MOSQUITO UPDATE: VISCIOUS! infected and swollen wednesday: arrival in chiang mai search for hostel. settle on no frills one under $10, loud gecko noises - eek! check out the local "wats" (temples). craving hamburger. realize that our trajectory - not going to vietnam after cambodia really not well thought out based on geography. slight panic. pu...

Thursday, October 25th- 6:11 pm The street festival in Pai last last was loads of fun! I spent most of the night walking around with Anna and our new pal, Ilia (also a Russian living in Israel). My secondary mission (primary one being to have a blast!) was to take as many pictures as possible to capture the spirit of the night for those back at ...

Well, sadly this is our last day in Chiang Mai. Although it's a bittersweet parting, as tomorrow morning we leave for Laos! We've had a busy couple of days here... yesterday we decided to visit all the Wats (temples) in the city, as you can hardly walk down the street without seeing one. At the first Wat we visited, we met a Canadian man inside ...

The night train to Chiang Mai The ride was fantastic and fun! I went to my cart and found my bed. I got the lower one, while there was another one above me. It's so cool: You get a clean sheets, pillow, a blanket wrapped in a nylon bag! I listen to some music on the player I bought, and read the guide for Chiang Mai (Thanks to Moran and Yariv fo...

Had mixed feelings about the trek before we left as there were loads of them in town all claiming to be non-touristy but by their very nature being sold at a travel agent surely they are touristy? Anyway off we headed into the hills in the back of a van, the rest of the group were all young professionals and were quite nice so it was a good star...

I love Chiang Mai! It is such a cool, laid back town. The old city center is surrounded by a moat/canal and there are so many little alley ways that one can lose themselves in. There are almost as many temples here as in Bangkok, and there are classes for everything from Thai cooking to foot massage. Plus, I am only paying 60 baht a night for my...

Blood, sweat and tears... Alrighty, so all three of these have been a component of my journey thus far, please let me explain. BLOOD: Well, I was at the Central mall yesterday after class, and they had a red cross blood donor clinic set up. I remember reading in the english language thai papers that there's a total shortage of blood in Thailand ...

Okay, so today we started our Thai language class... It was quite the experience really... First of all, our Ajaan (professor) has devised this system of teaching thai to falang (foreigners) by teaching us all a phonetic code, so that later on, once we know the code, we'll be able to accurately notate words... sounds great, but that means that t...