Wet, wild, and...sticky?

It's been a wet week in Dushanbe with more rain and snow. This kind of weather tends to bring out the 'interesting' side of my commute. One morning, it was raining fairly heavily and I was walking down the street to catch a numbered cab to the gym at the embassy. I need to explain this a little better.

I have to walk to the intersection of the main road (Rudaki) and the road to the embassy (Somoni) to catch a ride. The problem is that police officers (remember, they're looking for bribes, not ensuring orderly traffic), like to hang out near this corner to catch unsuspecting drivers. Because of that, I usually have to walk down a ways past the cops to catch a cab. Usually, if I see police officers, I'll walk on the sidewalk until I'm past them, but there are trees between the street and the sidewalk that prevent me from catching a taxi from the sidewalk. So, since it was raining, and I didn't see a cop, I was walking down the street hoping to catch a cab (they are few and far between early in the morning).

Suddenly, a cop stepped out and told me that I had to walk on the sidewalk. Knowing that was ridiculous, but not thinking it was worth the argument, I complied. No sooner did I start walking, than I saw a cab with the right number on it go by. I missed it. And another one didn't come until about 15 minutes later. 15 minutes of standing in the rain later. 15 MINUTES OF WATCHING OTHER PEOPLE WALK DOWN THE STREET PAST THE COP AND HE DIDN'T SAY ANYTHING TO THEM ABOUT WALKING ON THE SIDEWALK LATER! Not that I was surprised, but that didn't make me any less furious or stop me from cursing the cop ten ways to Timbuktu while I waited. On the bright side, by the time I got to the embassy, I was still angry enough to have a very good workout.

Today, my cab experience was more of a wild ride. No cops in sight and I got a cab right away. But this one turned out to be an old soviet-era car with tiny windows, which were almost opaque with fog because the heat wasn't working. It also smelled heavily of gasoline and I'm almost sure that my seat wasn't fastened to anything. Not my seatbelt, my seat. Nonetheless, one of the good things about going to the gym in the morning is that there isn't a lot of traffic to collide with so it's still fairly safe.

At work, we're finishing up another one of our bi-annual auctions, where we try to save the government some money by selling things we would otherwise throw away. One of the big problems is that the locals like to bid for items, but often don't have the means to pay for them. We think that sometimes, they bid on something they think they can sell and then try to find someone to buy it from them before they'll come and get it. Today, we got one of the most interesting responses I've ever heard of. One of the bidders actually offered to pay us in honey. Apparently, the bid was for over $300 and a liter of honey (a little less than a quart), goes for about 30 somoni, or a little more than $6. So while the offer is tempting, I don't think the embassy has use for more than 10 gallons of honey. But still, points for creativity.

For now, just glad tomorrow is Friday...

Disconnect

Stephanie and I just accomplished something amazing. We survived an entire three days without internet service! For those of you reading from the U.S. with more or less continuous service, I know that might not sound like much, but even we didn't realize how important being connected has become until we became disconnected. Besides e-mail and facebook, we were without weather forecasts, recipes and up-to-date news reports. It was very disconcerting.

It all started on Friday afternoon when the connection was suddenly lost. We had just enough time to confirm with the service provider that our account had not been shut off, (something that happens once in awhile due to clerical errors).

When we awoke on Saturday and still had no internet, we called the help line and two technicians arrived several hours later than scheduled. (At least some things are like home). When they got here, they said that our line had been cut somewhere along the way and that they wouldn't be able to repair it until Monday (gasp, horror).

Today, the technicians came back and repaired the line, but the interet still didn't work. It turned out that we needed another technician to come and set up the connection. As I said, we survived, and it helped that we had plenty of other things going on throughout the weekend.

On Friday, there was a party at the Marine house to bid farewell to our temporary Management Officer, (my temporary boss). It turned out that he was an extra in "Animal House", yes, THE "Animal House". So we all watched the movie and tried to catch glimpses of him.

On Saturday, we were supposed to go out of town to try some really good chicken place in Hissor, but that fell through thanks to the internet kerfluffle. But given that it started to snow fairly heavily in the morning, it might not have been the best time for travel anyway.

Saturday evening, we were invited over to a friend's house to do a beer tasting. We had charts to fill out to note the different characteristics, (color, aroma, taste, complexity, etc...), and rate each beer. Coupled with some delicious burritos, it was a great night.

On Sunday morning, we went to the Hyatt for brunch with most of the management team, (another farewell event), and made the most of the selection of smoked salmon, fresh fruit, omelette's, crepes, ham, bacon, pastries, and so on, and so forth. We didn't need to eat again until dinner. Despite our lack of access to Allrecipes.com, we were able to guestimate a very good corn bread to go with the pasta we cooked.

Most of all, we spent time together, which was the unexpected benefit of not having internet. We played several rounds of Scrabble and watched movies. Given the inclement weather, it turned out to be a very nice weekend.

Unfortunately, I had to ruin the niceness of the weekend with a trip to the dentist today. They're actually very professional at the place we go, but the water in the water pick is very cold and that was extremely unpleasant. Hopefully that will be my last such experience before we go back to the U.S. at the end of August.

So here we are, internet is back on and the long weekend is coming to an end. I guess, all-in-all, it's good to disconnect every once in awhile.

Fire and Ice

I guess the topic of this one should be ice and fire, but it doesn't have the same ring to it. The ice has to do with ice worms. Those of you frequenting the facebook circuit will probably have already seen this, but I have to get it in the blog for posterity.

So I was asked by our Public Affairs section to be on a selection committee for one of our grant programs. They asked me to work on the environmental proposals since I'm known for being active in that area. It's an interesting process and some really good ideas, but there have also been some funny moments that are likely due to poor translation. For example, today there was a line that proposed "to train rangers, foresters, forest-rangers and wizards."

But the one that was really interesting was about the ice worms. The proposal kind of got the whole climate change thing backwards and portrayed glaciers as the enemies of humanity rather than the other way around, and mentioned the strange phenomenon of glacier worms. Again, some mistranslations added to the humor a bit. The worms were said to be "size as youth fingers" and to "shine as ground squirrel." None of my colleagues who speak Tajik or Russian could guess what the original intent of "ground squirrel" might be.

Additionally, there was some conjecture as to the origins of these ice worms. One theory was that God was punishing the glaciers for their crimes against humanity. Another was that the ice had simply gone bad, like fruit. Otherwise, "where from come the worms?" It sounds like a good book title, doesn't it?

Anyway, by the time I finished reading the proposal, my curiosity was aroused so I consulted Wikipedia. According to that sage source of wisdom, ice worms do exist, but only in North America (I guess not). The article went on to say that ice worms have been celebrated in pop culture. To be precise, there was a folk song about them in the 1920's and 30's and a poem written about them by a Robert W. Service, titled, "The Ballad of the Ice Worm Cocktail". I'm posting his poem here as it's actually quite funny. But it's amazing that you really do learn something new every day.

To Dawson Town came Percy Brown from London on the Thames.
A pane of glass was in his eye, and stockings on his stems.
Upon the shoulder of his coat a leather pad he wore,
To rest his deadly rifle when it wasn't seeking gore;
The which it must have often been, for Major Percy Brown,
According to his story was a hunter of renown,
Who in the Murrumbidgee wilds had stalked the kangaroo
And killed the cassowary on the plains of Timbuctoo.
And now the Arctic fox he meant to follow to its lair,
And it was also his intent to beard the Artic hare...
Which facts concerning Major Brown I merely tell because
I fain would have you know him for the Nimrod that he was.

Now Skipper Grey and Deacon White were sitting in the shack,
And sampling of the whisky that pertained to Sheriff Black.
Said Skipper Grey: "I want to say a word about this Brown:
The piker's sticking out his chest as if he owned the town."
Said Sheriff Black: "He has no lack of frigorated cheek;
He called himself a Sourdough when he'd just been here a week."
Said Deacon White: "Methinks you're right, and so I have a plan
By which I hope to prove to-night the mettle of the man.
Just meet me where the hooch-bird sings, and though our ways be rude
We'll make a proper Sourdough of this Piccadilly dude."

Within the Malamute Saloon were gathered all the gang;
The fun was fast and furious, and loud the hooch-bird sang.
In fact the night's hilarity had almost reached its crown,
When into its storm-centre breezed the gallant Major Brown.
And at the apparation, with its glass eye and plus-fours,
From fifty alcoholic throats resounded fifty roars.
With shouts of stark amazement and with whoops of sheer delight,
They surged around the stranger, but the first was Deacon White.
"We welcome you," he cried aloud, "to this the Great White Land.
The Artic Brotherhood is proud to grip you by the hand.
Yea, sportsman of the bull-dog breed, from trails of far away,
To Yukoners this is indeed a memorable day.
Our jubilation to express, vocabularies fail...
Boys, hail the Great Cheechako!" And the boys responded: "Hail!"

"And now," continued Deacon White to blushing Major Brown,
"Behold assembled the eelight and cream of Dawson Town,
And one ambition fills their hearts and makes their bosoms glow -
They want to make you, honoured sir, a bony feed Sourdough.
The same, some say, is one who's seen the Yukon ice go out,
But most profound authorities the definition doubt,
And to the genial notion of this meeting, Major Brown,
A Sourdough is a guy who drinks ... an ice-worm cocktail down."

"By Gad!" responded Major Brown, "that's ripping, don't you know.
I've always felt I'd like to be a certified Sourdough.
And though I haven't any doubt your Winter's awf'ly nice,
Mayfair, I fear, may miss me ere the break-up of your ice.
Yet (pray excuse my ignorance of matters such as these)
A cocktail I can understand - but what's an ice-worm, please?"
Said Deacon White: "It is not strange that you should fail to know,
Since ice-worms are peculiar to the Mountain of Blue Snow.
Within the Polar rim it rears, a solitary peak,
And in the smoke of early Spring (a spectacle unique)
Like flame it leaps upon the sight and thrills you through and through,
For though its cone is piercing white, its base is blazing blue.
Yet all is clear as you draw near - for coyly peering out
Are hosts and hosts of tiny worms, each indigo of snout.
And as no nourishment they find, to keep themselves alive
They masticate each other's tails, till just the Tough survive.
Yet on this stern and Spartan fare so rapidly they grow,
That some attain six inches by the melting of the snow.
Then when the tundra glows to green and nigger heads appear,
They burrow down and are not seen until another year."

"A toughish yarn," laughed Major Brown, "as well you may admit.
I'd like to see this little beast before I swallow it."
"'Tis easy done," said Deacon White, "Ho! Barman, haste and bring
Us forth some pickled ice-worms of the vintage of last Spring."
But sadly still was Barman Bill, then sighed as one bereft:
"There's been a run on cocktails, Boss; there ain't an ice-worm left.
Yet wait . . . By gosh! it seems to me that some of extra size
Were picked and put away to show the scientific guys."
Then deeply in a drawer he sought, and there he found a jar,
The which with due and proper pride he put upon the bar;
And in it, wreathed in queasy rings, or rolled into a ball,
A score of grey and greasy things were drowned in alcohol.
Their bellies were a bilious blue, their eyes a bulbous red;
Their back were grey, and gross were they, and hideous of head.
And when with gusto and a fork the barman speared one out,
It must have gone four inches from its tail-tip to its snout.
Cried Deacon White with deep delight: "Say, isn't that a beaut?"
"I think it is," sniffed Major Brown, "a most disgustin' brute.
Its very sight gives me the pip. I'll bet my bally hat,
You're only spoofin' me, old chap. You'll never swallow that."
"The hell I won't!" said Deacon White. "Hey! Bill, that fellows fine.
Fix up four ice-worm cocktails, and just put that wop in mine."

So Barman Bill got busy, and with sacerdotal air
His art's supreme achievement he proceeded to prepare.
His silver cups, like sickle moon, went waving to and fro,
And four celestial cocktails soon were shining in a row.
And in the starry depths of each, artistically piled,
A fat and juicy ice-worm raised its mottled mug and smiled.
Then closer pressed the peering crown, suspended was the fun,
As Skipper Grey in courteous way said: "Stranger, please take one."
But with a gesture of disgust the Major shook his head.
"You can't bluff me. You'll never drink that ghastly thing," he said.
"You'll see all right," said Deacon White, and held his cocktail high,
Till its ice-worm seemed to wiggle, and to wink a wicked eye.
Then Skipper Grey and Sheriff Black each lifted up a glass,
While through the tense and quiet crown a tremor seemed to pass.
"Drink, Stranger, drink," boomed Deacon White. "proclaim you're of the best,
A doughty Sourdough who has passed the Ice-worm Cocktail Test."
And at these words, with all eyes fixed on gaping Major Brown,
Like a libation to the gods, each dashed his cocktail down.
The Major gasped with horror as the trio smacked their lips.
He twiddled at his eye-glass with unsteady finger-tips.
Into his starry cocktail with a look of woe he peered,
And its ice-worm, to his thinking, most incontinently leered.
Yet on him were a hundred eyes, though no one spoke aloud,
For hushed with expectation was the waiting, watching crowd.
The Major's fumbling hand went forth - the gang prepared to cheer;
The Major's falt'ring hand went back, the mob prepared to jeer,
The Major gripped his gleaming glass and laid it to his lips,
And as despairfully he took some nauseated sips,
From out its coil of crapulence the ice-worm raised its head,
Its muzzle was a murky blue, its eyes a ruby red.
And then a roughneck bellowed fourth: "This stiff comes here and struts,
As if he bought the blasted North - jest let him show his guts."
And with a roar the mob proclaimed: "Cheechako, Major Brown,
Reveal that you're of Sourdough stuff, and drink your cocktail down."

The Major took another look, then quickly closed his eyes,
For even as he raised his glass he felt his gorge arise.
Aye, even though his sight was sealed, in fancy he could see
That grey and greasy thing that reared and sneered in mockery.
Yet round him ringed the callous crowd - and how they seemed to gloat!
It must be done . . . He swallowed hard . . . The brute was at his throat.
He choked. . . he gulped . . . Thank God! at last he'd got the horror down.
The from the crown went up a roar: "Hooray for Sourdough Brown!"
With shouts they raised him shoulder high, and gave a rousing cheer,
But though they praised him to the sky the Major did not hear.
Amid their demonstrative glee delight he seemed to lack;
Indeed it almost seemed that he - was "keeping something back."
A clammy sweat was on his brow, and pallid as a sheet:
"I feel I must be going now," he'd plaintively repeat.
Aye, though with drinks and smokes galore, they tempted him to stay,
With sudden bolt he gained the door, and made his get-away.

And ere next night his story was the talk of Dawson Town,
But gone and reft of glory was the wrathful Major Brown;
For that ice-worm (so they told him) of such formidable size
Was - a stick of stained spaghetti with two red ink spots for eyes.

That's the "Ice" part of my story. The fire part happened on my way to work the other morning. Since we returned from Thailand, I've been getting back into the gym, which means heading in before sunrise. On Tuesday morning, I was crossing the main street when one of the electric buses went off the line and threw a series of bright flashes and sparks. Not an uncommon occurrence.

What was a little shocking (pun intended), was that as I was standing on the corner, waiting for a cab, a second bus tried to go around the first and also went off the line. This time, there was a much bigger fireworks show. I had to quickly hop away to avoid getting showered with fiery sparks. I guess it's just another day in the life, but it certainly jolted me out of my half-asleep state.

I still get a kick out of it when I try to put my seat belt on in the car and the drivers laugh and tell me not to worry. I always smile and tell them I'm not worried about their driving, but that you never know what the other drivers will do. That usually gets a nod of agreement and a laugh, but they never put their own seat belts on.

That's all for now. Hope you enjoyed the poetry.

Our Southeast Asian Adventure: Part 1 - The Outward Bound and Thailand

At long last, I've put together the tale of our adventures in Southeast Asia. We visited four countries (Kazakhstan, Thailand, Laos, and Cambodia), in two weeks - definitely one of our most ambitious journeys so far. I've broken down the trip into 4 parts to make it easier to digest. You can find links to all of the other parts at the bottom of each page as well as the link to all the pictures.

You may remeber that our trip got off to a rocky start. The first snowfall of the season hit Dushanbe the day we were supposed to leave so we spent the first day of vacation at home drinking hot chocolate and playing board games - not really a bad deal. They next day all was well and our flight took off right on time. We got in our Fokker 50 (I kid you not) and off we went.

One benefit of the snow delay was that it afforded some beautiful snowy views on our flight from Dushanbe to Almaty, the former capital of Kazakhstan.

Many people rave about Almaty and what a wonderful place it is - but Stephanie and I didn't really feel the love. Perhaps it was the location of our hotel or the fact that it was absolutely frigid, but we weren't impressed. We spent the early evening wandering around and saw a guy in a rabbit suit smoking a cigarette (doubtless part of the new year's celebration - it's the year of the rabbit in Central Asia as well as in China).

We made our way to an impressive looking group of buildings, which turned out to be a single glass-clad monstrosity with nothing interesting in them.

Nonetheless, we managed to have some laughs.

We had a hard time even finding a restaurant, but lucked out just as we were getting back to our hotel. We found a very modern looking restaurant/microbrewery where we had some good bar food and a horse steak. I mean, we had to try something local and horse is about as local as it gets in Kazakhstan. Thus warmed and refreshed, we went back to the hotel for a brief sleep before heading back to the airport for the rest of our trip.

We spent a brief, but very uncomfortable period of time waiting on the tarmac in sub-zero temperatures before we got on the plane, but once aboard we had a very comfortable trip. One of my favorite aspects of the flight was that we flew over the Himalayas, which is probably one of the best ways to see them.

Our arrival in Bangkok was surprisingly disappointing. We spent over an hour in line for passport control - the longest I can remember in any of the countries we visited. Considering that it's such a big tourist destination, we would have expected more efficiency - even Dushanbe isn't nearly that slow. Our troubles weren't finished when we got through customs. Our bags had been pulled off the carousel because it took us so long to get through, but then our guide wasn't there to meet us as expected.

It took several calls to our travel agency and about another 20 minutes before a suspicious looking man showed up and led us to a van. Then it took us about another hour to find the hotel because the driver didn't know where it was. We kept asking him to call the travel agent, but he just kept calling information, which didn't know where the hotel was either. Finally I insisted that he call the travel agent and he was able to find the hotel in about five minutes. Not the portents of a great vacation.

After arriving at our hotel, we took a deep breath and set about improving on our experiences so far. The hotel was nice and in a good area.

We found a fruit stand and stocked up on exotic choices like rose apples, dragon fruit, and mangosteens. Ah, the long-awaited mangosteen. I read an article a few years ago about mangosteens and how delicious they are and had been pining for them ever since. I've encountered them a couple of times, but the price was always prohibitive - over $10 for one in China! Here, in Thailand, I was able to get three for a dollar even though they were out of season. We also found a little street-side restaurant where we had our first taste of authentic pad thai, accompanied by duck curry, Singha beer, and fresh coconut juice. Things were looking up.

We spent the rest of the night exploring and eventually found the night market. There was a lot of cheap souvenirs, but also a number of items that we were very interested in and we had to use a great deal of discipline to not start buying everything in sight. We were also frequently approached with offers to see various sex shows. Lady shows, boy shows, lady-boy shows, and ping-pong shows were all on the menu. We politely declined and returned to our hotel with a couple of souvenirs.

The next morning we were slated to join a group tour to the floating market, but they showed up almost a half hour late. We were beginning to wonder if this was some sort of theme. We quickly forgot our annoyance however, once the tour got underway. Not least because of the funny stickers in the van. No smoking seems pretty easy to enforce, but I don't know how they would handle the other one...

On our way, we stopped at a place where they demonstrated the process of making sugar from coconut flowers-

- and a small orchid farm.

Then we got into our long boat and headed for the floating market.

It was neat riding through the narrow canals and seeing peoples houses on stilts in the water.

The floating market itself was mostly a tourist trap, but still interesting.

While most of our group paid extra to be hand-paddled around the market, we sampled a variety of culinary options available to us. Little ladies were serving delicacies like coconut pancakes and noodle soups out of their boats and one lady had the best hard-boiled eggs either of us had ever had.

We also sampled more fruits like pomelo and, of course, more mangosteen.

After the floating market, some of our group went to see a monkey show. It wasn't included in our package so we entertained ourselves by watching a baby elephant that was across the street.

After that, we separated from our group for a private tour of the grand palace. I had to rent a pair of very fashionable pants to put over my shorts to see the palace-

- but it was well worth it once we got inside.

Incredible is really the only word to describe it. It was like something out of a fairy tale with temples covered in gold and colored glass, statues of demons and gods-

- and colorful murals depicting the founding myth of Thailand, which is adapted from Hindu lore that traveled to the region from India.

Although Thailand is primarily Buddhist, there is a rich intermingling of Hindu beliefs as well, as both religions arrived in the region around the same time. The palace is really mind-blowing because everywhere you turn, there is some incredible monument or building.

We got to see the emerald buddha - believed to be over 2,500 years old and carved from a single piece of jade that's almost 3 feet tall.

It was with a great deal of reluctance that we left the palace as the sun began to set and returned to our hotel for another evening in Bangkok.

We availed ourselves of 30-minute head, neck, and shoulder massages and had a nice dinner. As we explored, we did some shopping and found these horrifyingly excited mannequins.

On our way home from the night market, we passed a tailor shop that advertised suits made in 12 hours. I've heard from many people about the great benefits of getting custom-made clothes in Thailand and decided to check it out, more from curiosity than anything else. By the time we left the store, I had ordered a suit and four dress shirts and the man asked us to come back in three hours to try them on. I really agonized over whether I had done the right thing - we were leaving Bangkok the next morning, what if the clothes didn't fit or were poorly made?

I was somewhat relieved when we went back and the pants and shirt fit perfectly. The tailor promised to have the suit delivered during the night and gave me his card in case I was unhappy. When I woke up, the suit was at the reception desk. I tried it on and was not disappointed. Pretty amazing.

After a nice breakfast, our guide picked us up for a trip north to the ancient former capital of Ayuthaya. On the way we stopped at the summer palace, which is an odd amalgam of buildings in different styles from around the world. We saw a large monitor lizard and a topiary in the shape of elephants-

- before visiting the China building -

- and the Portuguese lighthouse.

We paused for a picture by an artificial pond stocked with turtles and snakehead fish (the same kind that invaded the Potomac river a few years ago.

On our way to lunch we stopped at a still-active temple, where Stephanie got to ring the gong for good luck.

We also got some great views by climbing the steep temple stairs.

For lunch, we went to a good-quality buffet, where we ate snakehead fish soup and sampled colorful jelly deserts.

Well stuffed, we spent the afternoon visiting incredible temple ruins, dating back hundreds of years.

Ayuthaya was the capital of Thailand until about 400 years ago, when the Khmer empire (now Cambodia) sacked the city. Behind one of the temples, there was a little market selling local snacks that we could try, like pork jerky, crispy fried fish skins-

- and some stuff made from sugar that looked like hair and that we ate wrapped in a little pancake-

- then went to see some more ruins.

The fact that the remains are so incredible makes you wonder how amazing this place must have been when it was new.

As the day was waning, we saw a local Christian church and stopped by to check it out - it's always neat to see how religions get interpreted slightly different in different places.

We finished up the day by visiting the remains of the Portugese settlement. Apparently, the King at one point gave different countries small plots of land to set up 'colonies' on the outskirts of the capital. At the Portuguese colony, we visited a cemetery that's been excavated and saw the remains there.

We also discovered a jack-fruit tree, but the fruits weren't ripe yet.

Our guide then took us to the train station where we would later take an overnight train to northern Thailand.

We had some time to kill so we found a place for a massage. It was one of the strangest massages we've ever had - it took us many times to explain that we just wanted our backs and shoulders done and the people doing the massages climbed all over us. When it was finished, the guy tried to double the price and threatened to call the police if we didn't pay. We called his bluff and paid the original price we agreed to, but by then we were almost out of time. We found a quick dinner and rushed back to the train station. Of course, the train was late so we ended up sitting around at the station anyway.

Getting on the train was an interesting process. There were guards at the station who looked at our tickets and then positioned us along the track in the exact spot where our car would be. We were pleased to find we had a room to ourselves and surprised when someone came in to make the beds. Even without the snoring companions we had in China, sleep doesn't come easily in a moving train, but we did OK and by morning we were in Chiang Mai.

Our day in Chiang Mai was mainly spent at an elephant camp. Elephants are no longer used to harvest teak wood, so now most of the domestic elephants are engaged in tourism. Ours was very playful and kept reaching is trunk back so that we could pet it.

We crossed rivers and trekked through jungles, which were dotted with stands where women tried to sell us bananas to feed the elephant. We didn't want to go for the trick, but felt kind of bad for the elephant. However, as often as not, the elephant just reached up and took the bananas anyway, so we figured it was ok.

After the elephant dropped us off, we took a ride in an ox cart to lunch-

- and then hopped on a raft down the river to meet up again with our guide.

Stephanie and I even got to take turns steering the raft.

After meeting up with our guide, we visited an amazing orchid farm with over 60 varieties. We spent a good while examining all of the different blossoms.

After that, our guide obligingly took us to some various handicraft shops but we didn't find anything we were particularly interested in.

That evening we took a short walk from our hotel to the night market and had a wonderful time. The night market in Chiang Mai put the one in Bangkok to shame. It was huge and full of lights.

We had a delicious dinner on the edge of the square and then perused the variety of crafts on display. We also made a big mistake. There were so many things we were interested in buying, but we told ourselves that we could probably find them in Cambodia and Laos as well and that we should spread the buying around. As it turned out, we were wrong.

Nonetheless, we found a hand-made Christmas ornament and had some mango-sticky rice for dessert. We also put on our adventure caps and tried the flesh-eating fish pedicure. It was a very strange feeling between ticklish and slight pain as the fish nipped at our feet.

We both thought our feet were a little softer than before but couldn't really be sure.

Our next day was another group tour. We were supposed to see some temples on our way to the Golden Triangle and then spend the afternoon visiting some hill tribes. The day was good, but not exactly what we expected. On our way, we stopped at a hot spring that shoots up in a continuous geyser in the middle of a parking lot.

Nearby, women cook eggs in the boiling water.

From there we visited a new temple that's still under construction. It's already beautiful, built in blinding white and covered with mirrors.

The strangest part was the interior, which is covered with murals that seem to depict the end of the world. There are nuclear missiles and syringes, but also guest appearances by superman, batman, the transformers, and even Keanu Reeves in character from The Matrix. Oh, there were also models of mutilated heads hanging from the trees.

On the way from there to the Golden Triangle, our guide informed us that some of the group was signed up to take a boat trip for an hour and a half, but that the rest of us would be on our own (we were not signed up for the boat). The Golden Triangle is the place where Thailand, Myanmar, and Laos meet on the Mekong river. In our itinerary it sounded like an interesting place of natural beauty, but in reality it's a big tourist trap. Needless to say we were nonplussed when we asked our guide what we were supposed to do for an hour and a half and she said she didn't know.

We wandered around a bit, taking in some of the strange features of the area, like a giant boat structure with a large golden Buddha riding it-

- and walked along the edge of Thailand, but had exhausted that in about 30 minutes. Luckily, Stephanie noticed a huge stone stair case across the street-

- and we followed our curiosity to discover a 14th century Buddhist temple at the top of the hill with some great views of the meeting of three countries. Myanmar is the peninsula on the left and Laos is on the right-hand side of the river, with Thailand under our feet.

The temple even featured a tiny stone room filled with little Buddhas that was only big enough for me to get my camera in.

When the group from the boat said that the boat trip had been rather boring, we were pretty tickled with ourselves for turning a bad situation into a great one.

By the time we had lunch, it was already about 3pm and from there we went to the Thailand/Myanmar border crossing, where we looked at Myanmar.

I'm not sure what the purpose was, but it didn't leave us much time to see the hill tribes.

In reality, there wasn't much to see. Rather than getting to visit people in their natural setting, the hill tribe visit was a sort of camp where different groups lived together in poverty, selling textiles to visitors. While it was interesting to see the different styles of dress, and particularly the long-neck women, it was a little sad too.

Stephanie bought a scarf she really liked, which made us feel a little better about gawking.

The best part of the day was when we arrived at our hotel in Chiang Rai. Our van pulled up to this gorgeous-looking resort around sunset. To our surprise and to the envy of the others in our group, it was our hotel.

The only downside was that it was already getting dark and we were scheduled to leave early the next morning. That didn't stop us from making the most of it as we explored the grounds, took a very chilly dip in the pool, and at a delicious dinner by the river before turning in.

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SoutheastAsia 2011 JPGS