I had been thinking about doing a fasting/detox/meditation retreat for quite a while, so when I found a decent priced place and had the time to do it, I signed myself up for a 10 day detox. Soppong is about a 5 hour drive from Chaing Mai (or 1 1/2 hours from Pai). My retreat was part homestay, part detox fasting. So I stayed with a Lisu, hilltribe family. (Well, the wife, her dhild, and grandchild are Lisu, and the husband is an American who moved to Thailand 6 years ago. He ran a fasting/meditation center in Hawii and used to work as a pschcologist, so it was a pretty good program.)

For 2 weeks before the fast, I ate vegan plus no wheat and no sugar. For the first 2 days of the fasting program I had a bit of fruit in the morning, some herbally vitamin pills. Then had a fiber/herb drink thing for lunch, and some veggie broth and another fiber/herb drink for dinner. After the 2 days, I cut out the fruit, so it was lidquids only. We did some yoga in the morning and then free movement. The free movement was a bit strange. Basically we just danced around in the living room to random new age music. Then we would do mediation twice a day, and I would have a nice long Lisu massage each evening.

It was definetly a nice break. I really needed to chill out, collect my thoughts, and just sit still for a few days. The whole fasting thing was much easier than I thought it would be. I didn’t really feel hungry, but I kept thinking about food all day long. After my detox was over, I weighed myself and found out that I had lost 17 lbs! (7 during the prefast and 10 during my fast.)

After the fasting/detox program was over I had about a week in Bangkok. I mainly spent the time getting my work visa for Japan, packing up, and doing a bunch of last minute things (shopping, dentist etc.). Jenn and I went to Koh Samet (an island 3 hours from Bangkok) for the weekend, and had a great time relaxing. I’m feeling a little bit sad leaving the nice hot beaches of Thailand, but I can’t wait to go to Japan!

I am offically unemployeed now, and am loving it! I will be starting my teachin job in Japan on September 19th, and really haven’t made too many plans for my trip before that. At the request of my mom I’ve made a little schedule of where I’m going (dates and places may change slightly). Here it is:

August 1-3 Hang out at Jenn’s apartment in Bangkok
August 4-21 Mynamar (aka Burma) I am flying into Yangon on the 4th and will probably be there for 1 night. Then will be heading to Bagan, Inle Lake, and Mandalay. I hoping to stay in these places for about 4 days each. Then I fly out of Yangon on the 21st and head back to Bangkok.
August 22 Head north towards Laos
August 23- September 1 Laos- I will probably spend 2-3 days in the capital and in Vieng Vang, then at least 3 days in Luang Prang. Followed by a 2 day slow boat trip to the border.
September 2 Travel day
September 3- 12 Detox/Meditation retreat in Pai, Thailand. Basically eating nothing, doing yoga, and relaxing for 10 days.
September 13-14 head back to Bangkok
September 15-16 weekend in Koh Samet with Jenn. (Yeah! Chilling on the beach!)
Septmeber 17-18 Get organized at Jenn’s apartment and be a freeloader for a few more days.
September 19 Fly out of Bangkok at 12:15 am and land in Tokyo at 8:00am. Then start teaching.
Around December 19 Fly back to MN and spend Christmas at home.

It is definetly going to be a busy, crazy, and exciting time! I can’t wait!

I had almost run out of time with my Thai tourist visas (you only get to stay in Thailand for 90 days out of 6 months before you have to leave) so I had to send my passport off to Austrailia to get a Non-Immigrant B Multi Entry visa, which allows me to stay in Thailand for a year.  The only problem was that I had to cut my vacation short and take over one of my coworkers trips, because he had to go home to Oz.   We arrived at our beach destination, Krabi, and spent 3 days relaxing on the beach (when it wasn’t raining).  My passport was being mailed to our hotel, so evryday I would check to see if it had arrived.  Which it never did.

The trip was scheduled to head to Malaysia, but I still didn’t have my passport back.  So evryone had to go on without me.  Luckily I was training a new leader, so he was able to take over as tour leader for the group!  So I’ve been stranded in Krabi waiting for my passport to come.  (It’s definetly a good place to be stranded though.  I’ve just been relaxing on the beach and swimming in the ocean all day.)  My passport finally arrived today, but it was too late to catch up with my group, so I get to have 5 days of vacation!  Yeah! 

I’m going to head back to Bangkok tomorrow and hang out with Jenn this weekend.  There is a Canada Day celebration at the British Embassay (weird location, huh?)  and I think I’ll attend that and pretend to be Canadian in order to get a Western style bbq and drink Canadian beer.  Then I’ll probably stay with Jenn for a few days.  (I’m getting so sick of hotel rooms!)

I’m starting to think that after living in Asia for the last 1 1/2 years, nothing would surprise or shock me anymore. A man riding a motorbike with a monkey sitting on his lap-Boring.  People eating chicken feet and snails- Yawn.  Elephants walking down the streets of Bangkok-Sad but not really surprising.

But when I was in Ko Samui last week I saw 2 things that really surprised me.  The first thing was when we were driving to our hotel we passed a big sign adertising a Chubby Bikini Contest, no big deal yet, but then on the bottom of the sign it said to qualify as chubby you need to weigh 115 lbs or more!  Talk about depressing! 

Then on the next night my pax and I went to the Lady Boy show.  Watching the drag show is always entertaining, and this one seems to have new songs/dances/costumes everytime I go.  For some of the numbers they have little Thai guys as the back up dancers.  They are ushually dressed in vests (without shirts) and tight pants.  This time they did a Beyonce number where the backup dancer boys were wearing skin tight Army camo pants with little furry black vest (no shirts underneath) and knee high black highheeled boots.  We’re talking a 4 inch heel plus platforms.  It was the funniest thing I’ve ever seen.  Plus they were supposed to be acting like tough macho military types, while wearing the high heeled boots over their camo pants.  How funny! I really wish I had a camera with me.  

I feel like I’m settling into the job more, and now have a clearer picture of what life as a tour leader is really like.  Basically its totally exhausting, sometimes frustrating, and drives me crazy at times but it is also a ton of fun.   I really like not having an office, cubicle, computer, or telephone as part of the job.  But working 24 hours a day 7 days a week for 30 days in a row, is a bit insane.

I’ve already gotten to know so many cool people from around the world and have basically made friends with a lot of our local operators as well.  I get to lay on the beach, go snorkeling, horseback riding, kayaking, get tons of thai and reflexology massages, eat amazing food, and never have to clean or make a bed (in fact I’ve forgotten how.  When I stayed at Jen’s apartment a few weeks ago I tried to make the bed and sweep the floor, but couldn’t really remember how to.)

  Some days I feel like I have the best job in the world, and then others I just really want to curl up in bed and sleep, relax, read a book, or watch a movie.  I really have come to love certain places in Thailand and Malaysia.  So all in all I think that this is a pretty good job for me. 

To start off this blog I think I’ll probably have to tell you what a sniff kiss is.  Basically it’s a Thai form of affection, where someone leans close to their loved one, putting their nose close to their head/hair/shoulder and then takes a big loud whiff.  Sniffing them.

The other day as I was walking down the sidewalk, a man was walking in the opposite direction.  As we were about to pass each other, he leans over like he’s about to whisper a secret in my ear.  Then he did a rather loud sniff kiss to me.  And just continued on walking.  It was totally bizarre and strange.  I stood there for a few minutes wondering if I was going crazy, or had just imagined it, but then I remembered about theThai craze- the sniff kiss.  It’s certainly not the worst thing that’s ever happened to me, but it was sure bizarre.  Ahh- the adventures of living in a foreign country with a totally different culture!

On a different note, I think that I am becoming addicted to Thai massage and reflexology.  I usually have about 2 massages a week (sometimes more), but I had decided to save some money, so it had been about 10 days since my last massage.  (Shocking, I know!)  I was starting to feel sick, really tired, and had no appetite.  I figured I was just tired from the 2 back to back tours, but then today I dragged my butt out of bed and had a 2 hour long Thai massage (for less than $10, gotta love it).  And I felt completly better afterwards.  I think my body was going through massage-withdrawl or something.  (Well, maybe not.  But I think that I’ll need to get bi-weekly massages from now on!) 

I finished my first solo trip as a tour leader.  Yeah!  It actually went very smoothly and I had a lot of fun.  My pax (all 2 of them) were great.  They were very laid back and up for pretty much anything (except 1 of them hated Indian food, which I just can not understand).  We were able to meet up with 4 other Intrepid trips in various cities, so the guys got to socialize and have dinner/drinks with some new faces along the way. 

 Unfortunately, only 1 of my pax made it all the way from Bangkok to Singapore.  Hakon, the Norwegian guy, decided to go to Tioman Islands (in Malaysia) instead of having the last night with us in Singapore.  I think he really enjoyed the trip, but it just didn’t make any sense for him to leave Malaysia to spend 12 hours in Singapore, and then go back to Malaysia early the next morning.  Fair enough.  It’s just funny that my first trip finished with only 1 passenger!

I had 1 day off between trips, and now I have a new group starting tonight.  We are basically doing the reserve of the trip I just finished with a few different stops and cities along the way.  I can’t wait to meet my new pax!

I just got some exciting news yesterday.  It looks like starting in July I will be leading tours in Borneo as well as the tours I’m doing now.  I’m so excited!  I really wanted to go to Borneo and see the orangatans and everything else too.  Most of the trips in Borneo climb Mt Kinabalu (which is the highest mountain in Malaysia and is a very strenous hike), so I’m a bit nervous about doing that every 2 weeks.  But I’d sure get fit quickly! 

My birthday is in a few days, and I still haven’t thought of anything I really want to do.  I’ll be in Kuala Lumpar, so I might see if my pax want to go to the sky bar for a drink or something.  (It’s a posh bar on the top of one of the skyscrapers in downtown.  But I don’t really have anything nice to wear, so who knows.)  I’m sure I’ll find something fun to do!

Today I celcbrated Songkran for the first time. It is one of the craziest/wildest holidays I’ve ever seen. Basically to celebrate New Years (April 13th) the whole country has a massive waterfight.  So today as soon as I waked out of my hotel to find some breakfast a big bucket of water was thrown on me and then a pack of kids came running up to me armed with super soakers.  So of course I ran to the nearest watergun stall on the road (they were set up about ever 10 feet along all of the roads today) and bought myself a nice watergun. 

Soon I was walking down the road drenching everyone I saw.  I of course was completely wet and to top it off people run around with baby powder that they rub on your face, arms, and back (and if they are feeling naughty into your hair too).  So by midday the whole town is running around totally wet and white from the babypowder.  

During my 4 hours of waterfight participation I had tons of waterfights, danced with a bunch of ladyboys that were having an impromtu dance party on the street, and joined a couple waterfight “street gangs”.  (Basically people on the street that team up to drench the people driving by in pickups, and when other “street gangs” would come into our area, we of course would have to fight them to.)  The significance to the whole waterfight thing is basically to wash away the past year and to pray for alot of rain during rainy season which starts in May.  (I know, by wasting all of that water, they are being quite counter-productive to the whole praying for more water thing. But whatever, it’s there holiday I just get to have fun with them.)

Songkran has to be one of the coolest holidays I’ve ever seen or heard of!

We’ll I’ve been an offical tour leader for about 36 hours now, and I’ve already gone from a group of 5 to a group of 2!!!  Yesterday, I was preparing and going over exactly what I would say at the group meeting.  (The introductory meeting where you tell people all about the trip, the style of travel, rules, highlights etc.) But only 1 person showed up!! 

So, no problem.  I let notes for my other 4 pax telling them to meet with me in the lobby the next morning.  The next morning rolls around, but it turned out that the 3 girls never checked in.  (I was supposed to have 3 British girls that are friends from home.)  I met up with the Norwegian guy, and told him all the info.  Then I checked basicall ever hour with the front desk to see if my girls had checked in yet.  They had not.  So I had to call all of the hotels and try to cancel their rooms, and then find a travel agency to change the train tickets at.  So all of there stuff is now cancelled, I just hope they don’t show up at the last second and I have to scramble to re-buy train tickets and get hotel rooms.  I feel like I’ve alread been tested as a tour leader!  So after the running around, I treated myself to a nice Thai massage. 

Now, I’l be spending the next 2 weeks with 2 young European guys.  Not a bad job, huh?!

I’ve finished all of my training, and am about to start my first real trip.  (Can you believe I’m being entrusted with a group of strangers to bring them safely from BKK to Singapore?!)  Actually I’m really excited about the trip, I just hope that I don’t forget any bus tickets or anything at the office in Bangkok.

I had a week off between my training trip and my 1st trip, so I decided to have a little R&R on the beach in Ko Samet.  (Ko Samet is an island in central/eastern Thailand.  It’s only about a 3 1/2 hour bus ride from BKK, so it’s ideal for a quick little get away.)  I’d never been there before, so I didn’t really know what to expect.  But I feel in love with the place right away.  I stayed on the northern-most beach and it was a quiet sleepy little fishing village.  There were probably only about 40 travllers/tourists around, so it was a chilled out relaxing atmosphere.  I stayed at a tiny little guesthouse called Lung Ritt Bungalows (Which is basically just a family’s house and then on the edges of their yard they built a few buildings. They had 3 single rooms and about 5 double rooms, so it was a very homey environment.  And it’s super cheap too!  Only 200 baht a night to sleep 15 feet from the ocean.  That’s how much I ushually have to pay for some crappy little room off of Koh San Rd in BKK!)

Anyways, my 4 days went by every quickly!  Swimming, reading, biking, getting to know the other travellers and guesthouse staff, and eating tons of yummy German food.  (Surprised?!  The bungalows next to mine were owned my a German man and his Thai wife.  He is a fabulous cook, so I pigged out on schnitzel, bratwurst, and the best mashed potatoes I’ve ever eaten in my life!)  On the 2nd day I rented a bike and rode around the island, or as far as I could manage, since the roads were just made of sand and were full of potholes and stray rocks.  While I was riding I was constantly waving to people that I’d met, and I really felt like a local.  The place really had a cool little small town vibe to it. 

So my vacation is nearly over, and I have to actually do some work now to organize my trip.  I’ll be updating everyone on how the first trip goes.  Hopefully everyone will make it safely to Singapore!