Where is Derek?

After a 16 hour bus ride from Pai to Bangkok, I am totally worn out. I sat in front of two smelly French hippies which compounded the anguish of that long bus ride. I did meet a cool guy named Kyle and we chatted it up most of the ride. Kyle let me crash in his room for a couple of hours until I could get in touch with Kos and Jo because I was staying with Kos and Jos family for a night, then leaving with those guys to Kanchanaburi with their friends for a couple of days. I am at Kos and Jo’s house right now and enjoying lying down on a double bed. My foot is doing well and hopefully will fully heal within a week. Besides my foot, I am in good shape. My old roommate from Tomioka, Japan arrives in Bangkok tomorrow and I should be recieving a call. Also a coworker of mine named Anna should arrive too. I have to work out a plan so I could meet up with these two guys. I am getting excited because it’s almost beach time and Lord knows I need some fun in the sun.

Keep tuning in. I promise to post some pictures soon.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

All I have to say is wow. What a crazy couple of days I have had in Pai, Thailand. Pai is a hippie town in the northern part if Thailand. The vibe is chill with a lot of live music and every kind of trek imaginable is available. I didn’t sign up for any treks because they looked a bit too touristy but I did go motorcycle riding in the mountains, canyon and forests. Pai has so much beautiful nature spots dotted within a 40km radius from the town.

I woke ip early and went with my new friend Dan to go riding in the mountains. This day was both amazing and shitty due to the fact that I downed y bike twice.

Half way to Lod Cave, our destination, it began to rain in the mountains and there was a series of extremely sharp curves. I drove my motorcycle in second gear and drove like a granny in those turns but the rear wheel slipped out and I slide to the embankment. Miraculously, I was okay and so was the bike, no damage just minor scratches. I sustained a minor case of road rash on my left foot. The ride to the cave was awesome. You drive up and down windy roads and come across little villages a long the way. I took a great picture of rice fields in the valley as well as at the peak. Past the road, you had to take a local road to the VCR which was horrible.

The local road to the cave was muddy and had massive pot holes dotted all around and was very steep at some parts. Dan and I came across a cobra on the road and the bastard struck at Dan as he sped by. Wow, that was intense because if we got bit the hospital was 40 km away, the poison would have done a number before we could get anti venom. We were extremely cautious when returning from the cave.

The cave itself was cool for 10 minutes after that, the smell if guano and heat of the oil lamps lighting our way, made us have enough. We took a bamboo raft through the cave by the wY which was cool. On the way back Dan and I decided to checkout a local waterfall but it started to rain heavily and I still had a bloody foot to dean with. This is where we headed back and at the same spot where I first took a dive, I downed the motorcycle again! Same curve, same place but the other direction and uphill. I slide and landed on my bad leg and I was really pissed because o was extremely careful and going extremely slow but I spun out again! BS! I later inspected te motorcycle and the rear tire was effing bald! I know God is looking after me because there were some serious curves int hose mountains and there were no rails! I could have slide off the mountain an off a cliff. Lesson learned! Check everything before renting a motorcycle! BS! I am so luck that I walked away with a scratched up foot and a scratched elbow only. I was wearing shorts, flip flops and a t shirt, that’s it! No more motorcycles until I heal. And next time I am getting a proper bike, maybe a 450cc dirtbike! Awesome.

Besides my incidents in the mountain curves of Pai, I really enjoyed my time here. Dan and I met an Aussie girl and her kiwi friend as well as a bunch of girls from the Netherlands. Everyone is friendly and smiling in Thailand. Thailand is definitely the land of smiles. Today I head back to Bangkok, hopefully to hang out with my old college friend, Jon’s, brother Kos and cousin Jo. Dan went to Laos and migt meet up in Koh Phang Ngan for the full moon party. I need some beer for the pain in my legs and foot. Keep tuned for pictures from Thailand.

[ Life.Is.Good ]

So I finished looking around Chiang Mai, which is a real chill place but too touristy for me. There are so many foreigners and the treks look too commercial so I decided to go to Pai and do a trek up there or maybe just rent a motorcycle and drive around. I met this guy named Dan and we have been tearing it up on motorcycles. Dan is coming along for my trip to Pai.

I forgot to mention that yesterday as I was riding my motorcycle to Soi Yoi Waterfall, a beetle flew into my eye and temporarily blinded me. There was a light rain that day and combined with the beetle incident and a sharp curve, I ended up in this massive gutter. It was a miracle that i walked away with no damage to my motorcycle or myself. I was cruising at about 60 km/hr and flew right into the gutter which had two foot walls, I rode the whole gutter to the end, to the amazement of the passers by.

Luck has been on my side and I will not push it. It is almost beach time and I am looking forward to it. I picked up two “ta kraw”? balls which are used to play Thai volleyball with their feet. Oh also last night I saw a local Muy Thai kickboxing match. The best fight of that night was between two girls and an Irishman vs a local Chiang Mai boy. In one word… Awesome. There was one fight that was ridiculous and seemed aimed at advertising kickboxing classes to foreigners. This match was between a 25 year old Englishman who was in good shape vs a 37 year old retired and out of shape former kickboxer. It was obvious that the old man was supposed to be the sacrificial lamb but to my surprise, the old man put up a hell of a fight and won by decision. The old man did have a huge gash on his forehead from recieving an elbow.

The best part of Chiang Mai was definitely riding around on a motorcycle outside the city and into the mountains. I cant wait to ride around Pai which is more remote.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I went to Ayutthaya, Lopburi and Sukhothai all old world places in Thai history and I must say that I am all “Wat-ed” out, aka templed out. One more city filled with temples, which is Chiang Mai then Chiang Rai and possibly a place called Pai, where everyone says is beautiful.

Right about now, I cannot wait to get to the beach and just swing in a hammock and swim in clear blue water. We will see how I feel after a week of that treatment. My backup plans are to visit Angkor Wat and Siam Reap and Phenom Phen in Cambodia and do a slight trip to Laos via Vientienne and Vangvien. We will see how this works out too.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I had to write this post because I am thankful to be alive. My plan was to go to the floating market in Lampheede and then go to the Tiger Temple to pet tigers. The day didnt go as planned. First of all, halfway through my journey to the floating market, I was dropped off in the middle of nowhere and had to hitch a ride with a shady community truck driver, I took pictures and will post later. I ended up at the floating market but couldnt find the bus back to my original location. The funny thing is God was looking after me, I jumped into a community truck and it was the same guy who drove me there. In fact, I ran into the other bus driver on the way back too. I cant tell you how this was such luck because the transfer point was in the middle of nowhere and I didnt know which direction to go.

After I got back to Kanchanaburi, I decided to immediately go to the Tiger Temple and this is where the story starts to get bizarre. I boarded the local bus to the temple but the bus driver thought I wanted to go to Sai Yok Noi waterfall which is 2hrs away from the Tiger Temple in Sai Yok. I asked how far the Tiger Temple was and when I saw the look on his face, I knew I was in trouble. I was over 20 km away from where I wanted to get off and the road that we were on was empty, no taxis, no tuk tuks, no taxi motorcycles, only commercial trucks. I was so pissed off and walked 6km until I found a coffee shop and asked to bum a ride from everyone in the place but it was to no avail, no one was going that way, so I set off for the over 7 mile walk back. About 2 miles into my trek back, I decided to hitch hike and stuck out my thumb to every motorized vehicle, 30 minutes passed and nothing. Then I sat in the shade and prayed to God and asked for some kind of relief and I am not kidding, literally 10 minutes later, someone actually stopped! Now the weird changed to surreal, first of all the two guys that picked me up looked had their glasses on and one was all tattooed up and I thought they looked shady so i jumped in the back of their pickup trunk, that way if they do something that was suspicious, I could jump out at a red light. The second thing was that they spoke pretty good English and offered to drive me to the Tiger Temple! I couldnt believe my luck. I wrote down all the directions that they took to the Tiger Temple just in case they were going to rob me and drop me off in the middle of nowhere and lo and behold, they took me to the Tiger Temple. The only bad thing was that I was 10 minutes late. The Tiger Temple was closed for the day! I thought Niki and Go were going to go on their way and I had to find a way back myself but no… They were headed to Kanchanaburi anyway and said theyd drop me off. What luck! Now here is where it gets just insane. Niki was dropping his friend Go off at his job in Kanchanaburi and this place was literally two blocks away from where I was staying! No joke! Two blocks away! 1.5 hrs away I meet these two guys in the middle of nowhere and they were going somewhere two blocks away from me! Not only that but Niki works at a resort and offered to let me stay at this resort for free and take me to the Tiger Temple tomorrow! These guys didnt ask for money, not even a beer.

The situation that I currently have is whether or not to take him up on his offer. I have his business card and job address and location but I dont want to push my luck. Should I take Nikis offer? It will make an amazing story. I will think about it tonight. Later, I will post all relevant information on my next post just in case I am missing. I have to call Niki at 9pm so at least I can find out if his cell phone number is legit. Tomorrow, Tiger Temple and then I will go to Ayutthaya. Lets see how the rest of the day will go. I am so tired.

I forgot about the wild ferral dog pack that tried to encircle me and chased me across the street. The thing that saved me was the speeding cars that I dodged like Frogger the game. I was safely out of the dogs territory by the time the traffic let up. I will never do that again. Rabes shots are 1500 usd for the set. I cant afford that!

[ Life.Iz.Good ]

I have finalized the next phase of my trip which will be in Kanchanaburi, where I will see Erwan waterfall, the bridge kwai, the tiger temple, the floating market, go bamboo rafting and chill. I am going with two British girls for part of this trip.

[ Life.Iz.Good ]