Chang Mai part 1

Ok, so I guess you're all wondering what the heck I've been doing and why I haven't been updating it here... well I don't actually have a very good excuse other than I lost the cable to my hard drive and, thus, have been unable to get any photos... and lets face it, a blog without photos is like a poodle without the puffy ball on its tail! Anyway, I'm going to try and quickly finish the Thailand adventure experience, then I'll move on to my life now.

**Note** I have no clue why all the photos on my blog are skewed when I post them, but if you click on the title of the blog entry, they will go to normal size. However, then in retaliation for you forcing them to full size, they decide to place themselves in a different layout on the page... grrrrr.... I don't know why.

Michelle, Whitney, and I were SO excited! Our big trip was coming up, a trip to the beautiful tourist city of Chang Mai. We had been excited for this trip for months, and finally we were packing our bags! There was a big list of things we wanted to do. Elephants, rafting, temples, and to top it all off, zip lining! Now we, being the well organized and well prepared individuals that we are, didn't have any reservations for hotels or a specific list of where we could do cool things once we were in the city, but we had plans.

In order to save money, we decided to take the train from Bangkok, a 13 hour journey. I though about my "long" trips from Graz to Vienna on trains, or even Vienna to Munich, and told everyone to trust me, trains were actually quite pleasant. And to ensure our pleasantry, we paid an extra 200 baht (6 bucks) for an airconditioned tran car. Our bags were packed with books and cards, where could it go wrong?
---8:00 A.M.---- One hour before scheduled departure please note, all times are approximate and may be 100% fabricated... but the intervals are close to being right :)
We ran out the door and into our taxi, instructing him to rush to the train station. We theoretically only needed 45 min. or so to get there, and our train left at 9:00, but we didn't want to take any chances! In Bangkok, when traffic hits it hits hard and you're not going anywhere!

---8:15 A.M.--- 45 min. before scheduled departureWe pull into the train station (dang it!). Somehow we made remarkable time and ended up 45 min. early for our train. Ok... well no big deal, I've been early for trains before, its not so bad. And truth be told, in Germany its really not that bad. Just anoying. But, and it was at this moment that I started noticing this, trains in Germany and trains in Thailand are two VERY diffrent things. Kind of like comparing an apple with a duck. For starters, our train station was 100% outdoors, in 90 degree weather. Oh, and add on the fact that our platform was facing the sun with no shade. So for about an hour we sat baking in the hot thai sun, just dripping with sweat and praying that the train would be early.

--9:15-- 15 min. after scheduled departure
In the misirable hot thai sun, we weren't really the most patient people in the world, and the fact that our train was late didn't help us at all. We realized that they had been saying things over the intercom every once and a while in Thai, and thought to ourselves that maybe, just maybe, they had reported that the train was late. I went up to the ticket booth to investigate and, yep, it was delayed. By how much? One hour. New departure time: 10:15

--10:20-- 1 hr. 15 min. after scheduled departure time
Still no train. At this point we had been sitting in the sun for a little over 2 hours and were ready to die. Once again, went to check, once again, another hour delay. New time: 11:15

--11:15-- 2 hr. after scheduled departure time
Our train pulls in! Yay!! Now please note, this stupid train was two hours late, and we were one hour early, which means that if we had been baking in the hot thai sun (with no shade) for three hours. Had we been cookies in an oven, we would have already burst into flames and set the fire alarm off. Just wanted to point that out. We were SO looking forward to that air conditioned car we paid for! We hopped in the train and found places to stick our bags while everyone awkwardly watched us (3 white people... we kinda stuck out). As we took our seat we noticed that we were located directly underneath the air conditioning! Sweat! Everyone else just had simple fans above them which, I guess circulate the cold air throught the car. What luck!

Or rather, what would have been great luck... had the stupid air conditioning worked. But no... no not on our car. Which translates to everyone on the car having a fan above thier heads, except for three rows... one row behind us, and one infront. 13 hours on a really really hot train. And these trains are not like German or Austrian trains. No... these are like the red headed step child of the knock offs of the Austrian train family. I was expecting a nice, semi-quiet ride, smoothly gliding down the tracks. What we got, was something somewhat similar to the wild mouse roller coaser at Lagoon. Ok... ok so thats an exageration, it wasn't THAT bad, but it was NOT by any means a smooth or quiet ride. And to make it worse, there was a big, old aisian woman (sounds mean doesn't it... a larger, elderly woman from Asia) sitting next to me who decided I didn't need any personal space at all. And by "at all" I mean that, as she leaned over to talk with someone a few rows away, she used the inside of my thigh as a resting place for her hand... and she started patting... Wasn't quite sure how to handel that... And to top it off, my tray table didn't work. *sniff* Oh, and to make things even more bizzar, about 15 min. outside of our destination we hit someone. Yep thats right, the train hit a car. We just heard it scrape against the side of the cart and then the train stopped and ambulances came. But after about 30 min. we started going again.
Wow, that was long! I think I'll break this into 2 parts to make it more reader friendly.

Ok, part 2 :)

Chang Mai was so cool! After we arrived (and after finding a hotel) we talked with a member of the church who worked as a tour guide living in Chang Mai. With his help, we were able to have two great days seeing some "standard" sites. The first day we went to a bunch of factories (or workshops) and watched them make paper umbrellas, lacker carvings, silk... and so on. It was really pretty neat to see them make all this by hand, but I don't think my writing skills are quite up to par to make it sound exciting, so I'll leave it at that.

Then we went to a Thai wat (Temple) that was really very cool... unfortunatly I can't remember the name of it, but-- as you can see in the picture-- it had lots of stairs leading up to it. At the top there were some cool statues and bells and stuff, but nothing that would really be worth writing down for you to read!

The second day we went to an elephant training camp to ride elephants. It was really a lot of fun. Luckily, the seats on top of the animals were only designed for 2 people, so I ended up getting

the chance to tame the beast all by myself. As it turns out, I'm quite an elephant racer because, not only did I beat the girls to our destination, I was able to overtake the German group in front of us... and then the french group in front of them... ok, so I had no control and I think the driver on the elephant's head must have been excited for lunch or something, but in any case I moved way faster than Michelle and Whitney.

Then we went to a snake farm where the lack of precautionary measures was highly unsettling and so so funny! Not only were the snakes in the show within grabbing distance, the "snake charmers" actually led some of the snakes into the audience because they thought it was funny (oh, and that snake they led to us attacked Whitney's bag. Yep, it struck right next to our feet). Not to mention the fact that one of the snakes broke free! It was funny to watch the chaos as they scrambled to try and catch it before it got 100% into the wild.

Next we went to the butterfly farm. For those of you who get the chance to come to Thailand, don't go to the butterfly farm. It sucks. Maybe 20 butterflies, all the same kind.

To end the day, we went to the hill tribe villages. There were three different tribes who lived in

these villages, each one with their own traditions. One of them gauged their ears really big, one of them I don't remember, and the other one put rings around their necks to stretch them out. They were also pretty neat to see, but my favorite part was these two little boys who climbed to the top of the hill and then rode their tricycle type things down at mach speeds! It was so great to watch, they were having SO much fun!

Ok, this is actually getting way too long, so I'm going to stop here and type the rest later! But make sure to come back, because the next post deals with me getting about as close to being Tarzan as I ever will, the most miserable train ride in the history of the world, and... uh... more stuff.

One of those moments

Every once and a while, you get the opportunity to sit back and think, "You know, that wasn't really a very smart move." Other times, this realization doesn't come quietly as you sit and ponder... but rather it hits you in the face so hard, that you catch yourself looking around to see if anyone else around you noticed. These moments, although rare, usually come after particularly stupid moves or when someone clearly walked all over you without you even seeing it.

Michelle, Whitney, and I decided that we were not going to waste our limited time here in Thailand, we were going to see all we could! So, it came as no surprise to anyone when, soon after our arrival, we sat down to organize our first adventure. We wanted something easy to find, seeing as how asking people for directions wasn't an option-- not just because that would break every man-code there is, but also because my Thai isn't quite as good as my Latin (Et tu, Brute?). That hindrance left us with the major tourist areas. After a short discussion, we decided that there was no better place to start, than the famous Grand Palace.

The Grand Palace is an amazing complex that used to house the royal family (the current king lives else where) located in downtown Bangkok. We got up early in the morning and prepared ourselves for the fun filled day ahead. Noi (the mission home's housekeeper) wrote instructions down explaining how to get home onto a piece of paper that we could give a Taxi driver (thus preventing us from dying a slow and painful death, being forced to wander lost in a major city), and called a taxi for us. After she explained to the driver where we wanted to go, Michelle, Whitney, and I hopped in excited and ready.

As we stepped out of our taxi, which had stopped along the wall surrounding the Grand Palace, we quickly realized that we had no idea where we were supposed to go. The taxi had indeed stopped in front of a gate, however there were several guards in full military attire (complete with assault rifles) standing there, which-- surprise surprise-- kinda gave us a moment of hesitation. Lucky for us, a man, sensing our hesitation, came up to us and asked, in broken English, if we needed to buy our entrance tickets. He pointed us toward what appeared to be another gate some 200 yards down the wall. We thanked the man and started walking down the wall, the whole time I thought, "Man I'm so glad people here are ready to help the stupid tourists!" I had no idea.

As we made it about 2/3 of the way, another man came up to us. "You looking for entrance tickets?" "Yeah we are!" "Oh, not open now. Closed. Lunch. Don't open till 1:30. Sorry." I checked my watch. 12:30. Dang. Talk about bad timing! Now what would we do?! We were stuck with no way of knowing whats in the area! The man, sensing our disappointment, said, "You seen giant Buddha?" "Um... no. Where is that?" "Oh close c lose! One, two min. I show you!" He ran over to a Tuk-Tuk driver and spoke with him (in Thai). The driver reached under his seat and pulled out a map, which he gave to our good Samaritan. He then went on to show us that, it was indeed, pretty close (although in all honesty, I now realize we had no good point of reference. We had no idea how far it was). "I get Tuk-Tuk for you. Cheap, 20 Baht!" He talked with the driver from whom he had taken the map, then turned to us and said, "20 Baht, he take you there and back." It was a great deal! 20 Baht (about $0.75) How could we say no?!

We soon found ourselves zipping through the streets of Bangkok in our new ride, the Tuk-Tu k. Our driver could speak a little English and, upon hearing that we were American, immediately pulled out a poster that said "Obama" in big letters (I'm still amazed that other countries are so interested in our countries government). He was really excited to show it to us! We kinda chu ckled and talked with him a little as we rode. After a few min. we arrived at our destination and, as we pulled in, the driver said, "You take as long as you want. I wait here. Take time. Long as you want. I wait." That made me a little nervous because, 20 Baht is really a steal of deal on a Tuk-tuk, and I thought maybe he was planning to rip us off. He waits here for 3 hours and then charges us $300 for the time... but after trying to make it clear (through charades mostly) that he would only get 20 baht regardless of if he waited or not, we decided he understood and went to the giant Buddha.

It was... exactly as the name suggests. A giant s tatue of Buddha. Not much to tell you there... it was neat to see. Anyway, after about 40 min. we went back to our Tuk-Tuk, half expecting him to be gone. But, just as he had said, he was ther e waiting for us. We climbed into the Tuk-tuk, and our driver climbed out saying that he had to go to the bathroom first. Hard to argue with that! So we sat there for a min or so, until our itchy shutter fingers got the best of us. We started trying to get a picture of the three of us. Some random guy who was sitting next to us saw, what must have been a comical sight, and asked if he could take the picture for us. He took a few pictures and then started talking to us. He told us about himself and that he had a son in New York, he was a doctor... blah blah.... then he asked how long we would be in Thailand. After we told him 3 months, he asked if we had already been to the Tourist Authority of Thailand. We hadn't. He told us about how important it was that we do that so we could use our time here to see everything we could! That talk went on for quite some time until our driver came back. Our doctor friend said, "Oh, I'll tell the driver to take you to the TAT now! Its nearby!" "Oh no, we want to get back to the Grand Palace now." "Oh, you can, but it's closed right now for a special ceremony with the monks." "... really?" "Yep. Should I tell him to take you? Yeah, I'll tell him." Well, since the Grand Palace was still closed we might as well go to the T.A.T. We could get some pamphlets or something... although something was fishy...

Once again we found ourselves zipping through the streets of Bangkok in our Tuk-Tuk. Cutting buses off, swerving in and out of oncoming traffic... I'm just grateful to be alive. We drove for what seemed like a very long time, but finally made it to the T.A.T. We didn't learn too much there and it ended up being a waste of time. Ok, time to go back. Even if the Palace was closed, we could look at stores in the area or something. We told our driver and off we went. We drove for what seemed like forever, going down all these funny little alleys and back roads (the whole time I found myself thinking, "if he stops and tries to jump us... what do I do..."). After what seemed like an eternity, we pulled to a stop in front of another T.A.T. Uh... communication error? We just talked with one... don't really need another. We told him we didn't want to be here and there was this awkward moment where we all just sat there. Finally, he got it and dejectedly started the Tuk-tuk back up. "But first you go Thai Fashion, ok?" Uh... what? No! Grand Palace! We kept saying Grand Palace, he ke

pt saying Thai Fashion (which we figured out was a tailor shop), we didn't want suits cut, he didn't want to go to the palace without this detour... what the heck was going on!? "Just stay 5 min. 5 min. ok?" "NO!" Finally he sighed, "5 min. for me. I get gas." Suddenly it clicked. The whole day, we'd been worked over!

He got gas coupons for taking tourists to the T.A.T, this tailor shop, and the big Buddha! Everyone we had talked to since getting out of our taxi had been in on it! The helpful man directing us to the "ticket booth," the good Samaritan, the doctor, everyone had been placed to keep us moving smoothly from site to site. As we put it all together, we just laughed! We were so stupid! The Grand Palace closed for lunch?! Did w

e honestly fall for that?! We finally agreed to go to Thai fashion, just because they had worked us so well that they deserved it! 5 min. in and out. Then we went back to the Grand Palace and went through the gate (past the military guards) and got to see that as well.

In all honesty, I'm so glad we fell for the nutorious "Tuk-Tuk scam." It ended up being a lot of fun! We got to zip around downtown Bangkok and see all these things along the road that we never would have seen otherwise, and got a 2 hour Tuk-tuk ride for 20 baht! We were just 3 stupid Americans who had one heck of a day!

The wonder of modern medicine!

Have you ever had a Rhinoscopy done? If you are like I was a few weeks ago, you responded to that question with a blank stare and mild concern as to how large a "Rhinoscope" would be... Well I, being now an experienced "rhinoscope-ee" will take the liberty of filling you in on the procedure and experience. See, for me it all started over 4 full years ago when I had a series of unfortunate sinus infections which doctors were unable to fix. Suddenly the infections just disappeared. No explanation, but the doctors were happy about it and sent me on my way. Fast forward to May 2006. I found myself in Nauvoo as a performing missionary, acting in several shows a day and singing from sun up to sun down. I loved it more than you can even begin to imagine! However, unbenounced (yeah, like I could spell that) to me, the singing had created a perfect "smoke screen" for a new sinus infection to form. I assumed that my voice getting tired and harder to control was just normal wear-and-tear and thus took no action against it. Fast forward to now.

I lose my voice a lot now. For some reason, talking is just too much for it! Singing is really a difficult task. I figured that it was the result of wear and tear from Nauvoo and that there was really nothing I could do now. But hey, the medical care here in Thailand is actually quite good and, as compared to ours, extremely cheap! In a lot of ways its much better than ours in my opinion. Far simpler. You call up the doctor the day of, make out an appointment, and ta da! No middle men. You can even talk directly with a specialist without having to go though a doctor first. I could go on with that, but I'd rather not... so back to topic. I figured that while I'm here, I might as well get my throat looked at and see if there is anything that could be done. I called up an ENT and made out an apointment. Which brings us to the Rhinoscope...

After talking with the doctor for a few min. he shrugged and said, "Well, I guess we'll just need to get in there." I didn't quite know what that meant... but I didn't have much time to decide because he stood up and told me to sit in what appeared to be a dentist's chair located behind him. I sat down, and watched in fear as he pulled out a thin metal rod measuring a little less than one foot in length. He snapped the rod onto a long hose (which lead to a monitor) and turned to me saying, "ok... tilt your head back."

Did you know that your nose isn't just a random bump on your face that magically transports air from the outside of your body to your lungs? Apparently, there is more to it than that. I would have never known, if not for the fact that this stupid metal rod ended up traveling up my nose much farther than I thought it actually went. As the doctor guided this thing through my face, he kept telling me what we were seeing on the monitor (oh, I failed to mention the metal rod thing was a camera with a light). I kinda felt stupid as I sat there listening, "Ok, and here is your Schmithinogolifgzij wall... and there is the Schnikeiieskos..." I just sat there wondering if I was supposed to respond to that... or even know what the heck he was talking about... I mean if a doctor were to point out where my heart is on a monitor, that I would be able to connect with! But the different parts of my nose...

Anyway, eventually he let me up out of the chair and explained what the problem was. I've had a chronic sinus infection for the last 3 years which overloaded the muscles controlling my voice (which is why singing is so gosh darn hard now!). Fixable? Yeah. The muscles have been compensating for such a long time that I have to relearn how to sing properly (great...), but with time things could be back to normal!

All in all, it was not an experience that I wish to repeat, but one that wouldn't scare me if I had to. No pain, just very unpleasant! Amazing what we can do today, eh? Yay modern medicine!

And so it starts

Alright, I sat down to create this blog thinking, "yeah sure, no sweat." I mean, lets look at this, all I have to do is make one page that looks ok, and then type events or thoughts onto it. Quick and easy! Well much to my surprise it was NOT easy and I've spent many hours hating everything about this! But, I've taken my Advil and am now ready to start filling you all in on the deep inner thoughts of the enigma that is Brian. I'm still working on creating an esthetically pleasing environment, so give me a little time!

The adventures of Thailand in a nutshell (which is kind of ironic… seeing as how nuts and I… ah never mind. Dumb joke anyway). I wish that I hadn’t procrastinated writing all about my Thailand experience until now. One of the most unfortunate things about our human minds is that they forget. When we don’t write things down, the memories can just disappear—somehow fade into oblivion, as if the events never happened. I’ll bet that's just one of the many reasons we’re supposed to keep a journal (something that I really need to start working on more diligently). Anyway, I’ll try my best to summarize some of the biggest and best things and thoughts I’ve had in the last three months. Needless to say (why do we use those words just before saying whatever it is that apparently doesn’t need to be said?) there have been a lot!