Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 2671

Bangkok has been my base for the last few weeks and as I have been before I have not written about it. For those of you who have not been here and for those of you who have here are a few pictures and observations! * Bangkok is highly polluted and traffic rules BUT it is better than Delhi. * The express boat along the river costs 13Baht maximum and is a good way to see some of Bangkok and get around. * Remember to get a taxi driver to use the meter - it is usually better than any deal. * If a tuk-tuk driver offers you a tour for 20 Baht be prepared to go to a tailor's shop so he can get his fuel voucher. * It's hard to walk quickly in Bangkok ... read more

The following day we once again sheepishly approached the information desk (being fairly sure they were laughing at us regarding the spider) and once we managed to find the only English speaker working there we asked if the leeches were everywhere and if there was anything we could do to combat our new arch enemy. Once again our question was met with a big smile, and we were informed that they aren't poisonous (she seemed to miss the point of our query) and that they happily drop off once they've had the fill of your blood. The crazy woman actually seemed quite fond of them! With this useful information Monique decided to give the jungle a miss, whilst I devised a cunning anti-leech mechanism (trousers tucked into socks) and set out on the same "walkway" we ... read more

Hello, Hope all is well with you and things are good. Here's an update on me, hope it's not too much to read! Well, here we go again. Time to play catchup on what i've been doing the past month or so. Hope you're in for a bit of a read, but hopefully not too long, it just depends when the caffeine wears off. I'm writing from the same place that i wrote my last group email: Bangkok. No, I haven't stayed here the whole time (as i would have shot myself already), but am back to the travel centre of southeast asia to go somewhere else. Last time i ended off my email by saying "I'm off to the beaches!", which it turns out i was lying. So at the time I was hanging out ... read more

We signed up for a snorkeling trip to all the different beaches and karst islands near Phi Phi. We saw "The Beach" (From the movie....you know Leonardo di Caprio) but unfortunately it was swarming with tons of people and cost five dollars to go lie on the beach. The actual snorkeling was beautiful and we saw quite a few fish (Dad even saw a shark :S) but there were so many tour boats around, it was like a traffic jam. They also took us to monkey beach where Matt was attacked by a really, really fat monkey with a really bad temper. Fortunately Matt ran fast enough to reach the water before the monkey reached him! We decided that two days was enough on Phi Phi and we headed to Koh Lanta. The second we got ... read more

It's Monday morning and we are off to Chiang Mai for a few days. Thailand has been pretty good so far. It's hotter than hell, but what can you do? The first night we stayed in an air conditioned room but the last 2 have been with just a fan. All I can say is, I'm spoiled. The fan helps but damn I could go for some A/C right now. Yesterday we saw some amazing temples but it was like 100 degrees and we decided to do it at 1pm, so we moved through it pretty quickly. Even though we didn't spend as much time as some folks would have we still got a lot of pictures and were completely amazed at how beautiful and ornate it all was. These wats (temples) that we saw have ... read more