the cute baristas at the Tokyo airport


for those that wondered... this is a tuk tuk... fun to ride at first, but the pollution and exhaust fumes quickley get to you.... tonight we had a bit of a race with Karen and Lisa in one and my mom and I in another... i really felt like i was on the amazing race




Karen pounding out a monk alms bowl... very cool...you can read about it here if you are interested.


we have seen our fair share of buddah statues.... these were two of my faves...


a small Wat (temple) near our hotel in Cheng Mai. it was chained closed, but was in this charming and lush garden.



this was on the outskirts of cheng mai... a small group of women making these traditional parasals.... craziness.


loved seeing this. at night they set up little make shift bars everywhere... like kool-aid stands or something. this vw bus was a bar for the night.

massage time.... i got a full body for like 6 bucks. crazy. it was pretty good, a little painful but relaxing.

love this 2 story starbucks in cheng mai... they were having a staff meeting inside... so cute!

here was today's adventure.... freaking awesome! zip lines through the jungle for about 3 hours. so amazing and cool and unforgettable. not scary, just so awesome. we went with an aussie girl and a german guy too, both traveling by themselves. The girl was in Thailand to celebrate her 24th birthday... thailand was her 24th country. and even weirder is the guide new my friend Angi's boyfriend back in CA. 6 degrees right.






of course, this was a bit of an adventure. Lisa lost her shoe in the jungle when it fell off mid flight... luckily the training guide scurried down into the brush to find it. she also banged up her leg after many times of crashing into the guide on the platform... brakes brakes he kept yelling at her... we all found it amusing.
then, never to be outdown, Mom passed out as we finally touched the ground at the end of the day... as they were lowering us back down she was spinning really fast on the rope and when she landed her blood pressure must have dropped as she slouched over unconciece. thank goodness 26 years of having a nurse for a mom, i rushed over and gave her a good sturnum rub and she woke right up... i know she was proud. she was fine for the rest of the day.

after the course we at lunch at a roadside dinner in the village and hiked up a watwerfall before heading back to town. we layed around during the hot part of the afternoon and then ate dinner and headed to the night bazarre. The other girls are still down there now, i took off a while ago, found some coffee, met some cool thai people who were really impressed by my poloroid camera. they had never seen such a thing and wanted me to take pictures of all of them infront of their booths. it was pretty fun actually and it paid off cause when i was ready to go back to the hotel, they loaded me in a tuk tuk, negotiated a cheap price and sent me on my way...

now i am in the hotel lobby listening to bad karioki and sipping my coffee.
tommorrow will be another full day as we are heading to the elephant santuary.

thanks for the comments. Glad to here my dogs are okay. thanks for letting them out brenda while ron is at work. there are dogs everywhere here, but i think they are homeless and they are really skinny and skraggaly... sad :(