I must really smell right now. I sat down here in this internet cafe, I am currently in Khao Sok of southern thailand, and the woman seated me and then opened up the window next to me and put a fan on the opposite side of me. I forgot to put on deodorant this morning and then I went for a hike, and see, they make you take off your shoes when you come into these places... anyways...

Today was a good day. Got up, had a small breakfast, said hello to the frog that lives in my toilet and the small snake in my shower, put on my hiking shoes and headed up to Khao Sok national park. There are many trails to take and I overzealously chose the longest one and only made it about half way. I had neglected to pack water, which was just plain stupid, and had to turn back. What's the jungle like? The first thing that pops to mind is the constant flurry of little bugs that are always trying to either eat you or start colonies in your eyes, nose, and mouth. Everything is green above, below, and around you. After hiking for awhile the sky disappears too. Hundereds of cicada beatles beat their bums against tree trunks and their collective hum is remincient of a chain-saw, off in the distance. You can hear monkeys but you can't see them. They don't make the "ooh-ooh, ah-ah" sounds I thought they would. It's more like a cross between a little kid wailing and a bird call.
When I got back to the visitor center and restaurant at the base of the trails and went straight for the water. Some Thai women seemed to be having some sort of meeting in the outdoor area. They were raising their voices and arguing about something, not so much in the angry way. It was more like a town meeting kind of argument. Anyways there was this little boy who was waiting around for his mom and he saw me drinking water in the corner with my ipod. He came over and stood behind me, actually was looking right over my shoulder, to see me sort through the songs. So I gave him one of my earphones and let him hear this song with me. It was "elephant gun," by beirut. I could tell he liked it, too. He called his little brother over and I gave him the other ear phone and then they just stood there sort of staring off, holding the earphones to their heads. They saw their Dad approaching as the song was ending and ran away, but the older brother made sure to smile and thank me (in english!).
So that put me in a pretty good mood. I started walking back toward my hotel but decided to keep going for a bit on account of how jolly I felt at that particular moment, and came up on this court. I don't know what the game is called, but I've seen it played on tv here. It's kind of like volleyball, only you can use everything but your hands. Basically it involves a tiny soccer ball made of plastic, and two teams juggle and pass to get it over the net. The teams seem to have the same positions as in volleyball. So I saw the court and the net and the balls lying around, and I started messing around. A guy came out of his house and started playing with me, which was pretty cool. I think he was a bit surprised that I could play (as was I). I headed it over the net once and felt pretty cool about that, ha. Anyways I'm invited to play in a game at 5 o clock now! I'm not sure whether or not to go because I told some of the girls that I'd go with them to check out some swing made out of vines around that time, but either way I don't think I'll be let down.

We have a new tour guide for the south tour. He kind of sucks. Actually he really sucks, but luckily, the group is doing well without his help. THe problem with this guy is that he drinks every night and incessantly hits on all the girls in the group. The only other male still in the tour is charles, the old man I wrote about once. He turned out to be a creepy old man, though. It's a crazy world, people. I don't want anyone to worry, though. I feel safe and am in the company of some other very capable women. We're having fun still and I'm looking forward to the rest of the trip. Tomorrow I head to Ko Samui island, then I go on a sea safari, and from there head to Kopanang (i'm pretty sure i spelled that wrong.) That last destination is where 'the beach' was filmed. I can't wait to get home and show you these pictures. You guys won't believe places like this exist.

ANyhoooo, I love and miss you all. Hope all is well, talk to you soon,
katie

Hey again. I'm back in Bangkok. Chris-- Din Daeng (ding dang) is actually not too far from here. And ping pong is a serious sport around these parts. I dare not challenge anyone... Every once in awhile the most excellent opportunities for movie quotes come up and I feel a serious pain because I have to hold it in. Most of my companions are not up to speed on their Indiana Jones, etc, etc. I am trying to take pictures of these things, though. I took one a couple days ago that I'm going to call, "feel like stepping on fortune cookie!!" Needless to say, your absence is felt.
I really have enjoyed getting notes from everyone and I hope you continue to write and tell me whassahappenin.
I took a longtail boat from Chiang Rai to Laos to try something called "snake whiskeÿ." I thought it was just a name, but it turns out it's just a bottle of homemade rice whiskey with a giant dead snake in it. Looked like a science experiment, and reminded me to the time Chris and I found a bat in the desert and I took it in to Doctor Petowski (my elementary school science teacher) in a ziplock bag. From Laos we went to the Golden Triangle, where Laos, Thailand, and Burma meet. I wandered through the opium museum for awhile. THey don't hand out free samples there, and they don't find it very funny when you ask, either. Afterwards I walked over the border to Burma to walk around for a bit.

Now Burma is different than Thailand and Laos. It's poorer, darker, dirtier. I held onto my bag tightly while walking down the street and little kids with white poweder on their faces grabbed at my arms and begged for money. Some of them will just hang on you and not let go. I went with only a portion of my group and we decided that we wanted to try some Myanmar beer. A little bit into our search I start having these abdominal pains, increasing in ferver each couple minutes. THese warning signs come not too long before you're in serious trouble, so I was forced to take action immediately. THe problem was that we couldn't even find a restaurant, let alone a restroom. This girl I hang around with a lot, Laura, and I ran back to the border to go find one. It was a harrowing and frightful journey which I would not like to recall. After that it was already time to go, so basically I got my passport stamped and crossed this crazy borderland just to relieve myself in another country.

I also recently visited Ayothaya, which is the old capitol of Thailand. It seems like it was abandoned a year ago, not centuries ago. THere are few people out at all in the day time and no one at night, except for the occasional monk with an alms bowl. It's very poor and all the temples have hundereds of headless buddha statues from when the Burmese came in and destroyed everything during war. Interestingly, my tour guide calls all acts of war "slash and burn,"which is actually a term used to describe the cutting down of forest and trees for farmland. My guide, (his name is Tee) is a nice local guy. He played guitar for us one night and altered the words to his favorite Bob Marley songs, including my personal favorite, "I shot the tourist," (formerly " I shot the sheriff"). I forget if I already mentioned that or not.

I'm very tired right now so I apologize for the lack of enthusiasm in this entry. I'd like to write more but I'm pooped and I need to get a nap in before I go out tonight... I'm going to a THai boxing match!!!!!! I hear the best part is the crowd. ANyhow, perhaps Í can finish up tomorrow because I think I'll have more time then before I head down south. Love all you guyses.
katie

p.s. here is a quote i've been thinking about everyday:

"And yet, and yet... denying temporal sucession, denying the self, denying the astronomica universe, are apparent desperations and secret consolations. Our destiny is not frightful by being unreal; it is frightful because it is irreversible and iron-clad. Time is the substance I am made of. Time is a river which sweeps me along, but I am the river; it is a tiger which destroys me, but I am the tiger; it is a fire which consumes me, but I am the fire. The world, unfortunately, is real; I, unfortunately, am Borges."
-jorge luis borges "a new refutation of time"1946 essay

Sorry I can't post pictures because I didn't bring my usb. I'll upload them when I get back though.
I am currently in CHiang Rai, just north of Chiang Mai, where I was when I last wrote. Here's the latest update of my activities:

1. I ate a bug. Actually I ate several, including one large fried cricket which stuck to the roof of my mouth. They didn't taste bad at all-- the hardest part was getting over the way it looked. Actually they were heavily salted and sprinkled with pepper. Not bad, but I won't ever eat one again.

2. I've been trekking in the mountains. There was no trail, but our guide had a machete, which the people around here call an "akon." He walked in front and cut away the trees and bushes as we walked hestitantly along mountain sides in the insanely intolerable heat. Humidity is nature's turtle-neck sweater.

3. I slept inside a mosquito net, which is something I've always wanted to do, for no particular reason except that I've always thought they looked neat. Actually our first night in the hill tribe we slept in a hut all together, on thin mats on the bamboo floor. THe ceiling was made of bamboo also, as well as something that looked like palm fronds all bunched together to keep the rain out. That night it poured and poured outside. THe roof held well mostly, except for a few drops that kept sprinkling my face from time to time. The bad part was the roosters... oh the roosters. There were a great deal of animals around, mostly pigs and piglets, chickens, and sad little dogs. Well as soon as the sky turned slightly lighter, every single rooster on that mountain began to screech. It lasted forever, but I managed to get some sleep. The next morning I ate my scrambled eggs with ferver, feeling like I'd found adequate revenge in eating their unborn children. Gross? I know.

3. I trekked in a constant downpour. It reminded me of that scene in forest gump when he's in vietnam and describing all the different types of rain. "Some rain even seemed to come straight up from below." It was definitely not as bad as all that, but we were slipping all over the place in the mud while climbing, and mind you--- still NO TRAIL. Still, it was far easier than the first day. Anything beats that heat.

4. I covered myself in tobacco water... to avoid the leeches!!!! AHhhhh!! We had to wade through the river a couple times, where apparently there are many leeches. That part freaked me out the most, but I didn't get hit. In fact, nobody did.

5. (best part) I rode an elephant. At first I was in a basket on top of the elephant with this girl JoAnn, who was scared out of her mind. I don't blame her either, those baskets were very high up, and the mountian sides very steep. Anyways our guide rode directly on the elephant's neck. At one point he turned around and asked me (in hand motions and thai) if I wanted to sit on the elephant's neck. I said yes, and climbed down behind him. But then the guide jumped down off the elephant and went to go pick some berries (arg!!!) and I was left "driving" the big bristly thing. It reminded me of horseback riding in Mexico. The elepahnt was reluctant to follow direction and kept eating the shrubery along the way, and going off course whenever he could. But by the end we were good pals, and I earned the respect of the elephant guides. They even shared one of their banannas with me, which looked gross and felt all wet, but I ate a bite of it before I pretended that my elephant stole it from me ( i fed it to him). Unfortunately I got sick later because of that bananna I think.

Anyways we took a boat ride back to chiang rai and I'm soooooooooo tired. I can't wait to sleep ina real bed, and I am very VERY relieved to be not covered in mud.
Hope all is well at home, let me know whats going on around there when you have the time!!
love, katie

Hello! Good to hear from you guys again! I'm in Chiang Mai at a little coffee shop outside the hotel. I met up with my group in Bangkok awhile back and have been roaming around with them since. Most of the travelers are girls, and they come from everywhere except America. There is an old guy with white hair and harry carey glasses named Charles who's from New York. He and I occasionally talk about beat poetry because he was really into the scene back "in his day," and he also writes, himself. Carrie-- he knew Allen Ginsberg. Anyways he's really slow an we're always losing him because he wanders off, but other than that he's a nice guy. Good old CHuck. There are two other guys and they are both from California as well. Mostly I've been hanging around these two CAnadian girls and another one from England, and one of the fellas from CAlifornia.
Today I went whitewater rafting with some friends through the jungle. The water was brown and our guide informed us that it was full of snakes and crocodiles, which we later found out was untrue. I caught a couple mouthfuls of it when I got knocked out, but then I floated on back down some smooth water for awhile. Looking upwards I could see these trees with long ivy that hung all the way down to the water, bannana trees, and some knarled tree trunks and plants with leaves like elephant ears. My life jacket bouyed (sp?) me up so that I didn't have to paddle to keep myself afloat on the top of the water, going all slow, very light, and small... So now I know what it's like to be a leaf. One guy, Antoin, fell out in some of the worst rapids I've seen. He missd a boulder here and a boulder there, went under for awhile and popped back up about 30 feet downriver. He scared the crap out of all of us, but he was alright. He has a good story to tell now. After our little water trip we ate lunch up on the mountain. They made us egg roles, salad, and fried chicken, which was difficult to eat because there were chickens running around at my feet as I was eating it. I kept looking at them and thinking, this is your future little chickens. And then I fed one a piece of tomato.
Yesterday I climbed 300 steps up to this temple at the very top of the highest mountain in CHiang Mai. We took off our shoes at the peak and walked around on the cool tile while the monks held a ceremony around the golden chedi. The best way to describe a chedi would be to imagine one of those game pieces from the game "sorry," with the round base that swoops up into a point with a little ball on top. THis one was covered in gold leaf, maybe 35 feet tall, with solid gold at the top and filled with buddha relics. the male monks wore orange robes and the female monks wore white--- yes, female monks. On the train ride here, to CHiang Mai from Bangkok, I spoke with my tour guide about religion and meditation for a good while. Learning about buddhist prayer and reflecting on my own religious upbringing consumes a lot of my thought whenever I'm on busses or trains or taxis. It helps to be moving when you think. I forgot who said that. Maybe Bob Dylan or someone like that. Anyways, prayer and meditation, they have different goals, similar outcomes. I like the way people think and live out here. I'll have to explain more when I get home. I still have not sorted out my own thoughts.
Anyways on the ride back from the temple it began to rain, just a downpour of big fat warm rain drops, and we were riding in the little red bus like a tin can with two benches inside that face each other and the back wide open so that the rain came sprinkling in. I sat in the back and tried not to fall out while I got to watch the motorcylists manuever around puddles while holding their umbrellas with one hand, the handle bars with the other. Sometimes an entire family will fit on one bike! It was pretty cool, to say the least. I should probably go now because other people want to use the computer. Love you everyone. Love you A LOT.
katie

Left Right Right

Left RIght right is the way back to my hotel. That's pretty much how I'm remembering where I came from and where I'm going. So... after my twenty hour plane ride I finally made it here in the wee hours of the morning. It was around 3 am when I got into my hotel room, and I keep checking my watch to see what time it is in LA (it was about 12 noon.) The taxi ride was easy, it cost about 400 baht, which is standard I believe. At night I couldn't see much out my window, but this morning after I ate a quick breakfast of coffee and rice, I started walking around outside in the 100 degree heat and taking everything in. Right now I don't know how to describe it. I walked out to see some monks getting out of a taxi to check in, I assume. On every doorstep there is someone sleeping in the heat with his shirt off. Today is Monday so everyone is wearing yellow in honor of the royal family. That's how you can tell the tourists from the citizens here. I met a girl with bright red hair who showed me the way to this internet place where I can stay here for an unlimited amount of time for only 20 baht. So now I know where to go! Downstairs there is a swanky cafe, and this entire street is chock full of tourists, street vendors selling fake dred wigs and little dresses, and loads of restaurants. Currently there is a little boy looking over my shoulder and reading this. I don't know him. I digress.
So I don't have much to do today until 6, when I meet the rest of the travel group. There is a pool at my hotel so I might just hang around there until it's time to meet up. Then again, I might buy some shorts or a skirt because it's hot as a mofo out here. All is well over here, I wanted to let you know as soon as I could. I miss you guys already, but I'm sure I'll snap out of it in a day or two. :)
Love, Katie

Hello everyone,
I leave for Thailand on Cinco de Mayo, which is this Saturday afternoon, two days from today. Until today... actually until right now, I've been focusing on my fear mostly. There's malaria-infected mosquitos, pick-pockets to avoid, and fried insects sold on the roadside inducing weeklong bouts of diarrhea in a place where public toilets are rare and usually consist of floor level basins over which you squat (no toilet paper). ...There is much to be wary of.

Right now, however, I'm focusing on the fact that I've been waiting to do this for years, and that I've been ready for some time now.

I think that the best kind of excitement is the kind that is all wrapped up in fear. The knot in my stomach is a christmas eve, first airplane ride, about to jump off a cliff into water-knot. It is the weight of expecation, gathered over many years of waiting for an opportunity like this. It's my first trip by myself, and I can't wait.

I've created this blog so that my friends and family can periodically check to see if I'm still alive (mom), and hear about what I'm doing (everyone else). Here is my roughly scheduled itinerary:

Days 1 and 2: Bangkok. Arrive at hotel at 1:30 am, meet travel group at 6pm.
Days 3 and 4: Chiang Mai
Day 5: Chiang Rai
Day 6 through 8: Hillside Trek
Days 9 and 10: Golden Triangle
Day 11: Ayuthaya
Days 12 and 13: Kanchanburi
Days 14 and 15: Bangkok
Days 16 through 19: Khao Sok National Park
Days 20-23 Ko Pha Ngan Island
Days 24 -26: Ko Samui Island
Days 27 and 28: Bangkok
home.

I'm looking forward to the trip, and hope to keep in touch with everyone along the way! Wish me luck,
Katie