of the movie Stand By Me when they find the leeches all over themselves. Your experience is way more extreme though. I'm with the French couple. I would have turned back. --Heather
Can't believe I'm mentioned! YAY!! Hoping to see monkeys myself...if only to make Egg jealous. Wouldn't mind staying leech-free. If I don't, I hope I can manage to take a picture or two before ripping them off. I doubt I'll keep the shrieking to a minimum though.
Erik's hoping to eat live crickets. I'm pretty sure this is more to gross me out than anything else.
I mention your blog in mine. Read #5 on my "25 things" post. Where are pictures of the leech bites?
Um, yeah...so the leeches would totally freak me out. Props to you for keeping your shit together. I nearly had a panic attack once when I found a tick on my head. Glad to hear that you are having fun and probably the best curry in the world. Love you!
Get some leech love. I've heard it's best not to pull them off or burn them, since they're likely to regurgitate into the wound. Salt 'em. Sounds like an awesome time though, especially the glass bottom boats and monkeys. Yeah, show us your leech hickeys. - Matty
I felt like the post leech feet pic was a little much for this. Promise to post on Facebook and Picasa next time I upload :).
Post a Comment