These are my links for May 5th through July 14th:

• Anheuser-Busch Agrees to Be Sold for $52 Billion - NYTimes.com - Now where in the world am I supposed to find American quality Premium Busch Light?
• WordPress Theme: Hamasaki | JAUHARI - pretty cool layout
• Etsy :: Your place to buy and sell all things handmade - This is a pretty cool site if you are every looking for unique things. Everything is handmade and sold by the craftsmen.
• LaunchPad, The WordPress Domain Parking Theme - cool theme for parked domains
• Grilling Recipes - Men’s Health - more simple, high protein recipes for the grill
• Escapa! - The object of the game is to move the red block around without getting hit by the blue blocks or touching the black walls. If you can go longer than 18 seconds, you are phenomenal. It’s been said the U.S. Air Force uses this for fighter pilots. The

Just a little note to say, thank the Lord! Billy Packer has been replaced by Clark Kellog as CBS’ lead college basketball analyst.  [via Triangle Biz Journal]

April 20th, 2008 - Pol dropped us off at the airport and we caught our flights to Bangkok. This was wear we split ways. I had a direct flight from BKK to the island of Koh Samui while Kat was going through a land-locked city of Surat Thani. Both of us were going to catch boats. My boat only took an hour and a half and I was in Koh Tao by 2. Kat was catching the night boat and wouldn’t arrive until 7am the next morning. ouch!

The boat ride was amazing. Passing the hundreds of small islands that look just like large rocks jetting out of the ocean was some beautiful scenery but one of the coolest things was passing the island of Koh Pah Ngan while reading the book “The Beach.” As I was reading the book on the top deck of the boat we were passing Koh Pah Ngan and in the book they were doing the exact same thing. On a boat, starring out on Koh Pah Ngan! It was a wicked cool moment that probably seems retarded to anyone else reading this.

I called my friend Will, who I was originally going to couchsurf with until he set me up with a certification class at his dive shop which included accommodations, and he came to pick me up in a “Taxi” which is just a local with a pickup truck.

A short ride later we arrived at the Dive Shop and will got me setup with a room and the paperwork for class.

I stayed in a little bungalow about 20m from the beach, it wasnt anything fancy but hell I wasnt going to be in the room much anyway. It was clean, had a fan and bathroom, although the bathroom was a Thai style toilet.

What exactly is a Thai-Style Toilet you say? It is a toilet w/o any running water. You do your business and you use the hose (usually!! with in reach of the can) to fill up a bucket, and then you pour that water into the toilet and it “flushes” itself. Very strange the first time you see one but it quickly turns itself into an entertaining game, at least after a few Tiger Beers!

Settled into my room I walked back to the Dive Shop to talk to Will and fill out some paperwork and watch the required video for dive class. While filling out the paperwork I met Karen. A Canadian girl living in Tokyo teaching and hopefully moving onto a new job there. We parted ways but decided to meet back up for dinner and drinks. I killed the rest of the afternoon reading my book, which I was unable to put down for 3 days. Those of you who know me probably wonder if I can even read since i do it so rarely but The Beach was awesome. It may have had something to do with the fact that I was living the book but whatever, I liked it. Thanks Kat!!!

Karen and I met back up and we went to a local bar where you sit on large pillows on this deck which is over the water. It was an awesome scene and we had a great conversation, just getting to know each other and talking about how we got to where we were today while drinking Chang beers and eating from the local BBQ for about $1.25 each!

It was getting late so I walked her back to her bungalow and headed back to my room to my surprise when I looked at my clock it was only 11pm. I passed out anyway…

April 19th, 2008 - Opted not to do the Thai cooking course, I’ll pick up a Thai cook book instead. I didn’t want to take the whole day cooking and it was kind of expensive. Just wanted a day to rest and plan my next segment, Southern Thailand Islands!

I spent an hour or so after breakfast trying to find the best way to Koh Tao. Unlike last time, I didn’t plan to far ahead but this time I waited to long. Kat and I were going to take a train to the island but the trains are slim and book up weeks in advance. We ended up flying although taking different routes.

I guess you have to find that fine line between planning too early and planning too late. You live you learn I guess.

After travel planning I walked around some different parts of the city and hiked around the outskirts of Chiang Mai just to see the countryside.

Kat was having a miserable day travel planning because the flight I was on was too expensive for her budget and the buses and trains were not feasible options. her foot was also sore and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do her Scuba Certification. Stressful to try and plan for something you aren’t sure if you’ll be able to do.

I bought her a Tolberone when I saw them in the grocery store after my hike, she said it was her favorite during one of our convos the previous day. I was hoping it would pick up her spirits before we headed back to the Night Bazaar after realizing we missed a huge chunk of it. It seemed to work, you can’t ever go wrong with girls and chocolates.

We met up a little bit later and limped our way towards the market. I stopped at a couple of bookshops hoping to find a decent Thai cookbook but was unable to do so. While we were in one of the shops, we were talking about the book/movie The Beach. I told her I’ve heard of it but never read it, she was appalled. We searched the shop for it and she sneakily bought it behind my back and gave it to me. It was a very nice gesture, especially for someone who’s watching their budget closesly. I thanked her very much for it, especially since I just can’t get into the book I brought with me “ON the Road” by Jack Kerouac. I had no idea how long The Beach was, but when I saw it I thought there was no way I was getting through that especially with how slowly I read.

We walked through the red light district of Chiang Mai since it was on the way to the Market and it was quite dirty. Thai women and he-women lined the street with the farangs sliding behind closed doors looking behind them as the doors close to see if anyone noticed them ducking into “Happy Massage” parlor. You know the one thats dimly lit with the half naked “masseuse” standing out front in high heels. It was all very creepy. Thankfully, I didnt get half as many cat calls as the average farang probably since I was walking with a female.

The Night Bazaar was just as disappointing as the last time we thought we went. Too much touristy goods and touts trying to sell you everything and anything.

Oh well, worth a shot.

After the elephant farm, Kat and I were starving. We cleaned up and hopped on a tuk-tuk towards a rooftop bar which turned out to be another reggae bar. We walked around a few blocks and ended up in Little Italy. Little Italy in Thailand was enough to make you do a double take but the restaurant we ended up at really got you thinking. We went to this place called the Art Cafe. The menu was literally 20+ pages. It had every food you could imagine and since we both wanted something other than Thai food we said why not.

We both laughed at the thought of Mexican food in Thailand let alone in the same shop that makes there own ice cream and cheese. Kat ordered some quesadillas and pasta and I had my measuring stick of Chicken Parm with French Fries. None of it was very good, which wasn’t much surprise but even after dessert our total bill was only 360 baht (about $12). Even thought it wasn’t real good we had a good laugh at the price. The owner at some point overheard us talking about the elephants and came over to talk to us. He was actually an American who came over for the war but never went back. Has been in Thailand for 17years. Nice guy even if the food wasn’t good. I will give him credit, my ice cream croissant split was pretty good.

We decided we had a long enough day and skipped the rooftop bar recommended to me by my friend Paige who lives in Chiang Mai, (currently in the States tho). I went to the top of the bar and realized no way Kat was making it up the stairs with her hurt foot and we were both kind of spent anyway.

I think I’ve wrote a lot about Kat but haven’t talked about her much since we met in Cambodia. She’s a really nice girl. We have nothing in common except for the route of travel we are taking and our love for chocolate. She’s a vegetarian for the last 13 years and I’m a carnivore for 29 years. She’s an army brat who moved out at 16. She teaches at a outdoor type school for troubled kids in Oregon. She sold most of her possessions to come on this trip and is even volunteering in a local town for 10 days at some point doing this trip. She doesn’t have a TV and my iPhone pretty much shocked her. The most technological thing she said she owned was the $7 currency converter she bought before the trip. Also, she is the only person I’ve met on this trip who isn’t on Facebook. That’s weird in a lot of ways. She’s really a good person and we’ve had a good time traveling with each other so far. She doesn’t have a job anymore, she left it to come on this trip also, and she and her longtime boyfriend are looking for somewhere to move to. I told her that she’d fit in perfectly in Asheville, NC and surprisingly she said 4 other people have said that too.

On our limp home, we talked about how keeping friends is hard but I told her I’ll def. make an effort to keep in touch with her, even if she only checks her email once in a blue moon.

April 18th - Kat and I got picked up at the Bupatara at 730am to head to Patara Elephant Camp. The camp is not a conservation center but has a conservationist mentality. Meaning that they care for and help elephants that have been domesticated but are no longer found to be useful for whatever reason. At the camp you are considered an ‘Elephant Owner for a Day.’ Which means you feed, bath, walk, ride and play with the elephants.

From the get go we were given a little briefing about what the camp is and what it isn’t and immediately that gave us a better feeling then the previous day’s elephant experience. The owner told us how Asian elephants were used throughout their history and how they were also almost extinct at one point. Sad to think about.

First we were taught how to approach the elephants so we’d call out “Bon” which must mean food and the elephant would lift up his trunk and open their mouths. We’d use the basket of bananas we had to feed them. Their mouths were smooth but slimey and they would inhale the bananas hand and all. Amazing how gentle they really are. After feeding them we gave them a command to sit down “no-lo” and the elephant would get down and we’d brush all the debris and dirt off their back from the night before when they were sleeping.

Interesting thing about elephants sleep patterns. The sleep for 30 minutes on one side, then stand up for 10 minutes then sleep for 30 more minutes on the other side. They repeat this all night for 5 hours. Needless to say in the morning they are covered with dirt and debris which once we cleaned off of them, we led them to the creek where we had them lie down again and begin to throw water on them and scrub them with a brush. They would just lay there looking at you with their big eyes with a sort of grin on their face. Much like a dog getting their belly rubbed. Pure elephant bliss.

After the bath we led them to the water which they drank from and their real handlers proceeded to tell them to hose us down so they’d all spray water from their trunks on us when we had our backs turned around. You kind of sensed it was coming but it still caught you off-gaurd.

Wet and dirty, we were showed the different techniques for how to get on the elephants. Lifted up by their trunk, climb up their leg or have them lay down and crawl up their back. My elephant, Kwon, the largest of them all only lets people on her via her back. I guess when you are that big, you set the rules. I didnt argue with her. She laid down and I got on. We are taught to basically sit all the way up her neck almost on their heads and to use our heels in their shoulders along with some verbal commands to steer. Although, we could get them to go in the general direction, I used the analogy of my dog Sasha. While you may be able to get her to sit or do something, she really only listens to me, IF anyone. The elephants are the same way. They’d really only listen to their handlers who were walking along side of each of us.

I don’t think there was going to be any stampeding from these elephants but the handlers were there just in case.

We rode the elephants for a long time, walking through the farms and into the jungles up towards this waterfall that they love so much. What was truly amazing about these huge beasts is how nimbly and softly they navigated trails too steep for humans to walk down comfortably and too narrow for a small car to fit through. They would gently and patiently step up and down the trail with ease. If you didn’t know you were on an elephant, you wouldn’t have been able to guess based on how quietly and gracefully they moved through the jungle. We were all in awe. When we arrived at the base of the waterfall the elephants walked right into the pool with us on their backs. It was hilarious, they would play with each other and roll around tossing us around like we weren’t even there.

The elephants all chilled out and we headed up a small trail to where the waterfall was crashing in hoping to take a dip while they setup a picnic lunch for us. As we were going into the pool, Kat stepped on a piece of glass and cut her foot pretty deeply. The owner of the camp was really sorry and they bandaged her up and on the way home stopped her by a clinic to get it checked out. She is fine but sore.

We ate the lunch which was sticky rice, chicken, pork, coconut sticky rice, some fruit and a few desserts of sorts. It was very good and we gave the non-meat leftovers to the elephants! After lunch we rode the rest of the way back to the camp, through some more creeks, farms and even down a road. Anywhere else that probably would have seemed odd but passing motorists didn’t even blink twice at the sight of 6 elephants walking down the road.

At the end of the day they took us over to meet the 10-day old elephant. He was awesome, a minature version of his very big mom but with the coordination you’d expect from a 10-day old elephant. At one point the baby slipped into Marta (the Italian girl with us) and the mom let out this ear-drum peircing roar that nearly made all of us wet ourselves. Merely a warning, we were in no harm.

At the end of the day we watched the handlers ride the elephants off into the mountains where they sleep. They chain up one of the younger females and the rest of the elephants just hang around her, if they chained up one of the males, the elephants would all wander away but none of them leave a chained up female. Very cool. The owner told us about an old Thai philosophy that really stuck with me.

1. “Walk like an elephant” - walk slowly and patiently, take time to notice your surrounding s rather than rushing from place to place. Very True
2. “Live like an elephant” - elephants are very family and friend oriented, they take care of and look after each other without being asked our asking anything in return.
3. “Eat like an elephant”- not sure I can adhere to this one, elephants are vegatarians and I’m a carnivore but it makes sense. Elephants don’t but in their bodies, half of the crap we do thus they suffer half of the problems. No elephant cancer, elephant heart attacks etc etc. It at least makes me think twice about what goes in my body.

Overall, it was truly an amazing experience. Doing good for the elephants, the farmers and the area in general. If you are ever in Chiang Mai, its highly recommended that you visit the Patara Elephant Farm.

It kind of hit me that this is the kind of responsible travel that is the good kind of travel.

…18th to be continued

April 17th, 2008 - We got picked up for our trek at 7am this morning. Kat and I opted for the single day trek which included elephant riding, bamboo rafting and hiking through the mountains with a visit to some Burmese mountain villages.

Our first stop was elephant riding in the jungle. It was kind of exciting at first but it quickly turned sour. It was hot as sin and the elephants were walking on a planned trail that they probably had walked 1,000 times before with thousands of other farangs on their backs. Something just didn’t feel right about it.

It wasn’t all boring, about halfway through the trail, the two Australians riding the elephant behind us, Jon and Libby, had some excitement. There elephant started off on his own trail into the woods to eat. Sydney and Laurene’s elephant and Kat and I’s kept on trucking but soon were hear this pounding and thrashing of bushes. Jon and Libby’s elephant got startled and started to run. I could see the pure fear on their faces, I just wasn’t able to get the camera out in time. The blood rushed from their faces straight to their hands where they were holding on for dear life. When their elephant got close enough, Kat and I’s elephant started to run for a brief second but it was only to get in the way of the other elephant. The end of the ride couldn’t come soon enough for the 6 of us. Jon and Libby’s elephant was still acting up and our elephant started rumbling like a v8-engine on idle.

At the end of the ride we all hoped off with a quickness and our excitement quickly turned sour when we notice Jon and Libby’s elephant was bleeding b/c of the sharp thing the handler was using to “correct” the elephant. It must have been one whack too many. It wasn’t bleeding bad but enough to be visible and disturbing. The people at the camp said that airplanes startle the elephants since they can hear them but not see them. Whatever it was, it was not a good start to the morning.

Our spirits were immediately lifted when we got to the bamboo rafting. Hot, tired and annoyed, we all jumped in the river and it washed away our concerns, at least for a little while.

We boarded these huge 30ft long x 5 ft wide bamboo rafts with two people in the middle and one steering in the back. For a second, Sydney and I thought we were going to need to guide the rafts down the river when we each had an 8 year old Thai boy hop on the front and begin to guide us down the river. Although, we were ’steering’ in the back, they didnt need us, the boys guided us down the river as if they have been doing it since birth. We started out with one guide who was all about speed causing us to smash into various obstacles. Each collision was met with a tidal wave of laughter from the boy and eventually all of us.

Somewhere down the river the two boys hopped rafts and switched, our new driver was all about precision as he bobbed and weaved this huge raft through rocks and around corners with even glancing an obstacle. All the while the other boy kept guiding his raft straight into monster rocks and downed trees, still laughing everytime.

The whole trip down the river took a couple hours I think. Seeing as it was still near the Songkran holiday, there was lots of splashing between boats and drivers and when we’d float through a small village area the families would all begin splashing us, setting off some monster water fights in the river. Everyone was smiling and having a grand time and although we had no idea what they were saying other than “Happy New Year” occasionally, everyone was smiling and laughing. Laughter is truly the universal language. I used the camera I bought in Bangkok to capture some pics and videos that I hope turn out ok.

*I added one of my videos to YouTube, more to come

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At the end of the river, we were all soaked but happy to be cooling down in the 94o heat and the whole event really picked up our spirits from the whole elephant incident earlier that day.

We stopped at this picnic area and had a traditionally Thai lunch of rice, fruit, and stir fried veggies. It was really delicious but not too filling. From lunch we headed through a Burmese mountain village. We walked through the village and watched them work (mostly weaving and carving). Our guide stopped and talked to this old women who then handed her this home made cigarette type thing and said we could try it if we wanted to. I said why not and our guide handed me a lighter. When in the Burmese mountains do as the Burmese Mountainers! Not sure what to expect, especially since the mountains were so hugely known for opium production, I puffed away. It was pretty much tobacco rolled up in a banana leaf. You could tell it was pure b/c it was smooth but also strong. I smoked it for a while but the French couple seemed to enjoy it the most.

We walked around a bit more and I saw this lady making blankets and they were quite impressive. I ended up buying one from her for what amounted to be $18 and she was very very happy. When I was leaving her house/store front a little boy came from behind the her and grabbed my arm. He proceeded to tie this homemade bracelet around my wrist. I guess he was happy I bought his mom’s blanket as well and gave me one of the bracelets he was making. I smiled at him and said thanks and he smiled back and I ran to catch up with the group.

We hiked awhile through the woods, picking fruit off the trees and tasting whatever leaves our guide tricked us into chewing. It was quite entertaining. After about 30 minutes of walking we ended up at this waterfall. Hot and sweaty not one of us hesitated to jump in. We swam around and all attempted to see how close to the waterfall we could get w/o getting washed away. Very much child-like fun and it was great!

After the waterfall we hiked a bit more and made our way back to the van which took us all back to our respective guesthouses. We exchanged info with the French people and planned to meet the Australians for dinner and drinks.

Back at the guesthouse, I met Gabriella, an Isreali, Belgian chic who has lived in NYC for 10 years and now lives in the UK. She is beautiful and very interesting to talk to. We hung out for a bit that afternoon and shared some of our experiences, backgrounds and future plans. At the time she was extremely nervous about getting married, so Gabriella if you are reading this I hope you’ve been able to come to terms with everything.

Kat and I met up with Jon and Libby and we found a restaurant that wasn’t very good but we were just really interested in the bars in the area. Gabriella recommended one of the 100 reggae bars in Chiang Mai and the thought of Thai’s signing reggae was enough to convince me that it was a good idea. We had a couple drinks and talked about music, news, politics, travel and America’s influence on the rest of the world. It was interesting to hear an outsiders perspective that actually appreciated what the US does for everyone else regardless their personal opinion on the Middle East.

Jon also explained cricket to me, which I actually found interesting almost as interesting as his love for the NFL and the Dallas Cowboys. The NFL is really going global, even the Australians watch the SuperBowl for the commercials!

A couple of good people. I’ve love to take them up on their invite to visit them in Australia at some point.

I hope Cathleen got home ok. He mom works for UAL so she was flying standby back to Czech and had to go all over the place to get open flights. I need to visit her too!

April 16th, 2008 - Came down for breakfast and Noi introduced me to the other American staying at the Bupatara, Cathleen. Cathleen is from Long Island (Huntington) but lives in Prague and is a teacher. She was wicked nice in our short chat but vowed to meet up for dinner and drinks after her day of Trekking.

As I’ve always done, I took my first day in a new place to walk around and get oriented with where I am and where everything else is. Kat and I walked around the south end of town in the morning while we were looking for some silver factory but were unsuccessful in finding it. At lunch we parted ways for the afternoon.

I ended up walking the entire moat which surrounds the city. I saw a whole bunch of temples, the 3 kings monument, the Crystal and Marble Buddhas and some random markets. I also had a couple of cool interactions with the locals.

As I was walking around I stumbled upon the Thai airways office which I went in to check prices on flights to my next destination, the Islands! When I walked out holding my camera these 2 security guards called me over and said “Don’t forget to take my picture.” I laughed and said “your picture?” and he responded with “International Security guard, not just airline security gaurd.” I laughed but obliged and the guys got close and let out a big smile. Its one of my favorite pictures that I’ve taken so far. I hope it looks good when I get home. *insert pictures*

Kat, Cathleen and I met back at the lounge and Kat and I booked a trek and a trip to the elephant rehab farm for the following two days. Again based on recommendations from Gary and Beck.

The three of us then walked to the famous Night Bazaar and were not impressed at all. It was crowded and seemingly more full of tourist junk than any other market. I guess thats the loss of culture that PW and I talked about in Cambodia. Kind of sad.

I used the time after dinner and the bar to type of some of these posts and also to look at my pictures with Cathleen since there were decent computers at the Bupatara. It was the first time I saw them and they are ok. About 15% of them looked good, but I’ll have a better idea when I get home.

Early night, 7am trek.

April 15th, 2008 - Today was a travel day so not much too write about. I need to get out of Cambodia b/c its starting to make me sick. All day today I couldn’t figure out what the deal was, how in the world was I getting sick. Until I got to Chiang Mai and realized it was the dusty air and exhaust from Cambodia that was building up in my throat. I already feel better after a few hours back in Thailand.

I realized today that I made my first mistake by planning too far ahead. I was supposed to leave Cambodia tomorrow but I had to get out. I was getting sick but I was also running out of things to do/see. I was able to change my flights so I could get out of Cambodia and on to my next destination of Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand for a fairly minimal cost.

I arrived to Chiang Mai on the last day of SongKran, the Thai New Year, so I at least got to taste a little of it. Chiang Mai is supposedly the rowdiest place for the Songkran festival and I could totally tell. My guesthouse picked me up at the airport and drove through the middle of the festival where there were thousands of people celebrating Songkran.

Songkran essentially is a big water fight. The thais believe that its a way of cleansing the past and moving onto a new year. Adults, kids, and teenagers all line the streets drenching each other, passing cars, motorbikes or people on foot. The aresnal is a combination of water balloons, super soakers, hoses, buckets attached to strings being thrown into the moat, beer or anything else that can hold liquid. Its madness. I was afraid to even go outside with my camera b/c in any part of the city you are libel to get soaked.

I could probably describe it to you but I think Gabriella did a better job than I every could. I met her in Chiang Mai as she was typing this up and as an aspiring writer she’s pretty much nailed what the whole SongKran festival is like.

Then Song Kran,Thai New Year, explodes at me, at everyone and everything. Thousands of people line the streets armed with buckets, water guns, garbage cans all filled with water. The traffic is bumper to bumper and we are sitting ducks, asking to get soaked with an easy pull of the trigger a light flick of the wrist.

“We” is me and my Chiang Mai buddy and yoga teacher, JP. JP is originally from Canada but has been living in Southeast Asia for a few years. She is a talented and giving yoga teacher who is also a former pro mountainbiker and criminologist. Even on my worst days, her energy is infectious enough to pull me out of my room on more than one occasion (not an easy thing to do).

I hop on the back of her bright pink moped holding a giant torpedo water gun and am instantly transformed from self-pitying blob to Terminatrix. We make our way around the moat by the old city. Within four minutes of heading into the main street, we look as if we forgot to undress before taking a shower.

Two squealing women on a hot pink motorbike is the equivalent of a “Kick Me” sign taped to a nerd’s back. It’s wonderful to get goose bumps in the hot sun.

What a party!Then Song Kran,Thai New Year, explodes at me, at everyone and everything. Thousands of people line the streets armed with buckets, water guns, garbage cans all filled with water. The traffic is bumper to bumper and we are sitting ducks, asking to get soaked with an easy pull of the trigger a light flick of the wrist.

“We” is me and my Chiang Mai buddy and yoga teacher, JP. JP is originally from Canada but has been living in Southeast Asia for a few years. She is a talented and giving yoga teacher who is also a former pro mountainbiker and criminologist. Even on my worst days, her energy is infectious enough to pull me out of my room on more than one occasion (not an easy thing to do).

I hop on the back of her bright pink moped holding a giant torpedo water gun and am instantly transformed from self-pitying blob to Terminatrix. We make our way around the moat by the old city. Within four minutes of heading into the main street, we look as if we forgot to undress before taking a shower.

Two squealing women on a hot pink motorbike is the equivalent of a “Kick Me” sign taped to a nerd’s back. It’s wonderful to get goose bumps in the hot sun.

What a party!

More on her blog here

Noi and Pol, the owners of my guesthouse were the ones to pick me up from the airport and apparently this is the norm. They just opened The Bupatara in January and are taking great care of their guests. Gary and Beck the Australians from Cambodia referred this place to Kat and I and I’m glad they did. You are instaneously made to feel at home in this guesthouse. First by being picked up and welcome to Chiang Mai by Noi and Pol, then given a seat and a drink when you arrive. A bellboy of sorts takes your bag and shows you to your room and when you come down Noi explains all the services of the Bupatara. From the meals, internet, to the treks things to do, there are no hassles. Many guesthouses in Chiang Mai quickly turn sour when they realize you aren’t going to book a trek through them but at the Bupatara, you never feel pressured. It really is a good experience, they are going about the business in the right way. Reminds me of another customer first oriented Family-owned company I know .

I met up with Kat and we went to get a late dinner and stroll around. We ended up at some mysterious street market that we really liked. We walked up and down checking out the smells sights and sounds. We didn’t buy or eat anything here b/c we figured we’d come back the next night and explore it a little more. Unfortunately, we were never able to find the market again. We knew were it was but it must have only been a special Songkran market festival b/c for the rest of the week, it was not to be found.

At the end of the market we watched what amounted to be a Thai street version of American Idol and then headed home to pass out.

We hoped in and off we went, zipping through the traffic and after a quick stop at the bakery we were soon in the Cambodian countryside. Its just like you imagine, dry rice paddies surrounded by thick jungle with a bumpy, half dirt/half paved road cutting through. We passed by run down shack after shack, emaciated cows, fat water buffaloes and kids playing in the creeks.

We passed the time in between staring at the scenery by talking about a hobby we have in common, photography. He showed me some of his pics and they are pretty damn good.

The tour of the silk farm was pretty interesting but short. In this day in age its still hard to believe that anyone still uses wood, hand powered tools to make the silk and weave the garmets.

We woke up our tuk-tuk driver who was napping under a tree and we left the silk farm 45 minutes after we got there. We had the driver take us to the market so Philipp could upgrade his wardrobe with some T-shirts from the market. Traveling as long as he was, its makes sense to buy shirts as you go and just wear them until they are unwearable anymore. It was quite funny to see him bargain with all of the shop clerks to save a Riel here and there but he wouldn’t pay more than 5000 Riel ($1.25) for a shirt.

The key to market shopping in SEA according to Philipp is to know what you should pay. For example T-shirts b/t $1.50 and $2 are ok but the shop owners are immediately going to start with a price of $3 or more. All SEA people see us farangs (whites) as walking bank cards so just be prepared to haggle. A laugh and a ‘No’ usually gets a response of “Ok, how much you pay? For you I discount.” You tell’em what you are willing to pay, or a little less, and it will go back and fourth a few times. If no common ground is reached, just tell’em you’ll come back if you don’t find it cheaper and walk away. The walk-away tactic gets you the price you want to pay (if its reasonable) 8 times out of 10. PW was eventually able to get the shirts he wanted for $1.25 but the best I was able to do was 3 for $4.25 @ the night market.

While haggling can be a pain, you really have to have fun with it. If you smile and are generally having a good time, it will be more enjoyable for both sides. Even though it may seem silly to haggle over a quarter or 50 cents, they generally expect and welcome it, and it does become quite fun.

PW and I moved on back to his guesthouse to compare pics of the silk farm. We both had taken some good shots from what we could tell on the old dim computer screen. I eventually headed back to my place to clean up and we decided to meet for lunch later that afternoon.

A quick stroll around downtown Siem Reap landed us at a back alley place that had my fav Pineapple and pork. Yum! We sat outside and chatted about everything. We talked about the differences in our cultures which covered just about everything including girls, dating, politics, traveling but we spend the most time talking about friends and relationships. PW says he doesnt trust anyone and didnt have any friends back home b/c he can’t trust them. He told me some backstory about some girl cheating on him and some incidents with friends and girls. I guess it struck a cord with me b/c I felt similar when I was his age, 23. Maybe not to his extent. But had a bad break-up with a girl who was cheating and close myself off emotionally to everyone, especially girls. I think I wrote about it before so I won’t rehash it all but it took a harsh but true comment from one of my best friends to snap me out of it.

PW and I talked a long time about friends, trust and life philosophies and it was quite entertaining. We are on 2 opposite ends of the spectrum b/c my friends are one of the most important things in my life and I would do nearly anything for them. He and I went back and forth about this for a while and we even ended up betting $100 that in 5 years he’d think differently. I’m really looking forward to that conversation. You can’t travel as much as he does and not be open minded and welcoming to people. At one point he got up to wash his hands and asked me to watch his bag, when he came back I told him he is already changing. He’s only known me for 2 days and trusted me enough to watch his bag full of camera equipment. We both got a good laugh from that and decided to continue the convo on my guesthouse balcony.

We got some drinks and headed to my guesthouse because it had a decent view. Unfortunately others had the same idea b/c the balcony was full. We ended up crawling out of the window by my room and sat on the roof. We talked about tourism and if it was good or bad but both agreed that it has its plus sides, such as saving the fresh water dolphins and downsides the biggest being the sacrifice of culture and community for the tourism dollar. He and I both sort of saddened as we realized that in 5 years the same thatch/terracotta skyline we were watching the sunset over, probably wouldn’t be here in 5 years. More big hotels would pop up and even overtake the small yard the kids were playing in below us. Its unfortunate.

Over the horizon about 4 blocks away we saw the night market begin to light up and made our way there just to see what was there. Even though all of the markets seemed to have the same touristy stuff we went anyway and I’m glad we did.

I fined tuned my haggling skills and picked up a couple of things for my friends. PW, on an ever going quest for cheap t-shirts got in one of the funniest haggling experiences ever. This old guy was just having a ball with us and it was hilarious. Def. memorable although I’ll never be able to describe it, it just wouldn’t do it justice. I ended up stumbling across this this husband and wife selling paintings. The guy was painting and the woman who spoke decent English was selling his work. There were some beautiful paintings and it was the first time I saw some semi-original works. I ended up buying an oil painting from them. Its a yellowish sky with the silhouettes of a family of elephants walking in line. It stood out to me from the moment I saw the booth full of paintings. I would have loved to buy a larger one but I didn’t want to carry it around for 2 weeks. This one is rolled up in a bamboo tube that barely fits in my daypack anything else would have had to have been shipped back to the States.

We went back to his guesthouse to eat and he wanted to give me a gift. He dug out of his bag a t-shirt he picked up in Vietnam that has Ho chi Minh’s face on it. It surprisingly resembles PW which I found hysterical. It def. won’t fit but maybe I can frame it, it would look cool in Sasha’s room.

We ate and after PW told me his aspirations of buying an elephant in India and riding it to Austria and his bone-carving hobby (don’t forget you’re gonna send me one!) we parted ways but vowed to keep in touch. It was a good day and we are both looking forward to our conversation in 5 years.