Geckos and things...

Beautiful country I'm in...
I'd put up some postcard shots but this computer has got a version of windows too old to reognize my card reader... so I can't even dump my card to make a backup!
Bugs and lizzards all over here!
A cricket was just jumping all over me, as I am typing.. and my mouse wasn't working properly.. there was a hard shelled beetle between it and the pad...Brandon and I have observed that there is a particular type of flying inscet that comes out just after dark is fairly large, likes buzzing around flourescent lights and looks kind of like a dragon fly beetle of some sort... it appears to be gecko food, as all of them are gone very shoertly (within an hour) once the geckos emerge and catch them all... then the geckos can be heard "geck-ing" contentendly..
Spent the day checking out 700 some-odd-year-old temples today... all of the sights around the old city of Sukhothai. Rainy and kind of miserable today... so we spent an extra few buckls and got a tuk-tuk driver to drive us around for 3 hours... I think he ripped us off... but hey, it only cost about $8 for a 3 hour private escort... can't complain too loudly...
We bought a deck of cards today... after much shopping about and searching... we were astounded when the first deck cost 350 baht (over $10 cnadian) we found some at 7eleven (there are 7eleven's bloody well everywhere here! and heaps of KFC and Mcdonalds too... too bad... guess those fat homesick ameriacans have to eat somewhere, hey? (I'm sorry, that wasn't very PC, or nice for that matter... but I'll leave it in)) annnyway... the cards there cost 470baht, bloody well $14CAD! we managed to barter a small shop keep down to 130 baht, more like $4CAD... which is more doable... guess they don't play cards in this town?! annyhow
we figure our TAT "travel agent" ripped us off... not soo bad, still much heaper than Austraila or somerthing, we figure, so far, could have arranged everything ourselves much cheaper... hard to tell how much things are worth and what is a good deal and what is not when you first get someplace new, into a stange culture... We will make our own arrangements in the future, now that we're getting the swing of things and can see how things work around here...
ohhh! and we got A thai masssage. my god! these epople know massage! 300 baht/hour (less than $10 CAD) for the best type... aromatherapy oil, accupressure massage... they work every part of your body... wash and scrub your feet, use their hands, elbows and knees to hit every point... you feel like a nice smelling, well oiled, very relaxed noodle afterward! beauty. $10 very well spent! in australia that gets you a fast foosd meal... here $10 gets you an hour of premium massage or a night's accomidation, a meal and a 2 hour train ride!
This town is nice, but it is very small, very remote and we've seen all of the temples, and eaten almost every type of dish at the local restaurants (our favorite leisure activity, eat some kind of new thai food...) so we are headed off tomarrow morning for Chang Mai in the morn (feels like we've been in Sukhothai for ages... but's this is only our second evening) 4 more hours by bus, I think.. and we will be in the "wonderful" city of Chang mai. The locals here speak of it very highly... so we will check it out and do our rainforest trek. and see from there. thinking we might go back south and check out Cambodia for a short while before heading down to the islands... but yeah. we will see.
I am exhausted. been sleeping very soundly... and I have found help for my knee. I've been giving it intensive tiger balm applications, followed by a very tight specialized knee compress/brace. It is healing very quickly and gives me almost no pain from the second day of giving it this treatment... wish I knew that 2 weeks ago! hahah it's all good. hopefully it holds up alright for this 30-40km trek to come...
ok... this place is great.. another nice thing, we have seen almost NO other tourists here... very seldom do we see anyone with white skin, usually it's just me... and everybody thinks Brandon is thai... or Japanese... he does look Thai, I think... but he's actually Chinese.
cricket on the keybourd... I've shoo-ed him onto the "Alt" key.. where he seems to be making hinmself comfortable while type around him....
ok... on that note, I'm off back to my accomidation, the "Vitoon guest house" clean, nice staff (who speak about 4 words of english), hot showers, no A/C.. lots of geckos all over the place oh and it's got a bed... lovely bed.
alright. love you all! I'll try to write again before we embark on our trek!