Ang Thong National Marine Park

Today we set off on a speedboat to do some snorkeling and kayaking in Ang Thong National Marine Park, a collection of 42 small islands off the coast off the island we are staying on. We had only to walk about 50 feet down the beach to catch our boat, which was a 25 or 30 foot speedboat with twin 200 hp outboard motors. An hour of somewhat bouncy seas later, we arrived for snorkeling. Pulling up, you could see a couple other boats full of tourists already there, but it was a really beautiful and rather large reef so it was alright.

From Ang Thong National Park

We saw lots of really interesting coral formations, and quite a few fish. Christie headed in before me, and then I saw a small squid swimming super fast around. Aside from that, it was the usual tropical fish suspects: clownfish, angelfish, and parrotfish mostly.

Our guide took us to see a couple islands he thought looked like animals or other things, but its kind of like looking at clouds, everyone sees it their own way. Afterwards, we stopped at the headquarters of the park on the biggest island and went kayaking. It was pretty standard, not too terribly exciting because we were in a group of about 25 people and had a schedule to keep.

From Ang Thong National Park

We ate some lunch and then visited the emerald lagoon, which is an inland saltwater lagoon and it was really beautiful.

From Ang Thong National Park

Here is the full set:

Ko Samui - Island of paradise?

Last night we arrived in Ko Samui for the last leg of our journey. We were less than thrilled with the place after a long day of rough travelling involving buses and lots of waiting around in not so nice areas. Anyways, today we woke up to birds singing and some sun shining on the beach, and we feel a lot better. Our bungalow is about 35 steps from the beach, and our stinky clothes are in the laundry from packing them wet after the rainforest. Here are some pictures :)

Khao Sok National Park

Yesterday we left northern thailand to fly to the south for the rest of our trip. We arrived in Surat Thani and were picked up at the airport and headed to our guest house. The resort we booked is half a mile outside the national park and set in the jungle.

Immediately when we stepped out of the car, we knew this was going to be a great place. Friendly staff and a gorgeous garden set among forested mountains.... It is really nice here. We were shown to our room, which has an outdoor shower that you can see the forest and mountains from.

From Khao Sok

The room is a basic bungalow with lots of windows, and a nice big bed with a mosquito net over it (no screens). We had some fried noodles for lunch in the restaurant on site, and it was fantastic. After that, we took a tubing trip down the river this place is built on, and saw snakes, birds, and monkeys. On the way back we stopped at a temple to feed the monkeys a big bunch of bananas. They were so cute! The brave ones would come right up to you and then we handed them a half a banana and they scurried off up a tree with it. It was really fun for me, since I had never seen a monkey in the wild before. Christie saw tons of them in India, but this was my first time. Unfortunately, we forgot our waterproof camera bag so we couldn't bring the camera tubing or with to feed the monkeys. Sorry!!

After dinner we had a couple of drinks and chatted with some of the staff. This morning we woke up and it was really rainy (it is a rainforest in monsoon season after all). Not ones to be put off by a sprinkle, we struck out to hike in the park anyways. It was really beautiful inside, with tons of birds all around. About half an hour in to the hike, it really started to come down, and we both got soaked to the bone. We kept at it until we got too hungry and then turned back. After stripping off our wet clothes, we both found out we were basically covered in leeches. I had an extremely large one on my leg and it is still bleeding, 3 hours later.

From Khao Sok

We had some really tasty curry for lunch and a couple of mango lassi's. Yum!

From Khao Sok

Tomorrow we head to an island for some beach bumming... We can't wait to lay around in the sun :)

Chiang Mai photos

Temple Time!

This morning, we woke up and struck out for some thai breakfast. I was determined to have some mangos and sweet sticky rice, as I was told it is a great way to start the day. We found a place pretty quick with an english menu and the dish in question for around 2 dollars. When it came out, I was shocked at the size. It was at least two and a half large mangoes cut up and a helping of sticky rice with some sweetened coconut milk mixed in. I wish this was a scratch-and-taste blog, because then you could share in this delight. Really fresh mangoes (in season here too), and the rice was so good. Sticky rice is something I have to figure out how to do right at home. Its quite dry on its own, and you could literally make a snowball out of it and throw it, and not have any rice on your hands.

After breakfast, we walked a bit, but it was brutally hot today so we went back to the room to regroup and hydrate before striking out. Our goal for the day was to see a couple temples in the area, so first we made for Doi Suthep, a mountain just outside town. There is a temple up top that boasts gorgeous views over the entire Mae Ping valley that the city sits in. To get there, we took a shared sangthew (maybe wrong spelling), which is a pick-up truck with benches in the back that holds about 10 people (or 14 if they hang on the outside too). Its a cheap way to get around since you split the fare with everyone inside. They drive around town and honk the horn at people walking, and you wave if you want in. The driver pretty much makes up the route as he goes depending on where people are going. Its somewhat alarming to see thai people hopping on the back while its moving to catch a ride. Anyways, we rode up with a japanese dude who was on a trip around the world. I chatted him up pretty good, and we talked about his home, our home, and his plans (it was about a 20 minute ride). At the top of the mountain, we hopped out to see the temple and view the overlook. It was really busy, but very beautiful. You can check out the pictures at the end, where I will put the slideshow of the days photos.

After this, we hit up the trusty 7-11 for water and snacks. The heat was now full-on, with temperature around 100 degrees and sticky humidity. We hopped in a tuk-tuk to a forest temple in town, which was very peaceful. There were caves to explore and lots of monks around. Near the end of the walk, I started to feel extremely weak and shaky, mainly from not eating enough (hard to believe with this much great food around). Christie rescued me with a granola bar and a bottle of water, but the stray dogs wanted in on it too :) We walked over to a street food vendor and I just pointed around like an idiot and ended up with a nice bowl of noodles and meatballs (I think it was chinese-style). Also I snagged a lemongrass juice, which was very refreshing. Its so hot here that water starts to taste gross after noon, and you need something with salt and sugar in it to keep yourself going. My bowl of noodles was around 85 cents with the juice, not bad.

Now we will be heading to dinner at a fusion restaurant which is somewhat fancy.... We will report on it later. Cheers!

Chiang Mai!

Today we took a bus to Chiang Mai, one of the older cities in Northern Thailand. The bus was super nice, with free water and some snacks even. It was a 3 hour trip through the mountains, and I started to feel a little sick toward the end. I held it together though, and then we checked in to a beautiful guest house for the weekend. It has a nice big room with hot shower and an outdoor courtyard with misters to keep it cool. We ate some delicious thai food and poked around the oldest temple in the city, built in the 1200's. There were lots of stray dogs and cats running amok, and some monks feeding them. Here are the photos from the day:

Trekking in Chiang Rai

Today we got an early start to head out for a trek through the hills surrounding Chiang Rai. Many indigenous tribes maintain a subsistence based lifestyle in these hills. Yesterday we had booked a guide to help us navigate the area and we met him after breakfast.

Our driver dropped us off after a fairly harrowing drive through some less than ideal dirt roads. Here we set out with Tien, our friendly Thai guide who was all smiles. After a bit of hiking on the dirt road, we made our way to a Karen village. The Karen people are mostly Burmese refugees who have fled to northern Thailand. It was somewhat awkward walking through a basic village of huts and farms at first, but Tien spoke the language and the people were mostly smiling at us, which broke the ice a bit. It was amazing to see how the bamboo huts were constructed and the thatched roofs which need to be replaced every year.

From Thailand - Chiang Rai Trek

Livestock were running all around, including chickens, pigs, cows, and water buffalo. We walked fairly quickly through this village, as Christie and I were eager to get in some real hiking. We were not sure what to expect going into this trip, but we got more than we bargained for in terms of strenuous hiking. We estimate the temperature was close to 100 degrees and the sun was angry and beating down on us. Hiking across the exposed hillsides where rice and corn farms were being tilled and planted took its toll on us. Luckily we brought quite a bit of water along for the journey.

We passed some farmers and lots of rice paddies. Currently, it is the dry hot season in northern Thailand, and the rice is done and will be replanted in a month when the wet season begins. Along the fields, we saw small shade huts built for the farmers to take breaks and sometimes sleep in. After a couple hours of intense uphill hiking, we took a break in a Lahu village. Here most of the huts had solar panels outside of them for basic electricity to power one lamp or maybe a radio. These are provided by the government along with a battery so the lamps can be run at night. Here is us sitting in the shade with our guide:

From Thailand - Chiang Rai Trek

Tien assured us lunch would be soon so we got moving again. The next section of hike was through a bamboo jungle, with lots of wild ginger, bananas, rubber, galangal and teak. After we both felt like we might pass out from heat exhaustion, we made it to the Akha village we were stopping at for lunch. Inside the "Bamboo Bar" (read: a hut), we took a load off and grabbed some cold water. This village was close enough to civilization to have enough electricity for one refrigerator and a TV. Tien brought out a massive lunch which included fried chicken, spicy pork sausage with lemongrass and ginger, sticky rice, and chili oil and chili paste for dipping. We were starving so we dug right in.

From Thailand - Chiang Rai Trek

Everything was delicious, I especially liked the rice, which you balled up and dipped in the sauces.

After lunch, we hiked down to a nearby waterfall to cool off. We all swam underneath it and it was really refreshing. Our trek wrapped up with a trip to a hot spring, which was partially man-made and somewhat slimy inside, but I jumped in and relaxed after a full day of hard work.

Dinner on the river

Last night, we walked down the street from our guest house to find some dinner. We stopped in at a pretty looking restaurant on a dock on the Chao Phraya river which flows through central Bangkok. I ordered up a shrimp dish of some sort, Christie tried a chicken dish and we split a spicy eggplant salad. The eggplant salad was a very pungent and ... interesting flavor. My shrimp were basically whole shrimp with the legs cut off, but the heads and tails were on. These were the biggest shrimp I have ever seen in my life, literally massive. I was a bit surprised to see them whole, and I had to dismantle the tail from the head myself. They were served with some cashews and rice and overall were pretty good, flavor-wise... But I was a bit squeamish about the heads for some reason. Here is a photo of the view:

From Thailand

After dinner we headed back to the guest house to crack a couple beers and talk about the next day. We had booked a domestic flight to Chiang Rai earlier in the day so we had to decide where we wanted to stay. Our kind guest house operator called for us and handed me the phone once she verified they spoke english. We booked a room and relaxed and read about our potential activities up north. After a couple hours Christie headed up to bed and I stayed to chat with Yao, the guest house attendant. She taught me some thai and we talked about some cultural differences. Example: Brittney Spears video came on TV with a bunch of Thai girls dancing in bikinis, and they were very white-skinned. Yao explained that Thai women prefer to be as light-skinned as possible, as that is considered more beautiful. I got a little peckish after a while so she cooked me up some fried rice, which was delicious. We exhanged some more phrases before I headed up to bed.

Stay tuned for Chiang Rai.... Hill Tribe treks and border hikes.

Thailand Day 2: Finding our place

Today we woke up to a pretty quiet (and presumably hung over) Khaosan road. We got up early to take advantage of the free breakfast in our overpriced hotel. The buffet consisted of various curries and noodle dishes, along with some crappy looking eggs and bacon. After eating down our food, we checked out to find a more reasonable guest house to stay our second night in. Fortunately, we found an amazing place in a somewhat quiet (but still bustling) neighborhood. Our tuk-tuk (three-wheeled open taxi) motored us over there for about $3. This place is incredible, it has a super nice open air restuarant/lounge on the first floor and really friendly staff. We stashed our bags and took off to see the grand palace:

From Thailand

From Thailand

I hope to share some more photos soon, Thailand is so amazing (although swelteringly hot). My time is about up at the internet cafe, so I have to run, but we are really enjoying ourselves. Talk to you all soon!!

We have arrived!

26 hours and 9,000 miles after leaving home, we have landed in Bangkok. Tonight we took a taxi to a popular backpacker strip - Khaosan Road - and started our search for a place to sleep. It was around midnight when we finally arrived in the area, and the street was filled with drunk backpackers dodging motorcycles and taxis. Our glasses both immediately fogged up when we left the air-conditioned taxi from the extreme humidity. The sounds, sights and smells were a bit overwhelming for us two jet-lagged midwesterners. Street vendors cooking all manners of noodles and animals line the sidewalks and streets, and traffic is a zoo, to say the least.

Continuing our trek to sleep, we stopped in a guest house asking 800 baht (~$22), but it was a VERY basic room which seemed a bit dirty. We decided to continue looking and came across a bit nicer of a place going for 2,000 (~$60). It is actually reasonably nice inside.

I am currently enjoying an ice cold beer in the room, and it is past 2 AM and the party is still jumping outside. Tomorrow we look forward to trying some local food and seeing the city. Cheers!

Almost there!

We just landed in Tokyo for a 3 hour layover.... Even being in the airport brings back a lot of memories for us from our trip to Japan a few years ago. Our flight over was pretty awesome, I pretty much played video games on the in-seat computer and drank green tea the whole time. We got thermally scanned for swine flu upon arrival which was annoying and took quite a while.

Now we are sitting at an internet kiosk trying to book a room in bangkok for tonight, without much luck so far. More soon!

Coming Soon: Thailand

Almost time!  In 2 days we are leaving for Thailand, so I thought I should dust off the old blog.  It is unclear how often we will be able to post while we are there, but we have journals and plenty of camera space, so please be patient and you will get the whole story.  

We also added a link in the upper left to subscribe via email.  You can enter your address and have the posts emailed to you if you would prefer.