Koh Phi Phi, Railay, Krabi, more Bangkok and on to Cambodia!

Hey guys! Jen here.

(before I begin, please note that the pictures are in reverse order. Angkor Wat "Temple Angkor" was most recent... it's too confusing to switch them) My writing, however, is chronological.

So you have no idea how hard it was to get this second round of pictures up... either lack of compatibility with the camera, or then we got them uploaded, then we couldn't post them because the blogger site was too slow.... I'm talking 5 attempts at each, equally inconvenient locations.

Anyhoo, here we are, and this is my most exciting post yet! So many locations, and such amazing locations too.

We left off at Khao Sok, the National Park/Jungle mid Thailand (inland).

We took the local bus to the island of Phuket by waiting streetside, yet on a highway-type road. Phuket was not overly special because it is such a large island and so close to shore that they've built a large bridge connecting the two. Hence Phuket has lost its island vibe and shares the traffic and pollution of any Thai city. A highlight here, however, was stayinng at On On Hotel, which is where parts of The Beach were filmed (with Leo Dicaprio), when he is staying in that hotel before heading to said Beach. Oh, and keep this in mind, as I will reference it again.

On to Koh Phi Phi (remember Koh - Island, Khao - Park). The ferry ride was absolutely beautiful, and where we saw our first glimpes of the famous limescale mountains. On the East Coast (Phangan, and Tao), it was mostly mountainous, vs cliff -like, like it is here on the West Coast. We stayed in this 12 person dorm room where we actually met some really rad, and totally normal people. A couple card-drinking-games and crazy nights, and a few mornings of being woken by the sound of these idiots playing with a tazer, I'm beginning to really get a hold on other accents and geography.

This island was definitely touristy, but one rock bar I did particularly enjoy was called "The Rolling Stoned". Yes, no spelling errors there. There was a band made of a 4 Thais, who literally rocked out SO hard. I'm talking guitar behind the back finger picking. All your classic American songs, from Metallica to Red Hot Peppers, to Green Day, were covered. We got some funny pictures.

We met these great Canadians one night and ate a classic meal, fried chicken. I'm talking literally JUST fried chicken (okay and friend beef too). It's quite common to walk down a market and see just large woks filled with oil as by frying things it kills 100% of bacteria by heating every part of the poultry. Bbq-ing, for instance, leaves the sides (the width) open to infection. Also it's pretty diverse... the same dude will drop an egg in the oil for breakfast, meat in for lunch, and dough for dinner or dessert! (done savory, like meat and cheese, or sweet, like chocolate). We sat and talked about the lack of toilet paper or clean washrooms. It was a great, and frank, dinnertime conversation.

We took off alone for one of the days, taking a tour to a Viking Cave, a Dive spot, and also to the famous, and I mean famous, Maya Bay. This is where The Beach was filmed and made a mark for Thai Tourism. To be honest, the filters and high-tech cameras definitely over-glorified the area, yet it was pretty cool though. Hopefully Tay is able to get the videos uploaded, as we did a mock skit of Leo running through the thick forest, then it opens up to this beautiful beach - probably my favorite video so far... haha.

It was the view we got from "Pee Pee Viewpoint" that I am officially making my bed headboard (the large framed peice above most beds).. we got this amaazing stich assisted set of three pictures... oh my gooosh. Here is an example below, but.. maaann, Koh Phi Phi has some blue water. (A Thai Language Lesson: since, like Chinese, but totally different "Same Same but Different!", Thais work in symbols, there is absolutely no enforced standard of how things are spelled in English. They are all spelled phonetically. Since the "ph" and similarity "kh" make the hard sound (as in Pat or Katie), Koh Phi Phi, sounds like Koh Pee Pee, and hence the spelling above. In fact writing only "K" or "P" at the start of the word implies a very soft sound, as in grass or Bob. Bad examples, Im sorry.

Moving on!

So while we started "on land" (since Phuket, though an island, is joined by a bridge), then headed over to Koh Phi Phi, we went back to land, more South this time, to Krabi, where the Rock climbing is fabulous. We rock climbed on the particular beach of Railey Beach (an island, access from the town of Krabi by a long-tail boat, about 15 mins). Railey beach has an east and west side since it's a peninsular, where you walk inland about 10 mins to get to the other side. Both were absolutely glorious with amazing, and high, cliff sides to climb on. Tay and I each had a super rad time... ! Check the pics.

After some beautiful sites, excellent activities, great people, and wicked bar nights, we were ready to head back to Bangkok to enter, a few days later, into Cambodia!

We stayed a little longer in Bangkok this time, while the first encounter was so overwhelming (ahem, disgusting) we left after only one night. We found a greaaatt place to stay this time, offering AC, a Tv (lux!).. and get this..... no bugs! Alright just kidding, the bungalows weren't THAT buggy but... my legs definitely showed I had been bitten over-night. So it's around Friday let's say. And come Sunday, we're just cruising around, going for an early morning walk to check out the Royal Grand Palace. We run into a useful (it's a shock) University student, studying to become a monk. His english is good and he explains that Sundays are government days, so particular tuk tuks and madd cheap. Long story short, we got a tuk tuk tour, for about 4 hours, to all these top destinations for under a $1 total. We were swayed into a sweet tailoring deal (and yes we were very careful, this place had tv ads, and when we showed the map to various Thais where the helpful student had written "Voglee" on it handwriting, every one was like "how do you know Voglee? voglee very good... quality voglee. They fit well."

Yada yada yada, Tay's got a brand new suit with 2 dress shirts and I've got a new fitted blazer - all custom,. all Armani style. We saw the finished product man... double stitching.. pockets inside, our choice lapels and buttons... dude.... Im telling you... it's sick!

In the evening we checked out the huge shopping center, MBK, which is similar to the Eaton Center but waay more jam packed, thin aisles, and reigns in quantity, yet not quality, then saw Sweeney Todd (with Jonny Depp, the new Tim Burton flick) VIP styles at the Cinema.

So after some corn in a cup and eating some deep friend scorpions, we were off to Cambodia!

...And Cambodia was beautiful!!!



The two of us on the massive walkway to the temple of Angkor (Wat).
Me, (though you can barely see) sitting on the steps of this temple building beside Angkor)
Sun rising behind the temple... yeah we got up at 5.
2 monkeys!

Some Asian tourists riding their elephant. (the skin feels kinda like ours... but more coarse)

Temples and ornate buildings inside the royal palace complex in Bangkok.
The dizzying heights within MBK mall in Bangkok. (which I compared to the Eaton's Centre earlier)

Low-efficiency soil re-nutrification. Basically, they seriously need some crop rotation. Mad fields were a-burnin'.
Sitting atop one of the temple complexes in Angkor.
Uber early shot of the sunrise at Angkor.
Check out this view we had as we climbed the cliffs in Railay, Thailand.

A little cave exploration by Tay... tight squeeze!

Lovers in a dangerous time... and one might argue place as well.... Khao San Road, Bangkok.

....scorpions are tasty!! NOT

The mezmerizing view from atop the lookout on Koh Phi Phi (or "Ko Pee Pee").

Tay climbing in Railay.

My turn! What a climber's pose!
Sorry for the crooked-ness, here's Tay doing his impression of Leo in the On ON hotel, where part of "The Beach" was filmed.

--Recall, these pics are going backwards--

On the boat ride to Koh Phi Phi. (Koh Phi Phi Lay is in the background)

The water is so crisp!

Maya Bay...
The two of us in our dinner attire, posing in our Dorm room. (Yeah, it was really damn hot there).

Phew... 3 hours later (it's ok, we have to wait a day for our Vietnam Visas to be processed), and we're done. Think I'm gonna go grab some Amok fish.

Thanks for keeping interested!

Im out!

Jen



So we took a 3-hour bus to Phuket from Khao Sok National park, and here's a winner I snapped while my subject slumbered unknowingly.
Ain't she precious??? Hands crossed, mouth agape, my pod serenading... one can only imagine the vistas she's peeping in the land of nod.

Sadly, the computers in the Cambodian guesthouse we're staying in right now are worth every penny we spent to use them (none). They seem content to move at '95 speeds, so everyone's just going to have to make like Jenny and chill 'till I can find a faster compy.

Shots of Koh Phi Phi, Railay, Krabi, some more from Bangkok and a few from Ankor Wat are close at hand.
So pop a slice of gum and ease that bated breath, they're on the way!

Tay

We made it to Thailand!

Hey all, Jen here.

We've been here for over a week now but finding Internet cafe's hasn't really been our top priority. The flight was decent - both Tay and I found the jet-lag to be manageable but I really noticed the dry air and developed a seriously sore throat for a few days.

Bangkok is such a crazy city to enter as your first destination. It's like going to Toronto and seeing Queen St West (more west than Spadina) as your first stop. But.. obviously times a thousand... we ARE talking Thailand after all.
Here's a shot from our first morning in Bangkok. We ate at this corner resto for about 6 bucks. I think we were a bit too shocked when we arrived the night before to snap any shots, but we'll have some when we head back on Feb. 7th.

Motorbike Cart are everywhere selling fried chicken liver and deep fried bugs. Tons of white tourists stumbling around (we arrived at 11.45pm), bars with big projectors showing soccer matches, yet with trees growing right through the bar, locals hounding you "taxi taxi? where you go? tuu huhndred baht.." "you eat, you eat? tirty baht, tirty baht". It's like dude... we're just looking around. You really have to keep looking forward, just ignoring them (especially the he-she prostitutes) which are overly abundant (as homosexuality is looked at negatively), so hey, just DRESS like a woman, then you can get with guys! I mean, honestly now.

We quickly left Bangkok after only one day heading to Hua Hin ('Hua Heen') about 3 hours down the east coast. This was a tourist destination for older retirees it seemed. We horseback rode on the beach, ate some cool stuff, but quite honestly, now that we've been to a few other places, this was very "the norm."Here's Tay posing with Ronald, sporting the familiar Thai greeting/gesture of thanks. Get this, they don't have english muffins here, so they just make their breakfast stuff on the same damn buns as the burgers! eeeewww. We didn't eat... just stopped for the photo 'op.
Here are some little entrepreneurs starting out on the work scene quite early. This dude was on the phone, but they were hastleing him to buy some flowers anyway. It's a different place to say the least.

So on to the islands! We hit up Koh Tao first, which is the smallest and most Northern of the three main Thai Gulf islands. This was our first real thrust into the party-hearty, beach-bash kind of scene. The ferry (a high speed Catamaran) was packed with young tourists such as our selves, and the island even more so. Every second we had to sidestep some hooligan on his first dirt bike ride. Ok so after mocking how people can't ride these motorbikes, Tay and I rented our own the next day (in Hua hin we shared one, me on the back). Both had gears and mine was even a kick start! You have nooo idea how steep these roads are and it is imperative to change the gear when going up a hill... which I actually found really hard since you have to look down, take your hand off the gas, kick this tiny little pedal.. like I don't even drive a car standard!

My bike stalled going up this really steep hill due to not changing gears in time - I'm talking the-first-part-of-"The Bluff"-at-Osler-ski-club steep. Now you are sitting on a 300 pound hog that is literally pulling you down the hill. Tay's obviously way more confident on his bike and made the hill, so parks and runs down as my arms are like shaking holding this bike from rolling down the hill. "Starting a kick-start bike on a madly steep dirt road," Tay says "is NOT fun."
What WAS fun though was Tay's great idea to join in on the 'Flaming Double Dutch'... Basically jump rope while the rope's on fire. hahaha. Needless to say, beers both helped and hindered his jumping ability and his leg hair won't be the same for a while. No burns though!! There were definitely some past victims standing by watching the fun though, bandages and all.

As a side note, as I sit here and type this, bugs flock to the bright screen (it's 8.30pm, so already quite dark as the sun sets abruptly around 7pm which I find quite early), Tay is ordering a Chang beer for 25 baht (30 baht = $1)over by the bar, and my skin continues to perspire, despite the cooler evening air. Geccos line the walls and ceilings. Tonight we will sleep again in our spacious bed, yet small room, with the fan blowing hard through our mosquito net - which I find kind of like a little lace princess tent. I'm learning some Thai too.

Hello- sa wat dii
Yes- chai
No- mai chai (accents everywhere)
How Much? - thao rai
Can you go lower? - lot iik dai mai
Is this the road to .... ? thaang nii pai .... mai

While on our bikes we made it to a bunch of different beaches along the Southern coast of Koh Tao. This one was called Shark Bay, and thankfully the name was never vindicated... but there was some great swimming and chillin' on the white sand.

After two days in Koh Tao we moved on to Koh Phangang, the fabled site of world renowned moon parties (full, half, quarter, shiva). We arrived on the 29th and discovered that a half moon party was going on the next night, so we took our first day to get our barings and check out what spots would be cool to visit during the big jam. Here I am reading our Lonely Planet book on the beach as we walk around trying to find suitable accommodations for the night. Not a bad lookin' beach if you ask me!
Success! Here's a shot of the view from our bungalow. During Full Moon parties, this beach is FULL of people as far as the eye can see.
We took this awesome and relaxing long-tailed boat trip (which we have a video of, hopefully coming soon, once we finally upload our shit) that went around the whole island, stopping at several beaches (incl Bottle beach, for those who have gone - nicest on the island) and complete with snokeling and a trek to a waterfall in the jungle.
Here's Tay swimming up to the boat to tell me all about all the crazy looking fish he was seeing in the shallows among the corals and stuff. A little foggy in the mask, but I love this shot.Here you can see our boat's 'skipper' in front of our long-tail boat named 'snoop dogg'. Long story short, the guy who used to own it blazed a lot and loved Snoop's rap.

We climbed into this cave that you could swim into and then climb up behind a massive rock wall and out on top of the rock. Repelling down using only long vine branches from the adjacent trees, we jumped off into beautiful fresh water! (again pictures coming.. there is a particularily sweet one of me I can't wait for!) Tay was the first to cave-it-up and jump and helped me out with some repelling tactics he learned at Kilcoo. I was the only chick on the tour to do it, and Tay was pretty proud.
Bomb's away!! What a pose... hahaha That little triangular opening under me is the entrance to the cave. Then you climb up behind that big rock I just jumped off.

These germans we met were doctors, residents specializing in neurology. Taught me some dirty words in German. Ok ready? (Of course I asked this... as it's the universal funny thing to learn.) In french it is "Voulez Vous Couche Avec Moi?" And in german... even in the politest way it sounds so ugly (this german dude even admitted his language was ugly) "Villst du mit mir SHLAFFIN!" .. and you gotta say that last word with dirty emphasis. like the word "laugh".
Here we are having some drinks with the good doctors, Stephan and Ben.

So we arrive at the half moon festival, a 100 baht sawngthaew ride into the jungle (basically 10 ridiculous mins in the back of this open back truck-type thing)... Well, basically it was a Euro club in the middle of the jungle complete with all the booze hounds and drug pushers you'd expect at a runaway Tiesto concert on steroids. We shied away from the dozens of Thais walking around hush hushing, "you want some pill? you want pill?" At the entrance, which is just these two trees with guards, followed by this long dirt path, you find vendors which will paint you with trippy black light paint. Once inside the party scene is a bowl, with a stage in the center (at the bottom) and then uphill dancin area all facing into the center. The main DJ is right at the top edge of the bowl. The island is apparently "having a serious shortage of water and electricity" yet this was the most intense and loudest light and and bass show I've ever seen. It really is how movies portray it (example, The Beach with Leo Dicaprio). We had some GREAT shakes before we went though...

It was almost too much to handle.
Here's a crummy shot of the entrance to the party... it really is a huge show they put on, it's not just some gathering of people. I think the scene was so intense inside that we forgot to snap off a few pics. If you want to see it, you'll just have to go!! hahaha

We bartered our way back to the beach where we were staying. Even the strip we were on keeps pumping until 6am. I actually used the cheesy ear plugs I brought.

So after a taxi-ferry-bus-minubus-tuktuk ride, and 8 hours later. We are in Khao Sok, "Sok Mountain", which has a beautiful national park.
Here's Tay getting a little artsy over breakfast in Khao Sok. He just HAD to document his french toast which was actually more like tempura toast. Missin' that maple syrup though :(
Panning back a bit from his plate, this is his view from our table that morning in Khao Sok. Gorgeous lime-scale mountains in the background, and our little bungalow to the right. Not a bad scene to wake up to eh? Honestly, the colours and lighting don't even do this vista justice. The sky was so beautiful that morning.
Here we are in the National park, after a couple of kilometers through the rain forest we reached a river and an open water hole type thing and got some other hikers to snap our pic.
Here's Tay admiring the rain forest and river after emerging from the dense foliage.

Well that's all for now, we're in Phuket at the moment, but later on today we're taking the ferry over to Koh Phi Phi (Ko pee pee) island to stay a couple of days and take in a bit more sun and hopefully find a bit of surfing.

All the best!! Keep the emails coming, and don't forget to post comments on this blog if you want to remark on anything you've seen or read.

Much love to all!

Jen