Blogs from Thailand, Asia - page 2677

These pictures are from time spent on the Andaman coast. We went all the way south to the Malaysian border and spent a week or so between the islands of Koh Tarutao national park which includes the islands in the pictures but not Koh Lipe as it has become a place where sea gypsy's live and now fishermen. It is still part of the same group of islands and very quiet like the rest. We hired a longtail boat and spent a day swimming and snorkeling between 5 of the many islands. The snorkeling quickly provided some of the best marine life I have ever seen - incredible colours and shapes and so many different species of fish and coral. We went in search of waterfalls and found rocks to jump off. walked the length of ... read more

Han pasado casi cinco años desde que Ade y yo estamos juntos. Durante este tiempo hemos compartido mucho, nos hemos conocido y no hemos querido mas (ya se que suena demasiado romántico pero es la verdad). Aun así creo que este viaje es un examen en nuestra relación, un test. Hemos estado en la carretera 8 meses y aunque 8 meses no parecen muchos cuando tienes un trabajo, un sueldo y las comodidades del hogar, cuando estas de viaje 8 meses es toda una vida. Las dificultades, obstáculos, nuevas culturas y lenguas, la organizacion, los malentendidos y la cantidad de tiempo que se comparte juntos pondrá cualquier pareja a examen. Esto no son unas vacaciones de 15 días. Este es un viaje largo donde echamos de menos a nuestras familias, amigos, nuestro pequeño piso (que ya ... read more

Back by popular demand and little to write so here's a sneak preview of my apt and it's surroundings =) Every other day or so, just outside my apt there's a market. Yeah yeah blaba so heres the market... As you can see there's a lovely train track there also which sounds like a fleet of german crazed tanks on steriods. Quite annoying. Not only this but in the next picture you can see a coca-cola joint right? Well the smallish place to the left of that is a Kareoke joint. Thai people getting drunk and thinking their whitney houston at 11:59 is also slightly annoying... Moving indoors I feel the need to show off some bargain materials... read more

It seems that without fail, no journey I undertake in Asia can run smoothly. The mere hint of a thought of naïve smoothness in my mind and the touching of something wooden, will eventually result in some unexpected situation occurring. Take my boat trip from Luang Prabang to Nong Khiaw for example. It started well, and finished great, travelling through spectacular (though hazy) scenery, little communities and kids everywhere swimming, fishing, or manically waving at us as if their lives depended on it. But of course, this false sense of security is fraught with danger as we pass through ridiculously shallow and narrow sections of rapids that would be hard to even float a rubber duck through. Our boat driver gave off the impression he knew what he was doing though, which helps, as long as ... read more

So, I eventually got round to doing something other than wandering aimlessly, eating and sweating. I had a touristy day of visiting the Grand Palace and Wat Pho. Both were extremely impressive for different reasons: The Grand Palace is incredibly ornate and beautiful and the holiest site in Thailand, while Wat Pho is a nearby temple which houses the reclining Buddha (a 46m long, 15m high golden Buddha, looking quite chilled out). However the heat of that particular day was almost unbearable, and combined with the huge numbers of tourists wasn't the most relaxing of days but was enjoyable nonetheless. I also had a less touristy day of walking through the amulet market (purchasing an amulet to guard me from evil throughout my trip) and some of the local markets where I was the only non-Thai ... read more