back to the land of smiles

hello!! i finally made it back and i brought my mom along with me. so far this has been a big adventure. we landed in bangkok and took a cab straight to our hotel on khoa san road. apparently this is a tourist trap and we fell directly into it! we stayed at a place called 'buddys lodge', lonely planet stated that it was a nice hotel with doors that open directly to the freak show of khoa san road. i guess we should have been more prepared for all the craziness. the first person that befriended us was a shirtless 28 year old male, tripping on LSD, complaining about how hard it is to have three girlfriends! in our 2 nights that we stayed in the 'freak show' we managed to get henna tattoos of sea creatures, buy all sorts of jewelry/hammocks/clothes, see an asia cover band, and accumulate multiple hours of good people watching. by the end of it all i was ready to venture on to chiang mai. we arrived at the guest house called the secret garden earlier today and i already feel more calm and relaxed. i feel like this is more of the true thailand than the insanity of bangkok. later on today we're planning on biking to the umbrella village and then having a traditional northern thai dinner. it should be fun! i'll upload pictures on the next blog, right now i can't peel the camera away from patti, by now we probably have 143 pictures of the outdoor kitchen! the owner of the guest house just pulled up on a brand new scooter, a present for his daughters 16th birthday. i can't wait to see her face!