If it seems too good to be true....

It probably is! We asked our travel guru Bill what he thought was the best way to get to Koh Chang which is an island not too far from the border of Cambodia and he said we could take a taxi to the border for $30 and then in Thailand get either a local bus or a mini van (which he said they make you wait till it fills up. We figured we get to the border and look at the options. We happened across a travel agent in Siem Reap and decided to check out what else they had available. Lana was ready to jump over the desk and kiss the Thai girl who informed us that a bus/ferry combination from Siem Reap to Koh Chang would cost us $12 each! We decided that it sounded like a great deal so why not?

A minivan picked us up at 7:30am from our guesthouse and took us about 10 blocks to a travel agent and told us we had to get out and wait. For what? Another bus oh course. An hour or so later a bus came and crammed us all in along with our luggage like sardines for the 2 ½ hour ride to the border. The border wait was chaotic and we waited in what seemed to be the never ending line that took about 1 ½ hours. We then waited…again, for a minivan to take us about another 10 blocks or so to another wait station. By this time our patience was wearing thin but what are you gonna do? We waited until 3:30 and Lana and I were stuffed into the front seat thinking we had the best seat in the minivan but I was literally on the hot seat-not sure what made it so hot but I was getting pretty cranky during the 4 ½ hour ride. I’ve also wanted heated seats but NOT in Thailand!

We arrived to Trat and were rushed out of the van and literally had 10 minutes to get our gear and onto the last ferry. After what should have taken 7-8 hours total, 13 hours later we finally make it to our destination. Thus the title of this blog!

Finally once in Koh Chang we had some time to relax. The first day just getting to breakfast and the pool felt like quite the feat for the day. The next day we rented a double kayak for about 2 hours and had a great day! We enjoyed a wonderful sunset, great food and some classic people watching. Time to relax for the remainder of my time in Thailand!
Only a few from Koh Chang www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/KohChang

Honk if you've been to Cambodia

After reading online about the border-crossing scams, we decided we were brave enough to give it a shot. We got up at 4:00 a.m. to take a taxi to the Moh Chit bus station. The Bangkok street markets were already open and active. Our bus was packed with locals, we were the only “falongs” heading for Aranyaphratet. We arrived at the border around
9:30 a.m., prepared for the fake Visa salesmen and con-artists. It wasn’t as terrifying as we had been told. We only had to walk one block to the 1st window for the Passport check. At the second window we paid the $20 for our Visas into Cambodia, plus an extra 100 Baht for no copy of the photo. (No one mentioned that!) The 3rd window stamped our passports, and finally we went out to meet our ride to Siem Reap. He was supposed to be waiting for us with a sign reading “Toni Bodeau”, but we waited and wandered around for two hours, dripping in sweat in the dirty, hot and humid border area. Finally, he approached us and said he had been looking for two men. We fooled him! He took us to the Poi Pet bus station, where we met our taxi driver, Mr. Heng (or “Hung” as I referred to him!) We spread out in the air-conditioned taxi, surprised that they drive on the right side of the road in Cambodia. Mr Heng never stopped honking the whole way to Siem Reap, about a 2-hr drive. In fact, everyone seems to hook in Cambodia for this reason or that.

At the Two Dragons hotel, we met my dad and his friend Bill. We cleaned up, had a fresh strawberry smoothie, and then took a Tuk-Tuk to Pub Street for dinner. Bill wanted to go to Happy Pizza, where they serve “ganja” with anything. During dinner we were constantly interrupted by kids selling books and bamboo bracelets. They spoke English and were persistent yet delightful and funny. “America has 300 million people, minus 4 – because you 4 are here!” joked one boy. We walked about the town for awhile, and then headed back to the hotel because we were getting up at 5:00 to go to Angkor Wat temples to see the sunrise.

Our guide and Tuk-Tuk driver were waiting for us when we came downstairs the next morning. It was pitch black and I was wondering who the hell gets up this early…apparently many people do since it was packed already. We waited for the sunrise(a bit of a disappointment but still nice)while we struggled to understand our guide and Lana and I had to interpret for each other very often. He was a wealth of knowledge for the things we could understand but after about 10 hours later and too many “Lana’s and Toni’s….as he used the plural for our names…we had about all we could handle for the day. Plus it was hot, hot and humid to boot! Back to the guesthouse and another strawberries shake, shower and back out to explore Siem Reap. It’s a great town, filled with many restaurants and shops. The only thing unlike Thailand is that they really pester you to buy, buy. Lana become “Madame America” with many of the young kids trying to sell us on whatever the special “Happy New Year” priced item was.

The next day we got up (a more reasonable 7:30am start) and used the same driver but decided to decipher for ourselves with a guide book the different temples we visited. One that Lana and I really liked was out about 40 km away and we had to hike in about 1 mile or so up to a waterfall and along the river where there were many carving in the water and rocks along the river. It was really amazing to see. Being that it was New Year’s eve we headed into town again and Lana and I got a foot scrub/massage under the full moon. This is the life! We had a couple of drinks in an outdoor café and chatting with the sweetest boy who looked about 14 but said he was 18. After some excitement of the police chasing some boys on a motorcycle with guns we decided to head back to Two Dragons and bring in the New Year with the local Cambodians from the guesthouse. We danced and listened to music and counted down the New Year…..a very different way to bring in the New Year.

New Years day the four of us headed out to Tonle Sap Lake and rented a boat to see the floating villages of Kompong Khleang. This was incredible to see how the 6000 villagers lived in a village of about 1260 houses. You’ll see by the photos how they lived in houses on very tall stilts to accommodate the heavy rains and rising water levels. They row everywhere; to floating veggie and fruits markets, fish markets and just about anything else they may need. We got out and walked along the village and met some of the locals. The children are not shy at all and followed us and loved to pose for photos. This was truly the “real” Cambodia. Between the floating village and Angkor Wat we were so glad we took the challenge to cross the border and visit this amazing country. We figured going back over the border to Thailand would be a breeze….or so we thought!

I downloaded all the photos I took so I know it’s a lot but I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them. www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Cambodia

Happy New Year!!

Merry Christmas

I feel as though my life has been in fast motion since I wrote last and truly it has been filled with some amazing adventures and funny stories which I will share with you. I really will be writing two blogs in one to get caught up and post some great pictures from the past 1 ½ weeks.

My friend Lana arrived the day after I finished my Thai massage class. The day she arrived we jetted around Chiang Mai getting organized to leave on a trek the following day. My dad had gone on this trek and highly recommended it so we signed up. It was such an amazing experience! I don’t even know where to start. The trek was south of Chiang Mai about 4 hours by car in an area called Sopmoei-Mai Sarlang area. There was nothing touristy about this trek. What it was about was experiencing a hill tribe village and what their every day lives consisted of. The three days consisted of hiking with packs/sleeping bags on through tropical forest, jungles, through the water along waterfalls and through a cave with bamboo lit to guide the way. The first night we stayed with the Poe village people in the headman’s home with his family. We had amazing food cooked for us and tasted some rice whiskey which wasn’t too bad…missing some good red wine here in Thailand 

We slept on bamboo mats outside the “deck” under mosquito nets and woke up to roosters at the crack of dawn-not that we got much sleep on the hard surface anyway! We set off to hike more on that day going through another village and a school where the children were playing a game called “sempattakrol” which was like soccer played over a lowered volleyball net. It was a lot of fun to watch and a couple of our trekking group joined in with the kids. Speaking of our group and crew; we had a great group of people; Thomas and Sarah from France, Juan, Imma, Jochen from Majorca, Spain and of course the Americans, Lana and myself. Our tour guide was Ropooh who was an amazing guide. The Poe people are his people so he not only speaks the language but knows all about the culture and also living in that environment. He was very knowledgeable about uses for various plants and fruits to help with things like a sore throat and bleeding. There was even a leave that you could blow bubbles with. We also saw some pretty scary spiders, tree mice but luckily no cobras. We also had Elvis(not his real name but he had it on his shirt so thus he become Elvis for the trek) as our driver and a few of the locals Poe villagers who carried most of our food, carved the bamboo, and cooked our meals. Not only that but they fished with nets, caught frogs, and they even caught a rat in the middle of the night that we guessed they ate at some point. Nothing is wasted.

On the second day we hiked back down to the river(we had had a steep hike up the previous day) and crossed the river a couple of times and hiked along the river until we arrived at our 4 star river front accommodation. It was like Gilligan’s island meets Robinson Crusoe. We unpacked, took a swim in the river and sunbathed on rocks(well I did at least) and hung out while our guide and locals made our eating utensils and cooking gear all out of bamboo. We ate this amazing Thai vegetarian meal consisting of three different dishes and cooked rice all done on the fire in bamboo. We were all so quiet while we devoured this delicious meal. For entertainment, Thomas who is a professional dancer, tried teaching us salsa on the bamboo floor….not too easy to maneuver but we had fun and laughed a lot.

Once again we slept on the bamboo floors and had to hike to the toilet(squatters) in the middle of the night. The next morning we had eggs cooked in bamboo, fresh fruit and toast. We packed up and started our hike for the day which consisted of many river crossings, along waterfalls and the finale a 20 minute hike up river through a cave. It was incredible. After some more hiking uphill we had a great Thai lunch all wrapped in bamboo leaves. After lunch we had a short hike and unfortunately our trip was coming to a close. We headed back to Chiang Mai and joined up with our group for one last meal together.

The next day, Lana and I had planned to do a cooking course at an organic farm about 30 minutes outside of Chiang Mai. Thomas and Sarah, from our trek, joined us and we had a great day of cooking and eating Thai food with a fun group of people.

On to Christmas! We had organized a guide and car to head up north to Chiang Rai, The Golden Triangle and over to a mountain town called Mae Salong. Our driver showed up with the gal from the office who booked our tour(who was actually his wife and we were informed she was coming along as well) Lana and I went along with the flow even through the car seemed a bit rough and as the day went on our driver manipulated most of the day so instead of going on a 4 hour boat trip along the Meekong river we only went for about 1 hour but did head up to Mae Salong for the night which ended up being a wonderful place. It is a Chinese hill village where they grow oolong tea and have wonderful views and lovely cool nights. That evening Yo (the driver) took us up the very steep hill to the temple to see the night view. Once back in town we stopped to get something at 7-11(yes, they are all over Thailand…no kidding) and the car wouldn’t start. We figured he’d get it fixed and we’d be off in the morning….or so we thought!

Christmas morning we got up early to climb the 718 stairs to the temple for a wonderful view. On the way we ran into Yo and he informed us that the car needed a part so he was on his way to Chiang Rai and would be back and ready to leave in about 3 hours. We figured Mae Salong wasn’t a bad place to be stuck so we hiked the temple, walked around the morning markets and the town enjoying the day. Yo finally got back and informed us he had to go back to get another part. By this time we were ready to leave and see the sights we had planned on so Yo had to hire another car/driver to take us to Mae Sai(border to Myanmar) the Golden Triangle where we took a speed boat over to Laos for a short shopping excursion. By this time, still no word from Yo who was supposed to meet up with us and we would continue to Chiang Rai and back to Chiang Mai. We started getting nervous and wondering if we’d ever get back that night. He did indeed fix the car and we met up with him to switch cars and head back. The clincher was that Yo ended up borrowing 2000 baht from us to pay the other driver.(We really did wonder if he'd really pay us back but he did)It was the longest drive! We had to stop often and he had to mess with the engine but FINALLY we got back to CM. Not really the Christmas we had planned but an interesting one to say the least.

The next night was the 26th and we got an overnight bus to Bangkok. I’ll stop here because my brain and hand need a break and post some photos from these adventures and will work on the next blog very soon.

I hope you all had a great Christmas!
View photos at:www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/ChiangMaitrek
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/ChiangRaitour

Can Elephants really paint?

I'm up early and doing last minute note reading preparing for the exam from my second week of my Thai massage course. It has been great! I've learned a lot..too much really...and the hope is that I don't forget all of it before I return home. I just need to practice, practice, practice.......I'm sure I won't have too much of a problem finding volunteers. The past two week have been very physical as well as intellectually simulating. We do yoga, tai chi or qi gong every morning for an hour then learn new postures in the Thai massage sequence. I'm pretty beat by the end of the day.

That said, I really haven't seen much aside from the center city of Chiang Mai and the neighborhoods surrounding were I'm living. I did go to a couple of places last weekend with my dad and his friend Bill. On Saturday we went to the town of Bantawa where they do the detailed wood carving and it's a cute little town with many, many shops to tempt you. On Sunday we went to one of the elephant parks which was fun but very touristy. They train(and you wonder how they do this..which I don't like) the elephants to do all sorts of things like play soccer, twirl hoops and even paint...no kidding, that was amazing! You can see on the photos. You can feed the elephants bananas and bamboo and sit on their knee and they will take a hat and put it on your head. We also went to a snake show (which wasn't my idea but I'm the one in the photo with a cobra around my neck!)and unbelievable that these Thai guys handle pythons, cobra and other dangerous snakes.

What I've really enjoyed is just walking and taking in the culture and the people. They are so friendly and helpful. My friend, Lana, arrives today from San Diego and we have some great things planned for the next few weeks. I will be in touch.

I just want to wish all of you a wonderful Christmas and know I will miss you but honestly am not missing all the hype of the season...just missing friends and family. I hope 2010 is a wonderful year for everyone.
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/Thailand

Another World

Sawasdee Kaa from Thailand...hello that is! After a long flight from Glasgow to London and then into Bangkok I went to get my bag and it never came! Here I am in Asia thinking OMG, I'll never get my bag but I overcame that thought and trusted it would but it's horrible being without your toiletries(luckily I thought to pack an extra set of clothes into my carry on)especially your mosquito repellent when they love me! My bag did arrive 24 hours later but by then I was so bit up, I don't know if I'll ever be the same. Why I didn't think to go buy some I'm not sure but that'll teach me :)

So, what does one do the first day in Bangkok? I always like to just orientate myself into a new place and I decided to just walk and see what there was nearby. I wandered along the streets taking in everything that was so foreign to me but even in spite of the craziness of Bangkok city, I felt good thrown into this new culture. The people are so gracious and friendly, they never hesitate to smile at you and at least try to understand what your trying to say. I stopped and got a leg and bikini wax for about the equivalent of $11. Mind you, I didn't know what I was getting myself into and their standards for cleanliness are no where near like the ones we have in the states(which is an understatement) so if I thought too much about it, it was a bit frightening but all was just fine. Later that day I received my first real Thai massage and it was great!(about $10) I figured I should get at least one traditonal Thai massage before starting my Thai massage course in Chiang Mai.

I ended up meeting the Canadian twins(two women traveling together who look like sisters) and had a great time with them. We struck up a conversation on the street and we can some great conversations about travel-they had some great stories-and life and I ended up spending most of the evening with them until I was absolutely cross eyed from jet lag.

The next day I had arranged for a overnight VIP bus to take me to Chiang Mai. This was also the day of the Kings birthday in Thailand and a HUGE party was going on. Getting to the bus station on a Tuk Tuk(A Three wheeled vehicle that are open and can maneuver in and out of traffic and is quite the knuckle gripping ride!) The bus ride was 10 hours and it was quite nice actually as they served you snacks and played a movie dubbed in Thai that was SO loud that I ended up watching a movie on my computer to try to drown out the sound. The Thai LOVE thing loud!

I arrived at 5:00am and made my way to my home for the next 2 weeks. I'm staying at a guest house walking distance to the massage school I'm going to and I started that today. It feels like a lot to take in but I think I'm going to enjoy the program and learning a new skill. I've met some nice people from all over the world and I truly love hearing their stories. One American girl from California(massage therapist)had planned a 6 month trip to Costa Rica and 5 years later she's still on the road! She lives part time in Greece and is the only Massage Therapist in town and also has family in Spain so is applying for dual citizenship.

I will be here for two weeks and then my friend, Lana from San Diego, comes for Christmas and New Years. I excited to have her join me and get out of the cities and see the country side and beaches down South. We will also stop back into Bangkok and see some of the famous temples and other attractions that Bangkok has to offer.

I finally have my London photos to share with you. As you'll see I had one amazing day in London and the photos from the London Eye and the river boat cruise came out really well. Thailand photos will follow soon. Hugs to you all!
www.picasaweb.google.com/tonibodeau/London

Men in skirts?

Where else would you see four good looking men in skirts? Scotland of course! I attended a Ceilidh last Saturday. In the old days in the Highlands of Scotland “ceilidh” is Gaelic describing a get together or meeting. Now, it is used to describe a gathering of people who dance the dances of Highland.

I wasn’t sure what to expect but I had a great time! There was a Ceilidh band called “Gallus” and they rocked. They were the good looking blokes with black kilts on worn with a sporran(a purse basically) and black boots and the lead guy wore an "ACDC" cap worn backwards. He also played an iridescent purple fiddle and it sounded amazing.

The group ranged from 10 years(only a few youngsters) to 80 years old-yes, some older men in kilts as well. The dances were called out so one could easily follow the steps...well, after a few rounds anyway. During the breaks they had these four young women dancing the traditional highland dances very professionally. It reminded me of “River dancing” that the Irish do and it was very energetic and entertaining. I ended up dancing most of the night and came away nearly bruised on my arm from being swung around in “strip the willow” where you basically go down the line or the group of people and swing just about everyone round and round. What was great to see is most everyone participating with huge smile on their faces.

Unfortunately, being totally out of the “travel mode”, I forgot my camera. There was a man who was at the Ceilidh that is a photographer and he gave me his website to view photos of the event. When I checked last, he hadn’t posted the new event but if you like to check out his website, go to: www.caledonianphotographic.co.uk
If you go to gallery then events you should see something like “Lanark Ceilidh dance 2009”

So, my time has come to an end in Scotland and I’m off to Thailand today. I’m very excited for warmer weather and also for a new adventure. I have had such a great time of rest and connection with Scotland and family that I feel ready to move on.

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, I know your all wondering what one does in Scotland for Thanksgiving. Actually nothing having to do with the American tradition of eating until your absolutely stuffed and can't move and you always say "Why do I always eat SO much!" This I'm happy about but not that I didn't miss the tradition of getting together with family and friends and being thankful for the great food and all the wonderful things that life is. So, what did I do? I woke up this morning and laid in bed thinking of all the things I personally have to be thankful for...which is a lot! I got up and made my green tea and climbed back into bed(it was only 6:45 after all) and finished the book "Three Cups of Tea" I really enjoyed this book and highly recommend it if you haven't read it already. It had a wonderful message about life and humanitarianism and what there is to be truly thankful for.

I went to a "diverse fiber day" with my aunt Jenn where a group of women gather once a month working on projects having to do with fiber art and especially 'felting" I made a pair of felted wool gauntlets(gloves without fingers) which will NOT come in handy in Thailand so will no doubt stay behind to come back to the states (at some point) with my aunt Sara's second suitcase of all my goodies accumulated while in Europe....thank you Sara! I did have a turkey sandwich for lunch so I was in the spirit of the day. Jenn and I enjoyed a wonderful meal at a local Italian restaurant here in Lanark this evening.

Have I mentioned the rain yet? Not that I was under the impression that it was going to be nice in November but holly cow....it is bloody cold! I can't complain since I'll be leaving this lovely country to warm, humid Thailand next week so I'll just try to appreciate the crisp air and rare sun shinning through the clouds with colorful rainbows now and again. Mostly my time here is about re-charging my batteries and just relaxing with family. As wonderful as travel is, it can be damn tiring as well. Having a bit of down time is essential. I realized just how tired I was after leaving Rome and arriving to London to stay with a friend Christine. While London is a wonderful city, I just didn't have the drive to go,go,go. I did have a couple of fun days with a British friend who showed me quite a lot of London in a couple of days. We were blessed with a clear, beautiful day and went up onto the London Eye and did a river cruise with a great commentary of the London sights along the river Thames. It was a spectacular day with wonderful skies. I will download photos soon.

I wanted to write and fill you all in on my whereabouts but mostly wanted to say Happy Thanksgiving and know that I am so thankful for all of you; my amazing friends and family who have been so supportive of my travels and dreams. Thank you for your emails, "skypes" or responses to my blogs. Just know that hearing from you truly makes my day and I appreciate your effort, time and love and miss you!
Enjoy the holidays season and I will be in touch from Thailand very soon. Love and Peace to you all.