Thailand continues

I"m travelling with one Mr. Dylan Leech (for those that don't know) and we finally dragged ourselves out of Bangkok to a much greener, more luscious, smaller area of Thailand in the Kanchanaburi province, close to the Myanmar border..sort of (no need to worry, it's safe safe safe!). In fact the name of the town where we sleep at tonight is called Kanchanaburi. The reason we styaed so long in Bangkok is that Dylan was waiting for a couple of his best buds to arrive from Calgary. So now we are a 4 person canadian caravan.

2 days ago we got to the thonburi train station and embarked on the 3 hour train ride...3rd class, wooden seats, meat on a stick served from the aisle, BIG wide open windows to hang out of, 100baht=3CAD. Quite delightful! the town here is famous for it's "Bridge over the River Kwai" (seen the movie?)...

we're staying right on the river, there are many floating guesthouses here..it's the attractive thing for tourists when your town is known for the Kwai River.

we rented scooters the other day and kept them for about 30 hours...SO MUCH FUN! we rode way out towards Erawan National Park..a gorgeous area..the roads dotted with stands selling all kinds of tasty treats..mountains of luscious lusciousness, beautiful blue lakes (the photo looks like the okanagan!) ...and an adventure:

4 of us on our scooters, we ride for nearly an hour to gt to our destination...only for Daryl (dylans' friend) to realize the the key has fallen out somewhere along the way. so if turn the scooter off, we won't be able to turn it on. Good ol handy man dylan goes to take a look and ..turns it off. and then proceeds to lock the ignition....oops

daryl and jessie take off on 2 working scooters to find the key. immediately after they left the 15 or so thai people (workers in the park i think) descend upon us to see what the problem is. we sherade the problem and everyone pulls out their keys to see if they can unlock the ignition. no go.

so 2 guys get a screwdriver and take the scooter apart, hot wire it, and voila! controlled by the manual choke...we have a working scooter!

The whole ordeal was a wonderful medium to meet people, to be impressed by the endless hospitality that so often is the norm. I have felt nothing but safe and taken care of in this country.

ISn't that so often the case? When preparing for this trip I visited travel nurses, read advice from people, heard stories, read news clips...Be Afraid..is basically the message I got from it all.

I"m pretty sick of that. First of all, every place I"ve been told to be the most scared of has turned out to be the most magical and generous in so many ways. So many people want to share their culture, their food, their ideas, their advice. So many travellers want to open up and connect for that five minute pad thai. people crave connection and comfort of human interaction. Anda asked me to sit in front of his internet shop with him (it was closed by the time i got there), just to have a quick conversation as it turned out.

Second of all, why else are we on this planet but to Live? We can't be afraid with every step we take and of every person we encounter.

as my dear friend Waleed expressed most passionately, there is Risk involved in everything we do. Often more Risk the more we Love something. I"m here to Live, and with this form of living there is the potential for Risk...but more often there is the occasion for Learning and Growth, and Connection with Humans who have gifts and new persepctives to share.

I"m hit with this Every Time I venture into the unknown.

So step out of your comfort zone a little today. or tomorrow. or maybe next week. But do it. Because it's when you do something new that the memories are made. And life is truly a treasure box of memories.

Make some good ones.