Sawatdee!

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Greetings from Thailand! Life has been grand these past few weeks. I spent my first couple of days in Bangkok, then headed south for the islands of Ko Phangan and Ko Tao. On Ko Phangan I literally did nothing besides eating, sleeping, reading, and talking to new friends. Accomodation consists of bungalows on the beach, complete with big porches and hammocks. This picture is from my bungalow's porch on Bottle Beach, which is a pretty deserted place on the north of Ko Phangan, accessible only by boat.

After 6 days of living like a complete bum, I decided it was time to get moving, and I traveled to Ko Tao with a friend I'd made on Ko Phangan. Ko Tao is famous for its scuba diving, and it definitely delivered. I saw a lot of creatures I'd already seen in the Great Barrier Reef, but on my first day we dove to 30 meters and saw loads of sharks-- way bigger than the sharks I'd seen in Australia, and much less afraid of us.


After a few days on Ko Tao, I headed north to Chiang Mai, a beautiful, relaxed town in the far north of the country. I took a really cool full-day cooking course yesterday; we started with a trip to the local market to buy the supplies we'd be cooking with, and then cooked and ate for the next 6 hours. We made Chiang Mai curry (delicious!), spring rolls, deep-fried banana, fried rice, and papaya salad. I got a cookbook with lots of Thai recipes, so you should all be expecting elaborate dinner parties when I come home.


Another day I went to a big temple up on the hill above Chiang Mai, Wat Doi Suthep. It was pouring rain the entire day, but the temple was beautiful and I loved all the buddhas!

Other than that, I've spent my time in Chiang Mai shopping. There is a gigantic night bazaar, and another market held only on Sundays that's intimidating in its massive size. My instinct to buy everything I could possibly be interested in because it's all dirt cheap has been tempered by the fact that I simply cannot fit another thing into my backpack. I may start looking into how to send things home, though. =)

This last photo is from the student market, and I'm basically posting this for AC's benefit. You were right about the mannequins!



That's it for now! Tomorrow morning I leave for Pai, a small town near here, and then I'm off to Laos. Miss you guys!