Soft-shelled Turtle

This thing was sooo cute!

No, I'm not peeing!

My travel partner Brent took this lovely shot of me cooling off. I don't know if I've ever hiked so hard in my life, mind you I was still recovering from all the dreadful infections! BUt it was all so worth it! This is actually wear I ate lunch. And then we saw a creature I didn't even know existed come lurking out of the water of where I was sitting- A soft-shelled turtle!!!

The babies!!!

Can you see the baby!!?? They are soo cute.. just like mini humans!

The orangutans were sooo close it was actually kind of uncomfortable at times, as they seemed not too happy about us invading their family. I would have thought they'd killed us... but the guides were very keen on monkey language and kept reassuring us their lunging behaviors were merely annoyance at us and not actually agression. The orangutan named Mena was a whole other story.

They had to feed Mena bananna to keep her from attacking us, or biting the guide. EEX.

I have one incredibly film of Mena chasing all the others away.... and they were SO scared... the mother and baby were screaming out of terror and actually fell.... it was all really kind of tramatic to watch!

To prove I was there!

A totally ugly mugshot.... but just to prove I was really there =)

Person of the Jungle!

"PERSON of the jungle" is the literal translation of "orangutan" in Indonesian. These orangutans were absolutely amazing. We owe it to our guides for showing us the right way. Some people spend days in the Jungle and never see one! We spent half a day and saw at least 5 with babies UP CLOSE! (maybe a little too close for comfort sometimes) It was unbelievable.

I think this one is playing Charades with us =)

Harder than you'll ever work for less money than you'll ever make

The rubber tree! Ever wonder where you got your tires? Good chance it came from Sumatra! Did you know rubber is actually white before its processed? They cut the tree and leave these little cups of collection.. its pretty interesting..

Hill of survivors

Buket Lewang is this incredible little villiage in the North side of Sumatra. Incredible in SO many ways. Starting, it was an incredibly LONG journey to get there... Next time I will bring my four wheeler.... I think it would have been a little faster arrival and more fun! The roads are pretty much inexistent.

The villiage is incredible because of its serene beauty out in the middle of nowhere. It is incredible because it is the last Orangutan reserve in the world. And it is incredible because it was completely flooded a few years back in the middle of the night, and so many were wiped out among their livelihoods, yet they can still smile and flurish in the river today. I cried when I read the stories. I called this picture the hill of survivors... because this is where they climbed from the building below to survive... those who were awake at midnight... In some ways this incredible city was actually very haunting for me.

Sumatra!!!! and the fruit plate

Several days later of traveling, we made it to Buket Lewang, and absolutely amazing village that I will continue to detail over the next few posts. But to start off,,,, you can see I'm feeling a little better. I ordered a fruit plate, and I think they picked the whole jungle for me! It was pretty impressive!

Path forward

At this point, I had already held my best friend up from traveling to Sumatra, the ultimate destination he'd been targetting forever. So

I was really contemplating just staying in Krabi to recover and let him go one without me. The night before I supposed day of leaving, I constructed a smiley chart of how I would feel and what kind of choice I should make based on that. Smiley face, med face, and unsmiley face if I was still feeling the same crappy way. I know, I'm a dork. But I was sick, and it was easier to think in pictures at that point.

Could I really be cold?

I was never feeling a 100%, but quite manageable.... AND THEN, I fell horribly ill. It started out as what seemed a simple cold... then my stomach started turning, and then over the next few days I started getting extremely bad cramps but some how maintaining to still barely keep up with my Travel partner Brent. Then just after an extremely heat exhausting day, all of a sudden I just needed to lay down, super faint and icky feeling. And THEN I got cold.... really really cold..... shivering and shaking cold.... so cold I bundled up in my zero degree weather sleeping bag. The funny thing was 5 min before that, I was sweating in the extreme heat of the day as I normally did. Being this cold didn't make sense to me, but I couldn't help how I was feeling. Apparently to the touch I was a furnace... Brent tried to force me into a cold shower... but I was soo cold already there was just no having it! This continued for about three hours... until I got really hot again. Feverishly Ill all night... and mind you were in the middle of the jungle... with the nearest doctor at least 4hrs aways. The next morning we took the quickest minibus to Krabi to the local emergency room. Sadly, I had really wanted to spend some time in Krabi.... but not this way. By the time we arrived I started to cry... and i'm still not sure if it was out of fear or relief of finally being with help. The doctor tried to tell me it was tonsilitus which really didn't make sense.. that had gotten so severe it had moved into the rest of my body. Who knows... but antibiotics worked! It took at least 3 days until I was feeling even 50% better.

Oh yah- the pic is some NASTY stuff Brent made to rehydrate and re-electrolyze me. Oh, the stuff was so bad.... it smelled like vomit, and made me want to half the time.

Last two of Kao Sok, before....

....before I got sick!!!! UGH

Just some more beautiful colors... and then a small glimpse of sunset colors..

Khao Sok, pretty river

Okayyy.. only a couple more, promise.. This one was just before sunset... really nice colors

Yes, a few more of Kao Sok

Just another tranquil pic of the national park we hiked through...

Jungle Climbing

It's not all "a walk in the park" figuratively and literally. We did a little offtrailing and had to climb and crawl a bit through the bamboo!

Koa Sok National Park

So the whole reason we were at this beautiful resort was to go this park. Which was pretty amazing and all... but I think I actually fell more in love with the resort than the jungle park. I think the river really made the difference. Here is a nice artistic picture on our hike through this national park.

Resort Restaraunt View

This is a view from the restaraunt of the resort hotel detailed earlier. These are the monkeys that come out every evening just before sunset to play and eat. You can literally get so close you can touch them,,, although you shouldn't =) But they are incredible to just watch... all their humanlike behaviors keep me observing for hours sometimes. The other picture has monkeys in it too although you may not be able to see them, you get a fuller view of the limestone cliff. THis is all right from our table while we were eating. COME to Thailand and I will take you hear for sure! I have so much exploring left to do myself (this is the trip I got sick and was mostly bed-ridden).

Yah, more of our sweet little bungalow

Pic on the top is my favorite princess bed in this hotel! I don't know why it double posted I couldn't get the other one to go away.... so I guess its just for emphasis now!

Porch and view... still 12.50$ a day

This was our front porch for like three days, and the view from it...... it was sooooo nice!!!!!! If you come here, this will be the first place I take you!!!! YOu can't really tell how nice it is from the pix.... seeya soon!?

It's funny how after living here for a bit, you really seem to think 12.50$ is a lot.... we actually had to really analyze whether that was too much money for our budget. Ridiculous!!

Resort I guess

JUst before I got deathly ill, Brent (my travel Partner) and I decided to make a quick day trip over to Khao Sok National park on our way down to Sumatra. Wow, what an incredible stop.... our 1-day trip ended up being 3. And then I got horribly ill the day before we were going to leave... so I had a pretty miserable trip to the nearest hospital 4hrs away!

Regarless, back to this paradise. We decided to splurge on an expensive place (resort I guess as they call'em). A whole 12.50$ later (yes, that's an expensive nice place here), we were in paradise right in the middle of the jungle along side a river boasting a beautiful limestone cliff and mountainous thing out our front window...... it was just incredible, I can't really explain it in words.

The bungalows were pretty fun.... simple yet elegant. THis upper floor one had this super cool outdoor shower (pic)

Smallest I've seen

Smallest Gecko I've ever seen AND SMALLEST frog..... I swear tadpoles are bigger than this thing... I didn't know they could start that small.
They're so cute when the waddle too.

Would you expect anything less from me!?

THis one was in Bangkok! Can you see the look of guilt on my face.

I'll post the others I found, on this blog too later =)

And yeah, they taste a bit different here of course.

Catch up, I promised

MANGO STICKY RICE.... the best thing EVER!

So I have a bit of catchup to play... bare with all my trips prior to now... I will be putting those through first before I get to the now... if that's even possible. The other pic was just more examples of yummy Thai food, ehmmmm and lets not forget the unbelievable Fresh coconut shakes!

Yay, I'm Back!!!! Kinda sorta

Okayyyy.... I'm sorry for not updating my blog more regularly and I promise to be better about it.... Most of you know though, it's just been a long long journey of illness, sickness, and now dog bites.... =) Despite all of this, I can still say I'm happy to be here.... truly. And when it all passes, I'll probably be even more extatic!!! For now it's just a push to get through the next day.

YES, I'm officially a teacher teaching now!!! Check out my new pix, sporting the ware. Thai people are even more caught up and careful about "appearance" than Americans. And especially compared to me. I don't think I've ever worn a collared shirt in my life. But here, it is the rule.

Left pic: Posing as a teacher... that's actually my adopted room temporarily

Right pic: My new temp school

I say temp for everything... because I'm still working on getting out to the islands to teach... but at this point we don't know how possible that will be... For now I still have 3 day weekends, wahoo. But even better than that I only work a total of 16hrs/week, beat that! Actually, there's a bit more prep involved than that since I'm teaching some extremely high level classes (governers, CEO's, etc) so its great experience, but a bit more serious than my usual fun n games in the classroom.

Camera Battery Dead =(

So, I just tried to charge my dead camara battery. And well, the charger seemed to fry after about a minute. I guess I won't be posting my own pictures for a while until hopefully I can find a new camera charger, ugh. In the meantime I may be able to post my travel partner's pix.

New updates...
Not too much... Brent went to a Thai-boxing show... but I opted out as I don't really want to pay money to feel sqeemish. He's an advanced martial artist, so that kind of thing appeal to him. Standby for pix, perhaps later I can post some from his if they're not too bloody. Instead, I'll use the time to find a new charger.

The weather is still extremely extrememly perfect. It just does not get any better than this... about 75F with humidity feels about 80, and it stays the same all through the night. Emmm.. warm summer nights, my absolute favorite.

And of course the food is still incredible!!!! Oh- the best is this FRESH (and I mean the cut it open right in front of you) Mango on coconut milk sticky rice. It is one of the best things I've ever tasted!!! SOOOOO good... But really everything here is sooo good and so fresh, as they make it all right in front of you!

Tonight- we plan on going Salsa again (hopefully I feel a little better) and then onto another crazy night in a diff part of town. There's supposed to be this club made of windows dim lit in the seedier part of town where you can go and watch the craziness that goes on outside while sitting safely in your little tourist seat. Sounds a bit cheezy.. but slightly interesting too, we'll see....
Love,
Faren

Priveledged Living

Just a quick snapshot on a walk around town across the river. This standard of living is actually not that shabby compared to how most live around here... pretty average. But in reality is actually considered even quite priveledged in reference to the way the rest of Thailand lives.

Hotel View

View from our 3rd hotel. This is actually a small upgrade from the last place, as my travel partner Brent thought it would be a good idea to budget last time and not get AC or hot water... yah, guess how much that saved? -2.50$USD.

REALLY not worth it. I guess 150Baht sounded like a lot at the time, but I think we learned our lesson. We ARE on a budget... but when it comes to differences of less than 5USD I really don't think it matters.

This hotel cost us 500B.. which comes to about 8USD$ each... not bad eh? And this is considered expensive tourist City prices!

Male or Female?

Male or female- your guess?

"number 1 sexy" became my new nickname shouted at me throughout the night.... very funny, I guess there weren't used to seeing western women around those parts.

Salsa Night?

Salsa night? .. so we thought. This is a picture of us before out night out to Salsa. Supposedly they have salsa nights at this place every Fri night and Sat night, but apparently people only Salsa on Saturdays... so it was pretty dead. We danced on a deserted floor once, and I wasn't feeling great anyway. However, the night was still young. We went a few more blocks down to a place called Nana Plaza, and never again. A bit on the seedier side, but VERY interesting... and I guess repulsive is a better word... as older men walked out of a mini mall of "those" kind of clubs with girls labled with numbers around their wasteline. Don't ask me how we know this (jk jk) but to have one of these girls more than sit next to you in these clubs, costs 150 baht. To take them in the room upstairs for two hours is 600Baht, and to take them home for the night was 1500Baht. There's 35baht to the 1USD, you can do the math. But basically that equals = sad if you ask me. As it is- most of this is bonded labour... and you can tell the girls aren't happy, barely even fake smile most of the time. On the flipside, we checked out something Bangkok is even more famous for. The tranny scene. AND WOW... they guys, I mean, gals, are very impressive. Oddly enough they liked me more than my guy travel partner... which I thought was a bit ironic... but I guess they could feel the straight vibe coming off him. Sorry, no pix aloud in the clubs... but seriously, you would never be able to tell the difference. I mean literally on the flip-side, these "lady-boys" as they call them, are way more excited about what they're doing for a living. I think this really could be a product of them doing what they love, as opposed to what the other women in the industry often are forced to.

Day 2- Still in BKK! 02-02-07

02-02-07

Okay- as soon as I remember to bring my camera adapter to the internet cafe- I will post pictures I promise!!!

Quick update:
We're staying in the tourist district tonight. Weather is still beyond perfect.... I wish my health was... after the plane ride, my issues came back, ugh. BUt I'm still managing to make the best of it and have an incredible time. We're going to tour downtown today (as soon as we got off the internet here) and observe some of what Thailand's famous for, the seedier districts. I figure while I'm here with my best friend, Brent, its a safe time to see the other side of Thailand too!
We're also going to check out the Salsa scene later tonight (or the lack thereof).
Jetlag is not great, but not bad either. And of course the food is wonderful! (For those of you who don't know, THAI is my favorite kind of food.) So as you can imagine, ... I'm in paradise!
Our flight to Suratthani (where I'll be teaching) is Sunday. From there, we'll be heading down the coast of beautiful Thailand into the new world of Coffee (Sumatra).
Love, Faren
(Stay tuned, as I'll be reporting back on the scene from tonight)

First Day, Arrived in Bangkok 02-01-07

Wow! I'm here, I really made it. It's all so crazy! ..and surreal.. For now I have pasted my previous post below, but I found a new program I hope to use that may better suit what I'm trying to do here with keeping a journal/posting with pix: blogger.com. It's not setup yet, but will be asap.. I only have 5 more min here until the massage parlor downstairs from my hotel closes... and yes, this is a real massage parlor (not the "other" kind), hence why it closes early. And because I'm so jetlagged, massages take precedence over journal writing today =) In short- I had a great flight, no issues... Bangkok is amazing!!!! The weather is perfect, depsite my eyes literally burning from all the polution. Write more later, promise! Love, Faren

First Note from Myspace (initially)

Previous Post: 01-19-07 I hope to use this as a travel/blog/picture journal to keep some of my closest family and friends up to date with my latest adventures. Of course that will all depend on internet access, but for now I can start with the preview: PACKING nightmare and a race against the clock! I leave Jan 30th, arriving Feb 1 stepping onto new soil in Asia! Yes that's two days... effectively I will have lost a day of my life that will be kept safe in an international airway for me to retrieve only upon return. But in reality my flight time from departure to arrival only lasts 23.45hrs.. almost a whole day! That may seem nauseating to some, but I'm actually quite excited about the flight(s)... it will be the first time I can stop for a second, nap, take a breather from my constant race to the airport. I will finally be able to read some of the travel books purchased years ago, in preparation of the people and places I may encounter. Pre to the preview: Just got back from a trip to AK visiting my family, those will be the first pix demo'd on my new myspace. I don't know anything about myspace, so bare with my lack of abilities for the moment =) In general I'd like to be able to post my pictures with small blurbs around them..?