Dragon spine

I was browsing some old photos and saw this, the limestone peaks in southern Thailand.

Funny Story

Sorry... it's been a million years since I last posted. Things have been busy and I'd like to get back to posting more about our 8-months abroad, but even more so, I'd like to start posting about trips and things we've done since we returned. In the mean time, here's a little story from our days in Thailand, late January 2007.

Thailand has a 30-day visa that you get when you arrive. It's free. And you can renew that visa three times, meaning that you can stay in Thailand for up to 3 months straight and pay nothing. The catch, though, is that to renew the visa, you have to leave the country and then return. Several tourist outfits have this figured out and they make "visa runs" to various borders (Malaysia and Burma/Myanmar, for example) for a few bucks. It's all very much a part of the backpacker's M.O.

Needless to say, Justine and I needed to make such a visa run when we were in Southern Thailand near Krabi. We booked a visa run through our guest house (about 25 bucks for both of us, if I remember correctly), which would take us to Malaysia and back. We paid in advance, and carried our receipt. Off we went, at 6am, to take a 6-hr. ride in a minivan full of other backpackers to the Malaysian border.

We arrived just after noon (we had brought sandwiches for lunch, as well as chips, fruit and drinks and the trusty iPod for entertainment), behind a few other vans and buses filled with tourists. We all walked out of Thailand, getting our passports stamped, and into Malaysia, getting stamped here, as well. We then walked around the building to the other side in order to get stamps for leaving Malaysia. Ten minutes after arriving in the minivan, we were getting our passports stamped for arrival in Thailand, ready to go! Here's the best part... I already mentioned that the visa is free. Malaysia, who havn't realized that this operation could be a cash cow for them, doesn't charge anything, either. As we were getting back into the van, the driver goes "you have to pay them 20 dollars each for the stamp! Don't forget to pay for the stamp!" Justine and I looked at each other and laughed in disgust. "We already have the stamps." Some of the other tourists started to look confused and began reaching for their wallets. "NO!" We shouted. "It's a scam. This driver is running a scam... the guy in the window will give him half the cash if you pay. Don't listen to him." The driver insisted that you simply MUST pay. Nuts to that. We got back in the car and demanded that he drive us back to the guest house in Ao Neng. He finally relented, but what the hell did he expect to happen? Everybody already had their passports stamped, so even if you didn't know it was free, why would you hand over any money?

Getting scammed is just another regular day when you're traveling, though. Good thing we're not idiots or we'd have had to come home much earlier!

-Mike

Elephant Plays Harmonica and Dances

Two videos for all you loyal readers out there. Scroll down and hit play to see a video of Justine freaking out about a King Cobra, and then click here to see an elephant playing the harmonica and dancing in Thailand.

King Cobra goes up a waterfall...

This is the video I alluded to in a previous post.

I was sitting on these rocks at Khao Sok National Park in southern Thailand, when Justine yells out to me. But I'm near a small cascade, so I can't hear what she's hysteric about. Moments later, I notice a HUGE king cobra, swimming down the river, just a few feet away from me. While Justine shot this video, I took a picture that confirms that indeed, this is a king cobra (see the post linked to above).


Here it is, in all its 2-m long glory!

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.

Khao Sok National Park and Pictures

From Ao Neng (see previous post), where we did our visa run to Malaysia, we went to Khao Sok National Park, which is supposedly the only remaining lowland rainforest left anywhere (or maybe just in Thailand... I don't remember), and is a sanctuary for over 350 bird species (many rare or endangered), hundreds of different plants (including the huge flower, Raffelasia, the largest stemless flower in the world with 2-ft. bloom!), thousands of (uncharted) insects and lizards (new species are found regularly in the park) and has big wild mammals like elephants, tigers, and sun bears. The park also has several cool waterfalls, but remains relatively untouristed and badly kept up by the Thai government, who have carelessly let dozens of bungalow operations and crummy bars playing loud music spring up around the park H.Q. in the last 5 years.

We stayed at the long-established and well-run guest house, Art's Riverview Lodge, which is keen on preservation of the rainforest and the creatures inside (but unfortunately has terrible food, even though their staff is excellent). We spent four awesome days there relaxing, reading, and doing a few day-long hikes. One day, while we were resting at a nice waterfall with nobody around, I kicked off my shoes and decided to dip my feet right into the cool, clear waters of the pool just above the falls. A minute or two later, Justine (who was near the bottom of the falls) started screaming bloody murder, and as I turn to look, I cought a glimpse of an enormous creature swimming in the water just across the river, about 5 feet away. Upon closer inspection, I realized I was staring at a 6-foot long King Cobra (no joke... he was massive), swimming down the river, DOWN the water fall, and into the pool where J was watching (from the shore, I might add). I sprang into action, leaping down the rocks bare-footed to snatch my camera as J was filming the whole fiasco. She cried out "OH MY GOD!" and the snake turned, looked at us (no joke... it's on the video which is too large for me to upload from here), and made a giant u-turn in the water, probably realizing for the first time that other large creatures were stirring in the river besides him. So up he goes, straight back up the cascade he had so gracefully come down seconds before, slithering up a 2-ft. drop and then off to the side to some rocks, and back into the pool where my feet were resting when we first spotted him. He swam a bit further up before disappearing under a rock, never to show his gorgeous mug to us again. Shortly thereafter, we continued down the trail and some long-tailed macaques (a kind of monkey) started barking at us and threatening us. A large male came down from the trees to just above our heads and began pounding his fists and shaking a branch in front of him. It wasn't too scary b/c even that large guy was only about 30 lbs., but still... I'd never been threatened by a wild monkey before. Guess we were too close to the feeding grounds and the babies (who were super cute, by the way).

Anyway, the park was great, and we saw some amazing creatures, and I even spotted a HUGE hornbill as he was flying overhead (see pic below). At this time of year, the females are literally holed up in a tree or cliff wall, while the males look for food to bring and feed the girls as the incubate the eggs. He passes the food through a tiny hole in the nest for several months to his life-long partner. So cute, and really a beautiful bird. I would guess his wingspan was something like 3 feet!

Enjoy the pics!

-mike

Macaques in the mist.

Blue ferns in the forest.

Tall, buttressed trees.


Bang Leap falls.



Great Hornbill flying fast!


Giant centipede about 8-in. long... ick!


Flying lizard, biting our excellent Night Safari guide, Dam, who showed some Harvard botanists around the park a few months ago and claims to have a walking-leaf insect (which he pointed out to them) named after him.


Cute frog on a leaf, blending in.


View from our room at Art's.


Our trusty sleep sheets covered by a mosquit net.

Northern Thailand's Capital, Chiang Mai

We've been in Chiang Mai for a few days now, having arrived on the 30th of January from Ao Nang, where we were after our excellent trip to Koh Jum. There was little to do in Ao Nang, we stayed at the Laughing Gecko (which is really at the beach to the west of Ao Nang called Hat Napparathat and is owned by a Canadian ex-pat and her Thai husband), except watch crabs at low tide, which seemed to go out for several hundred yards. The guesthouse was kind of a hippie hangout, with several long-term guests and regulars, plus a bunch of rugrats that demanded too much attention. We didn't do anything in our 4 days there except make a run to Malaysia to get new Thai visas (the process consists of driving for 6 hours to the Malaysian boarder, checking out of Thailand, walking into Malaysia and checking in there, walking around the Malay immigration office to check out of Malaysia, then walking back to the other side of the Thai immigration office to get a new 30-day visa, and finally driving for 6 hours back) and enjoy the Laughing Gecko's excellent nightly buffet dinners (the only redeeming thing about Ao Nang).

So, we next booked a bus to the Khao Sok national park (the only remaining low-land rainforest left in Thailand, more on that place in another post) for four nights, and then on to the Surat Thani airport about 2 hrs. away and flew up north on the 30th. We first stayed in a crummy but cheap guesthouse called Eagle 2 and on the 31st, we went to the last day of the 3-month long Royal Flora Expo at Ratchaphruek, about 30 minutes away from the center of Chiang Mai. This expo was huge and we spent all day there... probably something like 8 hours... and the best part was seeing the flower exhibits put up by 40+ nations. The Japanese one, for example, had a miniature Mt. Fuji, a zen rock garden, and beautiful bonsais... it was like being there again! Of couse we also enjoyed the Chinese garden, which housed a huge 2-story Chinese temple and a 4-story pagoda, the Nepali garden, which featured stairs (of course!), and the Indian garden! The show also had several competitions and shows, including rare orchids, trees, and other flowers, as well as exhibits on bio-fuels, sustainable agriculture, bugs, fruits, tropical and temperate flora, and loads of overpriced food! It was an excellent day! There was even an operating rubber plantation on the grounds, which was an educational experience for us both and I even got to harvest some. The Toyota bio-diesel exhibit was handing out free hats, hence the bright yellow hat on J's dome (with a green leaf shaped like a camry). (J's note: no I didn't become a soccer mom since coming to Thailand. In case you were wondering. It was bright out!)

Yes, that bug really was blue... From the bug pavillion at the Royal Flora Expo.

Orchid with a bug's face from the orchid competition.

Driving a biodiesel truck at the Royal Flora Expo.

Hugging the rare "bottle-shaped trunk" palm tree.

Cutting the bark of a rubber tree to collect the goods.

Kenya's garden at the Royal Floral Expo... this one's for Sarah.

Welcome (back) to Nepal!

On Feb. 1, we sort of took a day off to plan our next adventures, which included talking to a trekking company (turns out it's really expensive to do it here "the right way"... more on that if people want to know what we mean), a jewelery-making school, and a rock-climbing school. We found all of these and decided that on 2.Feb, Justine would go make some silver and Mike would try to conquer nature.

The day began early, with a hearty breakfast consisting of a veg. omlette on a baked baguette (very nice, indeed!) before we parted ways for the first time in nearly 6 months! It was not as strange a feeling as I might have imagined, but of course I was wondering the whole time: "I wonder what Justine is doing right now?" Turns out, she was flatenning, polishing, and cutting silver, in addition to soldering her original design together into an awesome pendant.

I, on the other hand, was learning how to tie knots and belay my amazing and funny climbing instructor, Muad, who's on the Thai national team and has participated in the X-Games. Not only did I make 4 successful climbs over the morning, but after lunch I also learned about rapelling and dropped into a 60-m deep limestone cave on Crazy Horse Buttress! It was so much fun, I'll have to take up the sport when I get back to the States, but for today, I need to rest and recover, as my entire body is sore from climbing and I have more than a few cuts and bruises. Since my day (830am to 4pm) ended earlier than Justine's (1030am to 5pm), I ran over to her shop and watched as she finished making her masterpiece. We completed the evening with two dinners: Thai food with two South African girls J met at the jewelery shop, and a Greek dinner a few hours later. We watched Anchorman (again) and hit the hay. It was one of the best days we've had in Thailand. I only wish Justine was there to climb with me, but I don't think she could have swung out over the open cave for the rapelling!

-mike

The only proof that I went climbing.

Stamp on the leaf.

Soldering with her teacher.

Our own private Island, and other pictures

Links in this post are to pictures only.
Just see the pictures, and do none of the reading (for you lazy bums out there).

So yesterday I wrote this really funny post... trust me... you all would have laughed your butts off. But the interweb, being what it is here in Asia, is often a bit sketchy if you're on public lines (instead of designated private lines for business, for example). It's even sketchier when you use crummy old computers in some strange internet cafe. Needless to say, my gem of a posting is now lost to the ages. Anything I post now will simply not be as funny, but you'll have to put up with it somehow.

The crux of the post was about our most recent island visit. To summarize, we first went to Phuket to stay in a luxurious resort with my sister, who not only put us up on our own room with a hot (yes, hot) shower, but also provided us with meals, an excellent pool, free drinks, and I even got to share a vicious jellyfish sting with her! J and I then moved off on our own to the island of Koh Phi Phi, where we ran into Andy and Kelly, some friends we met in Kolkata, India several months ago. They were checking out of the island because it was too much MTV Beach Party and not enough interesting things to do. Plus it was ridiculously expensive. After leaving Phi Phi two days later and heading off to Krabi (where we ran into Andy and Kelly again on the street!), J and I happened upon a tiny section of our travel guide about a pair of nearly-deserted islands, one of which was called Koh Jum (rhymes with "toe jam" said with a phoney-baloney British accent). We booked a boat and a bungalow and off we went in search of the perfect island beach.

Koh Jum is a small island that has only three tiny fishing villages and about 10 bungalow operations, each with around 30 rooms. We stayed in a pretty popular, long-established joint in a super cheap bamboo hut (with a bathroom) for about $7/night. Our hut, which was nestled back in the jungle a bit, was still only about 100 m from the sand, and the place was gorgeous. Although it wasn't fully deserted, we rarely saw anybody outside of meal times and maybe a few on the beach. It wasn't some white-sand, turquoise water beach, but it was our beach. The sands were yellow, the water clear and warm, and there was plenty of shade, which you need because the sun was blazing out there.

The bungalow outfit that we stayed with, like all the others, is pushed back from the sand a few feet in a jungle clearing. A path from the bungalow leads across the island to the town, if you want to see it or have something besided bungalow food. Basically, we did nothing for four days, and being on Koh Jum is the most relaxing thing we've done since we started our trip over five months ago. For four days, we spent our time napping, reading, sunning, swimming, chasing/observing the different kinds of crabs on the beach, and eating pizza. Yes, pizza was the best food served at our bungalow, and it was worth it!

Now, I should point out that our bungalow was an old bamboo structure built on a raised platform, but still, we saw lots of bugs and critters. We had a mosquito net, which helped, and some anti-mosquito incense to help, but that didn't help keep out the moths and geckos and skinks, or the wasps that wanted to build a nest in our (cold) shower or the two frogs that liked to hang out under our sink or the (elusive) rat that kept eating our provisions or the huge monitor lizard looking thing and who knows what else. BUT, our bungalow operation also had luxury rooms, too, so before you write off going to Koh Jum, think again. For 30 bucks a night, you get a concrete bungalow, with real windows, a raised bed, a hot shower, sunset and ocean views, fans, lights, and all on an island that almost nobody goes to! Seriously, if you need a break from work or whatever and only have a week off, don't go to Phuket or Phi Phi or Lanta or Hawaii. Go to Koh Jum while it's still cheap and relaxing. The place is nearly perfect!

Now we're in Ao Nang, back on the mainland of Thailand. Tomorrow we have to go to Malaysia for a day to renew our Thai visas, but we'll be back in Ao Nang at night. The following day, the 26th of Jan., we're taking a bus up to Khao Sok national park, before flying up to the hill/mountain town of Chiang Mai on 30 Jan. Till next time, enjoy these pics from Phi Phi, Krabi, and Koh Jum!

-Mike

Park and Ride

Yesterday we rented this awesome orange hog (see below) and rode for two hours from Krabi Town up to a wildlife preserve where there's this gorgeous emerald-green pond made from underground hot springs (the water mixes with cold water on the way up, so the pool is quite refreshing). The water just leaks right out of the rocks and collects in this amazing pool. The walks around there were nice, but we hardly got to see any of it because we wanted to get home before it was dark. We failed in this attempt because it started to rain pretty hard before we made it back and we had to stop at a construction yard where there was shelter (and several other riders taking refuge!). The park is the only lowland forest park in all of southern Thailand, and the scenery was quite stunning. Today we're going out to the tiny island of Koh Jum, just south of Krabi, where we'll hopefully have our own beach. We'll keep you posted...

-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.

Still alive in Thailand!

We successfully left behind the luxury of my sisters' villa at the Sheraton on Phuket Island and took the ferry to Ko Phi Phi about 2 hours east. It's nice here, but a little bit too much MTV beach party and not enough deep blue ocean. Phi Phi was seriously damaged by the big tsunami two years ago, but because lots of fancy schmancy resorts and rich college kids like to come here for honeymoons or spring break like getaways, the place is recovering quickly.

Tomorrow we're going on a snorkling trip, which could be hit or miss but we came across some friends we met in India several weeks ago and they told us it was a really good trip. It will take us to the island where Leo DiCaprio's movie The Beach was filmed, if you've ever seen it, which is the island of Ko Phi Phi Leh, Phi Phi Don's sister island a short boat trip away.

-Mike

Beaches in Phuket, Thailand and Deep Thoughts

We arrived in Phuket from Bangkok (after a long and annoying bus ride that started at 5:30 pm on 8.Jan... won't bore you all with the story) at 3 pm on 9.Jan. The island is nice enough, and we're staying in a really fancy schmancy resort with my sister (for free, mind you, so I can't complain about that), but everything here is so expensive: J and I paid like 40 bucks for a crummy lunch at the resort the other day, and about 2.50 USD for a coconut! On the plus side, we haven't paid for almost anything else, ate tons of food (I've put on 5 kilos since I arrived in Singapore), have been hanging out with family, swam in a really nice pool and hung out at the beach.

Despite that, it's been a weird experience for us the last few weeks because we went from totally roughing it backpacker style to my uncle's house in Singapore, back to being backpackers for a week in Bangkok and living cheaply, and now we've been living in relative luxury for three days. Tomorrow we leave Phuket for Ko Phi Phi and are on our own again. It kind of messes with my mind and my attitude to flip from one to the other... other travelers must be able to relate to this feeling even though I can't explain it well here, as I imagine it's somewhat like the feeling of going home and ending the trip. There's this sense of relief to be around family or friends or to take a hot shower and sleep on clean sheets, but there's also an uneasiness to switch lifestyles to this ritzy place which isn't really our thing (and wasn't really our thing before the trip, anyway) now that we expect (or tolerate) much simpler conditions and a simpler way of life. Maybe that's the real appeal to traveling like this: Our day-to-day lives are often about survival and basic needs (shelter, food, laundry). Simple things and amazing, complex experiences define our lives and no longer do we worry about the kinds of problems or stresses that bog us down in our lives before this trip and it bothers me that we'll have to leave this simplified life some day. Maybe that's why I've been feeling so weird lately.

But we've also learned that we need to take experiences for what they are... so J and I have been doing some serious relaxing here, including taking a long nap on some hamocks yesterday after lounghing around the beach and taking a late breakfast. Today, we went to the beach with Lisa, got stung by some jelly fish, and promptly left to go swim and spend the rest of the day at the pool. I'll write more about Bangkok another day (when some pictures are online), but we did a bunch of sight seeing there and got a few Thai massages and of course, we ate excellent food all day long! Enjoy the pics.

Relaxing in a hammock in the Hammock District of Laguna Beach, Phuket, Thailand.

An expensive coconut drink on the beach in Phuket. Check the muscles, Mom... I've put on some weight, too!

One of the 178 mural paintings of the Ramayana at the Thai Grand Palace in Bangkok.

Thai Cookery!

On Saturday last week (6.Jan), J and I got up early to head over to May Kaidee's, a vegetarian restraunt in Bangkok owned by a spunky 32 yr. old, to take a half-day cooking course with Ms. May herself at the restraunt. The day started with a trip to the market nearby where we purchased a bunch of vegetables and she showed us the different sauces, oils, spices, and curries she buys when she doesn't have time to make them herself. We then went to the back of her restraunt and started cutting up veggies.

We made 10 dishes with her, all in a single wok, including the very best Pad Thai, Tom Yum, and green curries I've ever had.

Here's a pic from the day, which ended around 1pm after we had sampled all the dishes (including spring rolls with peanut sauce and pumpkin hummus... YUM) and made lots of Green Curry and Stir Fried Veggies with Cashews for two customers in the restraunt that had ordered lunch!




May also taught us the Thai Cooking song (in Thai) and the dance to go along with it. Let's just say that we were better at cooking Thai food than we were with singing and dancing!

-mike.

Arrived in Bangkok

We made it and all is calm. All is bright. After a rainy two weeks in Singapore, it is downright tropically warm and sunny here. We are staying just around the corner from Khao San Road, the renowned "tourist ghetto" street, on another tourist ghetto street, in a tourist ghetto neighborhood with a lot of ghetto tourists. It was a strange experience to relocate from Singapore, which we had grown quite comfortable in, to start again in zee hustle and zee bustle (if my brother-in-law Joe doesn't get that quote, nobody will!) of a big city in a developing Asian country. Actually, compared to China, Nepal, and India, this ain't so bad. We were oh-so-happy to see and hear the Bangkok tuk tuk, and have our first touts chase us down, and glare from behind our beer bottles at winter-breaking college kids flashing as much over-tanned flesh as possible under their dreadlocks. Oh wait, that sounded more snobby than I intended. We are a bit worn out from finding the same streets in every country we go to -- doesn't matter if you're in Kathmandu, New Delhi, Pokharra, Kolkatta, Bangkok. I think 3rd Street in Santa Monica may be our American equivalent. Lotsa tourist chotskes (SP?), reggae music, fake label clothes, bong stores, bars, etc. There is certainly a comfortable allure to it, since it is easy to operate here, and one can find convenient internet cafes, edible food, phone cards, chocolate, and cheap clothes. We will make a concerted effort to take this place for what it is, enjoy it while we are here, and make our plans to move onward. We will be here until the evening of the 8th, when we'll get on an overnight bus to Phuket, where Lisa will be waiting for us with her 5-star accomodation. Yay!

There seems to be no evidence of the recent bombings here, with the exception of a few extra police on the streets. Things are operating normally and it appears that only government sites were targeted, perhaps in response to the King's coup. However we will be careful and try to keep up on the news, and if anyone back home hears of anything of interest, please send us an email!

Justine