Around Bangkok

The huge reclining Buddha at Wat Pho

Central World Plaza shopping mall

Benjasiri Park near Sukhumvit Road

View from Lebua Tower, hotel featured in Hangover 2

At the Grand Palace...

coming into Bangkok via train

Bangkok's Democracy Monument

People often complain about Bangkok's traffic...and for good reason...

Example of typical Bangkok gridlock traffic - a problem nicely rectified by taking the city's above ground monorail as seen above and below or by hopping on the back of one of the many motorcycle taxis, which will weave in and out of traffic and even zoom onto sidewalks.

Air tram stop near Chatuchak Market, Bangkok's huge weekend market

A South Indian temple

One of many bars lining Soi Cowboy

Off of Khaosan Road - an street crammed with t-shirt stalls, gift shops, street food and pubs for tourists and backpackers was Soi Rambutri, a really relaxing, shady area consisting of a horseshoe brick road circling around a monastery and lined with the cheapest guest houses in Bangkok, restaurants, internet cafes, bars, more t-shirt stalls, VW bus bars, travel agents, etc. I found a particularly off-the-beaten track, dirty and cheap guest house through an alley past some clothing vendors. This was the staircase leading down to the bathrooms from my room. (I stayed at this place during one of my four stopevers in Bangkok, after I had been to Japan and was thus trying to save what little money I had left.) The bathrooms did not smell good. You can actually see a urinal in the photo.

Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi Airport

Layover in Seoul at Incheon Airport

Nakhon Si Thammarat & Koh Phangan: Buddhas & Beaches

Omar put me up and showed me around his city of Nakhon Si Thammarat. And he lent me his sweet motor bike to cruise around "the Khon." Omar is currently the computer teacher at a private Christian school where we spent some evenings playing excellent games of soccer and ultimate frisbee with other Westerner teachers. At the gate of Omar's school is the large inscription, "The Fear of the Lord is the First Step to Wisdom."

We ventured outside the city to explore a sweet giant limestone cave with a river running through it that we swam and walked through.

Wat Phra Mahathat is the most important temple in the Khon and the biggest in southern Thailand.

Island Ferry

Long tail boat for transport to beaches

Haad Yuan, the beach where Omar brought me for an fun weekend with some of his friends.

Chiang Mai: Wheatgrass and Buddhas

From the wheatgrass alone, you should be able to tell that I really liked Chiang Mai. With only about 160,000 residents, it contains as many temples as Bangkok (9 million humans strong). And although it is Thailand's second biggest city, many of its small side streets exude a very laid back, chill atmosphere. Some areas with small streets feel like the countryside or small villages, with funky restaurants and bars with large yards and patios tucked away throughout the city.

Awesome Tuesday night jam at the North Gate Jazz Co-op

funky iberry business

bicycle was the perfect mode of transportation

Many temples...

And lotsa Buddhas...

Amee Doyer's Farm in Northwest Thailand

At this farm producing rice, rubber and fruit a few hours northwest of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, I worked alongside Ashi, a refugee from Burma. Together we helped prepare the paddy for planting rice and although he doesn't speak English and I don't speak Lisu, his hill tribe language, we communicated with gestures and smiles.

The paddies were first plowed and then flooded to kill off the grass and weeds.

Main house where I stayed. It was a bit strange showing up to this farm and realizing that no one there had expected my arrival. I had been in communication with a Canadian guy who runs the farm with his Thai/Burmese brother-in-law, but he had left for other hemispheres and failed to mention my arrival to others on the farm. However, even though it took the main boss about week to get around to asking my name, the farm was used to receiving WWOOF volunteers and they were well-prepared to feed me and put me to work.

Jackfruit was consumed almost daily.

Lunch...we usually had pork and rice three times a day but pictured here are noodles.

An unidentifiable inedible fruit. There were several fruits on the farm whose names I was never able to figure out.

Some of the cuter swine...there were over 100 pigs living on the farm, so it was no wonder that we ate pork for most of the meals.

One day this pig was killed by one of its own and so the workers slaughtered it and cooked it up...

Intestines!

Alea posed with a snake killed by one of his workers in the fields. He cooked it up with a red curry, which was spicy and delicious. Despite all the bones, it was some of the nicest and leanest meat I have eaten.

A view of some of the rice paddies.

A patch of rice to be transplanted around to all the other areas.

Here you can see corn in the foreground (grown to feed the pigs), rice and several coconut trees.

Even on an organic farm, the chemicals are often not far away. Here an adjacent field gets sprayed.