Happy New Year

Happy 2008! We welcomed in the new year in Bangkok and we will be here until the 3rd of January, when we will head south to Bang Saphan, our first beach destination. Bangkok has been pretty mellow since we’ve been here – it seems that most partiers have already headed to the beach.

We had a great couple of days in the northern part of the country. On cousin Mark’s recommendation we went to Chiang Dao, just north of Chiang Mai, and it was beautiful. Much cooler, beautiful scenery (we rented bikes) and a brush with the local folks from the surrounding hills (known to tourists as the hill tribes) who came down to the big Tuesday market (yes, Christmas was just another Tuesday here.) My only regret is that we didn’t leave ourselves enough time to travel to other towns in Northern Thailand, let alone stay in Chiang Dao a little longer.

On the way to Bangkok we stopped in Sukhothai, where we spent a couple of days riding bikes around the ruins of the former capital of the Thai empire. I may have mentioned this before, but by now we have become really lazy travelers. We’ve seen so many old cities, temples and royal residences that I barely even read about the ones we are visiting anymore. And besides, we enjoyed riding our bicycles past the fields and rice paddies as much (or more) than visiting the ruins. Plus, Matthias gets incredibly impatient when I stop to photograph yet another pile of rocks.

That’s all for this installment – hopefully the beach will provide additional inspiration for future blogs!