Big City to Paradise

---

We arrived into Bangkok and took a taxi into the city. Bangkok is different than I imagined... I was warned that it was busy and hassling but I never expected such a high rise developed city. We checked into our hotel- the Twin Towers- and the nicest room of the trip so far! We quickly headed to the 5th floor for a dip in the rooftop pool...bliss! Later that day Mark, Ian and Lola flew in from the UK to meet us. They will be with us for the next 2 weeks as we journey south and through the islands.

Headed out to Pat Pong for some shopping at the markets and dinner via a tailors shop. Here in Thailand (if you haven't been) you can do things for cab drivers to get a free ride. Mainly stopping at shops.. checking out the merchadise and pretending to be interested will gain the drivers free petrol vouchers. Our taxi driver the first evening thought he struck gold when he had the 5 of us pack ourselves (and I do mean pack!) into the taxi wanting to go to the market. He begged and pleaded for us to stop at the tailors on the way as we would guarantee him 25 litres of petrol... worth well more than our piddly 100 Baht taxi fare. We finally gave in to which he exclaimed "wow!". He was a joy and we recruited him to take us around for the next day and promising to stop at a few more shops for a discount.

Early the next morning we met him and headed for the Royal Palace. To enter the palace (and temples) we were under the impression that we had to cover our shoulders and our knees. Needless to say when we arrived we heard "please step into the building you are not properly dressed" over a loudspeaker. We were ushered into a dressing room where we had to don the most unflattering outfits of our lives. Full skirts and button down shirts for the girls and trousers for the guys. We failed to change out of our clothes thinking we only needed the getup to get into the temple.. until we found out that we had to wear them the entire time. It was so extremely hot and sunny that day that we were melting in our outfits. The Royal Palace was amazing though and covered in temples and the palace itself. Well worth the visit even if we did have to wear those silly clothes.

After hanging our things back up for the next visitors to use (gross! and glad we were the first of the day!) we caught our ride to the Reclining Buddha. Just behind the Royal Palace is Wat Pho, and we walked around the looking for the buddha..thinking we would miss it! Boy were we wrong. The Reclining Buddha is 46 metres long and 15 metres high. He takes up an entire building!

Leaving the big buddha we headed for the Golden Mountain- basically a golden temple sat on top of a hill in the middle of Bangkok. Climbing the many steps tired us out but the view was well worth it. By this point we were drained so we consigned ourselves to making our obligatory tailor and jewellrey store stops before heading back to the hotel.

Headed for the airport the next morning for our flight to Krabi. Flight was short and before we knew it we were back at the Indian Ocean. Mild Bungalows (complete with pool!) was our home for the next three days as we explored Ao Nang beach, took in the local Thai food, massage and shopping. Mark, Lola and I also ventured out on a kayaking trip of the mangrove forest not far from Krabi. It was a fantastic time..although I found out that 2 hours is a long time to kayak continously.....especially when you have a rubbish paddler in the boat with you! Don't worry it wasn't anyone I knew so no hard feelings.

We kayaked through the mangrove forest, past a burial cave full of the locals bones, past wild monkeys, onto a "romantic beach" and into a canyon. A really fantastic trip! Mark and Lola continued on to ride elephants while I headed back to Krabi.

We lazed by the pool for the next day before catching our ferry to Koh Phi Phi. The ferry journey was smooth and we had beautiful scenery all the way. Koh Phi Phi is said to be one of the most beautiful islands in the world and it doesn't dissapoint. The water is clear, the island is surrounded by coral reef and everthing about it screams relaxation!

We have had three days on the island and have enjoyed the views, the fire dancing competition and the samesun buckets. The fire show was AMAZING! They light batons with two ends or two balls on the end of chains on fire and proceed to swing them around their heads, their arms, between their legs, etc . It is a wicked sight especially in the dark and just amazing to me that they don't burn themselves. Each performer took their turn with the aparatus of their choice before the finale when they started throwing the lit items into the air to be caught by another performer 30 feet away. What a show!

Yesterday we rented a longtail boat to take us out to Koh Phi Phi Ley for a few hours. A 30 minute boat journey took us to the island and a nearly private beach. The scenery is so joyous here it truly feels like we are in paradise! After enjoying the beach we headed to a sheltered reef for some snorkeling. So many beautiful fish (who love crisps evidently). Headed back past the Viking Cave to Phi Phi Don for an early evening. I think we are all well and truly in relaxation mode with another beautiful island to come. Tomorrow we head to Koh Mook by speedboat.

---

Photos

The sacred emerald buddha
so important that he has three outfits (for different seasons of course) all made of solid gold!

Comments

[Christine Knupp]

i want to go to Thailand
Alicia and Ev - the islands of Thailand look like they are the most beautiful on earth. Thank you for sharing paradise with us.