Oct 16 

Well missed Zander's birthday yesterday-- 6 years old and in grade 1. :):):)

I need to say all of China was new  and big. They were ripping down everything that was old and replacing with new high rises.  Cambodia was a very poor country---other countries were funding the restoration of the old temples. The poor were very poor and the word hut does not come close to what they live in. There was a growing middle class and of course the ever present but minority upper class.

Thailand is about the same put with a higher proportion of middle class. But there is a lack of paint that could do wonders around here. Concrete is ugly but if painted would brighten things up--same goes for wood covered homes that turn a black /brown colour. But paint costs money so the outsides look really bad.

Our Jungle Trek was interesting to say the least. The second day was a lot of driving---checking out more temples ( pretty much templed out- I must say) did drive 2 1/2 hrs to see one that of course you have to climb up several hundred stairs to see-- but the view was worth it and bonus the next day when we were down in the valley we could see the huge Buddha up in the mountains. That night our accommodations were a tad lacking. We slept on a pad ( really thin) in the living room--at least the last place we had a room , a door that locked..... one of the girls was doing her homework right beside us and walked in and out of the room many times. The bathroom was again outside in a bamboo building but at least it was a standand sit on one. The shower room and the concrete building beside it with a hose tied up to the ceiling. There  was a wooden ladder to get up into the hut which we learned to travel up and down in the night. The road in was about 45 mins of ruts, mud and very steep drop offs--more like off roading than dirt road. Of course we came back the same way we drove in.

It was not a good night--and the roaster started crowing at 3am and again at 6am--was very glad to get out of there.

The 3rd day was elephant interaction day-- we got to hand feed them the tinniest little bananas-- they could of given us anything bigger-- but we shoved them into this "V" shaped mouth as we stared into that huge eye sawing good elephant, good elephant. We brushed them with leaves then climbed up--not a pleasant sight from any angle. Pete crawled up better than I but I found sitting a lot easier than Pete did. Was surprised that we were riding   bareback. Was not easy to keep ones balance--but off we went....................for over an hour.......................now you are a long ways up.................one thin rope that is behind you to hang on to ( death grip)................well we could have rode them for another hour but what the hey! been there....done that....off we got! The local kids climbed up like little monkeys and rode them to the pond and splashed in the water with them--- even getting the elephants to spray us with water. Was a good day, our guide took some so so pictures. We then headed off to river raft down the rapids.   So we are sitting on this 10 pole bamboo raft with a guide pushing a pole to keep us in the middle----well the water was low and slow soooooooooooooo we had a lazy river ride for about an hour--enjoyed it but was not like the Grand Canyon rapids that we were expecting.

So ended the Jungle Trek.

Went back to Chan Mai took a shower and slept very well. Hop on a train the next day to go to Bangkok. 13hours later we got to Bangkok. The view out the window was great we went from mountain jungles down to flooded rice paddies. The window was not to clean and because we were in an air conditioned car ( thank goodness) a bit foggy --so no pictures on that day.

We were  suppose to take the bus to Pattaya today but decided a $12 / 4 hour bus ride was not something we wanted to do so we upgraded to a $50 taxi ride and were at our hotel in 2 hrs---sometimes it is just wroth it!!!

So we are staying at "Chada Thai House"--very nice about 2 blocks back from the beach and the party scene.

Well I will try to up load some pictures for you--but it is really slow so you might not get more than a couple each day while we are here.

I am posting this and putting the pictures on the next post as the computer is acting weird and I really don't want to lose this much writing :)

Pattaya Thailand