http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/sharkgazing-shramanas/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from sharkgazing shramanas en-us Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:42 +0000 Tue, 29 Dec 2009 18:49:42 +0000 After nine months in Thailand we have headed home. While we are excited to see the friends and families that we have missed so much saying goodbye to the people animals and natural wonders that make up Koh Ra was extremely difficult.Koh Ra is a truly special place one that has become a part of us. Living for this time in a natural and wild place leaving less of a consumptive imprint and s http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-388495.html Taking a break from the Ecolodge we met up with Kim and Awe for a quick vacation in Bali.Starting out in the touristy area of Kuta we enjoyed Mexican food a movie and a bit of surfing Jarod got up on a board a few times at Kuta Beach. We rented an old Kejang truck and Kim drove us all over the island beginning our trip heading west to the incredible Ulu Watu Temple overlooking massive cliff http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Indonesia/Bali/Ubud/blog-388187.html Jarod's brother Justin and his wife Michele came for a visit in late March. They were able to spend a little over three weeks in Thailand. Fresh off the plane with no time for jet lag we rented motorbikes and drove out to Wat Tham Sua for a hot and grueling hike up the limestone cliff with the giant golden Buddha on top showing great views of the Krabi region. After relaxing on the beach and http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Krabi/blog-387704.html Sawatdee kap khong peuan Warm greeting my friendsSo there are 61 pics included in this blog that were painstakingly uploaded via a very slow internet connection. Check them out or at least tell me that you've enjoyed them Just click on the word next at bottom of page to view 2nd and 3rd pages of pictures.Instead of ending with one I'll begin this entry with a quote from a great humanis http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/blog-364057.html Happy New Year to all of you and we hope you had a very Merry Christmas We missed our families and friends but managed to have a very nice holiday season on Koh Ra.Things are busy as we are full with guests so this entry is mostly pictures of our holiday season.We are doing well but miss each of you and wish you the best in the new yearLove Jarod and Heather http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-359019.html Heather has been doing a terrific job regularly posting travelblogs I've been a bit more inconsistent I know thatrsquos hard to imagine from me Anyways I've caught a day off on dry land all day today so figured I'd try my hand at travelblogging. We have another group of Earthwatch volunteers working at the Koh Ra Ecolodge these are wonderfully kindhearted folks willing to spend the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-355946.html It seems we have been busy or just away from the computer a lot more. We now have internet capabilities on Koh Ra so now the only reason to go to the mainland is ice cream. Don't think we will ever have it here as we have no freezer. We have had a fun couple of months here so far. We are on our second round of Earthwatch volunteers and have lots more guests. Christmas at the Ecolodge shoul http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-354619.html Before getting down to business working on Koh Ra we celebrated Halloween with a night of jungle mayhem. We had a total of 40 guests that boated to Koh Ra and stayed the night with a costume theme of favorite jungle or sea animal.Awe and friends made a huge dinner for us. Then after filling our bellies with squid spaghetti we all headed back to our respective bungalows to change into costume http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-344648.html We have been travelling quite a bit lately. Made it back to Kuraburi only to head to Bangkok the next day. After a grueling all night bus ride with several men snoring the entire time we arrived in Bangkok at 330 am. We all headed to a friend's house to catch a few hours of sleep shower eat breakfast and get back on the bus for two more hours to Pattaya. We finally arrived and met up with http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-339307.html Saw wat dee ka and krup puak rao koey bpai rong rian lae dton nee rao pood paa saa thai dai We have been going to school and now we can speak Thai Jarod and I are in Phuket a big touristy island further south. Our main purpose in being here was to spend two weeks cramming Thai into our older and much slower brains. We went to a language school every weekday and also enlisted the help o http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-330688.html Sawadee kap friends family and intrepid travelersWe just wanted to take a moment and offer you and yours an invitation to the Ko Ra Ecolodge httpwww.thaiecolodge.com Heather and I will be living and helping out on this truly special island for the foreseeable future. Our friends Kim and Awe are working so hard to make this lodge a model of sustainability an example of what can be . . . http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Ra/blog-326175.html Saying goodbye to Koh Tao is harder than we thought... After just 2 months it was getting to be like home with a few differences of course... We are wrapping things up here. Jarod is doing his snorkel test tonight where they pour a bucket of alcohol down his snorkel. I can hardly wait to take care of him after that It feels like we are back in our college days here... This is his final te http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-323742.html While visiting Kim and Awe Jarod and I got to go on a community tour of area villages. We spent three days visiting about 8 communities that have been engaging in some sort of ecotourism since the tsunami. The communities were all small Muslim Thai villages that were mainly focused on fishing and are doing tourism activities like basket weaving tye dye batiking homestays and cooking lessons http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ranong/blog-317865.html Just thought that you might all enjoy a few pictures of the foods that we have been eating. In Thailand food is often served almost more like a work of art and the Thais definitely love to eat. We were also told that if it moves we eat it We went to a large market in Chumpon and saw an assortment of interesting things to eat. I have to admit that it was a bit overwhelming for a westerner l http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/blog-317854.html Jarod and I took a break from Ko Tao for a week or so and headed down to Kuraburi to meet up with our Reef CheckKo Ra Ecolodge contacts Kim and Awe. We had a bit of adventure on the bus as we missed our stop at Kuraburi altogether and had to tell the driver in front of all of the passengers what we had done. After a bit of staring and phone conversations about the farangs foreigners and thir http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Khao-Sok-NP/blog-317820.html Last Sunday I had a young whale shark swim by at arm's length. I swam right along side this gentle giant and estimated him to be about 2.5 times my length I'm 6 ft. Words and photos just can't capture the emotional response I felt gliding so close to this magnificient being . . . how can I convey it . . . awe ecstasy rapture tranquility . . . humble pie maybe It was so beautiful it hu http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-308232.html Sa Wa Dee KrupWhile diving yesterday George Harrison's Indiainspired 1967 lyrics were swimming in my head . . . When you've seen beyond yourself then you may find peace of mind is waiting there And the time will come when you see we're all one and life flows on within you and without youWhat I find most beautifully alluring about coral reefs is that there is this other world teeming with life http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-304200.html I am doing well with my volunteer project. I have been busy with daily beach cleanups teaching the kids swimming on the weekends hiking and surveying a grass planting area after a massive rockslide on the island etc...There are about 15 volunteers most of them in their early 20s. They are from the i 2 i program and most are English. Very nice group Half are teaching English at the school http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-304252.html Hello All We have arrived in Thailand and are loving our new life here on Ko Tao. We will be here for about 2 months. We arrived after a long flight to stay in a fancy hotel in Bangkok. It was a five star hotel that we would never have been able to afford in the U.S. We hired a car to go to train station and then booked a sleeper car to the small town of Chumpon. Our train ride was fun. It http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Tao/blog-299092.html For the past year we have been volunteer divers at the Texas State Aquarium. Not only have we been finetuning our dive skills but we have met up with an interesting cast of characters both below and above the surface. We have swum with eels like Houdini and Scooter and had the pleasure of helping to feed Popeye into his old age. We have fed the always friendly and hungry sting rays Harley http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/Texas/Corpus-Christi/blog-280941.html