Whitianga - Pronounced Fiteeanga

I know, the weird New Zealanders and their pronunciation of strange words. Wh down hear is pronounced with an "F" sound. Strange.

So, I know I haven't posted in a while. This is due to the location that I have been in for the last week or so. As you saw from that last post, I didn't have the resources to make one worthwhile. So, although it is expensive to do so now, I will try to make another good one to entertain you all till next time! :) (As Eric has told me, my post is kind of like the newest daytime reality show back in Bozeman. Everyone is talking about it! I am so happy you are all enjoying it so much! It makes it much better writing them!)

So starting about a week ago, I finally got out of Auckland. I'm with Martin still, who bought a car and it is making it quite easy to get around with. We started off by driving to Thames and stayed at an interesting backpacker (Hostel) there. I say interesting, because considering checkout was at 10:30 in the morning, and we weren't out till 11:30, we got yelled at! But in the most unusual circumstance. We were actually waiting for another person to ride with us, and we were just sitting in our car where we had slept the previous night. It was like sitting in a parking lot. We weren't using the facilities at all. And sure enough, the owner came out and said stuff like "travellers don't travel anymore! You guys are getting me pissed! etc. etc." So we took the jeep and parked it in front of the driveway in the street instead though. So word for the wise. . .Don't stay at the Sunkist Lodge Backpacker in Thames! (Take that Sunkist lodge. Your reputation is tarnished forever now. Haha! The power of the Internet!)

Well, from there we went on our way to Coramandel Town. A small little podunk place that had some fun things to do. First I went swimming at this Waterfall. Then we Hiked up to Castle Rock, which I only later learned is a fabulous rock climbing area. (Stupid me! I should've had a partner with me) However at castle rock, it was socked in the clouds, hence no pics of it. I actually didn't see the rock itself it was so cloudy. We stayed one night in Coramandel town before heading even further north. We made it to a fun camping beach named Fletcher Bay. Spent the night there and booked it around to the other side of the peninsula to Stoney Bay. Stoney Bay had this fun little swing there that I had way too much fun taking pictures of! :)

Then a very fun thing was undertaken. Martin and I hiked the short yet beautiful Coramandel Coastel Walk. This walk weaved in and out of these canyons with the prettiest creeks you've seen. (Well almost) It was slightly dissapointing because there was only one really good view. The other view that we may have gotten was obscured by clouds! Dang New Zealand weather!

And then from there, it was to the Farmstay. Yes, a very fun place to hang out. We got to Milk a cow by hand, as you can see here. And then we got to drink the milk. Wow, was it ever good! It's unfortunate that the majority of milk we drink is so processed nowadays. Oh well. . . We also were able to hike to an abondoned Gold mine with a few glow worms in it. Unfortunately though, glow worms would never in a hundred years show up in any picture that I tried to take. So, you'll just have to imagine being able to see a starry sky in the middle of a cave! And then finally we hiked to the most gorgeous waterfalls I've seen thus far in New Zealand. Their beauty may just be compounded by the fact that the hike itself was so pretty. Oh yeah, and the swimming.

Yes, ladies, hold your applause! :) This is me in my boxers about to go swimming. Of course I had to do the pose!

Well, regardless, we stayed one more night at the farmstay just cause it was a blast. And from there we drove down to Whitianga! I have just arrived here and look forward to exploring a little! So with that said, I'm going to leave you all till next time. I need to go enjoy some of this New Zealand sun!

The Coromandal Region - On the farm in Corville

Right now I am sitting in front of the slowest computer I have ever used in my life. . .This is going to be a short post with not many pictures. (none in fact. . .)hehe Anyway, I am in Corville right now staying on a farm. I plan to wake up and Milk a cow by hand! We also get to pick fresh fruit here! It looks like a really fun place! Ihave e just been camping for the last few days, and I really look forward to telling you all about some of the hikes I did in the meantime. HoweverI am typing about 50 words infront of what the computer is displaying, and the internet is too expensive to deal with this right now! So sorry about the lazy boring post, but I have gotten all your emails, and thanks all! They lighten up my day! Sounds like some of you may come visit sooner than I thought! Looking forward to it! So with that said, I'm still alive, and I'll tell you all more in the next day or two! Chaio!

Auckland Still

(Sky Tower, Tallest Building in NZ)

Well, I know it hasn't been too long since my last post, but I figured just to keep you all entertained, I would post again, although not much has happened. I'm still here in Auckland, and I have been coming to an Internet Cafe almost daily because it is very ridiculously cheap here. The last few days haven't been extremely exciting. I've been staying at my freinds flat which is very nice indeed. It sure beats the Hostels. I've been meeting up with Martin and he is looking into buying a car, and if he does buy a car, we are probably going to travel a little more together. I told him I'd split petrol with him and we could cruise. But since buying a car isn't a show up and pay for it process, it has been taking quite a while. He has to figure out insurance, make sure the car he is getting is road worthy, and become an AA member. (Similar to our AAA.)

Anyway, one thing exciting has happened to me that I thought I'd inform all of you on. I finally got off my lazy bum and hit a local climbing area here in Auckland. This area is called the Mount Eden Quarry, and it is the rock that was exposed when it was dug up to build walls for the prison that is across the school yard from us. Yeah, you heard right. The layout of the area goes, from north to south, Prison, Grammer School, Climbing Wall. All within a square kilometer! Apparently for gym classes the kids are allowed to go climbing! How lucky! The routes are very difficult however. Very short compared to the climbing I'm used to doing though. Anyway, I showed up completely alone to this Rock wall hoping to find some fellow climbers willing to give me a belay. Sure enough, the first people I ran into immediatly offered to let me join them! People are very nice here! The problem with the particular people that I joined though were that they yelled out beta (advice) for the climb before you even attempted it. One guy told me how to do a climb step by step even though the climb wasn't even that difficult and I easily could've figured it out myself. It really takes the puzzle out of the climb if people do this. Oh well. It was actually very fun on some climbs to listen to their beta, and then purposefully do the climb a different way. I was laughing on the inside every time I did this succesfully. :)

So what's amazing, is how quickly, yet how slowly time goes. At the same time! I fly out of Christchurch on the 19th of February, just over a month from now. I thought I'd be down by the south Island by now, and I'm nowhere even close! I may have to skip the South Island until I return from Tanzania! There is still so much up north that I want to see! Two more tramps, Mountain Biking, Hobbiton, Mt. Doom, Zorbing, and Fly Fishing are all on my list! Jeez! For that respect time is FLYING by. But on a day to day basis, especially when I find myself alone, man it drags by. Whenever I find myself alone, I find myself thinking of home, and yeah, missing it a lot. For that reason, it's good that I've kinda found a travel buddy.

Well, till next time!

Back in Auckland - The City of Sails

Well, it's been a while since my last post, and I've done and seen a lot since then as well. I believe since last time I left you, I was just finishing up my tramp around the coast, and heading to swim with the dolphins. Well, sure enough, plans changed soon thereafter. When I told Martin (my tramping buddy) that I was going to go Swim with dolphins then go check out the Kauri Forest, he said, "why don't you check out the Kauri Forest with me first, then go swim?" I said, "Why not?"

So with that said, after I left Kaitaia, Martin and I hitched our way to a little out of the way town called Opononi. This town looks to the naked eye like it offers nothing at all, but in the end, it was a place that one could stay at for a week or two with plenty to do. We stayed at a freindly Hostel called the House of Harmony, and I got into some really interesting political debates with some British, French, and German people. In fact that is one of the most interesting things I've noticed about travelling. Just how centered the States are in the worlds politcal views. It's kind of sad in a way. I was talking to a Korean and he was pissed at George Bush because the economy in Korea is directly linked to the one in the states. So due to Bush, Korea's economy is down in the tubes right now too. (By the way, everyone wonders why we made such a big deal out of the Clinton Scandal.)

Anyway, back to the point. Opononi. I got to spend new years in this quaint little town. There is one bar, and so we all went down to it to party a little. Apparently this bar normally only sees 4-5 people a night, however it was packed on New Years day. There were a lot of local Mauri people there, and a really funny guy with bare feet, pleather pants, sunglasses, that was just pacing back and forth all night long! (I think he was dancing, but I can't be sure. ;) ) So, after the countdown, Richard and I, (Richard is the fun bloke from Britain) went back to the hostel to bring in the new year with a game of Chess. After downing a few beers, the game of chess turned into another political discussion! Imagine that!

We then checked out the Kauri Forest. The Kauri trees are trees that rival the Redwoods, however I think redwoods win. Kauri trees are HUGE though. You see that wall behind me in this picture? Yeah, that's not a wall at all. It's a tree. So the Kauri's are cool and all, but sure enough, they are just big trees. Not a lot to talk about. . .

The next day, I decided to head on my way to karikari to find an adventure with the dolphins. On my way to Karikari, Richard brought me to the puzzle man in Opononi. This guy lives about 5km off the main road, and he makes and sells puzzles for a living. What's great, is when you walk into his hut, he hands you a puzzle first thing and says "figure it out!" I ended up spending a good 45 minutes there just doing puzzles! I think he got frustrated with me though because I'd solve all his puzzles very quickly! There was one called the "ten dollar hooker" where the effect is a rubber band pulling a wooden stick into a hole. So when he does it, it looks like this stick snaps back into the hole, but then you try and there is no rubber band at all! I only had to play with it for 15 seconds to figure it out, where as Richard never figured it out. (He worked on it for about 15 minutes!) I can't wait to show you all the effect in person!

So, after the puzzleman, came Kerikeri. I stayed at an extremely fun YHA hostel there that had a pool table and a bunch of Koreans that have come to New Zealand to study english. I impressed them with my pool abilities, and trick shots, juggled a little and called it a night. I would've liked to stay there longer too, however, if I was going to swim with dolphins, I needed to get to Paihia.

Considering Paihia was only about 30km from Karikari, I had some time to spare in Karikari the next day. So I decided to hike to Rainbow falls. These were gorgeous waterfalls more or less in the middle of the town. On the way, you pass by the oldest stone building in NZ too. I thought about checking it out a little closer, however I couldn't justify the admission for a little NZ history that I wasn't too interested in. So I just walked on the outside of the building and oohed and awed from there. After another hour of hiking, I finally got to the falls. These falls were about 40 meters tall, and had a cave behind them that was fun to go play in. (And yes, Eric, I played in them, just for you!)

Then it was off to Paihia. I got a nice little campsite for a really good price at a place called Haruru Falls. Most people walk to these falls, but I camped right at them! (You can see the falls through my tent, I think) They even light up these falls at night. By no means are they as impressive as the falls we see in Montana, but they were fun to camp outside of regardless.

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for, my dolphin Swimming experience! Sure enough, I didn't get to actually swim with them! I know, a huge dissapointment. However, I did take a cruise around the bay of Islands, and we got to see a lot of dolphins. And they were cool! They are such playful creatures! We weren't allowed to swim with them though because there were baby dolphins in the pod, and that makes it against the rules. Apparently it's hard on the baby's to exert any extra energy other than basic food gathering energy. Oh well. The Cruise then continued on to the apparently famous "hole in the rock" which is exactly that. A big hole in a big rock. So big infact that we drove our massivly huge tour boat right through it. Impressive, indeed.

Well, after spending one more night at Haruru Falls, I hitched back to Auckland today. One guy that I got a ride from offered to take me out for the weekend to do some boating and saltwater fishing, so hopefully that will happen. I'll keep in touch! If it doesn't happen then I think I'm off to Rotoruo (sp?) for some mountain biking, thermal soaks, and Zorbing! (If you don't know what zorbing is, you should google it! It is a very amusing New Zealander thing. . .)

Tramping the Northern Most Point of New Zealand

Hello all! I am safe and sound from my last (and first) three day tramp around the northern most point of publicly accesible land in New Zealand. The tramp was fabulous too, however I don't think I'll tramp on beaches again. Sand is tough to walk through.

Anyway, we started off three days ago. I met up with a German named Martin in the hostel that I was staying at. He wanted to do this tramp with me so I waited one extra day to go with him. We started by buying a bus tour of the cape, and when the bus got to Te Paki stream, it dropped us off. It was kind of amusing to see us with all these tourists in the bus because our bags were huge! Everyone else only had cameras, and they had no idea that we were just being dropped off. But we got to see some fun things on the tour as well.

On the tour, we passed by a store with a Kauri tree in it. a Kauri, tree is about the size of a redwood. So huge. Anyway, they had carved a spiral staircase inside this tree. Apparently it is the only "inside a tree spiral staircase" in the world, however good that title is too have.

We then stopped quickly at some sand dunes and sledded down them. Don't get too exited however. This does not compare to sledding in the least. It is slow, and much harder to walk up the sand dunes then it is to walk up snow. Even when the snow is pretty deep. We found it was actually more fun to just run as fast as you could down these dunes without falling down. Once again, we probably looked pretty funny. The only two people out of about 60 that were just running up and down dunes, instead of sledding.

Then it was off on our tramp. The first day was only a four hour walk to the most beautiful beach and campsite on the whole tramp. We had the beach completely to ourselves, the weather was perfect, and we got to see some stars finally. It was warm, and we got to swim in the ocean, and play some frisbee. All around good times. Here is a picture of me at the beginning of the beach.

So, you might think beach walking is fun. That is where you are sorely mistaken though. Beaches are soft and long. See the far side of the beach in that last picture? That is where we camped, and it took about an hour to get there. In the mountains you could cover that distance in 15 minutes! So it was a good experience to have, but I think I'm done with tramping on beaches now. :)

The second day we crossed over Cape Reinga. The Lighthouse up there is gorgeous, albeit infested with tourists. Here's an example of how eco friendly New Zealandars are though. The Lighthouse uses a fifty watt bulb! Incredible! It is powered off solar panels too! It is also completely automated from Wellington. Pretty amazing if you ask me.

After the lighthouse we walked over to another established camping area. It was also crowded and we had to pay for camping. So that was kind of a bummer. It also had started to rain on us so we were feeling kinda miserable.

Then for the third long day. The third day we walked for about 7.5 hours. It was a total of 16km (10 miles) and over some interesting ridges and bays. If I were to go back, I would spend all my time in Pandora Bay. We would've liked to stay there a night but somebody had already taken the only good campspot. They also thought they were completely alone, because as soon as we showed up, they ran off to get dressed. Yep, they were completly naked, and sure enough too embarresed to say hi as we walked by! :) (I won't post pics of them. hehe!)

Then we had to walk across the longest and most difficult beach of them all. Spirits Bay. Still gorgeous, but way too long! Just Knee-bending work to get across it! Once we finally did, after conserving all the water we could, we stopped at another camp ground for the night. Also crowded, but a good place to Hitch a ride from the next morning. So needless to say, I had a great time! Now I'm back in Kaitaia, and looking forward to heading down to the Bay of Islands to go swimming with some dolphins! Apparently the Kauri Forest is also down in that area, so I'll check out the huge trees in their natural enviroment soon!

Hope you all had a fabulous Xmas! Trust me, I'm missing the snow plenty! And have a grand New Years. (Is the house of Hamatco going to be hosting a new years party this year?)

Cheers!

Kaitaia - Way up north

Right now I am in a little town called Kaitaia. This is the take off spot for the cape Reinga tramp. (they use tramping instead of backpacking here in NZ) So for the next three days I'll be walking about 25 miles or so on beaches! It should be a really cool scene to watch the Tasman Sea meeting up with the south Pacific. I guess you can really see them beating against each other.

Other than that, things have been somewhat slow for me so far. I've had a lot of difficulty finding good internet that I can load pictures on. Right now I'm on a little dial up connection. Blegh!

To get to Kaitaia from Auckland, I warmed up my hitchhiking thumb. I don't know if it's due to the NZers being extraordinarily nice, or do to the holiday season, but I've had no problems hitching so far. The first people that gave me a ride to Whangarei, drove thirty minutes out of their way to drop me off. They also bought me food and gave me a beer at the super market! Then the person to pick me up from Whangerai to Kataia also brought me to their house and fed me before finding me another ride that went the rest of the way! The hospitality here is wonderful! The second people even offered to let me stay there, however, I'm pretty excited to get on this tramp.

So with all that said, sorry that I still haven't gotten pictures up! I'll keep working on it as the days go by! Hope all of you are having a wonderful Christmas! It hasn't quite warmed up to the normal NZ summer temps yet, so I've still been wearing long pants! :) Hope it's not TOO cold back in the bozone!

Till next time!

Auckland - Finally Down Under!

So, I've made it safely to Auckland. I am finally in the land of Kiwi's! Everything is good down here, albeit I haven't had any time to explore yet. I arrived in Beamers flat yesterday, and spent my time sleeping, and getting rid of Jet Lag. The place that I have in Auckland is sweet! Thanks Beamz, for letting me use it! Anyway, I still haven't gotten pics of the area yet, however I think I'll be doing a "coast to coast" walk here in a few minutes to get my bearings straight. There is some rockclimbing in the area that I may try out if I can find a partner, and it looks like a good walk on an Island in the bay that I'll do tommorrow. First things first though. Gotta find food. ;) I've been looking all over for a grocery store, but can't find them for the life of me.

On another note, a lot of you have been asking where to send postcards or other various paraphanalia. Well, I figure I'll just tell you on the blog so I don't have to keep typing it over and over. What I've been telling people so far is this: If you need to send something, just email me and find out where I'll be in the next week to 10 days or so. Then you can send things "post restante - main post office" to that particular town. When I go through there, I'll be sure to pick it up! However a warning. I am trying as hard as I can to travel very lightly. So unless it's just a postcard or something that you think I need direly, don't send it! Just send your lovely thoughts! That is good enough to keep me happy! So thank you all for the thoughts! And Merry Christmas!

With that said, I think I am off to find that dang grocery store that is constantly alluding me! Wish me luck!

More of Railay and Bangkok

First an amusing story! I went down to Railay to do some climbing, like you all know from my previous post. I met up with Jim, and he and I then met up with about 6 other people that we hung out with for the rest of the week. One of these people was named Kate. She is from Vancouver. Anyway, Kate left Railay on the 14th, and I was due to leave the afternoon of the 15th. Once I left, I took a long boat to a taxi station, where a minibus picked me up to go to the bus station. Well, as I was looking at the passengers in the Mini bus, I recognized one of them. The one and only, Kate from Vancouver was on it. So we said hi again, and I found out that she had mistaken which day her bus left, and it really left on the 15th. So we rode in this minibus to a bus station where she was getting on her bus to Bangkok, while another minibus was supposed to take me to Suratthani to get on the train. So we said our goodbyes again, and got on our sepearate vehicles. Once I arrived in Suratthani, the minibus driver dropped us off at another miniture bus station/reststop. I hung out there for a bit, and guess who shows up in a bus 10 minutes later! Yep, Kate again! So we say hi, and wow, this is weird coincedence etc. etc. and more or less say our goodbyes again when she gets on the bus. So, just before the bus is supposed to leave, all the people that are taking the train get yelled at because we are not on the bus. The bus was going to drop us off at the train station on the way to Bangkok. So, I get on the bus, say my hi's to Kate again, and stand all the way to the train station. (About half an hour away, and there was no room to sit on the bus.) Well, this time I'm sure it's the last time I'll see Kate, but I joke about it anyway. . ."Well, see you in Bangkok!" I say, knowing it's not true. She laughs, and says goodbye. Well, guess what. . .Today, Linnea and I went to the weekend market, which is a story in itself, and after walking around for about 3 hours, in a city of approximately 10 million people, guess who I run into again! Sure enough, Kate was there enjoying the market. What an amazing set of Coincedences! (And she happened to randomly hook up with another of the 6 people that were climbing down there. She just bumped into him in Bangkok as well. He was a German called Marselle.)

Well, now to post up some pictures of the wonderful area called Railay. I'll tell you this now. This is not going to be the last time that I go there. The climbing is so phenomenol, it's hard to describe. More or less, it is just one pitch climbs and everything is sport routes. You can rent gear if you need it (including ropes, however I don't know if I would want to rent ropes.) And there are climbers EVERYWHERE! It can be a little tough to get on some routes, but there are so many to choose from that at most you'll only have to walk another 5 meters to get on something else you can climb. And the majority of the climbs are right on the Beach.

As a general idea what I did for the week that I was in Railay, I showed up, and hung out the first day. I climbed two days, and took two days rest, then climbed for the next three days. On the last day I did a really fun multipitch climb called "humanality." It was five pitches long, and in the fourth pitch there is a stalagtite that hangs behind you. On the main wall, you completly run out of any holds, so as your 150 feet off the ground, you have to turn around and lean out to this stalactite. Then you transfer all of your weight to this stalactite and climb it for about two or three moves. Then you have to turn back around and get on the main wall again. It is an incredible feeling. In this picture, I was standing with my left foot on the stalactite, and my right foot on the main wall. Holding the camera up, I happened to catch my belayer in the picture too. If you look closely, the rope points right to him. You can see Dave's head sticking out. (Dave is a newlywed Chiropracter from the Lake Tahoe area. He came down for his Honeymoon. So Congrats Dave!)

I was also able to climb a 6c climb which for you climbers out there is like a 5.11a-5.11b. I was very proud of myself! Mostly though I was climbing 6a and 6a+ which is about the 5.9-5.10b range. Jim kept calling me his "rope gun" cause I would just shoot up climbs and set up top ropes for him! I like that term. I'm now a rope gun!

Anyway, I love climbing so much that I could continue to talk about every climb I did down there. But since I don't think everybody has that same passion, I'll switch gears to my rest days down there. At least one in particular. . .

On our second rest day I went to a little village Just outside of Ao Nang. At this village they raise Elephants! And sure enough, I went Elephant Trekking! It is really quite an experiance. You'd think it was like horse back riding, but on the contrary, Elephants are ridiculously slow! We trekked a total of about 100 yards or so in an hour! But nonetheless, it was an adventure worth remembering.

Here I am on top of an Elephant head! These things are so massive! Our Elephant was very kind. They just kind of saunter through the forest minding their own business, not even realizing, persay, that there is a human on top of their head! After riding these guys for an hour, we learned all about them. How they like to play, bathe, and eat! They eat about 200 kilos a day! And as Pat would say, "that's 440 pounds!" (I love ya Pat!) Apparently, every now and then the Elephants decide to run away. It's funny cause the trainers have no choice but to follow them barking commands and hoping that the Elephant will listen. Fences won't stop these guys. . .

Well, here I am, typing this post on a Macintosh, and it is starting to get to me. There are a few more picutes I'd love to post up, however they need to be rotated. For some reason when I rotate a picture here, it makes it 14 megs instead of 1.5. And I really don't want to mess with it right now. . .sorry! So with that said, I think it is time for me to sign off! In two days I'll be flying to Auckland to start my Journey around down under! Hopefully it'll be as fun as Thailand was! Wow, it's been a month already huh?

Oh, and before I forget, I'd like to Wish everyone back home a Merry Christmas! Truthfully though, I'm somewhat enjoying not being in the states over Christmas time. It is so busy there with Christmas this, Christmas that, that I get overwhelmed. Out here I've only heard carols in the Subway. But I will however miss my freinds and family over this time. Hope things are going well!

Railay - World Class Climbing

Sorry about the long delay in posts! It has been a wild few days! I also Can't talk too long because as of now I am in a very expensive touristy area that charges a lot for Internet. :( I've found where Thailand isn't neccessarily cheap. Not bad though.

After I got back from Sangkla buri, I spent a day in Bangkok. We then bussed our way up to Buriram to a small town called nong boat (sp?). It was a fun little place, but we didn't get to spend much time there. We stayed at a Cabbages and Condoms resort right across the street from the school we were visiting. This School was NOTHING like the ones we saw in Sangkhla buri. It had power, well built, and many seperate grades. Over 500 students really. They were really nice. There was a "garbage band" there that played a bunch of instruments made out of old trash, and they were really good. Their songs were about how recycling is really important and we all need to save the earth, so the message was good too!

After that show, they sat us down in front of all the students, and two old ladies prayed for us. They prayed that we should have safe travels and a wonderful time. Then a whole bunch of teachers lined up and wished us luck in our future travels. One by one, they came up and tied a single piece of string to our wrists. I now have about 80 peices around my wrist. I'm supposed to leave them on for at least three days, but I think I would like the luck to stick around with me for longer than that!

Well, I then jumped on a bus, and had a long ride back to bangkok. I only had about 2 hours in Bangkok before my train left to Surat Thani. I got on the train at 6:30pm, and after watching kareoke in the "party" car with some Hollanders, I slept, until the train arrived in Surat Thani at 6:30am. 12 hours there. Then I hopped on a 3 hour bus ride to Krabi, and took a long boat to Railay, which is the only way to get here. Way fun, and it's nice to get away from the cars! Regardless, I was traveling for like 28 hours straight! Long days!

So now I'm in Railay, sitting next to Jim who I've met through rockclimbing.com. Jim and I just got done with our first day climbing and it is FABULOUS here! There are weird stalactites everywhere that are great for hanging off of and playing around on. There are three beaches within walking distance, with climbing on all of them. No shortage of climbing whatsoever. Anyway, Jim got a great room, and he is letting me stay with him. I only have to pay 500 baht a night for a fantastic place. Still a little expensive for my tastes, but the place is booked solid, and it's really all I can get. (500 baht is about 15 dollars or so.)

So with that said, I have another fantastic day of climbing waiting for me tomorrow, and I'm looking forward to it! Sorry about no pictures for this post, but like I said, it's expensive. I don't really want to take the time to upload etc. . .

Love you all!

Sangkhla buri and The Children of the Forest.

Hello all!

I am back in Bangkok for just today. I just got back last night from a little town up in the northwest of Thailand called Sangkhla buri. It was incredibly nice getting away from the big smelly cities and into a small town of about 5000 people or so.

The entire reason I went to Sangkhla buri was to join the head people of the Amicus Foundation. www.amicusfoundation.org for those that are interested. Anyway, the main people of the Amicus foundation are Mary and Matthew Kelly. They are Linnea's mother and step father. So, they are trying to raise money for the foundation, which builds schools and other buildings, and more or less helps out the children of the forest here in Thailand. The Children are either Children that are orphaned or have a single mother. Anyway, it's an amazing foundation that is doing some really important work.

So, today is Monday. Which would make it Thursday when we drove out there. It was about a five hour drive, and The bridge over the river Kwai was on the way. So we stopped there for lunch. The Lunch spot is a gorgeous floating restaurant. It's right on the river with a great view of the bridge. All in all though, the bridge wasn't spectacular. Tons of tourists on it. I just wanted to jump off of it really. We asked some people if I could, but they said it probably wasn't a good idea because they were preparing for a reinactment of the bridge being destroyed. So apparently fireworks were under the water, or something like that.

When we got to the resort, we found a beautiful place. We stayed at this little hotel with seperate little houses for the rooms. All very plush. It was overlooking the resevoir that had floating houses in it as well. Then there was this gorgeous wooden bridge that also crossed over the resevoir onto the Mon side. The Mons are just another religous affilition. So you have primarily buddists on our side, and mons on the other side.

After Waking up on Friday, we traveled to the first school. This was a school that was about a 5 minute drive into the jungle. And this is where we spent the majority of our time. I took a few hundred pictures, that I'm trying to sort through today. So, mom, expect a CD of pics soon! :) We spent the whole day touring this village/school area and it was such an incredible experiance. The kids loved us at first site, they are completely self sufficiant, and only two buildings have electricity. That night they put on a show for us as well. They had practiced dancing and singing and performed it infront of two parked cars that had thier headlights on.

The next day we drove to the border of Myanmar and Thailand. And of course, I forgot my Outside Bozeman magazine! Stupid stupid stupid! Regardless, after touring another small village that was officially in Myanmar, we headed to the coolest village of all.

We had to off road for about 20 minutes. We got about 5 miles into the deep, deep jungle. Then we hiked for another 10 minutes. So we were way in. The Amicus foundation funded a school at that place. The kids were very shy there though, and didn't speak Thai. No electricity whatsoever, they harvested their own rice, made their own food, and lived this way their entire lives. Some of them had never been to a city before, and they were about 60-70 years old! On our drive out, we then saw the most amazing jungle spider ever! It was about the size of my face! And I thought it was going to eat me whole! As we were driving, I saw this spider about 10 meters away and had time to warn everybody to duck to miss it. (Oh, yeah, we were riding in the back of a pickup truck). The spider body was black with bright orange, sharp legs that were each probably 10cm long! I'll look for the type online, and see if I can post a picture at some point.














That night we came back to the first village, and watched more kids perform. They had dances, music and singing. And then they invited me to juggle and perform magic. Let me tell you, this was probably my best audience ever. Given, my regular routine didn't necesarily work due to the language barrier. But to give an example, after juggling apples, all the kids were hording oranges that night from their dinner so they could practice juggling too. Also, one of the tricks I performed was tearing a 100 baht bill in half, then in quarters, folding it up, and restoring it to normal. Considering these kids live on probably about 100 baht a month (A little less than three dollars) they were devestated to see me ripping up this bill! Plus I couldn't explain what was going to happen! They just say me ripping up A LOT of money! Crazy people! But when that bill got restored, they erupted into cheering, laughing, and applauding. Just for that reaction, it has made my entire magic "career" worth while! It was also the first time the kids have seen magic of any sort. It really made me wish I could've brought some of my larger stage tricks that aren't as reliant on language as card tricks are.














Well, the next day, we drove back to Bangkok, and since then we've been running around like chickens with our heads cut off trying to get things done before we take off again tomorrow.

By the way, I took all the pictures on this blog except the ones I am in. . .Hope you enjoy them! They are some of my favorite photographs that I have ever taken!