http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Asia , Thailand en-us Tue, 17 Nov 09 01:44:05 +0000 Tue, 17 Nov 09 01:44:05 +0000 Irsquove been in love with her as long as I can remember. Since before first sight. We share an existential bond. Some call it fate. Others destiny. Whatever linguistic name tag you choose to slap on her lapel I assure you we were born to be together. Itrsquos been a long year and a half since we last embraced but alas here we are she smiling at me with a glimmer in her wide bluegreen ey http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Phuket/blog-453705.html As planned the day was spent in Ayutthaya. It is interesting to observe how this small city combing its historic heritage with sleepy halfmodern urbanization. There are about 500 ancient templesstupaspalaces spread over the old part of the town. In fact most of them are nicely presented Khmer style ruins that leave a lot of space for imagination. Although after Angkor Wat these ruins ar http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ayuthaya/blog-453632.html And then we arrived into Bangkok and wait with baited breath to see if my rucksack has arrived....and yes happy days we are safely reunited after getting our 30 day Thia visas approved. We take the organised coach to the Khaosan Road...the notorious backpacker mecca which does totally live upto it's reputation. We don't know where we are staying so have no idea where on the Khaosan to get off http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-453574.html Hello everyone Auds here This is just a short note havnt much time left on the internet We are having an amazing time so much so we decided to stay 2extra nights here in Phi Phi. We arrived to Phi Phi on Monday the 9th we got a boat over from phuket thank god we were 45minutes early for the boat cause the people just pile on It was a 2hour trip over to this lovely island. We had booked a h http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Ko-Phi-Phi/blog-453536.html My first 24 hours in Bangkok is over. I'm tired so please excuse this first entry.I know one person in Bangkok. Alan HaigBrown. I went to high school with his daughter Linda and through the magic that is Facebook we reconnected about a year ago when he invited me to his home in New Westminster to eat an authentic Thai meal prepared by his lovely wife Anya. It turned out that since I graduated http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-453370.html I am in Bangkok again. First two days were spent on site seeing Democracy monument Loha Prsat Parapet Phrakan Fortress Wat Patum Wanaran etc and on minor but exhausting shopping. In addition I visited a Museum of Forensic Medicine which turned out to be one of the most frightening places one can imagine.Tomorrow i am taking a day tour to Ayutthaya ancient capital of Siam. Plans for the http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-453358.html Hello EveryoneI apologize for not posting an entry for some time. These last few weeks have been the most excitingstressful weeks of my life. I have had to go from being a flexible teacher to a travel bum to a professional teacher with tons of responsibility and deadlines all within the last month. I am still having a wonderful time here in Suratthani but I am fast realizing that the ldquo http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Southern-Thailand/blog-453273.html Visited the amazing north of Chiang Mai in the Mae Taeng Valley. As far as I know this is the only Elephant park in the area where you cant ride the elephants and the elephants dont perform at all thats what makes it so good. You just get to see and interact with 40 or so elephants in thier natural environment. The park is committed to the rescue and rehabilitation of injured and mistreated elep http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Mai/blog-453118.html Fortsatt flott p Koh Samet.Da har vi tilbrakt noen ekstra dager p denne flotte ya Koh Samet. Opplevd masse sol men ogs kraftig troperegn.Vi har i flere kvelder sett p noen kraftige lys p havet og etter ha ftt vite at dette var fiskebter som med sine lys fikk frem fisken bestemte vi oss for at dette mtte prves. Vi kjpte oss med p en slik tur som varte fra kl. 18 24 og mtte be http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Samet/blog-453093.html Flight was not too bad and now I find myself in Bangkok The first day when it was just Kim and I wasn't fantastic Bangkok is the kind of city where you need a group of you so since we have all met up it's been a lot better. From stepping off the plane I met some random people like the guy from Dubai that had no luggage weird. I also got chatting to a guy from New Zealand on the bus and he was http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-453060.html ok we are blatantly well behind with blogging so here's a teaser for South Thailand by Kerry. We'll fill in the blanks when we make time have motivation... Back into ThailandCrossing the border without a passport I was almost but not quite like a V.I.P. with my Laissez Passer.Bangkok revisitedTaste of home The British Embassy painless passport application.DHL hell seriously they should http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Southern-Thailand/blog-453037.html Welcome to Bangkok.....intense vibrant smelly noisy everything is here Well I got the sleeper train from Surat Thani for the 12 hours journey to Bangkok....what a plesant journey lounging in my own little bunk with a curtain for privacy managed to sleep well and be refeshed for the Bangkok madness Once in the capital I got an 'ordinary bus' to the area known as Banglampuh basically this http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/blog-453029.html Day 14 Lamae to Surat Thani I woke up at dawn to take some photos of sunrise on the beach then fell back to sleep. Around 8 J brought me milk and cookies in bed which I ate without sitting up before falling back to sleep. At 10 I finally got up for real and we were on the road by 1030. After only about ten miles Jrsquos knee was killing him. And I was tired wersquod biked 67 miles th http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/blog-452731.html Day 13 Chumpon to Lamae We spent a day resting in Chumpon the parts of the day not spent lying in bed depleted were spent on the streets eating a smorgasbord of delicious homemade foods. Looking back on it I actually donrsquot know how we managed to eat everything we did in the course of twentyfour hours while still spending most of that time in bed. We ate dim sum for breakfast BBQ po http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/blog-452720.html Hey all i cant believe so many of you have even read the first one never mind reading the second Thanks for all the messages its nice to know we are being missed but i'm sorry i'm not ready to come just yet As for the pictures ben tried to download them one of the first few days we were here and nearly lost the lot so we decided it was better just to wait and bore you all when we get homeWe http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/North-West-Thailand/Chiang-Dao/blog-452653.html Koh Samet en idyllisk perle.Etter en behagelig firetimers tur i minibuss og en halvtimes bttur var vi borte fra Bangkoks storbyliv og ankommet nydelige Koh Samet. Billetene kjpte vi p et lokalt reisebyr og hele reisen kostet ca 120 pr pers. Vi vasset i land med sekkene p ryggen og ble mtt av nasjonalpark politiet som avkrevde 40kr i parkavgift. Deretter bar det bortover kritthvit sand til http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Ko-Samet/blog-452644.html Servus liebe LeserSeit dem letzten Blogeintrag ist wieder so einiges passiert. Ich beginne mit dem Unfall. Mami und ich haben also die Tage und Abende sehr genossen in vollen Zuegen jede Minute. Am 3. letzten oder 4. letzten gemeinsamen Abend haben wir einen wunderbaren Strandspaziergang gemacht und haben dann in einer gemuetlichen Bar einen Cocktail getrunken. Wir sahen die Sterne das Meer pla http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/South-West-Thailand/Khao-Lak/blog-452631.html The semifinal round of voting was a huge success over 65000 votes were cast to select the five finalists in the Ultimate Thailand Explorer competition. Throughout nearly one month of campaigning the 25 semifinalist teams engaged in a lively dialogue with the 1200 fans on the UTE Facebook website where the competitors posted supporting videos photos and links to their personal blogs. While http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/Bangkok/blog-452579.html I have just got back from three days in the jungle in northern Thailand We took the overnight bus from Bangkok up to Chiang Mai then a hour taxi ride up into the hills. After stopping off at a flower plantation and the local market we arrived at the elephant park where we had lunch and put on our super cool and fashionable sun hats in preparation for the elephant ride. We nicknamed our elephant http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Northern-Thailand/blog-452542.html Day 11 Ban Saphan Noi to ChumponThe rain was pouring down from the time we awoke and after a lovely breakfast courtesy of our homestay host Don we set off in the downpour. We faced colossal hills steep and lengthy and crazy strong winds. Early on we passed a sign that told us 98 km to Chumpon our destination. Damn This was the same distance as the last sign wersquod passed kilometers ba http://www.travelblog.org/Asia/Thailand/Central-Thailand/blog-452482.html