An Indian Wedding!

Greetings from Delhi again! After three days, the wedding is finally over and it was a wonderful experience. The music, dancing, food, family, late nights, and the colors were all overwhelming but in the best possible way. This is going to be a long post, haha... I don't know what all the different parts of the ceremony are called, and I don't know what they represent, so some of the pictures will just have to stand on their own without any real explanation from me, sorry about that. Also, I haven't had great internet access so this post (and the last one) are a bit rushed. Anyways, here it is:

I first need to start with a memorial to my flip-flops. They died. I bought them on the first full day of my trip in Manila from an old lady on an overpass. I paid over two dollars for them, about twice what they should have cost, but they have served me well for more than two and a half months. They have been in four countries, taken me up many steep trails, through rivers, down cliffs, across ancient ruins and seen many hard miles. They have been a bit of an icon for this trip to me and it is sad to see them finally die. I'd worn all the way through them in parts, and in parts no yet worn through, they were paper thin. Through them I could feel every bump in the road, feel every inch of land I walked across. They have been on my feet every day of the trip but one and they will be missed.

We woke up in Gurgaon where we ate breakfast and then drove back into Dehli, the first day of the wedding was tonight! I'm still not sure why this elephant and camels were walking down the street, probably part of some party somewhere, but seeing them put a smile on my face. The roads of Dehli are a bit of a free for all, where anything that moves is allowed to use. Granted this causes many problems, and I've seen more than one broken down or crashed vehicle, plus slow ox carts and everything else in the congested, noisy and chaotic roads.

After the usual eating, chatting with the family, and playing with the kids, we headed off to Ghaffar Market via rickshaw. It was rather hard to fit three of us on this and we had initially given up, but the driver insisted three was fine, and Hunter and Sazzy sat in the passenger seat while I sat backwards on the normal bike seat, crushed between my friends and the man peddling. He had obvious difficulty lugging us big Americans around, but it got us there for 40 rupees and was a fun experience.

Our main goal in the market was to get tailored suits for the three of us. This is something I'd really wanted to do while out here due to the the amazingly low price, and was excited for it. I have never owned a suit, nor do I really have the need to, but it is a good thing to own and for 5500 rupees, about $120, how can you go wrong? It's an investment. Luckily we had one of Sazzy's cousins to help us, and she took us to a tailor who had done many suits for the family. We picked materials, had measurements taken and explained our schedules and when we needed them ready by. We also got footwear for the wedding, Hunter bought some sunglasses, and we just took in the sights and smells of the market.

That evening was the first night of the wedding. After spending a fair amount of time getting ready at the house, everyone putting on their best cloths, we packed ourselves into the small Hyundai and Suzuki cars that are one of the most common vehicles of the modern middle-class here in India. We climbed the stairs and entered into a large banquet hall filled with tables, food, a stage and a dance floor.

Dancing is a huge part of Indian weddings, and the sound system was booming. It was pretty hilarious actually, because rather than traditional Indian music, a number of the songs I heard was actually songs I'd heard at clubs and bars throughout se-Asia! I was cracking up thinking about how here I was at an Indian wedding, dancing to songs I'd heard in the clubs of the Philippines, in bars in Cambodia and on Khaosan Road in Thailand. That said, Indian music was a part of it, and the dance floor was burning up!

This is Dalbir, the groom and one of those parts I have no idea what it is called or about, haha. Male family members would come up to the stage where he was sitting and give him the mark on his forehead.

And this is the bride Kawaldeep, sitting next to Dalbir. Here, female family members were putting something in her hair.

The first dance of the couple to be.

And the dancing continued all night with varying intensity. Here is a dance with a cup of whiskey balancing on the head. The party continued well into the night with copious amounts of food and dancing, until we finally headed home around 2:30am.

The next morning we slept in a bit and lounged around the house for most of the morning. At this time, a group of men came to the house to do the traditional application of henna on the woman's hands, which I believe I was told has to do with good luck...

The designs were truly beautiful, and amazingly intricate. To aid in the application, lemon juice is also applied, which helps the colors stay brown rather than yellowing.

In the early afternoon, the three of us headed back to Ghaffar Market. Since I am heading south rather than returning to Delhi like Sazzy and Hunter, I needed my suit ready for the first fitting the day after I ordered it. We returned to Royal Tailors, which is really just a 6x8 foot box crammed with fabric in the side of a large row of buildings, and I did my first fitting of the pants and coat. Everything looked fantastic, but the pants were a little tight on the waist and the jacket was a bit long on the sleeves. With the proper notes taken, we went to our next stop.

Our next stop was for more clothing. I wanted to buy a complete outfit, since things are so cheap out here as I have mentioned, and plus I wanted something to wear for night two of the wedding. I bought two shirts, one classic white and one a bold purple, a tie to match, and a pair of cufflinks. I haven't bought this much clothing in years, and while it felt like I was spending a lot of money I was really getting new shirts and ties for pennies on the dollar.

That evening Sazzy, Hunter and I put on our new shirts and were ready for the party! (granted I'm still wearing my North Face zip-off travel pants, but they look alright and work surprisingly well!)

Tonight's party was at the house rather than at a hall, and the ally/parking area below had been transformed into an absolutely wonderful space. The ground was covered in red carpets, walls and a roof were made of sheets and woven fabric, and the place lit up the street like the Fourth of July.

A look inside.

As I keep saying, food is a very important part of Indian life and of celebration. Tonight’s food was amazing as usual, and after filling up on appetizers that were continually brought to me, I had to double down and eat a proper dinner as well! This was not a problem because the food was all so good, and as usual I stuffed my face for hours.

Once again, the sound system was filling the night with energy and the dance floor was filled with a rotating cast of characters.

A video from the dance floor.

Naturally Hunter and I, being the only white people at the wedding attracted our fair share of attention, which was thoroughly amusing. As is the Indian way, everyone was very friendly and happy to have us around, and it was a ton of fun.

At some late hour, the drummers moved out of the tent, and the party entered the street. A large group of us entered the streets, including women carrying jugs of water on their heads, and we did our best to wake the entire neighborhood. We crossed the main road and paraded through alleys, drum core leading the way as we stopped to dance where ever we felt like. I danced up a storm myself, gathering an excited crowd around me and later collecting the comments of how I was a good dancer, haha. I'm not sure about that part, but I think this was my favorite part of the whole three day event!

Back at the house that night was another of the many ceremonies. The groom and the best man, Sazzy, had to cover their hands in henna. After a few other ceremonial bits, they walked up to the top floor and put their hand prints on the wall, putting the end to another very late night.

The next morning was another set of ceremony and celebration. The white horse and the band arrived early again waking anyone who dared to sleep in. In this ceremony, a red cloth is held above the groom, who is then washed by the women with a mix of turmeric, garbanzo been power and yogurt, as well as plain yogurt in the hair. Messy, but photo gold!

After killing time looking through the 'Grooms Wanted' section of the newspaper, the three of us got dressed in our traditional kurtas and were ready for the final day of the wedding.

As usual, downstairs the music and dancing had begun, and the family was once again gathering to celebrate.

The groom and best man sat in chairs under a gold umbrella, and a veil-type thing was placed over the grooms face by the women.

After more music and dancing, the groom (and his cousin/nephew, not sure the connection) climbed aboard a white horse. Once again, more ceremony was held, including firing a pistol, and the sisters feeding the horse.

At this point the parade down the street begun, and we did our best to disrupt the already messy Dehli traffic, haha! 

 

 A video of the parade down the street.

The wedding party ambled slowly down the street again stopping to dance whenever the moment felt right, as cars and buses flew past, honking their horns.

After a few blocks, everyone piled into cars and headed for the Gurudwara where the wedding would be finalized. A common part of the dancing at the wedding involved throwing out money and naturally this kind of thing attracts its fair share of beggars, who both ask for money and scramble for it when it is tossed about.

 

Some of the family, while we dance on the street.

Me in my full outfit with various family members, of whom I am told I am now a part of!

The groom back on the horse for the final stretch.

And of course more dancing!

Upon entering the hall, the yogi (??) said some words, and preformed more rituals. This was then followed by countless family members coming up together, and getting photos taken.

This ceremony, if I understand correctly is the one that finalized the marriage. The yogi reads from the Sikh holy book while musicians play, and the bride and groom walk around the platform four times to show how they will be together forever, sharing everything, good and bad.

Like any wedding, it was photo time, and I felt bad for the groom and bride having to stand on the stage literally for hours while countless photos were taken, including one with us of course.

And like any wedding there is lots of time to kill while people mingle. Having already ate our fill, with the usual service of waiters bringing us food and drinks non-stop (again, we attract attention, haha), we escaped outside for some fresh air and to play with the kids.

At this point one of Sazzy's uncles decided he wanted to give us a tour of this part of Delhi, and I was quite interested to see what he had to show us. This Gurudwara is located in the heart of Indian political life. In the immediate area are the prime ministers house, parliament, the homes of the congress members, head of the military, embassy and more. Despite the power and pomp of the area, slums persisted slightly to my surprise.

After our tour, we headed back to the Gurudwara and got this wonderful view of the building at night time.

After a long day at the Gurudwara, we finally returned home for yet more wedding ceremony! Family members sat in the room while the new couple played some sort of game, one involving picking the rings out of a dish of water. As usual food was had, drums were played, and the night went on until the late hours, marking the end of three amazing days of celebration.

The next day we did our best to sleep in and really had nothing but time to kill. We had hoped to have train tickets to head south on this day, but our plans didn't come through and we had to buy tickets for the next day instead. This made for a lazy day around the house, and not a whole lot happened.

In the evening it was time to say our good byes and to thank the family for the amazing hospitality they have shown us throughout this whole time. Spending time in this house and with the family has been a truly wonderful experience unlike any I have ever had before. I wish I had something to give in return to show my gratitude, but instead, Hunter and I were given gifts!

In the evening we hopped a taxi back to Gurgaon to stay with another uncle before heading out of town. On the way the rain began, and it was the first rain I've seen in about a month. As I said, the air here is awful, a mixture of dust, car exhaust, smoke from cooking/garbage fires and more. At times my eyes have actually burned a bit, so the rain was a welcome refresher of the air.

Upon getting to the home, the power went out, a common occurrence here as rolling blackouts are a part of daily life, and Sazzys great uncle came to chat. He offered a drink which we accepted expecting tea, but he returned with whiskey, and I poured our glasses via headlamp!

So, that was the wedding and I am thrilled to have gotten to experience it. The family has been so kind to Hunter and I that we felt like we belonged from day one. It is now time to head on and get out of the city. We are catching a train south this afternoon where we will visit a tiger reserve, and then on to Goa!

Welcome To India!

Greetings from India! The last few days have been travel and then a wonderful welcome to India! I am now with Hunter and Sazzy, friends from Seattle, and staying with Sazzy's family for the wedding of his cousin Daovar! So as usual let me start where I left off last time, and catch up to where I am now:

Brendan and Ryan were about to hop on a bus to head back south for more birding, so it was time to say our goodbyes. It's been great to get to travel with more friends from Seattle so far from home and there is a chance I'll see Brendan again out here, but who knows. Either way we had a great time together and would have spent more time with each other had schedules not been so different.

I had initially planned on waking up early and doing a 4 hour yoga class, yoga being something I've always wanted to try. However as I mentioned last time, my stomach was still upset and I was not feeling well enough for 4 hours of body-contorting (and stomach squeezing) yoga. Instead, I went back to Fluid Pool and did some quality relaxing. At the pool I did a number of laps, laid out in the sun, ate a chicken pesto sandwich, met some more girls from London and then took off to check out of my room, return the moto and get back into town to catch my ride to Chaing Mai.

Let me just say Pai has been one of my favorite places in Thailand, and I'd recommend it to absolutely anyone.

Back in town, I caught a mini-bus to Chaing Mai, which was a somewhat uncomfortable hour and a half ride. There, we waited an hour or so before being shuttled to the overnight bus that would take us all the way to Bangkok. The bus ride was the usual deal, only this one was more uncomfortable than most I think. Around 1:30am we finally stopped for a 'dinner' stop, and arrived in Bangkok on Khaosan shortly after 6am, on schedule. I only slept three hours all night.

I had no interest in being back in Bangkok or back on Khaosan Road again, all I wanted to do was find a decent room with wifi, and lay around all day. I began my search and it was surprisingly difficult. I went to a number of places that simply had no rooms open, and then many more that didn't have wifi. I found one a few blocks away eventually, and exploded all over the room. I was exhausted, so I laid in bed, downloading movies and chatting with friends online. In the afternoon I ventured out for some errands and food, then returned to lay back down, shower and save so I'd look fresh for my flight the next morning.

That night I went out for a late dinner, and wound up with one of the better dishes I've eaten here in Thailand, a good way to end my time here. I walked around briefly, bought some Thai fisherman pants (the best!) and returned to my room to do some writing and pack my bag for the flight the next morning.

I guess this would also be the time to reflect for a moment on Thailand, and I only have the obvious to state: It has been fantastic. I've been in the country for just over five weeks, and loved every moment of it. There has been so much to see, the people have been friendly, and it has also been extremely easy. I'd recommend it to anyone.

I had a 9am flight to catch so I took a shuttle from my hotel at about 6am to be at airport early enough to go through the often tedious international flight procedure. Everything went smoothly, and I was left with plenty of time to kill in the airport, eating absurdly overpriced airport food to use up my last few bits of Thai baht.

When I got on the airplane, an Air India flight, I had my first real contact with Indian people, and it didn't start off well. I looked at my seat and was excited to see I had gotten the window seat I requested. Happy to be able to look out the window, both at my last views of Thailand and a view coming into India, I walked down the isle to my seat, only to find an old lady sitting in it. I politely said “Excuse me, I think you are in my seat.” She however was not swayed, and told me a bit rudely that I could sit in the isle seat. This went back and forth until I gave up, and sat down in the isle, pissed off at some old lady. Not a great introduction to Indian people, haha...

After a 5 hour flight, I landed in Delhi, went through immigration, wanted half an hour for my bag to come out, and then was greeted by Sazzy and Hunter, more Seattle friends! We hopped a taxi from the airport to Sazzy's grandfathers place where the two of them had spent the night, then went off for lunch, my first of many many delicious meals here.

After putting my bags down, we headed out to the markets, in search of a few things. Sazzy was looking for a SIM card for his phone, Hunter was looking for a few things for friends, and I was really just looking around at this new country. Early impressions: in the city at least, it's crowded, busy and dirty. In a lot of ways it's not dissimilar to the other large cities I've been in, Manila and Bangkok, but it certainly has it's own very distinct flavor.

It was at this point Hunter experienced his own little taste of India. A shoe shiner ran up to him and pointed out some poop on his shoe, offering to clean it of course. He immediately took his shoe off and started working on it, not replying when Hunter asked the price. Once the shoes were cleaned, the man said that would cost 1,500 rupees (~$33)! It was obvious he had gotten a partner to drop the poop on Hunters shoe when he wasn't looking, and was running a little scam on obviously green tourists. He was still holding Hunters shoe, and in the end Hunter paid him 500 rupees to get his shoe back, a still absurd amount of money! A few minutes later we talked to another shoe shiner near an area where people were also doing ear cleaning, and was told it should cost 20 rupees, and were still later told by an Indian that they get it done for 5 rupees! Oh well, every traveler has to be ripped off once, haha...

A little later, we headed off to Gurudwara Bangla Sahib, the most important Sikh religious site in the city. After removing our shoes and covering our heads, we entered, sitting briefly to listen to the music and chanting, which I found very beautiful. On the way out we ate a bite of ceremonial food (forget the name) and went to the pool that accompanies the temple to look around and take a few photos. The whole place and experience was very fun. The architecture is very different from the Buddhist religious sites I've been at for the last two months, but equally interesting, and this was much ore of a functioning religious site rather than such as tourist attraction as the sites I visited in Cambodia and Thailand.

Shortly afterward, we moved to another family members household, one of the countless aunts and uncles Sazzy has around here. There, Hunter and I were greeted by what seemed like an endless stream of family members whose names I can't possibly keep track of. The house is tall three story masonry building, with a very busy street on one side, and slums on the back side which I'd like to explore. Welcome to India!

As is typical, food was everywhere and offered until you were ready to burst. I already mentioned it, but the food is just amazing. I haven't had a lot of Indian food back in the states but I've always enjoyed it, but now I absolutely love it. Every meal is a feast, and everything, and I mean everything, is good. The hospitality of Sazzys family thus far has been wonderful, and is a very different and exciting way to experience a country, much different from what I have been doing thus far as a “normal” tourist on my trip up to this point.

Sazzy, Hunter, me and one of Sazzy's uncles goofing off at the house with decorations for the wedding. This, like every night so far has been a whirlwind of family, food and late nights. A ton of fun.

The next day we found ourselves in Gurgaon, a sort of suburb outside of Delhi. This compound is owned by Sazzy's family, and is where three different immediate families live. It is a cool old building, a maze of rooms, court yards, stairs and doors. Like the other house, out front is a business or two, a very busy street, and fields and some slums on the sides.

In the afternoon, we all piled into the car and headed off to Sultanpur National Park, amazing bird sanctuary on the edge of town. And I though I was done with birding after leaving Brendan behind!

I'd never seen so many birds in one place! It was packed with storks, flamingos, spoonbills, eagles, parrots and much more. After spending a few days in the forest ot Thailand just catching glimpses of birds with Brendan and Ryan, this simply blew me away. Trees were full of huge birds, the sky was dotted with birds circling overhead, and the air was filled with seemingly dozens of different calls. Or visit was short however, I wish I was with Brendan and his spotting scope, because I could have spent all day there!

In the evening, we headed off to the mall in search of traditional Indian cloths for the wedding. Weddings are a VERY big deal here in India, and the family is being so kind to us, naturally we want to do everything we can to play along and look the part. We each ended up getting traditional Kurtas, and are excited to wear them at the ceremony, I love playing dress up!

Well, that's it for now. Being with the family, we don't have a lot of downtime, and when we do we are usually mobbed my the kids, so it's hard to get writing done. Also, we don't really have internet access, so the blog will be a bit slow for the next few days. That doesn't mean I'm not out doing things though, it's crazy fun out here and the wedding ceremony is just getting into full swing! After the wedding, we will be taking a train down south (not sure where right now) and I hope to report back then. Until next time, take care everyone, and talk to you later!

Saying Goodbye to Thailand, India Here I Come!

Welcome back to Pai! The last few days have been a ton of fun, between the motos, elephants, hiking, caves, carnival and more we have been busy in this laid-back little town.

Planning on a hike of a few hours to a Mae Yen Waterfall and plenty of stops to observe birds and the other wonderful natural life around us, we woke up at about 6:30am and got an early start. Since we hadn't really planned ahead, we ate breakfast (I had instant noodles and yogurt) and bought lunch from the 7-11, possibly the only place open at the time. It was junk food but better than nothing. Watching the sun come up in the valley was very pretty, although a bit cool when riding our motos to the trail head.

For Brendan and Ryan, the birds were the primary focus of this trip, complimented by the beautiful scenery we walked through. We would frequently stop after a quick glance or call of a bird, to get a better look with the binoculars, and of course saw a number of new species. Much of the early part of the trail, which crossed the stream over and over again, had been turned into shade agriculture land by the locals so it wasn't truly wild, but there were still plenty of interesting jungle tid-bits to keep us all amused.

The easiest life-form to observe was no doubt the insects, and we saw plenty. One of the stranger things we witnessed was a seeming plague of daddy-long-legs that literally covered entire plants. At one point, when we were quiet we could listen to the armies of them walking and rustling the leaves on the ground, magical! We also saw cool looking crab-spiders, butterflies, dragonflies and more.

After 5 hours of stop-start hiking, we arrived at a fantastic waterfall. At maybe 50 feet from top to bottom and with a lovely pool at the base, it was a perfect place to eat our less than perfect 7-11 lunches. I had picked a pre-made sandwich because the packaging said “This sandwich is Delicious we want you to try this sandwich.” I was sold! Lunch was quick because we were a little worried about getting caught in the dark, given our slow pace to observe.

On the way back, we took a slightly different route, straight down the roughest part of the stream. This was some of the most beautiful scenery I've seen on my trip this far. It is one of those things pictures (especially my quick point-and-shoot shots) can never truly do justice to. This particular scene, upon arriving I thought to myself “This is exactly how I pictured the jungle in my head.” The light filtering through the trees, the water, the rocks, ferns, vines hanging from trees, it was perfect.

Every time we got just a little farther down this stretch of flip-flop punishing “trail” it just got better and better. On the way, we ran into a monk leading a group of novice up the trail, and Brendan gave the old man a hand climbing up a section of trail, right before also helping some strangers dog up the rock. We ended up making much better time on the way back as a result of fewer stops, and returned to our guesthouse satisfied and tired from a good day.

The next morning we slept in and moved slowly. Brendan and I went out in search of... I forget what, and we ended up wandering the grounds of the carnival that had been blasting music for the whole valley to hear until long into the morning. One of those little differences between the states and Asia seems to be that events are far less concerned with disrupting neighbors, or in this case entire towns. Maybe it is because people have a stronger sense of community and want others to have a good time? Maybe it's because people are less sensitive with such 'annoyances'. I don't know, but I like it.

In the afternoon we took a short moto ride to Pai Canyon to watch the sunset. Pai Canyon is a unique series of narrow and tall rock spines with trails on top of them. We did a short loop trail and then sat back at the viewpoint for the sun to go down. While waiting on a bench, someone called out my name. A bit surprised, I looked up and saw Erica, a girl I'd met on Railay Beach while rock climbing two weeks earlier, and her new traveling companion Veronica, both from the London area. The group of us got to chatting, and ended up agreeing to go elephant riding together the next morning. After a slightly uninspiring sunset to be honest, we headed back to base camp to plan our next move.

By 9pm, the carnival was in full swing, and I have never seen such a sea of motos! The area was packed full of food venders, games, rides, used clothing, new clothing, and assorted home goods. Apparently the carnival is a popular place to buy kitchen utensils, who knew? We walked around the grounds (which took about 10 minutes moving slowly) looking at the different booths and games (the dunk tank had a particularly large crowd) on offer. They even had a kiddie roller-coaster, the kind of creepy looking, slightly rusty...

Pause! At the moment I am listening to a drum-solo from the carnival down the hill, this party just doesn't stop, it's on day 5!

...Ok, back to business. The 20 baht roller-coaster was the kind of thing you wouldn't let your kids on back in the States, but naturally I had to give it a try. I give it a C-.

Brendan had never seen the beer towers before coming to Thailand (and I hadn't seen one before arriving in SE-Asia) so naturally we had to have one. This particular tower seemed to hold a surprisingly small amount of beer and ended up being a terrible value on the scale of drink prices. Oh well.

At the stage we did witness one of the funniest scenes I've observed on this trip. The tables were probably 40 feet from the stage, so there was plenty of room for people to stand up front and watch the band. I guess that is a western way of thinking because instead of a crowd at the foot of the stage like you would see back home, the whole area was empty except for two exceptionally drunk Thai guys dancing like cripples and ogling the scantly clad female singer on stage. Maybe the other Thai's (and the event was almost entirely Thai) were just embarrassed by these two in front and didn't want to associate with them in any way, but no one dared enter the front of the stage. Instead, masses of mostly young guys crowded along one edge of the space, none venturing to go within 30 feet of the stage or the drunk guys. I was about to go up and try and coax others into the center, when the female singer was replaced with a male, and I realized my chances of success had just gotten dramatically lower so I gave up.

In the morning Brendan, Ryan and I went into town and met up with Erica and Victoria in search of an outfit that does elephant trekking. Our guesthouse recommended a place called Joys and we went to check it out. The hour and a half ride including playing in the river and 'trekking' s 400 baht each, which we thought was good, but they told us that they couldn't take us out because the elephants were tired or something. We then went across the street to Toms, which I understand is the one mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide. As a result, prices were 700 baht! We kept walking, and ended up at Duangs which was only 350! Something I've learned out here is that everyone offers the exact same packages, save for some little details. Despite this, prices can be all over the map so in nearly all cases it seems that going with the cheapest is usually the best option. After a short wait a truck came to pick us up and took us to the edge of town where the elephants were waiting at Noi's Elephant Camp.

At the elephants, we ended up with Erica and Victoria on one and Brendan, Ryan and I on the other, with the leader riding on the neck/head. Both elephants were female, and 40 years old. And aet me just say elephants are wide. Very wide. Straddling one is a rather painful stretch, and riding with just a blanket between you and the animal doesn't offer a lot of shock absorption, we were all sore the next day!

After a few minutes of walking down the road and through a resort, we walked into the small river that goes through the valley. This spot has obviously been made wider and deeper for just this activity. On the leaders command, the elephants would spray us with water from it's trunk, and then dump us off it's back into the river.

This was the main attraction, what can essentially be called 'bucking elephant riding.' The controller would have us get on its back, and with his commands would get the elephant to shake us off, while we tried as hard as possible to hang on! It was a blast, and while I thought I did pretty well in hanging on, I was certainly no match for this huge and fantastic creature. I wanted to get the elephant to pick me up and throw me with its trunk, but the controller didn't understand what I was asking, haha. I had originally thought elephant riding was too touristy and corny, but I'm glad we did it, the river was a blast.

Once we were done playing in the water we did what I guess would count as the 'trekking' part. All it really turned out to be was walking down the river for a bit through farmers fields. Truth is, riding an elephant bareback is awfully uncomfortable, and the extra walking we did as the 'trekking and river' package wasn't worth a whole lot to me, I say just get your kicks from the river and walking to and from it. Once we returned to the camp, we disembarked and all talked about how much fun it was.

With the rest of the day free, I decided to head to the pool for some relaxing, a few laps in the pool and some stretching on the yoga platform. That night we ran into a continuing problem, finding a good bar to hang out and meet some people. Like so many places here in Thailand, despite all the tourists, there is an overabundance of service. Maybe we were just looking in all the wrong places, but it seemed like due to the high numbers of bars, each only had a handful of people in them. I don't know what it is, but here and in Chaing Mai, the nightlife has been difficult to track down. We ended up watching Superbad at the common area back at the base.

The next day, we were headed to Tham Lod, a large cave complex about 50km away. What that meant was an hour and a half moto ride up the the valley and over the pass. Without a doubt, having your own moto is the best way to see the countryside. This particular trip took us through so much beautiful forest and small scale terraced farmland it was hard not to keep stopping just to look around at what we were in the middle of. That said, speed was the name of the game for me and I took that little 110cc scooter screaming to the top at nearly full throttle. This two lane provincial highway is actually in very good condition, and well marked, so it made such things possible. Basically it's just one of those excellent driving roads.

More of the wonderful scenery that greeted us on our ride.

Once we had reached our destination we pealed ourselves off the moto seats and up to the ticket booth. For 150 baht we got a tiny old lady with a towel wrapped around here head and a keroseen lantern in her hand. We also paid 300 baht to ride a bamboo raft through the river that flows through the cave. It later turned out none of this was necessary, and we could have done it much cheaper. Oh well.

The cave is another of those wonderful Thai-limestone treasures. Our bamboo raft was pushed and pulled by an old man wading in the water, and at a time or two he seemed to struggle with our three 'big white person bodies.' The main cave had a number of smaller caverns and the old woman walked us through them with her lantern, pointing out different features.

Also in this cave are artifacts from an old tribe. There are a number of these long wooden coffins, a painting on the wall, other pieces of wood and pottery shards deep into the cave which are estimated to be 2500-3000 years old. Whoever they were, they must have been small because those things were narrow!

The other feature of this cave is the fact that tens of thousands of swifts nest in it every night, and at about 6pm the swarm starts. It was very cool to watch this massive swarm of birds entering the cave, and not only did we see an owl fly through it all, we watched a hawk catch one of the sparrows out of the air and fly away with it! By about 6:45pm it was essentially over, and a few at a time bats started to trickle out It was already dark and cold enough, so we headed back down the trail to our motos for the ride home.

It was a good thing we had already done this road in the light and knew what to expect, because this thing is intense! Like I already said, the road is in very good shape, and every corner is well market so it made it pretty easy to handle. As before I went about as fast as I possibly could on the way home and had a blast. At this time, the most dangerous things on the essentially empty roads is the possibility of animals. All I ended up seeing was two cats and a few frogs, of which I think I accidentally ran over one. Now I'm sure someone is going to say how unsafe it was, and true, there was an element of danger in it, but I knew what I could do and what the bike could do, and I did a pretty good job of staying within the limits. This is the kind of ride that even on a scooter, makes you want to buy a bike.... This ride has defiantly been one of the highlights of the trip so far.

Now is the time for transition, getting ready to leave Thailand behind and heading to Delhi, India! The schedule is as follows: On the 31^st, take a 1.5 hour mini-bus from Pai back to Chaing Mai. Have a two and a half hour wait, then a 12-hour overnight bus from Chaing Mai to Bangkok and back on Khaosan road at 6AM again. I am really sick of that place but it is such a transportation hub it is the only way to go. I then have 24 hours to kill, before catching a shuttle to the airport at 6am, where I board my 5 hour flight to India. It's going to be long, boring and uncomfortable, and this time it seems the gods of backpacking are a little bit against me: I've had a stomach ache for two days and the 'digestive issues' have started. If it continues, this could be very uncomfortable, if it gets worse, it could be downright terrible. I'm not horribly worried but still, cross your fingers!