Rafting down the Mekong

Farah and I did a huge 2 day boat ride down the Mekong river. It was something like a cross between the Kon-Tiki expedition and the Middle Passage. We crammed in like sardines, but mostly people had fun anyway. The Lao people are used to such travelling methods, so they just let everyone get comfortable, then they sit on all of us. Lao are small and Westerners are fat, so this is actually a pretty good arrangement after all haha. Everybody wins.

Pai

I went to a little town in northern Thailand called Pai. It was really great, sort of a small musician's community. I jammed with some Thai rastas, and mostly just hung around my balcony watching the rain come down. Probably the greatest thing about this trip is not having to follow a schedule. I don't feel guilty about spending a couple days doing nothing. Whereas whenever I took shorter trips, the tendency was to cram as much in as the 3 weeks or 1 month would allow. I also got lost in a canyon with a Dutch girl, probably should have warned her about my sense of direction before she followed me in. The pic shows this narrow little strip of mountain. The rim of the canyon mostly looks like this, in the centre is a dried up riverbed, and lots of jungle. Scratches and dehydration aside, it was a pretty good day.

Chiang Mai

I have really been enjoying my time here in Chiang Mai. I have been taking some motorcycle trips around the environs here. For my money that is definitely the only way to enjoy what this magnificent country has to offer. With a bike you are free to go where you want. So far I have ridden up to a temple mountain. There were also several tribal villages. Farah was laid up in the guesthouse sans one wisdom tooth, so I did a bit of offroading as well. There are some pretty dangerous little paths that were very thrilling. Farah was soon back to herself, so the next day we went out of town and saw some hotsprings, and had a wonderful meal at a little restaurant/greenhouse. The fresh ingredients and friendly cook made it quite unforgetable.

Thailand

Well, I finally made it to Thailand. It has been nothing short of amazing so far. I spent a few days in Bangkok just hanging out with Farah and letting the jetlag wear off. Next we went to Ayutthaya, and then Sukhothai. We are now in Chiang Mai, probably for a couple weeks. I cannot put many photos up now because the bandwidth is bad. But I will do my best to get a few up in the days to come.

Canada Day

I spent Canada Day pretty much the way I always wanted to. I hung out with Mom, Dean, Amanda, and Chris and Kerri. We went fishing in the park. This was to be my last day in Canada for quite awhile, so it was awesome to enjoy it so much.

Banff

Mom and I went out to Banff for the day. I never realized how nice it was out there. Any time I was there I was just passing through or skiing. It's wonderful in the suumer too. I will put the photos up later, they are on my computer which is stored in Bangkok.