Snakes Instead of Rakes

         Greetings from southern Thailand (Krabi). We arrived down south roughly10 days ago with plans to 'continue' farming. Unfortunately (or fortunately..depending on how you look at it) all three of our farms have fallen through. One has family visiting, one was hit with heavy rain and couldn't house us, and one, a certain Ms. Alp, seems to have serious issues using a phone as she answers once every few days and forgets to call back with directions upon her insistance on calling back later becasue she's busy. (She has since emailed me and facebook friended me yet still fails to give her adrress so we can find her). A bit frustrating, but a week of island living, and 3 nights camping in the immense Khao Sok National Park is hard to complain about as a consequence.
       There have been a ton of activities so I will try and keep each short and sweet. We first traveled to Ko Samui in an attempt to stall for Ms. Alp. We spent two nigths at a beautiful beachside bungalow with plenty of street food to keep us healthy. We took a one day boat trip to the Ang Thong Marine National Park, which we turned into two days by bringing our tents and camping on the uninhabited island (besides the park ranger staff and a few other campers). This trip included ferry service, snorkeling, lunch, and two great hikes. The first hike took us to the highest lookout point over an incredible view of islands spotting the sea in every direction, which we did at sunset. The destination of our second hike was a huge cave full of spooky caverns and massive stalagmites and tites. Both were well worth the seemingly endless amounts of sweat pouring down our faces.
           After Ko Smaui we camped in Khao Sok for three nights. There were several great hikes and we were camping right on a pretty little stream. One hike took us to the largest flower in the world, the Rafflesia, which only blooms three days out of the year and reached a diameter of almost three feet. After an hour hike straight up a mountian side we found one blooming flower and several bulbs, so we considered the hike a huge success. Our second hike lasted for eight hours. We were rewarded for our determination with a beautiful little waterfall with a great big swimming pool at the bottom. We jumped off some big rocks and swam to cool off from our hike. Naturally, given there was a waterfall, I decided it was time to try and climb up next to it to look down on the pool. When I got within 15 feet or so of the side of the pool I looked up only to realize there was a 12 foot python sunbathiong on the rocks, still wet from a recent swim of his own. Needless to say, our swimming ended there as it was time to head home anyways to beat the darkness.
       Our most recent adventure took us to Ko Lanta, an island near Ko Phi Phi in the Andaman Sea. We had a great time but made our first blunder of the trip by agreeing and paying for three nights in advance at our tree house bungalows. The rooms themselves were very cool, set high up in the trees, with those same trees growing through the rooms. We quickly came to realize that the staff was a bit pushy and ultimately very sketchy. The details aren't important but we stayed as busy as we could so as not to have to interact with them or pay for the absurdly overpriced food and beverages. We escaped on a one day, three island longboat trip through another guesthouse which could not have been better. We had unbelievable snorkeling (hundreds of different species of incredibly colored fish), a great beach BBQ, swam through an underground channel to a beach (there was a beach on the inside of the small island with open air..like a volcano but a beach at the bottom instead of magma), and finished it off by jumping off a 30 foot cliff into ocean, which I am proud to say all four of us completed. It was a great trip.
      Now we find oursleves in Krabi, pondering our next move, hoping Ms. Alp gets her brain in working order, but ready for whatever comes next. Hope everyone at home is happy and healthy. Miss you all, Love Mason

High Tide Tent Turmoil

        We have just returned to Bangkok safe and sound from an unbelievable week in Koh Mak, an island in SE Thailand. The island is only 16square km and full of coconut and rubber trees. We took an hour ride ferry after a 6 hour bus ride to get to this paradise.
      Our first two nights were spent at a great little guesthouse called island huts. We lived in little open air bungalows right on the edge of the ocean and enjoyed lots of sunshine, great food, and some really cool snorkeling at our beach. Then we were off to find our first farm, run by Ann and Sunny, a Thai couple who are inheriting her fathers coconut farm soon. They could not have been nicer and were great to talk to and learn from.
         They had only reached Koh Mak days before us so, instead of farming, we were instead dropped off on the uninhabited side of the island in a crazy overgrown jungle that hadn't been touched in ten years, which for those of you who know me, was pretty awesome. We had to clear out land for our tents with big blades and rakes and we were right on the beach. For food, Ann dropped off rice and veggies and the occasional bag of chicken to go along with the coconuts we collected and even some clams we found in the ocean. It was completely secluded with nothing in sight but trees and vines and water(only reachable by foot). We spent our days clearing jungle (they have plans to build a farm on this land one day) and swimming and exploring. We built a cool fire pit, some benches, and a kitchen area with shelves and a sand floor. Everything was pretty perfect until the moon started reaching its peak, and the tides began to become less predictable....
       It was a cool night and we were sleeping peacefully in our tents on our third night. At around 4am we began to feel some splashes and hear the water outside unusually clearly. When we looked out, we realized the water was about five feet from the door of our tent. Stef and I decided to take our chances and moved our tent just a few feet to the edge of the jungle. Luckily it was just enough and we stayed dry. The next night, the tide reached our tent edge around 2:30 am...this time we were a little late in realizing it. While Stef wanted to have a little chat about our options, I jumped out of the tent, yelling at her to follow and we picked up our tent and ran, through the waves, to the furthest back point of our cleared jungle over in the kitchen. Safe and a little wet we went back to bed. The next morning we found out that even there the water was only feet from sweeping us away and this time we had no more room to move back. With a heavy heart and a firepit filled with sand, we packed up from our little paradise and spent the next night on Ann's lawn before heading back to the big city. It was a great experience despite being cut a bit too short. We will just have to return soon to finish the job.
       I almost forgot, we had 10 puppies with us the whole time living around our tents. They
 had a mean mom, so Ann brought them to our beach to live with us and eat with us. It was great.  We are off for Suratthani in southern Thailand on the train tonight to find the organic shrimp and oyster farm. Hope your all doing well, miss you. Love, Mas

Elephant Ruins

        After a couple more days in Bangkok touring, eating, walking and boating, Stef and I took the train up to the ruins of Ayutthaya. We spent our first day on a tuk tuk tour of the beautiful temple remains dating back to the 1300's when Ayutthaya was the capital of Siam (now known as Thailand). The ruins were huge and full of amazing Buddha images including one embedded in a tree trunk! We stayed at an amazing little guesthouse run by two older sisters. They could not have been more friendly and helpful. They were a highlight of the trip. We ate lots of delicious food, as always, and even ventured into tasting the market food! It is delicious, though we are still wary for the most part of most street vendors.
      This morning we had our most amazing encounter yet...with Boon Maa the elephant. When we woke up, we randomly decided to take a tuk-tuk to this far off temple to go for a run where there was some open space. When we got there we saw an elephant off in the distance. As we watched, it slowly began to lumber towards us with a young (teenage boy) riding it (Chah). He brought Boon Maa into the river next to us and started cleaning him in front of us for ten or so minutes. Of course we started trying to converse in our limited thai as best we could using phrases like Kun cheu a rai(what is your name) and sa bai dee (how are you)..it was short but effective. Soon after he asked us if we wanted to ride Boon Ma!! It was unbelievable. He came out of the river towering over us and knelt down beside us upon command from Chah. We climbed up on him bareback and rode him around for a while. We were litereally the only people in sight with a river on one side and temple ruins on the other. It was one of the most amazing experiences either of us have ever had! Luckily we have lots of pics taken by Chah to show you when we get back. For now we are back in Bangkok for a couple days with Pong, awaiting Lizzie and Dylans arrival on Sunday. Hope you're all doing well. Love, Mas  For those of you not following Stefs blog..you should..between us we are trying to cover as much as possible. Her blog is called Stef in Thailand and you can find it on my blog site.

Safe and sound in Bangkok!

      After a loong but eventful trip overseas we find ourselves in the hustling bustling city of Bangkok with its 6.5 million inhabitants! Our flights overseas were highlighted by amazing ice flow and mountain landscapes over NE Russia and fireworks displays over Beijing as it was New Years Eve. We sat next a man from Beijing who we found sprawled out over all three of our seats asleep upon our return from the bathroom. Once we got back into our proper seats, he disappeared for a few hours. Eventually, we went to the bathroom again, wondering where he had gone, only to find him sprawled out asleep on our seats again when we returned. Very peculiar..
        On our first day in Bangkok we visited several unbelievable temples including Wat Phrae Kaew(the emerald temple) and Wat Pho which houses the largest reclining buddha in Thailand..43 meters! Both temples were amazingly decorated with gold and jewels and full of strong incenses and beautiful paintings filling the walls. Being new years day, all 6 million Thais were out in force to display their devotion(and money) to Buddha to ensure a productive and happy 2011. This made for some insane crowds and mayhem but allowed us to see Bangkok at its height of activity and culture as well. We stayed our first two nights at a little hotel in Bangkok with a breakfast buffet with the best stir-fry chicken and noodles and we enjoyed some delicious Pad Thai and egg rolls last night! We have not ventured into the street food industry just yet despite the appetizing dried fish and pigs ears but we will get there soon enough. The weather has not been too hot (high 80's) and our Thai speaking skills are coming along nicely as we now know at least 8 useful phrases/words. Today we are hopefully off to stay with a Thai family in Nothburi (outside Bangkok) for a few days while we await the arrival of Lizzie and Dylan to start our farming adventures. I hope all of you had a great New Years Celebration and are enjoying 2011! Happy, full, and still clean, Mason