Happy Birthday Kirk!!!

ah thailand...been here about 15 hours so far and we're loving it! the joy of amenities after rural china :) flew here on a purple plane and they gave us a purple flower - had to know it was going to be sweet!

a quick recap of our last week in china:

Dali - arrived with the thought of staying one night but one look at the pedestrian walkways, old cobblestone streets, and relaxing guesthouse and we decided to take an extra night. Lots of shops and tourists which we tend to avoid but in this case it meant we could look around without getting hassled all the time. Spent the 2nd day on rented bikes (Giant bikes no less bobbie!) and rode down to the lake past farmers working in their rice paddies. Afternoon consisted of bootleg CD shopping (shameful i know) and generally hanging out. Finally got a taxi out to the 'site', 3 pagodas, but it had closed for the day. Tried to sneak in with a chinese tourist group but i guess we stood out just a little too much...lol...so we walked the perimeter instead and looked at the top of the pagodas. Great town for hanging out, relaxing, and lots of card playing...can't give an update on the score as we left that piece of paper in the hotel...it's still a closely contested game though.

From Dali we went to Kunming to arrange our plane tickets to Thailand. Ended up with a bit more time than expected but day after day of beautiful sunshine kept us outside and happy. Spent Kirk's birthday wandering around the stone forest. A forest of limestone that local legend says the immortals created for young lovers looking for privacy. Hundreds and hundreds of local tourists made for a bit of mayhem but eventually we got off the beaten path and had a good long walk through the stones. Figured the sign that said "Caution periphery area" meant there'd be less tourists - we didn't see one other person other than a couple of local farmers that had rice paddies in the area. Celebrated Kirk's birthday dinner at Wei's pizzeria and then beers on a patio.

Just outside of Kunming is a town known for their flowers - apparently producing 400,000 roses a day. figured it would be colourful to walk around such a place so we hopped on the local bus and made our way out there. Found the markets but not a rose to be seen. Walked behind all the buildings and found the farm area - plot after plot of garden indicated we'd find some flowers here. Not so much. Saw lots of potatoes and celery. And locals looking at us in disbelief that we were walking through the work area.

Just getting our bearings today and figuring out the next few days in Chiang Mai - options include trekking, rafting, elephant riding, cooking school, thai massage, chat with a buddhist monk, and visiting buddhist wats. But the most important thing is happening tonight - the finale to Kirk's birthday - the new star wars movie is playing in the local cinema! (Thankfully on one of our many treks he spent hours filling me in on storyline and characters so i'd be ready when we found the new release in english).

OK guess that wasn't so quick but once i start typing...

hope all is well in your worlds!

K&K

ps - we can see our blog and comments again.