Thailand and Laos Adventures

Just the pictures.

These pictures cover a large expanse of time, from early January to yesterday. For those who have forgotten, in early January, we left Singapore and the comforts of my Uncle's home for the hustle and bustle of Bangkok. We took a forever-long bus ride to Phuket Island to visit my sister and her palatial suite at the Sheraton Le Grand resort, where we enjoyed the full treatment for the cost of nothing per day. After that, we took a boat to Koh Phi Phi Don, and after travelling in southern Thailand for several more weeks, we flew up to Chiang Mai in northern Thailand. We took a day-long over-night trip to the small town of Pai, about 3 hrs. bus ride away from Chiang Mai, and last week we flew to the UNESCO world heritage town of Louang Phabang. These pictures cover those places and a few of the activities we've done. For more on those places, see the relevant posts by clicking the links below this entry, e.g.: Phuket or Phi Phi.

Hope you all had a great V-Day! We spent the evening drinking Beerlao with our trekking guide and his friends at the trekking office. We ate dried Mekong seaweed (flavored with sesame seeds, garlic, and tomatos... MMMM!), too!

-Mike.

Pictures from Koh Phi Phi

Here's a few pics from our few days in Koh Phi Phi, where we stayed at a super expensive prison cell-like room for almost 30 bucks a night (almost as expensive as Tokyo!), saw way too many fake boobs, bucket drinks, and frat boys with tats. But the scenery was excellent and our snorkeling trip was pretty fun. Phi Phi is actually a few islands in a National Marine Park, but the two main ones are Phi Phi Don, where everyone stays, and Phi Phi Leh just to the west, where "The Beach" was filmed and where there are gorgeous turquoise waters and coral reefs everywhere. Although Fox ruined the ecosystem of the island during the filming (the movie is about a socialist backpackers paradise that isn't ruined by commercialization or greed... the irony is rich here), they recently lost a pair of lawsuits that resulted in fines of almost 100 million Bhat, or roughly 25 million dollars, to help repair it almost 10 years after the fact.

Well, enjoy the pics!

The limestone cliffs of Phi Phi Don's west coast.

Mike swimming in Phi Phi Leh's emerald-colored lagoon.

Longtail boats on "The Beach" movie set at Maya Bay on Phi Phi Leh, where the sand was as soft as cool whip!

Sunset of our snorkeling day.

Justine's sandy boots.

Longtails on the northeast cape of Phi Phi Don.

The hammock district of Tong Leam, Phi Phi Don's north cape.

A crab and a hermit crab.

Limestone karst in the Andaman sea.