It's been awhile, but here goes the catch-up

I suppose it might be the dispersal of novelty, or apathy due to heat, or perhaps just maybe too many amazing things in a short period of time. That said, I'm finally posting!

Rick's sister Jenny and her girlfriend Sam came out for a brief stint in Thailand, we were lucky enough to catch up with them for a few days in Bangkok and visit a few of the sites. It was really good to catch up and see familiar faces. It was way too short though, they wanted to hit the Southern beaches, and we were heading North. It was good to see you guys!

We headed North out of Bangkok to Ayuttaya, a historical city of temples hundreds of years old, but unfortunately many of which were destroyed by Burmese invaders, also hundreds of years ago. This is also where I got really nasty sick. On the train out of Bangkok I started feeling poorly, then like a ton of ancient ruins falling on me I got a high fever, pounding headache, nausea, the whole gambit. Luckily, somewhere in my delirious fits Rick would appear with a Slurpee from 7-11. Good travel mate. After about 2 days not leaving my bed, I finally felt well enough to venture into the ruins. (Check out the pics in our next posting on Picassa) We rented bicycles and cruised around, very pretty scenery.

After another 6 hour bus ride we arrived in Sukhothai, old capital of the empire. Amazing ruins, temples, and a world heritage site. Definitely more what you would imagine Khmer and Thai ruins to be, along with a good museum and friendly people. We enjoyed the laid back atmosphere tremendously.

We have now ventured onward, North of Chiang Mai to a town called Pai. More on it and our activities later, but it is an obscure town full of hippies, artists, and musicians.