While talking on the phone with mom last night we started talking about her and Valerie's 'Summer Bucket List', which made me decide that I should make a list of all the things I want to still do here in Thailand during the next 9 months. I also decided to post the list here (on the left side of the screen) and will update it as I do something or think of something new.

I'm also open to any suggestions about things I should make sure I do before I leave. You can post suggestions here :)

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Saturday Hiking!

The soggy soupy trail

The river...it's a very attractive shade of dirt brown.

A baby waterfall on the side of the trail

Sunday Hiking!

The trail all nice and mostly dry!

Oh my god the river is actually blue!

My favorite waterfall!

The big scary wildlife!
He kept running away from me.

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I just got back from a long weekend of hiking in Khao Sok national park, which is the the oldest evergreen rainforest in the world. I started my adventure by trying to get the campus tuk-tuk drivers to understand that I wanted to go to Phan Tip tour agency. After about 10ish tries (all of which sounded the same to me) the driver smiled widely and seemed to have an epiphany as it suddenly clicked. After getting to Phan Tip I was able to get on the first minibus to Khao Sok...sadly this ment I got shoved into the last seat which also had absolutely no leg room :( After about 30minutes, where my legs started to fall asleep, my neighbors got off the minibus so I had a whole row to myself. Once I got to Khao Sok Rainforest Resort in the late afternoon I decided to relax and watch the rain.

On Saturday, I woke up early to venture into the park for some hiking. Since it was raining I threw on my poncho, threw my camera in it's water bag, and packed up the other hiking essentials in my super awesome vinyl backpack (everything stays dry as long as it's cinched down tight). With the assistance of my trusty work permit photocopies I was able to get into the park as a Thai person for a grand total of 40 baht instead of the inflated 200 baht tourist price. The cheap price definitely made up for the fact that they close most of the park during the rainy season. About 40 minutes into my hike I decided it wasn't raining that badly and I was getting hot and sticky in the poncho so I took it off...big mistake. No sooner did I take off the poncho the sky decided to open up and start pouring turning me into a drown rat. Since I was already soaked I decided to just forget about the poncho and kept going. Fortunately, I was smart enough not to take my camera out of it's bag. During my hike I discovered that with all of the rain none of the waterfalls were easy to get to or see. After 3 hours of hiking, and 4 leech bites, I went back to my room to get cleaned up and relax again.

On Sunday, I woke up and thought I was going crazy. The sun was shining, the river was blue green instead of brown, and there wasn't a cloud in the sky. I immediately decided that I had to go back out to the waterfalls to try and see them again. The hike was absolutely beautiful without the rain. The river was also much lower so I was able to go out and see both waterfalls. During this hike I only fed 2 more leeches but one of them crawled all the way up my leg to my thigh...I didn't even know he had bit me until I got back and noticed a big circle of blood inside my cargo pants.

The whole trip was a blast and I will definitely be going back out in December or January when they re-open the rest of the trails and when the big rot flower is blooming! Pictures coming soon!

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So for the last half of May I was traveling around Thailand with PSU English Camp. We started in Bangkok with just the camp leaders and moved down to Trang were we went snorkeling for a day before we met the crazy and insane students! The snorkeling was alright but since I had just gotten back from diving it wasn't amazing.

In Trang we went to the toy factory and canopy walk again. It was pretty much the same as last year only with 9 students each instead of 4. After Trang we went to Krabi where we had even more fun. We were in a hotel right by the weekend market which was great because it made getting food and shopping easy. We went back to James Bond Island (which is still unimpressive) and to one of the beaches this year. They also added a trip to Phuket to go see Chalong Temple and the beach but because of silly scheduling we spent 30 minutes at the temple and 3 hours at a shopping center by the beach.

After Krabi we went to Surat Thani were we went to the Salaka garden, monkey show, and Chaiya weaving village. We were supposed to go to a cave instead of the village but I convinced the Thai staff that the village was a better trip (because it's not dark, smelly, slippery, or suck ass).

At the end of the trip the camp leaders all went to Samui for a day of relaxing. I spent the day with C one of the Thai girls who I met last year. She and I walked on the beach looking for shells and then we got into the water. One of the other camp leaders and I tried to teach her how to swim but it really wound up being just a bunch of water fighting. After the swim 'lessons' we decided to bury C in the sand which she seemed to think was hilarious. Then C turned around and buried me. The whole time she kept making me laugh which made her yell at me to stop...she even got to the point where she told me to "Stop breathing!". Samui was a blast this year :D

After the camp I came home and promptly got sick. I'm pretty sure I gave myself food poisoning :S

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Ok here's a quick update for everyone! I just got back from my birthday dive trip to Koh Phi Phi. Basically I spent 4 days on the island diving as much as possible and sleeping or eating when I wasn't under the water. The diving was beautiful! I saw lots of pretty sea anemones, lion fish and clown fish (mostly the super cute orange ones)! There was a bit of current for most of the dives which wore me out and totally ruined my air consumption by the end of the trip. It was a great way to spend my birthday :D

Now I'm getting ready to leave for PSU English camp tomorrow morning and will be spending the next 2 and a half weeks at camp!

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Some of my favorites out of the 600+ pictures I took over 3 days (the 12th-14th).

Shopping for a weapon

I love the tuk-tuk drivers grin as his passengers get blasted

He's ready for a swim in the moat...or for canal road to flood!

The common reaction after getting hit with ice water

Assault Tuk-Tuk!

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So I am home and have un-surprisingly come down with a cold...if this post gets rammbly or stops making sense it's because my head feels like it's filled with helium and floating 3 feet above my body. Ok now onto a recap of last weeks festival.

Last week was Thai New Year...or the best festival ever. Officially the festival started on Wednesday the 13th but since Chiang Mai is special it really started on the 11th. I wound up missing out on the water fight on Monday because I didn't wind up going up to Thapae Gate, the main gate. However, on Tuesday I wound up getting soaked on my way back to my hotel after lunch. I was not planning on getting wet right after lunch, I was still wearing jeans and they take forever to dry:(, but c'est la vie. After I got drenched I decided to grab a water gun and join the battle! The fighting was still mostly around Thapae Gate but was slowly moving down the moat.

On Wednesday, it decided to rain which didn't stop the water fighting but it did decrease the number of people who were out. All in all this day was pretty much miserable. People still decided to douse each other with ice water even though there was no sun to warm you up afterward. I spent most of the day in my friends Burmese restaurant watching the water fights as I tried to dry off and warm up. Everyone in the restaurant wound up drinking lots of the hot Burmese tea spiked with some whiskey to get warm.

Thursday was by far the best day. It was hot and sunny and the water fights were in full force. I had a blast assaulting people with our ice water and taking pictures of the madness.

This year I did not take a dive into the moat (thank god) but i still wound up getting sick (I blame Wednesday and all the moat water). I still love this festival and can't wait till next year! I'll post pictures once I go through the 500 or so that I took :P

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