Ethan Dylan Siegel's Website

August 20. Hello from southern Thailand! After a few weeks in the northern hills of the country, we've headed south for our final month of travel. We're in Ko Pha Ngan right now, an island off of the east coast of Thailand. We spent the last 11 days on Ko Phi Phi, a small island off of the west coast of the country. Ko Phi Phi was really beautiful. No cars, just a lot of bungalows, restaurants and a few dive shops. We spent a lot of time exploring the many beaches and doing some snorkeling. We had planned on visiting the island for 3 or 4 days, and wound up staying 11. I think they call that sand gravity. But, it could be worse, we met plenty of people that had come for a two week vacation and are still there, ten years later. Yesterday was dedicated to travel, a ferry from Ko Phi Phi to the mainland, a car ride across the Thai peninsula, and another ferry to Ko Pha Ngan.

Since our last update, we spent about two weeks in Chiang Rai and Chiang Mai, near the Golden Triangle and the borders with Laos and Myanmar. We took a few side trips from Chiang Rai. We spent a day traveling by long tail boat west on the Mae Kok river. We stopped at a temple that is in a cave on the side of the river, tended to by a single monk -- and a few too many bats for our taste! Our next stop on the Mae Kok was at an elephant camp, and we continued our trek westward on an elephant for an hour. Let's just say that an hour on an elephant is the perfect amount of time. Less would be a little disappointing, because it takes a few minutes to get the hang of it. Any more, and you'd be walking REAL funny for a few days. The elephant we were on was so friendly and playful, it was totally awesome. She had a bit of a bamboo habit, however, and kept going into the jungle in search of young bamboo shoots. The mahout, her handler, was in control the whole time, though. We also got a free shower when the elephant stopped in a river to spray itself, and us, with water to keep cool. Each elephant has a mahout that takes care of it, and the elephants appeared to be well provided for. The elephants and mahouts form very strong relationships. When the elephants give birth, they go alone into the jungle. They won't let anyone approach them other than their mahout, whom they trust. Once we dismounted the elephant, we watched her eat a little of a banana tree, then take the rest of it in her trunk to carry with her on the walk back to camp. Lane likes to take a banana for a snack, elephants like to drag a banana tree. Different strokes for different folks. We then picked up a boat to cross the river and visited an Akha hill tribe. Northern Thailand is full of a number of different hill tribes, all with different customs and most living in fairly primitive conditions. The Akha were an interesting tribe. Our guide spoke Akha and was able to get us into a house to meet a family. We spent the afternoon talking to an Akha tribeswoman and playing with her young daughter. One of the defining traits of the Akha is their black teeth. They chew a compound that turns their teeth black. The people at Colgate would be horrified, but the Akha seek black teeth and don't spend their money on whitening gels. The Akha women also wear headpieces adorned in silver. Many of the hill tribes seek out silver jewelry made by the Akha.

On another day, we traveled up to the Golden Triangle and the border towns in Thailand. We took a car up north, then traveled by boat on the Mae Kong river, right to the point where Laos, Myanmar and Thailand meet. We stopped for a little while in Laos, and then disembarked back in Thailand, in the town of Chiang Sen. We walked around town for a while, visited the Opium Museum and then worked our way to Mae Sai, the northernmost town in Thailand. We walked a few feet into Myanmar, up to where the border gates were locked. Relations between Thailand and Myanmar are quite sour right now, and Myanmar has sealed the border for a few months. Myanmar has an awful human rights record and a military dictatorship, and our Thai visa would not let us reenter the country anymore if we officially left it, so we had not planned on going there. Nevertheless, we walked a few feet into the country and we can now say we've been there. We wanted to yell to the police on the other side and tell them they were bad, mean people, but we thought better of it.

A few days later, we visited more hill tribe villages. We stopped at another Akha village, a Lahu village, a Yao village and a long-neck Karen village. We remember seeing the long-neck Karen on the Discovery Channel, and when you see the pictures, you might remember them. The females in the tribe get a ring around their neck every year from a young age, gradually increasing the lenght of their necks. A one foot long neck is considered quite a prize. We learned that the rings really push down the shoulders and collarbones more than stretching the neck, but the effect is pretty interesting no matter what the physiological explanation is.

We've been in southeast Asia for more than two months and have done pretty well so far dealing with the language barrier. There have been a few times when we've looked around and realized the dogs understand more Thai than we do. We have also noticed that quite frequently we get "yessed" to death, in restaurants, hotels, etc. People will just say yes to whatever question we have, just nodding and hoping this ends the conversation. So, we've developed a test. When we feel that is happening to us, we ask "Doody is mushy?" Don't ask why we say that, it's a long story that goes back to college and something a friend used to say. So far, though, everyone has nodded in agreement with us. For example, Lane wanted to get her hair braided. She asked "Should my hair be wet or dry?" "Yes." "Wet?" "Yes." "Dry?" "Yes." "Doody is mushy?" "Yes." You can't drink the tap water anywhere here, and trying to find out if the ice has been made with tap water or filtered water has been a string of ridiculous, unfulfilling conversations like this. But, everyone has been really friendly, even when they were yessing us to death and agreeing that doody is, indeed, mushy.

We'll be wrapping up our trip here in the islands, getting tan, relaxing and digesting the experiences that we've had since we left on March 13. We plan on doing very little here, other than hitting the beaches and attending a full moon party on August 23rd that is world famous. Usually about 10,000 people show up for the party on Haad Rin beach and it should be a real hoot. This is another 2 page update for easier downloading. We hope everyone is doing great and has had a terrific summer so far. We'll be home in a little more than three weeks and can't wait to see everyone!