Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 2674

Hello All So we've arrived back in Bangkok and it feels a little like going home. Quite nice to have all the home comforts back but still miss those sandy beaches. Now out of sensitivity i have sent this early saturday morning in England so all you workers reading this won't feel too depressed. Since last blog we did Scuba Diving in Ko Tao (just an introductory one off) but was quite cool. Went down to a depth of 12 metres and saw lots o fish, also had a nose bleed as i didn't equalize properly but all was well as i didn't even notice. Cathy as usual took it all in her stride. After Ko Tao we got first a boat and then a bus and then another boat to East Raily a beach in ... read more

We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday evening. Bangkok is very busy (like Singapore) but is much more chaotic. The traffic is much worse since the skytrain and subway are not extensive - I think they are new and they plan to expand them. There are a lot of motorcycles and tuk-tuk (three-wheeled motor vehicle taxis) as well as cars and buses. On Wednesday we walked around the part of the city we were staying and also found a bus that was going to the train station so we could buy tickets to our next destination. It was interesting to walk around in a new place. On Thusday we went to the 'Grand Palace'. This is a huge complex of buildings (the King no longer lives there). It was very impressive. Attached is a Wat (temple) ... read more

I know what you're thinking. A monk. Religious guru. Not very exciting behind the scenes. Just meditation and prayer and whatnot. WRONG! These people are really...well, cool! And how do I know this you may wonder? In Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, the Lonely Planet guide came through once again, and informed us mighty travellers about 'Monk Chat', held at a local Wat, aka a temple. Yes, that's right girls and boys, as really-bad-reality-TV-show-gone-wrong as it sounds, and as skeptical as I was to begin with (would you expect anything less from me, really?!), this turned out to be the most interesting two hours I have spent in Thailand thus far. It is what it sounds to be. A bunch of foreigners chatting to monks. But instead of them preaching to us about Buddhism, as I thought ... read more

We all woke up about 8am, with healthy hang overs to suit. It was yet another overcast and stupidly humid day... hovering around 30 degrees and 100% or so I guess. We woke to some news that unfortunatly Hamish had had about 500 euro's stolen from his room, likely by the cleaners. He headed off to make a police report, while the rest of us decided to head to some markets that Trav knew of via a friend of his. We jumped on the sky train, which is an elevated rail that took us through town. We wound up at the markets in the middle of another thunderstorm, which thankfully stopped about 5 minutes later. Unfortunatly, the ground was saturated, and the sun came out. This just made things even more humid. I was in at ... read more

The Steaming Jungles of Phang-Nga, Thailand By Greg McCann Better known for its limestone mountain-studded bay where scenes from the James Bond film The Man with the Golden Gun were shot, inland Phang-Nga, in southern Thailand, is home to some of this country's most pristine national parks. Unscathed by last year's tsunami and only an hour and a half from Phuket International Airport, this sleepy backwater offers perhaps the best -and most easily accessible- jungle trekking in the The Land of Smiles. The town of Phang-Nga itself is only a launching pad for the parks in the area. Most visitors come here to join boat tours of Ao Phang-Nga National Marine Park, and certainly, that ought to be seen, but stick around for a few days and your options for going inland are spellbinding. First off, ... read more