Thailand!

Kat and I have made our way from Bangkok to Chiang Mai. Bangkok was a GREAT city and it seems as though Chiang Mai may even top it! There are a lot of touristy classes here such as cooking, meditation, and even muay thai kickboxing. But most importantly we'll be booking a trek to get in some of northern thailand's beautiful greenery! We arrived into Chiang Mai at about 5am and quickly made our way to the very popular Julie's Guesthouse. We'd heard about the place from another couple and we decided we really needed to stay there. So we camped out in the lobby (we really did - I napped on their cushy lounge chair) and were first in line at 8am when it opened. It really paid off because between 7 and 8am about a dozen or so people showed up! But we got a room there so we're very pleased.

I'm getting behind in my pictures so here's a few from the past week or so


This is the largest monolithic structure in the world. Its at the Allura caves site near Aurangabad. It was pretty impressive! This site had a lot of Buddhist, Hindu, and Jain temples but this was the most impressive one.




This is also at the Adjunta caves site. The stairwells are not lit but I caught Kat by suprise with a flash! We had to be really careful not to fall. It's not like there's a hospital nearby! We had to take a bus for over an hour in the countryside to get there.




A family of monkeys on Elephanta Island! We took a ferry here from Mumbai and saw more caves. By this point we were a little burned out on caves but it was still a fun trip with the boat ride and the monkeys everywhere.



These fishing boats were lined up on the beach of Elephanta island. The muck looked a lot like Birch Bay (near where I grew up). And by the look of the fishermans feet the muck was at least a foot deep.



Kat and I found this little restraunt near our hotel and Khao San road. The owners were very nice and the food was about the best we've had in Thailand! And that's saying a lot because the food here is excellent. We ate here about 4 times.


In Bangkok we visited the Wat Pho temple. The tilework was amazing and colorful. The cleanliness and well kept buildings and plants really contrasted to India.


Still in the Wat Pho temple. This is the main chamber. The monks on the left were chanting.


This was a flower in the garden around Wat Pho temple. This place was amazing!


Yes, another Wat Pho photo, but this is the main attraction. It's a 50m lying Buddha statue. The scale is impressive but perhaps even more so is the intricate ingravings you can see on the Buddha's feet.