Thailand

oh and it seems like I just got here. The travelling has really picked up since we left Australia and I'm sure the rest is going to go just as fast. I lied to you in my last blog, I'm coming home May 1st not April 1st so yah...
OK so before I post any pictures I have to own up to some stuff, I may have shaven my eyebrows off, or rather had them shaved off. This sort of thing happens over here I'll have you know although just not to anyone else it seems. The Thais all think I look like a monk (who, unbeknowst to me, shave there eyebrows off) who woulda thunk it? I also may or may not have had my eyebrow pierced in Australia, although I think that some of you know that already (Katy) . And lastly I may or may not have gotten another tattoo by a Thai guy whos not named Haun in a city not called Bangkok. ha ha, yah just kidding about that last one... but not really. No serisouly I'm just kidding. um... yah ok so.
Whence we last spoke I was just getting to a lovely little Island called Koh Pah-Ngan with a lovely little drug and drinking problem. Fortunatly for us we stayed literally as far away from the giant party beach as possible which was great for relaxing and not so great for our night out at the fool moon party with a 40 minute taxi ride. we'll get to that. The resort we stayed at was called Haad Gruad, run by this cool ex dutchman named Jaco.

that's the main bit of it, the bungalos are all over the place, the coolest ones over the water.

we didnt get these ones but they were all really nice and the beach was beautiful. I could never figure it out exactly but somewhere on this island and Koh Samui and a couple other really small Islands is where the movie the beach was filmed to thats pretty cool.





these last ones are some of the poeple at our resort. The top one is El (who was one of the girls from Perth that we flew over with from Perth) and Liz whose from gurnsey, a tiny little island thats part of the UK but is basically in France. (you all probably knew this, I didn't ... stupid forieng servicers and their map of the modern world class. Anyway, we stayed here for 8 nights at just relaxed really. Met some Australian guys that were pretty cool and some Americans that were here doing 4 months trainging for Muih Thai kickboxing and an english couple (chris and Wendy) who we ened up travelling with to Koh Toa and now here in Bangkok. I'd love to tell you all about the full moon party but unfortunatly I remember very little of it. I think that that perhaps is a reather common condition on the partying on Ko Pah-ngan.
ON to ko toa a much quieter smaller island devoted (tourism wise) almost entirely to diving. It was really cool the diving as well, its got really deep but really clear massive rock formations with caves and swim throughs and whale sharks. (didnt see any of those though, bummer huh?)

this is chris and wendy and alex, a swiss girl we hung out with there for a bit who was pretty cool.




here's some of the dive trip, laugh it up about the eyebrows, I know it looks ridiculous. We went to 115 feet on the first dive. It really was amazing, it was my favorite dive so far. We'll see if it stays that way after the great white shark cage diving in South Africa.



the sunsets speak for themselves but the twirly business is a fire dancer who amazingly manage not to burn the hell out of themselves while they spin sticks and chains covered in flaming oil about their heads.
After Koh Toa it was back to bangkok to do some touring around here and handle some logistical stuff for the next bit of travelling. Today we went to the floating markets, a cobra show and the tiger temple which were all increadble.

the markets were really cool and pretty but I think they are just a tourist thing, the Thais come really early in the morning to do their trading.

at the cobra show some crazy Thai dude are mean to Cobras and then let them out of thier cages and sacs. Seriously after shaking it around and hitting it as stuff they just dump it out and play with it really, one guy got bit today, he didnt seem all that worried. Either they have the anti-venom on site or else the snake "charmers" are pretty expendable. That one up there though is a python that they did similar nasty things to to make it try to eat them. They were pretty nuts.

hmm holding a cobra, what fun
the best bit was easily the tiger temple where you get to go sit with and touch and walk with the massive massive cats.




crazy cool huh?
then we came back here and since I'm hanging out with brittsh people were going to the pub to watch some football (that would be soccer
miss everyone and I'll see you all soon. Hope everything is great back home.

It took me a bit to get that one, pehaps I'm just a little slow. All the Thai people who speak good english say it. It makes us laugh (once we get it). I'm so verry sorry that I have fallen back into a once a week or more update phase. The internet was hard to come by in the Islands and when you could find it it was dialup and hardly conducive to picture uploading. I'm sorry to say that this blog will be likewise dissapointing as I'm finding myself hardpressed in Bangkok for time to get everything done before departing for South Africa. I still have the problem of one reissued ticket (stemming form the theft in Auckland) and I have to go back for my forth and final fitting for the suits I'm having Tailor made. I won't tell you how much they cost, those of you who wear and like suits would kill me . Anyway, I promise promise to get the island and Bankok pictures up as soon as I can! I am coming home April 1st and will see everybody soon! Ha ha wait thats April fools day, perhaps April 2nd.

Well, we've made it down to the famouse Islands of South East Thailand. You may have seen the movie The Beach, most of that was shot on Ko Pha-Ngan and Ko Somui and other smaller islands right around them. We're on Ko Pha-Ngan right now in a small little beach resort up in the North, pretty much as far away from the famous full moon parties as possible which is both good and bad. The distance means better security of our stuff as thousands of people flock here for the monthly event but also means a long cab ride in for the nights out.
Anyway, back to whats been goin on in the last little while. After I posted last time in Bangkok we did a little exploring by Tuk Tuk, a crazy looking half motcycle half taxi cab that Thailand is famous for. You have to wade through drivers trying to offer you "yours" of the city for 10 baht and by "tours" they mean one temple and 3 tailor shops. They get coupons for gasoline if they bring people to the tailor shops so they always do it even when you tell them not to, which is a little worrisome if you had to get to somewhere right away. It also works to your advantage as you get to understand the system. We havn't paid for a tuk tuk since the first day cause if you tell them your ok with stopping at a shp and pretending to be interested then they'll take you for really cheap to where you want to go (after you stop at the shop and mess around) and we've been able to get them to do it for free. I did actually end up getting some stuff made which was really fun and out Tuk Tuk policy let us shop around quite a bit before we found the place we liked best.
Anyway, yah, they're lots of temples and stuff like that in Bangkok but the weather was pretty bad that first day so the pictures aren't awesome.

This is the golden mountain, one of the big temples in the city

they're little buddah shrines everywhere, I think its rude to take pictures of one that people are praying at so the ones I've taken are the ones outside the temples and are less ornate. The ones inside are so intracate and golden and jeweled and stuff

this is the actual golden mountain part of the temple, the view of the city from the top is pretty good


Like I said the weather was a bit bad
That night we took the night bus to Chaing Mai to go trecking. We are tring not only to budget but make the most of our time so we planned to leave for the treck the morning that we arrived on the bus which made for a pretty hard first days hike. The hills around Chaing Mai are beautiful though and the hill tribe people we got to stay with were great as well

on the way out from chaing mai to where the trail starts I got to ride on top of the truck with our Thai guide, Wee.

lots of cool waterfalls, some you can dive off

the jungle is dense and goes on forever
That night we stayed with one of teh hill tribs in their houses


a common toilet
they make the best food, noodles and rice and stuff
sunset at the vilage

there was a festival the night we were there and all the kids had firecrackers and sparklers to play with, even the really little ones


We had a fire and chilled out with the family that we were staying with

The next morning we were off again to the elephant camp where my camera died, but Tom has pictures that I'll post later
We ate lunch at another hill tribe village

they grew lots of things

Wee made me a slingshot

there dogs everywhere

after that second night it was back to Bangkok on the nightbus. In bangkok we had the day to kill cause the night of the morning we arrived it was another night bus down to the islands. (meaning that last night was my first night in a bed in 5 days) The busses aren't bad and they're easy to sleep in but the times are arbitrary, they say you get into the next city around 9 but we got to bangkok at 4:30 in the morning wich is hardly a full night. That would be fine if you were staying there, you'd just go to your hotel and sleep but we were leaving on another bus that night. Not a whole lot to do in Bangkok at 4:30 in the morning with your bags and stone cold sober so that sucked a bit.
we went to the royal palace that day though it that was pretty cool


And toured around the nicer part of the city. Its a wierd city cause some places look like those pictures from the top, and like this

but other parts look like home and are super trendy

its pretty wierd. A real channel purse costs about 200,000 Baht. A meal costs 20 baht. You do the math but this is a country of disparity I think.
yesterday night we bussed down to the islands and its been great here. Like I was saying before we're pretty distanced from the hussle bussle of Haad Rin and out little spot is nice. I'l;l haev more pictures of around here for you later cause my camera is now recharging but the boats and island culture is really cool. Lots of those long wooden ones liek you see in the movies and stuff and the colors are vivid and all over the place

We have access to the internet a lot here so I'll update again when we explore more of the Island. Miss everyone, hope everything is going good.

ya that doesn't say anything, but this keyboard is Thai capable and I couldn't resist a bit of key smashing in the Thai option. Looks pretty cool though, I know, sorry to disappoint everyone but I've not exactly picked up Thai yet. I'm Hoping it doesn't say something increadably offending cause there are lot of Thais around that can probably see it.
So I got to Bangkok around 11:00 pm 2 nights ago and it took us about 4 hours to get to the road with all the hostels on it Khao San road. We knew we were supposed to take the A2 bus into town and the first bus that pulled up had a lot of funky looking things like this ากสร หืรสแอำ on it so I asked the driver if it was the A2 and he nodded enthusiastically and waved us on. Unfortunately for us the bus was not the A2 it was the bus that took us about 30 minutes south (the opposite direction from the city) to the major souther bus depot from which luckily a bus still ran into the city. We got there around midnight and I asked a police officer when the bus to the city came and he said around 1. Thinking we might try a cap Tom and I walked across the road to a taxi rank and asked the fare into the city, its about 400 Baht (1 dollar is about 37 Baht) so that was more than we wanted to pay so we say and waited for the bus which arrived right on time and hour later at 1 o'clock and we got on. After sitting on the bus in the station for about 20 minutes (and noticing that the bus driver had fallen asleep) I asked the lady behind us if it was the right bus and she said yes, a couple minutes later I asked her when it left and she laughed and said not until 2. fed up with waiting we took the cab that ended up being 450 baht cause there is a toll road. We thought we'd be ok though now cause the taxi rank guy seemed to know exactly where we wanted to go, The Bella Bella guest house on Khao San Road and he told the taxi driver (in Thai) what seemed at the time like complicated but good directions. Khao San road is supposed to be the backpacker heart of Bangkok famous for its numerous open air markets, street food vendors, night clubs and guest houses. What we're learning is that the whole area around Khao San looks about the same and the many winding and confusing streets crossing Khao San could be easily confused to first time travelers as Khao San. And indeed the road that we were dropped on did have its share of street vendors and dreadlocked backpackers, but it was hardly the thumping heart of activity that we expected at 2:30 am on a sunday night. Obviously we had a pretty hard time finding the Bella Bella on the wrong road and settled for a shady as Guest House and leaving the figuring out where the hell we are part for the next morning. And we did figure it out, we were only a couple of streets over from Khao San and we stayed there the next nice in a nicer guest house and booked stuff to do until about the 4th of feb. We're headed to Chaing Mai tonight on an overnight bus to do some trecking in the north. Its about a 14 hour bus ride from bangkok and we're hopefully getting picked up at the bus station by our trecking guide. We get to ride elephants into the jungle and stay with one of Thailand's most famous hill tribe people the first night. The long neck people are all over the national geographic pages, you know the ones where the women where massive golden rings around their necks that stretches them and makes them frightfully long. Anway its back to bangkok after that to catch a bus down to Ko Pah-ngan (pronounced Ko-Pan-yang) for some beach relaxation. Pah-ngan is famous for its full moon parties which we'll catch on the 2nd of february. After that we don't know but I think we'll head to Ko Toa for some diving and then back to bangkok for some market and temple tours, and a but of shopping at the open air markets. Sorry no pictures yet, first of all cause I havn't taken any yet (I'm not sure what the etiquette is for photos but I've not seen anyone taking many of the buildings and stuff so I want to check that out. Also we've stored more of out stuff so we don't have a lot on the busses up north, apparently they can be pretty sketchy and attendants sometimes take things out of the bags and repack them while there underneath at stops in the middle of the night. BUT, as soon as I'm back from Chaing Mai I will have lots of pictures to show you so that will only be 5 days or so. Until then I don't think I'll have much internet access to don't worry if I go a couple days from now without updating. Miss you guys. Thailand is awesome.