By Air

11/15/19 What fortune finds me when I have a window seat without an accompanying middle traveler for my sardine-like foray across the great ocean. With legs stretched, an extra pillow and blanket, i fashion myself a little slumber nest to weather the flight and I am surprisingly quite comfortable. For the first time in my lifetime I tried ambien on a flight and it’s narcoleptic effects were admirable leaving me awakened refreshed and excited for our Hong Kong arrival. What a flight! Arrived in Hong Kong and all was well except mom wasn’t feeling on the up and up. After ignoring all recommendations to get up and walk around every now and then she sat for the whole flight then was struggling through the airport. We were able to cajole passed the security line and get some fluids and food for her and she perked up appropriately. Now off to Singapore. Landed in Singapore’s beautiful airport. Mom is feeling much better and through Ben’s awesome flight benefits he managed to get us all into a sweet luxury lounge to freshen up for our final leg of the trip. Here are the ladies pictured in the first leg of their Everest trek.

Getting ready to take off for Kathmandu. I imagine we will not have a lot of time to finish writing when I arrive so I’ll post now. Just before leaving Singapore Ben and I took a brief detour to witness the largest man made indoor waterfall...

Nick - To Happy Endings!

Well this is my last blog post for this trip. What can I say, it has been one incredible ride. From Pho on the streets of Saigon to raging river parties of Laos, and finally to rubbing the belly of a 500 lbs Tiger, what a trip. For those of you who have faithfully followed our adventures thank you soo much and I hope you enjoyed reading about them... and without further adue..

Chiang Mai is incredible! Yesterday I got out and toured around the city. I found the popular bar strip, and while walking a very nice Thai tuk tuk driver offered to take me around the city for only 50 Baht ($1.20). I agreed and away we went. I visited several Buddhist temples and as always I was astonished at their decor, Catholicism doesn't hold a candle to Buddhist extravagance. We followed the old riverways and looked at some of the strongholds around the city than, inevitably my tuk tuk driver took me to a jewelery store, leather store, bamboo shop, trinket shop, etc (tuk tuks get a commission for brining their fares to these places as I later was told). Then I settled in for a good night's rest because since I arrived in Chiang Mai I have been having horrible headaches. (for Mateo y Lidia - Lo hice! "Cuando deseas alguna cosa, todo el universo conspira para puedas realizarla!")

Today was an exciting day. I decided to go a bit over budget and go to the Tiger Kingdom to pet a Tiger. The ride was short and I arrived at yet again a very Jurrasic Park themed park. I was the only tourist (again) and the whole staff was there to greet me. Being that funds were low I could only opt for the "Smallest Tigers & Biggest Tigers" caged tours. Of course after I tell them what i want I have to sign a waiver that read.. "Should you receive injuries, be maimed, or die we are not...", I looked up at the cute Thai woman behind the desk and asked if they have ever had any problems with eaten tourists, she just smiled and pushed the form towards me... This was the first thing that made me nervous. Then I got my tickets and went through the gates. They must have had over 60 tigers in cages there. It was unreal. I was concerned because some of the larger tigers where enclosed in 10ft chain-linked fence (no barbed wire at the top, nor roof of any kind, remember these are cats that can climb trees..). Most of the tigers just laid about but there were a few that took immediate interest at new and supple prey/tourist that wondered aimlessly into their territory. I could feel their eyes on me and I swear some of them were even lick their lips. I scooted in the direction of the cubs' cage and was met by to very energetic young Thai who let me straight into the cage with the cubs. Imagine the largest cat you have ever seen... now quadruple it, they you have an idea of how big these 2 month old cubs were. I immediately noticed that their front arms were double the size of their hind legs (about the with of my calf [I have big calves]). I got to play at will with them because I was the first and only guest of the day. They were cute and vicious at the same time. the staff snapped off a few pictures and I had to say goodbye to these soon-to-be man eaters. Again walking between the tiger cages and areas more of them were awake. I passed by the small tigers (100 lbs), the the medium tigers (200 lbs), then the large tigers (300 lbs), and the cage of the beasts I would be entering lay around the next bend. And then I saw them. 2 brothers each weighing ~500 lbs lounging about. At the enterance to the cage I was met by three trainers (one looked to be about 500 lbs too named "Tiny"). They started off by asking me if I had any experience with tigers...(I had to think..). Next they walk me through the dos and don'ts pretty straight forward (don't act like a wounded animal, establish dominance, when you touch the tiger do not do it softly..). Needless to say I was left with a feeling of (ME! establish dominance over TWO 500 lbs TIGERS?!?) So they let me into the cage laughing about something in Thai (reassuring.). I walked with semi-confidence towards the twins thinking "this will make for a funny story at my funeral". I approached "Meatball" from behind and started petting his belly (firmly), he rolled to his back a stretched like a happy 500 lbs kitty. His brother "Dumpling" meanwhile got up and (eying me the whole time) made his way to the pool for a refreshing dip. One of the trainers agreed to enter and take some pictures which may have been a bad move because the others trying agitating Meatball so he would smile for the camera (ps- next time I WILL bring a better camera). He only yawned once, flashing his surprisingly white but razer sharp I'm-definitely-not-in-the-mood-for-this-today-guys teeth. That was enough for me. At the encouragement of the trainers I approached Dumpling who had not taken his eyes off me since I entered and sat at the edge of the pool (HIS pool), at this he got up and meandered towards me and stood up quickly and could hear Shawn William Scott from "The Rundown" screaming "Establish dominance! Establish dominance!" in my head. So as calmly as I could I walked around to Dumpling's flank and gave him a hard pat on the back. Luckily a trainer got a good shot of this because I don't think Dumpling was super-stoked about it. After that I stepped out, read some fun facts about Tiger Kingdom and left. What a rush! I developed my film and that camera sucks so sorry about the quality of the pictures.

Now all I have left is to start studying for Histology 101 and catch my flight tomorrow morning. Thanks for listening! And GO TO SE ASIA!!! IT WILL ROCK YOUR WORLD!!!! Cheers!

ps- I enjoy comments!

Nick - Elephants and Rambo

After yesterday's cooking class I walked around a bit and found out that there is a famous weekend market here. The whole city turns into a giant market and the streets are filled with musicians. I had some gift shopping to do so I ventured further into the bowls of the city. Anything you could imagine was for sell here and CHEAP! One of my most memorable moments in this market happened while I was walking down a particularly packed street when over the cities PA system they asked everyone to please rise for the Thai national anthem and as the music started EVERYONE stopped moving and talking at once. It was like out of a thriller movie with zombies, aside from the music you could hear a pin drop anywhere in the city! And as it finished everyone started to move again as if nothing happened. I finished shopping (man-o-man funds are low...) and returned to my hotel for a quiet evening.

This morning I woke up early to catch my shuttle. It arrived and I was informed that I would be the only customer all day. I was a little bummed but at least I would get to see some elephants. We arrived at the elephant camp and to my surprise there were hundreds of elephants! Babies to full grown adults. It had a very Jurassic Park feel to it as the gates and aisle-ways were super tall. The rioting must have hit this region pretty hard because I only counted 5 other tourists. The elephant I was to ride was ironically called "Dumbo" and the driver "Cookie". We set off through the jungle and a slow pace, I can't describe well enough the sheer awesomeness of seeing herds of elephants roaming around freely. These are (excuse the pun) mammoth-size creatures that shake the ground as they walk. I took more photos with my disposable (God I hope they turn out) and since I was the only tourist on the trek the driver let me drive for a little while; which involved kicking the side of my elephant's head and shouting mean sounding Thai words at him. But I made it up to him by buying bananas and sugarcane at every stand. Dumbo and I got to be great friends. The mountain biking was lame but then we jumped into a safari truck and drove about an hour straight into the heart of the jungle where we met the rafting camp. Again because I was he only one they gave me and extra hour (which means we went to the head of the river) and we had to use a canoe (inflatable rapid canoe). My captain was a psycho looking Thai man with a hint of we're-going-down-in-a-blaze-of-glory about him. We set off with my guide shouting some funny comment like "try not to lose this one ok!?". The scenery was heart-stopping (picture scenes from Rambo, Anaconda I) my ears were riddled with jungle noises: monkeys, birds, elephants, and it smelled thick with life. All of a sudden a tropical down pour hit us which drown out the jungle banter and....Let's just say it was THEE most spectacular spectacle I have ever witnessed (Matt I am going to kill you for leaving early!). Drifting calmly down the river I asked if there were any alligators or crocodiles to which my guide said "no, anacondas yes". Then came the rapids...

We had been practicing Thai commands: left "say", Right "Khwa", get down "Lng", when he said "here come first rapid". It was pure chaos (in a fun/terrifying way), water was coming from all directions someone was shouting Thai and someone else was wishing they spoke it. What a RUSH! Occasionally he wold tell me "careful." which I quickly learned meant "after we go careening down this next waterfall there will be a rock in the middle that you will smash into so please do take the necessary preparations." It only took two times before I learned that "careful" = bend knees, brace for impact, broken toe will hurt no matter what. But we made it through relatively unscathed. Limping up the trail (the river wasn't so high yet so i received a few unexpected rock bumps in a few unexpected places) my captain (named Boots) told me I was a natural and should consider a job there. Ya right!

Tomorrow I play with baby and full grown tigers so in case anything should happen I love you all and please play "Eye of the Tiger" at my funeral. :)

Matt: This is the end...Beautiful friend

Well this is a depressing title for blog, but hey, it's the end of my journey. I am sitting in a FREE internet cafe in Seoul, South Korea airport with a 12 hour layover til my flight to Seattle takes off. I also used FREE internet computers in the Bangkok airport. I wish the states would get itself together and start providing free internet computers in airports. We're all in agreement that a society that can communicate cheaply is a good thing for business and/or hapiness, right? I left Bangkok airport at 12:30 am on Monday and will travel for 31 hours to get back to Seattle on Monday around noon. Crazy what happens when you cross the international date line. I am oficially on the back leg of my trip, which has to be the worst. The anticipation of going to a new place is far behind me, and I am coming back without anyone to talk to. No me gusta.

I can't wait to get home. When I arrive in Seattle I am catching a shuttle out to Nick's sister's and brother-in-law's place in Bellingham to stay the night. Then the next morning I will grab a 4:00 am shuttle back to SEA-TAC and catch my first of two flights that will take me to Denver, to finally collapse in the Rav4 with mom and dad and relax in sunny Colorado. Grandmary, Granddad, and Havah will be there too which will make for a great group to dump my stories and photos on.

My last day in Bangkok was spent souvenir shopping, eating, reading, and getting a tattoo. Since before leaving El Salvador I had really considered putting permanent ink on my body to memorialize my time there. In southeast Asia I was able to put my experience in perspective with Nick; talk about what I had done and what I had experienced; meet some great travellers who gave me their experiential advice on getting tat-ed. I had a buddy of mine help me with a design that was simple and would remind me of where I lived, who I lived with, how they lived, and what I learned from that. I chose the cuma, the Salvadoran sickle, the first tool that I ever owned in El Salvador, and a tool that almost never left my hand while on the mountain. It is the campesino's machete. The means in which he prepares his field to grow his family's food; in which he chops the wood used to heat the stove to prepare the tortillas; in which he harvests his corn, bananas, sorghum, etc. A farmer's cuma is his best friend, his livelihood, his most reliable asset outside of his family and without it, he doesn't eat, has no work, and is socially useless. A harsh reality. This symbol is a reminder to me of the back-breaking work it takes to have a family while living in a completely marginalized community. I hope it will always remind me that anything I want in life, I must work hard for it. As well as be a constant reminder of the many opportunities I have had in my life.

I love it. The artist did a very good job protraying the image of the cuma. A tattoo is something big for me. I have never until now had body art of any kind. You can deduce how big of a decision this was for me. And for the record, it stung pretty bad, but honestly while laying on the table getting needled, to counter the pain I thought of the most painful sensations I had during Peace Corps, like digging earth with a pick-ax for eight hours until my hands were comlpetely blistered and the blisters ripped off and throbbed with pain, or when I had the bot-fly larva growing in my wrist and ankle which would wake me up in the middle of the night as they burrowed around in my flesh and stuck their heads out to breathe...those kinds of pain. That quickly deafened the prickly-hot electricution sensation I had when getting tattooed. It all felt right.

So I will leave that as that big news in this entry. I know my family will be surprised to see me with new additions to my olive epidermis. My friends as well. They will be even more surprised to see it drawn right on my forehead...just kidding.

Nick - Chiang Mia how fun!

Yet again the overnight train proved to be useless. I couldn't sleep a wink but at least I was comfortable. There was a dramatic change in landscape from flat, dry, and hot to hilly, cool, and forested. It reminded me of northern La Union. Chiang Mai is a very quaint and quiet little town. I am staying in the backpacker district which is aptly named because it is soooo cheap here (at least 1/2 to 1/4 the price of Bangkok). There are very few travelers here which has driven the prices down. Yesterday was a relaxing day (in part because I horrifically jammed my already broken big toe setting out to explore). But the next few days should prove to be fun. Today i'm taking a Thai cooking class and tomorrow I am off to white water raft/ride elephants/mountain bike, then the following day I either will play with tigers or zipline through the jungle's canopy. It does suck doing all of it alone (Mateo.......) and I won't have photos to share until I return so you will just have to read. Also last night's soccer match between USA and England made me realize that we suck at soccer as a country. But thank God for English goalkeepers and their notorious rep for choking at the world cup!

Later that day…

So today I went in for my Thai cooking class at The Best Thai Cookery School. I was picked up by my instructor a cute little Thai woman named Boom. She was unbelievably sarcastic which made the whole experience a blast. There wer only 4 other people in my class which made it all the better because we didn’t have to compete to take photos or ask questions or any of that. I was able to pick 7 dishes from 14 to learn (it could have been more if I had a travel buddy), so I picked chicken in coconut milk soup, chicken with cashew nut, green curry with shrimp, Pad Thai, papaya salad, spring rolls in plum sauce, and sticky rice with mango. Our first stop was the market to buy fresh veggies and learn about strange new foods. I was the class guinea pig because, let’s face it, I’ll eat anything. I sampled fermented duck eggs, the hottest chili pepper in all of Thailand, fetus eggs (won’t tell you what that is.), snake, and many strange fruits (including one called Jasmine which smells like a dead corpse but tastes sweet [in fact it smells so bad few hotels allow it]). She was impressed with my knowledge of foods and preparation (props to Mom for all of the Baby Bok Choy, Chinese eggplant, and lemon grass). Once we bought all of the ingredients we set off toward the cooking school. We arrive at this off-the-beaten-track school where we have our own cooking stations and aprons. Boom starts off by showing us the secret to cooking Jasmine Rice which was.. sorry you’re going to have to fly all the way to Thailand to learn that one… Then we started on the soups, which were comprised of simple yet rare ingredients and after we completed the soup I sampled mine and nearly fell over it tasted so amazing. Boom is a very odd teacher; one minute she is giving you praise then the next she is slapping your hand as if to say “bad dog, no touch!”. I can tell that the others in the class have never cooked for themselves (lighting a high gas stove with their face directly over it, cutting their fingers while dicing the onions, etc..). Boom was also impressed with my uncanny ability to be unmoved by spicy food so she kept dumping peppers, and hot spices into my dishes and smirking at me, but each time I ate without a hint of displeasure and every time she asked me “why you no live in Thailand” to which I replied “I don’t know, Nick no talk Thai?”. All of the other dishes were mindbogglingly delicious. Our kitchen was soon saturated with intense smells and light banter. I chatted with my fellow chefs and learn two were from Israel and two from England (to which I gave much thanks for their goalie in last night’s game). One of the Israeli girls was Kosher which sort of threw Boom for a loop. This chick had brought all of her own cookware! For the grand finale Boom showed us how to fire sear our stir fry. Now she gave us the demonstration first the new were supposed to follow if we wanted. Her demonstration went like this: she super heat a wok of oil threw in garlic with its peel on (“so peel burn no garlic inside burn”), she tilted her wok slightly away from herself and said “very easy, very danger, same same” and proceeded to add chicken with water which acted as a catalyst for an immense fireball that erupted from her wok sending a Mt. St. Helens-like heat wave hurtling towards us. After the smoke cleared and over turned chairs from the scared onlookers were righted, there stood Boom behind a wok filled with the most mouthwatering stir fry know to man with a huge grin saying “you see now, very easy”. There were only two souls brave enough to attempt such a mortal cooking technique, myself and one of the British girls. We took our positions behind our woks and after some brief instructions from Boom we were ready (I of course was a sweaty mess at the thought of my body hair + hot oil = extremely flammable). With a quick flick of the wrist we had two fireballs of our own which were tempered only by the roaring applause and whooping of our classmates. At the end of the class we all sat together and toasted over our prepared food to a job well done. Boom gave each of us a cook book and a certificate and we snapped a few photos and said farewell. I hope my pictures come out! Tomorrow is white water rafting, elephant riding, and biking! See you soon!

Matt: Solo in Bangkok (aka Tribute to my former travelling buddy/Peace Corps crutch)

Today was my first day travelling alone since I left mom and dad in Denver. From the moment i landed in Seattle Nick was there to pick me up and from there our adventures began. I put him on the cab yesterday and to be honest it felt a little surreal, a little like it wasn't really happening. It felt kind of like it did when I left El Salvador a month ago... I didn't really feel much. And I can't explain why. Maybe it is because for the past three years Nick and I have been seeing each other and saying goodbye for a few weeks, then seeing each other and saying goodbye, repeating this over and over, so I feel like the same will happen now, though I know it won't. Nick is off to Seattle then Alaska to start med school and I will be in Indiana trying to jump-start my life again. Needless to say, I miss the guy.

He has been the best travel buddy. The boy is fearless. He made this trip an adventure because he, like me, likes to try new things. And that's why we travelled so well together. That and because we don't mind going with the flow in developing countries where everything is uncertain and things quickly and often go awry. From his unbelievable cravings for burn-your-culo-spicy food, to his no-holds-bar form of bartering on the streets which often led to extremely pissed-off OR extremely amused sellers, to his impeccable knack for finding a good deal, his gift as conversation-starter and crowd entertainer, Nick has kept me happy and on my toes this whole trip.

Hopefully he is doing well up north in Chiang Mai. All I know is that today in Bangkok, it sucked. I woke up and did the routine morning rituals: showered, looked for food, shook off 18 different people trying to sell me suits, trinkets, and sex, and then back to my room to plan my day. I grabbed a random city bus seeing where it would take me, and it brought me to the busiest market in Bangkok, The Chatuchak Weekend Market. It supposedly has over 200,000 visitors a day, though all the merchandise that is sold is geared towards tourists and middle-class Thai. It wasn't the humongous market I was expecting to see that supplied all the lower-class with their basic living items, like I was so used to in El Salvador. Needless to say, I had to peruse and piddle about by myself. I tried a new soup, which was quite good and very authentic. In fact, I could not name even one of the five ingredients that were in that dish. They all looked and tasted completely new. I don't know when that will happen again. And I have only been used to eating new things with Nico. There was no one to share the experience with, and that didn't feel right. I finished the mid-day ceremonies by grabbing a cab back to the hostel, fast, because my stomach was achy and I barely made it to the bathroom in time. Now I am killing time until it's time to eat, and then time to watch the USA v England game at 1:30 tonight. I will cheer alone :(

So a toast to Nick, the best support I have had away from home for the past three years. I miss you buddy. Travelling without you is about as fun as sitting on a bus in San Miguel as the cobradors search for passengers and I sit and melt in the depressing 110 degree heat, wondering when this thing will move and I will be going home.

Safe travels.

and go USA!

Nick - Alone...... :(

It was a sad day in the capital of Thailand. Mateo and I did our best to fill the hours before my departure but alas the time came. I had a half an hour before taking a taxi to the train station so we decided to have one last memorable walk along the touristy street. Grabbing some refreshing beers at the local 711 we set off at a slow pace each remembering the experiences shared over the past 3 years. We exchanged stories, memories, laughs, and our own words of wisdom. It was truly a picturesque moment as the sun set and the street vendors came to life. We waded through the throngs of tourists only to be stopped by the occasional suit salesman who, upon realizing who we were (we had been walking this beat for the past 4 days and everyday refused to buy) foolishly bowed away. The cool beers and light conversation seemed to fend off the sweltering heat of the city. Mateo and i have known each other for the past 3 years and looking back we realize that between Peace Corps and this trip we have been on one incredible ride. From the first days of training and struggling with language to living in adobe huts to beaches, gang violence, natural disasters, etc we made it through. And through all of it we have cultivated a grand friendship. The moment finally arrived and I hailed one of Bangkok's flaming pink cabs hugged Mateo goodbye, told him affectionately to "stay safe" and "always use protection" and drove off into gridlock traffic.

I must take a moment here to tell those of you who don't know Matthew Beyrouty a little about him. Mateo helped get me through Peace Corps, both of us have experienced both the best and worst sides humanity has to offer and have pulled through miraculously stronger than ever in our beliefs. Mateo is one of the kindest and most dedicated people I have ever met. Even as his service has ended he still strives to help those in need in El Salvador. He is the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back and back you up in a fight (maybe not win; but at least be there). He is wicked smart and aspires to help others as a doctor someday and I know he would make a fantastic doctor.
To Mateo: Muchisimas gracias por todo hombre. Eres un amigo incredible y tienes toda mi confianza. ¡Hasta Brazil!

So after a nerve twisting cab ride in gridlock traffic with only 1 hour to catch my train my cabby pulled some amazingly illegal maneuvers and got me to the station with time to spare. I went for some Pad Thai (half the price and double the size over where we were staying) and boarded my sleeper train.