Melissa Here (pics of the village)

the little children who all were allowed to get so dirty and play with real knives (certianly this would never happen in most homes in California but it was a nice change)


our ride to river rafting

elisa on her bed for the evening (as you can see, the walls let in all kind of light and bugs and sound so we slept with mosquito net and the much needed ear plugs)


Adele reading by candlelight


Helle and one of the little girls (on of the little boys kept coming down to our table and sticking out his hand for our food which we gladly gave to him and then saw where he was taking it- to his little girlfriends. Precious really).



So this is hereby my debut on this nicely crafted blog that celebrate a time in elisa and my life, in our friendship, that is unlinke anything we've ever done together before. So, where are we? Hmm....maybe I should start reading myown blog:) I have been busy lately getting my life in Hong Kong packed up and managed to fly off to Thailand, reunited with my best friend after five months apart, and so when I have time to get on the internet I have been prioritizing writing to individual people. So, apologies. I know you all were dying to hear my take on the situation here but now you can all let out a sigh of relief and know that I am here. This is my second time in Thailand. I willingly agreed to return here with Elisa when we were discussing travel plans many months ago because when I went earlier this February i knew four nights was certainly not enough to see what this country has to offer. Even our recent decision to forego our trip to cambodia (as we would have had to spend two full days travelling) does not leave us enough time to really see this beautiful country. But we are trying to cram in as much as we can while we are here and just returned from an 8 hour cooking class as proof that we are trying to experience Thailand in many different ways. The first and foremost seeming to be through our tastebuds. So, yes, I can now make you pad thai and spring rolls and homemade curry and mango and sticky rice and all the essential thai dishes we americans have come to associate with thai food. It was a lovely class with a trip to the farm, a briefing of ingredients and then a feast of our personally cooked food. We fell asleep on on the bus ride home- tired from all the food and standing. I would give you more details but we are off to dinner with some people (believe it or not, we are eating more!). please still be my friend if you don't recognize me the next time you see me. I can only blame coconut based dishes and my belief that to experience a culture is to experience the cuisine. So far elisa and I are excelling in this department. We are also meeting other travellers (off to dinner to meet our new friends from Norway and bringing along some others from our backpackers hostel from Denmark and Australia). We even partied with local Thai universtiy students last night at this substantial bar/club called the "warm up bar". let's just say that if this is merely the warm up, then i don't know what the actual game is. Needless to say, I am enjoying my time here, taking in Thailand and cathcing up with Elisa. I am missing Hong Kong and all the people in it who are either travelling themselves or are back home experiencing the reverse culture shock that I am soon to find myself in.
I will post pics but I dont think they could really do it justice. Seen some amazing sights here. Thanks for reading and, as always, more later!

Elisa: Survival (pics of elephant riding and hiking and the village)

Melissa and Elisa ride "Lelly"



Lelly was a very greedy greedy elephant who was never satisfied with the bananas we kept feeding to her


the only sensible to cross a river in Chang Mai was by cage



a look at what we were working with


can you find me?


Got back from our trek in the jungle this afternoon- everything went very well, and though the experience was intense, it was well worth it. We drove out of the city to the rain forest, rode elephants for an hours in the pouring tropical rain, went on a very difficult (not even just in my standards) hike up the mountain for 3 hours, getting drenched again at the end of that. We got to a tiny village of the Lahu people, and stayed the night in a hut with mattresses and mosquito nettings-- after being fed a delicious red curry of potatoes and stir fried vegetables with quail eggs, with freshly picked pineapple. The next morning, we went on another hike to a waterfall, which we bathed in, then went water rafting, and drove back to the city. The jungle was unbelievably beautiful, but weirdly enough, because of all the Vietnam War movies I've seen, I just kept waiting for things to blow up or to have to duck from enemy fire. Very weird, I know. Anyway, tomorrow we are taking an all day Thai cooking class so I am very excited about that, and tonight we are going out to a bar to have a good time! So not much time to write more- hope I'll be forgiven. Hope this finds you all very well.

Elisa: Chang Mai (pics of grand palace and reclining buddha)

A lot of wonderful moments have happened since I last wrote, so I will summarize only the most lovely as we must be getting along to the night bazaar for dinner. We left Hong Kong without any problem, arriving in Bangkok after midnight, and taking a cab to the hostel that Melissa's friends Adele and Helle were staying in and had booked for us. We were exhausted, but even just walking down the little Thai hippie street, at 1 am, we were so thrilled to see carts selling chicken satay, banana pancakes and friend banana, and exotic fruits. People were still up and about, drinking at outside cafes and music or laughter was emanating from every corner. It was a wonderful entrance.
The next morning, we got up early and the four of us went to the Grand Palace by tuktuk (little mini taxis). There, we walked around the unbelievably intricate (borderline gaudy) watt and saw the famous emerald Buddha. Every surface was complex and so unbelievably colorful, and Melissa and I spent much of the time comparing it to churches/cathedrals we had seen while in Europe together. After that, we walked around a small market place (I bought unbelievably tasty fried coconut pudding and a pork satay stick) on the way to the reclining Buddha of Wat Pho, which is a 46 meters long and 15 meters hight, all gold, and encased in a beautiful, decorated wooden temple. We then took the ferry to Wat Arun, the third most important religious site in Bangkok, and climbed to the top of its colorful stairs to get a great view of the city. We then took a short ferry ride down the river, ate lunch at a lovely little restaurant (I had spicy pork and shrimp salad with shallots- very good but very spicy). We then got a Thai massage for an hour (only 7 dollars) complete with a very refreshing foot wash. I'd never had a Thai massage before, and loved the roughness and stretching which left me feeling supple and relaxed (though some parts were downright painful...). We then walked around Khoa San Road, which is a fun young street to go shopping, get snacks, or just people watch. We had a delicious dinner at a vegetarian place (great pappaya salad and fried seaweed with peanut sauce, along with wonderful green eggplant, which I had never had, but was very delicious, tender and sweet). We went back to our hostel to pick up our bags, get our train tickets, and took a cab to the train station, where we boarded a very, very rickety overnight (15 hours!) train to Chang Mai, in Northern Thailand. It was a beautiful, scenic ride, but I got only about 2 hours of sleep because the train was so bumpy. The trip was VERY long. We arrived in Chang Mai around 1pm today!
We checked into our hostel, had some lunch, and then booked a guided trek for tomorrow day, tomorrow night, and the day after tomorrow morning (36 hours-ish). For only 17 dollars, we have a guide to drive us to visit 2 tribes, go rafting, ride elephants, visit villages, walk through the rain forest, and sleep in a bungalow in a mountain village. All food is included, as well as travel insurance up to 100,000 dollars. We are very excited! Melissa and I then went to try to book a hostel for the night after we return from our trek (Adele and Helle will leave us to go to Laos) but we got caught in an intense bout of hot, tropical rain, which left us soaked and unsuccessful in finding lodging so we will keep looking. We did stumble upon an incredible wooden Watt with a serene golden Buddha inside. The Watts here are less gaudy, and the temples tend to be made of wood, and have a generally more sleek and graceful appearance. With the rain all around, and the golden Buddha calling us to shelter inside, it was a quintessential lovely moment indeed. We are off for the next adventure of seeking food at the night bazaar and we will write more when we return victoriously from our trek! Thinking of you all.

Elisa: again, before leaving for Bangkok

Hello all- I'm writing again, instead of Melissa (which is very stange, as most of you know how Melissa is usually the much more avid blogger), but she is very busy because we are leaving for Bangkok tonight at 10pm and there is so much to do! This morning, we got up very early, finished packing up her entire room, took a huge box to the post office, tried to find the Cambodian embassy to get travel visas (failed miserably, as it took us 45 minutes to get to the building we thought it was in, only to be told the embassy had moved over 10 years ago. Thanks for nothing, official/government Cambodian website), took visa pictures, went to her campus to print out travel documents, returned library books, got Melissa's caution deposit back...the list goes on... There's so much to do when you have to tie up the loose ends of a 6 month life somewhere! Anyway, yesterday, we went to dim sum in the morning with some of Melissa's lovely friends. Despite luke-warm regard for Chinese food (or the American version, aka Panda Express) I loved a lot of the dishes- especially the shrimp dumplings, egg custard, fried eggpland, and BBQ pork buns. I even tried fried chicken feet! Not my favorite, but still interesting. We walked around Hong Kong a bit, and I got to appreciate the incredible contrast of the ultra modern buildings surrounded with quaint street food stands and massive dried food store fronts (every part of every animal, along with a billion spices, are in baskets on the curbside, their odors wafting towards pedestrians). We had delicious vegetarian Indian food that night, and took the Star ferry across the water, enjoying the beautiful light show (without the corny music) of the Hong Kong skyline- it was really stunning in a very modern, urban way. In a few hours, we will have our last meal in Hong Kong with Erin and then head out for the airport around 7 to catch our flight to the next big adventure- Thailand!

Elisa: Arrived Safely

So I arrived in Hong Kong about 8 hours ago, got my luggage, took a train to Central Station, and after some mild confusion, found Melissa as planned. Words can't really describe how incredible it was to see my bestest darling Melissa right there, after such a long time apart- suffice it to say that it was amazing, and it really reminded me of how litte distance truly alters such powerful connections (not to diminish how hard it is while actually away from those we love). Anyway, we took a series of really cool, modern rising escalators through really old, quaint, and bustling Hong Kong streets. The heat is rather unbearable as it is extremely hot and humid, making everyone constantly sweat. We then got on a rickety bus to her dorm (since Hong Kong was British for so long, people drive on the other side) and I put down my things in her room. We of course attempted to catch up and chat about everything we hadn't shared through email or phone during the semester, but there's so much to say! We still have a lot to talk about. But we were both starving for food and a good night out, so we had some fantastic Moet et Chandon champagne Melissa had saved from her birthday gifts, and then took another rickety bus to the heart of town, where we met up with some of her very hospitable friends for dinner. By then, it was almost midnight, but thousands of people still walked through the streets, dressed up and largely drunk (Beerfest is going on tonight). We walked around, people watching and meeting up with other students Melissa and her friends knew. It was so interesting and cool to meet everyone she's been spending time with and to see the places she's been going out to! We got into a lovely club because a friend of Melissa got us in, and we danced for a while. Though it was very, very hot, it was so refreshing to be out dancing, in a new place, with my best friend, full of cheap curry and fancy champagne. We took a cab home around 2am and now here I am, about to go to sleep! Tomorrow, we are getting Dim Sum in the morning, and then doing last minute errands- like packing up Melissa's room (she has to be moved out by Monday!) and getting visas for Cambodia. Whatever we end up doing, whether sightseeing or waiting in bureaucratic lines, I'm very happy to be here... :)

Elisa, before I leave

As the title implies, I'm about to leave for Asia (tomorrow morning) so I have way too much to do to write in this blog. I just wanted to lay out the main, bare-bone outline of the trip:

May 23rd: Elisa leaves San Francisco to go to Hong Kong
May 24th: Elisa arrives in Hong Kong
May 26th: Melissa and Elisa fly to the Thailand
June 6th: Melissa and Elisa fly to the Philippines
June 15th: Melissa and Elisa fly back to Hong Kong

That's all you really need to know for now. I should go tell Melissa I made this blog now! Hope you guys enjoy this blog throughout the summer!