Sawadee Kaap! I’ve been in Thailand a few days now, and I’d like to report on an spectacular adventure today and some snibbits from the past few days as well.

I’m in Chiang Mai, a fairly large city in northern Thailand. I’m staying with Sean in his apartment and have been here two days so far, although we’ve packed it in pretty good so it seems like much longer. Yesterday I rented a scooter for a week so I can get out an explore myself, and I’ve been trying to get myself used to driving on the left side of the road in an almost traffic lawless country where common sense, quick reflexes, and a bit of luck is all that’s between riding along safely and being crunched under a bus.

Anyway, after having breakfast across the street for $1.50 (yes that is for both Sean and my breakfast), we headed off on quite an exciting adventure. We filled up the scooter with gas and met a German friend Sven, who knows the back roads and trails around here pretty well. We then headed up into the mts for about an hour on a well paved road. After reaching the top of the ridge we turned down a sketchy dirt road and began the long trek back down. We had coffee and lunch at a small and quite gorgeous coffee plantation hidden away near a Mong hilltribe village. Which by the way was quite amazing! The place was pretty much shacks and dirt except every shack had a set of solar panels outside for power! I don’t know how they get them, but I was very impressed that the poorest people I’ve seen yet in the country have solar panels! The US is surely behind in this particular area.

We headed all the way back down the ridge for close to 3 hours on dirt tracks and small hilltribe roads. Montaña, I’m so glad we did some dirt bike training in the snow in Oregon before taking off. I felt pretty comfortable slip-sliding my way down the trails, and actually got way into the ride after getting more comfortable with the limits of the bike. I needed it to get the scooter down some really rough terrain. Nope, I didn’t wreck, but got pretty wet crossing a couple streams, and my nether regions are definitely sore! I’m way glad I had a rental scooter for all the fun I had it was probably pretty hard on the bike.

What else have I been up to? A funny thing happened, as I was sitting in the Medford airport waiting for my first plane on a series of three Amy and Fran walked in on their way to Colorado. It was great to start my journey with two good friends, and catch up with a couple people that I seem to only see when we are both away from home. In, san fran they headed off to Co, and I to Tokyo with a nice hug and some funny conversations since we were all three low to non existent on sleep the night before. Well, I met up with Jasper and Nate first off when I arrived, which was really a blessing. They showed me around for the first couple days, and we adventured through some of the seedy backpacker parts of Bankok (koasan road). We had a rooftop pool, hot showers, and wonderfully cheap fresh fruit, as well as some really pesky tuk tuk drivers and far too many pushy transvestites to make me feel altogether comfortable. But all in all it was a great welcome to Thailand.

I then met up with Sean and we stayed with his amazing friends Pi Noi and Pi Pboa and their son Pitt. I have to say, that kid blew me away. He knows more about beetles than anyone I’ve ever met, and he’s only 7! He speaks perfect English, and some Japanese, Chinese, and of course thai as well. It was definitely living in luxury, but that wonderful luxury that doesn’t take away from the fact that this family is made up of some top truly incredible human beings.

Sean and I then took the bus up to Chiang Mai, which was yet another adventure. We took the night bus so we could sleep (or so we thought). It was looking really good when the two people didn’t show up next to us, leaving us the 4 seats across the back to stretch out on, but as it turns out the driver really had no idea how to drive a stick, or more likely the clutch was going out. Anyway, I don’t think first gear or 3^rd gear worked because he had to coast to a stop at least 3 times and sit for 5 or so minute repeatedly trying to get the bus into some gear to get it to go forward. Anyway, the back of the bus is way bouncy anyway, so really, we got almost no sleep on the drive up, between bouncing back and forth and listening to the bus driver grind gears…

Now, one more strange event I wasn’t expecting. Ultimate Frisbee in Asia! Yesterday we played with a great group of people (mostly international) studying at Payap international university. They definitely weren’t top knotch, but some were pretty good, and all were incredibly nice, as all Frisbee players I know are! We had full sevens for the first game, and five for the second. I Miss Frisbee, and am really looking forward to Co, GRU Frisbee when I get back. There is a tournament this weekend in Bankok I was invited to join in on, but that would mean another night bus ride down, so I think I’ll skip it.

My small Thai lessons while driving through the desert have come in really handy! I know enough that I can be polite and at least show that I am interested in Thai culture. More than that though, a smile and a friendly attitude goes so far here!

Other plans for the future? I’m headed out climbing most likely tomorrow with some friends I met at Frisbee, as well as building a helmet mount for sean’s video camera so we can get our next scooter ride recorded properly. Then we might head up to Pai for a bit of rafting and mountain life experiences. Laos is on the agenda in the next couple weeks, and after that? Not sure yet! I’m definitely heading down to the islands for some climbing, snorkeling, and beach life.

I hope all is wonderful in your day. I’ve met some great people along the way, but I miss you all as well! I wish you were here to experience some of these great times.