Day 18: Leaving Chiang Mai

Highlights

-Thai cooking class
-eating our own Thai food
-time at the pool
-finishing our suits

Helpful Hints

-always threaten to walk away, we are slowly learning that we are paying too much
-bring lots of OFF, ziplock bags, and Febreeze

We are now all certified Thai chefs. May not have a piece of paper with our name on it but judging by the success of our meals, we're official. Saturday (Day 16) we took an all-day cooking class. They picked us up at the hotel and took us first to a large market. We selected the meals we were going to cook and the teacher took us around the market to buy the things we would need for that day. Learned a lot there but I don't know how easy it will be to do in Calgary. Definitely not stuff you find at Safeway or IGA. Will have to spend some time in Chinatown.

We made four meals each in the morning and attempted to eat them all at lunch. The 20 tourists-turned-cooks were very chatty and excited at the beginning of lunch but by the end most people were too full to talk, other than to complain about being full.



Out of the meals we each made my best was the Padthai, Luke had an amazing "big noodles with thick sauce" soup, and Nevin made some "big noodles with black bean sause".

In the afternoon we made lighter stuff like salads and desserts. My rice-mango dessert was so amazing that I ate it all without thinking about how full I already was OR about the fact that I hadn't let Nevin try any (Luke was lucky to get one taste test). Overall a very successful day. We each have cookbooks we're bringing home so be ready for some Thai food experiments back in Alberta.

Two more quick things:

THE OILERS WIN!! Yesterday we got to the internet cafe early to listen to the Oilers' game live in 630CHED radio. It's not as good as seeing the game live but when you've just been trying to catch up on the scores for weeks it's amazing to sit down and hear it live. We attracted a few stares from the other patrons (especially the Thai ones). The last few minutes of the game were crazy. I'd say I was sweating extra hard but we all sweat so much here that it would be hard to prove that. If we can find a TV that will play the games in Laos I think we're going to stay there for the next two weeks not matter what.

Last thing, our new suits are done. Real cashmere wool suits, cotton shirts, and silk ties. They stay up until 10:00 or so every night of the week at this place. We had fittings each evening on Friday, Saturday, and yesterday. And I must say, we look good. We're mailing the suits home so parents, expect a large package in the mail at least by the middle of June. Nevin's and Luke's are going to St. Albert, mine to Nanton.

Oh, and we've touched up our playoff beards. Since none of us can actually grow one, we decided to focus on what we can grow. Luke has a solid chin-strap going, Nevin has a nice goatee, and I have a crappy goatee with a crappy moustache (I figure they average out into one nice section of facial hair). Anyway, much better than the full playoff beards we've been growing since the start of the trip.

We have to get back and check out of our hotel now. We leave at noon to go up to the very northern part of Thailand. Tomorrow morning we get on a slow boat for a two day float to Luang Prabang. I bought a new reading book (Tom Clancy's "The Bear And The Dragon") as well as a Sudoku book (proud of me Brendan and Matt?). We'll reestablish contact in Laos.

GO OILERS GO!!!

Day 11: Chiang Mai

Highlights

-amazing ruins at Ayutthaya
-overnight train ride to Chiang Mai
-tour of local industries
-FROG!

Helpful Hints

-if you're going to be in an air conditioned area (ie. a train) for a long time, bring WARM clothing
-Ayutthaya is a must see for Thailand newbies

We are now up north in Chiang Mai, near the border with Burma. Don't worry, we're not that close. Yesterday was mostly a travelling day. We took a short train ride to the former Thailand capital/kingdom of Ayutthaya. There we met a very friendly Tuktuk driver (aren't they all so friendly) that drove us around to all the major sites and explained a little about each one. Luke and I took a lot of pictures. The day was pretty hot but fortunately we were able to leave our big packs at the train station locked up.

We sat around for the evening, played some hacky sack, and caught a 9:00 pm train out of Ayutthaya to Chiang Mai. It was a second class sleeper car so we had our bunks, a thin blanket, and a pillow. It also had AC...too much AC. We all woke up several times during the night just shivering. But it was all worth it. Chiang Mai is amazing. Lots of great things to check out, and not nearly as congested as Bangkok.

We went on a complimentary tour from our hotel today. (Complimentary because they show you how a lot of the cottage industries work, and then usher you into the gift shop to buy something.) The coolest by far was the Umbrella shop. They used the bark of the Sa tree, soaked it, boiled it, and pounded it until it became a mash. That was put in water and then transferred onto screens to make paper. They use the paper for the umbrellas. All the umbrellas are handpainted, and while they were painting them, they offered to paint on our own clothing. Luke and I quickly accepted. We now both have awesome hand made paintings of dragons on our shorts. It is amazing, and fits in with the oringinal colours of my shorts. I hope it doesn't come off next time I'm in the water. I think Mom and Mrs. Crutchfield should be expecting some Mothers day presents out of that trip.

After that tour we went back to the hostel, and then went to a meeting for the trek we are doing tomorrow. Sounds like its going to be a blast. After that, met up with a spaniard that came to dinner with us. Awesome guy, and pretty amusing with the locals. Had a good dinner, with some good beer. Luke and Nevin had some of the usual favorites but I had to try something new...frog. And not just the legs...the whole thing. It came all barbecued in a bowl with green peppers. It was a lot like trying to pick apart small chicken wings although the ribcage was a bit unnerving.

Anyways, thats about it for now, so wish us luck on our trek, and leave comments, they're always fun to read, especially when they talk about how awesome the Oil is. Only two more games until we're in the finals!

Talk to you soon.

Day 8 and 9 : Bangkok and the Grand Palace

We'll, this is the first post I've ever written, and knowing how much Mike likes doin this, I'll probably let him write most of it. Anyways, WE ARRIVED IN BANGKOK!!! I think I left about 45 pounds in sweat around the country all ready. IT IS HOT!!!, that's good if you're with a lady, not good if you're in the jungle. The city is humungous, and we've only seen a small part of it.

Got to our Hostel at about Three O Clock yesterday, and then hit up Khao San Road. For those of you who aren't in the know, that's a little street market road where a lot of travellers congregate. Amazing deals on everything from trinkets and food, to jeans. Nevin and I are already thinking about all the amazing clothes we can bring back home at fractions of the real price. Any requests should be sent via e-mail to either Me or Nevin, but we do not guarantee the quality of our goods. After walking around for a while, and dying of the heat, we hit up an open air streetside restaurant, and had some good Thai food. Nevin and Mike both sat in awe at the sight of their very first ladyboy, oooooh. I think the farmboy in Nevin was more than freaked out by the large gay population.

After supper, we all head back to the hostel to take a little rest in the air conditioned room. I'm pretty sure this country would be uninhabitable without AC. After slightly recovering and downing a few litres of water, we went up to the rooftop patio on our hostel to endulge in a great view, and a litre of beer for only TWO DOLLARS! It was nice to come back from a day of extreme heat and enjoy a game of crib and a beer, with lizards running about all around us.

Today was pretty touristy. Woke up relatively early to try and watch the oiler game, only to find out that the closest thing the Thai's know to hockey is soccer in England. We kept up at the start of the game watching the play by play on the internet, and then got tired off sitting there and head off for the day. We walked over to the Grand Palace, after taking a slight detour to try and find a bridge we saw from the rooftop restaurant the night before. It turned out that we're horrible guides, and all we really accomplished was getting lost and ending up at a University in the middle of Bangkok. We stopped for a drink, and were soon on our way again.

Eventually did end up at the grand palace and I can honestly say it is one of the most breathtaking things I have ever seen. The palace itself, and the building that houses the emerald buddha is unbelievable in its architecture and craftsmanship. Seeing the emerald buddha from so close was almost amazing enough to make me switch to buddhaism. Don't worry, we took lots of pictures, Mike even snuck a picture of the emerald Buddha with the zoom on his camera from outside the temple. The whole time that Mike and I were running around taking pictures, Nevin was busy dying from the heat.

Wandered down to the river after that and caught a boat taxi over to the train station to get our trip to Chiang Mai figured out. Got the trip planned, including a stop in Ayuthaya, and we even planned our three day jungle trek in Chiang Mai through the same company. After that, we decided to get a bit dangerous and take a Tuk-Tuk back to Khao San Road. A Tuk-Tuk is like a motorcycle, turned into a trike, with a three seat buggy over the two back wheels. It's loud, and the pollution smells almost as bad as the driver. We took a video from the back of the Tuk-Tuk just so we could scare the parents a bit. (the driving is a little bit worse than we are used to.) After that, walked up and down Khao San again, and Mike brushed up on his bartering skills. Even managed to talk one guy down from 380 Baht to 300 Baht, which converts to about $9 ( pretty good for a nice belt.)

That's our day so far, and it probably wont bring any more big surprises. We may do a riverboat tour, but it should be pretty tame. Probably won't have any contact tomorrow, but will probably post again in a couple days. We took too many pictures to post here but we've added a slideshow just for today.

Talk to you then,

Luke

Day 7: Kuala Lumpur

Highlights

-standing on the bridge of the Petronas Towers
-walking around the observation deck of KL Tower
-riding the monorail
-eating our first authentic roadside Malaysian food
-National Museum, Lake Gardens, KL Observatory

Today was just packed with stuff. It's now 7:40 and we're still not done...just resting. This morning we walked back to the Petronas Twin Towers to visit the walkway on the 41st floor that connects the two towers (have you seen the movie "Entrapment"?). On the way we stopped for some breakfast at a roadside open restaurant. I think we ended up ordering two meals because it was A LOT of food but it still only ended up being $5 CAD for all of us. Yeah, super cheap.

At the towers we didn't have to wait long at all to take the tour to the top. These towers are amazing. I love the architecture, the materials,...everthing. It was a bit cloudy but we could still see a lot. The towers are actually part of a large business complex with about 20 buildings and a huge park in the middle. The Malaysians really know how to make and awesome playground for kids.

To our parents, we TRIED to call home. We bought a calling card and spend half an hour trying to figure out the payphones and fending off shady cab drivers trying to sell us "special" calling cards.

Next up was the KL Tower. It's a communication tower that is the 4th tallest in the world (the CN Tower in Toronoto is first). This place was much more than I expected and is a definite must for anyone visiting Kuala Lumpur. The give you a video MP4 player with headphones to take you on a tour around the deck. At each window is a picture poster of what you should be able to see outside. We had some clouds coming by so our pictures weren't the greatest. The poster is labled so you can find the buildings that you're hearing about in the headphones. Each stop is about a minute long and you just press play again when you're ready to move on. Also, the telescopes are free.

We were starting to feel tired once this was done but since it was only 2:00 pm we couldn't give up yet. We took the monorail down to see the National Museum and the Lakes Garden. The museum was nothing special, just displays of native dress, animals, and pottery. Behind the museum is the Lakes Gardent and the Observatory (which was closed). There is also the worlds largest bird park but it would have been $10 a piece to get in. Tired as we were, we decided to buy bottles of water instead and walk around the lakes. This park was amazing. The trails are half brick and half rubber for the joggers. There are also periodic exercise stations for balance or strength training.

The last thing of the day was to take a stroll down Bintang Walk in the evening. There's lots of shops and restaurants open and lots of lights. Kind of like a mini-strip. We stopped at Planet Hollywood for some dessert and beer. That's about it for the day. I don't think we could do too many of these in a row. My feet are still sore this morning.

Anyway, off to the airport to continue on to Bangkok. We'll try our luck phoning from the airport.

Day 6: Kuala Lumpur

Highlights

-Malaysia Airlines is SWEET
-Walked around KL for a while
-ate at the Petronas Twin Towers

Helpful Hints

-don't fly for 17 hours straight if you can help it
-KL is a beautiful city, definitely worth the time if you can stay here for a day or two

Well we finally finished our hellish flight today. Luckily Malaysia Airlines has individual TV's for eash passenger. I watched a couple of TV shows, a few movies, played some games (by myself and against the other two) and tried to get SOME sleep. I think I managed 4 hours spread over the whole time.

It was pretty cool landing in Taiwan for an hour too. It was our first taste of real humidity as we stepped of the plane. Nothing compared to Kuala Lumpur though. It rains a bit but it is so humid...going to take a day or two to climatize.

It's also going to take some time to get used to the energy of the city. All the vendors come out of their stores to talk to you on the street, trying to sell you dinner or massages. It's probably just the long flight and lack of sleep but I just can't deal with those people now. In fact, my eyes hurt now just looking at the computer. So I'm sorry but more detail will have to wait until I've had a solid nap.

The main thing is we're safe, moms and dads. Oh...turns out an Aussie and a Kiwi staying at our hostel are going out for a beer...I think I might join them for half an hour. A beer would definitely put me right out for the whole night. Peace.

Day 4: Disneyland

Highlights

-OILERS WIN!!! (they lead the series 3-2 against San Jose)
-workout with Glen
-involuntarily volunteering as a lifeguard

Helpful Hints

-parents, keep a close eye on your kids in the pool!

Yesterday I switched homes saying goodbye to my uncle Mike and moving in with my uncle Glen. Irvine is a beautiful part of the city, south of LA. We had a nice Mother's Day lunch at The Clubhouse and I spent the rest of the night here at Glen's. We checked out his motorbikes for a while then sat down for a quick workout. He's given me some great hints for weighlifting when I get back to Canada and even some things I can do while I'm in Thailand...situps and pushups.

After that Josh and I played guitar for a while (he's really good) then went for a swim at the pool near their house. This one little girl (about 4 years old) seemed to take a liking to us and wanted to show us all of her "jumping in the pool" skills. I stayed close because she wasn't a strong swimmer and that turned out to be a good decision. She tried jumping onto her blow-up dolphin once and fell off the far side taking in a huge mouthful of water. If I didn't get there right away to pull her up she could have been in real trouble. I held her up while swimming to the side of the pool. She sputtered a bunch and thanked me once she got her breath back. Her parents were there but were 100 ft away in the hot tub. Seriously, it scares me to think what would have happened if I wasn't there. After that I think both Josh and I were keeping an eye on her.

Halee's here now and she, Kristian, and I are leaving for Disneyland. I don't think I'll be posting again until I'm in Malaysia so take care and I'll talk to you in a couple days.

Day 2: Devil's Punch Bowl

Highlights

-amazing rock formations at Devil's Punch Bowl
-trip to Costco (yeah, that IS a highlight for me)

Helpful Hints

-Luke, Nevin, make sure you have some solid sunscreen
-the desert mountains outside of LA are incredible and rarely visited, I highly recommend it for anyone travelling down here

Today I took a field trip out to the Devil's Punch Bowl with Mike, Nancy, Halee, Aaron, and John. It's still in the mountains near Wrightwood but here huge sandstone formations have been thrusted out of the desert floor. We hiked the mile long loop down into the valley and hung out in the creek for a while. It was pretty darn hot out but I'm happy to say my new hat is working great.

I had to borrow some sunglasses from Nancy for the hike. I was going to wait until I got to Thailand to find a nice pair for 50 cents but a trip to Costco ruined that idea for me. I found a great pair of polarized UVEX glasses and couldn't leave without them. So NOW I'm finally done my Thailand shopping...now I just have to get there.

PS: Luke, Nevin: I didn't get a chance to explore the international terminal at LAX. I think the easiest is just to meet at the loading area. I'll try to be there at 10:00 PM. If you don't want to hang out there just come check each half hour on the half our. Have a safe flight boys!

Day 1: Wrightwood, California

Highlights

-being DONE my first flight
-margaritas at Mexico Lindos

Well, the trip is finally underway. Saying goodbye to everyone back home was hard but it was even harder holding back the excitement. California is beautiful and my uncle has a great weekend planned. Ate some amazing Mexican food tonight (it was my Aunt Nancy's birthday) and had some world famous (at least in the town of Wrightwood) margaritas. I must admit they're potent but I managed to finish two without much effect.

Day 0: Foreword

This is my last post from Canada for quite some time. I just wanted to introduce the new webpage and explain a bit about how I'm hoping it will work for you. I won't be posting daily but I'm hoping to get at least one in every week.

Highlights

-for those of you who only have time for a quick look, I'll post in point form a few of the highlights from the past couple days.

Helpful Hints

-this section will be to rate a few of the things we've done so that others planning to visit Thailand can look back on these for some good information, for example:
-"such and such" had great curried rice, must try (5/5)
-"this other thing" is a total rip-off, you can skip it

You'll also notice a picture of Thailand on the right side of the page. You can click on this to take you to our "travel map". Here we'll put up markers for the places we've been, one what day, and maybe a few words about what we did there. There will be a list of days that you can click on and the map will pinpoint exactly where we were.

Any pictures that are posted in the blogs you can click on to see an enlarged version. Each post will be its own page so to check previous days look at the Previous Posts or Archive section at the bottom right.

Also, please leave us some comments. I know we will love hearing from home (especially if we miss the Oilers winning the cup) and I'll even try to get Luke and Nevin to reply to a couple comments too (if I can't get them to post). Tomorrow is Day 1 as I leave Calgary and fly to LA. Cheers!