The strange chemistry between Erin and Rude... how can you explain it?

Abigail and her french trekking friend.

Just the beginning of a rediculous evening in Chiang Mai.

Who are these people and what do they want from us?

Erin, myself, and BOB at the Rasta bar. Im sure something terribly important was being discussed.

G here looks to be good friends with Brendan, but when she saw the picture she was like "Who is that?"

The vermont girl adopt Gen as one of their own.

Just the average conversation between the two of us. I must say that my father photographs to look a lot meaner than he is. He's a sweetheart.

Old Man Breneman at the hot springs.

We rode in the back of this Tuk Tuk for like 60 k.. for some reason.

My father's man in Chiang Mai, Chai. He's a tuk tuk master.

This isn't that funny at first, but think about it.. have you ever been to Mexico? Think about how long it takes to get your food there and multiply it by Thailand, and you realize they are basically saying "You may never get your food".

Horny Nights.. PAI.

in pai--north thailand, at bebe's wok and roll cooking class we learned how to make all different kinds of thai curry paste--for coconut curries which are ambrosia in my opinion. it involved lots of pounding--depending on how large a batch you could be pounding it into a paste for up to 6 hours. it's a very meditative and strength building practice.  

emerson with his tom yum soup, it rocked. 

pounding curry paste--i swear, my life will never be the same after i get one of these huge stone mortar and pestles--they're like $6 here! i'm scared to think what they might cost in the U.S. i might buy one here and lug it around for the next 2 months. 

T explains the delicate salt/sugar balance that is the secret to much of thai cooking. 

the happy results of our amazing cooking class. if you're ever in pai--go take a cooking class at bebe's wok and roll. it is the best cooking class ever, and T and lisa are totally rad people. 

T, our cooking instructor, and lisa his assistant and beautiful girlfriend. under the table is ginger, their sweet puppy who lives large on all the classes leftovers. 

emerson with two lucky dogs of pai--limpy on the left, and limpy jr. on the right. we sort of adopted limpy jr while we were staying in pai. we brought her treats and gave her love and let her hang out in our hotel room sometimes, when she wasn't completely filthy

limpy jr. loved to sit in the shade and where it was nice and cool and muddy. one day we decided to give her a bath. 

oh limpy jr! 

after her bath, emerson feeds limpy jr. the well deserved pork reward.

oh limpy jr..... this is why they pay you the big bucks. 

rude and i and the wooden shoe. rude was an awesome "dutchie" travel friend who can drink more coffee than you can.  

a little boy selling flower neclaces for 10 baht--that's roughly 25 cents. it was about midnight and i don't think he was allowed to go home til he had sold them all. 

emerson, pa breneman, and i..... i just want to assure anyone who has noticed a pattern develope, i swear i didn't wear the laos T-shirt for 3 weeks straight, i just happen to be wearing it in all the photos. hey, what can i say? i really really really like laos and i want to share it as much as possible. 

we ate tiny speckled eggs that had been soft-boiled in the bubbling hot spring--they were friggin awesome, although i really have no idea what kind of bird laid them, they could be pigeon eggs for all i know. 

riverbank scene 

a riverboat family 

and their roosters 

a brightly colored "slow" boat not unlike the one we travelled up the mekong in for 2 days. it was not inappropriately titled.