Our final destination in Thailand is a place called Railay Beach, where we plan on spending our final three days. It is just south of a town called Krabi, and depending one’s interests, is best known for its world class rock climbing, or as home of one of Asia’s best beaches. While it is technically a peninsula, the limestone mountains that cut across it’s neck have effectively isolated from the mainland, so like Koh Phi Phi, there are no motorized vehicles (peace and quiet), and the only way to get there is by boat.

There is no dock to speak of, so our ferry stops a few hundred yards offshore and we transfer to longtails that take us closer in. Even these can’t get all the way to shore however, so the only option is to jump over the side, and wade the rest of the way Robinson Curusoe style, holding our luggage as high as possible to keep it from getting wet.

The slow process of weaning Angela away from Sheraton’s continues, but the place we have booked is quite nice, and the location right on the beach is hard to beat. Best of all, there is a wireless Internet signal (weak though it may be) in our room, meaning that, on the one hand meaning I can catch up on some of the posts I have written but not been able to upload, but on the other, that I can see how much further I have fallen behind on things at the office. It is a very blessed life we lead that allows us to travel as much as we do, but I’d be lying if I said there weren’t times I wished that being on vacation meant being totally off the grid.

In the morning, we load up our beach gear and head down the short trail to Phra Nang Beach. It is packed right up against the limestone cliffs, and while the sand may not be the best we have seen so far, combined with the scenery, it is easy to see why it is so popular. There is one uber-expensive resort directly on the waterfront, but the beach itself is public, so $700 a night or not, you’re crammed in with the day trippers from Krabi and Ao Nang, plus all of the people from the side of the island we are staying on that have wandered over. Not exactly the remote tropical getaway one might expect at that price point, but I guess I’ll never know for sure what someone laying down that kind of cash has in mind.

A short swim from the beach, there is a high rock outcropping that a few people are climbing up and jumping off of. They seem to be popping back up with all their limbs intact, so Nick and I head over to give it a try. As with bungee jumping, it has a way of looking much higher looking down that it does looking up, and being the young gentleman that he is, Nick offers to let me go first – he’s so polite.

Another of the sights we have read about is a lagoon that is a 30 minute hike from our squat on the beach. The write ups say the path is quite challenging, but of course, that only makes it more appealing. Ever the voice of reason, Angela decides to hold down the fort while Nick and I head off.

We quickly find that “trail” is a pretty liberal term, as trail implies something you can walk on. This route is pretty much a set of steps worked into the clay soil and around the tree roots, with a series of ropes hanging down to provide something to hold on to. The only trail to speak of is the 100 yards or so that cross the top of the ridge, before using mud covered ropes a slippery rocks to work your way back down to the lagoon.

We finally make it to the bottom, and view is pretty cool, but in practice, it may be enhanced by the effort it took to get here.

The tide that feeds the lagoon is out, so the ground we are able to walk on is like quicksand, and I suspect the final resting place of many a flip flop. Back home, soaking in this kind of mud would cost a few hundred bucks in a fancy spa, so I feel obligated to partake.

Lined up in all the crevices are a bunch of figures that people have made out of clay, so before we leave, Nick crafts Patchy the Snowman, as a nod to the wonderful weather we are due to return to in just a few days.

Heading back up the rock wall, we stop at one of the ropes to let a group of Australians finish descending. As the last one gets to the bottom, he reaches out to grab another rope for balance, jerking it back at the last second when all six feet of it moves. His buddies, who are 30 feet further down, assure him there is nothing to worry about, but perspective is everything, and I suspect if I was 30 feet further away, it wouldn’t look that dangerous to me either. Fortunately, recognizing that Nick is too stringy to make much of a meal and that I would be old and chewy, it heads off in the opposite direction and we continue on our way back up.

By the time we finally make it back off the trail, we are both covered with mud, and Angela does a bit of a double take when we stroll back up to her on the beach, likely wondering why two homeless people are walking towards her.

It has been a good day and I suspect Nick and I will sleep well tonight. Before that happens though, we have one more thing to check out. We have read that if you swim at night down the beach from the hotels where there are no lights, that there are all kinds of bioluminescent critters that light up around you. Sure enough, when we wade in, wherever our bodies move the water, there is a blue glow. If you move slower, you can see the individual points of light, and the whole thing makes for a very amazing experience (Nick says it reminds him of the movie Avatar, while I can’t help but think of The Abyss). We plan to try again tomorrow with the Joey Cam to see if we can record it.

In a town full of young backpackers, at 6:45 in the morning you can get pretty lonely. The good news is that we have our pick of tables for breakfast before heading over to the dive shop near our hotel. Today, Nick and I are going out for two dives, while Angela gets to stop and look at as many cheap trinkets as she wants without hearing me complain. There are trips that leave later in the day, but since we are starting early, we should finish up in plenty of time to catch the 3:30 ferry we are book on this afternoon.

We have heard from different conversations over the past few days that diving around Koh Phi Phi can be a little hit and miss. Generally it is quite clear, but that can change very quickly and you just never know what you are going to get until you are out in the water. Over the past few days though, conditions have been pretty good, and some of the bigger critters like turtles and black tip reef sharks have been quite common. Both of these sound pretty good to Nick and I, so we have pretty high hopes.

The first site we stop at is Bidah Nok, which is a small island just south of Koh Phi Phi Lei. It is only 40 minutes or so from the pier, so very quickly we are suiting up and in the water. Dropping down, it’s pretty obvious this is one of those days where the visibility is going to be poor, but a bad day diving is still better than a good day working, so we press on. We see a mix of things, including triggerfish, shrimp, lionfish, and another sea snake (these it turns out are so poisonous that their bite delivers enough toxin to kill 10 people, but we are oblivious to that at the time). The current is also very strong, which can be a little freaky, but Nick handles it like a veteran.

Between dives, we stop for “lunch” (it is only 10:15 in the morning) in Maya Bay, which was the setting for the movie The Beach. I’ve never seen the film, so don’t really know what all the fuss is about, but it is a very popular destination for day trippers, and had we been more organized, I might have tried to take advantage of the overnight camping trips they offer from Koh Phi Phi to spend a little time there without the hordes. Instead, we settle for floating in the bay, snorkeling a bit, and taking turns jumping off the top of the boat.

After lunch we are back in the water for what will be our last dive in Thailand. It is a pretty good dive, and we see a couple groups of cuttlefish (which I don’t think I’ve ever seen before), but sadly no sharks and no turtles. We’re both a little bit disappointed, but we know it’s not the zoo, and that the animals aren’t always where we’d like them to be. Nevertheless, it has been a high point of this trip for me to see Nick in the water and to hear the enthusiasm in his voice when he talks about the things he has seen.

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After the short boat ride back to the dock, we are turned loose again around 1:30. This gives us plenty of time to head back to Samee’s place (officially called the Thank You Restaurant I believe) for a second lunch and a parting mango sticky rice. From there it is back to the pier to board our ferry for the short ride to Railay Beach. This will be our last stop in Thailand, so we know the good times are quickly coming to an end.

With no set plans for today, we set off from the hotel in simple exploration mode. Of course it is a beautiful sunny day, so we figure we’ll check out the island and just take things as they come. We have cheesy hotel map to give us some guidance, and end up heading in the general direction of a viewpoint. Our guidebook also mentions something about great views from some trails north of town, so that seems like as good of a plan as any.

The flaw is that none of us seems to remember just how far you have to walk along said trails, or connects the dots that good views generally means being much higher than sea level. There are very few markers on the trail we have chosen, so we continue on in hopes that our destination will be just around the next corner. Instead, what we find is just one steep hill after another. A tropical rainstorm adds some salt to the wound, not only soaking the few scraps of clothing that jungle humidity hasn’t caused us to sweat through, but turning the top layer of the dirt trail into sludge.

Despite all of that, when we finally do reach the top, the view is definitely worth it. We take some time to just look down over the two bays and the crystal blue water, before turning around and staring back.

On the way down, we come to a junction with another trail heading off to a place called Viewpoint #2 (we have just come from Viewpoint #3), and decide we may as well take a gander while we are up there. It’s a short trail, followed by a bit of rock scrambling that ends in…wouldn’t you know it, a very developed outpost with a small restaurant, general store, and a paved trail all the way back to town. It turns out that we missed the main path most people take to the viewpoint, and instead ended up on one much more rustic. We pass dozens of day trippers that are heading up the paved trail who likely will never make it as far as the third viewpoint (which in my opinion was the better one), so even though it would have been easier, we are pretty happy with the way things turned out.

All this exercise has earned us some time just cooling off in the ocean, with Nick trying in vain to catch the crabs that periodically poke their heads out of the rocks. Massages also seem warranted, and after two weeks, we are finally able to convince Nick to give it a try. The lady agrees to go pretty mellow on him rather than the full on Thai pretzel twist, which I suspect would have freaked him out beyond all repair. The place is right next to Slinky’s, so not quite as quiet as the sala by the beach, but Nick still seems pretty happy with the result and is on the road to becoming a convert.

For dinner, we head back to a gritty little place we found in our previous night’s walkabout, run by a guy named Samee. He advertises the best food on the whole island, and, well his name is Samee, so we have to give it a try. We are not disappointed, finishing off with a mango and sticky rice that is easily the best we have had since we arrived (an important lesson learned is that November is not mango season, making my favorite Thai dessert somewhat difficult to find).

Tomorrow is a dive day, and starts pretty early in the morning, so no rave again for the Roberts’.

It’s another sunny, 85 degree day here, and a pretty low key one for us. Our only real goal is to make the 3 pm ferry to Koh Phi Phi, so those of us inclined to sleep in get a chance to do so, and we are able to enjoy a leisurely breakfast for change, rather than trying to cram some food down on our way past the restaurant to catch a shuttle.

We make it to the pier in plenty of time, only to find that, unsurprisingly, our ferry has been delayed. Once again, there is a new, comfortable looking boat tied to the dock that causes us to get our hopes up, but of course ours is the tub that pulls up next to it. It’s pretty tight quarters (think coach seats on an airplane but with a 6 foot ceiling), but the ride is only 90 minutes, and with Kindle in hand passes pretty quickly.

On a previous trip, I stopped in Koh Phi Phi for a few hours on the way to Koh Lanta, and from that brief experience, it seemed like a place to try and stay longer if the opportunity ever presented itself. It’s a fairly small island (two really, but only one is inhabited), with no motorized transportation other than the long tail boats that serve as taxis to some of the more remote parts. Crammed in between two opposing bays with limestone cliffs on either end, sits the town, which was mostly wiped off the map during the tsunami.

We get shafted a little trying to get settled in, as the hotel we have booked wants us to buy a second room because we have 3 people and they have no extra beds. I have no guilt about making Nick sleep on the floor (which is often no harder than the beds is Asian hotels), but they ultimately shoo us off to an affiliated hotel that has a bigger room, but that shakes us down for another $20 a night. On the upside, it is closer to the beach, so the final outcome isn’t so bad.

It is close to dinner by the time we get all checked in, so we take a walk through town to check it out and find a place to eat. Our choice is thoroughly unremarkable, but fills the tank while we continue on exploring the maze of walking streets.

As a day tripper, the side of Koh Phi Phi that I didn’t see was that it really comes to life at night. There are acres of young people here, and they come out in force as the night progresses, filling the many bars in the town and the strip of clubs lining the northern beach. It is body painting night at Slinky’s, and on any other night it sounds like the kind of thing Angela loves to do, but even in Thailand Nick is too young for Jello shots, so despite her disappointment we have to take a pass.

While wandering around with no specific purpose, we make note of some of the busier looking restaurants and cheap massage places for future reference, and somehow Angela manages to find a place (or two) that sells souvenir t-shirts that we have to stop at and thumb through for small sizes. We also partake of a few food carts, and Nick takes street food to a whole level after he drops half a slice of pizza on the ground, but invokes the 5 second rule and brushes it off (now all those pre-travel booster shots make perfect sense).

The other thing there are acres of here is dive shops, so we also take some time to come up with a plan for that. This is supposedly one of the better places for scuba in Thailand (not in the same class as the Similar Islands or some of the sites off of Koh Lanta, but high up in the second tier), and it turns out that because the actual sites are so close, that we fit in two dives and be back on shore in time to catch the ferry we will be taking to Railay Beach. That leaves us with a wide open day tomorrow to explore the island.

After a few weeks hopping around the country and doing a variety of excursions, the time for scuba diving has finally arrived. It starts off pretty low key, as with Nick’s depth limits (he can only go down to 40 feet with the junior certification that he has), there are only certain sites he can dive at, and certain days that boats go to those sites. To fill in the time, we decide to first do a simple beach dive next to our hotel. So while mom slowly roasts on a beach chair, Nick and I gear up and head into the water.

As close as we are to the beach, the reef is a little mediocre, but we do manage to see some barracuda, sea cucumber, triggerfish, and clownfish. It retrospect it is a great first dive for Nick to get a little more experience, particularly in a different (and much more pleasant) environment than Puget Sound. It also gives us a chance to road test the Joey Cam (a tiny underwater camera I bought a few weeks back that Joey likes to strap to his head and run around the house).

We take it up a notch the next day, as bright and early a rickety bus picks us up at the hotel for a short drive to the pier. We are headed to Racha Yai, which is an island about 90 minutes south of Phuket, and one of the easier local dive sites. The trip there provides a good time to catch up on a nap (of course being the morning people that they are, both Angela and Nick agree to sleep under duress), and in no time we are being called downstairs to get ready for the dive (Angela is sticking with snorkeling this trip so gets dropped in the water separately).

The water at this site is much clearer than off our hotel and the reef is in much better shape. There is the usual variety of colorful fish, in addition to which we are able to find a moray eel, some hammer shrimp, and a banded sea snake. I keep a pretty close eye on Nick (and he in turn on the guide), but he does awesome, and seems perfectly comfortable deep underwater.

We take a break for lunch before heading back down for our second dive. We are in the same bay, but on the opposite side, so for the most part see many of the same things as we did earlier. This time around though we are able to prod a mantis shrimp from its cave and follow it for while it finds a new hiding place. We also see a small ray, and tail it around for a bit before moving on.

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With diving over for the day, we start back towards Phuket, partaking once again in a luxurious nap. About halfway back, we come across a boat about the same size as what we have at the cabin that has broken down (mind you, we are at least 10 miles from shore in open water). On board are a pair of Russian tourists, one sporting the sweetest mullet (all business in the front, party in the back) I have seen outside of a 1980 NHL team photo.

Our captain agrees to tow them back, but only for 3000 baht (note to self, in Thailand it is OK to get stranded, just don’t forget your wallet).This all seems well and good until we get them back to the bay where they are staying. Mullet thinks he has paid for personal delivery service all the way to the pier, while our captain says he is not taking his boat into any shallower water. There is something comical about a Russian trying to argue his case in English to a crew that speaks Thai, but nevertheless, they manage to come to some arrangement, money changes hands, and we are back on our way.

It’s been a good day, and just like that, our time in Phuket is coming to an end. We make one last stop at the travel agent in town to pick up our ferry tickets, and tomorrow we are off to Koh Phi Phi.

After a few days of laying on the beach, we’re ready for a little activity (or more accurately, I’m ready, but it is my story after all). While in Patong for dinner last night (Patong is kind of a cesspool, so one evening there was plenty), we arranged for a day trip to Phang Nga Bay. These are mostly sold as tours to James Bond Island, as one of the islands in the bay was used in The Man with the Golden Gun, but the more appealing part to us is kayaking around a few other islands in the bay and through some of the caves there.

We begin at 8 in the morning, with a bus ride to the port, some 60 minutes away. There are some sketchy looking boats in the harbor, but ours seems seaworthy enough (note that in Thailand, the boat you will be on is never the new looking one tied directly to the pier, but one of the much shabbier ones that are in turn tied to it and that you can’t see until you are actually on it), and without too much delay, we are on our way.

Phang Hga Bay looks surprisingly similar to Halong Bay, which we visited in Vietnam a few years back. As we travel further, we are quickly surrounded by dozens of limestone islands towering up out of the ocean. As was the case in Vietnam, the haze takes away some of the impact, as on a clear day I imagine the view would be stunning, but it is impressive nonetheless, and if you ignore the train of tourist-laden boats, quite peaceful.

Our first stop is Panak Island, where we all pile into an inflatable kayak and head for a cave that takes us deeper into the heart of the island. After rounding a few bends, it is pitch black save for the head lamps of the guides paddling the kayaks, and when ours points his toward the ceiling, you can see the groups of bats clinging to the ceiling.

Back on the big boat, people are clearly getting more comfortable as the banana hammocks are coming out. There is an older couple from the UK directly across from us, and I give Angela a warning when the fellow stands up to stretch his legs, but like starring at the sun, you still do it no matter how dangerous you know it is, and she can’t stop herself here. The Beavis in me thinks this is pretty funny, which in turn draws Nick’s attention, and he wants to know why I’m laughing at mom. How she explained that away is a story I leave up to her.

We stop to kayak around a second island before finally heading to James Bond Island (or more specifically, the bigger island right next to it, as James Bond Island is just a tower of rock rising straight up out of the water). There is no pier, so we have to transfer from our boat to the island on a long tail boat. The ride is short and uneventful, but as fate would have it, our British friends step down into the boat in front of us before bending down to take their seats – enough said.

There are acres of tourists here, all doing their secret agent poses, and I finally wear Angela down to the point where she agrees to strike a pose with Nick. She did make me agree to not post it here, but she never said anything about telling people it exists, so be sure to ask her to see it.

This is the biggest of the islands we have been on and it has some cool caves to explore while we are killing time waiting for the long tail to take us back. There are also some interesting rock formations where the limestone has eroded away, and Nick puts on a climbing demonstration that would make Rudy cringe.

By the time we make it back to Phuket, it is close to 5 in the afternoon, so with the traffic, our return drive takes the better part of two hours. We’re pretty beat by the time they drop us off at the hotel, but scuba diving is next on our agenda, so we rally enough to head back into town to make plans for that. One of the shops we stop at has a dive master from the US who tells us all about the different islands and where he thinks Nick would have a good experience. It turns out he is a former rock climbing bum who spent a good part of his life living in a motorhome at Smith Rock, and when Nick tells him he has climbed there it gets him going on that. Small world.

Despite my best intentions, I have to confess that I haven’t been exactly keeping up in real-time here. To my credit, I was pretty much caught up when we arrived here in Khao Lak, but since have been falling further and further behind. The silver lining is that we have slowed down our schedule a lot since Chiang Mai, so there hasn’t actually been a whole lot to report. As such, I have convinced myself I am not really taking the easy road by condensing multiple days into a single post 🙂

We start our first day in Khao Lak pretty groggy, given our late arrival and need to make it out of the room for the breakfast that ends at 10:00. Nick just makes a few grunting sounds and pulls the covers over his head, so Angela (yes, she is up) and I head down without him.

In the daylight, we get our first glimpse of Khao Lak, and are duly impressed. This was one of the worst hit areas from the Tsunami that hit in 2004, but you’d never really know by how things look today. It is a much quieter place than other beach destinations we have been in Thailand, but the location is idyllic, with palm trees, powdery beaches, and water so warm it is like walking into a bathtub.

Over the next few days, we manage to do a whole lot of nothing beyond swimming, laying on the beach, and walking down for the occasional massage. Nick plays for hours in the sand, and in the process manages to pick up his first good sunburn. It’s the first time we wonder if he would have more fun if his brothers were with him, but while he misses them, he says he is perfectly happy having the time to himself. I get a jumbo arm bruise from shooting a bow and arrow, but am telling people it is from a bar fight as that sounds less pathetic.

When planning our schedule (as much as you can call what we do planning), one of the big reasons we decided to spend time in Khao Lak was its proximity to the Similan Islands. The islands are one of the best dive spots in Thailand, but are quite a ways offshore, so Khao Lak makes for the shortest boat trip to get there. However, when we stop buy the dive shop in the hotel to get more information, the news is not good. There are day trips out, but by the time they add on rental equipment, park fees, and the dedicated dive guide they want Nick to have (since he is only junior certified), the cost is creeping up in $500 for just two of us (in retrospect, we probably could have found a much better deal had we gone to the dive shops in town, but that isn’t as obvious to us at the time). Knowing that for the same amount we can dive at least 2 days (if not more) in Phuket or Koh Phi Phi, it seems we are better off waiting Besides, my beach chair looks lonely without me.

As we finish up our three days in Khao Lak, I am a both ready to go and sad that we are leaving. There really isn’t a whole lot to do here, so in that context, three days was enough to chill out for a few days and recharge before heading south the Phuket. At the same time, this is definitely the kind of place where you could just slip into a some pretty deep relaxation and then wonder how 10 days passed you by. What it has done for us is reinforce that we are water people at heart. We did end up loving Chiang Mai, and without a doubt would recommend it to anyone visiting Thailand. However, we are a different kind of happy being here on the beach, validating our choice to spend the bulk of our time in the south.

Tomorrow we are off to Phuket.

When we booked our flights from Chiang Mai to Phuket, we figured a later time would give us the whole day to cram one more activity in before changing locations. There are still a fair number of options, with zip lining and white water rafting near the top of the list, but after yesterday, we’re a little burned out, so decide to just hang around the hotel and relax.

The suits I am having tailored should finally be ready (we have stopped by every day for fittings so if they don’t have it right today, we’re really in trouble), and on the way to pick them up, we stop in at the Fish Spa. There, for $5, you stick your feet in an aquarium full of tiny fish that pick away at them. Sounds fun right? We first saw this at the tiger camp, and I could tell Nick was curious, so when we found a similar place so close to the tailor, we had to give it a try.

With everything packed up and having checked out of our room, we still have a few hours left to kill, so head out in search of dinner. After narrowing it down to a restaurant we ate at a few nights ago and gritty spot a few doors down (basically a street cart with a few plastic tables set up in a vacant lot), we let Nick choose. When he picks gritty, I feel a little tear in my eye.

Our flight time is 9:45pm, and like choosing a red-eye, it seems like the right idea when you are reserving it, but in practice ends up being painful. It is two hours to the Phuket airport, so by the time we land, it is close to midnight. However, our final destination is Khao Lak, which on the map doesn’t seem that far, but is another 90 minutes away by car.

The taxi stand at the airport is closed at midnight, so we’re left with few options than the unofficial “taxi” drivers that swarm us as soon as we walk out of the terminal. We negotiate a fairly good rate (all things considered) and our trip begins.

About five minutes out of town, the driver pulls over to pick up his “friend”. It’s pitch black outside, and now Angela is hearing banjo music, certain that we’re about to remake Deliverance. Nick manages to get a bit of sleep in the car, but Angela is on high alert, and while I do plenty of stupid things, I know better than to nap in such circumstances.

Despite the drama, it turns out we aren’t in Mexico City, and that our driver is just a guy trying to make a living, with a friend that is going to keep him company on the return trip home. Closing in on 2am, we finally arrive at the hotel and check in. We’re on the beach now, but that will have to wait until tomorrow.

Another of the items Nick has on his bucket list for this trip is Zorbing. For those not in the know, Zorbing involves strapping yourself inside a giant ball, and then having it roll downhill into a lake, at which point you unstrap yourself and roll the ball like a hamster until you get back to dry land. It was invented several years ago in New Zealand, and I thought at the time it looked kind of fun, but it wasn’t until Nick’s cousin tried it here in Chiang Mai that we actually knew of a place to give it a go.

Once again, Riam and her husband are our tour guides, and they pick us up at the hotel to take us to a place not far from the elephant camp called the X Center. They do a bunch of activities here (which we’ll get to in a bit), but the Zorbing is what we came for, and after the obligatory waivers are signed, we’re off to the launch point. My usually fearless traveling companion has opted to be videographer for this event, so Nick and I are on our own.

The setup is pretty much as advertised, as velcro straps around our waists and ankles attach us firmly to the walls of the ball. What the pictures don’t tell you is that the two layers of clear plastic provide for a great greenhouse effect that jacks up the temperature, and do a great job at holding in the sweaty odor of past Zorbers.

After a quick thumbs up, we are rolling down the ramp, laughing hysterically all the way to the water. Left to our own devices to get back, I unstrap the velcro and promptly roll the ball sideways, pitching myself halfway out of the ball and into the lake. Nick thinks this is funny.

Pulling myself back inside the ball, we start hamster our way back. It takes a surprising amount of effort, and my wet clothes have made the walls quite slippery, adding to the challenge. Nevertheless, we succeed in returning to dry land, and realizing that it really was a whole lot of fun, head back out onto the lake for a few more minutes, during which I try in vain to tip Nick out the side.

Another of the activities they offer at the X Center is the bungee jump. I have always been tempted to try this, not for any good reason other than to prove to myself I could do it, but have never managed to work up the courage. After staring at it on the price list for a while, and watch some of the videos on the monitors, today doesn’t feel much different, so we instead opt to go for a hour in an off-road buggy. Angela opts to sit this one out as well (off-roading and laminectomy apparently don’t go well together), drawn instead to the spa for a massage.

Our guide takes up a trail that winds up through the hills, crossing a number of sketchy bridges, and splashing through a couple of rivers along the way. I’m not sure if the experience would be the same as a passenger, but as the driver, this was a blast.

The extra hour has exposed a brief window of courage, so before getting in the car to head back to town, we decide instead to watch a few people jumping from the bungee tower. It doesn’t seem that far up, and everyone doing it seems to came back with smiles on their faces, so before I change my mind, I buy a ticket. It’s non-refundable, which really is brilliant on their part, as it sets my sense of cheapness in an epic duel against my sense of self-preservation.

While I await my turn, Nick has a look on his face that says he thinks he wants to try but isn’t quite sure. It’s possible to go tandem, so I let him think about it for a while and he ultimately decides to go for it (I’m so proud of this kid!).

They get us ready by wrapping big compression bands around our calves that are so tight they feel like they are cutting off circulation to my feet (however since these will be the only things that keep me connected to the bungee cord and from plummeting to my death, the tightness feels pretty good thank you very much). We then hop over to the car that will take us up to the top of the tower, some 150 feet above our heads.

Perspective is a funny thing, and where from the ground looking up the top of the tower doesn’t really look that high, from the top looking down – yikes!

Now safely (I hope) connected to the bungee cord, we both edge our way out the side of the car, and after a quick countdown, I surprise even myself by falling forward into space (Nick now going over whether he likes it or not). On the ground, I was certain that I would only jump with my eyes closed, but the fall happens so fast, and with my brain struggling to process what just happened, that by the time it even thinks to send a message to my eyelids, we are almost at the bottom.

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I can feel the cord slowing us down, and just before we hit the water, it jerks us back up into the air, at least 2/3 of the way back to the top. What a rush! Nick and I are both cracking up, jacked up on adrenalin and having just faced down fear. After repeating the rising/falling process a half dozen times, each one shorter than the last, we are left just hanging in the air upside down while the car travels back down the tower and lowers us to the ground. We give the whole experience 4 enthusiastic thumbs up.

We’ve pretty much done all the X Center has to offer now (and my wallet is a whole lot lighter than when we started), so we head back into town, stopping for lunch at a local restaurant on the way. We check the hotel pool again, but it is still freezing, so we relax a little in our room, catching up on email and getting Nick’s cartoon fix.

We have only one day left here in Chiang Mai, and I have to admit that after a few days here, it has definitely grown on us. While our initial impressions weren’t that favorable, it is much easier to see now why it gets such great reviews. We’re ready for a change of scenery, but some day I’m sure we’ll be back.

Just when it seemed like our days couldn’t get any better, this one may set the bar just too high to ever top. After the usual stop for breakfast, I first spent the morning finishing up a PowerPoint presentation on management of cardiovascular health. It has a cool blue background and some really impressive charts which made it a whole lot of fun. Not content with just that, I typed up a 10 page response to an RFP for a software development project (who would choose to ride an elephant if they knew they could spend an afternoon with Microsoft Word instead?), and for the cherry on top, marked up a business contract before wrapping up at 4 o’clock.

All this goodness was too valuable to share, so I sent Angela and Nick off to cooking school so I could keep it to myself. If somehow that seems more interesting, Nick has the details on his blog.