Trekking, Tiger bites, & islands of Thailand

5 days goes by and a lot happens when traveling in Thailand...plus I am going to a half moon party in the jungle in Koh Phangan island in about 35 minutes, so I'll try to make this blog short-ish.. try.

After Bangkok Nick and I rode a sleeper train up to Chiang Mai, which was a nice change from the heat, smog, and corruption in Bangkok. Chiang Mai is a city up in Northern Thailand, and a base for people to venture out into the jungle and visit hill tribes. We immediately got off the train at 7am and left for a 3 day, 2 night camping/hiking trip up in the jungle with a guide and 7 tourists, all of which were 20 or 21 yrs old. It was a LOT of hiking, and a lot of sweating, but at night we drank off our aches and eventually had this great idea of eating real animals straight from the jungle. So our guide took us at like midnight to some creek, and we all caught frogs and then barbeque'd and ate them! I would have never eaten random frogs from a jungle, let alone frogs in a restaurant..but when in Rome do as the Romans... haha. We slept in a bamboo hut, and it was actually really cold at night. The next day, we hiked a ton more, and walked through the Karen Village where we saw the local school, how they live, how they cook, etc. etc. Nick and I kinda already did the village thing in Cambodia (and me with the Vietnamese family when I slept outside back in Vietnam). More hiking..more sweating..BUT a lot of cool views, creeks, birds, and even a baby cobra snake along the way. Around 4pm we made it to an awesome waterfall, and we spent the night next to the waterfall and a bonfire we made. THAT was well worth the hike. On the last day of trekking, we rode elephants and went down a river on a bamboo raft! After that we went back to Chiang Mai, and went to a Muy Thai fight where we watched kids, women, and full grown men all fight! I placed bets with the locals and in the end lost 80 baht (~$3 USD) but had a really fun time.

And of course... I have the WORST luck and horrible horrible karma..some something bad/crazy always has to happen.. Nick and I wanted to go to "Tiger Kingdom" to pet and hold all sizes of tigers. So we went, and we paid to pet the baby tigers (4 months old... but still probably 150 lbs.).. When we walked in the cage, the two babies were play fighting, and then the guide seperated them and told us to go ahead and start petting and taking pictures. One tiger was laying down, so I squatted next to him and started petting it.. And then, the other tiger came right up behind me and BIT ME in the back! I was wearing a tank top and he got me right on the shoulder blade area! I didnt know what the hell had happened, it just felt like a stick scratched me or something. We laughed and were like "shit I dont think THAT was supposed to happen.." but then like 10 minutes later it started to sting and we looked at the bite and it was swollen and bleeding! The guide took me inside and they cleaned up the blood and were like "Oh its not that bad" and it really wasn't, yet the workers were all calling each other and coming up and looking at the bite! This one guy spoke really good english, and he said I was the FIRST tourist to be bitten in a full year! It was kind of funny, because the workers were trying to be so calm about it but every time they looked at the bite they put their hands to their mouth and speak real fast Thai and say "Oh my Buddha" .. which is also funny as we say "Oh my God". So I got taken to the hospital to get a tetnus shot, and fortunately the Tiger Kingdom zoo place payed the bill. Also an interesting experience being in a Thai hospital...although not as bad as i imagined. One of the nurses was flambouyantly gay wearing lip stick and all that.. and of course HE was the one chosen to take care of me and wipe off blood and give me a shot and gauze me up and talk to me and just be as gay as possible.. I bet he requested to help me: the white dude which the asians love so much. I have absolutely nothing against gay people, but it was just the icing on the cake.

Anyways, after being bitten by a Tiger in Thailand and going to the hospital, we still managed to make our flight and our now far down south in a GORGEOUS island called Koh Phangan. This island is notorious for parties, and they celebrate every full mooon, half moon, quarter moon, black moon, etc. etc. So tonight is the half moon party, so we are drinking, everyone wears glow in the dark body paint, and its in the middle of the jungle and there's a line up of DJ's and light shows. Its basically a rave in the jungle.. it's 10:30pm at the moment and it lasts till 10am tmrw morning. Should be epic! With that, I'm out.

Pictures to come soon. Cheers.