TravelStream™ news feed for member rachel_c on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/rachel_c en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:09:01 -0400 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1214394600/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1214394600/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1214394600/tpod.html Wed, 25 Jun 2008 22:09:01 -0400 South East Asia sojourn!

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Sydney, Australia

Well, as I am being a good, if not somewhat time delayed ;) travel blogger :) I give you "the rest"!!
It does cover a good 5-6 days, so it's a bit long!!!! (ok, very!) But, read away I guess! :) {Some pics are on facebook too! album 1 and album 2}

Since I last blogged, I am now back home in Syders :)

During the rest of my time in Northern Thailand, I did some more touristy things, a elephant trek/hill tribe visit and rafting on the river on the Wednesday, Day trip to Chiang Rai and the Golden Triangle on Thursday, before heading back to Bangkok on Friday, for the weekend :)

It was interesting to do the elephant trek after the visit to the Elephant Nature Park and changed what my perspective on it, I think... for sure. I enjoyed it though! But must say it was a bit hairy on the elephant - felt like I was going to sooo fall out of the seat thing...! :0). And did feel a little (ok, a lot) sorry for the elephant who did the painting. Especially when... and these next comments are based on my admittedly very little knowledge of the reaction of elephants, it looked like it was concentratin' fairly darn hard... and did notice that the poor little thing, sometimes during the breaks for 'change of paint brush' was 'eating' it's trunk- which when they spoke of this, at the Elephant Nature Park the day before, it sounds this 'mannerism' is done similarly to the human reaction of biting nails :( :( ohhh.
But enough of the :( stuff!!!!

In addition to that, the ride and the hill tribe visit, also went for a 1 hour raft on the Ping River. Very nice and peaceful!!! :) - even if it did rain a little bit!

On Thursday, it was Chiang Rai visit time - a 12 hour round trip from Chiang Mai!
Visited the Golden Triangle, more hill tribes, and went to the furtherest northern point of Thailand, where there was the opportunity to cross the boarder in Myanmar as well. I didn't, but some of the group did and said it was all rather busy and full on! Both from a customs sense and all the busy'ness in general, with lots of people having various things for sale too!

It was quite funny - I was one of a few people doing the tour 'for the tour' kinda thing! :) The group incl. an American student who is over here working in a holiday camp until September.....no working visa though, she will do a 'visa run' trip every 3 weeks or so (tourist visa's have a one month validity!) woah! This was her first, long trip of many! Most of the others were using this tour as a cheap way to get to Chiang Rai :)
On the way we also stopped at hot springs and a temple too :) So while it was long, it was a good day :)

Friday was a nice opportunity for a sleep in, before I paid for my fine, but, realistically, bit 'higher end' then I really required (!! note to self! :)) accommo and headed for Bangkok :)
There I was to meet Laura, Mac, and Mac's friend Lucie for swimming pool, movies and market action over the weekend!!
Was lots of fun, had ample opportunities :) to work on my t-shirt mark tan ;) and rectify any pastiness ahead of return to Sydney! :) - I forgot I wanted my legs tanned too, though, as I was about to leave on Monday! he he he! :) Could be a bit of colour there too! :0)
It was great to hang out and have the girls who are all v. Bangkok savvy :) there to 'show' and 'share' the sights too!! :) (haha oh that's rather lazy of me, isn't it! ;) and perhaps a tad spoilt heh!). It was always good to have Mac about - her fluent Thai never ceases to amaze!!

Unfortunately, on Saturday Laura had an encounter with a pain in the neck massage lady! Quite literally!
Despite of this she battled on - trooper!! - and after a near 24 hrs of pain :( - and a dr's visit - it became clear just how much indeed as the official diagnosis was that the massage woman had severely strained some muscles during the course of the massage. Big big Ouch! :-( So poor Laus might be taking it a bit easy on the massage for the next little while, at least! Despite all this Laus still managed to movie and market on - Massive effort folks! ... :)

I would recommend 'Kungfu Panda' - which we saw as I'd already seen SATC. The animation is very awesome and it's a cute movie! - and if you're a Jack Black fan you'll like it even more so I reckon - as he is the voice of Panda, who takes more than a little of his persona! :0)
It was also fun to hit the gourmet food hall and walk around with our toothpicks - hanging out of the mouth a little like a lil farmer or somethin ;), samplin all the yummy food, as well as doing conversion rates on tim tams, if you're me! haha! :)

Then on Sunday it was operation : ducklings at Jutajuk market!!! :) as Laura and Mac were also off to choose their children during the visit too! :) They make proud parents ;p and chose some spritely lil ones for a new home in Sriracha! :)
There was heaps there too - anything and everything - and I nearly went nuts on the shopping, before being content to more or less window shop :) Worked out very well as hit up Khao San rd in the much cooler afternoon and spend some cash there! :)

While we said our goodbyes as the girls and their children ;) went back to Sriracha ahead of School on Monday, it was great that Mac's friend Lucie, who legendarily secured the accommo for us (thank you!!) :) was in Bangkok too! :)
We all had a heaps fun time over the weekend and it was good to meet her too - I am pleased she was there and we continued to hang out and had some funny moments, which included my purchase of a wooden frog!! (insert *frog noise* here!) after yes, an alcoholic beverage or twooo! haha! Bargain on the wallet ;) REAL bargain on the convenience front too, with quite possibly every frog seller in Bangkok visiting us that night ;p

So then it was Monday and my final day in Bangkok! :) A nice cruisy morning with some last sunshine in Thailand and a touch of backpack fun and games before off to the airport!

You've now made it to the end of my blog! :)
A massive big Thanks again to Laura, Mac and Lucie for all their hospitality! :)

I had a great ten days, as hopefully evident from this too :) and I will definitely be back to Thailand again in the future, as there is plenty more to see and do both there and in South East Asia in general! :)

Adios amigos! :)
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Pattaya, Thailand

Me again!

Well, of course, amongst elephants in Northern Thailand I have also been doing other things :)
These 'other things' (oh, soooo low key right! haha - not at all!!!!) include the excitin' visit to Sriracha (note pronounciation gag in the blog title! and hmmm...AND do I even have it right there?!) and visiting Laura :)

I had an awesome time!!! A big thank you and 10/10 to Laura and Mac for their excellent tour guiding - made all the more impressive in light of the fact that they were working all weekend!
Great time was had which also included visiting the markets, having some great food, exploring about the place on ze bike, indulging in 'icey surprise' (pic to come!!!) and I also had my first Thai massage, which was nice! - except for the moments where my lack of flexibility inflicted some pain! haha - it was awesome catchin up and it was great visit to Sriracha! :) ... Also, definitely interesting to see a some-what (or just flat-out!?) 'typical thai town' - as Sriracha is not all that touristy at all :)

I am hereby informing you now that I am coming back ready and raring to recommend everyone goes for a visit! :0) (somebody stop me on the alliteration and almost-alliteration front! I'm on fire! ;))

Rach :)
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Chiang Mai, Thailand

Helllloooo and greetings from Chiang Mai!!

Thought it time for some travel blog action! :) So if that interests you, read on! :)

Today (Tuesday 17th) I have had an awesome time visiting the Elephant Nature Park.
This park is home to about 30 elephants, who have been rescued from various parts of Thailand and surrounding regions from some very unfortunate situations - including little orphan elephants, and very sadly, a lot of cases of pretty extreme cruelty.

We began the day by going via a market to get fruit for the elephants - understandably, each elephant scoffs down kilos of the stuff daily, but is sure is a lot of fruit when you see it enmasse! Then on arrival at the Park we had a look around and at all the elephants for a bit before it was time to feed them! That was all pretty cool, and lots of fun to watch the elephants interact with each other, and people too :) Some of the 'little' ;) guys were being quite picky, and would take, say, a cucumber from you, but would kinda throw it down and wait for something more interesting like a (whole!) watermelon, or some bananas! :)

Then in the afternoon we helped with bathing the elephants in the river. That was quite the awesome experience and lots of fun! Had to be on the look out for.......floating 'surprises'... haha!! ... but more importantly, moving elephants as it was harder to get out of the way as quick when the big boys and girls decided they were getting up!
It is amazing how hot they get as well! Today wasn't a particularly hot day - rather rainy and overcast to be honest! - but even after 15mins+ in the river, their trunks were hot as!!!

It is quite unbelievable the terrible situations not only these, but a large majority (e.g: almost all!) elephants in Thailand have been through. We saw some documentaries throughout the day which explained the ancient 'methods' used to 'train' elephants, for use as working animals (how they are 'classified' in Thailand, as in along with ox and cows(!) - not the endangered species that the are, interestingly!) or for use in things like trekking, elephant shows and in earlier years (before it was outlawed) logging.

This (disjointed entry haha!) now brings me to the fact I am going on a Hill Tribe tour tomorrow, which also includes elephant riding. Call me naive, but before today, I had no idea the level of cruelty a lot of these animals were put through in being trained to be used for these types of things. I take this opportunity to justify it ;) by thinking back to something that was mentioned today: if these elephants weren't being used for treks, a lot of them may probably left deserted on the streets....but still can't help but think back to the doco's which showed the days of torture and beatings these animals took when being trained (ahem!) for this. ...but I will see both sides I guess!

That is all for now :) perhaps at this rate I'll probably end up doing a post holiday wrap as it's action stations tomorrow and Thursday too!

Rach :)

PS: I have been having all sorts of issues with Facebook and trying to upload photos, but off to give it one more go!!
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1213095720/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1213095720/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1213095720/tpod.html Tue, 10 Jun 2008 08:02:17 -0400 South East Asia sojourn!

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Sydney, Australia

Hello from your intrepid-pre-travel-blogger! ;)

Well, the countdown has been mammoth ;) (note to self: counting down does not do good things for trying to not get too 'cited too soon! - but on the home stretch with 3 sleeps to go till Thailand!

So while I have been spending the past 13 days (length of 'facebook status update countdown' ;) so far - yes, insane! ;)) trying not to get tooooooo excited - it's time to embrace ze excitement! (muah ha ha!) ~ that could be a scary thought, coz I think I pretty much have been embracing it ;-p

Pretty much all set to go ~ aside from having yet to physically begin to pack the backpack! (surprise!), and there are a few more purchases before Friday!

Looking forward to some improvements on the weather front! - Although rainy season in Thailand, I would much rather it be really hot followed by rain - at least I can enjoy the sun while it lasts! (unlike here at the moment!)

Not sure just yet how much I will update this - but I think during next week - where I'm going solo in Chiang Mai, I may well find a bit of internet time...!!! ...And time for a blog update or two on my play dates ;) with elephants and other lil trips about the place!

But firstly, Off to Bangkok on Friday before heading 2 hrs east and onto Sriracha on Sat - and am looking forward to seeing Laura and having a good ol catchup! :)

Adios for now!

Rach
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1211759700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1211759700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/rachel_c/1/1211759700/tpod.html Sun, 25 May 2008 05:58:48 -0400 South East Asia sojourn!

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Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

Found this travel blog thingy here while searching for things about the South East Asia sojourn ... so thought I might sign up!

Am keen to make a map of where I am going ... hahah ... such a kid ;) so I am just doing a bit of a crap entry to see if it'll let me!!

Still a few weeks till I go, but getting quite excite!!!!!!!
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