Hayden's Adventures in South East Asia!

First off I'm not going to be able to describe much about this event, sounds cheesy but its really not something that you can put into words. Also I took so many photos that i cant decide which are best to put in with the writing so im just going to put a slide show here and a video at the end. I ended up leaving Pai to come back with some girls that I met up with from Couchsurfing. I was planning on coming back for the festival on the 9th of November or something. Turns out that the festival on the 9th is for the tourists and the real one is on the 30th of November for the locals. We ended up meeting up with a whole bunch of other people from couchsurfing and made our way to the university where the event was being held. I think there was about 18 of us that piled into the back of these red pickup truck things that they have here to taxi people around. quite a squishy ride but we all made it there. All along the streets on the way to the clearing they were selling all s...

I decided that I wanted to see the sunrise when I was in Pai because I wasnt going to be making it to make it to Mae Hong Son I thought I should see the sunrise here in Pai. So I was riding up the mountain on my moto at 5:30 am in the dark. the drive there was actually pretty good, didnt get lost once. A couple dogs decided that they were going to chase me since i woke them up i guess. Eventually i got to this place that i saw on the way to one of the waterfalls that said there was a really good view of the sunrise. I asked my waitress at a restaurant the night before and she said some looking point that was a little bit further that we had visited the other day. I thought I would check out the place and if it was no good go to the looking point. When i got there they whole area was still covered in fog, i thought i wouldnt be able to see anything through this so set off to the looking point. It was just starting to get light out once i got there and i wasnt the only one. There was a g...

After going to check out the waterfalls Christian and I went to the Pai Hotsprings. It cost us 200 Baht ($7) to get in and i guess we could stay for is along as we like. It was super clean inside the park, nothing like the roads in the surrounding area. And because we got there so early in the day it was still cool out and still pretty quiet, only 1 other group of people there. The water was interesting to figure out, it was like a really long stream set up with dams so that there were pools. the further up the stream you went the way hotter it got. eventually i found a happy medium to chill in for a bit but its always so hot here that you cant stay in for too long. After sitting in the water for a bit we decided to go up and explore the rest of the park, there is a trail that you can take up beside the spring that goes right up to its source. the closer to the source we got the less trees there were. Down by the main pool there were lots of trees in and around the water but it k...

Me and this guy Christian decided to rent some "motos"(scooter like things) and explore the outskirts of Pai. There were a couple looking points to see and some waterfalls and hot springs and whatnot. First waterfall: Mae Yen Waterfall Never actually got to it, we rode off onto some little dirt trail for about 20 min and then got to a sign that said parking for waterfall, so we left our bikes and walked down the trail. all you could hear was thousands of frogs croaking and it echoing in the valley. it comes to a river and we didnt see any other sort of path to head down so we decided to head through the water. a little ways up there was a path that seemed to be going off into the jungle so we decided to take that. walking through the jungle for another 5-10 min we came out at the same river just a ways down with no more paths to go to. looking down we discovered that the plants had left some sort of staining substance all over our clothes as we brushed by them. tried a bi...

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Holy this place was amazing, I thought that when it said "Resort" in the name that it was just saying that, you know how they advertise hotels. But when I got there i was greeted by security guards at the gate, the checked me in and then someone walked me to my room. It wasn't very busy at all because it was just on the other side of the river of the main city. All i saw was a couple other tourists and some eastern European Family. Not much else to see about it except that it was super nice. Check the albums on the left for some more pictures

So it turns out that I didn't have a mini bus on the way Pai,I have a mini van, apparently much different. Both are the same price but the mini bus is much more spacious than the mini van. Thankfully it also drives  slower. Doesn't take that much longer it just drives less crazy. Corners still made me fall of my seat sometimes but other than that I was good. I decided to come back to Chiang Mai with two girls I met in Pai in time to catch the lantern festival. More on that later. Remember to comment!

I like Pai. (pronounced "bpai", say the b and the p together) Its a quiet little town, not very big, which is good cause I seem to get lost here a lot. It's a really interesting dynamic here. Everyone is super chill. all the locals just mozy around or hangout at their shops. There are lots of westerners (hippies) that seem to have just moved here. And then there are the tourists. Only the good ones though, none of the people who are just in Thailand to party (everyone in Bangkok). About every other store/stand that you see here is a T-shirt shop. They all have various shirts saying things like "Love is Pai" and "762 turns to Pai". Basically everything here celebrates that you made it to and are in Pai. All the restaurants and guesthouses have "Pai" in their name. "Pai Country" "Pai Love" "Pai Cabana". its really fun and everyone here jokes around. There's all the cheap hostels in the city but then in...

VIP Mini Bus I woke up in Chiang Mai and couldnt figure out what place I should stay at that night cause I was checking out that day so I decided to take a bus to Pai. Pai is a town about 3/4 hours outside a Chaing Mai. I called a bus company and they said that they would pick me up at 9:30. it was 8:45. I ran around the room throwing stuff in my bag and cleaning up so that I would have time to check out. I read online not to eat or drink before you go on the bus because some people get car sick. I'm glad I took that advice. Its about 140 km and there are "762 curves" as the locals say. I was surprised thats all there was cause it felt like a whole lot more. there were 11 of us plus a driver in this little "VIP Mini Bus" they call it.  The first hour or so was fine, wasnt too bad, we stopped at this little restaurant/stand at the side of the road and some went to the bathroom others just smoked. Then we all piled back into the bus and continued on. I'm n...

I am safe! After being in Chiang Mai (north part of Thailand) for a couple days I decided to go to Pai (just outside Chiang Mai). I'll be heading back to Chiang Mai tomorrow. I haven't really been able to get a good internet connection here so I really don't know what's going on in Bangkok (south part of Thailand), doesn't sound good though. I am not there and not affected by the floods at all. expect a whole bunch of posts and photos when I get back to Chiang Mai

In my opnion: Chiang Mai > Bangkok From right after I got my baggage and went outside I could tell. There was no flashy taxi places trying to get them to take their cab. Just two small ones with advertised prices. 150 baht ($5) to go pretty much anywhere into town. a pretty sweet deal. My cab driver, "Mr. Champion:,  was really nice and didn't try to sell me anything or take me anywhere. We had a nice conversation and took me straight to my hotel and told me about all the the little markets that were in town and which ones were the best to go to. Chiang Mai Streets of Chiang Mai: The city is laid out pretty interestingly, i like it. there is the main Square with a while bunch of odd angled little streets some 1 way others 2 way inside it. All along the square is a ditch/pond like thing with fountains and lights. On either side there is a main road about 3 lanes wide. The inside of the square runs 1 way counter clockwise and the outside square clockwise. About every...

Air Asia is nothing like Cathay Pacific. well they both have to do with planes but you know what I mean. Booking with Cathay is kind of more expensive upfront but then you get to choose all these different options to personalize your trip. With Air Asia they are tricky. You find your flight like normal, then you pick a seat, say how much your bag weighs, say what meal you want and other stuff like that. then you get to the payment and realize that they added charge for each of those things on top of their seemingly moderate price. So I went back and re-did the booking taking off a bunch of things, somehow I missed taking off the meal though. It ended up working out good cause I let myself sleep in cause I got woken up so many times during the night and missed breakfast. There was no in fight entertainment but if you were to look at a picture of the inside of the plane you might think there was. on the back of every seat where a TV usually is there is an advertisement y...

After staying at The Center Point Plaza on Khao San road Lub D was amazing. but it wasnt just in comparison, it was actually amazing. The first two nights I stayed at the Lub D in Siam Square. It was amazing, best time I have had the whole trip so far actually. The staff here are so cool. Two of them (JJ and KK) took us out one night to see the Bangkok night life, after that they were there at any time of day for anything that we needed. All the other staff there were great too. I was rooming with a guy named Roger, he was pretty cool, and from Barcelona, so even cooler. Sucks that he hand to go back home and go to work, he mentioned that he was going to look into some sort of job/visa to work in Alberta or something? A couple years ago he spent some time working in the the lower mainland actually and he said he really enjoyed Canada. My other main friend from that stay was a girl named Sam. Also pretty cool. She was from Perth and is pretty much travelling the world as she got...

On the first night when I got to Siam after seeing the malls and going to ocean world  I went on a social organized by the hostel, we took the skytrain and a taxi to this street across town with a whole bunch of restaurants, bars, and clubs. The first place that we went to was ok, the music was good but it was super super loud so we decided to leave. we went down the street to this lounge called "Mello Yello".One of the girls from the hostel was in love with the furniture(it was pretty nice). it was super chill and there was this amazing band playing. the piano player was amazing, i couldnt even see his fingers moving. and the girl singing sounded exactly like all of the artists they were covering. The coolest part was that she barely spoke any english at all, only thai, and was singing everything from Whitney Huston and Jason Mraz . after that we got dropped off at some other night club called "Spicy" buy a taki driver and left pretty soon after. The second nigh...

In some corner of these connected maze of malls there is a place called Siam Ocean World. I paid 1100 Baht ($36) for the deluxe package. It came with: Behind the scene tour! - 5 mins, just promotion for there more expensive Glass bottom boat! - its was ok, again only a couple min, could see more of the fish/sharks over the edge rather than through the glass Admission!-it was a nice aquarium actually, i enjoyed it. Popcorn! - hard to mess up Pepsi! - I got a 7up Happy fish happy feet - little fishes eat the dead skin off your feet Souvenir - a magnet that said "Siam Ocean World" 4D/5D movie - some signs said 4D, some said 5D, either way it wasn't worth it. I know it kinda sounds like I didnt like it but its hard to be impressed by an aquarium when you live so close to the Vancouver Aquarium. Their Amazon walk through was pretty nice and i liked how the whole place was laid out so you just walked through 1 way. The "Happy Fish Happy Feet"...

There are so many giant super malls here in Siam, its literally amazing how big they are. The three main ones I went to were Siam Discovery, Siam Centre and Paragon Mall. All of these malls were probably about 10 floors or so. Siam Discovery is a whole bunch of different food places and exhibits sort of thing. Also a bunch of affordable brand names like Adidas and North Face and what not. On the very top floor there is a skating rink, Full size. Siam Centre is a typical mall with mostly clothing stores. Throughout the mall they play a variety of Asian covers of american music like Adele, Beyonce, Lady Gaga and also Hip hop/ rap. Paragon Mall is the fancy place. Picture every expensive brand name place and it has its own store in the mall. The food court in the place is literally the size of a regular mall in Canada. Its just massive. Every possible food from all around the world and there is even a supermarket in there too. An extremely...

Nicknamed "the backpackers ghetto" thats what it definatly was. it wasnt a very long street, would take about 2 min to walk from one end to the other without any interruptions, but there was what seemed like thousands of hostels, bars, suit stores, and travel agencies packed as closely together as possible. All over the street and side walks are stand selling all sorts of cheap clothing and accessories. Men of all ages jump at the opportunity to to try and sell you custom tailored suits and dresses. Its a repeat of people selling the same things and stores offering the same stuff. Its kinda the equivalent of Fremont street compared to Las Vegas. All of the bars were packed with tourists and people continued to sell things well into the night. I was staying at the Centre Point Plaza Hotel which seemed like an ok place when i looked it up on the internet. As I walked up the Sign hanging on the front of the building was burnt out so i thought that wasnt a good sign....

For pictures see the Albums on the left: The bad: woke up early with my room mates, didn't say a word to them. the bathrooms there were really nice and i had a nice shower and got ready for the day. I decided i was going to just go wander the streets and kind of figure out my location and what not. because i arrived so late the night before i didn't really get to take in any of my surroundings the night before so it was pretty much like going to sleep one night and waking up in a different place the next. i didn't really have anywhere to go so i though i could just wander and see the people. walking around i got lost so many times and i kept back tracking to the hotel so i knew i would be able to find it again. it wasn't too enjoyable. the streets were crazy and there was cooking everywhere. no one really seemed to want to sell me anything, they kind of just hung out. the main thing that i can say is that it is really different, its just such a different lifestyle an...

  My first driving in Asia experience was interesting but not too exciting. Some lady in the airport commandeered me to go with her taxi company. They had an actual booth in the airport so i assumed that it was kind of legit. she took me to this other lady, who i paid and she took me to another guy downstairs. he took me to another lady, and then the same guy took me outside to the taxi driver. the whole thing cost me 900 baht. The best way that i can explain driving in Thailand is “driving with decorations”. The roads have all these white lines painted all over them, some are dotted and some are solid. you can kind of just drift back and forward over the lines whenever you want without turning on a signal and stuff. there are also a lot of different flashing lights with things that say “80” and stuff but they must not have anything to do with the speed limit cause no one seems to notice when they start blinking like crazy. also lots of cars just seem to hangout on the side of t...

I'm so happy that i choose to fly with Cathay pacific! well worth the money, the staff on this plane are so nice. even being in economy i feel like i am in first class. I'm sitting way at the back and next to this really nice old guy with an old school cd player. he isn't in his seat most of the time though, just wanders around the plane which is a good idea cause my butt is starting to hurt and my legs are falling asleep.  Lots of food, a secret snack bar, drinks whenever you want them. and the TV's. Its pretty much a computer with a bunch of movies, TV show, music, games and pretty much everything other than the internet. so far i watched/played: Red bull cliff diving Transformers Spider solitaire Super 8 Thor Mine sweeper Kung Fu panda 2 Salt Zuma best thing is that there is a little countdown in the corner that tells you how long until you land. there is this homepage and it tells you all these things like arrival times and temperature outs...

  I pretty much had everything packed last night except for my carry on. Wasn’t too worried. I got up pretty early today and just hung around, ate some left over Me-n-Eds pizza (Thai chicken) and watched The Amazing Race (they were in Thailand). Just as I’m packing up my carry on bag I discover that my iPod had decided to finally give up after what like 4 years? Yes, I repeat my 1st generation iPod touch has finally bit the dust. Here’s me thinking that i would be unbearable to go on the plane without music so i try to restore my iPod 15 min before we leave. of course it doesn't work and with all the time I wasted i didn't make sure that i had everything that i needed. I end up copying some of my music onto my laptop as I'm going out the door. as my mother and I are driving just out of the neighbourhood i realize that i forgot my charger! so we turn around and go back an grab it. I thought i had done really good before thinking i got off easy and didn't forget anythin...

  60 L Backpack Anti Malarial x 220 Band-aids x lots Board Shorts x2 Body Wallet Briefs x 4 Canada Pins (for trading?) x lots Combination Lock x 2 Compressible pillow Day Bag Dental Floss x 2 Deodorant x 1 Diarrhea Tablets x 18 Dry Bag (13L) Duct Tape x 1 roll Ear Plugs x 6 Hackey Sac x 3 Hand sanitizer x 500 mL Head Lamp Hoodie Inflatable Sleep Mat Journal Lonely Planet – South East Asia on a Shoestring Long Sleeve T-shrits x 2 Memory card x 32GB Moist Towelettes x 27 Mosquito Net Mosquito Repellent x 200 mL Netbook Pants (light) x 2 Passport photos x 8 Phrase book Pens Polysporin Power adapter & converter Rain Jacket Rough Guide to  First-Time Asia Sewing Kit Sheet Sleeping bag Shorts x 3 Sink Plug Soap x 1 bar Socks x 5 String x 3 rolls Swiss Army Knife T- Shirts x4 Tooth Brush Tooth Paste Travel Towel Travel First Aid Kit Tweezers Wash cloth Water Bottles Waterproof camera Water Purification Drops x for 240L ...

I present to you the  Feung Nakorn Balcony Rooms & Cafe!  The place I found to stay!  For 2 nights it cost me 1412.4 THB. Which is exactly $ 46.5751618 Canadian dollars. Which is pretty good considering its right i n Bangkok near the  Chao Phraya river . According to Google Maps its 45 min away from the airport so that should be a fun first taxi ride. Here's the map that they give you to give to the taxi driver, I wonder if this is a typical map there. Info about the place "This room is suitable for backpackers, and is located on separate floors for males and females. Each room accommodates up to 4 guests with its 2 bunk beds and every guest is provided with a personal locker. Bathroom is shared. Clean and simple for the easy traveller." Accomidations: -Bunk bed and linens -Air Conditioning -Locker -Share bathroom and towels -Free wifi View The Gallery

My  IAMAT  (International Association for Medical Assistance to Travellers) membership came! Lets just hope I dont ever have to use it.

My bible for the next little while