Thailand - full of surprises

Well I'm finally back on a computer after 8 days. The keyboard doesn't work, it's 35 degrees, and there are army men patrolling the streets to protect against riots. That's the bad news, the good news is that Thailand is freaking awesome and more than I expected! The first big news is that my roommate is some weird blond girl who surprised me at 2:00am on the first night. Turns out she's from Canada too! She even claims to be my girlfriend named Carling Doubt! Phew I thought it was a crazy dream from my Malaria pills perhaps, but nope, she came to Thailand and didn't even tell me. So it started off really well, we had a great group of 13 people, a family from Australia, a few UK, one Scot, one American, one Denmark and one from Belgium. We went to the tiger kingdom, which for 9 dollars you got to go into the tiger cage with 3 full grown tigers who aren't chained or anything and pet them. I was pretty nervous because as soon as you touch them it looks at you and could easily take an arm off in a second if it wanted to. However the guide was a thai man who had a bamboo stick for his and my safety... Anyways it all worked out, I even lied down on the tigers back. Next we went to an Elephant camp, and watched them play around in a big yard, kick soccer balls, play the harmonica, and play with tourists. That night we went to Chiang Mai on the sleeper train, which was kinda nice actually. In Chiang Mai we had a 3 day trek through the jungle, stopping at a waterfall and for water breaks occasionally. The two tribes we stayed with had nothing but cattle and bamboo. No electricity, no fresh water, no stores, nothing but farms and motor bikes. You washed in this bamboo shower they made, and slept on a thin mattress. We traveled from one village to another by elephant, an experience I'll never forget. We got to eat lunch with them before hand, and there was a baby who wanted to play but it was too strong and was dangerously running into people. Carling and I hopped on this 19 year old elephant named Samboo, and tiptoed through this hillside track and was literally only 2 feet wide at points. It was an amazing experience, we even ended it with a 4 hour bamboo rafting trip. Back in Chiang Mai I took a Thai cooking class, made 4 dishes and got a cookbook to take home (in english). Carling and I went to the spa after, I had an authentic thai massage, and she had an aroma therapy oil massage.I felt an inch taller after all that stretching and back cracking that went on, and she came out smelling like lavender and with soft skin. We're back in Bangkok now, the riot isn't too extreme, there are just a few changes. Our train couldn't come back to Bangkok because of the riot, so we hopped off early and took a cab. Barb wire was put up around a few places, a few streets are closed, and there are packs of 8 or 10 army men constantly patrolling the streets or standing guard. When we got back into Bangkok they told us to be careful, don't walk to certain areas, and that protesters are all wearing red. Of course I just happended to have my bright red shirt on that day....

Off to Khao Sok National park and the islands for a beach paradise! Hope you're all doing well at home! oh I started uploading photo's but it takes forever so I could only get 5 photo's up unfortunately. But as soon as I have more time I'll upload more.